Gadgets

Charge me up, Scotty

A new lithium-ion battery by Toshiba will recharge to 80 percent in just a minute, the company has announced.

A full recharge of the Super Charge battery, which uses nanoparticles to store vast amounts of lithium ions, can be achieved in 10 minutes, Toshiba says. That's about 60 times faster than conventional batteries.

Expect to see the new battery powering Toshiba notebooks and mobile phones as early as 2006. It might, however, show up earlier in other products, including some within the automotive industry.

Taking the needle out of injections

Researchers at two different campuses of the University of California are working on projects that would allow doctors to give injections without a shot.

A group of researchers at UC Santa Barbara led by chemical engineering professor Samir Mitragotri recently published a paper on their progress with chemical penetration enhancers (CPEs), designer molecules that absorb through the skin. So far, the group has devised 300 CPEs. CPEs help medicines get inside the body by navigating through the stratum corneum, that outer layer of dead cells and proteins that you show off every day.

Meanwhile, researchers from UC Berkeley earlier this … Read more

Kleiner Perkins hiring for start-up in stealth mode

Working for a start-up can be tricky--the rewards can be big but the risks are often major, too. If you're a gambler, you might as well play the odds and hook up with well-funded start-up. In the venture capital world, one of the most prominent and successful firms is Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which happens to be looking for someone to join a start-up in stealth mode developing a new consumer electronics product.

The VC company remains mum on details--if you hear, drop us a line--other than saying that the job is for a consumer market research manager … Read more

Heated reception for TiVo ad test

TiVo subscribers are heatedly debating the ads the company began testing this past weekend.

Considered low-hanging fruit for TiVo and revolutionary at the same time--helping to make the 30-second television commercial spot more engaging and effective to advertisers--users were quick to voice opinions in our TalkBack area and on TiVo community forums. Some weren't offended by the ads and said others were making mountains out of mole hills. Some of those displeased with the pop-up tags claimed they would be canceling their service.

Keep your eyes peeled; used TiVo DVRs may be hitting online auctions soon.

iPod bandits targeting subways

You might want to hide that iPod. The ubiquitious music player with the telltale white headphones has caused a 20 percent spike in robberies on New York subways, the New York Daily News says.

The paper reported on Tuesday that the popular music device has become a favorite target for thieves scouting the trains for valuables.

New York subway felonies, overall, are up 14 percent through mid-March compared with the same period last year, according to police statistics, and underground robberies have shot up nearly 20 percent.

"The common denominator are iPods," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said. &… Read more

Does new TiVo ad feature make any sense?

TiVo has released the first in a series of new advertising tools it will be testing. The feature, a tag, pops up when viewers fast-forward through an advertisement. If viewers press the thumbs-up or select button in the half second the tag is displayed, they will be redirected to a menu presenting more information about the advertised product.

This begs the question: If I'm fast-forwarding through an advertisement, isn't that a clear indication I'm not interested in the product and therefore unlikely to press a button asking for more information?

TiVo has tested other interactive features--such as … Read more

Got 'BlackBerry Thumb'? Rest UR digits

Anyone who sits in front of a computer all day has probably had a wrist twitch-inspired "maybe I have Carpal Tunnel" moment.

Well, worry-prone technophiles, here's another malady to add to your list of concerns: BlackBerry Thumb, a trendy new repetitive-stress injury said to afflict those who excessively use their thumbs to pound out e-mails and text messages on tiny handheld keyboards.

According to the Newark Star Ledger, as the sizes and prices of handheld typing devices continue to shrink, some U.S. doctors and physical therapists are urging consumers to treat their on-the-go text messaging as … Read more

Looking to make a statement about Fox News?

Former Republican Sam Kimery and business partner Joshua Montgomery are hocking a TV device that blocks access to the Fox News channel. The gadget, called the Fox Blocker, costs $8.95 and essentially filters out Fox News from your cable line up. The device can likely block out any channel--we weren't able to confirm, as neither inventor returned e-mails--but the point is you're making a statement with your purchase, which is clearer from the e-mail that is sent to Fox News advertisers.

With your purchase of the Fox Blocker, an e-mail in your name will be sent to … Read more

No more rude awakenings?

Maybe it has something to do with the imminent arrival of Daylight Savings Time, but alarm clocks have been attracting the attention of industrial designers and even venture capitalists.

With one new timepiece that's still in the labs, you become part of the alarm clock itself. The SleepSmart device from Axon Sleep Research Laboratories requires that you wear a headband that monitors your brain waves to see whether you're in a light sleep--and thus, presumably, ready and raring to go--or in a deeper phase of sleep that can only hear the alarm as a very rude awakening. The … Read more