Digital AM and FM radio
We’ve largely ignored digital satellite radio here on Gizmodo. Sure the sound quality was better, but the offerings seem rather lackluster, the monthly fees are too high, and the fact that both XM and Sirius seem teetering on the edge of bankruptcy provides an even greater disincentive to invest in the equipment. But now regular … Continued
Old school vs. old school
The battle over who created the original old school phone handset for a cellphone is heating up. Both Ali Rahimi and Nik Roope claim to have been the first to create one, something that’s a dubious distinction any way you slice it. First Ali shot off an accusation that Nik had engaged in some “player … Continued
Offspring
Amazing array of concept designs called “Offspring” from Frog Design and Motorola for a new line of wearable devices that connect to each other via Bluetooth. Among them, a Wearable Digital Assistant that uses voice recognition instead of a numeric keypad and has storage for music and video files; the Wristable (pictured at right), a … Continued
Nokia’s musicphone
Nokia has a musicphone of its own coming out, the 3300. The 3300 has a somewhat unusual design for a cellphone, and comes with a built-in MP3 player, an FM tuner, digital recorder, an MMC memory card slot for storage of audio files, and a 128×128 pixel color screen. Read
Bluetooth’s successor
Bluetooth’s just barely gotten a foothold in the world of technology, and already Intel, Sony, Philips, Texas Instruments, Samsung and others are working on a new wireless standard to replace it. There’s no catchy name for it yet (just the designation 802.15.3a) but it’ll use ultra wideband and be 100 times faster than Bluetooth. Read
Updating firmware to keep your wireless network happy
ZDNet article on how to keep your wireless network happy. The trick: updating the firmware on your wireless router and access point frequently. It’s something we at Gizmodo HQ learned the hard way, figuring this out only after several maddening hours trying to figure out why a WiFi-enabled Pocket PC couldn’t access the wireless network … Continued
40-hour ReplayTV just $128.94 at Amazon.
Ok, so this is a good deal: SONICblue’s 40-hour ReplayTV digital video recorder is just $128.94 after rebate at Amazon. Like we’ve said before though, they really should be giving these away and signing people up for two or three year service contracts, just like with cellphones. Amazon
Coin-operated cellphone charger
New line of coin-operated cellphone chargers from InfiniTec are coming to America. There are already thousands of these already in China apparently, and they’ll cost about a dollar for ten minutes of charging time and be installed in hotels, food courts, and convenience stores. Guess you need something to fill the empty spaces that are … Continued
Social Mobiles
A few months ago design firm IDEO won the Grand Prize for its series of five concept cellphones that try to make using phones in public less socially disruptive in the 2002 Media Arts Festival held by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs. The concepts are finally finally up on IDEO’s site, with our personal favorite … Continued
The Martian NetDrive
This looks like the gadget of our dreams: a totally silent wireless 40GB hard drive called the Martian NetDrive that hooks up to a network via 802.11b and lets any computer in your home access the files stored on it. Works with Mac, PC, and Linux so that everybody can share music, movies, photos, etc. … Continued