Gadgets

Remember that '50s television classic, "My Mother the Car" where Jerry Van Dyke conversed with the reincarnation of his departed mother (voiced by Ann Sothern) in the form of a mid-1920s Porter automobile?

Well, automaker General Motors is handing out some of its own motherly advice through certain OnStar-equipped GM vehicles.

The company has begun a free opt-in service where OnStar subscribers receive monthly e-mails containing a diagnostic report on the status of a vehicle's engine transmission, anti-lock brakes, airbag and OnStar. If necessary, the e-mail then recommends specific types of maintenance repairs based on the vehicle'… Read more

If you're gonna go around chopping up hulking monsters, you might as well do it right (that's what Mom always says, at least). If you concur, take note that NubyTech has just upped the ante on its "Resident Evil 4" Chainsaw Controller with an enhanced version for the PlayStation 2. The blood-splattered plastic gadget, based on the infamous in-game chainsaw, is meant to enhance the gameplay's fright factor.

NubyTech already makes the accessory for the GameCube, but the new version has been redesigned down to the blood spots, reddish-orange color and display stand. The machine … Read more

The owners of the Technicolor patent technology announced a new line of broadcast industry products on Monday that are the first to use removable storage disks from Iomega as replacements for video tape.

Thompson Multimedia, through its Grass Valley property, announced a new digital camcorder and media recorder (DMR) under its Infinity brand this week at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. Both camera and VTR replacement can use either Iomega's REV or REV PRO removable disks in conjunction with solid-state flash memory instead of digital video tape for recording and playback media.

The camera is expected to … Read more

Is your child displaying early signs of Sir Mix-A-Lot-like talents? Then you might want to employ a new high-tech toy to help nurture those musical skills. The iZ is a 9-inch, tri-legged fusion of toy and music that lets kids (or adults for that matter) mix their own tunes. The space-age-looking gizmo will be out later this month from Zizzle, a new toy company founded by Furby creator Roger Shiffman.

Kids start by pressing iZ's stomach to get the beat going. Once they find a sound they like, they move to iZ's trombone-shaped right ear to add rhythm … Read more

Honda Motor on Thursday took the wraps off its first airbag designed to protect motorcyclists in the event of a crash.

The airbag will come standard on its new Gold Wing motorcycle, which is scheduled for release in late spring of 2006 in the U.S., and eventually in Europe and Japan.

The airbag module sits between the handlebars and inflates if the four sensors that monitor the bike detect a front-end crash. Honda has been working on the design as part of its Advanced Safety Vehicle (ASV) project since 1990. The company said the airbag could drastically reduce head injuries.… Read more

Logitech marked the 10th anniversary of its trackball mouse on Tuesday with the addition of four new models that feature optical-based tracking technology.

The PC peripheral maker took the wraps of its Logitech V400 Laser Cordless Mouse, the Logitech MX610 Laser Cordless Mouse, the Logitech LX7 Cordless Optical Mouse, and the Logitech V270 Cordless Optical Notebook Mouse for Bluetooth. Prices range between $59.99 and $39.99 and delivery starts this month.

The new mice are a far cry from the Logitech TrackMan Marble unveiled a decade ago. The pointing device helped reduce problems related to dust or dirt and … Read more

You could say this display's on a roll (all the while, of course, knowing that doing so might be setting yourself up for bad-pun ridicule from colleagues). Oh, well...

The Concept Readius from Philips Polymer Vision is a prototype of a functional electronic-document reader that can be folded and squeezed into a pocket. Philips calls the Readius the world's first prototype of a functional e-reader that can unroll its display to a scale larger than the device itself. All rolled up, the Readius measures in at about 4 inches by 2.5 inches by an eighth of an … Read more

The mean streets of America's cities have inspired Lincoln Steffins, the artists of the Ash Can School, Martin Scorsese and now the marketing department of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

In its latest cartoon, The Hard Drive is the New Bling, a young female extols the virtues of Hitachi's 1-inch and 1.8-inch hard drives amid towering, indifferent buildings in an inner city. A man with a boom box and gold teeth approaches her, but he falls down. She walks away with her dignity, an MP3 player, and a cell phone.

Educationally, it's not as deeply researched as … Read more

An apparent shortage of Intel chips has caused tablet PC maker Motion Computing to modify its orders for September.

According to an internal memo seen by CNET News.com, Motion's marketing department got word from Intel that there is a world-wide shortage of the Intel Pentium M Processor number 758 which is a low-voltage chip running at 1.5GHz.

"What this means is that existing orders of the Motion LE1600 tablet PC are now scheduled to ship during the first week of October. The current expected ship date for new LE1600 orders is the second week of October,&… Read more