portable-computing

Cellphone Jammer

Wouldn't you like to have one of these when some turkey in the movie theater pulls out his cell phone and babbles on forever?

The CX 200 Portable Director II is now available in Japan. This device reportedly jams the popular Japanese cell phone frequencies for 70 seconds. You can buy one (in Japan) for $71 in U.S. greenbacks.

Bluetooth-enabled Audex jacket with built-in speakers

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Motorola and Burton Snowboards have announced the commercial availability of the Bluetooth-enabled Audex Jacket Series. Jointly developed by Motorola and Burton to bring wearable technology to active consumers, the new Audex jacket allows winter sports enthusiasts to experience seamless connectivity -- at the touch of a button -- from one environment to the next.

Free High Speed Wireless Internet

This simple guide describes tools that are helpful to logging into wireless networks whether they have encryption on our not. Want to get free Internet service in your new apartment? Chances are you can by using the tools described here!

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World’s Smallest GPS Receiver

Rakon, a New Zealand company, has developed the world's smallest GPS receiver. Claimed to be as tiny as the size of a baby's fingernail, the GPS receiver chip is small enough to be fitted into devices such as watches and cellphones. As GPS becomes commonplace in our everyday gadgets, we can be sure that things will get a little more interesting.

Newton OS Runs on Linux!

Remember the Newton? Apple's early handheld computer?

The big news coming out of the 2006 Worldwide Newton Conference is that the NewtonOS runs on Linux PDA's! You read that right, we're one step closer to having a Newton running on non-Apple hardware.

You can read more at http://www.tow.com/2006/01/14/wwnc-2006/

Shootout: The Treo 700w vs the Treo 650

The inevitable has just happened. Did you ever imagine that one day a Treo product would run a Microsoft OS? It does now; the new Treo 700w smartphone runs on the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform. This strange-but-true event gives an opportunity to compare the Treo 700w with its older sibling the Treo 650, which runs on a Palm OS.

You can read the side-by-side comparison here.

FCC's new spectrum auction to bring broadband to planes

The FCC is gearing up for one of their spectrum auctions that always get the big telecoms in a tizzy. This new auction is for the airwaves currently being used to hit planes with incredibly expensive phone service. Verizon is the culprit there, but they'd like to get in on this new auction to be able to offer broadband to planes, which sounds good to us, though based on their phone charges, internet might cost more than the flight itself.

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Sharp W-ZERO3 mini-review

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A Japanese web site has published hands-on impressions of Sharp's W-ZERO3 for Willcom in Japan. Opera v8.5 (with an improved rendering engine) is available for the unit, and it is the first version of Opera designed specifically for Windows Mobile 5.0. The W-ZERO3 also takes advantage of Willcom's new W-SIM technology. The browser offers a pleasurable experience with tabs and smooth operation even while loading pages, yet the keyboard takes some getting used to. And there's still no Bluetooth.

If you read Japanese, click here for more information. Otherwise, click here for the English translation.

Verizon's new XV6700

Verizon has begun offering a branded version of HTC's Apache platform in the US, marketed by UTStarcom Personal Communications. The XV6700 runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and features a QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the side, as well as built-in WiFi and Bluetooth.

Sprint began offering its version of the XV6700 in the US, the PPC-6700, last fall.

Symbol PDA/Phone/Scanner Designed For Mobile Workers

Symbol Technologies recently unveiled its new MC70, the first Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA) to combine mobile phone, PDA, scanning and imaging capabilities.

Designed for mobile workers in the sales, service, healthcare and government industries, the MC70 combines wireless connectivity, using WAN/LAN/PAN and Bluetooth, with mobile computing capabilities via Windows Mobile 2005 OS. Other features include a touch-sensitive color 1/4 VGA display; 1D laser scanner/2D imager; a user-accessible memory (SDIO); and GPRS/GSM (EDGE). The device - which can be used indoors and out - supports 802.11a, b and g - and the quad-band cellular radio enables it to function with GSM networks around the world.

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