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Let me set the scene…

Glasgow, Scotland – Saturday, August 15th
45,000 spectators.
8,000 bagpipers and drummers from 16 countries.
One world champion.

Culminating a week of preparation and competition – with concerts all around the city – the new 2009 World Bagpipe Champions.

In front of crowds of more than 40-thousand fans – Simon Fraser University Pipe Band – from Vancouver, Canada – took the prestigious crown.

Even more fans watched the competition on the BBC’s live streaming coverage over the Web.

This year, more than 200 bands – from as far-flung locations as New Zealand, Pakistan and even the United States – converged on Glasgow Green – to partake in more than 9 hours of music and pageantry in the final rounds.

Despite a very cold, wet start (it was the middle of August) the skies parted late morning and provided a beautiful, sunny backdrop for “The Worlds”, as they are affectionately known.

A little history is in order: The competition is a very big deal and is taken very seriously by everyone involved – participants and spectators alike. The contest has been fiercely fought in Glasgow for more than 60 years.

This year, American bands were eliminated in the final round early in the day.

As the competition wound down the day ended with the amazing spectacle of the thousands of pipers and drummers who had been competing throughout the day taking part in a grand march past both spectators and judges before the world champions were crowned.

The 2009 Tier One champions – Simon Fraser University – have won the competition a number of times in recent years.

The runners up were Field Marshall Montgomery from Northern Ireland… with third place going to St. Laurence O’Toole from Ireland… and a local group, the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band, came fourth.

All-in-all an amazing day of spectacle and sound taking place in a vibrant city – where everyone seemed to go out of their way to be helpful and friendly to visitors. Plus, great restaurants and even better whiskey (but that’s a tale for another day.)

And the music was amazing!

I can happily report a wonderful time was had by all.

When you think of the name Bugatti you immediately visualize super-high-end Italian motor cars. Right?

And, when you think of kitchen appliances you generally think in terms of companies like Hamilton Beach, Oster, Black & Decker, Cuisinart, Proctor-Silex and all the others.

It’s now time to begin thinking about Bugatti’s new line of kitchen appliances as well.

How about a nice toaster?

The Casa Bugatti Volo 2-slice toaster is definitely a looker. It comes in chrome or an incredible racing red finish. It sports the usual features such as a two-slice capacity, darkness control, a bagel setting (Italian bagels?) and a defrost feature. The bread slots are approximately 1-inch wide and the toaster weighs in at a hefty 6-1/2 pounds.

Then there’s the blender.

The Vela 400-watt model. It has a glass jar which holds 1-1/2 liters of liquid, three speeds and pulse settings. There is no ice crusher or food processing attachments but it is very, very solid — the blender weighs something like 11 pounds!

Or, how about the new Vera electric tea kettle?

Beautifully styled. Holds 1.7 liters of water. Has electronic temperature controls. There is also a self-timers built-in that let you set, in advance, the exact hour and minute that your hot water will be ready and waiting. Thermal controls will also keep the Vera from overheating.

You might have noticed that I haven’t yet mentioned prices. That’s because I wanted you to keep reading. Each Bugatti device mentioned above has a suggested retail price of $299.99. Some are available for ordering on Amazon.com at the discount price of $249.99.

If all of this seems too much for you then you might want to forgo the electric tea kettle and settle for Bugatti’s attractive, old-fashioned stove-top model. The cute, 1-1/2 liter model number 86-7092C3 can be had at the bargain basement price of $149.99 (also on Amazon.com).

But for any of my readers who think these products are too inexpensive do I have something for you…

As you can see, Bugatti’s 15-bar (lots of water pressure) pump espresso machine is amazing looking.

It is capable of making 1 to 2 cups of espresso as well as steaming/frothing your milk for cappuccino-like drinks. It is capable of using either ground coffee or espresso pods (with the included adapter.) There’s even a cup warming plate for the perfect espresso experience. It’s a solid machine. I know because it weighs nearly 20 pounds.

The price? For you? $1,499.99! Luckily Amazon.com is discounting it down to $1,300.

The Bugattis come in that terrific red finish or in chrome. They seem like they’ll make wonderful holiday gifts.

Samsung’s new Omnia i8910 smartphone is not yet for sale in the United States even though it’s an amazing piece of hardware.

The specs are impressive:

GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HSPDA/HSUPA (that means it works on 3G networks everywhere on the planet including AT&T’s here in the U.S.), a fantastic-looking 3.7-inch AMOLED (organic LED touch screen (360 by 640 pixels), 8 GB of built-in memory (plus a microSD card slot for an extra 16 GB), HD video recording/playback, an 8MP camera with electronic flash, GPS, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth and a 1500 mAh rechargeable battery pack (lasts all day long).

The user interface is wonderful. It’s easy to understand, use and even master. The pictures from the camera look great on my computers. The wireless connections are solid on both T-Mobile’s 2.5G EDGE as well as AT&T’s 3G wireless networks.

So far, so great.

Then there is the software. Unfortunately, this smartphone runs on Symbian’s (Nokia) S60, 5th Edition operating system. It’s the same OS Nokia has beeen using on their high-end smartphones (like the recent N97).

It’s not that the operating system is bad – it’s just somewhat awkward and outdated. It was ahead of the curve at a time when cell phones were designed, primarily, to make voice calls. Data connections (especially overseas) used to be very, very expensive – so the phone was designed to double and triple-check your choices every time you tried to connect to a data network.

Times have changed. Data connections must now be ubiquitous and cheap. Unfortunately, the Symbian OS hasn’t changed with the times. Don’t get me wrong. It is OK but constantly does things like ask you (in a number of different ways) if you’re sure you want to complete a task at hand. That gets annoying really quickly – especially when you’ve experienced more modern iPhone/Pre/Android and others.

I expect an OS upgrade for this handset very soon. That shouldn’t surprise anyone – Nokia has just announced that they’re switching to a new, Linux-based OS called Maemo 5 for their upcoming N900 smartphone.

I’d be surprised if Samsung and others using Symbian didn’t follow Nokia’s lead. Or maybe Android. Don’t forget, Samsung is currently one of the top cell phone manufacturer on the planet for good reason. They make good phones.

If and when that happens I will be able to recommend Samsung’s i8910 whole heartedly.

The term for this new class of portable computers is Smartbook. Think of them as a cross between a smartphone and a Netbook.

This new form factor is really a very, very small Netbook computer with modest specs running a very, very lightweight operating system.

The first Smartbook to hit the market has recently gone on sale in China with the catchy name Lanyu LY-EB01. This little baby comes with a 266 MHz ARM processor. That is not a typo – it’s 266 megahertz not gigahertz.

It has a 7-inch (800 by 600 pixels) screen and total of 1.5 GB of memory (for running the device AND storage). It weighs about a pound and a quarter and runs about a day on a (non-removable) battery charge.

It runs on Windows CE 5.0 operating system. For you history buffs, Windows CE was a really old, lightweight Microsoft OS for ancient portable devices. I had a wonderful IBM ThinkPad-like notebook some 10-12 years ago, now sitting in a box in a closet somewhere, that ran (very slowly) on Windows CE but was unbelievably lightweight and fun to use. Those were the days before Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the like. An infrared port was a big deal back then! (SO last century.)

Later, Windows CE was relegated to embedded devices (printers, smart watches, etc.)

We know all about this new WinCE device because the guys at Shanzai.com went out and bought one for testing. The price? The equivalent of $98 U.S. That’s not a typo either.

They found a very good build quality but sluggish performance, a cramped keyboard and a problem running some programs like Skype and the Opera browser (once they actually found where the software was buried on the computer).

For the entire review check out the video above.

But it IS selling for less than $100 bucks over there – and that means we could be on the brink of inundation by very small, very affordable tiny portables. Windows 7 might be way too much for a device like this – but maybe a form of Linux would work. Or Android.

This should be interesting.

First it was desktop computers. Then laptops. iPods were a big deal. Now it’s iPhones and smartphones in general. What’s next?

For the answer you have to look toward the people in charge of our future – today’s children, teens and young adults.

In case you haven’t noticed, all the preferred media of my generation are dying a rapid death. Forget glacial evolution – it’s more like violent upheaval. We know youngsters don’t buy music albums in a record store but today’s kids don’t read newspapers, listen to radio, watch television or make phone calls.

Youngsters’ primary form of communication is texting. Fitting all their thought and dreams into a severely-limited number of characters, numbers and symbols. As for music – they’ll buy/download a limited-fidelity version of a particular song (or two) and play them on a small portable device. If they like a particular TV show they watch it streaming on their computers.

They have no need for “old” methods. They like their way better. That’s fine – each successive generation rebels from the last. But this massive and rapid switchover is creating an incredible ripple effect in our society – including an unprecedented loss of job opportunities in a number of fields.

As for newspapers, if people don’t read them anymore then advertisers don’t advertise in them – they begin losing money – and at some point go out of business.

Radio? Good radio in most U.S. markets died years and years ago. There are a few exceptions (WBGO, WFUV, WNYTC, and WQXR in New York) but for the most part, listeners now prefer 30-second previews of songs online then playing that music on portable storage devices. The death of proper-sounding home music playback systems is sad – to say the least.

Television? Nobody watches anymore. Viewership is plummeting. Advertisers don’t advertise. You get the idea. There are many reasons (too many choices, mediums, lack of good programming, etc.) but the effect is chilling.

For instance, TV stations have begun to cut back on expensive news programming. If you haven’t had the pleasure of watching what has happened to WNBC news broadcasts. New York’s Channel 4 basically fired everyone in the newsroom, late last winter, then hired back the few people they wanted to keep. They were hired back at basically slave wages (for someone living/working in New York City).

All you need to know is they’re getting exactly what they’re paying for. WNBC moved newscasts to a new studio which looks and sounds horrible whether you’re watching on an older TV or one of the new, flat-screen models. Some of the new young, cheaper-to-hire reporters/anchors are laughable. WNBC’s local news coverage is now weak at best. But, they way they see it they now have a 24-hour cable “lifestyle” channel being produced by the same crew for the same monetary outlay.

Also, since so many people are watching “TV” on their computers sales of flat-screen TVs are falling as well. Recently, a number of young adults have bragged that they don’t even own a television. “What for?”

On my recent travels I’ve spoken with a number of kids, pre-teens, teens and their parents about cell phone usage. Here in the U.S., Great Britain, France and visitors from the Far East everyone – and I mean everyone I’ve spoken with says youngsters have no need for the phones in their smartphones.

The only time they make a voice call is to check-in with their parents. Their main mode of communication/conversation is texting.

I’ve heard employers complaining they’re finding that youngsters entering today’s job market have trouble reading, writing and speaking in sentences. Recent applicants know how to contract words and thoughts for texting but can’t fully express themselves in any other manner. I’ve been warned that this is the norm not just a few isolated cases. One or two employers called the problem an “epidemic.”

So, what is the next big thing? Based on all of the above, it won’t be smartphone devices like iPhones but similar devices like the iPod touch.

As wireless 3G/4G networks get faster and faster our portable devices will become more and more data centric. For instance, the iPod touch and Microsoft’s upcoming Zune HD will be the inspiration for future products.

Users will be able to text, surf the Web, find nearby landmarks with GPS, listen to music, take photos, shoot videos, watch their favorite TV shows – and, if they ever need to make a voice call there will be easy to access VoIP services.

Cellular phones as we know them will go the way of newspapers, Morse Code, radio and over-the-air television.

It’s official.

Nokia intends to announce their first Netbook computer at their big yearly corporate shindig, Nokia World, September 2nd in Stuttgart, Germany.

Nokia is calling their wireless connected mini-laptop the “Booklet 3G”.

They’re holding back all the minute details.

But, what we’ve been able to gather here at BMGM headquarters is that this will be a Microsoft Windows-based computer (maybe XP or it could even be Windows 7) running on an Intel Atom processor, probably with only 1GB of RAM (a Microsoft Netbook stipulation), a 10.1-inch screen, GPS (to interface with Nokia’s Ovi Maps), 3G/cellular-HSPA connectivity (could be an option), Wi-Fi (not sure if it will have 802.11n), a SD card expansion slot, an HDMI video port, and an important feature in any portable computer: a rechargeable battery with 12 hours of life per charge (just like Asus’ new Eee PCs).

We do know that the Booklet 3G will weigh in at less than three pounds (1.25 Kg = 2.76 pounds) and is only 2 cm (.76 inch) high.

You can see Nokia’s promotional (Flash) video here.

No details about whether it uses a conventional hard drive or built-in solid-state memory. Or how much it will cost. Or when it will be available here in the United States. Or who might sell it. Or which cellular network it will work on here.

But I can tell you that if it’s built even half as well as Nokia’s little tablet computers this could be a force to reckon with.

We’ll know soon enough.

In reality it’s the polar opposite of a tablet computer. The forthcoming Asus Eee Keyboard PC is an entirely new entity unto itself. And I got to see a very early prototype.

A tablet computer is all screen and has either a hidden or an on-screen keyboard (sometimes both). For some tasks a tablet is terrific but personally I sometimes find them difficult to type on.

The new Eee Keyboard computer is nearly all keyboard – and a nifty one at that. On the right-hand side is a 5-inch (diagonal) LCD touch screen. On the back are a bunch of connection ports (when necessary) and that’s about it. Nearly everything you need is built into the keyboard.

Inside, is a fully functioning Eee PC – with an Intel Atom processor – running Windows XP – with one GB of RAM and a 16GB solid-state hard drive.

There is Wi-fi (802.11 b/g/n), an HDMI video/audio port, a wireless HDMI ultra-wide band connection, a couple of USB (2.0) ports and a VGA out. Can’t wait to try the wireless HDMI.

The keyboard itself is a back lighted “Chiclet” affair and in my brief test proved to be absolutely terrific.

Although the screen is small it is quite usable for its intended purpose -controlling multimedia, browsing the Web from your couch, etc. I’m not sure I’d like to edit a word processing document on a screen that small but for just about everything else it seemed fine. For the record, the screen works both vertically (as in the photo – the long way) and horizontally (the wide way).

This is a real computer and needs to plug into the AC to work. But, there’s also a rechargeable battery inside that allows the new Eee to work like a netbook (which it is). Asus is thinking in terms of getting three hours or so from a battery charge.

The only thing left to tell you is when and how much. When is estimated in the fourth quarter of this year (although Asus usually comes in ahead of their schedule). Price: It’s estimated at $549. Asus may set the MSRP at $549 but expect to pay less for one shortly thereafter.

Can Asus repeat the success they’ve had with netbooks? We’ll know soon enough.

I plan to test a full production model as soon as they come off the assembly line.

There are actually people who measure this kind of stuff.

RESCUECOM, a computer servicing company, releases quarterly reports on the subject and they’ve found – for the second quarter in a row – the top reliable computer brand isn’t Apple, Dell, HP, Toshiba or Lenovo. It’s Asus.

According to their press release:

RESCUECOM’s Computer Reliability Report was developed to provide statistical, unbiased data on the reliability of today’s major name-brand personal computers. The scores are calculated by comparing the number of computers shipped from a particular company with the number of computer repair and service calls RESCUECOM handles relative to that company’s computers.

This is how it works: IDC reported a total of over 16 million shipped units among eight major brands. Over this same time period, Rescuecom received 11,560 calls for computer repair and support related to these brands.

So, for the second quarter of 2009, these are the overall numbers:

Asus (416)
Apple (394)
IBM/Lenovo (314)
Toshiba (218)
HP/Compaq (142)

These numbers are based on two key measures, including the quality of the hardware and software and the post-sale support provided by the manufacturer. The higher the score, the greater the reliability of the brand.

David Millman, RESCUECOM’s CEO says this about the results:

“Because ASUS just introduced the newest version of the EEE laptop last fall, the original predicted computer reliability of this laptop has been somewhat up in the air. However, a good eight months later, we’re still receiving the fewest calls for computer repair and support with ASUS, while their market share is increasing, adding the EEE desktop to their line as well, indicating that this PC is continuing to prove itself in terms of computer reliability.”

I’m sure this is a win that Asus worked hard to achieve — and will have to work even harder to sustain.

According to Fortune Magazine in their latest round-up of the “Top 10 Fastest Growing Techs” number one on their list is not Apple (although they DID make the list) or Google or Palm.

It is Research in Motion. You know them best for making BlackBerries.

As a matter of fact, Fortune says the Canadians at RIM are on a roll:

Blackberries are still the cell phone standard for corporate America. RIM has sold 65 million phones in the past ten years. They hold a 74% share of business smartphone market.

RIM’s 3-year average earnings-per-share growth is 84%. Annualized revenue growth in that time is 77%. Its shares have a three-year annualized total return of 45%.

Fortune adds that with the smartphone market expected to double in the next five years Research in Motion looks like a winner

The rest of Fortune’s list is as follows:

Sigma Designs – maker of system-on-a-chip processors (DVD, Blu-Ray players, TVs)

Sohu.com – China-based, Chinese language Internet company

Ebix – Websites facilitating exchanges of insurance policies, annuities, etc.

Millicom International Cellular – Luxembourg-based cellular provider focusing in Third World markets

Open Text – Specializes in Enterprise Content Management (businesses, governments store/track millions of documents, e-mails, and presentations.

Pegasystems – They helping companies like Ford, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo to identify computer fraud, manage payments, etc.

ANSYS – Makes engineering simulation software (to predict how well a new design might function/behave in the real world

Apple – Just one word explains it all these days – iPhone

AsiaInfo Holdings – Telecommunications software and IT security products

I’m not sure this is what Steve Jobs had in mind when he built a network of beautiful Apple Stores/Temples/Boutiques all over the world.

A young man who goes by the name “nicholifav” (who’s is really 11-year old Nicholi Woodward from the Bronx) has been posting videos on the Web and is fast becoming YouTube star.

That alone is not a big deal.

But, when you take into account that Nicholi produces his art – for free – on computers samples in Apple’s New York City 5th Avenue “Mecca” – you begin to realize just how clever he is.

Plus, the price is right.

He’s done a bunch of personal videos so far and, in the process, is building a huge following. He’s also made guest appearances on Good Morning America and The Ellen Show.

You can check nicholifav out on his own YouTube page and also see his very popular rendition of the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” at the top of this story.

Aside from his exemplary performance, check out the shoppers reactions in the background.