Gadgets

On Friday, Unicef, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), and Google announced a project to help create a greater understanding of different cultures and experiences through an online community. A new web site called "Our Stories" ( www.ourstories.org ) will ... serve as a vehicle to share the histories and identities of cultures around the world. Using OLPC's XO laptop and other devices, children will record the experiences of elders, friends and family members in their native language, and then upload them to the web where the stories will be accessible by clicking on a Google Map. "Information ... (view more)

Japan recently held the largest robotics convention in its history, offering up a glimpse of the technological future. The convention boasted a wide assortment of technological wonders that included mechanical panda bears welcoming visitors, a robot ... capable of solving Rubik's cubes in a matter of minutes, and one of the most life-like human replicas specifically designed to advance the field of dentistry. The dental robot, intended for training future tooth-pullers, has realistic skin, eyes that narrow and a mouth full of scale-sized teeth. A sensor where nerve endings would typically be ... (view more)

In 1975, Rock Bottom Productions introduced a product called the Pet Rock. It was cute and it was novel. Pet Rocks sold for $3.95 each, were the rage for the 1975 Christmas season, and they made its developer, Gary Dahl, a millionaire. The following ... year, you couldn't give a Pet Rock away. On November 26, 2007, Newsweek announced Amazon's new wireless reading device: the Kindle. According to Amazon, when it was made available for sale, Amazon's complete stock sold out in 5-1/2 hours. (Source: www.newsweek.com ) Any way you look at it, the Kindle is a bold move by Amazon, and could change all ... (view more)

The One Laptop Per Child campaign is said to be one of the largest foreign relief efforts to be given no financial government assistance. The campaign hopes to put simple laptop computers in the hands of children from Third World countries. When I ... first reported about the OLPC project back in July, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) were embroiled in a battle to see which company would contribute most to the venture. All attention that had initially been focused on the campaign has since been put on the backburner as the nostalgia of charity wore off and profits continued to be the main ... (view more)

Timex has released their most technologically advanced product ever. In addition to the time and date features that have become standard on most modern wristwatches, the new Timex Ironman iControl has icons for pause/play, forward/reverse and ... volume. What are these new buttons for? The lightweight watch is designed to second as a wireless remote control for any iPod with a docking connector. The device comes with a small receiver that attaches directly to the iPod, allowing the user to control their tunes without having to manipulate the clickable wheel. There are no major configurations or ... (view more)

Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) is seeking to change its business model by getting rid of its digital camera manufacturing branch, which has been an integral part of the company since the early 1990s. The decision reflects the company's poor ... performance in this sector and a subsequent revision of its business strategy. In a recent announcement HP stated that it will dump responsibility for design, source and distribute digital cameras to an OEM partner, providing instead only HP branding on the devices manufactured by its partner. HP is seeking to accelerate its investment in the 'Print 2.0' ... (view more)

Google has confirmed it's entering the mobile market, but not with the much-rumored Gphone. Rather than launching a branded handset, Google is developing an open source software platform for all mobile devices. They'll be providing their 'Android' ... software free of charge to handset manufacturers, which could pave the way for cheaper phones. As part of the launch, Google has formed the Open Handset Alliance, bringing together 34 partners. This includes handset producers Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG, plus carriers such as T-Mobile and Sprint. (Source: BBC ) The software should be with ... (view more)

Apple Inc. is no longer accepting cash payments for iPhone purchases and will limit sales of the popular device to only two per person. The move comes as an immediate response to the growing trend of consumers selling Apple products for profit. ... Apple now requires that customers use a credit or debit card when making a purchase, in the hopes of discouraging resellers by keeping their name on record. The new policy has already taken effect according to an Apple insider. Prior to the change, Apple never imposed any payment restrictions on their customers and the purchase limit was set at five ... (view more)

News of the iPod's success...is not news. It's not even up for debate, given the worldwide popularity of the device. However, as the globe's most iconic digital music player enters old age (by technology standards), updates to the formula are on the ... way. But, is the fan-dangled iPod "Touch" really worthwhile? According to BusinessWeek's Cliff Edwards, not so much. The tech journalist recently wrote in a review that "the Touch seems mostly an interim gesture," a way to tide over would-be iPhone buyers not amused with unavoidable provider AT ... (view more)

Hitachi has successfully reduced a major component found in most hard drives down to a nanoscale. If a "nanoscale hard drive" is able to complete all of the functions of a regular hard drive, the new technology will pave the way for higher capacity ... storage limits in the very near future. What this basically means is that those who use laptop computers, digital video recorders or portable music players will not have to worry about running out of storage space any time soon. The nanoscale hard drive can quadruple the storage space of a regular hard drive to 4 terabytes for desktop computers and ... (view more)