Consumer electronics
Americans online
Forrester Research has published a new study that shows that American families are thoroughly into the Internet age. CNET writes about the report:
Tech lovers used to be dubbed geeks and nerds. According to a new report, we’re all geeks and nerds now.
Young, old, single, married–they’re all online, using PCs, watching digital TV, and chatting [...]
Profile of Steve Jobs
Anathema to some, adored by others, Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs is always in the news. He has been one of the biggest influences in the tech world but his recent health problems have caused much speculation about his future role. Whatever his future at Apple, Jobs has had a profound influence on personal [...]
Microsoft Office on your phone
The mobile platform just keeps getting more like a small computer. At CNET, Ina Fried reports:
Microsoft is expected on Wednesday to announce a partnership with European mobile giant Nokia to help get its Office software onto that company’s mobile phones, CNET News has learned.
With the next version of Office, Microsoft is trying to expand [...]
Radio Shack changing its name
I can’t remember the first time I went into a Radio Shack store- it was a very long time ago. I vaguely remember I used to buy vacuum tubes there. Except for an occasional odd adapter or a less common battery type, I have bought very little from Radio Shack for quite a while.
Remarkably, [...]
Walter Mossberg discusses his column
As I have mentioned a number of times, Walter Mossberg’s consumer electronics column in the Wall Street Journal is one of the industry’s most influential. On July 19, Mossberg was interviewed about his column and other activities on C-SPAN and you can watch the interview here. Note that this is a fairly lengthy interview.
A lot of cellphone Internet users
The Wall Street Journal reports that as of June 30, it was estimated that 338 million Chinese were using the Internet. Of these, 155 million are said to be using mobile phones for their surfing.
This latter figure may not be good news for the Wintel hegemony. As Saul Hansell wrote at the New York Times [...]
Congressional pressure suppresses study of dangers of driving and multitasking
Yesterday, I posted about the misconceptions concerning multitasking and the dangers of driving while using a cell phone. Here’s some more on the subject.
The New York Times reports that congressional pressure caused the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to suppress a study it was going to do on the dangers of using cell phones [...]
You may not be “multitasking” as well as you think
“Multitasking” is one of the buzzwords of the technological age. People have convinced themselves that they can carry out a number of different activities at the same time. It sounds very efficient but is it? In fact, research indicates otherwise. A few years back, ScienceDaily carried a piece, We Weren’t Made To Multitask, and studies [...]
Object and facial recognition for the iPhone
Speaking of different ways to interface with electronics, ZDNet reports that Apple has applied for patents on object and facial recognition:
MacRumors notes that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published “several dozen” patent applications this morning including an interesting one that covers object and facial recognition, messaging, and voice modulation.
Unwired View took a [...]
Computer interfaces of the future
As technology evolves, we can wonder how we will interface with PCs in the future. For example, touch is playing an increasing role along with the keyboard and mouse. Some touch possibilities are demonstrated by Microsoft computer scientist Johnny Chung Lee. (At Guardian. UK)
Now, when are they going to make speech a more viable interface?
Do your TV watching on your PC?
Here’s a novel idea- drop cable altogether and watch your TV programs on the Internet. At least that’s what Mike Elgan says at Computerworld:
As part of my transition to semi-nomadic living and gadget-consolidation project, I canceled my subscription to cable TV and returned the cable box and remote.
I assumed tradeoffs in this arrangement: [...]