Category Archives: Gadgets

Delphi announced XM MiFi, the first portable XM satellite radio. It will be out in December and cost $350. Five hours of batter, five hours of audio storage, six-line LCD, sports score ticker, clock, and alarm. $350 is steep, especially compared to the $125 I paid for my Roady2. The bundled accessory kit included with the MiFi is pretty extensive. The home and car kits usually cost $40 each, the remote control is a $20 accessory, and case and clip cost about $20 as well….

Faced with a daily commute to San Mateo — 23 miles each way — I weighed my options for driving entertainment. I could buy a 40 GB iPod to listen to music, audio books, and podcast tracks every day. I could also buy a satellite radio. I knew a lot about the iPod, but very little about satellite radio. XM Satellite Radio is the dominant player with over 2.5 million subscribers compared to SIRIUS Satellite Radio’s 600,000 subscribers. XM is $3 cheaper at $10 compared to $13 a month for Sirius. I have also been reading a lot about the…

Purdue researchers have developed a method of recognizing unique patterns specific to each printer regardless of print cartridge used. Edward J. Delp, Jan Allebach, and George Chiu developed software to recognize intrinsic signatures revealing the subtle differences from one printer to another. A second step involved extrinsic signatures from specially designed printers for purposes of identification. (via Engadget) Counterfeiters could be traced back to their printers but you would need to have the equipment on hand to compare. I doubt we will ever have to register our printers upon purchase but unless you are paying cash your new printer is…

Bill Gates will launch Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 next Tuesday, October 12, at 11 a.m. at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles….

Hideto Tomabechi claims to have developed a ringtone to increase breast size. He uses sounds “that make the brain and body move unconsciously. It’s a technique involving subliminal effects.” Tomabechi is famous for his work reversing the brainwashing of the AUM Shinrikyo doomsday cult. (via Engadget) [Update: Engadget has posted an MP3 of the ringtone….

Eliot Van Buskirk of MP3.com provided a history of the iPod scroll wheel on News.com. The scroll wheel is created by Synaptics. Synaptics also makes the scroll technology in the Creative Zen Touch….

Bill Machrone of PC Magazine decided to investigate how much power his gadgets were consuming when turned off or not in use. He found 80 watts were in use even though all of his devices were not in use. At 876 kilowatt-hours per year, the powered down gadgets account for over 9 percent of Bill’s yearly electric bill. (via Engadget) Cable box15 watts Small three-piece speaker system6 watts Larger three-piece speaker system12 watts Router6 watts Cable modem7.5 watts Laptop charger2.5 watts iPod charger0.6 watts HP OfficeJet multifucntion printer7 watts 19-inch Dell Trinitron display6 watts HP Pavillion desktop6 watts…

Later this month TiVo and Netflix will announce a new service allowing subscribers to both services to download movies to their TiVo boxes. (via Matt Haughey) Movie studios will now know who watched their movies, how many times, and at what hours of the day. All information you cannot obtain from a piece write-only media and postal mail. The move drives demand for higher capacity TiVo hardware and will make a new TiVo box a hot seller this Christmas….