802.11n standard is closer

By: T.O. Whenham

If you struggle to keep track of WiFi standards, it is only going to get worse. The 802.11n standard has moved one step closer to deployment after the Enhanced Wireless Consortium passed a joint proposal by a 40-0 vote. The proposal will now go to the IEEE, which meets next week, for adoption.

The 802.11n standard is estimated to be 5 times faster than 802.11g and therefore as much as 50 times faster than 802.11b. The point of bigger interest for this standard, though, is that the range it can achieve is far greater than any predecessor, owing to some advanced coding and the ability to work with multiple antennas. That means that providers can offer a wider coverage area ad more consistent speeds. This will be particularly significant as cities look to build wireless networks that cover their whole cities.

By the time the new standard umps through all the hoops placed before it, it is unlikely that it will be in use much before the end of the yea

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Dogster Turns Two

Dogster, led by founder and CEO Ted Rheingold, turned two years old yesterday. The company is located in San Francisco.

Dogster is a home page site just for dogs. You can see the page for my dog, Laguna, here as an example. A key part of the site is social interaction among dogs, and Laguna has a number of “friends” that are linked on the page. Dogster also allows tagging of photos, and has just launched a Groups feature (there are already 239 Groups) In general, humans do not interact and you do not know who the dogs’ owners are. For a lot of dog-crazy owners, this is perfect.

Needless to say, Dogster has some pretty loyal users, and the site statistics reflect this:

Posted by Michael Arrington

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SDIO TV Tuner brings analog TV to your PDA

By: T.O. Whenham

If you can’t get enough TV time in during the day, but don’t want to give up your PDA in favor of a mobile TV phone, Eopstech may have just the ticket for you. Their SDIO TV Tuner is an add-on that will provide analog TV to your PDA. It is compatible with both NTSC and PAL, meaning you can take it with you on the road. It will work with Windows Mobile devices. It comes with a lanyard style antenna with built-in signal booster. The tuner is powered by its own rechargeable lithium polymer battery which provides up to 2.5 hours of life on one charge. A USB DC power cable is also included. Audio output comes through stereo earphones, which are included.

The target for this device is either people who don’t have access to a cheap mobile data plan, or people in countries where digital mobile TV service is not yet available. The tuner will be available in March. No word yet on the price.

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Vita Craft RFIQ cookware uses RFID to control temps

by Marc Perton

We'll forgive Vita Craft for calling their RFIQ cookware "robotic." After all, it doesn't exactly do the dicing, slicing and cooking for you. Nevertheless, it's a pretty unique product: Each pan's handle contains and RFID chip that communicates with recipe cards which, in turn, regulate Vita Craft's induction cooktop's temperature throughout a dish's cooking cycle to avoid burned or undercooked meals. Of course you've got to handle the rest of the preparation yourself, which leds us to wonder: Any chance Vita Craft has an RFID recipe card for leftover pizza?

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The VOCO Voice Commander "personal voice assistant"

by Paul Miller

If you're ready to enter that snazz 21st century we keep on hearing about and start using your voice to control your entertainment, VOCO has your back with their handheld "personal voice assistant," the VOCO Voice Commander. When bundled with a Vzone player, which can hook up to a stereo, you create a "Vzone" which can pump out the music you request with your Voice Commander, Sonos style. You can also get news, stocks, and sports info on your screen, with everything flowing over WiFi. You could of course be boring and just use the buttons to get the same results about twice as fast, but what's the fun in that?

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New Zealand's Rakon develops world's smallest GPS

by Marc Perton

So you think today's handheld, SDIO and cellphone-based GPS units are small? Get ready for a new generation of even smaller GPS devices, ranging from wristwatches to slim cellphones to -- and we just know this is coming -- implants. That's the promise held forth by what is being billed as the world's smallest GPS receiver, which was developed by New Zealand-based Rakon, a company affiliated with GPS-make Navman. According to Rakon, the chip is about the size of a baby's fingernail, and should be available in a range of devices within the next two years.

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The World's Tiniest Power Supply

By: Sal Cangeloso

Every year the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is sure to produce a few interesting products. Many companies wait for CES to unveil their new toys but also with all those companies displaying items it is impossible not to see things which you have not seen before. For me, one such item was the picoPSU, what turned out to be the smallest 12V snap-in ATX DC-to-DC power supply ever.

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Lucent's snooze-catcher for DVRs

Finally, there's a solution for people who pass out on the couch while watching TV. No, the answer isn't to get more sleep, or to just turn the darn set off when you're too tired to watch any more. Engineers at Lucent have filed a patent application for a device that "may comprise an electronic camera for forming images of the viewer, and pattern recognition means connected to the electronic camera to monitor the physical condition of the viewer." That's right; while you're watching TV, the TV will watch you right back. Connect this to a DVR, and when you nod off, it'll automatically pause the show, and then start it back up again when you wake up. Of course, this won't be of much use if you actually use the TV as a soporific agent; maybe they can include an option to shut the camera off if you're watching, say, C-SPAN or the Olympic curling trials.

Posted Jan 12th 2006 1:33AM by Marc Perton

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The Swivel Socket power strip

Many have tried to create a power strip that allows you to use more than the inevitable two of the plugs at once, and many have failed. One notable exception is the PowerSquid, but this Swivel Socket concept seems like it might give that thing a run for its money. Each socket rotates 180 degrees, and each has a swiveling label so you can remember what you plugged into what. Sounds like a plan, no?

Posted Jan 12th 2006 4:00AM by Jonathan Hayter

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Levi's RedWire DLX iPod jeans

Posted Jan 11th 2006 11:28AM by Ryan Block

Ok, yeah, we get it already, we get it. The iPod's popular, bajillions and gamillions sold, etc., and the final frontier for iPod accessories is clothing. Who's the latest to jump on that particular bandwagon? None other than Levi's, of course, whose forthcoming RedWire DLX jeans will have a built-in docking cradle (front or back pocket, we wonder?), and retractable headphones -- all of which we assume will be detachable if they have any intentions of letting you wash them. Then again, jeans do look best when never, ever washed, so who the hell knows.

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Nanotechnology May Need Regulation

By Andrew Bridges Associated Press posted: 11 January 2006 10:13 am ET

WASHINGTON (AP)—From toothpaste to trousers, dozens of everyday products contain materials made through the blossoming science of nanotechnology—but laws safeguarding the public's health and safety aren't developing nearly as quickly, according to a new report. Few will say whether the nano materials, often hundreds of times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, are unquestionably safe or dangerous given the lack of definitive research into the matter. However, Terry Davies, author of the report being released Wednesday, said it's time to start discussing changing laws—and perhaps drafting new ones—to identify and protect the public from any risks that may crop up in the future.

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Spin Doctors Create Quantum Chip

University of Michigan scientists have created the first quantum microchip, which could be a giant stride in the race to produce a new generation of brawny, super-fast computers.

Working with individual ions is key to building powerful computing machines that will exploit quantum physics -- instead of transistors -- and trump the power of today's most powerful supercomputers.

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Teleflip Surprisingly Simple

Posted by Michael Arrington

Teleflip isn’t new but I had not heard about it until Noah Kagan at Facebook pinged me tonight to tell me about it. It is an incredibly simple way to send a text/sms message to any North American cell phone.

Teleflip™ started when the founder became increasingly frustrated at his inability to send text messages to friends’ cell phones from his PC. It was of course possible, but you had to know the cell phone provider, the correct domain name and the correct syntax for the email address. There had to be an easier way….Teleflip™ was born.

You do not even need to go to the site to use it. Simply email a message to [cellnumber]@teleflip.com and the message is sent immediately (I received a test message in less than one minute). I will use this all the time. It is free and there is no advertising.

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Desktop fusion is back on the table

Can the popping of tiny bubbles trigger nuclear fusion, a potential source of almost unlimited energy? This controversial idea is back on the table, because its main proponent has new results that, he claims, will silence critics. But others say that the latest experiment simply comes with its own set of problems.

The idea is simple enough. Blast a liquid with waves of ultrasound and tiny bubbles of gas are created, which release a burst of heat and light when they implode. The core of the bubble reaches 15,000 °C, hot enough to wrench molecules apart. Physicists have even suggested that the intense conditions of this sonoluminescence could fuse atomic nuclei together, in the same process that keeps our Sun running.

Imploding bubbles, caught on film emitting light
Are they emitting energy too?

D. Flannigan and K.S. Suslick, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Hook/Slice Talking Swing Meter

Posted Jan 12th 2006 12:01AM by Evan Blass

From the "We'd Rather Get Punched in the Face" department: An absolutely awful golf gadget that hooks onto your driver and announces how crappy your last shot was, 'cause we really need some silly device telling us we just sliced the ball into the snack bar. Even though it's marketed as a training tool, the Hook/Slice Talking Swing Meter does nothing to improve your game but lots to crush your confidence.

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Plugged in: Startup hopes to tap electricity from trees

01/09/2006 08:05 AM
By Christopher Calnan

Don’t tell MagCap Engineering’s president he’s barking up the wrong business model.

His Canton company claims to be developing a process of generating electricity from living trees and is working with an unidentified business in The Netherlands as a possible investor.

But local energy experts have questions about the concept behind the proposal.
MagCap Engineering LLC wants to patent a process that converts the natural energy of a tree to usable direct-current electricity, company President Chris Lagadinos said.

He expects to find investors to help pay for the research needed to figure a way to increase the tree power from less than 2 volts to 12 volts sometime this year, creating an alternative to fossil fuels.

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VoSKY Call Center routes Skype calls to cellphones

Actiontec has announced a new product/service bundle called VoSKY Call Center which allows users to make Skype and SkypeOut calls on their mobiles by routing them through their home or work PC. The Call Center peripheral attaches to both a PC and landline and uses voice prompts on the remote end to control Skype features on the PC. One nice touch is the callback feature that notifies you when a previously offline Skype buddy signs in. Besides the consumer angle, the service is also being targeted at Internet cafes in broadband-sparse regions where locals could route VoIP calls through the cafe's connection for yet another fee. Remote Skype goodness is available now for $70, plus regular broadband, cellular, SkypeIn, and SkypeOut fees.

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Take your TV programmes on holiday

Worried about missing the climax of Big Brother when you go abroad on holiday? Then you'll like a system unveiled last week that allows you to watch your favourite television programmes wherever you are in the world. Called Locationfree, it uses the internet to connect a laptop PC to your TV tuner back home.

At the heart of Locationfree, which Sony is launching this month in Japan and the US, is a set-top box the size of a paperback book, which you install at home. The box converts the signal from the TV tuner or satellite receiver into a compressed data stream, encrypts it and sends it over the internet via an ordinary broadband link.

Software on your laptop connects to the set-top box's home page on the web, allowing you to download whatever programme is running at home, which you can watch live or record on the laptop's hard disc. The software includes a display panel that can be used to change channels: clicking on the change channel option sends a signal back to the home box, which emits an infrared signal mimicking the TV's remote control.

Even if you are not planning a trip away from home, the system could prove useful, as the box includes a Wi-Fi transmitter. This will allow you to watch TV wherever you are in the house or garden, using a Wi-Fi enabled device such as a PlayStation Portable. The box and software will cost around $300

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Ambient's Weather Forecasting Umbrella

Posted Jan 11th 2006 2:45PM by Evan Blass

If you happened to leave your Weather Wizard e-ink forecaster at home, you'll sure be glad you grabbed your Ambient-powered Weather Forecasting Umbrella, which notifies you that it's raining the instant a drop hits its canopy. Actually, it uses Ambient's nationwide infoswag network to indicate the weather forecast with a glowing halo of light in the handle (in theory, at least; seems to be just a concept/prototype for now). Stored handle-up in your umbrella rack, it provides a quick and easy way to decide if you want to bring it with as you head out the door. We sure hope it comes with a lifetime replacement warranty, though, for when you come home soaking one day and beat the crap out of it for its inaccurate prediction.

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Alpine Blackbird PMD-B100 rocks GPS, tunes

Posted Jan 11th 2006 3:01AM by Evan Blass

Alpine will be releasing a new portable navigation device this month, the Blackbird PMD-B100, that rocks MP3, WMA, and WAV playback, as well as an FM tuner, along with the usual routing functions. Running on Windows CE, the B100 sports a 3.6-inch, 16.7 million color touchscreen LCD, built in US map coverage, and an integrated traffic receiver. You can bulk up the internal maps through the SD slot or by direct connection to a PC via USB 2.0, and get your remote control-on with the optional, um, remote control. $750 will make the Blackbird your very own.

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Sightwave's Digiviewer digital binoculars

Posted Jan 11th 2006 12:04AM by Evan Blass

Binocular manufacturers are tacking digital cameras onto their products left and right, but the Sightwave Digiviewer is the first product that we've seen to use a CCD and LCD as the actual mechanisms for magnified viewing (but not capturing pics). Although the internal screen could use a bump in resolution, being able to zoom in and out like a digicam seems like quite a useful feature, and cushioned eye opening felt better than most traditional models we've used. With a 22x optical and 10x digital zoom, the Digiviewer produced a pretty good picture up until the optical-to-digital handover, thanks to the built-in autofocus. Only a few prototypes exist now, but that's what CES is all about--impressing buyers and getting some distribution love for your product.

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Accton Readies First Wi-Fi VoIP Phone

Accton Technology of Taiwan has announced plans to release two Wi-Fi VoIP phones in the next few weeks. One model, the VM1188T WiFy SkyFone, will have the popular VoIP software program Skype pre-installed.

The idea behind the technology is to further divorce Internet protocols from a computer. The phones will meld traditional 802.11b/g Wi-Fi standards and existing Voice over Internet Protocol technology. The result will be a phone call that is, for all intents and purposes, free. (Any Wi-Fi charges will apply, of course, but the charge for the phone call will be nothing.)

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CDs, DVDs Have Limited Life Span

At least one expert has severe doubts about the stability and longevity of optical CDs and DVDs. Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, says that magnetic tapes are more reliable forms of storage for digital media.

The problem, according to Gerecke, is that once the CD or DVD is used, the recording surface begins to degrade and can result in data "shifting" and, therefore, becoming unreadable.

By: Dave White
Via: Yahoo News

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Fedora Core 5 includes Mono

cyberjessy writes "Surprise! The Fedora Core 5 Release will include Mono in the distribution, in spite of Red Hat's opposition. In addition to the Mono runtime, it will also include Mono applications like Beagle and F-Spot. Is the Linux community finally

ready to accept Mono? Mono is becoming increasing important due to Windows Vista, which has WinFX (the next .Net Framework) as its core API. This will mean that in future, all native Windows applications will easily run on Linux, with Mono. Will Mono achieve what WINE could not?"

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Pioneer unveils Inno XM2go portable XM radio/MP3 player

Pioneer has just taken the wraps off its Inno XM2go player, and it sure does look like a big improvement over the first generation of XM2go devices. For starters, it's a lot smaller and lighter at 3.7" x 2.2" x 0.6"n and just 4.5 ounces. It'll also give you both live XM satellite radio content and the ability to store up to 50 hours of XM content, or you can fill it up with your own MP3s or WMAs. The Inno also has a built-in FM transmitter that'll let you shoot that satellite signal to any radio. The unit also has a full color 180x180 TFT that you can use to get stock quotes, sport scores and, of couse, song info. The one thing they haven't given deets on is battery life, which could make the deal a little less sweet. Look for it sometime this quarter at a MSRP of $399

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Sticky fingered postal workers blamed for Netflix thefts

Posted Jan 10th 2006 12:01AM by Jonathan Hayter

We're starting to think our usual method of monetary conveyance -- affixing a few postal stamps to a wad of hundies -- might not be as secure as we once thought, since some postal workers in Lyons, Colorado, have been outed for swiping rented Netflix DVDs enroute to their final legal destination. Steve Swasey of Netflix said that it is a rare occurrence for the bright red rentals to go missing like this, but there were 503 movies missing by the time they got an investigation underway, which seems like it might have raised a few more eyebrows a bit sooner. Let's just hope they get this figured out before we order us up a bit of "The Ten Commandments" because when we need us a Heston fix, we need it fast

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Toshiba Gigabeat S portable media cente

Posted Jan 5th 2006 8:40AM by Marc Perton

Toshiba has spruced up its Gigabeat line with the model S, a Windows Portable Media Center with a 2.4-inch QVGA LCD display, up to 60GB of storage, and up to five hours of battery life for video playback. The S also includes an FM tuner, and supports MP3, WMA, Windows Media 10 DRM and downloads from Tivo Series 2 DVRs. And, yes, this is one of the players that Bill Gates showed off during his CES keynote, so you know it must rock (or at least must be so well-integrated with Windows Mobile functionality that Bill couldn't help but be smitten). Expect the Gigabeat S to be out this quarter, with the 30GB version going for $299 and the 60GB one for $399.

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There's More to the North Star Than Meets the Eye

By stretching the capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to the limit, astronomers have photographed the close companion of Polaris for the first time. This sequence of images shows that the North Star, Polaris is really a triple star system. These findings were presented today in a press conference at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.

Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Evans (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), and H. Bond ( STScI)

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HP iPAQ Mobile Messenger to get spec bumps in hw6900?

Even though we all caught 'em red-handed with that hw6700 a while back, rumor has it that the hw6500 minus SDIO, plus WiFi, more flash memory, and Windows Mobile 5.0 -- aka the hw6700 -- is being scrapped and re-upgraded and badged the hw6900. What's being changed? Well, apparently it won't have the 802.11g of the hw6700 (instead it'll use 802.11b), but it should keep that GPS, have 128MB flash memory, 64MB RAM, get bumped to a 416MHz Xscale CPU, and finally pick up Windows Mobile 5.0 AKU 2.0 (the version upgraded for push email support). Will and when will it happen? We've no idea, but we're hoping so, and soon, respectively.

Posted Jan 9th 2006 3:24PM by Ryan Block

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The Carson NM-1 NiteMax night vision viewer

Posted Jan 9th 2006 11:41AM by Donald Melanson

When you absolutely, positively have to see everything going on in your backyard at night, accept no substitutes -- the Carson NM-1 NiteMax will give you a bright and clear picture in even the darkest conditions, and display it on the built-in 2.5-inch grayscale LCD screen. But if the screen's not enough for you, the RCA video output jack will let you connect the NiteMax to your camcorder or VCR so you can make a permanent record of whatever it is that's so important it can't wait until daytime. Buy now and you can get it for the low, low price of $289.99.

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SanDisk hits 1GB MicroSD, 2GB MiniSD

Posted Jan 9th 2006 1:35PM by Ryan Block

Once known as SanDisk's own TransFlash standard (which was not only adopted by the SD Association as their smallest memory standard, but garners the distinction of being Engadget's very first post), MicroSD officially hit the 1GB from the company that birthed it. SanDisk also launched a 2GB MiniSD, though it's neither the first nor the largest. You can get your Micro on for $120 MSRP, or $200 for 2GB on the Mini tip.

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The Aran-Jecter water purifier

Posted Jan 9th 2006 2:11PM by Ryan Block

What's a person to do when a regular old Brita filter just isn't going to do the trick? Well, the not-quite-$1000 Aran-Jecter water purifier is one place to start. It doesn't just filter your water like some sort of H2O dialysis machine, it energizes the oxygen in the air and pumps it into the water through the Aran Infuser, resulting in water that is able to fight off bacteria, fungi, mold, viruses, chemicals, and anything else that dares to sneak through your tap. The Aran-Jecter also produces alkaline water, which is apparently supposed to be good for your health, although you may have some convincing to do to get anyone to drink something that comes out of a contraption that looks something like this

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US draws up space tourism rules

Mr Olsen was one of the first fee-paying passengers in space

Space tourists must be screened to ensure they are not terrorists, according to proposed regulations from the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The draft report's suggestions aim to prevent a terrorist from destroying a spacecraft or using it as a weapon.

However, the report has no strict proposals on the health of any would-be space tourists.

The suggestions will affect Sir Richard Branson's enterprise which aims to launch people into space this decade.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is attempting to regulate the commercial space industry in a bid to ensure minimum safety standards.

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AuraGrid WiFi-over-cable extender

We've been waiting for this product ever since WiFi signals began flowing through the Mansion several years ago. The AuraGrid is a two part system which pumps your Internet connection from the router through your home's existing coax cable infrastructure and terminates in an antenna that eliminates those pesky dead spots in your WLAN coverage. Simply unscrew your router's antenna, attach the port to a cable jack, and any other room with a cable jack can get all WiFied up. The only caveat here is that homes with satellite TV cannot use this system on the same coax wiring grid. Still, if you have cable or satellite with a separate cable infrastructure, this could be the best way yet to make your wireless connection useful beyond the 20 feet radius of your home office

Posted Jan 8th 2006 7:22AM by Evan Blass

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