Hardware and gadgets

This article [link no longer available] speculates on whether or not Google has a mobile phone in the works. It would make sense for Google to do that, since Google now has a wide array of Web-enabled applications and services that would work nicely on a large screen mobile phone. The phone and its associated service might even be free or very low fee; if it was, Google would recover its costs by restricting what users can do on the phone and/or by interspersing ads with service access (you might have to view an ad to make a phone call or do a search).

In what has to be the greatest use of technology ever, someone has developed a refrigerator that not only keeps cans of beer cold but also tosses them across the room to you so you don't have to get up off the couch. The remarkably simple system is highly accurate, and can be aimed remotely so that people sitting in different parts of the room can also get a beer with no more effort than moving an arm (to catch the beer).

Boxlight has released a new, battery-powered LCD projector that uses LEDs instead of hot, expensive incandescent bulbs. A cluster of 10 bright white LEDs projects an image of 150 lumens, compared to 800-1000 for an entry level old style projector. The unit is not suitable for large groups or rooms, but its quiet operation (no fan needed) and small size (1 lb.) could make it a popular choice as a home or office projector, or impromptu small group business meetings.

There are stories and links all over to the news that state legislators in New York may ban iPods in crosswalks. The problem is that people are "...walking into buses. They're walking into one another and it's creating a number of fatalities..." The bill will not specifically target iPods, but will be aimed at any portable device that has users with earphones on that are blocking street sounds.

DXG has a new combo movie/still camera (DXG-506V) with a 5 megapixel image sensor. It also plays MP3s and can take voice memos. The company says it will sell for $149. If the picture quality is good, that's a real bargain. Note that the company's Web site is not well designed. Click on the center area on the bottom (the DXG-505V) to get to a menu. I have yet to find a multi-function device that does everything well, but this product is probably a good hint at the future of cameras.

The back page of the Money section of USA Today (link not on the Web as I write this) has two articles on new gadgets and software. Polaroid, which invented instant printing, has developed inkless color printing that uses special water resistant paper. If it is cheaper than buying inkjet cartridges and has good quality, these little printers designed just for photographs could catch on.

Word has leaked out that Verizon passed on an opportunity to be the exclusive provider of cellular service for the iPhone. Apple's choice of Cingular puzzled some because Cingular is not known for great customer service (note that "customer service" in the cellphone industry is a relative term, but generally Verizon has a better reputation than Cingular).

The iPhone (picture gallery) utterly changes everything notion we have had about what constitutes a phone/PDA. Like many of Apple's previous design efforts, it will force every other portable device maker to rethink their own designs. But I think Apple has made one mistake that will really limit the potential of the device.

The Consumer Electronics Show is in full swing in Las Vegas, so there is a flood of new gadgets. One that caught my eye is iRobot, made the company that produces the very popular Roomba vacuum cleaners and sweepers. iRobot is a round, low mobile base with interfaces that make it easy to add all kinds of, well, robot type stuff. You really need to look at the pictures to get an idea of what is possible.

I'm not sure anybody really needs one of these things, but it has a certain appeal. Viewsonic has a new LCD projector with an iPod dock. What this means is that it is very easy to play video (stored on your iPod); you no longer have to do the cables and laptops and power cords dance just to play a video. You should also be able to do nice slideshows of your still photos stored on your iPod, again without all the fuss of hooking up a laptop computer.

Speculation has been raging for weeks that Apple will announce some kind of phone/iPod device tomorrow at the start of the MacWorld conference. You have to take Apple speculation with a grain of salt, since so many writers tend to have some kind of agenda with Apple. Just weeks before Christmas, journalists were writing excitedly that the famed iPod and the iTunes Store were in steep decline, citing suspect data that supposedly showed iTunes sales had dropped drastically.

In the "Not sure whether to laugh or to cry" category, MapRoom has stories of people following their "smart" GPS directions to ridiculous places. One German driver ended in a railroad station--with his car on the tracks.

I probably need to start a whole new category of news items that just include iPod accessories. In fact, there are whole blogs devoted to just that topic. Here is the latest indication that the iPod continues to have continued influence on the whole economy. A company has designed winter gloves with special fingertips to make it easier to use iPod controls with the gloves on. The iGloves could be a perfect stocking stuffer.

A Turkish company is about to release a device designed for home use that will monitor your heart. It has a USB interface so you can plug it in your computer to store the data and/or transmit it to your doctor. Small, inexpensive devices like this are going to revolutionize health care, and within ten years, I expect most homes will have an under $500 device that will provide most of the clinical tests you now have to go to a doctor's office for.

I have been unimpressed with the in car navigation systems I have tried, mostly in rentals. Aside from the highly distracting nature of the devices, they are only as good as the data that they have. A case in point is the London, England ambulance crew that was supposed to transfer a patient to a hospital about twenty miles away. The crew, which was apparently new to the job, relied on the in-vehicle GPS system, which took them on a 200 mile trip because the data in the device was faulty.

Universal Music, the world's largest music publisher, successfully arm-twisted Microsoft into paying UMG a dollar for every Zune Microsoft manufactures. UMG did so using the dubious theory that MP3 players are just "repositories for stolen music" (an actual quote from a UMG exec). Microsoft apparently gave in to the extortion because the company was desperate to get enough music to sell on its Zune music Web site. Excited over the successful effort to blackmail Microsoft, UMG is now ready to go after Apple to impose an iPod tax.

Microsoft's Zune music player is taking a drubbing from reviewers. The list of things that don't work or are awkward is so long that it is hard to imagine how it could have happened.

Commercial airliners are about to become the biggest and most expensive iPod accessory yet. Several airlines are going to provide integrated iPod docks for both charging your iPod and for accessing content. Newer airplanes with LCD panels built into the seat backs will be able to display video content from your iPod.

This falls squarely into the "What were they thinking?" category. USA Today has an article in today's paper about the Hubble space telescope, which is now relatively old and needs upgrades and repairs. Yet NASA and its "high tech" contractors built many parts of the device in a way that makes it almost impossible to repair or upgrade in space!!

I have become pretty jaded about new gadgets. Most of them represent technology in search of a problem, and I just don't need anything else that requires batteries, a charger, a dock, and that weighs me down in airports. But a new Bluetooth watch is actually pretty interesting. The watch will talk wirelessly to some models of cellphones. If you get a phone call, instead of having to fish your phone out of your pocket or bag, this watch will vibrate, and it will show the Caller ID information on the watch display.