2006 March

Every day, people fall into traps while bidding, paying, shipping and dealing with other eBayers. But you don’t have to. Don’t Get Burned On eBay helps you profit from others’ mistakes. It’s packed with hair-raising stories of people who made innocent mistakes that led to grief, humiliation, and loss of money. With sharp, witty rhetoric, […]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
Today Toshiba rolled out its first HD DVD players in Japan, becoming the first company to offer one of the next-generation (HD-DVD or Blu-ray) optical disc players. The price in Japan is expected to be 110,000 yen ($940).
Sony aims to offer Blu-ray-based players in the United States for around $1,000 in […]

Jessamy Hawley of RealTechNews writes:
Marware’s new dock for iPod nano oozes easy chic. It’s got a simple curved design in black or white, all the connections you’ll need, and a £15-er price-tag that won’t compromise your next shopping next spree.
The shiny stand doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel - it just holds your miniature music […]

Remember when having a hard drive with a single gig was a big deal? Remember when it was hard to believe anyone would ever need more than that? Remember when it was hard to believe we’d ever need half of that? It wasn’t that long ago. And what about the needs of the not-too-distant future? […]

Today’s Warped site visits someone who has had a major impact on the airwaves we use to listen to the radio. Not satisfied with hitting the airwaves, he has now hit the space waves. Radio will never be the same after January 9, 2006, as you will see when you visit this very warped site.
The […]

Jessamy Hawley of RealTechNews writes:
No longer do you have to forego cashmere cardigans because you’ll never find the time to drop them off at the dry cleaner. LG’s new Steam Direct Drive Washing Machines let you do your dirty work at home, thanks to its LG’s unique new Dual Spray system which spews forth hot […]

You know what “ego surfing” is, right? It’s when you look for references to yourself on various Web sites, in search engines, etc. What caught my attention today in this regard is that doing a wee bit of ego surfing on both MSN Search and Google really highlights to me the fundamental difference between […]

This is just as much a backend infrastructure story as it is a sheer wicked functionality story: In a story about a completely different topic, Wal-Mart let spill that it’s working on a solution that will let people take their cellphones to a Wal-Mart photo center and print the pictures off their phones with zero […]

Intel Corporation today officially launched an innovative PC platform that has been developed exclusively to meet the needs of rural villages and communities in India. Designed as a result of defining locally relevant computing solutions based on Intel technology, the Intel-powered “Community PC” platform is equipped to operate in a community setting while accommodating the […]

A few weeks ago we visited a weird and warped site for the city of Cincinnati. Nothing against that town; I have been there and enjoyed my visit. But it went to show that, no matter where you are, you can find an interesting subculture of events, publications, and happenings that run counter to mainstream […]

This is the kind of stuff that’s impossible to make up: consumer goods giant Proctor and Gamble has introduced a chatbot, a program that communicates via instant messaging with potential customers. And who are the customers for a deodorant? Well, if you guessed adults, you’re terribly wrong. This chatbot is aimed squarly at teen […]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes
There has been a lot of attention paid to hearing loss and MP3 players, especially ones that use earbud headsets, and particularly (of course), the iPod. In fact, if you recall from my earlier story, Apple had been sued over iPod-caused hearing loss.
The free update, available for video iPods and […]

Chief Gadgeteer of RealTechNews writes
A new consumer device, called the Spam Cube, claims to stop 96 - 99% of spam regardless of your computer platform or the type of e-mail you use, and it plugs right into your home network. Oh yeah, and it works without a subscription. Now my interest is piqued. Works without […]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
Really, you have to watch that Delete key. Apparently Google deleted its own blog on Monday night… not only that, during that period, the blog address was claimed by another user. It wasn’t a hack, but a mistake.
“We’ve determined the cause of tonight’s outage. The blog was mistakenly deleted by us […]

Jessamy Hawley of RealTechNews writes
There are USB gloves and then there are these oh-so-pretty-I’ll-even-wear-them-in-summer mittens. Known as G-Gloves (yes, the ‘G’ stands for Girls), the knitted accessories feature itsy-bitsy pastel designs on the fingertips. Plug them into your USB port (or not) and type anything at all. Just get them on…
Not too big, not too […]

Over the holidays, I had the unpleasant experience of having to repair our main family computer. It was tough troubleshooting it, but finally came down to replacing the motherboard. So I took the opportunity to upgrade to one that I was already running, so now both of our home computers have the same one. I […]

Leading hardware suppliers incorporate Microsoft IP to deliver more productivity and cost savings to customers.
REDMOND, Wash. - March 28, 2006 - Microsoft Corp. today announced new intellectual property (IP) licensing initiatives for its mouse and keyboard technologies, making key technologies, including U2 interface detection and switching technology, Tilt Wheel and the Magnifier tool, broadly available […]

You’re telling me that a country run by crazed, overzealous theocrats would be loathe to let people have opinions that may vary from its “official” doctrines and act to put a stop to them? I’m glad I live in a place where church and state are (mostly) separate (at the time of this writing, anyway). […]

Gnomie Josh Araya writes:
Recently, I was tasked to test SoHo (Small Office/Home Office) security software. In this test, I have tested many of the major anti-virus and anti-spyware suites, and I must tell you, NOD32 Antivirus System by Eset is the clear winner.

“The tiny square pamphlet that Apple includes with each artfully designed iPod package is enough to get your iPod up and running, charged, and ready to download music,” says J. D. Biersdorfer, technology Q&A columnist for the “New York Times.” “But if you want to know more about how the iPod works, all the great […]