Gadgets

A new gadget goes on the market this spring to help prevent parents or caregivers from inadvertently leaving a child in a car seat.

The idea of forgetting a child may sound unthinkable, but Kids and Cars, which maintains a national database tracking deaths and injuries related to children left unatttended in cars, reports at least 213 such fatalities in 2005 alone. That's up from 66 such deaths tracked in 1999.

With that in mind, the Baby Alert's Child Minder--one of many child-reminder technologies for cars--works by installing the "active buckle" to existing car seat … Read more

Dogs and cats get diabetes too. Now, Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories has come out with a product aimed at helping the afflicted pets--the AlphaTrak, a handheld blood glucose monitoring system designed specifically for diabetic cats and dogs. The device allows veterinarians and pet owners to test pets' blood sugar rapidly, conveniently and accurately using a small blood sample.

Until now, handheld blood glucose meters designed for humans were commonly used to test the blood glucose levels of pets outside of the laboratory. But due to physiological differences between human and animal blood, these meters can provide inaccurate information when measuring blood … Read more

Access, the company that purchased PalmSource last year, has pledged to release a software developer's kit for the Access Linux Platform (ALP) by the end of 2006, hoping to alleviate some of the concerns over the future Palm applications.

The ALP uses a Linux kernel, Access' NetFront browser, and tried-and-true Palm applications such as HotSync and Palm Desktop, Access and PalmSource said in a release from the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona. PalmSource had started the process of converting the Palm OS to a Linux kernel before the Access aquisition was announced last September, but it doesn't look … Read more

You watch "Skating with the Stars." He watches "The Sopranos." Can the two of you share a lasting love?

Television preferences may not be the ultimate predictor of a successful union, but anyone who's ever snuggled up to a partner for an hour of "Lost"--or "Wife Swap"--knows the bliss of a shared tube mindset.

Enter TiVo's San Francisco Valentine's Day mixer, where singles will get matched according to their TiVo wish lists. "You can tell a lot about a person from the TV shows they watch!&… Read more

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has certified a new Windows Mobile phone with a QWERTY keyboard like the BlackBerry or Treo.

The phone was manufactured by Inventec, which makes notebooks and mobile phones for the major IT vendors. All products that use wireless radios to send data or voice, such as mobile phones or Wi-Fi access points, must be certified by the FCC prior to their official release in the U.S. The agency publishes the results of those tests on its Web site, which allows gadget followers to get an early glimpse of new devices--much to the consternation … Read more

Just think how awestruck your neighbors will be when they hear the sweet strains of a Stradivari violin wafting from your window.

They don't need to know you're hooked up to one of the latest releases from music software maker Garritan Orchestral Libraries. Titled Stradivari Solo Violin, the sound-ware puts the richly resonant sounds of one of the world's best violins--dating back 300 years and worth millions--into the hands of any performer with a computer and keyboard.

With the software, composers can personalize their compositions using an array of fingering and bow articulations. Dynamic and timbral changes … Read more

The day may soon come when plugging into a power socket helps fight tooth decay. Israeli company Fluorinex Active has come up with a device that uses electricity to ionize a fluoride-based gel that forms a lasting protective layer over the teeth.

The little gadget looks like the sort of tray that's used for teeth bleaching, and it comes in two models: one with rechargeable batteries, another with an external power supply. The gadget provides a small electrical current (6 to 9 volts) to activate a durable uptake of fluorides that adhere chemically to a tooth's mineral layer. … Read more

Worried about losing your connection to the outside world through your BlackBerry? The fine folks at The Onion have some suggestions for possible solutions to your dilemma.

Check it out on The Onion's site. My favorite was "Attempt to contact broker on astral plane through right combination of incense, cocaine, and fatted-calf sacrifice."

Get ready to light up, keyboard lovers. Russian designer Art Lebedev Studio, which last year enticed peripheralites everywhere with the eye-catching Optimus keyboard, has introduced a scaled-down cousin to the product--the Optimus Mini Three, an auxiliary keypad with three keys, each with a color OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen displaying a programmable function.

Think of the Mini Three as a blank sheet, with you as the artist: Each key can be customized to show a static or animated image and control some function (fetch your e-mail or launch a program, for example). The Mini Three can be situated horizontally or … Read more