> I've never heard of anyone having problems with fumes from a zamboni. If you're going to paint hypotheticals about front-row asthma sufferers as an advantage of the electric version, then citation needed.

Sorry, I don't have a citation, but my sister felt bad after ice resurfacing when we were kids (35 years ago) and my parents took her to the hospital and she did have elevated CO levels in her blood (sorry, I don't have numbers for you). I assume the device (Zamboni or not) was not operating correctly. At least when electric devices don't operate well, they don't make more pollution. A good reason to move to electric cars and infrastructure to support them if you ask me.

Dara

I don't wear glasses (but I'm close), but I wonder if we will start to see prescription eyeglasses with circular polarization if 3D TV really takes off. I forget the logic of polarizing sunglasses for glare - something about reflections off water to be more likely to be polarized a certain direction. I suppose the is a 3 dB hit in light intensity, so the glasses would pass less light (maybe not as good for reading glasses). But a photo-chromatic pair of circular polarized sunglasses that got reasonably clear for watching TV or movies at the theater, could be possible I would think.

Dara

Although this thread has nothing to do with this topic and I doubt many will read this, I just want to chime in with a pitch for high DPI displays that are meant for viewing close (phones, laptops). I use a 15.4" WUXGA (147 DPI) laptop and an iPhone (165 DPI) now. But I'd happily upgrade to an 11 cm (4.34") diag 1280x720 phone display (339 DPI) which at near 10" in viewing distance is sharp enough (i.e. the pixels aren't wasted if your eyes can focus as close as 10" or so). For a laptop, I'd like 14.1" (I'd prefer this size now, but no one makes a 14.1" WUXGA that I know of), and I'll take as much DPI as I can have up to 300+ just like the phone (e.g., 3840x2160 is 312 DPI). I realize the laptop size is tough, but given some very high DPI 854x480 phone screens (the Droid is 265 DPI), I think we will see a phone display like this in a few years.

It's true some software doesn't handle this well and I don't have much Linux experience on anything but 19" 1600x1200 screens (my laptop is XP which is good enough more or less at 165 DPI with the DPI set in the display properties). But the bottom line is we have to move away from this software to easily scalable GUIs NOW. The fact that Android isn't as far as I know sucks. I thought some of the GUIs for Linux weren't that bad, but again I don't really know.

But just think of what you can do with such high resolution displays. How much easier is it when you don't have to zoom way in to a map to read features and then pan around when if it were as good as paper, you could get quite close to the display and zoom out and still see what is going on. This helps for street maps and topo maps. Then there is the ability to be the best photo display possible (and perhaps reducing the need to make as many prints). And there is the appeal of a portable HD video display (on the phone size).

That's my take at least,

Dara

Even with the criticisms (e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagSafe), one thing I've been impressed with Apple on (and there aren't that many) is the MagSafe connector. I've had way too many problems with other connectors wearing out and not working, and occasionally, the the yanking unintentionally almost causing havoc problem.

I'd love to see the next generation data connections (with power transfer) be magnetic. To solve the short problem, the power transfer could be inductive, and the optical connection isn't going to short. I'd be happy to have every single damn cable I ever have to use in the future be some variation of MagSafe.

Dara

I really enjoyed and agreed with almost the entire piece by John Gruber linked to in the summary (http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/the_android_opportunity). My problem with the G1 was my impression of the hardware, I actually returned it and got an iPhone 3G. I coworker kept his G1 and is now complaining that he can't load as many apps as he wants due to the restriction of where apps can be loaded (not on the SD card). Android itself seemed OK, definitely not polished enough for my tastes, and I know Google can do better - I'm mostly satisfied with search, email, Picasa, Google Earth, etc.

However, the comment that the high end Android phone to knock the iPhone 3Gs off the throne should have a built in battery is crazy. If the only reason is to prevent a creaky case, I'm sure there is a solution that uses screws that would at least allow users to replace batteries without having to go somewhere or send their phone in the mail. Better yet is to allow a battery on the back that goes on with a single recessed thumbscrew or bayonet that can be made snug (e.g. my Garmin eTrex has no creaking) AND allow for multiple 3rd party options for battery packs that run the gamut from thin low life to very thick, very long life.

My other thoughts on what I want in a high end phone are:

- a very high resolution large screen: 3.5" 480x320 isn't doing it for me. I want at a minimum 4.5" 854x480 and even better would be to go all the way to a 720p HD screen for watching video (1280x720, 60 Hz refresh or better, enough bits for a good color gamut). If a phone can be made with very thin borders on either side of the width of the screen (say 3 mm) and only moderate borders on the length (say 8.5 mm), then a 5" display can fit in a phone that is 128x68mm which is smaller than a Nokia 810 (with only a 4.1" screen). If bigger borders are needed, scale the diagonal down a bit to still fit in the 128x68 mm form factor (just a bit narrower than a 3"x5" card).

- some powerful ports: with such a nice display, I'd like a tethered camera with a lens that is much nicer than anything I can fit into a phone and then plug it in to take a picture. This way I can a) hold the lens part high in the air to shoot over people's heads or low to the ground to shoot kids from a better vantage point while still standing comfortably as well as face the display any direction I want even with a jacket over my head if the sun is too much for the display.

- add a radio section (software radio if possible) that is optimized for medium distance (a mile or a bit more) data communications on unlicensed bands between two devices without using any cell phone towers. I'm often out of service when in the backcountry and sometimes need to coordinate with a partner (sometimes the partner is only 50 meters away on a climbing rope and I can't yell to them or get rope tugs to work very well)

Dara

If this is a significant issue, I would have expected to see a bigger problem on Android phones by now. I had a G1 for 30 days, and then switched to the iPhone as the G1 in November was too flaky for me, but the one thing I absolutely hate is not being able to put a program I write or download from a trusted source onto my phone. I'll probably go back to Android in another 1 1/2 years and by then, hopefully the hardware will be better. Or maybe Apple will remove this annoying restriction at some point before then and they might keep me. My iPhone is a bit flaky too, they need better hardware also - I've reinstalled twice when it wouldn't turn on. I'm a bit hesitant to jailbreak and potentially be causing myself more headaches.

Dara

The one app I'm willing to pay for is at least out for the iPhone (in 4 flavors) and is unavailable for the G1 - the ability to view topographic USGS maps offline with your position (search for topographic on the app store). So there is something to be said for being on the more popular platform. I sure hope Android gets more popular - I wish I could have helped, but that first phone was driving me crazy.