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Gizmodo:

Like with the new Isophone that researchers at Media Lab Europe created which is basically a sensory-deprivation helmet with a phone attached that you wear while in a flotation tank so you can finally give your full attention to the person you’re speaking with.

Boy, am I glad we use email at the office…

My folks got home from their vacation just in time to host 10 family members who were in town for our family reunion. Considering it’s been several years since we’ve seen these relatives and there were family members at the reunion who we’d never met before, it would have been a wonderful time to have a digital camera.

Too bad somebody stole it out of my parents luggage.

My dad checked his bag, which contained a smaller camera bag with the Coolpix 880, the charger, instruction manual, and extra Flash cards. By the time my folks got to Logan, somebody had removed the camera, charger, and instructions from the camera bag, leaving the memory cards. The instruction manual will probably do some good since the idiot(s) didn’t realize the small square things in the camera bag actually went with the camera. At least my folks were able to have some of the photos they took.

When we got my dad the Coolpix, he wasn’t really sure what he’d do with a digital camera. It’s grown on him, though, and the day after they got back, he asked me to start researching replacement cameras.

I’ve done some poking around on the Digital Camera Resource Page and have leveled the options down to 4 cameras — the Nikon Coolpix 4300, Coolpix 4500, Canon PowerShot G3, and PowerShot G5. Part of the decision depends on how much money we get from our claim with Continental. Fortunately, we purchased the camera and charger from B & H and I was able to access both receipts.

Given how much digital cameras have advanced since we bought the 880, I think we’ll be able to step up to at least 4.0 Megapixels. Even it Continental low-balls us, we can probably get the 4500, since it has a $200 rebate through the end of September.

It sounds like Nikon’s macro mode is still the best in the business, but the reviews I read of the Canon models are simply gushing. Chris has already told me he’s more than happy with his PowerShot G3 and thinks we can’t go wrong with either the G3 or the G5. So, anybody else out their have any recommendations — of course, any camera we seriously consider will need to work with iPhoto.

MacMinute:

TiVo is working on a new version of the Mac OS X software for its Home Media Option that will let users stream AAC music files to their TiVo Digital Video Recorder (DVR), in addition to the already supported MP3 format. “We are working with Apple on a solution to support the AAC file format while also honoring the rights of copyright holders,” a TiVo spokesperson told MacMinute.

This is great news for us Mac/TiVo users. As soon as iTunes 4.0 was released, the lack of AAC support, both protected and unprotected, quickly became the largest shortcoming of the Home Media Option. Representatives from TiVo claimed that since iTunes 4.0 was released after the HMO, TiVo was not required to support the format. However, I’ve been expecting an announcement like this since Apple started selling TiVos in Apple Stores last week.

Furthermore, it looks like TiVo and Apple are working on a method that will enable the HMO to work with both unprotected AAC files and the protected files purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Whether the solution will be involve using a TiVo as one of your three authorized “computers” or if you stream to unlimited TiVos (like you can copy to unlimited iPods) remains to be seen.

Excellent. O’Reilly announced that TiVo Hacks is the latest title in the Hacks Series. TiVo Hacks is being written by Raffi Krikorian.

Kirk McElhearn’s review of Google Hacks makes it sound like the book covers some fairly advanced topics, so I have high hopes for TiVo Hacks. [via raelity bytes]

Moved to the new TiVo category.