At the nexus of MacWorld and the Detoit Auto Show is the iPhone dock for the Land Rover LRX concept car. When docked, the iPhone would upload your music, seat settings, steering wheel settings, and all the information for the car’s “transfigurable displays,” even provide a secure “start” button. The dock (iPhone or otherwise) could be offered as a “premium pack” in near-term cars…

Via engadget

Sarah Lai Stirland penned an article for Wired Magazine with an interesting take on Romney’s win in Michigan. It’s worth a read…

If there’s any consensus in the blogosphere on what Mitt Romney’s win in Michigan means for the 2008 election, it’s this: That he should have run his campaign the way he did in Michigan from the start.

The former governor of Massachusetts beat Republican senator John McCain of Arizona with 39 percent of the vote. McCain had 30 percent and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee came in with 16 percent.

“With hindsight, I think there was a better way for Romney to position himself: as a conservative and supremely knowledgeable expert on the economy, as George Bush’s heir as a vigorous defender of the U.S. in the war against Islamic terrorism, and as a person who is himself a social conservative — just take one look at his family portrait — but who doesn’t talk much about those issues except in the context of the constitutional philosophy which will guide his appointment of judges,” wrote John Hinderaker, a lawyer and founder of the conservative blog Power Line. “I think if he had followed this route, he would have been truer to himself and more credible to voters.”

New York magazine columnist and former Wired magazine writer John Heilemann says that Romney “probably” should have always run as “the politician he once was,” but that it was probably his pandering to the economically depressed Michigan voters that helped push him to victory. … Continue reading

It seems clear that the Republican nomination is still pretty much up for grabs. Democrats are pushing for a liberal in sheep’s clothing. This is getting interesting.

“We are all of us resigned to death: it’s life we aren’t resigned to,” novelist Graham Greene once wrote. A growing number of Americans of all ages are embracing that idea by renewing a resolve to live life to its fullest. “Life Lists” - lists of things we want to do or see before we take that final step - have become increasingly popular. Dawn and I have such a list and try to check a few things or places off each year.

This month’s issue of Smithsonian magazine features an article on the subject that includes photos of 28 places its editors believe everyone should include on their own “lists.” And here’s the bottom line: Whether you visit only a couple of these destinations or all 28, your life will be enriched by the experience.

In recent years there has been growing competition between the world’s major cities as to who can lay claim to the title of best New Year’s Eve fireworks extravaganza, and 2008 was no exception. Travelburner has assembled the best displays they could find captured on video. Turn your speakers up, grab a drink and watch as these major cities quite literally blow up our taxes!

Upon first viewing one of Jackson Pollock’s paintings, many speculate that they, given sufficient canvas and paint, could easily produce similar works. Well, here’s your chance. Using your mouse, drag and click your way to artistic fame. It’s fun, and who knows? You might discover a latent artistic talent.

Oh, and the masterpiece above? Me. In about 30 seconds.

I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time today - wasted time - clearing out crap comments. Spam and other just plain crap, probably from little kids who love to create effing messes on other people’s sites!

I had to suspend comments entirely while I went through all the garbage and weeded it out. If you tried to get in some legitimate comments today, I apologize. You know who to thank. If I inadvertently dumped your legitimate comments (I’m sure I did), sorry. Again, you know who to thank.

I’ve re-opened comments and filtered the effing pranksters. I’m hoping things will run smoothly now. If not, I’ll have to activate screening or close down comments indefinitely.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I really am.

In a word…

Dubbed “The World’s Thinnest Notebook,” the MacBook Air fills a gap between the existing MacBook and MacBook Pro, but introduces a new way of looking at how a laptop fits your mobile lifestyle.

First, the thing is thin: .76 to .16 inches thick, back to front, with a magnetic latch. It sports a full size backlit keyboard, a full size 13.3” LED backlit widescreen, built in iSight camera, a large trackpad that recognizes several new multi-touch gestures (owing to the iPhone’s touchscreen technology), 1.8” hard drives, (80 GB standard, 64 GB SSD optional), 2 gig of memory, 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors (but in a 60% smaller package!) - a complete Mac on a board the size of a pencil, an amazing feat of engineering.

On one side, Apple’s magsafe power connector. On the other side, a door for one USB port, a micro DVI and a headphone jack. 802.11n networking, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. Weighs 3 pounds with claimed battery life of 5 hours!

Built to be a wireless machine, the Air has no internal optical drive (a $99 accessory optical Superdrive is offered for those who feel they need one.) Instead, a new feature — “remote disc” - shows you Macs or PCs in your vicinity, allowing you to choose one of those machines and “borrow” it’s optical drive. It appears on your desktop just like a local optical drive and works the same way.

Ships in two weeks @ $1799. Watch the new ad and take a guided tour to check out how it looks and works.

There were, of course, more announcements in Steve’s keynote address. I’ll try to touch on them over the lunch hour or this afternoon.

Canadian artist Jeff de Boer maintains a studio in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where he creates four distinct bodies of work: armor for cats and mice, armor for executives, exoforms, and space objects including rocket lamps. The image above shows one example of cat armor. See more of his work on his website.

These incredible looking tree houses, called “Free Spirit Spheres,” are designed by Tom Chudleigh and represent an eco-friendly living quarters created to unobtrusively co-exist with its forest environment. Continue reading…

Are you just too dog tired in the morning to make pancakes or waffles from scratch? I understand. It’s a big job mixing five dry and two wet ingredients to make great flapjacks! And even those packaged mixes are too much work, right? Pouring all that powder and water in a bowl and all that stirring. I feel your pain!

Well, fret no more ‘cause good ol’ American ingenuity has solved your dilemma. Introducing the amazing Organic Batter Blaster!” Just point, blast and cook! Batter Blaster Makes Breakfast a Blast!”

I know what you’re thinking: Why didn’t someone invent this years ago? I dunno.

The tech world has been speculating, and prognosticators have been prognosticating, about what new wizardry Steve Jobs will announce in his keynote address tomorrow morning at the 24th annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

Most expect a new ultra-light sub-notebook with some innovative bells and whistles that will likely spread to the rest of the MacBook and line which is due for an update. Many have speculated that a new devise along the lines of the old Newton tablet but sized more like a slightly enlarged iPhone would be introduced, but that seems premature given the current state of Apple’s touchscreen technology. Maybe next year.

Of course, it’s almost a forgone conclusion that Jobs will announce Apple’s new iTunes movie rental program and formally adopt the Blu-ray hi-def video standard which may drive the final nail into Toshiba’s HD-DVD format. Sorry Microsoft. Some predict something new to add sizzle to the iTV. And the new chipsets for the Mac Pro were announced last week at CES…

But the real buzz is emanating from the banners draping the halls on Mosconi Center that say, quite simply, “There’s something in the Air.” WiMax Mobile? Predictors are guessing wildly about what Jobs has behind the curtain but, if the past is any indication, he won’t let the cat out of the bag until tomorrow.

I always enjoy Apple’s “Get a Mac” advertising campaign and look forward to each new release. Today Apple posted their newest installment touting Leopard’s “Time Machine”, its automatic back-up and file retrieval system that can easily locate and retrieve even long ago deleted files.

The ad features the “Mac” and “PC” guys (Justin Long and John Hodgman) explaining, in simple but entertaining ways, how it works. You can watch the ad below or in various sizes/resolutions on Apple’s site.

And here’s one they used for the 2007 WWDC to introduce Apple’s Phil Schiller. You have to admit, these guys have a great sense of humor!

Article removed by editor.

It’s still the beginning of the new year, so I decided to post a video that somehow fell through the cracks before the ball dropped in Times Square.

Leon Redbone used to be a regular guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and one year helped Johnny welcome the new year by singing Auld Lang Syne. Merv Griffin was also a guest that night and the cutting up between these three great entertainers was nothing short of classic.

Johnny and Merv are gone now but will certainly never be forgotten. Leon, however, is still touring. For his schedule, check his website.

It’s sometimes difficult to believe but, like us, our children do grow up. And when they grow up with good character, a keen sense of humor and, most importantly, kind hearts, they make their parents proud. Today is youngest son Jamie’s 37th birthday. It seems like only a few short years ago that we were laughing at the way his diapers drooped when he played in the little wading pool in our back yard - he was a trend-setter even then! And now he’s grown. He’s still cute and funny but, thank goodness, he’s no longer wearing droopy drawers!