DIY Implantable RFID Tags

DIY RFID human implants are on the rise. I have found over sixteen instances of midnight engineers implanting RFID tags in their hands. The general excuse is for automation purposes. Examples such as unlocking a computer screen saver or opening doors that have been outfitted with electric deadbolts. In my own case the idea of implanting technology that I have researched and spec'd out was very appealing. The fact that it can actually do something useful is quite secondary. The most rewarding part of this project was learning about RFID at a much deeper level.

I would put this in the category of the "Time-Life Home Surgical Series." At first, I thought this was joke. When I saw the list of supplies, I was intrigued. There is a Quicktime video that shows the implant in all of its gory detail. Personally, I think this is dangerous. It's really not even a safe place in the body to implant a device into (there are reasons why doctors put pacemakers where they are, for example). I hope that noone is stupid enough to try this!

New Intel Logo

Watch Nova Online

With nothing new on TV for the next week or so, I was interested to see that we can view many NOVA episodes online, from the PBS website. They are streamed in a choice of formats, including QuickTime, RealVideo, or Windows Media Player to accomodate a wide variety of users. You also view by chapter, making it easy to skip over segments that are not of interest. Unfortunately, no downloading to your Video iPod.

iPod Clothing

Amid an otherwise lackluster year for holiday clothing retailers, one bright spot was clothing designed to work with Apple's iPod. Apparently, while electronic sales were up, clothing was down on the whole. This was even more noted for full price mall clothing.

In the meantime, perhaps we'll see Job's starting a clothing line, with the iPod logo of course. Maybe they should include iPod wear in every iPod box purchased. Why? I'm sure more than a few iPods will bite the dust somewhere between the washer and dryer!

Music Downloads Increase

VISITS to music downloading websites saw a 50 per cent rise on Christmas Day as hundreds of thousands of people began loading songs on to the iPods they received as presents.

According to figures from Hitwise, the online intelligence company, visits to music download sites, such as Apple's iTunes Music Store, rose by 50 per cent between December 24 and 25.

Hitwise also found that visits to download sites were 15 per cent higher than last Christmas.

Even before the Christmas increase, the BPI, the UK record companies' trade association, said download sales had topped 23 million this year, five times the 4.7 million sold in 2004.

Weekly downloads already exceed 650,000 and may pass the one million mark for the first time this holiday season.

The figures reflect the growing popularity of MP3 music players such as the iPod, which were among the most popular Christmas gift items this year.

Isn't this always the way. The music companies whine and moan about the CD's they're not selling, but we don't hear them rejoicing about this.

Blu-Ray Officially Announced

Pioneer Electronics Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a high-definition Blu-ray DVD disc drive for personal computers in the latest twist in a multibillion dollar battle over next-generation DVD standards.

Pioneer is part of the Blu-ray consortium, led by Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), which is vying against a rival high-definition format known as HD-DVD, championed by Toshiba Corp. (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research). Both camps are hoping the next-generation discs and players, set to be introduced to consumers in 2006, will help offset a slowdown in the $19 billion prepackaged disc market.

Hollywood studios are expected to announce names and dates of title releases for the new DVDs at the upcoming Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, where consumer electronics makers are also set to release launch details.

This is the first shot in the next wave of format wars.

Keeping Track of Santa

This is the 50th Anniversary that NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa's position. Thus, the tradition was born. In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States decided to create a bi-national air defense command for the North American continent called the North American Air Defense Command. Canada and the U.S. believed they could better defend North America together as a team instead of separately.

The Command carried out its first Santa tracking in 1958 after inheriting the tradition from CONAD. Since that time, Canadian and American men and women who work at NORAD have responded to phone calls from children personally. Additionally, media from all over the world call NORAD on Christmas Eve for updates on Santa's location. Last year this Website was visited by millions of people who wanted to know Santa's whereabouts. This year, the information is provided in six languages.

NORAD relies on many volunteers to help make Santa tracking possible. Many people at Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Air Force Base spend part of their Christmas Eve with their families and friends at NORAD's Santa Tracking Operations Center in order to answer phones and provide Santa updates to the many thousands of children who call in.

This is a lot of fun for the little ones on Christmas Eve. They can't stop checking the computer to see when Santa will arrive!

Mr. Fix It: Palm Edition

IF I TOLD YOU that a single-man company from Mankato, Minnesota beats the hell out of the official repair services provided by the wealthy corporations that make them, would you believe me?. Well, you better do, because that's exactly what I discovered when I ran into Chris Short. He's a man this river town southwest of Minneapolis, who advertises his services on eBay and not only that, he actually delivers what he promises.
It's no surprise then that he enjoys a 100% positives rating on the popular retail site. Here's my story, which will show you why I don't hesitate to recommend his services, which allowed me to get my PDA back in working order while spending one third of what the official Sony service wanted to charge me.

In our dispoable society, it's refreshingly nice to see someone that can still fix something. When my Handspring Visor Deluxe died a few years back, I had to exchange it with the company. Not even they would try to fix it. This guy will have a bright future ahead fixing the Palm handhelds that we all use.

1st Yonah Notebook Announced

NEC Corp. disclosed plans on Monday for its first laptop computer based on Intel Corp.'s Yonah dual-core mobile processor.

Yonah is the code-name for the dual-core version of Intel's Pentium M processor for laptops and small desktops. The chip is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2006 and is expected to be one of Intel's main new products for next year.

The Lavie RX LR900 laptop was announced on the same day as NEC's 2006 PC lineup. The company disclosed full technical details for the computer with the exception of the processor and chip set, which it listed as Yonah and Mobile Intel 945 Express family, respectively.

NEC said the LR900 will be based on Windows XP Home Edition, come with 512MB of main memory and a 100GB hard-disk drive. It will have a 14.1-in. LCD, DVD Super Multi drive (DVD-R/+R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW/+RW), 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The machine will weigh about 2 kilograms, and the battery will provide enough power to last about four hours.

With the specs they've released, this looks like one fast notebook. I can't wait to see how the chip performs.

Wired's Vaporware Awards

The technology industry is always talking up new products. And every year, it turns out that a bunch of these coming wonders are full of ... steam.

Certain pieces of hardware and software promised for release in 2005 were delayed, detoured or quietly swept under the carpet. Despite feverish press releases and trade-show demos, these unfortunate items were destined to remain vaporware.

Yes, once again it's Wired News' annual Vaporware Awards.

Now in its seventh year, the Vaporware Awards celebrate all those long-awaited technological wonders that were delayed, ditched or discontinued. (And, of course, those that were never more than a racy press release.)

I'm voting for the next generation optical media (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD).

Analog TV Signal To Be Gone In 2009

American households have until the February 2009 deadline to ensure that their televisions are capable of receiving digital broadcasts.

According to congressional estimates, less than 15 percent of households rely exclusively on over-the-air broadcasts. According to estimates by the Federal Communications Commission, that number will drop to 7 percent by 2009.

But advocacy group Consumers Union said that will still leave an unconscionable number of individual sets--many of them operated by elderly and low-income viewers--ill-equipped to meet the changes.

Households that already rely solely on cable or satellite broadcasting should not have to make any changes. Satellite services, such as DirecTV, are already capable of converting signals, and most cable companies intend a seamless transition, such as re-engineering their signals at the source, so that no extra home hardware is necessary.

As an owner of two analog TV's, a DVD recorder, and a VCR/DVD combo deck, I'm a little concerned. If each of these needs one of these converter boxes to get a signal, this could turn into the "leaning tower" of electronics quite quickly. Think you're safe with that new HDTV ready TV? Unless you have an integrated digital tuner, you'll be shopping for one of these tuners as well.

Microsoft/IDSA Design Competition

In case you hadn’t heard, Microsoft and the Industrial Designers of America (IDSA) recently held a competition in which the challenge was to “rethink the Windows-based PC experience and the role it plays in people’s lives.” Contestants were asked to “envision how form factor influences the digital lifestyle” in four categories: personal productivity, entertainment, communication & mobility, and living & lifestyle. There will be be two $50,000 prizes awarded (one judged by Bill G. himself) along with a $25,000 prize based on public voting, with the winners to be announced at CES 2006. The designs submitted range from the practical to the fanciful to the completely untenable, and serve as a glimpse into a possible future for consumer electronics as well as a cheap way for Microsoft to outsource their design department.

Some of the concepts pictured look like they would have some merit. I love the clean lines in the pictures, and best of all, no wires. If this is the future direction for computing, I like it a lot. No word on when we can pick one up at Best Buy.

From Engadget.

500th Post!

In case anyone is counting, this is our five hundreth post! we've got a lot of new things planned for 2006, so stay tuned.

Preloaded USB Flash Drives

Lexar has announced that, beginning in January 2006, its portable JumpDrive USB flash drives will ship with Google applications pre-loaded, including Google Desktop, Google Toolbar, and photo organizer Picasa.

When customers plug in a Google-loaded JumpDrive, they'll be promoted to install the free Google applications. If the user accepts the installation, the Google apps will automatically be installed and then removed from the USB drive

Not sure what you would put on a 1 GB USB flash drive? No worry, Lexar and Google have teamed up to fill it up for you. Why not clutter up that new flash drive with plenty of stuff, so that it's already filled up. Now you need a 2 GB flash drive. That's probably Lexar's goal here, rather than letting consumers put what they want on their drive. Before long, AOL software will be loading each time we stick the drive into the slot!

Read the original press release here.

Internet Over Power Lines

The plan was announced on Monday by Current Communications Group, a service provider that specializes in broadband service over power lines (BPL), and TXU Electric Delivery, the largest electric company in Texas.

The companies estimate that roughly 2 million homes and businesses in northern Texas will be able to subscribe to the new service when the network is complete. Current Communications--which has built a similar network over Cincinnati's power lines with local utility company Cinergy--will design, build and operate the new broadband network. Deployments will begin in 2006, the companies said.

The purpose of the new network is twofold. First, it will allow TXU to monitor the health of its power network. If an outage occurs, the network, which is based on Internet Protocol, can send alerts immediately. Eventually, the utility could even use the network to remotely read meters and switch power on or off.

Secondly, BPL will enable TXU to develop a new revenue stream. The broadband network will be laid on top of the existing power infrastructure, and TXU will then lease this infrastructure to broadband providers such as Current.

"This agreement is a milestone for Current as well as for BPL and illustrates the economic advantages of driving multiple applications across a single large-scale network deployment," William Berkman, chairman and co-founder of Current, said in a statement.

Service speeds and pricing details haven't been released, but Current said the network will have enough capacity to offer customers a "triple play" package, which would include telephony, TV service and high-speed Internet access. Users will be able to access the high-speed broadband network by plugging a device into an electrical outlet in the wall.

I'm curious to see what type of pricing they come up with. It would be great to have the cable and telephone companies competing with the local power company for our business.

From News.com

New Low Price For Computers

CompUSA on Sunday sold a Toshiba notebook for $149.99, after $550 in rebates and an agreement to subscribe to America Online for a year. Although the special only lasted 16 hours, it marked a new low in notebook pricing, albeit a temporary one.

The retailer also offered a Compaq-branded desktop with a Sempron processor from Advanced Micro Devices for $99.99 on Sunday, after $480 worth of similar rebates and discounts.

"I predicted $199 earlier this year, but it is really unbelievable that we are down to $149," said Sam Bhavnani, an analyst at Current Analysis. "Not long from now, someone will (probably) offer a free notebook with a one-year commitment to wireless broadband."

Now this is REALLY a bargain! How can they make any money on this if they actually reimburse for the rebates?

From News.com.

How fast is that new chip?

INTEL HAS A naming problem again, and it is not one that is easy to pigeonhole. The problem is that if you buy a chip, it theoretically runs at a distinct clock rate, and that is that. If you want to save power, you can run it slower also, but that is an option. What happens when a chip automatically runs faster, briefly? How do you market it?

Lets take the auto-overclocking in Yonah for example. If you buy a CPU at 2.16GHz, you expect it to act like the rest of the 2.16GHz CPUs. If that CPU can ramp up to 2.33 when circumstances permit with the laptop equivalent of Foxton, how fast is it? 2.16 or 2.33? Before you write to say it is a model T243-7aR//763T243-7aR//763, please choke on something before you put your fingers on the keyboard.

Now, to make matters worse, what do you do if production variances mean that CPU1 will spend 10 per cent of its life OC'd, and CPU2 will be there 20% of the time? Is CPU 1 binned at a higher spec than 2? Is it marketed as faster? What about when you add in a laptop with a more efficient cooling system, are the CPUs in each one still the 'same' since the environment affects the cores in a measurable way?

For decades, chip performance was only based on clock speed (at least in the public's mind). Now with cache issues, architecture, and dual cores, naming chips has gotten, confusing to say the least. Now if we add in autooverclocking, it will be forever muddled. Maybe we should just give it a name: Intel Camaro anyone?

From The Inquirer.

Yahoo Mail Beta

The long-anticipated new service features a new interface more like that of a desktop e-mail application and faster response time. Among the features are e-mail caching; message preview; drag-and-drop filing, an integrated RSS feeder, and the ability to view multiple e-mails at the same time in separate windows and scroll through all message headers in a folder rather than one page at a time.

Bloggers who were chosen to participate in the beta seemed excited, and mostly had positive things to say about it. One complaint, however, is that it takes awhile every time you load.

I'm still waiting for them to upgrade my account.

From CNET.

I am a big Vonage fan. I took my Vonage box on a trip to Europe a few years ago and enjoyed making and receiving calls to and from home that were basically as if I were sitting in San Francisco - no long distance charge even at a very, very long distance. Then Vonage offered a soft phone option that ended having to disconnect and haul around the physical Vonage modem, and instead, let me use my laptop and a headset to make those same 415 area code calls.

Today, Vonage has another offering for those who want VoIP on the go. It’s a $129.99 ($79.99 after rebate) handset that basically uses any open WiFi connection to make Vonage-based VoIP calls.

From Real Tech News.

I'm very intrigued by these wifi phones. Maybe this has something to do with the current pricing of cellular phone plans in the States- in one word, expensive. I think that with city wide wireless hotspots under construction in many cities, these WiFi phones may be the wave of the future for urban dwellers.

Merry Christmas & Happy Cracking

Hackers have taken their first few steps to breaking the Xbox 360 game protection in just under a month of the consoles release. A group of crackers calling themselves Team PI coder say they have figured out the basic workings of the consoles file system. This has let the group dump raw data of 13 Xbox 360 games data already, though they have not been able to get data off the game discs. The data was dumped to a Dutch site along with a program the helps dump the data.

Microsoft was quick to respond that the console has several security measures in place to stop the running of unauthorised games. The Team PI coder group say that nothing can be done with the data at this current moment of time but that sooner or later you will.

Gee, this didn't take them too long to get started on this. After all the hacking and modding for the original XBox, i'm sure this is going to take these guys and gals some time.

1st F-22 Squadron Activated

The futuristic F-22A "Raptor" fighter jet, designed to dominate the skies well into the 21st century, joined the U.S. combat fleet on Thursday, 20 years after it was conceived to fight Soviet MiGs over Europe.

The Air Force said "initial operational capability" had been achieved by 16 of the aircraft at the 1st Fighter Wing's 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.

Pilots in the squadron, the Air Force's oldest in continuous operation, have been training on the F-22 for about a year. "When asked to go to war, they're ready," said the 1st Fighter Wing's Sgt. Thomas Doscher of the status change.

The aircraft's role is to "kick the doors down" in a conflict, as Pentagon officials put it, knocking out defenses on the ground and in the air to clear the way for other warplanes and forces.

The radar-evading Raptor is twice as reliable and three times more effective than the F-15C Eagle it is replacing as the top U.S. air-to-air fighter, according to Lockheed Martin Corp., its developer.

Lockheed described the fighter as the world's most advanced and said it was "relevant for the next 40 years."

See more info here.

Cell Phone & PC Combine For New Handheld Device

It's a cell phone. It's a computer. It's the two invaluable companions of the modern executive in one.

DualCor Technologies next month will unveil the cPC, a full-fledged handheld Windows XP computer that also comes with a built-in smart phone that runs Windows Mobile 5.0.

The cPC is 6.5 inches long, 3.3 inches wide, 1.2 inches thick and has a 5-inch diagonal screen. It will be aimed at sales representatives and executives who travel extensively, said CEO Steven Hanley, who joined the company seven months ago.

There are signs of demand for such a device. A small but growing number of white-collar workers have begun to trade in their notebooks for BlackBerrys and other handhelds.

Sony and start-up OQO have already introduced full-fledged handheld Windows computers. Customers, however, have not snapped up these devices, in part because of short battery life and limited performance.

Through some engineering and design advances, the cPC's battery lasts long enough to let users run applications simultaneously for eight hours or more, he said.

"We seemed to have cracked the code," Hanley claimed.

The cPc jams two devices into one package, Hanley said. The computer part of the equation consists of Windows XP Tablet operating system, a 1.5GHz C7-M processor from Via Technologies and 1GB of DDR 2 memory.

At first, I'm thinking, this is just another attempt at the so-called "smart phone." However, the gigahertz chip used indicates that this has some real PC level processing power. Unfortunately, at the $1500 price tag, this device better be able to replace your notebook, as it is priced more than many of them.

Wireless USB

Wisair is determined to take USB cables off of the personal computer. The company has taken another step in the Ultra Wideband (UWB) industry with the release of a Wireless Universal Serial Bus (WUSB) reference design.

The new reference design includes a WUSB PC dongle and a WUSB hub, providing consumer electronics and peripheral manufacturers with the means to offer customers wireless connectivity to existing USB-enabled devices.

Printers, scanners, remote hard disk drives, digital cameras and mobile phones are able to plug directly into the WUSB Hub and receive wireless connectivity to a PC. The WUSB Hub replaces any wireline USB connection with a wireless connection.

The Hub, which features two or four ports for connecting existing USB devices, can also be placed at one side of a room, where it can then send data wirelessly to the PC at speeds up to 480Mbit/s. In fact, the WUSB Hub can be located more than 30-feet from a WUSB dongle plugged into a PC.

I don't know if this adds anything beyond Bluetooth and WiFi, the current two popular wireless standards. On the other hand, if it gets rid of some more cables, this may be the way to go!

Tech Wish List

Not sure what to ask Santa for this year? well, Tech Manifesto has some ideas, twelve in all. From an ocula, to a 39 megapixel camera, or Robbie the Robot, one of these is sure to please. Well worth checking out.

Help!

So far, this has been a one man show. If you'd like to be a part of this, and share your knowledge of "Popular Technology" with the world drop me an email. We're growing, and we'd love to get some assistance to take this to the next level! I got my start in web publishing by responding to an opportunity just like this.

thedigitaldoc@netzero.com

Hack An iPod Mini to 8 GB

Some people were disappointed when Apple discontinued the most successful iPod model of all time and introduced the slim, flash-based iPod nano. Of course it was color and sleek and all that, but it didn't offer an improvement in storage capacity (in fact, quite the contrary). So for those of us hoping for an upgrade to the battery life and capacity of the mini were out of luck -- and it will be awhile before flash drops in price to make an affordable 8GB nano. An iPod mini 4GB was sufficient for a time, but what if you want more space, but still like the size, colors, and durability of the mini?

There is now a solution for ipod mini-users. Seagate Technology has just released a large compact-flash type II+ hard drive called the CompactFlash Photo Hard Drive. Just as many once purchased a mini in order to remove the hard drive for digital photo applications, now you can buy a photo drive and use it to expand your mini's storage. This works because the drive is formatted to the same 'Fat 32' standard that digital cameras and iPod minis use. Of course, you will have to tear open your ipod mini, much the way you would to replace the battery, but once you are in there, its simply a matter of unwrapping some tape and delicately removing a connector to the Hitachi 4GB drive, and replacing it with the Seagate 8GB Photo Hard Drive.

It looks like if Steve Jobs won't build it, somebody else will!

iPod Boombox Planned

Sources familiar with the company's plans describe the new products as "iPod companions" rather than "accessories," and say Apple appears ripe to announce the first of the gadgets as early as the second week of January at the annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Calif.

One such product described to AppleInsider is an iPod boombox "unlike anything seen in boombox world" and strikingly different from "anything Apple has released in the past."

Details of the device are few and far between, but one source called the gadget an oversized iPod with boombox-type speakers. "It's ideal for use on a bookshelf or on the go," the source said.

The device is rumored to include wireless audio streaming capabilities, but could also rely on a built-in hard drive, iPod dock, or a combination of the three technologies. Nevertheless, the Cupertino, Calif-based iPod maker is expected to market the device as "plug and play music for your home."

I'm not so sure what will make an iPod boombox so different than one of those integrated iPod speaker systems. I guess it will be white, and everyone will oooh and aaaah at the debut so it will sell like hotcakes!

Some more info here.

iPod Mini Sells At A Premium

Even though Apple Computer discontinued the Mini in September and replaced it with the Nano, these folks have been reluctant to take the Mini off their gift lists--and they're willing to pay top dollar to nab one.

Patrick McHenry of Eerie, Pa., for example, just bought a pink 4GB Mini, which holds 1,000 songs, on eBay for $275. That's $76 over the original $199 price tag. But it's also less than McHenry would have paid at Compu-America--one of the few electronics retailers with the Mini in stock. The store is selling the same model for $349. And sellers on Amazon are listing prices for the 4GB Mini at more than $400.

So why would anyone pay so much for a Mini when they could buy the smaller and (some say) technologically superior 4GB Nano for $249, or even the new 30GB video iPod, which holds 7,500 songs, for $299?

In McHenry's case, it was to fulfill the Christmas wish of his friend's girlfriend. "She had her heart set on an iPod Mini mainly because they are discontinued, so not many people would have them," he said.

His friend's girlfriend appears to be just one of many fans of the Mini, which, unlike the Nano, comes in a 6GB version, and in a vibrant rainbow of colors: pink, blue, green, silver and gold.

In the past three months, about 36,000 Minis have sold on eBay, with the pace of sales picking up in the past couple of weeks, eBay spokesman Dean Jutilla said. As of Friday afternoon, 2,200 Mini auctions were under way on the site, he said.

I'm not completely surprised by this trend. I would have thought that Apple would continue to see the Mini, and not replace it completely with the Nano. Maybe they'll see this as a trend, and make a new Mini. An iPod with an 8 to 10 GB capacity would be a nice seller. And keep the colors.

From CNET.

PEZ MP3 Player Reviewed

Yes, it may not be the most technically advanced portable audio player on the market. But just in time for the holidays, one of the year’s most eagerly awaited MP3 players has arrived: The Pez MP3 player, testament to the power of sugar-fueled nostalgia and one man’s dream, is everything we hoped it would be. Ours arrived by mail today, and we’re ready to (virtually) share it with you.

I normally don't get all that excited about a flash based player with no built in display. This one has great nostalgic value though. The full review is worth checking out.

From Engadget.

Microsoft To Make Cheaper PDA Phones

Microsoft plans to team up with Taiwan ODM handset makers and own-brand handset vendors to manufacture sub-$300 PDA phones in a bid to help the company expand its share of the global OS (operating system) market for mobile devices, according to sources at Taiwan makers and vendors.

Those folks at Microsoft will do anything to put their operating system on something.

From TG Daily.

Flash vs. Hard drives

Flash memory is gunning for the premier job in personal computers: Storing important data.

Flash, the memory chip technology that retains data when powered down, has been grappling for an opportunity to take over the data storage duties from hard drives in music players and, increasingly, computers.

But, despite offering advantages such as small size and offering customers as little or as much capacity as they need to buy, flash chips are not likely to replace hard drives as the primary data storage medium for mainstream PCs during 2006 or even in subsequent years due higher costs and lower potential storage capacities, experts said.

Hard drives, which range from a 1-inch models of about 4GBs to a 3.5-inch, 500GB models and sell for about $40 to $200 or more, still offer the best bang for the buck in storage, the experts said.

However, thanks to efforts by Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics and others, the two technologies will begin to coexist in devices during 2006.

I think we're gonna see flash memory and hard drives duking it out for storage in your computer. Flash could be faster, and more reliable, but I doubt we'll see one half terabyte drives of flash anytime soon. However, in notebooks, flash promises to use less energy, extending battery life which is the current allure.

From eWeek.

Wimax Approved

802.16e, or what others might be calling WiMAX or MobileWirelessMAN, has been ratified by the globally recognized standards organization IEEE. The specification details how broadband wireless communications should be structured. This version of the standard goes beyond 802.16-2004, which dealt with a fixed wireless broadcast, and allows for wireless mobile broadband.

The development of the standard began in July 2002, had 12 draft versions, and completed with a 684-page document. The ratification of the standard received a 99% approval vote. Trials with equipment are expected to start in 2006, but publicly available products and services aren't expected until 2007 or possibly 2008.

From Geek.com

This is all good news, as this is a wide area broadband. This could put a serious dent into the cable and telephone duopoly of the internet access business. We're talking range in miles, and high speed connections. But before you go to Best Buy to look for a notebook with this look at what the folks over at WiFi Planet have to say.

Don't expect any actual services using mobile WiMax until well into 2007, or maybe even 2008. On his TechDirt Wireless blog, analyst Mike Masnick says, "Now that the mobile WiMax standard has been approved, don't think you'll be seeing any actual mobile WiMax for years to come. Companies first need to make chips and equipment to meet the standard (which might not be as easy as they'd lead you to believe). Then, you have to go through the plugfest/certification process, which, if the 'fixed' certification process is any indication, will take quite some time."

Fertile Keyboard

No Photoshop gimmicks here. Along the lines of "Jack And The Beanstalk," this is what you get when you put some seeds into your keyboard. Add water, and wait. No word yet if this kind of thing is covered by the warranty.

Gmail Adds RSS Feeds

Web Clips shows you news headlines, Gmail tips, blogs, any RSS and Atom feed, relevant sponsored links, and more -- right at the top of your inbox and messages. Receive updates from your favorite sites without having to leave Gmail!

It seems like everything is adding RSS feeds to their content.

Compressed Music File Formats

The Cadillac of all audio-file formats, MP3, was born in the early 1990s as a product of the Fraunhofer Institut in Germany. The group was trying to find the best new algorithmic compression scheme for audio files, and it arrived at what many considered at the time to be the gold standard. MP3 files took off overnight and, even now, remain the most popular way to compress and store music and audio. MP3s are also widely sold and traded on the internet at sites like eMusic.com and MP3.com.

MP3s remain popular because of hardware and software player compatibility. Almost all of the major software audio players like iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp and Musicmatch Jukebox will play MP3s. IPods and all of the other popular portable audio players support MP3s right out of the box.

Encoding your music in MP3 is definitely a safe storage strategy. The MP3 file format is ubiquitous. There's no doubt in my mind that players (both software and hardware) will support MP3s for years and years to come. Unless, of course, something better comes along.

If you want the low down on various compressed music file formats, this article is definitely worth checking out. It covers MP3, AAC, WMA and OGG which are the four formats in wide spread use currently.

From Wired.

Ten Weird USB Drives

USB drives comes in thousands of designs and colors, but these 10 are extraordinary weird. Or what do you think? Go ahead, check them out. They are weird! Promise. Hehe.

These are some of the quirkiest computer peripherals I have ever seen. For the gadget lover who has everything.

From FosFor.

Crucial Gizmo Review

Crucial’s Gizmo! drive is a nice example of the current crop of USB flash drives. Its small size, combined with the faster read and write speeds make it well worth considering. Given its competitive price point, I think it should be on the short list of USB flash drives that users looking for functionality in this segment should seriously consider. In my opinion, the Crucial Gizmo! is “LD Approved.”

Yes, I'm at it again. This time it's the Crucial Gizmo USB drive. This is the last USB flash drive I'll be reviewing for a while, at least until there's something new to the category. You can only say so much about something that just works!

iPod Bicycle Charger

I love this hack. Mark Hoekstra over at geektechnique has hacked together a iPod charger for his bicycle that works off the power of his legs! Better yet, he's written a detailed how-to with tons of pictures so anyone with the gumption to do so can make their own Bicycle iPod Charger.

Teeny Computer

Gumstix Inc. is named after a piece of gum for one very simple reason: they make computers that are the size of sticks of gum. This is not hyperbole:

This is the Gumstix Connex 200 and the netMMC daughter card. These provide pretty similar functionality to the unit I'm actually reviewing, but without the luxurious white case we'll see in a moment. The Connex snaps into the daughter card, which provides the Connex with an ethernet connection and an MMC slot (on the bottom). Like Voltron, except without lasers or '80s kitsch value.

I don't usually get too excited about a 200 MHz processor, 64 MB of memory, and 4 MB of RAM. However, when it is the size of a USB flash drive, it gets enticing.

From TechNudge.

Seiko's E-Paper Watch

The Japanese company Seiko will release a limited edition of 500 units of their Spectrum SVRD001, the first watch in the world that uses flexible e-paper or Electrophoretic Display (EPD). The design of the watch is similar to a bracelet and the body is made of stainless steel and a black & white e-paper. The price of one of these 500 units is an extremely affordable 1900 EUR. It will weigh 134g and will be 37mm thick. It will be available worldwide in January 2006.

Some more info over at ExtremeTech.

Traditional Radio Squeezed Out

The radio industry could find itself at the kids' table in the media banquet hall, as new technology threatens the business, advertising executives said this week at the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit.

Satellite radio, digital music players and the Internet are slowly encroaching on traditional radio's stronghold on local entertainment and advertising. Plus, radio ads themselves are less memorable and creative, these executives said.

"Radio is at the center of a perfect storm of technological threats," said David Verklin, chief executive of media buying agency Carat Americas. "It has to reinvent itself."

He noted that Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod and other music players like it have given listeners the ability to listen to what they want when they want.

Satellite radio services such as XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. are offering more channels, many commercial free, for a monthly subscription.

Finally, the third threat he saw was over-commercialization. "To some listeners, radio is a little bit of content in a sea of ads."

I can definitely vouch for the sea of ads. There are only a few radio stations playing contnet I'm listening to, and they have more ads than song sometimes. I definitely listen to a lot more mp3's these days.

Cell Phones Features For 2006

The US has shamefully lagged behind Asia and Europe when it comes to cell phone technology. That’s not going to change overnight, but the gap is going to close next year. Here is what you will have to look forward to in 2006:

1-Watch 20 channels of high quality, live TV
2-Play Playstation 1 Quality 3D Games
3-Know where you (and complete strangers) are with GPS
4-Download full-track music to your phone and keep a copy for your PC
5-Surf the net, really fast

For years, the US has been a few notches behind Asia and Europe in terms of cell phone features. It would be great if next year, we finally catch up. However, at the rate we're going, by the time we catch up, we'll be behind again!

From 8000x.

Citywide WiFi: Timid Steps

Wireless Philadelphia is a project that has been in development for several years, but which will not be finished until late 2006.

It seems such an agreeable proposition to everybody involved - cheap wi-fi for an entire city.

"A citizen will pay a base fee of $10 or $20 depending upon their income status, for access to the network," explained the city's chief information officer, Dianah Neff.

However, the project has stirred up a bees' nest, and has implications for the whole of America.

There are a lot of challenges to setting up municipal WiFi networks on a large scale. Probably the biggest challenge is who is going to pay for all of this. However, some successes on smaller scales have been achieved.

City officials in Tempe, Ariz., hosted a "Cutting the Wires" ceremony on Monday, marking the initial availability of Tempe's citywide wireless access network.

The WAZTempe (Wireless Access Zone Tempe) network, covering 40 square miles, provides Wi-Fi access to all local residents and businesses.

It also offers municipal services for Arizona State University personnel, as well as other city workers including police, fire and emergency, according to city officials

While in Tempe (a suburb of Phoenix, AZ), they are boasting WiFi to the local university, and emergency servies, the regular folks are paying $19.95/month for 3 months as the introductory rate. While this represents a competitive rate compared to other broadband solutions, this is not exactly free either. After the intro, the regular rate is $29.95/month. Hourly plans are also available.

Healing Paint

The Japanese automaker (Nissan) said the paint contains a newly developed resin that can stop scratches from marking the car's outer layer.

Wear and tear due to everything from fingernails to roadside objects will disappear in one day to one week depending on the temperature and the seriousness of the scratch, Nissan said in a statement.

The "Scratch Guard Coat" paint, which protects for three years, will debut on a sports-utility vehicle which is set for a makeover, Nissan said.

The paint also helps prevent scratches in the first place. Nissan said a vehicle with the paint suffers only one-fifth of the usual abrasions caused by car-washing machines -- the main culprit for scratches

Well, I wish I had this paint next time some inconsiderate numbskull pushes a shopping cart into my car!

Build an M&M Sorter

The M Sorter is a robotic mechanism that, when equipped with a TAOS color sensor and a properly programmed BASIC Stamp® microcontroller, will sort M&Ms (tm) by color. We received such a strong response from this project when it was presented as an application in the 2003 Product Catalog. Due to the ensuing excitement and fun that we had in working with the project, we knew that we had to make it available for our customers. Imagine setting this on your desk at work or in the rec room at home! It's quite the crowd pleaser and provides an excellent demo of a microcontroller and sensor at work. On a larger and more industrial scale, this same technology is at use in factories all over the world

Lovers of green M&M's rejoice!

New Xbox 360 Modded

Adding some storage capacity to your Xbox 360 is really easy to do. The best part about using a USB hard drive with your 360 is that YOU have control of what content you have on it. With the factory Xbox hard drive you cannot load any content to it unless its acquired from Live or ripped form CD's. That does not do much for us that want our MP3 collection on our Xbox 360's now. I'm not up for re-ripping my CD's again, nor am I satisfied with streaming as the only means of accessing MY media. I do bring my Xbox all over the place and would LOVE to be abut to use MY content.

Where there's a will, there's a way! Why don't they just make it easy to do this stuff in the first place? At least there is no soldering required for this mod. These are timid first steps, I'm sure there will be a lot more hacks and mods to come.

Tipped from TechNudge.