Easy Skateboarding

Iconoculture: Yep. Skateboarding’s popular, but not everyone’s ready to stick the sick tricks. Garage Manufacturing’s Softrucks practice (non)wheels for skateboard decks that let newbies learn, practice, and perfect tricks without wheels (or the outdoors) getting in the way. Made from flexible urethane, these stationary trucks simulate actual skating conditions to let the rider master footwork while maintaining balance. Skateboarding is […]

Disposable Phone Charger

Mobile Digest: Not entirely sure if they appeal to our environmentally-friendly side but a company called Cellboost is offering the first ever disposable battery recharger for mobile phones. As soon as your handset battery goes blink you plus the cigarette lighter style charger into the socket and you have power. Might be worth keeping a few handy in your bag […]

New High-Speed Registers

LinuxElectrons: As memory modules have evolved from slower single data rate (SDR) solutions to double data rate (DDR), the need for increasingly precise signal control has led to the increased use of registers. To address this design need, Royal Philips Electronics today announced a new family of high-speed registers for memory-intensive applications such as high-end servers and advanced computing. Optimized […]

Idiot-proof PCs For Our Grandmothers

The Register: A Dutch company has developed a PC to ease old people’s fear of computers. In May 2005 Secure Internet Machines (SIM) will introduce three versions of its simPC, which comes preloaded with software and services, such as online banking. The basic model costs €299. One model is just a flat screen with all electronics built-in. There is also […]

Ferrari Baths

Yenra: Jacuzzi has announced a new initiative called Morphosis and unveiled a new series of whirlpool baths — Alpha, Gamma, and Sigma — that were designed in conjunction with Pininfarina, legendary for their Ferrari car designs. Morphosis is a new and important Jacuzzi initiative focused on seeking out ventures in order to combine the best design aspects from outside the […]

Digital Audio Is Hot

Technology Review: Ten thousand songs in your pocket. Millions of tunes on the Internet at your fingertips. And books on tape — they’re going down the path of vinyl records. Welcome to the new world of digital audio. Though the first portable MP3 player debuted in 1999, most personal music libraries still consist of piles of CDs, and relatively few […]

How About A Green Light, Sir?

RFID in Japan: A recent article on Mainichi Shimbun discusses uses of near-future technologies including RFID. It argues that RFID tags can enhance the safety of the elderly and the handicapped at pedestrian crossings. The scenario goes as follows: The elderly and the handicapped receive RFID tags whose information is registered in a database. They wear the tags on their […]

Smiley, Happy Robots

Tech Digest: Not that we have a spare £3000 knocking around, but if we did chances are we’d invest the lot in an irobi from Yujin Robotics. Quite the cleverest robot at CES irobi is a web based perky-looking android (there’s echoes of R2D2) that does everything from home monitoring to entertaining kids with karaoke nursery rhymes. It can wander […]

Trend: Small Businesses go Virtual

TrendTracker: The future is likely to be the age of virtual businesses. The newly opened two-person office will be able to look big, established, and successful. Build a really good website, toss in some color printers, fast computers, and cell phones, and you’re halfway there. After that, it’s a question of leveraging your creativity and ability to partner with other […]

Nokia 6820 Gets An Upgrade

Tech Digest: Nokia’s 6822 has just been announced. The company’s latest messaging phone comes with that full fold out keyboard the 6820 introduced that lets you type away in full QWERTY layout. The model also comes with a VGA camera and a 65K colour display (is it wrong of us to always expect a megapixel camera on new phones?). Designed […]