Technology Blog

The Snuggie craze was bad enough when it hit a couple of months ago. But this? This takes it too far. Snuggies for Dogs? Throw it back!

What’s really amazing about these is that they actually improve on regular Snuggies. Snuggies for Dogs have velcro on the back to keep the damned thing on. Why don’t they have that on the human models?

As a bonus with your order you’ll get talking dog tags instead of a reading light. This is purportedly to record something like “My name is Spike, here is my address,” but I think it’d be better to have it say “Please give me a steak, you asshole.” Because really, that’s what your dog would want it to say. [Snuggie for Dogs via Consumerist]

During a Sony conference call, corporate CEO Nobuyuki Oneda revealed that the PS3 is roughly 70% cheaper to make than it was at launch. Estimates would put that figure at around $240—down from $800.

If these figures are correct, that would mean Sony could significantly drop the price of the console and remain profitable. Whether they would actually pull the trigger now remains to be seen, but it seems like the smart move to gain some ground on Microsoft and Nintendo. [Sony via TVG and VG247 via Kotaku]

We have seen many a gadget cake in our day, but this MacBook version is definitely up there in terms of craftsmanship. That’s not surprising when you consider that it was made by pros at Bcake NY.

It’s got everything: MacBook with on-screen message window and Super Friends, a Mighty Mouse, an iPhone and various desktop office supplies. It’s just like being at work—assignments are piling up and you’re eating candy while reading personal messages. [Bcake's Flickr via Technabob]

I do love the Swedes. Most of them. Maybe not the couple who drove 400 miles into the wrong direction because they misspelt the destination—the industrial city of Carpi instead of the island of Capri—into their GPS.

The couple wrote Carpi and, without questioning the weird 400-mile detour the GPS was showing and the fact that they were looking for an island, off they went to this city in northern Italy:

instead of getting here, to the paradise of Capri, which is located in exactly the opposite direction, in the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of southern Italy:

As a Carpi tourist official declared after the Swedish couple asked for the famous Blue Grotto: “Capri is an island. They did not even wonder why they didn’t cross any bridge or take any boat.”

Remember swedes and everyone else: Do not follow technology blindingly, especially when technology could always fail because of our own human failures. That said, I have a (very) soft spot for people who drive aimlessly in the wrong direction, especially without GPS. [BBC News via Techdirt via dvice]

The WSJ says they totally are. Ryan Block says that the WSJ is full of shit. But wait, haven’t we had this conversation before? Like, a few times?

The reason this is even a subject again is because of an oddly (and perhaps tellingly) vague piece posted on the the WSJ’s Digits blog by Ben Charny, who flat out claims that that Apple plans to use CES to replace Macworld, which it walked away from last year:

Apple plans to attend the show’s 2010 version, marking the first time in memory the Cupertino, Calif., consumer-electronics giant will be there.

That sounds clear enough, but it’s buried in a piece that otherwise seems to be about how the chief executive of the CEA, Gary Shapiro, can’t get in touch with Steve Jobs. But hey, he’s probably just being vague, and drew his conclusion from quotes that he didn’t include! That’s what journalists do, sometimes! Except the meeting from which Charny drew his conclusion was a dinner with multiple attendees, one of whom happens to be ex Engadget editor and current CEA advisor Ryan Block. He took issue with Charny’s reading of events:

[I]t’s also specious and flatly wrong. I was seated directly across from Gary, and present for the entire conversation, wherein a dozen or so other journos chatted with him and one another. When asked about the CEA’s ongoing contact with Jobs, Gary joked that every once in a while Steve might even return his email — to which we all laughed knowingly. Yep, that’s our Steve. Shapiro went on to mention that Apple was a great and long-standing supporter of the efforts of the CEA, but that their only direct involvement was sending a check each year to pay their membership dues.

As far as the WSJ post goes, this is pretty damning. But it really just rules out Charny’s version of this dinner, not the possibility that Apple will actually go to CES. As far as that question goes, we’re left with the same evidence we had last time rumors like this went around, all the way back in January. The verdict then, and still, is that they probably won’t: January’s a pretty terrible time to launch new products, but more to the point, Apple doesn’t even care about industry trade shows—which CES epitomizes in all the worst ways—anymore. Their statement from all those months ago hasn’t been followed up:

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Apple would gain nothing from going large at CES, so until a credible story comes along that says otherwise, that’s the word. [WSJ via Engadget]