In today's Remainders: comings and goings. Google Latitude refuses to Buzz off; Dell's super skinny Adamo XPS vanishes into thin air; cable subscribers say Hello to channels they never knew existed; and some users just can't part with their iPhones.
Raditude
Amidst all the buzz around the launch of Google Buzz, a few peopled stepped back and asked how Google Latitude fit into the company's ambitious new social platform. In an interview with eWeek, Google Latitude project manager Steve Lee explained that the plucky Latitude was still being developed independently of Buzz. Latitude, he explained, is about "friend-finding," whereas Buzz is about "creating conversations." On the future of both: "Down the road, there might be points of integration between Buzz and Latitude, but they are separate products and have different use cases." So there you have it: Latitude lives on. [eWeek]
Cable Costs
In the last decade, the number of cable channels served to your TV has probably tripled. I remember when I used to just have MTV. Now I have MTV, MTV2, MTV Tres, MTV Hits, MTV Jams—at some point, no matter how many rap music videos you watch, you have to ask yourself if there's a better way. A la carte cable has been tossed around as one solution for as long as there have been cable packages, but the answer is always the same: it isn't financially feasible for the content providers. But it's still a nice thought, so if you want to pretend to dine a la carte, here's your menu (these are, of course, the wholesale subscription fees, but it still gives you an idea of the prices the different channels command). As Peter Kafka notes, about 40% of your monthly cost goes to sports channels. Fine if you're a big sports fan, sort of irritating if you're not. [All Things D]
iLove
Yeah, yeah, we love our iPhones too, but this is just weird. A recent survey of 200 iPhone-owners at Stanford University showed just how strongly people feel about their smartphones:
Nearly a quarter of those surveyed reported that the iPhone felt like an extension of their brain or body.
Ok, kinda bizarre, but the idea of iPhone as a brain-enhancer is sort of understandable. Less understandable, however:
There was also a tendency among the survey participants to anthropomorphize their iPhones and treat it differently than other electronics. For example, 3 percent of the students said they don't let anyone touch their iPhone; another 3 percent have named their iPhone; 9 percent have patted their iPhone and 8 percent admitted that they have at some time thought "My iPod is jealous of my iPhone.
If 19 out of every 200 people are patting their iPhones, I shudder to think of the weird technolust that will go down when the iPad arrives next month. [LiveScience]
RIP XPS
It's not every day that we get really excited over a new laptop's design, which is why Dell's insanely thin Adamo XPS was such a breath of fresh air. It seems, however, that it was just a little too thin for its own good; today the Adamo XPS disappeared from Dell's website. CrunchGear followed up with a Dell chat representative and confirmed that the XPS is gone for good. True, it never seemed like the healthiest machine, but it did turn heads with its unique design, and we're sad to see it go. As CrunchGear mentions, last year's SXSW saw the debut of Dell's Adamo line, so maybe they're just clearing the way for their next skinny system. [CrunchGear]


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