Hardware and gadgets

A New York Post article talks about the growing popularity of cellphone jammers. The devices, which are illegal but can be bought on the street in New York City, are giving relief to people sick of loud-mouthed cellphone users. They seem to be especially popular with users of public transportation, where you don't necessarily want to listen to the details of someone's love life while taking the train into Grand Central Station.

If we did not have enough to worry about, we now have cars infected with computer viruses. Cnet has the story about a security firm that reports it has been asked to debug several Lexus cars that had apparently been infected via a Bluetooth phone, which transmitted the virus wirelessly to the car navigation system.

Maybe my next car should be a nice, vintage, '66 Mustang 2+2--good, reliable transportation, classic look, and no onboard electronics.

Here is a very readable article that explains some of the differences between the popular but still more expensive LCD panels and the older but now very cheap CRT-based monitors. LCD prices have fallen dramatically, and CRTs are now dirt cheap--just a few years ago, a 17" CRT was $600 or more, and you can now find them for $100 if you shop around. One nice advantage of LCDs is that they are easier on the eyes, as they do not flicker like CRTs, and they don't produce ionizing radiation like CRTs.

Griffin, one of the most innovative hardware companies out there, has just released a neat little $40 gadget that takes audio from your computer and broadcasts it to any nearby FM radios. This solves the problem of how to distribute the music from all those CDs you have ripped to your hard drive. It also means you can rebroadcast Internet radio stations to other locations in your house. RocketFM plugs into a USB port, and works with both Windows and Macs--a perfect complement to iTunes.

In a brilliant marriage of a free Open Source piece of software and the iPod, medical radiologists around the world are using iPods to store the huge image files generated by CT and other kinds of scans and x-rays. Eweek has the story of a frustrated radiologist who helped develop the free OsiriX software that allows radiologists to store and manipulate the images on the iPod.

A UK startup called Light Blue Optics has announced they are developing a pocket-size digital projector, using breakthrough holographic techniques that allow using just a few small components, compared to the relatively bulky LCD projectors, which are still too big to carry around conveniently and still too expensive.

Walmart has backed off its mandate that all its suppliers use RFID (Radio Frequency ID tags) by next week (note: NY Times site requires registration). It turns out, among other problems, that the tags don't work very well.

The theory is wonderful--Walmart employees, instead of tediously counting stock or handscanning barcodes, would simply walk down the aisle of a store waving a wand and accurately count what is on the shelf.

I'm appalled at my own computer. The box itself is fine, sitting on the floor next to my desk, but the complete rat's nest of wires next to it is just awful. Counting power cables that power numerous peripheral devices, there are more than thirty cables that are needed just to type an email or print a piece of paper.

"Put your thinking cap on" may acquire real meaning if the brain beanie these researchers have developed comes to pass. It could be a major breakthrough for those with serious physical impairments, but it is easy to imagine all sorts of other uses as well. Unfortunately, I keep thinking of applications related to improved ways to change channels--with a "channel beanie," you would not even have to pick up the remote and stab a button...you could just think the channel changed.

The USA Today had a story yesterday (page 11D) about the PillCam, a screening device that you swallow. While it travels through your body, it sends video and still images back to the doctor. The "pill," which is not much bigger than an oversize vitamin capsule, is much easier to take (literally) than an endoscopy, which requires sedation and the insertion of a tube down the throat.

It gets patients in and out of the doctor's office more quickly and with less risk. An endoscopy might still be required as a followup if the doctor decides a tissue sample is needed.

The Christmas catalogues are pouring into my mailbox, the newspaper is fat every morning with sales circulars from the local stores, and once again, electric razor ads are on TV (hint: no male has EVER bought an electric razor--spouses and significant others think this is something men want).

Just a year ago, I bought a progressive scan DVD player for $150, which I thought was a bargain. At that time, many progressive scan (better quality pictures) DVD players were often over $200. This morning, I saw an ad in the paper for a progressive scan player for $29.95.

It is amazing how much things have changed. I was in a small town restaurant two nights ago, eating dinner, and they had a stack of old magazines by the cash register. I picked one out to thumb through while eating. It was from 1998--a scant six years ago. In it, they had a short article explaining that DVD was this new kind of computer disc that could be used to play movies. It was treated as some exotic novelty.

Six years later, in our house, it's way too much trouble to watch a videotape. Remember those? Those old, antique things with moving parts, fuzzy pictures, and NO bonus material, director interviews, outtakes, dubbing in sixteen languages, or any of the other stuff that no one ever looks at but now comes on every DVD.

As an advocate of technology use, I find myself embarrased at the cheap junk being thrust upon us. Kid's toys are wretched excess. It seems that this year, virtually every toy made has about $5 worth of electronics (we're at a point where the cost of the batteries exceeds the cost of the electronics in the gadget).

Regrettably, I'm afraid that too many people think their kids will be technologically illiterate if they don't have electronic "books," electronic "first word" toys, electronic drawing games, and so on. The current crop of electronic "drawing" toys are apalling. The low resolution, the lack of printing ability, the lousy color choices, and the lack of appropriate tactile feedback are just the technological shortcomings of these things. What is much, much worse is the lack of intellectual adventure offered by them.

If you've ever wondered, as I have, what on earth you would do with the new "movie" feature being advertised on cellphones, wonder no longer! You can watch advertisements!

Yes! In your spare time, if you have had nothing to do, you've been wishing for access to some good ads. "Gosh, I'm bored. I wish there was a good ad I could watch."

Rest easy. Now you can watch movie trailers on your cellphone.

CNet has an article on the "plunging" prices of videophone systems, heralding a drop to under $500.

These are hybrid phone systems that wed old phone system technology with video, in an attempt to create a bridge between conventional phone systems and Internet-based protocols.

Apple has upped the ante in the portable music player world. With a half dozen other hard drive-based models trying to steal market share from Apple, the world's premiere technology innovation firm has released two new iPods today that will display digital photos on a color screen.

It got chilly all of a sudden; someone was pulling the covers off the bed. I sat up groggily and looked around. My wife was still sound asleep on the other side of the bed; it was not likely that she would notice anyway, since she tends to sleep with the covers half off in the first place. It was the whirring noise that finally caught my attention; Marvin, the robo-butler, was down at the bottom of the bed, slowly and methodically dragging the comforter off. He seemed to be getting a bit confused, because the covers had flopped over top of him, covering his optical sensors.

I yanked them away from him and tried to go back to sleep, but even more commotion started up downstairs. It sounded like every appliance in the house had come on, all at once. Imagine, if you will, the coffee grinder, the disposal, the dishwasher, the vacuum cleaner, the dryer, and the washing machine, all going at once. I was waking up now, and threw my legs over the side of the bed, stepped into my slippers and housecoat, and headed downstairs. Marvin trailed behind me, muttering under his breath, his little wheel motors whining. I looked longingly at my wife, who was still sound asleep.

After I shut everything off, and got the baby out of her crib (she thought it was hilarious to have the vacuum cleaner driving in circles on her rug at 6:30 in the morning), I poured a cup of java from the Coff-o-Mat and sat down for a little chat with Harry, the house computer.

"Harry, what the heck is going on?"

"Well, Dave, you wouldn't get up this morning when I tried to wake you."

"Harry, it's Saturday morning and we were out late last night. You knew that, because you made me review the chore list at half past twelve."

"I guess I just forgot, Dave. It won't happen again."

"Alright, I'll forget about it. Now what's for breakfast?"

"Well, Dave, how about two scrambled eggs and a piece of whole wheat toast?"

"Sounds good."

"Coming right up, Dave."

I harrumphed, then started to get up to go look for the paper.

Here's an interesting note about an industry drive to make our homes "smart."

I wrote an article fifteen years ago about this, which I've posted in a separate item. The IT industry is drving the smart home phenomenon in part because it's "cool," and in part because it will increase profits. A very small part of smart home stuff will actually make things more convenient, but I remain skeptical.

Despite the availability of several "iPod killer" products from companies like Dell and Sony, the latest marketing data shows the Apple iPod has captured 92% of the portable MP3 music players with hard drives, and 65% of the overall portable player market.

What the iPod has that the other products don't is superb cross-platform music management/player software (iTunes is available for Windows and the Mac) and superb integration with the iTunes Music Store.

Griffin's RadioShark is another piece of the convergence puzzle falling into place.

The RadioShark is an AM/FM tuner that plugs into your computer via a USB port. You can listen to broadcast radio in real time through your computer speakers, but of course, an old-fashioned analog radio would do that as well.

In the "old days," (I find myself saying that a lot recently, and I'm usually talking about six or seven years ago), if you lost a roll of film, it might, at best, have 36 pictures on it, and no one would bother to spend the money to have them developed.

Today, HP put their iPod on sale. This long awaited product is licensed from Apple, and is very similar in appearance to the current, 4th generation iPod. HP has also released "Tattoos," which is an ink jet media that you can print on and then apply as a cover to your iPod.