The ADS emplacement definitely won’t fit in anyone’s pocket—a truck is required to move this baby around—but the granddaddy of pain beams also works like the promised hand held versions: by directing 94-GHz millimeter-wave radio energy, it creates a burning sensation in the skin of its targets, the aim being to stop groups of people (like soldiers, or say, rioters) in their tracks without causing permanent injury. Definitely an effective tool if it works as promised, at least until its (probably institutional) potential targets develop their own countermeasures, anti pain beam defense if you will.

Unless your a large-scale legitimate institution with a proven need for the ADS, it’s most likely difficult to get exact information on availability and pricing. Aside from ethical concerns, I also wonder if spreading this technology for the sake of business is wise. After all, once robots make their move to usurp their creators and enslave humanity, won’t this kind of weapon prove very useful for the AI overlords? What’s the point of killing humans, when you can shepherd them like sheep and keep them alive for your own nefarious purposes?

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On the other hand, the Telegraph’s Ian Douglas claims that WiFi-allergy is impossible, and that something else is causing Steve Miller’s reaction. Douglas explains that WiFi operates on a frequency similar to radio waves and mobile phone signals, and that hotspots transmit with much less power than a cellular network tower. More so, radio, cell signals, and WiFi are electromagnetic—just like light.

Given these similarities, Douglas asserts, Steve Miller would have trouble literally everywhere, since radios, mobile phones, not to mention light, are in operation everywhere.

What do you think? Personally, as a gadget geek I’m inclined to believer Douglas’ side. He’s not as dismissive as most electromagnetically-induced biochemical reaction skeptics are, as he goes beyond debunking a claimed condition by proposing that Mr. Miller could actually be suffering from agoraphobia.

Source

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I don’t get the point of this exercise though: Yes, homeowners wouldn’t like random strangers leeching off their connectivity, but the neighborhood coffee shop isn’t exactly vigilant about who uses their hotspot, so long as the coffee’s paid for. If I was an evildoer, all I’d have to do is buy something to drink (and perhaps eat?), set up my laptop, get the WiFi key from the helpful barista, and access my online tools of mass destruction. Mwahahahaha!

Maybe a different kind of legal presence is called for? How does requiring businesses with hotspots to keep detailed access logs? These can be matched to security footage, and make it easier for the good guys to identify who’s being evil, and when.

Source (image by leocub)

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It’s so easy to love WiFi’s convenience. Imagine being able to tap out an article on the laptop while lying down on bed, or even while using the john! But Ryan Block, on the eve of his departure as Engadget’s editor-in-chief, made the case for wiring your house up.

WiFi or Ethernet? As a former network engineer, it’s a question I can hardly resist. My take: wireless is great (and always necessary), but wire your home as much and as well as you can.

Why go wired? Well, Ryan’s right on the money when he talks about “consistent speeds and reliable connectivity”, how much faster Ethernet is than even the latest WiFi, and Power over Ethernet (PoE). PoE you ask? That’s the awesome phenomenon involving network hubs, routers, and access points drawing data and power through the same Ethernet cable.

To be honest though is a question that more people should know the answer to; it’s been around at least since 2003.

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I also realized that offloading files, especially music files, to an external drive is problematic. The point of a notebook is portability, and hooking up a USB drive just to listen to podcasts in the kitchen is a pain.

What I need is something like Maxtor’s Central Axis, a one Terabyte Network Attached Storage (NAS). It has a Gigabit Ethernet connection to keep speeds up near those of a local drive, and two USB ports to add further storage when you need it.

And even if you are not hooked into the network via CAT5, you can still get your media via wireless connection when whipping together a tasty late night snack (via a Wi-Fi router).

It’ll even stream movies to your Xbox or PlayStation 3 (PS3) without a computer in between.

The price is not unreasonable retailing for $330.00 USD and will be available July 2008.

Source: Gizmodo

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The Kama Wireless Nunchuk provides all the same abilities and features of the wired version, but with no cables tethered to the Nintendo Wii remote.

I actually picked up two of these controllers today from my local Game Crazy. They were a little pricey at $35.00 USD each compared to the wired Nintendo version for $19.95 USD but they are so much nicer.

The Kama Wireless Nunchuck is compatible with all Nintendo Wii software that utilizes the Nunchuk attachment and requires no additional software or modification of the Nintendo Wii hardware to work, simply plug and play.

The lightweight and compact dongle attaches to the bottom of the remote and provides a wireless range of up to 3 meters.

Two AAA batteries, which Kama includes for free, provide up to 30 hours of game play for extended gameplay sessions, however I recommend getting some rechargeable batteries to save you in the long run.

The Kama Wireless Nunchuck is the ideal solution for users demanding more flexibility and freedom while playing their favorite Nintendo Wii games.

Here are some of the features:

• No restrictive wires for complete freedom while gaming
• Compatible with all games that require the Nunchuk
• Full accelerometer support for motion based gameplay
• Ergonomic design fits comfortably in either left or right hand
• Two AAA batteries (included) provide up to 30 hours of gameplay
• Included wrist strap keeps the Kama safely secured during gameplay

Here’s the catch… a few weeks ago Nintendo decided that the Kama is too similar to the official Nunchuk, and so infringes their copyrights.

To quote Bloomberg’s original report:

The Nyko product “wholly appropriates the novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the color and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller,” Nintendo said in the federal court complaint, filed June 10 in Seattle.

I personally feel that Nintendo is suing Nyko because they had the idea to make a controller that’s 100% better than Nintendo’s official Nunchuk.

If you have the means, I highly recommend you pick up a couple of these beauties before Nintendo or the courts decide they need to be pulled from gaming store shelves… that is if they haven’t already.

Just imagine how much these controllers will be fetching on sites like eBay and Amazon.com? It will be like trying to find a Wii fit or Wii… you’ll pay top dollar for sure!

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This coin-op 802.11b/g wireless access point is a throwback to better times, a golden age when the coins in your pocket were good for something other than tossing to a hobo in the street while on your way to buy a $5 coffee and enjoy some “free” Wi-Fi.

The kiosk works like this: drop in some pocket change and you’ll receive a ticket with an access code. When your time is up, you’ll need to go back and feed the meter.

I imagine it’s designed to work in unmanned environments, or to take the heat off a busy Starbucks Barista. I like the cash-only idea, which brings on-the-go access to non credit card holders.

I’m also looking forward to the first hack, perhaps an exploit which causes coins to cascade from the reject slot like some kind of bling-free Vegas slot machine.

Source: Handlink Wi-Fi KIOSK Product Page

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The only problem is the lack of buttons. A touchscreen keyboard might work OK for typing emails, but for games, where split-second timing is needed to avoid death, or even better, kill some ducks, you need some buttons.

The answer comes in the form of the iControl pad, a standard set of buttons and a D-pad mounted on a case into which the iPhone can slide, hooking up via the dock port.

You won’t get much from the blurry video below, but the developers have already sent out some test units and plan to have a release in July, priced at a reasonable $30.00 USD.

If it works, it might boost the iPhone into the big games league, easily trouncing the PSP and N-Gage, although, unless somebody ports Mario Kart across, it’ll have a hard time catching the DS.

However, with those accelerometers inside, those people who play Streetfighter II by swinging the joypad all over the place might finally avoid ridicule.

Source: iControlPad Product Page

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Consisting a Holux M1000b GPS unit, a custom dock-connector cable and some software which requires a jailbroken iPhone to run.

Here’s a demo video below in which the GPS seems to work fine, updating your position on the iPhone’s built in Google Maps application every second or so:

What it also shows is that you’ll need a minimum of three hands to use it. Darn. I only have two… har har.

You can check out some screenshots over at the company’s blog that show the software turning the iPhone into a big compass, which would seem to be very useful if it, too, didn’t require the big cable and box hanging off the sleek slab.

$100.00 USD for the cable and the GPS unit, $16.00 USD for the cable alone. Good grief Charlie Brown! That seems a little high.

I say wait for the G3 iPhone. Thoughts?

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Even phones like my BlackBerry Curve with a full QWERTY keyboard have their quirks. Google thinks it is annoying, too.

The big “G” has been studying how to make filling out search fields in its mobile search products better. Its answer involves fewer “clicks.” Exactly.

Google actually conducted an entire study on this subject. It is called “Query Suggestions for Mobile Search: Understanding Usage Patterns.”

In a blog posting, software engineer Maryam Kamvar writes:

“In an effort to help our mobile users, we studied the effect of incorporating a feature like Google Suggest on mobile phones with 9-key keypads. We found that these users respond favorably to query suggestions: Users who were shown suggestions while typing their query rated their overall enjoyment higher and perceived workload lower than users who were not shown suggestions. Users who were shown suggestions also reduced their overall key presses by half. Surprisingly, the time to enter a query for these users was not significantly less than the average time needed to enter queries for users who were not shown any suggestions.”

I’ve noticed that Google has added suggestions to search queries on the iPhone. When you begin typing, it will offer several suggestions that you can choose rather than typing out the entire word. This is very helpful and speeds up the time it takes to fire off your search.

Improvements in usability such as this are always appreciated.

I have to point out that in helping you find your search queries all the faster, Google probably hopes that you spend that saved time clicking on the ads it has served you in the process.

Thoughts?

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