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Bluetooth Security For Your PDA

If you’re worried about losing your PDA, you probably secure it with some sort of password. The problem is that you have to enter that password every time you want to use your PDA, which is a big hassle. But if your PDA is equiped with Bluetooth and you’ve got a BT phone as well, you can get NP Security ($20) and the mere proximity of your phone will serve as the password for your PDA. It’s a great idea that I’d like to see taken to laptops and even the door to my apartment — why memorize passwords or carry keys when an encrypted BT signal could do the work? Of course, the program doesn’t do you any good if you lose your phone and your PDA at the same time…

via ClieSource

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Wear-a-bot

This is pretty darn cool, and slightly frightening at the same time. Perhaps that’s why they went with the extra-lame name? I’m just waiting for a version in nicer colours to come to my favorite hiking store…

While using a biological module for the complex tasks of route selection, perception, hazard avoidance, and self-maintenance is a great idea (though of course not a new idea), I do wonder what happens if the mechanical musculature loses synch with the biological partners – I hope there are load limiters liberally scattered around! Of course your really don’t want to have a software vulnerability allowing the enemy to rip off your legs at the push of a button either. It’s great to have undergrads in the lab for testing isn’t it?

I’d go for the poster offer, but the model isn’t up to my standards I’m afraid!

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Toyota to Make “Mountable” “Trumpet Playing” Robot

I don’t know why it’s the car companies that are leading the personal robotics race, but Toyota’s just announced a set of trumpet playing robots that will serve as assistants to the elderly and infirm. One of them is a “mountable” robot that can carry an adult human. Unfortunately there is no pic of this model, leaving me to wonder if it looks more like some sort of Centaur/Pride scooter hybrid.

The Toyo ‘bots were designed to play musical instruments as well as help people, and according to the press release their lips move with “as much finesse as human lips” which of course makes me wonder what else these robots can do. Play a trumpet? Right. That’s what it was designed for. There’s such a huge demand for trumpet playing robots….

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Little ‘Bot Guards Your House, Reads To Your Kids

SK Telecom, Korea’s largest telecom company, and Mostitech have developed a small, wheeled “security pet” that is designed to guard your house with on-board digital cameras and wireless connection to your PC, and through it to your mobile phone. On-board sensors can detect fires and poinsonous gas (handy if you’re living in New Jersey) and upcoming software will allow face recognition. When the ‘bot doesn’t recognize a face, it can snap a pic and sound an alarm.

In addition to the security functions, the company is apparently touting the little ‘bot’s ability to read to your kids and keep an eye on them, which doesn’t seem like a good idea to me — at least until the bugger’s got some arms and a three-law chip. Price is expected to be around $850.

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Sony’s Hot New Handset

Sony’s got a nifty little new phone on the way in the Z700. It leaps over the footsteps of the praise-winning T68 and T610, combining a color screen with graphical interface, java support, Bluetooth and an integrated 1.3 megapixel camera (video and pics) that saves to Memory Stick. All of that is crammed into a switch-blade style case — the screen covers the keypad, but rotates out of the way ala the mote v70. Check InfoSync for more pics and specs.

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Full PC Power in a Three Inch Cube

Check out this little computer called the T-Cube that runs a 400 MHz processor and 128 megs of RAM. It uses a proprietary OS, and can be used for workstations or internet appliance type functions — at least as far as I can tell from the press release. This appears to be a prototype, so no idea if there is a consumer product that will follow, or at what price.

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Super Cheap 20Gb MP3 Player

Deal of the week – the Archos 20 Gb MP3 Recorder, available from Amazon for a scant $130 after mail-in rebate. This player is fully loaded; it records from any source, has USB 2.0 transfer, works as an external hard-drive, supports on-the-fly playlists, and if you’re not happy with the already rich feature set of the Archos, you can upgrade with a freeware ROM replacement that allows you to read text files, supports mid-track resume (important for audio books), extends battery life, plays 8 games and supports 23 languages.

Note: this Archos player is not one that I’ve used myself, but it’s very similar to the Archos Jukebox Multimedia I reviewed favorably a little more than a year ago. My only problem with that unit has been that the battery no longer holds a charge, which seems to be the norm with these sorts of electronics. Luckily, unlike an iPod, the battery is user-replaceable for $50 if it goes out after warranty.

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Microsoft Wants You to Pay Postage on Email

CNN is reporting that Microsoft has come up with a scheme to have users pay money to send email as a way to discourage spammers. That should come as no surprise, since the “killer app” of the Internet has gone so long without Microsoft getting any money out of it. But Microsoft is also claiming that their idea wouldn’t actually generate revenue for them because you could earn “email credits” by, for instance, solving a simple math problem, thus verifying your earnest interest in sending an email.

Not only is this idea one of the dumbest I’ve ever heard, but it’s one of the dumbest I’ve ever heard (oops, wrote myself into a hyperbolic corner there). The idea that somehow Microsoft is proposing this and not going to make money on it in one way or another is ridiculous. Surely there will be ads on the web pages with the credit-generating math problems or something of the sort. Or there will be a “float” that Microsoft can take advantage of in some way, or a micro-fee that you’ll have to pay just to get the credits. Something. The invisible hand just doesn’t work the way that Microsoft claims it does.

I have a better idea: let’s implement a system whereby every time you send an email it costs you a penny, but each time you receive an email you earn a penny. Not only would that discourage spammers, but it would discourage all sorts of those jokes and pron-lite that people send around on Fridays. And it would actually encourage people to engage in dialog! People who routinely didn’t respond to emails would run up a debt, and their credit rating would be ruined! Or I suppose we might could just use whuffie and everyone could have a whuffie filter on their email so that non-responders would automatically go to the spam folder…

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Pennies from eBay Heaven

1.The Creative Muvo2 can be had from buy.com for $200.

2. The internal 4GB microdrives are selling for $260 on Ebay.

3. The empty Muvo2 shell is selling for $45.

That’s a 50% profit on every Muvo2 I buy. I’m tempted to do this and use the profits to put a 256MB CF card in the Muvo2 husk, thus getting a free MP3 player.

What am I missing here?