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When not tracking down new gadgets to blog about or attending Gawker launch parties, your humble editor actually writes full-fledged technology articles, like this piece for the Circuits section of the New York Times about the excruatingly slow demise of the 3.5″ diskette. Read
New Digital Media Adapter from Linksys that connects to your stereo system for streaming audio from your PC. A version that’ll let you stream video should be out later this year. Read
Informative (if somewhat stiltingly written) piece over at Mobile-Review.com about cameraphones that gives a pretty good introduction to the different types and the technology that goes into them. Read
If you’re thinking of buying any wireless gear that uses 802.11g, think again. Incompatibility between different manufacturers wireless cards and base stations is apparently a big problem since the final standards haven’t been ratified (and won’t be until later this year). That hasn’t stopped everyone from jumping the gun a bit and releasing equipment that…
The T-Mobile Sidekick mobile communicator, (also known as the Danger Hiptop), which you can use for email, instant messenger, and to surf the Web, is now free at Amazon after rebate and new service activation. Comes with a digital camera attachment as well. Amazon [Thanks, Eric] UPDATE: Following in today’s trend of talking about gadgets…
A reader writes in that there is a cellphone with a built-in flashlight. The Nokia 5100, which just came out a few months ago, also has a built-in FM radio, thermometer, calorie counter, and stopwatch. Now that’s a phone! Read [Thanks, Janus]
Not sure why, but there is tons of stuff about flash memory MP3 players today. iRiver just came out with a new one, a keychain sized player that has 512MB of internal memory and an FM tuner. The iFP-195T, which is just 8 centimeters long and weighs 32 grams without a battery, comes out on…
Combining two or more gadgets into one is all the rage, with more than a few cellphones that have digital cameras, DVD/VCR combo players, and digital cameras that play MP3s on the market these days. But apparently not all of the gadgets being combined have to be cutting edge, like the New Motion Muzix AERA…
Nick likes to complain about how Gizmodo isn’t salacious enough, hopefully the news that scientists have finally gotten their priorities straight and created a “smart bra” will satisfy him. It’s an automatically self-adjusting bra made out of a special coated fabric that contracts when put under a certain level of strain in order to give…
New chip from Bell Labs in Australia that supposedly can supercharge a 3G wireless connection so that it runs at 24 megabits per second, which is more than twice as fast as 802.11b. Read
Voice over IP base stations are apparently all the rage these days; Softbank has a new one coming out in Japan called the BB Phone Station that basically combines a Vonage-like Internet telephone service (the base station gets its own phone number) with a DSL modem, an 802.11b access point for wireless Internet, and a…
Like we said on Monday, DVD-Audio isn’t catching on, but if you’re a fan of the format and want to listen to DVD-A discs on a computer, you have basically one option, the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound card. One big downside of though is that you can’t rip the tracks onto your PC, because…
Gateway is going to start adding memory card readers that are compatible with Compact Flash, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, SmartMedia, IBM Microdrive, and Multimedia memory cards to some of its laptops. This should prove useful for quick file transfer for anyone who uses memory cards with a digital camera or MP3 player. Read
Details are sketchy, but HP has a new wireless handheld in the works that may or may not be a Pocket PC Phone. Read
Pretty funny review of two flash MP3 players that plug directly into a USB slot for file transfer, the Nomad MuVo from Creative and another player that the reviewer admits he doesn’t even know the name of. Which is a shame, since he seems to like the nameless player a lot more than the MuVo,…
The rivalry between Palm and Pocket PC seems a bit contrived for the most part, but David Coursey over at ZDNet makes a good case that with the recent drop in price for Pocket PCs and the forthcoming improvements in the Palm OS, each platform has started to intrude into the other’s turf. That said,…
A new USB host adapter card from RATOC that fits into a CompactFlash slot of a PDA so you can connect it to all sorts of USB peripherals. Read [Via PocketPCThoughts]
FCC Chairman Michael Powell, a self-described gadget freak who has three cell phones, three PDAs, five computers, six televisions, and who recently described TiVo as “God’s Machine” at CES last month, has his eye on a Tablet PC. It’s nice to see people who have a hand in regulatory policy actually using the technology that…
Philips is coming out with a new 15″ SmartDisplay, those new wireless monitors that can detach and double as dumb Tablet PCs. Designtechnica reviews the somewhat unpronounceable DesXcape 150DM, which retails for an astounding $1500, money that seems better spent on a full-fledged Tablet PC. Read
Somewhat comically, Nikon inadvertantly ruined its own teaser campaign to roll out the new Coolpix SQ digital camera. Last week the first of a series of teasers appeared on Nikon-Coolpix.com. The problem was that Nikon posted all of the teasers to its servers at the same time, and a few enterprising (and sorta creepy when…