TOKYO-Navigation, real-time traffic information, and accident avoidance are the goals of an ambitious telematics system being shown by Nissan at the annual CEATEC show in Tokyo. CEATEC (the acronym stands for Combined Exhibit of Advanced Technologies) is a week-long high-technology exhibition that is part consumer electronics, part automotive, and part components.

SLIDESHOW (12)

Slideshow | All Shots

The CarWings and Smart Roads services from Nissan were among the dozens of key technologies shown. Other companies showed enhanced navigation systems, 3D displays, and Bluetooth entertainment systems.

The slideshow (right) gives a tour of our favorite automotive technologies.

To read about car tech at the Paris Auto Show, click here.

Car theft is a growing concern in Jamaica, where thousands of vehicles are reported stolen every year. Jamaican residents and companies have turned to TerraTrace, a new vehicle-tracking GPS technology developed by a company called Archetype.

The TerraTrace system uses a compact GPS tracking device that is embedded inside your vehicle. The tracking module transmits the vehicle's position over GSM cellular networks to a central server where authorized users can view the vehicle's location and movement on a digital roadmap. The system also automatically records data for historical playback, providing court-admissible evidence of the car's movements.

A major Jamaican security company, Hawkeye Electronic Security, has used the technology in collaboration with Jamaican law enforcement to quickly locate and recover stolen cars. Hawkeye has installed the system for individuals and companies and reports that TerraTrace has already played a critical role in recovering two stolen rental vehicles. In the first case, a rental car from Montego Bay reported missing was tracked by TerraTrace in Linstead, about 100 miles away. Police were able to recover the car a few hours later. Another car, stolen in Kingston, was located and recovered in less than 2 hours.

TerraTrace is also available for U.S. companies through Archetype's Web site.

To read more GPS news, click here.

I'm always skeptical when I receive press releases with the words, "World's Best" in the subject line, especially when you'd waste a whole paycheck for the price of that product!

ULTRASONE of America released the Edition 9 headphones, the "World's Best Headphones". But why do they have to cost $1,500? Probably because these headphones are limited edition, are crafted from titanium, chrome, and Ethiopian sheep leather, and they reduce electromagnetic field radiation (you know how they say your cell phone causes cancer), by up to 98%.

Ultrasone's S-Logic technology "reduces sound pressure to the eardrums by an astonishing 40%, while delivering the listener an amazing natural surround sound effect." Here are some of the Edition 9's technical specs:

• Frequency range 8Hz-35.000 Hz
• 40 mm Titanium-Mylar drivers
• Impedance 30 ohm
• Weight without cord 310 g

Cathy Kelly, President of ULTRASONE of America, LLC explains that the company's "collectors series, beginning with the Edition 7 release 2 years ago, will appeal to the true audiophile, and symbolizes our commitment to headphones. We build only headphones, and we build the best." For $1,500, I would hope they are the best!

DLTV's Patrick Norton says that the most expensive headphones he's seen are the Stax headphones amp combo that runs $3,800. He also notes that Ultrasone's are popular with the DJ set, which makes sense for the price, but I can't say I've ever seen DJ Skribble wearing 'em!
 

The Edition 9s will be on display at the Audio Engineering Society show in San Francisco tomorrow and available for purchase through Ultrasone.

As an old-timer, I remember when you could spend a pocket full of change to play classic games like Asteroids, Missile Command, and Centipede in the local arcade. Now you can actually stash these games in your pocket. 

The Atari Plug 'N Play Keychains, from Basic Fun ($14.95), look like mini versions of the old-school Atari 2006 paddle and joystick controllers. A separate pocket-size (or so they say) reel holds a 6-foot cord with RCA connectors that lets you plug into a TV. There are two versions of the joystick, one with Atari 2600 versions of Asteroids and Centipede, and one with Milipede and Missile Command. The paddle features the original Pong, along with Breakout and Warlords.

The graphics are on a par with the original games, but the controllers are a little small to make for serious gameplay. Any other fogeys who played these games in the arcades knows what I'm talking about.

Post by Peter Suciu

The next time you're love-making and hear music playing but swear you turned the radio off, the music may be coming from your condom.

Hryhory Chausovsky, a Ukrainian scientist, developed a condom that plays music during sex. That's right! Your condom may be the next star to hit Broadway! Chausovsky "developed the birth control device as a novelty, and as an aid for more pleasurable love-making." I don't know--I think my boyfriend and I get along just fine without music playing from his piece!

How It Works: The musical condom is said to contain a mini speaker and motion sensor in the condom's upper cuff. Gee, that can't be very comfortable!! He goes on to explain that "as the sex becomes more passionate, it registers the increased speed of the movements and plays the melody faster and louder." So, I suppose it's similar to those devices that move along to the beat of your iPod! And would this even be safe to wear? According to the mad scientist, "Testing has shown no danger of electric shock to users of the device." Good, because people may mistake the shock for a real orgasm!

Although we haven't received this product in for testing, I'm guessing it doesn't produce pleasurable-enough sound. (Our audio analyst Mike Kobrin will have to be the judge of that though.) However, the scientist is working on ways to improve the condom's sound quality. Utilizing subwoofers maybe?

And just so you don't think I'm joking, Chausovsky is actively seeking finacial supporters in order to bring the musical condom to mass production. I wonder though: Will he make a musical diaphragm too?

[via Dave's Daily and Newinpress.com]

Like my colleague Cisco, I've had a little misfortune lately that required a bunch of bedrest.  While nursing a sprained ankle, I got to catch up on a bunch of programs I've recorded on my TiVo. 

I recently moved, and while we love the new house, I had a problem with my first-gen TiVo: the phone wall jack was nowhere near the TV.  In my old apartment, it was simple: I just ran a phone cord around the room along the floor, and into the TiVo for its weekly updates.  I tacked the cord to the wall, so it wasn't stepped on or run over with the vaccuum cleaner.  In the new house, there are two walk-in closet doors and the bathroom door between the TV and the wall phone jack.  And since my wife has decorated our bedroom in a minimalist style, I couldn't run an "ugly" 80 foot cord along the wall and over the door thresholds.  I've managed by pulling out a spooled phone cord once a week to do the update manually. 

About a month ago, I was rooting around in our test equipment vault, and I found the HWN AirWay 516 starter kit, with a cordless "DataJack".  The system's cordless phone worked as advertised, but when I hooked the DataJack up to my TiVo, it wouldn't call out.  It recognized the dial tone, dialed out, but couldn't connect.  So I had a $700 cordless phone on my hands.  The AirWay made its way back to the vault the next day.

Enter the DUALjack (or Du@ljack).  Luckily, a week before my mishap, I connected a DUALjack wireless phone extender to my TiVo.  On the DUALjack, there's a dual mode switch for connecting a modem/fax/DVR or connecting an analog phone.  I selected the modem/fax/DVR setting and plugged it in.  It worked, lickety-split and my TiVo happily auto-updated itself, so I could catch up on Mythbusters, Good Eats, and the other shows I've recorded. 

The DUALjack works on the 2.4GHz frequencies, which are also used by 802.11 b/g, but I didn't have any trouble using my home's Wi-Fi network while my TiVo was phoning home base. 

The DUALjack goes for about $90, which may seem a bit steep, but it is cheaper and more convenient than installing a new hardwired phone jack in the room.

It was hard for me to pose the “Do You Recycle?” question of the week a few days ago on Gearlog, knowing full well I am a pretty big e-waste offender myself. Last year, after stripping all the valuable components, I left my old PC in the garbage room of my building, with just a minor concern about how it would be disposed of. Just the other day I made a co-worker throw away a coffee cup filled with batteries that she had been hoarding in her office for what looked like years. The batteries were actually leaking acid, but she was afraid to toss them. This is one problem with recycling electronics these days: The well-meaning turn their offices into private Superfund sites, while the uncaring just dump old electronics in the trash. There has to be a better way. I say, it starts with a Green Tax on consumer electronics.

Oh, yes: I am calling for higher taxes, even with a national election just a few weeks away, and a regressive one to boot! So much for my political instincts. I don't mean a big tax--maybe even as little 2 or 3 percent of the purchase price, to handle the cost of disposing of the gadget. Right now, manufacturers like HP and Apple charge anywhere from $13 to $30 to dispose of your old computer. Why not move the charge to the time of purchase?

The problem is that consumers feel disconnected from the environmental hazards that high-tech trash poses. Cancer rates are rising, aquifers are tainted, and rivers and oceans are filling with dioxin-laden fish, but the wonderful thing about landfills is that they are usually in someone else's backyard. These days, we're even exporting our tech trash to other countries, usually poor ones. How's that for NIMBY economics?

This brings me back to my idea of adding a disposal fee to the price of tech gadgets. Many states charge a 5- or 10-cent deposit on plastic and glass bottles, the result of a so-called Bottle Bill. Return the bottle, and you get your deposit back. Sure, many people just throw bottles away anyway, but interesting things happen when you place a value on something that used to have none. Infrastructures started to develop to support the recycling of these bottles—first at a few stores, then more. Then towns started splitting off recycling at the dump. And yes, the abject poor started collecting cans from trash bins and wheeling them around the city in grocery carts.

This may seem like small-time stuff compared to the enormity of the tech-trash problem. According to the EPA, only 10 percent of all electronics are recycled. And experts such as Elizabeth Grossman, author of "High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health," think we'll be better off if vendors assume greater stewardship for the products they create. (Reading her book is what got me thinking so much about e-recycling this week.)

In fact, just last week Dell announced a fantastic PC recycling program, which costs users nothing. Go to the Dell site, fill our a few forms, and Dell will send someone to your house to pick up your old, junky computer—for free. It doesn’t even have to be a Dell. Several vendors have tried programs like this in the past, but this is the first one I have seen that is so expansive and down-right foolproof. If more manufacturers step up to the plate, maybe a green tax on tech would seem unnecessary.

But think again. Charging a 5-cent deposit on bottles showed that they had value as well as potential consequences. It's time we started looking at our old cell phones, laptops, and televisions sets the same way.

Dan Costa is the Consumer Electronics Editor at PC Magazine and a cohost of Gearlog Radio; check back every Thursday for his take on the world of gadgets, gear and other tech stuff.

In the increasingly competitive music market, flashy and sexy are quickly overtaking talent; aspiring musicians need to find a way to stay ahead. With CFGear's new Custom Flash MP3 player, you can promote your work like never before.

CFGear can place your logo on its MP3 players, and you can add your demos to the flash-drive player in one quick step. Even better, you can upload your band's Web page, bios, resumes, and a anything else that may improve your chances of getting signed, so you don't have to worry about sending all of the requirements separately.

But if the MP3 player and flash drive capabilities aren't enough, the player also comes with an FM tuner and voice recorder, so you can send a sweet little message to your prospective bosses.

With a wide variety of logos available at its site, and a respectable list of options, CFGear's Custom Flash MP3 player may be a good bet for the aspiring musicians in the crowd who are looking for a unique way of getting their band's name out. But before you jump over to the Web site, be aware that you must give the company your requirements for the drive before they quote you a price. The players come in storage sizes from 64MB to 2GB.

Post by Don Reisinger

Yamaha introduces its cube-shaped portable speaker--the Yamaha NX-A01--that measures just 3.5-inches on each side and connects to iPods and other audio players.

It features Swing Radiator Bass technology and easy to use controls located on the top of the unit to power, mute, and control volume. Its frequency response rate is said to be 90Hz to 20 kHz. If you purchase the optional Yamaha TRX-RO1BT adaptor ($129), then the NX-A01 can receive Bluetooth audio from cell phones or computers.

Comes with an AC adaptor and audio cable. It's so darn cute, isn't it? The Yamaha NX-A01 is available on AudioCubes.com for $129.

[via Ubergizmo]