Gearlog Radio

Guest: Elizabeth Bastiaanse, VP Marketing, OQO, Inc.

 

San Francisco-based OQO manufactures the world’s smallest computer that runs a full version of Windows XP. The 14 oz. unit has a 3x5-inch screen, “thumb board” keyboard, and a docking station that allows the OQO unit to be connected to a standard display, keyboard, and mouse when they’re available. Selling for less than $200, The OQO Model 01 certainly qualifies as cool, but will it sell? David Coursey talks to OQO Marketing VP Elizabeth Bastiaanse.

 

Length: About 15 minutes

 

Click here to listen.

 

Link: OQO Takes Ultrapersonal Computing To Next Level

While I was on the Kensington Web site earlier today, I spotted this device. The Kensington Personal Firewall for Notebooks ($49.99) is a USB key that provides firewall protection to a notebook computer. I know what you're thinking, "My notebook already has the Windows/Norton/whatever firewall, do I need another?" I can't answer that for you, but I can point you at the specifications for the Kensington device and you can judge for yourself. The unit appears to include a number of features not offered by Windows' built-in firewall.

Think of the Kensington FlyLight 2.0 ($19.99, there are three models) as a book light for your notebook computer.  It plugs into a USB port and provides instant illumination via eight bright, energy efficient LEDs.  The long, flexible gooseneck design makes it easy to direct the light to your keyboard or anywhere else you need it.

Whether you're giving a presentation in a darkened room, using your computer on a red-eye flight, answering e-mail from your patio after dark or attempting not to disturb a sleeping significant other while surfing the Internet in bed, the FlyLight is a great, unobtrusive keyboard illumination solution.  One other use for it: if you're not sure a USB port is working, the FlyLight also makes it easy to find out by just plugging it and seeing if the light comes on.

Kensington claims the FlyLight draws less than 90 seconds of battery power per hour of use; I have not noticed any noticeable battery drain from it.  It's also light and durable for travel. 

A newer version, the FlyLight 3.0 ($24.99, shown right) lets you screw off the LED light and attach it to a special flashlight  (included) that will attach to a key ring.   The flashlight can be recharged via a computer USB port, but only offers an hour of continuous use light. This seems to me to be an easy way to lose the LED portion of the FlyLight,   If you're like me and tend to misplace things, you would probably be better off just buying the FlyLight 2.0, plus a small LED flashlight.

(The above was submitted by Lisa Halliday, who helps me with various writing projects).

I have owned one of these for a number of years and always carried it around, never needing it, until recently when I removed it from my briefcase. You can already see where this story is going: We were out in the camper van, the laptop was connected to DC power and the interior lighting was hard to get pointed at the keyboard unless you turned all the lighting on. I didn't want to do that (to save battery power) so I looked for the FlyLight and it was, of course, not in my bag. It is now, but I am thinking about putting a second one in the van so I don't have to worry about my briefcase. 

This is by far one of the coolest GPS navigational devices I've seen yet. The Garmin StreetPilot 2720 ($1,099) defies the meaning of extra features.

The new StreetPilot is WAAS-enabled with a 12-channel receiver and an internal antenna. Its 3.8-inch touch screen with a built-in light sensor is both impressive and an improvement from its earlier versions, such as the StreetPilot 2620.
 

And whether you're looking for the shortest, fastest, or off-road routes to get to your destination, the 2720 has eight different types of vehicle routing profiles (auto, truck, emergency, etc.), and nine avoidance (highway, toll road, carpool lane, etc.) preferences that you can set. You'll also find preloaded complete maps for the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, viewable in 2- and 3-dimensional. 

Read on to learn about its text-to-speech conversion, live traffic data, infrared remote control, and more.

Whatever Apple announces on Wednesday, the company certainly has one of the best buzz machines on the market. The tide seems to be turning against the iPod video theory, and towards simple 80GB capacity bump and a new silver shell. For a video iPod to be sucessful, iTunes would need to be updated to support video and that would require a lot of negociation with movie studios and so on. Evidently, that hasn't happened yet and if it did it would be tough to keep secret. Still, as the guys at GearLive said "Isn't 80GB just a tad large for an iPod that is solely dedicated to music?"

And then there is the interpretation of the invite itself. remember how telling the photo of Steve's pocket was in the Nano announcement? Semioticians are already decoding the red curtains on the press invite for this Wednesday. According to eWeek:

The invitation to Wednesday's event has a background of red stage curtains, similar to those in Apple's iDVD DVD-authoring application (or, as some have pointed out, like the curtains in Twin Peak's Black Lodge.)

I am just glad I won't have to sit through an entire TV season to find out what they mean.