collecting

Cell phones that get you noticed (roundup)

We may refer to the proliferation of glossy black and silver matte cell phones as "sleek" or "professional." But let's face it: most phones on the market are a neutral-toned, rounded-corner flood of design sameness.

Since fitting in isn't for everyone, we rounded up 10 cell phones and smartphones that stand out from the crowd.

From the super-rugged to the superfeminine, these distinctive designs and shocks of color are sure to catch your eye.

100 years of Denon

Denon will commemorate 100 years of audio innovation with its Anniversary Product Collection offerings.

One might wonder what an electronics company built in 1910, but I never really got a definitive answer at the media event held at the D&M Holdings (Denon's parent company) headquarters in Mahwah, N.J., last Thursday. True, there was some mention of the introduction of Japan's first phonograph (turntable) in 1910, but no one gave any specific information. According to Denon, it was honored to produce the very first audio recording of Japan's Emperor Hirohito's voice at the close of World War II in 1945.

Actually, the biggest surprise of the event, at least for me, was learning that Denon was founded by an American entrepreneur Frederick Whitney Horn. With Denon, he started Japan's first audio company; apparently, globalization isn't a new idea.

Denon focused most of its media event on presenting its Anniversary Product Collection's offerings, which include new amplifiers, SACD/CD and Blu-ray players, a direct-drive turntable, phono cartridge, and headphones. All of the products, except the phono cartridge and headphone, share the same $2,499 MSRP; the phono cartridge and headphone are $499 each. The Anniversary Product Collection models are limited editions and will be sold at 40 specially selected dealers in the United States starting in November. They will all be sold with five-year warranties. … Read more

More stylish Solitaire

As nostalgic as the image of the classic green Solitaire may be, 123 Free Solitaire 2009 7.1 offers the same fun plus more games and sleeker looks.

Following the quick installation, the program will ask you to choose which Solitaire game you would like to play. The list is comprised of 12 games: Diplomat, Eighteens, Flower Garden, Free Cell, Grandfather's Clock, Klondike, Pyramid, Royal Rendezvous, Spider, Spider One Suit, Spider Two Suit, and Yukon. Clicking on each will create a preview of the respective game. This preview includes an image, number of decks, game time, difficulty level, skill … Read more

Congress wants hearing over Google Wi-Fi

Google told a congressional committee in a letter this week that it doesn't believe its Wi-Fi data-gathering scandal broke any laws, but that might not be enough to satisfy their inquiries.

File it under the what-else-are-they-going-say department, but Google's letter to three members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee apologized for the personal wireless data gathered as part of its Street View project and said it had stopped gathering all data on wireless hot spots in the U.S. Google disclosed in May that in addition to collecting wireless data that helps improve mapping services, it had … Read more

AppTools: 100 apps for 99 cents

Remember App Genie, an iPhone app that combines 27 handy tools into a single 99 cent app? What a rip-off!

I'm kidding, of course--I still like App Genie and consider it a great value. It's just that the new AppTools raises the bar to a whopping 100 tools, all for that same 99 cents. Let me say that again: 100 apps, 99 cents. I think that sets a new record for the "toolbox app" category.

Ah, but are the apps any good? And are they organized into a simple, efficient interface?

Let's start with the apps. Here's a small, random sampling of what you'll find inside AppTools: a bubble level, a mosquito repellent, a talking compass, a talking mortgage calculator, a non-talking car-loan calculator, a magic 8-ball, and a unit converter.

There's value in some of these tools, like the various calculators, the pedometer, the "Where Am I?" location app, and the flashlight. I particularly like the Search DVD Preview app that scans DVD-case bar codes and then finds matching clips in YouTube. Try it out the next time you're trying to decide on a movie at the local video store.

But as you might expect from an app collection that numbers in the three digits, AppTools serves up some stinkers. For example, know what you'll find inside iRecipes? Exactly five recipes, one each for brownies, cheesecake, cookies (variety undisclosed), pear cake, and turkey.

I could go on--and on--but I'll just leave it at this: There's a lot of junk in here.… Read more

Logitech wants to click with your fantasies

Logitech is ready to indulge your deepest fantasies--if, that is, those fantasies involve a pink or blue computer mouse with a pattern on it. The device maker is out with a new Fantasy Collection, a series of peripherals including mice, keyboards, portable lap desks, and Webcams, in various colors and designs.

The Blue Swirl motif, for example, features asymmetric, overlapping rings inspired by the ripple effect from a raindrop on a still pond. The Pink Balance design, described as "daring, exciting, flirty, playful, and spirited," shows an artful leaping acrobat. All offerings in the Fantasy Collection (more than … Read more

IBM software to help states grab back taxes

States hungry to grab billions in back taxes can now call in the big guns in the form of IBM.

Big Blue announced on Monday new Tax Collections Optimizer software designed to help state governments more effectively collect money owed from deliquent taxpayers.

The software uses data analytics to determine the total amount of back taxes owed. It then compares those findings with the existing workload and available staffing at state tax agencies and recommends the best methods for collecting those taxes.

Specifically, the software analyzes certain taxpayer information, such as the total amount of money due and an individual'… Read more

Link locker

Although many people are devoted users of a single browser, many others find themselves switching back and forth between different browsers, depending on what they're doing. We tend to favor Firefox, for example, but we often find ourselves testing add-ons for Chrome and Internet Explorer and then--in the case of Chrome, anyway--hanging around in that browser for a while. This gets to be a problem when we want to visit a site we have bookmarked, only to find that we never bookmarked the site in the browser we're using. Link Commander Lite is a simple solution to this … Read more

What Apple's and Microsoft's patent threats mean for start-ups

Perhaps retirement doesn't suit former Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz.

Just weeks into his post-Sun life, Schwartz offers some delicious anecdotes in a blog post, summarizing Apple's and Microsoft's threats to sue Sun for patent infringement as more about bluster than substance.

But that's not the lesson I learn from Schwartz's commentary.

Instead, what is immediately obvious to me is that a) the technology industry is a morass of conflicting patent claims, b) since there's really no way to completely avoid others' patents the best defense is to have a hefty counterbalancing patent portfolio … Read more