Profile of Mike Elgan

News & Commentary Posts: 158

Articles by Mike Elgan

A Glimpse Into The 'Web 3.0'

8/14/2006
In the very near future, your PC will learn what you want by tracking your online activities and what you do at your computer, then use the Internet and the interests of other people like you to try to fulfill all your wishes. Limited glimpses into that future are possible now. One example that came to my attention today is a new service called Tourb.us ("Tourbus" using the URL http://tourb.us).
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Cell Phones Dirtier Than Toilets

8/2/2006
An article appearing in the UK newspaper, The Daily Mail, points out that cell phones are a perfect breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria, and typically have "tens of thousands of microbes living on each square inch." The reason is that they come in constant contact with our hands, faces and mouths -- in fact are exposed to more bodily bacteria than toilet seats -- and then are kept warm by the
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Radio Killed The MP3 Star?

7/31/2006
Imagine free music available 24 hours a day -- not .99 cents -- which you can choose according to the musical style. Better still, the music is accompanied by commentary identifying what it is, and random contextual information, as well as occasional breaking-news, podcast-like audio feeds. It's called "radio."
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In Search Of A Low-Cost Wireless Internet Camera... That Works

7/27/2006
Hawking Technologies announced yesterday a new, $129.99 wireless video camera that features automatic router configuration and URL setup. The proof, as always, is in the pudding. But that price and that feature (auto config and setup) sound pretty earth-shattering to me. For years, I've been looking for a good wireless Internet camera that's inexpensive and easy to set up. Is that so much to ask?
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The Myth Of The 'Flying Car'

7/26/2006
It's the fantasy of every frustrated driver who's ever been caught in traffic: to push a button, take off, and soar above the gridlock like an airplane. But don't hold your breath. You'll never "drive" a "flying car."
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Abra Kadabra! Here's Another Photo Magic Trick!

7/25/2006
Here's a neat (and low-cost) trick: Make 3D prints using your existing camera, existing printer and standard printing paper. Sounds like magic, doesn't it?
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Two Digital Camera Magic Tricks

7/24/2006
Software developers have figured out how to "stitch" together or combine images to do "magic tricks" with your digital photos.
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What If You Could Google Objects, Not Just Words?

7/21/2006
Right now, you can google any word or combination of words. But what if you could google actual things or objects? UK designer Callum Peden has come up with a product idea for Google. It's just an idea, but a really good one.
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Social Bookmarking For Cheapskates

7/20/2006
Social bookmarking sites like Digg where users vote on the quality of links -- the best rising to the top -- are transforming the Web-using experience. They do this by harnessing the power of public opinion to vet, filter and rank "content." Now -- at last -- someone has harnessed the power of the Web 2.0 to discover and rank great deals. Call it social bookmarking for cheapskates.
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Spammers Trying To Do To Blogs What They Did To E-Mail

7/19/2006
Blog comment spam -- advertising slipped into the "comments" section of blog entries -- has been around awhile. It tends to trickle in. Various schemes exist to combat it, but most blogs are completely unprotected. Though the mainstream press hasn't noticed, there was a radical increase in spam over the weekend. Who's doing it? And why the sudden increase?
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The Postcard Has Finally Been Licked

7/17/2006
The postcard -- a photo or graphic on one side with a note and addressing and postage on the other -- was patented in 1861 by John P. Charlton. Since then, tourists and holiday makers have been sending them back home to friends and family to share their experiences abroad. Oftentimes, vacationers reach home before the postcards do. Now, after 145 years the postcard's days are numbered, thanks to a new, free, and very cool Web 2.0 alternative. Sorry, Charlton.
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Spy Photo, Name, Of Microsoft's 'iPod Killer' Leaked

7/11/2006
We reported here July 5 that Microsoft was working on an "iPod killer" that would be on sale by Christmas. Details are now leaking out about the name -- it will be called the "Zune" -- and its design, according to this leaked photo, will look *a lot* like Apple's iPod.
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Where's The Outrage?

7/10/2006
Are we becoming numb to scandal and controversy? In the world of technology, there's always plenty to go around. Some of the controversy shows up in tech product advertising. A new ad campaign by Sony showcasing a new white Sony PlayStation Portable, depicts a black woman, wearing all black, and a white woman, wearing all white, fighting each other. Some say it's racist, others say it's sexist.
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Why People Hate Those Stupid Apple Ads

7/6/2006
Apple is taking a lot of heat for its current series of TV and online video ads, which compare PCs and Macs by anthropomorphizing the platforms as two guys. The PC guy is a pudgy, uncharismatic, and unfashionable bore. The Mac guy is a younger, vaguely hipper, healthier looking down-to-earth guy.
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Why You've Never Heard Of The Best Phone Ever

7/5/2006
I recently bought what I believe is the coolest landline phone with the most useful features of any phone out there. It's called the ClearSounds CLC50 Freedom Phone. If you're under the age of 60 and have good hearing, you've probably never heard of this phone. The reason is that it's designed for older people with hearing loss. My own hearing is perfect. But I still love this phone. Here's why.
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Go Ahead. Kill Your Scanner!

6/28/2006
Our recent review of the Casio EX-Z1000 revealed interesting new features: The camera has 37 presets, among them a preset for photographing business cards, and another for taking pictures of pictures. Old pictures, to be precise (the preset "Old Photo" brings faded colors back to life). That's when it hit me: Why not use MY digital camera as a scanner?
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The Top Ten List Of Top Ten Lists

6/26/2006
Bloggers discovered quickly -- and lately have been abusing -- something we journalists have long known: Shoehorning your content into a list, and putting the number in the headline, is a cheap-and-easy way to generate more interest. And ten is the perfect number for items in your list. Even David Letterman knows that.
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The Exciting And Dangerous World Of USB Memory Drives

6/19/2006
In the world of gadgets and technology, you would think that the dullest possible category would be USB flash memory drives -- those ubiquitous pocketable diskette-replacements that generally do nothing but store data. But you'd be wrong.
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Is This The Future iPod Phone?

6/14/2006
A Mac enthusiast Web site has pointed out and detailed a recent patent that appears to be a "stealth" patent by Apple for an iPod video smartphone that does it all: cell phone calls, wireless videoconferencing, wireless P2P networking, video playing, picture taking and much more. It even sports the famous round Apple Click Wheel on the front.
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Brightest Cell Phone Innovation Ever

6/13/2006
Cell phones are the "black hole" of gadgets. Other stand-alone gadgets get sucked into phones, their functionality duplicated in phones, and replaced -- PDAs, wristwatches, calculators and, in the future, MP3 players, TV remote control units and more. But the best feature you could possibly put into a cell phone -- or any other gadget for that matter -- is technology that would enable it to charge itself without being plugged in.
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MacBook Owners See Red After Laptops Turn Yellow

6/12/2006
I blogged May 17 that less than 24 hours after Apple unveiled its new MacBook laptop, some users started reporting that the black matte finish on the notebooks was peeling off. Now it turns out that users of the white version say the white finish is turning yellow on the top. One person Post a Comment

Teen-Only Ringtone -- Can You Hear Me Now?

6/9/2006
This is a story about the use of technology used by both sides in the ancient and ongoing battle between teenagers and adults. It starts with a clever bit of entrepreneurship. A company called Compound Security Systems developed what amounts to a "teenager repellant" designed to drive kids away from malls, stores and other places where teens congregate and annoy paying customers. Called the Mosquito, the electronic box produces an ultra-sonic to
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Wristwatch Is Peripheral Device For Your Phone

6/8/2006
Citizen announced a new wristwatch this week called the Citizen VIRT W700. The watch stays in contact with your cell phone via Bluetooth. If you get a call, the watch vibrates, flashes a light and displays Caller ID info. Best of all, if you leave your phone somewhere, the watch alerts you immediately.
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PCs Are The New Lunchbox

6/7/2006
When I was a lad, most of the kids who brought lunch to school carried a pop-culture themed metal lunchbox -- usually comic or TV characters. Well, we all grew up, got jobs and now sit there with our PCs all day. Why not choose a PC that looks like an oversized lunchbox?
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Apple And Blackberry -- Not What You Think

6/6/2006
Everybody's talking today about Canaccord Capital analyst Peter Misek's prediction that Apple and Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the popular BlackBerry handhelds, will join forces to develop what is already being called the AppleBerry. But this fruity partnership -- if it happens at all -- won't result in an iPod with PIM functionality.
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Iranian Nuclear Crisis More Than Just Fun And Games

5/30/2006
The Iranian government claims its nuclear program is for the production of energy -- peaceful purposes only. The U.S. government claims Iran is secretly working on nuclear bombs for its long-range missiles. America and Iran both say they'll go to war over the issue. Doesn't the conflict sound like the basis for a really fun game?
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Make Free Skype Calls With Regular Phone

5/23/2006
A gadget called the Skype USB to RJ11 Adaptor lets you make and receive free Internet VoIP calls using your regular home phone -- and your cell phone. The device plugs into your PC's USB port, and has a place to plug in your home phone. Once you set it up, you can use your home phone to make free calls to anywhere in the world.
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Get 'Lost' With Game Coming Next Year

5/22/2006
It had to happen. By next year there should be a PC and video game based on the ABC TV series, "Lost." The French company Ubisoft announced today a long-term licensing deal with Touchstone Television that allows the game developer to create a "Lost" game in its awesome Montreal studio.
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Review: mobiBLU B153 Music Player

5/21/2006
This all-purpose music player isn't for everyone. But if you crave monster battery life, or are frustrated by iTunes, or want extras like good voice recording and FM radio in your player, you'll love the B153. But if you want simplicity and elegance, look elsewhere.
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Samsung Unveils Super Phone

5/18/2006
Samsung unveiled a super smartphone today at the Korea 2006 Expo -- one that replaces your digital camera, iPod and GPS gadget. Oh, and you can use it to make calls, too.
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Apple's New MacBooks Are 'Flaky' - Users

5/17/2006
Less than 24 hours after Apple unveiled its new MacBook laptop, some users have begun reporting that the black matte finish on the notebooks is fragile, literally flaking or peeling off.
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Sony Unveils Its 'Ultra Mobile PC'

5/16/2006
After Microsoft unveiled its Ultra Mobile PC, or "Origami," concept March 9, we witnessed a flurry of new hardware interpretations from a variety of vendors. The basic idea is a mobile device bigger and more feature-rich than a smartphone or PDA, but much smaller than a laptop.
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How To Share Camera Phone Videos

5/10/2006
YouTube, a very popular service for sharing videos, just rolled out today a new service that lets you easily upload your camera phone videos. It's free and easy to use.
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How To Get Total Information Awareness (Without Really Trying)

5/9/2006
The Pentagon's Total Information Awareness (TIA) project, a massive effort to use information technology to know everything about everyone in the name of national security, was too controversial, so Congress pulled the plug on funding in 2003. (Recent reports suggest that the effort was secretly taken up by the
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TV Guide To Launch 'Downloads' Column

4/27/2006
In a sign of the times, TV Guide Magazine plans to launch May 1 a new weekly column called "Downloads," which will talk about the latest TV shows available for download to an Apple iPod video or other media player.
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A Gadget To Hold (And Charge) Your Gadgets

4/25/2006
Here's a device that seems custom-made for Personal Tech Pipeline readers: It's a room lamp that charges your many handheld gadgets, while at the same time providing a tidy place to put the charging cables and place your wallet and keys.
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The E-Mail Hoax To End All E-Mail Hoaxes

4/21/2006
I'm repeatedly amazed that I still get e-mail hoaxes, always sent earnestly by relatives who have been suckered in. Give-away hoaxes ("Bill Gates"), sympathy hoaxes ("Little Girl Dying of Leukemia"), warning hoaxes ("Stay Out of the Mall on Halloween!"), chain letters ("Hawaiian Good Luck Totem"), urban myth e-mails ("Flesh Eating Bananas") -- I'm sure you've gotten your share.
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Treo 'Hollywood' Spotted In Wild

4/19/2006
A blurry photograph of the low-cost, no-antenna, 3G/GSM version of the Palm Treo, code-named "Hollywood" and likely to be named the Treo 800p, started circulating today on the Web. Is it real?
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Next Version of Google Talk Leaked

3/31/2006
Screenshots and installation software for a major upgrade version of Google's instant messaging application, Google Talk, have apparently been leaked online. The new Google Talk appears to have "themes," color schemes and so on for how conversations look, and the equivalent of what rival AOL Instant Messenger calles "Buddy Icons." Here's a look at the screenshots.
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The Nerdy Way To Better Health

3/30/2006
As junk food, alcohol, cigarettes, prescription drugs and inactivity increasingly take their toll on our health, people are looking for ways to get healthy. Of course, there's no getting around the need to consume fewer toxic substances and excercise more. The good news is that you can employ gadgets and computers to help you out -- and make getting healthy easier and more fun.
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One-Gigabyte SD Card Costs Just $20

3/27/2006
It's amazing how quickly the price of removable mobile storage drops. The price of Secure Digital (SD) cards is now so low you can buy one for $19.95 -- and shipping is free.
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'V For Vendetta' Phone Coming To U.S.?

3/22/2006
In the film "V For Vendetta," all the movie's office yuppies carried identical cell phones -- a sweet black and very thin rectangular gadget that (like all technology in the movie, including old-school Dell PCs) seemed oddly primitive for the year 2020, but that would nevertheless be a very cool phone to have now. And soon you may be able to buy one.
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Tech History Made Yesterday

3/15/2006
Most of the Big Events in technology history appear big only in retrospect. For example, for technology historians the day Google.com first came online (September 15, 1997) is obviously a historic milestone. But at the time the number of people who were even aware of it was insufficient to form a basketball team. The date became important only because of what happened later. So remember the date March 14, 2006.
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Mini Displays Coming to Laptops

3/14/2006
Most cool new clamshell cell phones these days have a big display inside, and a small one outside. The outside display shows the time, or Caller ID info. It's a great idea that people seem to like. Don't look now, but the same idea is coming to Windows-based notebook PCs!
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Biggest And Smallest USB Drives Unveiled

3/10/2006
Those handy USB memory drives -- which have largely replaced "floppies" for the quick-and-dirty transfer of files from one PC to another -- come in a variety of sizes and storage capacities. The current smallest size, and also the largest capacity, memory drives have been unveiled by two different companies at the giant German trade show, CeBIT.
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Finally: A Camera Phone For Klutzes

3/9/2006
A cool, ruggedized and water-resistant camera phone that's very popular in Japan and Korea called the Casio Hitachi NX9200 was approved today by the FCC for sale in the United States. Here's why you're going to want this phone.
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Free, Easy and LEGAL Phone Hacking (To Bypass IVR, Reach Human)

3/7/2006
When you think of "hacking," you probably imagine a dark underground of technical criminals abusing computer skills to break into, steal or deface company data and web sites. When "hacking" is done with telephones, it's called "phreaking," and it's always just as illegal... Or is it? I'm going to tell you about an ethical form of phone phreaking that's legal, easy, free and -- best of all -- helps you escape from that prison of automated responses you get when you call many large companies.
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Microsoft Invents E-Mail You Use With Your Feet

3/1/2006
Microsoft invests billions in its awesome research wing. Some of the inventions developed there are stunning -- awe inspiring. But one invention I discovered today is, well, not so hot. It's e-mail software that you manipulate with your feet using a Dance Dance Revolution game pad.
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Dealing With The Computer Viruses On Mouse And Keyboard

2/28/2006
Both companies and individuals have become much more successful lately coping with computer viruses by buying, installing and using anti-virus software. But what about the REAL germs living on your mouse and keyboard?
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For Apple, There's No Business Like Show Business

2/27/2006
Apple plans to announce something tomorrow, and the rumor mill is working overtime trying to guess what that announcement might be. Over the weekend, one possibility -- a big-screen video iPod -- was knocked out of contention after a hoaxter posted a step-by-step video about how he created the fake prototype photo everyone was buzzing about.
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IM Skyrockets, E-Mail Declines Among Young

2/23/2006
A whopping 66 percent -- two thirds -- of "young online users" (13 to 21) send more instant messages than e-mail messages, according to a study by America Online. That's up from last year, when just 49 percent claimed to send more IMs than e-mails.
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Site Offers $35 Unlimited PSP Games For Life

2/22/2006
A company called PSPdownloadservices.com is offering unlimited game and movie downloads for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) for life. The Price? $34.95 -- basically a rounding error. Normally the fee is $74.95, but they're offering a promotional price until tomorrow (Thursday). Sounds great, but what's the catch?
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Why Everyone Needs A Remote-Controlled Shark Robot

2/17/2006
I love the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. Though overpriced, the store tries really hard to find both cool and exclusive products, many of which are just awesome toys you couldn't even imagine when you were a child. One great example is a new remote-controlled robotic shark.
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Nokia Working On Next-Gen 770 Tablets

2/14/2006
Nokia staff at the 3GSM show have revealed that Nokia is working on follow-on models to the Linux-based Nokia 770, which Personal Tech Pipeline reviewed recently. The 770 is a table form-factor device with an 800x480 screen optimized for Web surfing.
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Finally: The Right Kind Of Cell Phone Innovation

2/13/2006
My Treo 650 is a marvel of engineering. It's packed with amazing features and capabilities, including a digital camera, Bluetooth support, thousands of available downloadable software programs, QWERTY keyboard and much, much more. I just wish I could turn off that annoying blinking green light.
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Palm Treo 800p Rumor In Circulation

2/2/2006
I told you back in November about three new Treo smartphones from Palm expected to ship in 2006: 1) A Windows Mobile version; 2) an inexpensive device code-named "Lowrider"; and 3) a sleek, internal-antenna 3G device code-named "Hollywood." Since then, the Windows Mobile device has shipped, and we haven't heard a peep about the other two.
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Don't Look Now, But You're A Blogger

1/30/2006
Studies show most Internet users don't maintain a blog, and even fewer keep an RSS feed. There has been plenty of buzz around blogging over the past two years but, as some observers have pointed out, blogging is just writing that's shared with others using software that makes it all very easy.
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How To Hack Netflix

1/30/2006
The Netflix DVDs-by-mail service gives fastest service to customers who rent the fewest movies. Here's how to be a heavy renter and still get your pick.
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Web Talk Show To Be Hosted By Cartoon Character

1/25/2006
Here's something that could only happen on the Internet -- a new talk show in development that will be unveiled later this year will be hosted by a cartoon character. A British-accented baby named "Stewie" from the Fox animated series "Family Guy" is slated to host the new, online-only show.
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Now They're Giving Away Kid's GPS Cell Phone

1/23/2006
A company in the UK is actually now giving

away cell phones aimed at children. The phones have four preset buttons and feature GPS. The company doesn't charge for the phone or the GPS tracking, but does charge a normal rate for the phone
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Five Ways To Avoid Gaming Addiction

1/20/2006
In November, we ran a poll on this site asking what kind of electronic crack you're addicted to. The results were shocking: Video games - 9% PC games - 14% Online multiplayer games - 15% Instant Messaging - 5% Web surfing - 18% Online pornography - 7% E-mail - 14% Cell phone text messaging - 3% Mobile gaming - 2% None -- I'm not addicted to any of the above - 13% You'll note that somewhere between 15 and 40 percent of you are Post a Comment

No Cell Phone Cancer Risk Found -- Again

1/19/2006
British researchers say in a British Medical Journal report to be published tomorrow that they have found no evidence that mobile phones cause brain cancer.
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Three New Mice-Phones Unveiled

1/18/2006
In the dark, forbidding corners of the recent CES event in Las Vegas two weeks ago, a new, underappreciated micro-industry emerged: The desktop PC mouse that doubles as a VoIP phone. The idea is an unholy convergence between the ubiquitous mouse, and the largely non-existent PC handset for VoIP calls through Skype, Google Talk or some other service.
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Advertisers Planning To Spam Your Phone With Video Ads

1/16/2006
It's called ad creep. As an increasing number of available spaces -- from stadiums to grocery store floors, from beach sand to people's foreheads -- become littered with advertising, marketers look hard for new places to hit you with their advertising messages. It's driving them nuts that you spend so much time looking at your cell phone, yet that phone isn't as polluted with spam as your e-mail inbox.
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Google Runs First-Ever Home Page 'Ad'

1/12/2006
Google is running today its first-ever "ad" on its home page. Some users in the United States are reporting that a pitch for CSI and NBA TV shows on Google Video is showing up at the bottom of their Google home page screens. Others don't see it at all.
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Clothing Makers Jump On iPod Bandwagon

1/11/2006
Makers of everything from jeans to underwear are jumping on the Apple iPod bandwagon, hoping to boost sales by hanging on to the coat-tails of the Apple iPod juggernaut. In the past, iPod clothing has come from little known niche manufacturers. But today, the first major international clothing maker has jumped in front of the iPod clothing parade. Levi's announced today that the company plans to sell denim jeans with an iPod remot
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Jobs Throws Around Big iPod Numbers At MacWorld

1/10/2006
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and senior Apple executives tossed around some huge iPod and Apple Store numbers on stage today at MacWorld in San Francisco. Among them: * 26 million people visited Apple stores over the holidays * Apple stores enjoyed the group's first-ever "billion dollar quarter" * Apple had a $5.7 billion quarter overall * Some 26 million people visited Apple stores over the holiday season * Apple sold 14 million iPods last quarter
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The Keyboard We Really Want

1/9/2006
In the past couple of decades, hundreds of new keyboards have come out -- most with alternatives to the clunky QWERTY layout. Unfortunately, for the companies that make these alternative input devices, the QWERTY train has left the station, and ain't comin' back. That's not to say users don't want keyboard innovation.
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CES Watch: Samsung's New Nano Killer

1/3/2006
Samsung plans to unveil this week at CES an iPod-Nano competitor MP3 player called the YP-Z5. The gadget offers storage between 2 and 4 GB, has a 1.8-inch screen and boasts great 3D sound. It also reportedly gets about 38 hours of battery life. (The photo below is of the YP-Z5.) Another Korean company, called Mannetel, will roll out their Post a Comment

Rumor: TiVo To Announce DirecTV, Dish Partnership At CES

12/28/2005
A rumor is circulating online that TiVo will announce at the upcoming CES show next month in Las Vegas a partnership with DirecTV and Dish Network over mobile content. The idea is to unite on a standard for supporting content that can be viewed on portable devices.
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'Intel Inside' Out

12/27/2005
India's The Economic Times reports that Intel's longstanding tag line "Intel Inside" will be dropped next month after 14 years of use, according to unnamed insiders. The company will roll out a new logo and possibly a new advertising campaign.
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Rumor: Microsoft to Buy Opera

12/23/2005
Rumor has it that Microsoft plans to buy browser rival Opera - a Norway-based company that makes a small browser with a big cult following. Opera denies the rumor.
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A Rearview Mirror On Steroids

12/20/2005
A small California company called Crimestopper plans to unveil at the Consumer Electronics Show next month a rearview mirror called the NavPro NP3000 series mirror that features an embedded 4.5-inch LCD display and GPS electronics. In addition to providing GPS directions, the small screen will show live video from a camera in the bumper whenever the car is going in reverse. Pricing has not been announced.
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Music Downloads Take Over At Christmas

12/19/2005
The BBC and the Financial Times are reporting that music downloads, more than CD sales, will determine which artist will be named number one on the charts at Christmas by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Last year, the organization said, downloads
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How To Make A Gadget Gift Great

12/18/2005
I bravely waded into an Apple Store in a Houston, Texas, mall this week -- it was like entering a cage full of rabid badgers. Holiday shoppers were ransacking the joint for Apple goodies, accessories, software, and most of all, iPods. Not coincidentally, the "record store" next door was almost empty. This holiday appears to signal the inevitable music purchasing shift from disc to download.
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Ho, Ho, Hold On A Minute!

12/14/2005
Don't look now, but the holidays are coming. That means it's time to get off your duff and get that gift shopping done. Naturally, we at Personal Tech Pipeline recommend gadgets for all your loved ones this year. By the way, you're not planning to do your shopping at the mall again, are you? We live in an era of incredible toys and life-enhancing products that are extremely affordable (thanks to Moore's Law and price-comparison Web sites) and will be delivered directly to you -- or to the gift
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Guys: Never Ask For Directions Again!

12/8/2005
You no doubt saw Fred Langa's awesome piece on hardcore, advanced trip planning. If you're really serious about off-the-beaten track trip planning, there's no substitute for the specialized mapping and routing sites he talks about. But for everyday getting around -- without asking directions -- Verizon Wireless customers using Motorola's V325 phone have a new option.
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TV-On-iPod Gets Realer And Realer

12/6/2005
Don't look now, but Apple is suddenly offering TV shows on iTunes for downloading to and viewing on the new video-capable iPod from NBC, SciFi and USA. It still costs $1.99 per show. (via Engadget)
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What's Wrong With Google's Gmail Anti-Virus?

12/5/2005
Google rolled out a new anti-virus component to its free e-mail service, Gmail. It augments the old protection, which merely blocks any attached executable file, such as those ending in the .EXE extension. The anti-virus technology provider behind the service is being kept secret. Free e-mail with free anti-virus protection. What's wrong with that?
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Rugged MP3 Player A Solid Idea

11/23/2005
Sharp plans to ship November 26 two ruggedized mobile music players that can survive being dropped from 1.4 meters. The Sharp MP-S200 (512MB) and MP-S300 (1GB) players' electronics are protected against damage with what the Japanese news site Nikkei.net

Interactive describes as a "Post a Comment

Peter Jackson Re-Creates 1933 King Kong Scene

11/22/2005
Movie director Peter Jackson, most famous for his Lord of the Rings trilogy and soon to be most famous for his spectacular King Kong remake, has spearheaded a project to re-create at least one awesome scene missing from the 1933 original King Kong. When test screening the original movie in San Bernadino, Calif., in 1933, one scene terrified the audience so much that the mo
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Google's Book Search: Best of Times, Worst of Times For Libraries

11/21/2005
College professors complain about the current generation of copy-and-paste students. Raised online, impatient with card catalogs and paper indices, these students use Google to do research papers, finding even obscure references and far-flung sources in seconds. Unfortunately, their results -- and their final papers -- tend to be heavily slanted toward the knowledge and opinion in magazines, on Web sites and other resources that were first to put their offerings online. Knowledge not digitized
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External iPod Battery Powers 200 Hours

11/10/2005

A $199 product called the iCel 205 Portable Power Supply gives you up to 200 hours of iPod listening enjoyment. It also comes in cheaper and less capable variants.
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Initial Forum Reaction To iPod In 2001: It Won't Sell

11/9/2005
Steve Jobs introduced the original 5-gigabyte iPod, which cost $400, in October of 2001. Sales of the device -- and the influence it has on the design of a wide range of consumer electronics and other products -- are now legendary. But when the player was first announced, the Mac faithful were generally unimpressed. Here are some comments posted during and immediately after Jobs' announcement on the MacRumors forum. Enjoy! "Th
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Majority Of Teens Change Identity On Net
11/8/2005
Nearly six out of ten teenagers hide or change their identities while online, according to a new study of wired young Canadians reported in today's Globe and Mail newspaper. The reasons vary, but a majority has pretended to be someone else online in order to flirt, pretend to be older or of a different gender -- or to "act mean" without consequences. Online identity experimentation is "norm
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Radical New Camera Phone Spotted In Wild
11/7/2005
A radically small and thin Samsung camera phone -- literally about the size of a stack of five or six credit cards -- has been spotted in the wild. More than 30 pictures posted on the Italian Cellularmania show just how amazingly tiny this upcoming phone really is. Called the Samsung SGH-P300 phone, it sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and 90MB of flash memory and looks more like an old school calculator than a next-genera
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Three New Treo Models Expected Next Year
11/5/2005
Forbes magazine reported yesterday that Verizon and possibly Sprint Nextel will begin to offer the Palm OS replacement for the Treo 650 in May. The new phone will feature an EVDO radio. The article also said that Palm would ship low-end Treos costing about $200 each sometime next year, and that the $700 Windows Mobile version previously reported would be a higher-margin product for Palm. A
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Immerse Yourself In Quake 4 - Without Getting Blown Away
11/4/2005
Enter the dark and violent world of Quake 4 -- if you dare. A site called VRWAY, which houses all kinds of really cool images displayed with QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) panorama, has posted 15 high-resolution screens from the game. QTVR lets you look around in 360 degrees, both vertically and horizontally. You're totally immersed in the screenshot. It's a great way to check out Quake without being killed by one of those giant ugly things. The site al
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Asian Cell Phone Hotness Comes To U.S.
11/3/2005
For years, we poor, neglected Americans have had to sit on the sidelines with our old-and-busted cell phones while Japanese and Korean gadget enthusiasts always got access the new hotness. It has always seemed like the coolest and wildest phones were not available here. Now, however, Samsung is throwing us a fricken bone. The company said this week that it planned to offer for sale in the U.S. its "dual QWERTY phone
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Windows Live Screenshots Leaked Online
11/2/2005
Just one day after being unveiled, Microsoft's "Windows Live" site screenshots, as well as screenshots from the companion "Office Live" service, have been leaked and posted on TheHotfix.net web site, and other locations.
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An 'Ignition Key' For Your PC
11/2/2005
Here's a great idea for security minded users. The I-O Data ToteBag is a USB flash storage device that doubles as a key to lock and unlock your laptop or desktop PC. The unit comes with special software that locks your system when it doesn't detect the ToteBag in a USB port. To unlock, just insert the ToteBag. It also functions as a normal flash storage device, and comes in 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB versions. (via Post a Comment

Electrify Your Digital Music
11/1/2005
An innovative product called the MicroLink dLAN Audio system streams music from your PC throughout your house using the building's electrical system. To use it, you plug a MicroLink dLAN Ethernet adapter to a PC on one end, and any wall socket in th
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Text Messaging Boosts Teen Writing Ability
10/31/2005
A Cambridge University study has found that text messaging has boosted the ability of teenagers to write. The study found that "today's teenagers are using far more complex sentence structures, a wider vocabulary and a more accurate use of capital letters, punctuation and spelling." That's the good news. The bad news is that they're also "ten times more likely to use non-standard English in written exams than in 1980, usin
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Treo 650 Music Docking Station?
10/29/2005
Move over iPod snobs, with your fancy gadget aftermarket of music docking stations. We Treo 650 smart phone snobs now have one of our own. The Treo 650 Music Dock charges and connects (for PC synchronization) your Treo, and plays music either from the Treo or from an external music source (the dock sports a 3.5mm
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Don't Believe Everything Your GPS Tells You
10/27/2005
Two Australian tourists in New Zealand found out the hard way that you can't always rely on GPS to give you the best route. The visitors rented a car from Avis, which comes with a GPS system, plugged in their destination and drove where the gadget told them to drive. The system guided them through a ten-hour, death-defying journey into hell: through rivers, fog and perilous and narrow mountain passes terminating at a locked-g
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My Favorite Fantasy iPod
10/26/2005
Apple's iPod is cool enough -- especially the new one. Detractors belittle the device, saying that it's nothing more than a hard disk with a play button. The iPod lovers and the iPod haters will disagree, but there's no denying the design influence Apple's music player has had over other music players, over other consumer electronics and over a large variety of random products.
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Drive For More Storage Hits Even The PSP
10/13/2005
Storage is cheap and getting cheaper all the time, which is driving up user expectations about just how much storage we "need." The mania for storage is hitting even Sony's diminutive PlayStation Portable (PSP). Datel is reportedly planning to ship later this month a 4 GB clip-on hard drive for the PSP, complete with kludgy add-on battery. Is 4 GB enough? Of course not! Companies will start competing with each other t
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Stanford Wins!
10/10/2005
Silicon Valley's Stanford University won the 132-mile, $2 million 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle robot race over the weekend. The race was conceived and organized by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -- the same folks who brought us a little thing called the Internet. The Pentagon wants an unmanned car that can drive all by itself through a battlefield to deliver supplies, shoot at the enemy and rescue wounded soldiers -- all without human interve
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Trojan Hits Sony PlayStation Portable
10/6/2005
Symantec is alerting the press that it has identified the first trojan virus that targets Sony Playstation Portable game devices. The trojan, called Trojan.PSPBrick, is a "Category 1" threat (Category 5 being the worst), which is circulating in the wild, although there are no confirmed infections, according to Symantec. Only Sony-approved games can run on the PSP without specially written unauthorized software. Hacks, however, allow users to run their own games. Trojan.PSPBrick presents itself
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Memory Lane - The Web Way
9/13/2005
Hard to believe, but some of the products and services we use every day really haven't been around that long -- but have evolved dramatically in the short time they've been in existence.
It's fun once in a while to look back on the origin of things, just to gawk in amazement.
For example, one of the most famous commercials in the history of television was the 1984 Superbowl Apple Mac ad, which played on TV exactly once. Y
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