Miscellaneous

A4 Tech has created quite an interesting little gadget with their BatteryFree Wireless Optical Mouse. The mouse uses RFID technology to communicate position and button states to a mouse pad which plugs into your USB port. Even more interestingly, the pad transmits power to the mouse through inductance, so that the mouse needs no batteries for power. This results in a mouse with no wires leading out of it and which is far lighter than conventional wireless mice. In fact, it’s a bit lighter than my conventional wired optical mouse. The RFID technology makes it much less likely than Bluetooth that you will ever have interference from other devices, but it does require the use of the pad. For some this may not seem to meet the full definition of “wireless”.

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BatteryFree Wireless Optical MouseRead More »

By Jason Jacks

Writers of those New Year’s “what’s hot and what’s not” lists missed one: pressing just one button is definitely in, mostly thanks to companies like OnStar for putting motorists a press away from a tow truck or restaurant recommendation. Now a local company is bringing the single-button trend down to the individual level. This April, Springfield-based DesignTech International Inc. is launching what it is billing as the world’s first wearable emergency telephone. The device is a phone with one button that when pressed will connect the wearer to a 911 operator, company officials said.

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One-button Call to 9-1-1Read More »

PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 12, 2005–Danger, Inc. announced today that over 3 billion mobile instant messages (IM) were sent and received on the company’s hiptop(R) wireless platform during 2004. This number is even more impressive when compared to the 22.8 billion total SMS messages sent across all United States wireless carriers during the same period, according to recent data from Jupiter Research. Sold through eight operators in six countries, each operator brands the hiptop device as their own and sells it directly to consumers, such as the T-Mobile Sidekick II, SunCom hiptop2 and Edge Wireless hiptop.

“Because of the hiptop’s intuitive user-interface and overall ease-of-use,” said Hank Nothhaft, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Danger Inc., “it has become the premier mobile platform for instant messaging. IM has clearly become a killer app for our users. And if our current growth trends continue, we will support upwards of 10-15 billion mobile instant messages in 2005.”

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Danger’s hiptop Carries over Three Billion Mobile Instant Messages in 2004Read More »

By Michael Snider

Television is about to hit the road. That’s if the exhibitors at the International Consumer Electronics Show have their way. They want to revolutionize the TV set, make it digital and mobile, the way MP3 changed the way people get and listen to their music. The hard part: convincing the consumer.

TV sets have been a household staple for over 50 years, but for most of that time we’ve had to watch them from the same spot on the sofa or in the bedroom. But that’s changing. Soon, you could be enjoying TV in the car, on your laptop or portable players and on big, flat, vibrant high definition sets.

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Portable TV’s making a grand returnRead More »

By Jonathan Sidener

If women are from Venus, you can bet the planet has Wi-Fi access in doctors’ offices. Meanwhile, on the manly planet of Mars, wireless Internet access clearly would be popular in restaurants.

In the brief history of personal computing, there have always been gender differences. Initially, men were more likely to buy and use computers. Men dominated the early years of public Internet use and video-game playing. That original gender gap has closed, with women now as likely to own computers and use the Internet as men. But some new differences are showing up.

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New gadget gender gapRead More »

By Tom Van Riper

Ready to scan your own groceries as you walk the aisles? How about buying a sweater from a touch screen on a department store shelf, to get a color or size the store just ran out of? The National Retail Federation is set to kick off its annual trade show at the Javits Center next Monday, where its members will unveil a host of new gadgets that could give future shopping a whole different look.

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High-tech retailingRead More »

By Kim Tae-gyu

Jan. 10, 2005 will go down in history as the day to phase in the world’s first cell phone-based mobile broadcasting in Korea. TU Media, the affiliate of the nation’s top mobile operator SK Telecom, will begin to test-run the satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) across the nation on Monday.

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Mobile Broadcast to Revolutionize Daily LivesRead More »

By John Przybys

Santa was very good to you this year, and you have a new computer, an iPod and a home theater system sitting under your rapidly decomposing Christmas tree. Now, you think, it would have been a truly wonderful holiday season if you could only get the dumb things to work before the arrival of Bastille Day.

Relax. Take a deep breath. Then take the advice of a few valley tech experts, who say that enjoying a new — but, perhaps, frustrating — electronic Christmas gift doesn’t have to be that difficult. All it takes is doing a few decidedly low-tech things. Namely: Spending some time reading the instruction manual, then hanging on patiently during your roller-coaster ride along the learning curve.

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When all else fails, read the manual!Read More »

Look out iPod Mini, your competition has finally arrived! Sporting an ultra-thin and tapered design, and with 25 percent more memory than iPod® mini, this tiny MP3 player, about the size of a business card, will slide into any pocket virtually unnoticeable. The Rio Carbon is capable of holding up to 80 hours of MP3 (160 hours WMA) music**, and with up to 20 hours of battery life on a single charge, music lovers need not worry about running out of juice. Supporting USB 2.0 and a host of file formats; users can download music efficiently and easily from most of their favorite online music sites. The Rio Carbon also includes voice recording and provides seamless integration and support of both the PC and Mac platforms.

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Rio Carbon – 5GB MP3 PlayerRead More »

By Mark Ward, BBC News

If you are a geek or gadget fan, the next 12 months look like they are going to be a lot of fun. The relentless pace of development in the hi-tech world and rampant competition in many of its sectors, particularly among mobile phone firms, all suggests that 2005 is going to be a very good year. To begin with, 2005 will be the year that third-generation (3G) mobile phones become inescapable.

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The future in your pocketRead More »