Miscellaneous

By Susan Felt, The Arizona Republic

Hypertaskers. Chances are you are one or you know one. Fueled by workplace pressures, an expanding workweek and technogadgets that allow people to take their offices and homes anywhere they go, hypertasking is multitasking on speed.

The burgeoning number of wireless hot spots and popularity of handheld electronics that allow us to stay connected on the go may give us more freedom, but there’s a cost. Research shows that our brains aren’t equipped for this much activity. When we try to do more than even one simple task at a time, quality of work diminishes and tasks take longer to complete. When we try to do this for long periods, the result can be forgetfulness, sleeplessness, irritability and stress.

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Hypertasking is inefficient?Read More »

By EDISON THOMAS, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Thinking phones, clever cars, homes that run on their own… to a degree, we already have many of these things.

Picture it. It’s 6 am. The alarm goes off. It’s your phone. The alarm is set in ascend mode and blares louder and louder till you wake up. Next, you get either a message or a recorded reminder of your appointments for the day. It beeps again and gives your credit balance and the killing your broker made on the stock market. Great! All set for the day. Now, for some coffee. Walk into the kitchen and smell the brew, percolated and ready. Smart? That’s life in the near future for most, and already for some in tech-savvy Bangalore. “Who needs a wife?” asks gizmo buff W Kitty.

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Life in the near future for Gizmo freaksRead More »

TOKYO (AP) — It’s an idea that was popularized by Princess Leia’s plea for help in “Star Wars”: sending a 3-D hologram. Now, two Japanese scientists have developed technology they hope will one day turn the humble telephone booth into a high-tech chamber for beaming holographic images.

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Researchers develop 360-degree hologram phoneRead More »

By Dan Tynan

Gadgets have changed how we act in public, and generally not for the better. Two-thirds of executives say tech-related rudeness at work is getting worse, according to a survey by IT staffing firm Robert Half Technology. And while various surveys say the use of cell phones and other devices is down in cars and theaters, it’s rising just about everywhere else–including in bathrooms.

Even if you already know how to use a soup spoon, you could probably brush up on your gadgetiquette–or know someone who could. Here’s some expert advice.

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Gadgetiquette 101: Rules for using wireless devices in publicRead More »

Described as “boring and difficult� by disenchanted students and “dangerous� by certain government authorities, mathematics has never been more unpopular. And yet mathematical support systems are behind much of the technological wizardry loved so dearly by gadget-crazy youths – and sometimes their parents. How has this disaffection with humble maths managed to spread so far and what is being done about it?

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UN expo tackles mathematics’ unpopularityRead More »

LONDON: Video may have killed the radio star, as Buggles sang in 1979 but now the format that revolutionized viewing habits may itself be on the way out.

Dixons, a major British electrical retailer, said on Tuesday it is pressing the stop button on sales of video recorders, signalling the end for the first gadget that allowed people to record TV programs, or watch home movies without using temperamental projectors and spools that spewed film all over the carpet. Dixons said it had made the decision following a boom in sales of DVD technology and a corresponding drop in sales of VCRs since the mid-1990s.

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Major British retailer stops selling VCRsRead More »

NEW YORK – America Online Inc. is packaging new features to combat viruses, spam and spyware in response to growing online security threats. Subscribers will be able to get the free tools through a software download, known as AOL 9.0 Security Edition.

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AOL launches a virus offensive with 9.0Read More »

Straight out of James Bond’s Q- Lab: a gadget destined to quash the “noon-at-the-top” mountain-meeting mantra and the ubiquitous walkie-talkie cackle of skiers seeking wayward companions. Skiers will be able to strap on special wristwatch transmitters that allow families and friends to track each other on the mountain.

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Gadget allows skiers track each otherRead More »

Technological advances are fine when you know how to take advantage of them, but only geeks enjoy a dazzling array of buttons on a control panel, or an enigmatic message on a cellphone screen. For everyone else, the wonder gadget is just technology overload.

Concerned that customers are being turned off by complexity, electronics manufacturers are developing ways to operate digital devices more easily.

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Simplifying Consumer TechnologyRead More »

By Mike Musgrove, Washington Post Staff Writer

How quaint it now seems: Once upon a time, Americans didn’t know how to program their VCRs, doomed to forever blink “12:00.”

Those were the good old days, as it turns out. Today, those still-blinking digits are likely the least of your technology travails. Know how to upload the pictures from your cell phone’s camera? How to broadcast music parked on your computer through your stereo? How to set up a wireless network in your home so you can check e-mail through your handheld computer?

Technology has made it possible for all sorts of consumer gadgets to talk to each other, but they aren’t necessarily speaking the same language. More than ever, consumers need to plan and research their tech purchases beforehand, to make sure the parts of their digital dream home will actually work together.

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Getting Your Tech TogetherRead More »