RFID in Japan: Bandai announced a new toy doll for kids that responds to RFID’d objects. The toy doll, which is called Naoru-kun, acts almost like a robot: it speaks 150 different phrases including “Let’s play!” and “I..am…er…..” and responds when it’s shaken hands, hugged, petted, etc. But, the most impressive feature is its ability to get sick. So, it […]

Seattle dBusinessNews: Ecuity, Inc.,a leading enhanced Voice over Internet communications company serving the small-to-medium business and residential markets, and Azatel Communications, a manufacturer of integrated SIP and MGCP related products, announced the joint development of Voice over Dial Up service. This partnership will, for the first time, bring the innovative benefits and cost-savings of VoIP to the currently underserved residential […]

BusinessWeek: Welcome to 2005, the year the high-tech industry does…something. Truth is, you won’t find an awful lot of agreement on how things will turn out for tech this year. The most enthusiastic of forecasters say capital spending growth on tech could hit double-digits this year, while more dour Wall Street analysts say that’s just plain bunk. Certainly, plenty of […]

RFID in Japan: “Oribie Navi Land” is a GPS school bag for tracking kids. Japanese school bag manufacturer Kyowa and security systems and services company Secom are collaborating to release this product+service package this November. Secom’s GPS tracking device is called “KoKo Secom Communication Terminal” and attached to a side of a school bag to send realtime location information to […]

The Register: A US firm specialising in metadata for music files is working with a voice recognition company to enable voice-controlled music devices for use where hand control is impractical. Gracenote is working with voice recognition specialist ScanSoft and early products will be aimed at Japan. Ross Blanchard, a Gracenote veep, said voice recognition would make devices easier to use: […]

DailyCandy: There’s something really, really gross in your bathroom. Something that harbors millions of micro-organisms and tons of bacteria. A seething hotbed of icky contaminants. It’s your toothbrush (ew!), and, we hate to tell you, but it really ought to be cleaner. It can be — with the help of Violight, a new toothbrush sanitizer designed by Philippe Starck. Using […]

We Make Money Not Art: Oren Horev , Myriel Milicevic (who had worked also on the Zone project) and Marcos Weskamp designed the Amazing All-Band Radio, three innocent-looking devices that allow users to hunt short, medium and long radio waves from the comfort of their home. The antenna of the Microwave Boombox captures the high-frequency signals of wireless communication devices […]

BusinessWeek: ProfitLogic’s software is already at work in Gap and Target stores, and President Scott Friend sees many more retailers following suit. The transformative technology that entails tagging merchandise with radio frequency computer chips (RFID) is on the horizon. But ask anyone at the 2005 annual convention of the National Retail Foundation (NRF) and it’s clear that most of the […]

Gizmodo: The PetsMobility PetCell is only a concept for now, but the patent-pending collar could be great—if you don’t mind spending a lot of extra cash on your pets. The idea is simple: it’s a cell phone and GPS unit on a collar, with its own private number. Using caller ID, it automatically picks up when an approved number calls, […]

Reuters: It may only be a matter of time before we will be using our shirts to charge our cellphones. Researchers at the University of Toronto have invented a flexible plastic solar cell that is said to be five times more efficient than current methods in converting energy from the sun into electrical energy. Team leader Ted Sargent, a professor […]