Hardware

When the iPhone first shipped, I thought it was pretty cool that there wasn't a way for developers to write software for it. It forced people who wanted to build iPhone "apps" to create Web apps instead, which were then delivered to the iPhone via its browser. It was a great day for Webware.

But it couldn't really last. The Web is too slow, browsers too limited, AT&T's paranoia (about third-party apps running on their network) too Orwellian, and the iPhone too powerful to force developers to fit everything into Safari. Hence, Jailbreak … Read more

As expected, Apple is announcing a software developer's kit that will allow programmers to write native iPhone applications that also access the iPhone's Web connections. See the live blog, now underway over on Tom Krazit's One More Thing blog.

When I was a kid in the 1960s I was obsessed with the future. The space program was in all its glory, the moon landing was within our grasp, and that, combined with rock music being at its creative peak, what more could a teenage boy ask for? The future looked bright, science would soon feed the starving, cure all disease, and technology would bring prosperity to the entire world. Once those humdrum needs were satisfied we could get to the fun stuff and develop personal flying gear, teleportation machines, and start colonizing other worlds. For kids, at least nerdy … Read more

On February 16th fellow CNET blogger Robert Vamosi wrote an item headlined "With improvements, e-voting could be good, says researcher." I think that e-voting is a very bad thing and that no "improvements" will ever convert it to a good thing. But I'm not an expert on the subject, so I asked Rebecca Mercuri, a specialist in computer security and electronic voting, if she would like to respond to the claim made by the "researcher" in question. Mercuri has appeared many times on the Personal Computer Show to discuss electronic voting, which is … Read more

It's the next logical step, we suppose, in the guitar mania that's sweeping our culture: an electric guitar case that doubles as an iPod speaker dock. The "Gator Lightweight Electric Guitar Case" has two built-in battery-powered speakers and a clear pouch on the side to hold a media player, according to Red Ferret. For those who really must have keep their guitars at the ready this much, however, it might be worth considering a model that folds away for easier stowing.

Valentine's Day saw a sweet gadget arrive at Webware HQ: The Chumby. It's a little touch-screen Web appliance that can display a changing lineup of personalized widgets for you: Clocks, photo galleries, Twitter feeds, and so on.

The Chumby gets its data over Wi-Fi, and you control what widgets it displays on the Chumby.com site. Setup is a snap (unless your Wi-Fi access point requires a Web-based log-in, in which case forget it), and the site makes choosing widgets easy.

I quickly set up my Chumby at home to display the time, local weather forecast, the minutes … Read more

New headphones are my No. 1 recommendation to anyone who wants to get the most out of their new MP3 player. (Except, of course, for those who decided to go with the Sony NWZ-A810 series or the Zune 80.) Straight up: Those janky, plastic buds that came with your player aren't doing you any favors. First off, they're not terribly comfortable, and they don't fit most users securely--for me, there are few things more annoying than having to constantly shove a hard piece of plastic into my ear. Then of course there's the sound-quality issue...hollow, … Read more

AppleInsider has uncovered a patent filing from Apple (located here) that's a cross between what we've known as an "enhanced podcast" and the step-by-step driving directions found on the maps application that is on the iPhone and iPod touch.

In short, the design specified in the patent would let users grab driving directions (presumably from Google) and have them combined with voice activated commands that would advance the directions forward. The data would be packaged in the form of a Podcast that could be downloaded and put on the player like any other audio file.

The … Read more

The Snap Instant Communicator is one of the weirdest little gizmos I've seen in a while. It's a push-to-talk intercom system that runs on a PC and it only works when the Snap hardware console--which is just a few buttons, a speaker, and a microphone--is plugged in to it.

The console has eight labeled lights for the people you talk to the most. Once you add other Snap users into your account and label their spots on your device, all you have to do is press the button next to a name, and if the other party accepts … Read more