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Feature
Who says engineers can't have fun?
By Joan Lynch -- EDN, 12/7/2000
The iButton keeps your digital identity cryptographically and physically protected and within easy reach. The Java-based device contains a 64-kbyte ROM and 134-kbyte RAM that stores hundreds of user names and passwords, a color ID picture, and the application programs of many different service providers. You can use it to store digital signatures and for secure network log-on, among other uses. For access to buildings or computers, you touch the iButton to a device called a Blue Dot that transfers the secret information. The DS1957B iButton mounted on the steel fob costs $32.
Home sweet digital home
The digital home is little bit closer with the arrival of Audrey, an Internet appliance that provides quick access to e-mail, Internet channels for information and shopping, and the family calendar. The device offers preselected channels for news, sports, and weather and allows you to add more Web sites to satisfy a variety of other interests, be it a food-service or online bill-management site. You can sync two Palm datebooks into one household calendar. For e-mail, type with a wireless keyboard, speak your messages, or use a stylus to write. The color touchscreen measures 6¼´4¾ in. Audrey costs $499.
No phoneline? No problem!
Just when you thought they couldn't find you. Now you can take the Internet anywhere. The Cellular and Phoneline Ready PC Card Modem two-in-one 56-kbps modem lets you access the Internet with a cellular phone or a phone jack. Connect through your Motorola or Nokia cellular-phone handset and check e-mail, news, stocks, and scores. The $179.99 modem is Windows-compatible, supports ITU V.90 and K56Flex communications standards, and features plug-and-play installation capabilities. It also comes with how-to videos, a five-year warranty, and free round-the-clock technical support.
A PC in every pocket
Don't let its small size fool you. The Cassiopeia E-125 is a tool for big business needs. For starters, it packs a 150-MHz RISC CPU; a high-resolution, thin-film-transistor, color LCD; 32 Mbytes of RAM and 16 Mbytes of ROM; a CompactFlash Type II card slot; and a cradle with a USB interface. On the software side, you get Pocket Internet Explorer, Word, Excel, Money, Notes, and Outlook, in addition to a suite of Casio tools for personal information management and video and picture playback. Buy the pocket PC for $599 at Casio's Web site or in electronics stores.
Touchy feely
Providing tactile sensations when you move over icons, menus, toolbars, and hyperlinks, the iFeel Mouse and iFeel MouseMan optical mice bring a new look and feel to computer interfaces. Designed for right- or left-hand users, the iFeel Mouse has three customizable buttons, including the scroll wheel. The MouseMan puts a side button under your thumb and features four customizable buttons. When you click the scroll wheel, both devices display the WebWheel, a feature that lets you go to your favorite Web site while you're still working in your current application. The iFeel Mouse costs $39.95; the iFeel MouseMan costs $59.95.
Shake it up
Don't get caught in the dark with a flashlight that won't light. The $79 NightStar flashlight never needs batteries or incandescent bulbs. Just shake up the NightStar for 30 seconds, and the flashlight recharges. When you shake the flashlight, it transforms the energy of motion into electrical energy by repeatedly passing a high-field-strength magnet through a wire coil. It stores the energy in a capacitor that powers the flashlight's LED. The virtually indestructible flashlight illuminates a 6-ft diameter area from a distance of 30 ft, and its light is visible from more than a mile. Fully charged, the flashlight will glow for several hours.
Storage space
You really
It's all in the timing
A high-powered graphics card, the Marvel G450 eTV, brings convergence into the heart of your home or office. It lets you watch timeshifted TV on the PC or make your own videos for the Web. Shipped with 32 Mbytes of DDR RAM and a 360-MHz primary RAMDAC, this card handles MPEG-2 video capture and editing, TV on the PC, PC out to TV, DVD playback, 2-D applications, and 3-D gaming. Ulead VideoStudio 4.0 software lets you add bells and whistles to your own video creations. The G450 eTV costs $265.
Perfect timing
Never be anything but fashionably late again. Atomix atomic clocks guarantee precision time to a fraction of a second. Because they rely on the same technology that NASA uses, Atomix clocks never need resetting; they automatically receive five updates a day via radio waves from the US Atomic Clock at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. You just set it and forget it. The clocks automatically adjust to daylight savings time but have a deactivation feature for states without it. Atomix clocks come in a variety of designs and in home, travel, wall, and wristwatch versions. North American models start at less than $30.
Game day
Serious gamers can soup up their experience with special effects, textures, and speedy operation provided by the Gladiac Ultra 3-D graphics accelerator. Based on the Nvidia Ge-Force 2 Ultra processor, the board delivers 4-nsec access and 64 Mbytes of DDR RAM, Windows 9X, 2000, NT, and Linux drivers, in addition to a suite of desktop utilities from the vendor. The $549 price tag includes a pair of wireless stereo 3-D Relevator glasses, a six-year warranty, and an installation guide. You can get the board through online stores and retail outlets.
Hook 'em up
Get your PCs talking to each other over existing wiring with HomeConnect Home Network Phoneline USB 10-Mbps kit. It comes with everything you need to hook up two computers; you can get additional Phoneline USB adapters to add additional computers to the network. It couldn't be much simpler: Plug one end of a HomeConnect adapter into your PC; the other end goes into the telephone jack in your wall, and you're networked! Once you're networked, you can share one Internet connection for simultaneous surfing, e-mailing and downloading. Retail price in computer stores is $179; additional adapters cost $99.99. You can also order online.
On the tip of your finger
Now's your chance to check out biometrics technology in a relatively inexpensive way. The AES4000 fingerprint-sensor technology-evaluation kit for the USB contains an EntréPad USB Sensor Module, software, and documentation to evaluate the sensor's use in PDAs, cell phones, and laptops. Kit pricing begins at $149; the vendors also offers reference-design kits and software-evaluation kits.
