Closed

No peeking!

In all its splendor

A stand-up product

OK, well, it IS another iPod case. But it's one that I will keep using. First, I like the protection the sturdy leather gives to the delicate nano. I also like the form factor of the Pacific Design iPod nanoGo Wallet; it makes the nano easy to find in my bag, without adding much bulk or weight.

I really like that you can wrap your earbud wires (and tuck the phones behind a snap in the back); keeps them neat and untangled. And I like that it opens up on the side, so you can slip change, cards, or bills inside; there is also a plastic slot on the back for, say, an ID card, or any card you might want to have at hand quickly. I like the clip (there's also a wrist strap in the package). And I like the design. At left is Carbon Black; it also comes in Precious Pink (Ick! I don't like that name much).

There you have it: I like the nanoGo more than most any case I've tried. I found it for $23.95 at Amazon; looks like it's more elsewhere. 

Will T-Mobile actually build out a nationwide 3G UMTS network before Cingular does? The Tea Mob got a big boost from the final results of the most recent FCC spectrum auctions, where the government sold off chunks of the 1700 Mhz and 2100 Mhz bands. Both bands are prime territory for 3G cellular technology; in fact, most of the rest of the world has installed 3G on a slightly different segment of 2100 Mhz than we'll be using.

T-Mobile grabbed swathes of spectrum nationwide, winning 120 bids covering 474 million people. Yes, there are fewer than 474 million people in the US; that just means they grabbed multiple chunks of spectrum in some metro areas. A T-Mobile press release says the licenses cover "the continental United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico/US Virgin Islands, Alaska, and major markets including New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago."

T-Mobile has historically been squeezed for spectrum, which is one of the reasons they haven't rolled out 3G before now. This big land grab puts them on track to deliver UMTS in 2007 as they've hinted at.

Other big winners include NextWave, a holding company with a lot of interest in mobile WiMax that intends to "... deliver advanced, mobile broadband products and services to the market" under other companies' brands (read: spectrum for hire!) and SpectrumCo, a consortium of cable companies allied with Sprint. Sprint, you may recall, has already said that they're planning to roll out nationwide WiMax as their 4G strategy.

In terms of the largest, "regional" licenses, T-Mobile grabbed at least one for every region of the country except Alaska. The most expensive license was a terrifying 1.3 billion spent for 20 Mhz in the Northeast US, sniped by Verizon from under T-Mobile's nose.

From my personal perspective here in NYC, I'm thrilled to see that MetroPCS won two 10 Mhz slices of spectrum here. MetroPCS is well known in other cities for their cheap flat-rate wireless plans, and New York needs the additional competition.

Do your own reporting at the FCC site and tell us what you find.

In an innovative design change from boring cell phone cases and holsters, Rivet Wraps are open on both ends; you slide your phone in and clip the Wrap to your belt loop, your handbag, or whatever you want. I've been using one for a few weeks now; initially I was nervous that my phone would slide out accidentally, but it stays put. Then when I want to use it, I can slide it out easily. I have my phone clipped to a strap on my purse, and it sure beats digging around in the dark depths to find it. I like the styles, too: Simple and classy.

While you're at Rivet's site, check out some of its other products; I like the Rivet system that lets you clip and unclip your gadgets to lanyards, belts, car dashboards... handy.

The Rivet Wraps come in two styles, Leather and Sport (shown at left) and a variety of colorways, for $24.99 each.

Around the office, I'm known as the "Weird Hunter". Don't ask me how I manage to find the wackiest and weirdest products out there. Maybe I just have a knack for weirdness!

This time around, I found the ten strangest robots from all over the world. 

Amongst the list, you'll read about an Einstein bot (that talks and walks), a very real-like kitty robot (that knows when it's being spanked), and a roller-skating robot!

Check out these far-out robots and more over at PCMag.com.

No matter how many streets, intersections, and points of interest you add to your car's navigation-system database, it's hard to soak up more than a couple gigabytes of space. When your car goes beyond keeping data on a CD or DVD, and has an in-dash hard disk of 20GB or 30GB—expect more than 100GB by end of the decade—what do you do with the extra storage? How about storing photos of the route, along with MP3s?

SLIDESHOW (4)

Slideshow | All Shots

That's the plan of Pictometry, a company based in Rochester, New York that does oblique aerial mapping. Take a look at our slideshow (right) to see some sample photos of downtown Las Vegas. Using low-flying airplanes, Pictometry takes digital photographs of streets and buildings from multiple 45-degree angles, so images are easy to understand without the need of a CIA photo interpreter. Already, Pictometry is helping to plan golf courses, give SWAT teams a look at the area where a suspect is holed up, and let nosy assessors see if your neighbor added a pool without a permit. Windows Live Local uses Pictometry images, too.

With hard-disk-based car navigation systems, says senior vice-president Charles Mondello, there'd be room for images of major intersections, buildings, and points of interest. A four-way intersection would have four images, one for each road facing the intersection. And an aerial view makes it easier to understand an intersection than a photograph taken from car level does.

Pictometry showed a prototype at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, working with Panasonic and 3DVU. One of the challenges for Pictometry is getting automakers to set reasonable expectations. Having been burned by moving too slowly on tech in the past, some automakers would like every mile of every highway mapped, never mind that you'd need terabyte hard drives in-dash to stash the data.

For automakers, it's also a race to prove the value of $2,000 in-dash nav systems when portable devices do the basics for $500, and cell phones for $10 a month. So cars have real-time traffic reports, Zagat restaurant ratings, and shortly, predictive traffic information. Birds-eye-view photos of routes would be one more benefit. But as cars obtain high-speed data access (that's what your cell phone provides), any device with storage or a fast connection could provide photo route guidance. Tech is a great leveler.

We were right about those color nanos, but that isn't the biggest story this week. Our top story is how Apple is poised to compete against everyone from Netflix to CinemaNow with its upcoming iTV. Then PJ Jacobowitz makes Verizon very angry by explaining how to hack your RAZR V3c. Dan and Terry share their digital camera shooting secrets from Olympus Fashion Week. Then, Jen explains how she enticed one PC Mag staffer to don a rubber wetsuit and Darth Vader mask.

Posts discussed on this week's show:

• Apple's Latest Bite: New iPods, iTunes Movies
• How to Hack Your RAZR
• Costa Living: LiveView From Olympus Fashion Week
• Olympus e-330: A New View for D-SLRs
• Question of the Week: Will the BluScreen Kill Privacy?
• Neoprene for Nerds

DOWNLOAD THE MP3 HERE.

Hosts: Dan Costa, Jen DeLeo

Panelists: Terry Sullivan, P.J. Jacobowitz, Carol Mangis, Joel Santo Domingo
Audio Engineer: Scott Bernstein

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-> Subscribe to the Gearlog Radio podcast in iTunes

-> Subscribe to the Gearlog Radio podcast via RSS

A couple weeks ago, we asked readers to weigh in on the news that the U.S. was going to be issuing passports with RFID chips embedded in them. Even though the passports are supposed to be shielded, and the chips will have a very short range, many of us are concerned about keeping our info private. (We also discussed the issue on Gearlog Radio, the September 13 podcast).

Matthew from Mobile Edge saw the post and let me know that in Q4 of this year, the company will be shipping passport covers with extra shielding built in; might be the extra protection that makes us feel better about the whole thing:

"The new leather Mobile Edge Passport Wallet protects your passport from unwanted RFID access using their exclusive Wireless Security Shield™ (WSS) technology.  The patent pending design incorporates a Zinc lined material that has conductive fibers woven into the fabric, which blocks out electromagnetic waves and radio frequencies ensuring ultimate ID security. "

The WSS Passport will sell for $29.99 (list).

Hungry for an Apple? On the heels of the company's release of brand new 'pods and such, Apple is looking to empty their warehouses of old (but not rotten) iPods.  How? By offering up to $170 off refurbished 30GB and 60GB iPods with video, that's how. Get all the details at Dealhack.com.

I have mixed feeling about refurbished products--it's almost like buying a rental car. But they are covered under a one-year warranty and stamped with Apple's certification, so that makes it a bit less sketchy.

Here's what our audio expert Mike had to say about this iPod, in his review last year:

". . .video looks excellent on the new model's 2.5-inch screen, and the thinner profile—not to mention new audio capabilities such as high-quality stereo recording—makes it more versatile than previous generations."

Also, check out our review of the 2nd gen iPod nano, and all of our Apple coverage.

The 85-percent-ethanol, 15-percent-gasoline mixture called E85 may not live up to its hype. While it does appear to reduce emissions as claimed, you get worse fuel economy: So poor that using $3-a-gallon E85 would be like burning $4-a-gallon regular gasoline, says Consumer Reports.

That assumes you can even find E85. In its October 2006 issue, the magazine states that E85 is mostly distributed in Midwestern states, closer to the cornfields that provide much of the organic matter that is distilled into non-drinkable ethanol, or grain alcohol. Of the 175,000 gas stations nationwide, fewer than 1,000 pump E85. (For a list, see the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition's Web site). New York State, for instance, has only two stations, and New England has none at all.

In a test of a 2007 flex-fuel Chevrolet Tahoe, Consumer Reports found that overall economy with E85 fell from 14 mpg to 10 mpg (29 percent), acceleration of 0-to-60 mph improved from 9.1 to 8.9 seconds (2 percent), and nitrogen oxide emissions fell from 9 parts per million to 1 ppm (89 percent)—although hydrocarbon emissions remained unchanged at 1 ppm, and carbon monoxide was unchanged at a measured 0 ppm.

Automakers incur a cost in building flexible-fuel vehicles, which can run on anything from pure gasoline to the most commonly sold gasoline, already about 10 percent ethanol (in that mix, ethanol acts as an oxygenate to reduce smog), to E85. Higher-quality fuel-line fittings are required, because ethanol is corrosive (and that's why you shouldn't ever use E85 in a vehicle that isn't flex-fuel certified). The cost is an estimated $200 per vehicle. Getting E85 to the consumer also costs more: Because it's easily contaminated (ethanol soaks up moisture), it can't be transported through existing gasoline pipelines and has to travel by more costly rail, truck, or barge.

There's also a benefit, however: The government lets flex-fuel vehicles pretend they get two-thirds better mileage than gas-engine vehicles, even though actual mileage numbers are worse. A Tahoe that gets 21 mpg (highway) is actually rated at 35 mpg, for purposes of calculating the Corporate Average Fuel Economy rating, currently 27.5 mpg for cars and 21.6 mpg for light trucks. And that's for a vehicle whose best observed economy, highway-only driving, was measured by Consumer Reports at 15 mpg with E85 (and 21 mpg with gasoline). The EPA fuel-economy number that appears on the window sticker of a flex-fuel car is its gasoline mpg rating, not the E85 calculation.

Others have noted additional issues with ethanol-based fuels, starting with the problem of whether the U.S. can actually grow enough corn to feed the country, produce ethanol for the 10-percent oxygenate-blended gasoline, and create significant quantities of E85 fuels. To grow enough corn (or other crops) to run all vehicles on E85, Popular Mechanics said in its May 2006 issue, the U.S. would need to repurpose two-thirds of its 938 million acres of farmland. And a debate is ongoing about the net energy balance of ethanol—the amount of energy in a gallon of ethanol fuel minus the energy used to raise crops, transport them to an ethanol distillery, and then get the finished product to the customer. Studies have produced numbers ranging from a 30 percent loss to a 40 percent gain; most report a positive energy balance of 20 percent or more, using current production techniques.

To read more about alternative fuels, click here.

To read about moonshine fuel, click here.

For our review of the Chevrolet Tahoe, click here.

So much for televisions and projectors: The myvu iPod may change your outlook on viewing video (or so the company says). Since the last time the myvu graced Gearlog, quite a bit has changed. The myvu goggles are still compatible with each iPod-with-video iteration (30GB, 60GB, and 80GB) and offer you the viewing experience of a 27-inch screen from 6 feet away. You just plug the included connector into the dock connector of your iPod, choose your favorite video, strap the glasses on, and view away, in your own virtual environment.

The myvu still comes with a pair of noise-reducing headphones, but MicroOptical threw in a few more goodies, including a video pendant, which acts as a remote control to let you control your video without using the iPod controls. It also did away with the requirement for three AAA batteries; the myvu now has an internal battery that can be charged with the included AC adapter, or a car charger. Why would anyone need a car charger? Consider this scenario: I get in my car. I have my iPod with "Die Hard" on it (yes, I'm that guy), and my myvu goggles. Chances of me not picking the goggles up and trying to drive at the same time? Very slim. 

But with the myvu's new, quite high price of $399 (more than an iPod itself), you won't be seeing me on the road with these on any time soon. (And I'm sure you're glad to hear that.)

Post by Don Reisinger

The first product you'll need to "geek your cube" is a personal stress reliever!

According to the American Institute of Stress, up to 90% of all health problems are related to stress. Even when you don't think you're stressed, you probably are. I learned this by testing HeartMath's emWave Personal Stress Reliever.

Description. Developed by Doc Childre, the emWave Personal Stress Reliever is a device that "objectively monitors your heart rhythms and confirms when you are in the coherence mode." Most people will try taking deep breaths or walking around to alleviate stress. However, sometimes these activities can make you even more stressed. The emWave is all about achieving "psychophysiological coherence," a sustained state of positive feeling, similar to what athletes feel when they are in the zone. When you experience stress such as tension, anxiety or anger, your heart rhythm becomes irregular, consequently negatively affecting your health, brain function, and performance. However, when you're experiencing postive feelings such as appreciation, joy or love, your heart rhythm becomes more regular and coherent.

There are three levels of coherence detected by the emWave:

Red = Low Coherence (stressed)
Blue = Medium Coherence (semi-stressed)
Green = High Coherence (relaxed)

Objective. To reach a high coherence level (green). While you're inhaling and exhaling, think of something positive. Every five seconds you maintain the blue and green levels while breathing in and out, a blue light will be added in the Heart Action strip. But if you go back to the red level, lights will be subtracted from the strip. Each time you fill the strip with lights, you'll hear a sound and the process will start over. You can change your challenge level when you first power the device by giving a short press on the top of the sensor button. There are four Challenge levels altogether.

Performance. When I tested the emWave, it took me about a minute to read a high coherence level. What worked for me was to first practice breathing in and out by watching the heart strip. Once I had a good pace going, I closed my eyes and thought about being on a bed of flowers. I also tried looking at a picture of my boyfriend and I to achieve a high coherence level, but it never seemed to work because background noise at work distracted me. So closing my eyes and thinking positive emotions worked the best. After wearing the sensor for about fifteen minutes, my coherence ratio was 60% high coherence, 10% medium coherence, and 30% low coherence. I noticed that while using the device, my coherence level went into the red when I opened my inbox to 40 unread messages! But when I started reading about a cool gadget, my coherence level went from red to blue to green.

The emWave comes in silver or blue and includes an AC adapter, ear sensor cable, carrying case, and the Coherence Coach CD. Purchase the emWave Personal Stress Reliever for $199.

Learn how the emWave works and my overall impression.

The emWave is actually the simplified and portable version of the Freeze-Framer, which has been used by over 700 healthcare professionals. Also developed by HeartMath, the Freeze-Framer is a software program designed to combat stress. It comes with a USB sensor to monitor your stress level.

How Does It Work? Turn the emWave on by holding down the red Sensor button. Connect the ear sensor to the device and attach the clip to your earlobe. The pulse indicator (on the left of the sensor button) will flash when it's reading your pulse. Then you will see rising and falling blue lights in the center strip. If you're holding the device upright with the pulse indicator on the bottom, the rising lights means to inhale; falling lights mean to exhale. (Don't worry if you can't keep up with the lights; the device will adapt to your breathing patterns.) The Coherence Level indicator will glow red, blue, or green to indicate your coherence level.

At any point of the session, you can view the percentage of time you have been in each coherence level. A short press on the top of the sensor will display for five seconds your Coherence Ratio. You can also use the included CD called the Coherence Coach to help you more with reaching high coherence levels.

Overall. I found my experience with the emWave to be satisfactory. When I was feeling stressed, or when I wanted to see if I was stressed, I'd use the emWave to prevent or alleviate my stress. I like how it regulates your breathing and shows your heart rate, allowing me to fully concentrate on positive thinking. There were times when I felt it was hard to breath so regularly, but that just goes to show that I need to pay attention more to my breathing to feel relaxed.
 

emWave Facts:

• 2.2 ounces
• About the size of a closed flip phone
• Brightness control
• Audio feedback
• Rechargable lithium battery
• Coherence Coach CD works on both Windows and Macs
• 15 years of research on relationship between stress and emotion

Haiku Review: HP Scanjet N6010

         Low-cost, scans with ease.
         Can't handle business cards well
         and performs quite slow.

The full length, free-verse version of the HP Scanjet N6010 review can be found at PCMag.com.

It may be back to school season, but many of us have been slaving away at the office all summer long! Sure, we've been able to take a vacation here and there, but we don't get anything special for work once September hits. Kids get new clothes, new shoes, new backpacks, new jewelry...they even come up with new slang terms to try on their friends.

But what do we get for making the moolah? More work, longer hours, tired eyes, and sore butts from sitting at the computer all day!! We feel your pain. That's why Gearlog is forcing the working world to get out there and spoil themselves with new office gadgets!

For the next couple of weeks, our readers can get a daily dose of must-have office gadgets. We'll tell you how well (or how bad) that gadget works, and whether we recommend it for your cube or office.

So kick back and get ready to geek your cube (on your lunch break of course)!

Oh yeah, and that's my cube geeked out at the right!!

Royal PX100MX Crosscut Shredder

Jabra BT160 Customizable Bluetooth Headset

USB Aroma Fragrance Oil Burner

Push Pin Lamp

Cube World Digital Stick People

USB G-Gloves

Floating LCD Clock and Shuttle

USB Beverage Chiller

emWave Personal Stress Reliever

...Stay tuned for more as I add them!