Gadgets

Sometimes cell phones can be so darn apathetic! They just sit around halfheartedly ringing and alerting you to voicemail and text messages. Can't handsets show a little more joie de vivre?

We were happy to discover that Motorola thinks so. According to NewScientist.com, the company has filed a patent for a handset that dances when it gets a call.

The patent describes an ambulatory device that sits on four vibrating feet and performs "translations, rotations or compound movements." But here's where the shimmying phone could really get fun: Motorola proposes using accelerometers to let owners … Read more

While Motorola's iTunes phone has received a tepid response, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs hinted that his company may have more in store when it comes to cell phones.

In an interview with Fortune magazine, Jobs said the ROKR will not be Apple's last foray into the cell phone business.

"There are more phones yet to roll out," Jobs told the magazine. "Cingular has been great to work with."

Traffic jams rank seem to rank right up there with people's least favorite places to be before and after work.

While they are annoying, the annual amount of time the average urban commuter spent in traffic is now more than 60 hours, according to recent study by Texas A&M University's Texas Transportation Institute. All that congestion also causes 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel as well as wasted productivity.

So with a little help from Clear Channel Radio and digital map data provider Tele Atlas, Cobra Electronics has put together its NAV ONE 4500, a … Read more

Memorex unveiled its next USB drive with an LCD screen it says takes the guesswork out of remembering what is stored on the drive and how much free space is still available.

Shipping in November, the "TravelDrive ID," is a USB 2.0 standard drive that displays up to 13 characters that can be programmed to name to the drive, add a date, or identify the contents stored on it. The drive can even tell you when it is not plugged into the computer, the company said.

The device comes in three capacities: 512MB, 1GB and 2GB, priced … Read more

The forces behind the HD DVD format are headed to San Antonio, Texas, to establish a toehold in the U.S. consumer marketplace.

Toshiba, which is spearheading the charge for the format, on Thursday plans to show off an HD DVD player at Bjorn's Audio-Video in the central Texas city--"for the first time to consumers anywhere at a retail location in the United States," the company said in a press release.

For those of you close enough to drive to Bjorn's, the demos will take place at 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. … Read more

Speculation that Apple Computer would unveil a video iPod on Wednesday was right.

The iPod has "been a huge hit for us, so it's time to replace it," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said as he showed the new product at a press event. "Yes it does video."

The music player will come in a 30GB model for $299 and a 60GB for $399. Those are the same prices as current models, which have capacities of 20GB and 60GB.

Jobs kicked off the event in San Jose, Calif., by revealing a new iMac G5 that will … Read more

A handheld printer coming on the market this holiday season just might let you get in touch with your inner Martha Stewart.

The Xyron Design Runner inkjet printer lets you print directly on a variety of materials including fabric, wood, polymer clay, wallpaper and other surfaces. Previously, consumers needed to buy special printer adapters for odd-sized paper or transfer images using multi-step heat-based processes.

The printer is the brainchild of Stamford, Conn.-based Esselte's Xyron division, which is known for printers for stickers and Lexmark International, which is augmenting its acid-free inks for the product.

The printer will begin … Read more

They came from San Francisco, the Bay Area, California and beyond.

Just barely a month after the end of Burning Man 2005, thousands of so-called "burners" hit the streets of San Francisco on Sunday for a day of art, dancing, costumes and general celebration of the spirit and energy that dominate Nevada's Black Rock Desert late each summer.

The annual "Decompression" took place in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood. And except for the lack of extreme desert conditions, many on hand said the event felt like the real thing.

That's partly due to the … Read more

If you buy all the recent talk of MP3 player-induced hearing loss, you kinda got to wonder whether constantly blaring those tunes through your earbuds in amplified 3D surround sound could exacerbate that potential complication.

Aural concerns aside, sometimes you just want to crank that Nine Inch Nails way up. UpBeat Audio's new Boostaroo Revolution aims to overcome the low volume and flat-sound problems sometimes associated with listening to digital music and movies on portable players. The 6 ounce, pocket-size audio amplifier and two-way splitter drives high-end headphones or mini-speakers, quadruples (yep, quadruples) their volume and images high-definition three-channel … Read more