books

Reading, music combined? What a concept

With so many gadgets morphing into one another, we've often wondered why the natural combination of reading and music hasn't come up more often. Oh, right: No one reads books anymore.

Maybe some people will at least use the dictionary that comes with this combo e-book reader and MP3 player from Sharp. The RD-CX100 handheld has a relatively large 4.3-inch screen and a dictionary that can store up to "63 volumes," according to Akihabara News, though it doesn't explain exactly how much data a volume comprises. No other details are provided, though photos show … Read more

A very portable holiday season

If there's anything I hate more than the mole people who are, even now, planning our destruction, it's laptops of shoulder-breaking proportions. That's why I've decided to ask Santa (Hi Mom!) for something in the ultraportable range. The Sony VAIO VGN-TXN15P/W is the king of the ultraportable laptops, with a bevy of features and an amazing battery life to boot. If, however, you're looking for something a bit more stylish, the Acer Ferrari 1004WTMi might be right up your alley. It's an excellent combination of speed and style that manages to avoid being … Read more

Newsweek's Levy adds to iPhone buzz, confirms Gates alien rumors

Last night, a mixed bag of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, publicists, and geeks flocked to a lecture hall at Manhattan's Cooper Union for the 2006 year-end edition of the NY Tech Meetup, hosted by Meetup founder Scott Heiferman himself. Okay, it wasn't really a mixed bag, as I was one of about a dozen females in the room. (CNET TV's Chris Parker taught me that the proper term for such a situation is "brodeo.")

Usually the NY Tech meetup consists of six five-minute presentations by local entrepreneurs. But last night's event had a special appearance … Read more

Google hasn't gone all goofy after all

In a keynote speech this morning at the 12th annual Cyberposium at the Harvard School of Business, Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of search products and user experience, addressed various media headlines that suggest that the company's recent product announcements and purchases are all over the map. Not so, says Mayer. In the course of an hour, she laid out four areas that Google has deemed to be important--more content, easier computing, personalization, and better search--then demonstrated how various Google products currently fit into each bucket:

More content --includes Google Book Search, Blogger, YouTube, and Google Earth

Easier computing … Read more