An excellent, excellent article about the cultural abandonment of the magic and merits of manual labor. Not knowing how to use your hands is bad. Period.

And not appreciating knowing how to use your hands is worse.

Toyota is doing some creative - and rather impressive - advertising.

Time for some long-overdue reverse marketing.

These phones don't play games, take pictures or give you the weather

Meet the Jitterbug.

Go Zoho!

Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone. Being an innovation buff that loves kinetic convenience and intelligent interfacing, this is pretty exhilarating. Check it out.

Slated to ship in June, on the Cingular network, for $499 for 4 GB. I think I'll need to see the waterproof, shock-resistant, neon orange, construction-grade case.

Popular Mechanics covers the competition. Looks to me like Apple will be first and best: can they hold on to the lead?

Not everyone is that enchanted: and for good reasons. But hey, it's fun to watch the developments.

I'm liking my new Sandisk Sansa m250. Holds all my music with room to spare, and uses an AAA battery, which means I can change it on the job. The coolest part is the nice and SHORT usb cable that it shipped with - it's about time.

UPDATE: Garrett thinks the equivalent player from Creative Zen is a contender. It sports a bigger screen and photo/video capability, but at nearly twice the price, I think I'll pass. Besides, I can't stand proprietary batteries. And who wants to watch movies on a 1.5 inch screen, anyway? Give me a break.

More on the evolution of digital camera technology. (Earlier post here.)

UPDATE: Should have also linked to the Instapundit's post.

Digital cameras are coming of age, and a leading manufacturer is challenging the rampantly myopic pursuit of pixels. Makes sense.

I'm an admitted tool-hound, but this is just too much. (From the recent issue of Backpacker.)