All of this with a huge thank you to George Clooney. The Hollywood star has been the face of their advertising campaign for several years.

Before i get into my personal Nespresso review, let’s have a look at the history of this billion dollar coffee brand.

15 years of research
Nestlé’s research and development team first came up with the coffee cup in 1970.
After fifteen years of research the Nespresso Company fully owned by Nestlé was born in 1986. The company launches its first espresso machines aimed at businesses in Italy and Swiss.

Massive growth
While Clooney has made millions starring in Nespresso’s international commercials, Nespresso has made even more! Nespresso’s sales hit 2.6 billion dollar/1,9 billion euro annually last year up from 777 million dollar or 570 million euro in 2005!

One of the popular Nespresso ads featuring George Clooney and John Malkovich on Youtube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODB9xXLZ2oE

In contrast to its first years on the market 86% of today’s sales come from the consumer segment.
Over 7 million coffee lovers have registered themselves in the Nespresso Club and can enjoy promotions, customer support and order online. A tenfold increase over the amount of members in 2005. Nespresso certainly has come a long way since its inception

Pirates Ahoy! Sarah Lee raids the loot
Consumers buying a Nespresso machine were previously confined to using Nestle’s 16 “Grand Cru” and limited edition varieties, only available in the Nespresso stores and online.
Now Sarah Lee’s cheaper L’OR coffee pods are for sale in every French super market. France is Nespresso’s biggest market but Sarah Lee is expected to launch their cheaper knock-off cups internationally soon. Will Nespresso clients jump ship?

Time will tell, though Nespresso has its superior design and brand as a massive advantage. As the salesperson told me when I bought the Krups CITIZ coffee & milk machine:
“Nespresso is the Ferrari of coffee blends and machines. You won’t settle with an inferior Chinese or Japanese car if you can buy a Ferrari now, would you?”

And that’s absolutely true. Nespresso has an Apple like brand status in most of the world, clients won’t abandon George Clooney or the Nespresso brand any time soon.

My Nespresso review

Hell no! I never was a coffee drinker. But after tasting a cup at a store near me -- actually looking for a vacuum cleaner -- I went on a limb and bought the cool looking, beautifully designed Citiz+Aeroccino device.   Unpacking the device and the coffee pads is an event by itself. The machine and it’s packaging -- attention has gone into every detail. It’s almost as exciting as opening up the box of your first iPhone or iPad. Magic!

The Citiz machine works like a charm both for making a nice espresso or warming and frothing up some milk with the Aeroccino. Every piece is easily removable or accessible making it a no brainer for cleaning up or stowing away the device when needed.

As for the coffee itself? I’ve tested 10 cups of the 16 different Grand Cru’s and it’s a new tantalizing world of tastes that’s opened up.
I always thought a coffee was a coffee and it all tasted sort or less the same. Well it’s definately not!
Personally i love the less outspoken coffee blends the most. Nespresso ranges it’s coffee on a scale of 1 to 10 in intensity. For now my absolute favorite is the Dulsao: a light, enjoyable cup scoring a 5 in intensity.
More on the different types of coffee when i get round to it! In the meantime, enjoy your coffee!

So, what’s your favorite blend?

David Letterman even licks his Apple iPad on “The Late Show”

Stephen Colbert drules over the iPad… again! (Watch his Grammy appearance!)

MAD TV predicted the iPad in this hilarious spoof.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjU0K8QPhs

Sitcom “Modern Family” dedicated a whole episode to the iPad

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBJW1mT613s

The iPad’s appearance at the Grammys!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqp8_m5It5s

> What’s your opinion on the iPad? Crave to have one? Ordered one already?

Gaming powerhouse Nintendo has done it again! After the runaway success of the Nintendo Wii with its innovative motion control, the portable Nintendo DS the Japanese company has announced its latest breakthrough gaming device: the Nintendo 3DS.

Yes, the 3D definately stands for 3D gaming. After the runaway success of 3D in the movie industry with Avatar and Alice in Wonderland leading the way it’s only natural that the gaming world follows suit. Playing the game of a 3D movie in 2D doesn’t really seem fitting does it?

Nintendo knows that innovation is the only way to keep ahead of their mighty competitors, Microsoft with the Xbox and Sony with the PS3. And to a lesser extent Steve Jobs’ Apple with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

And ironically that’s Nintendo’s secret ingredient – the golden “Apple” touch from Cupertino. Not only Nintendo’s marketing is sometimes strikingly similar, also its innovation and design has clearly been influenced by Apple’s stunningly simple, modern design. Gone are the days of grey bricks & gameboys or the Nintendo NES. The NES was the company’s first gaming system which basically was an ugly box to plug in your games.

The nintendo 3DS is the successor for the hugely successful DS and DSi which have been sold well over a 125 million times! The console will be unveiled during the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles next june! The fact that you don’t need 3D glasses to play the games will only add to its appeal, fingers crossed!

> Are you a fan of Mario & co? Can’t wait for the next E3 gaming convention? Share your opinion right here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuVtO6otu_U

Hang on, didn’t Jean LucPicard use an iPad on his outer space missions?

> What’s your opinion on all things Trekkie & tech?

The new device is positioned between the iPhone and Macbook or in the non-Apple universe: the tablet is filling the empty space between smartphones and laptops.

What empty space?

Many so called analysts are wondering what need the iPad actually fullfills.
I guess that’s kind of looking for a musquito when an elephant is staring you in the face…

This is an opportunity many manufacturers have jumped on by making an entry in the netbook space.
Everyone in the pc world tried to cram existing technology into a smaller, cheaper mini-laptop, resulting in an ultimately inferior consumer experience. While Apple once again designed a groundbreaking, attitude breaking, revolutionary product called the iPad. Something truly innovative.

Reviewing all features and the way you can interact with it, Apple’s filosophy does make sense.
1. The iPad does a lot of things easier, faster and more pleasing than a smartphone.
2. Apple’s “Magical” device is more userfriendly, focused and lightweight than a laptop.
3. It makes the netbook category obsolete.

The all in one device

Let’s have some fun doing a little math and reviewing similar devices.

	Amazon’s Kindle Well, it’s an electronic book reader… a capability the iPad also has supported by Apple’s iBook store. The Kindly is a pricey one trick pony with a price point ranging from $259 to $489.
	Nintendo DSi The Nintendo game hit machine! This fantastic gaming device has a price tag of $169.99 and is supported by the strong Nintendo game catalogue. Apple’s iPhone and iPad also support thousands of games with price tags ranging from $0,99 to $9,99.
	Netbook Those cramped little laptops have various price points that range from $170 and up to $450. They do give you a color screen, internet acces, let you run various software simultaniously and allow you to enjoy some low graphics demanding games.
	iPod/MP3players Since the introduction of the iPod, MP3 players have become ubiquitous. You can’t go anywhere without encountering at least one commuter, jogger or student passing you by with those white earbuds. How much do they cost? Well, the iPod prices currently vary between $59 and $399.
	Photostands Finally, the iPad also doubles as a fab photoframe! Having bought one for my old folks this past Christmas I can tell you prices start at $30 for the low end models rocketing up to over $250! And most of them can’t compete with the iPad’s gorgeous 9.7-inch, LED-backlit IPS display.

So what would you end up paying if you opted out of the iPad?
At the end of the ride you’d pay $658 to $ $1500 for comparable functions in standalone devices.
Compared to the iPad’s $499 up to $829 price tag.

Competitors’ reactions
Immediately after the announcement competitors scrambled to match up their offerings and everyone from Nintendo, Amazon & Microsoft started screaming to the press that the iPad is not a game changer…

But guess what?
They claimed exactly the same when Apple released the iPhone two years ago. That item went on to become one of the most popular tech gadget in recent history, redefined the industry and rocketed Apple to a 30% smartphone market share in just over 2 years.

Magical?

Yes, the iPad looks like the ultimate scifi gadgets is feature rich and handles it all smoothly but it does have some shortcomings.
1. No multitasking
2. No Flash support
3. No built in camera or SD slot.

Though it all depends on your needs & point of sight. As one of my collegue’s pointed out -”No Flash? Yay! No annoying Flash ads popping up while surfing the web…”

Buy or no buy?
Hit or miss?
Though the iPad doesn’t come with fries and doesn’t make espresso it’s a pretty handsome & practical gadget.

Personally i’ll probably buy one just for the fun of not having to drag a clumsy laptopbag with me when travelling or commuting!

As for all those iPad critics & pundits doubting the iPad.
Go watch the iPad future by grabbing a tablet rich Star Trek movie! Trekkies knew it all along… the iPad revolution has come!

> Would you buy an iPad? Have your say in our comment section below!

A new day, a new phone… After the unveiling of several Android phones in the past few weeks Google upped the ante with the announcement of the “Nexus One”. A Google smartphone made by Taiwanese tech firm HTC.

It finally is the war salvo directed straight at Apple, the gloves are off!

“Ironically Google might have a fighting chance by adopting the same strategy Microsoft succesfully used against Apple in the 80′s.
Pitching every ally they can find against the iPhone ecosystem.”

It’s the battle of the two tech giants we predicted in our September 2008 post: Is Google getting an Apple makeover?

The signs were there, first there was the launch of Google browser “Chrome” which recently outperformed Apple’s Safari in market share.
Making it a viable alternative on the pc also made it a viable smartphone solution to browse the web.

Then there was the announcement of the Android phone OS and Google’s iTunes alternative “Android Market”.

Takeover catfights
Google just as recently as last november announced it was buying the leading mobile ad network Admob for $750 million. The internet bellweather outbid Apple in a fierce fight for the company and now has the biggest iPhone advertising company in its portfolio. This gives Google a huge advantage.

Thanks to Admob, Google also secures the #1 spot in the mobile advertising space and knows exactly what it’s competitors users are doing and can learn from their behavior.

That’s only the beginning of the takeover catfight though. Just a few weeks later Apple snatches streaming media company “La La Media” for $85 million. A company that also Google had set its eyes on.

And Steve Jobs continued his buying spree by acquiring “Quattro Wireless” for $275 million. It’s the most meaningful direct competitor for… you guessed it!
Google’s new mobile ad darling “Admob”.

Hardware warfare
And the war is not over yet. Google and HTC have also combined forces to launch a range of Android powered netbooks and a tablet pc!

That’s right even before the iTablet or iSlate by Apple is released, the competition has turned on their fotocopiers!

The biggest loser…
The biggest loser in all of this? A company that totally missed the boat and had no viable mobile answer: Microsoft.

Google’s mobile focus can also be seen as a pre-emptive strike against the dark forces of Redmond. Microsoft failed to foresee the mobile move so miserably that they’re out of the game for now. Thanks to this, momentum totally is on Apple’s and Google’s side.

As irony will have it, Google might have a fighting chance because it is adopting the same strategy Bill Gates succesfully used against the Mac platform in the eighties: Pitching every ally they can find against the closed iPhone ecosystem. And that means more manufacturers, more carriers and more choice.

And strength in numbers might be the only way to go for now. It might bring prices down to a point where Apple just can’t match them anymore and Apple’s closed ecosystem will start to work against them.

That been said, in the near future Apple’s king of the smartphone world and nothing can match them. The Google Nexus One phone does not re-invent the wheel and Google can only hope to gobble up marketshare from Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm, Nokia & its own Android allies HTC and Motorola.

> Which company will prevail? Which smartphone would you buy? Grab your chance and share your opinion in our comment section below.

President’s Obama new ride beats any James Bond car ever imagined, nicknamed ‘The Beast’ this state of the art Cadillac is the most advanced car in the world.

The car is rumored to be able to withstand a rocket-propelled grenade, has a completely sealed interior to protect against chemical attacks, runs on flat tires and even has a seperate oxygen supply.

Inside the car tear gas, fire arms and even some packages of Obama’s blood are stored away in case of an emergency.

“The Beast”will make its debut during the inaugural parade on 20 January and will be driven by a CIA trained chauffeur.

> Would you like to score a lift in this car? Have your say about ‘The Beast’ in our comment section!

These original items are just amazing! A Darth Vader toaster, a 5000 pieces big Lego Millennium Falcon, a fun Skype controlled wireless RD-D2 webcam that enables you to have a look in your home from anywhere in the world…