Computing

With Microsoft's Next-Gen PC competition, a lot of talent and creativity was unveiled in pursuit of notoriety and prize money. Of the more interesting, was a finalist called Momenta designed by Lauren Brenneman.

A PC amazingly worn around the neck, Momenta will react to changes in your heart rate, automatically capturing emotional events that would trigger a change in your body. Be it a celebrity sighting, an accident, or even a first kiss, if your adrenaline gets pumping, the Momenta is there to capture the experience.  read more »

We like ladybugs around here so we're showing you this ultra-cute ladybug mouse (or ladybird as it's called across the Pond) from Gadget4all. It's probably best suited for kids as it's pretty tiny, but it's good to throw in your bag for traveling, too.

Using Skype to make and receive phone calls can be a pain. More than likely you have to keep a big, bulky switchboard-operator headset on your desk to throw on at the first sound of a ring. Isn't there an easier way? Yes, and Sony has come up with it. Meet the Sony Vaio Mouse Talk. It's a mouse that unfolds into a VoIP phone. Isn't that clever?

While I think it's a great idea, I do have reservations. First, I really love my old ergonomic Microsoft Intellimouse (the cool Spiderman version) and suffer when I have to use a flat mouse. The shape of this mouse doesn't look too comfortable, but hopefully that will improve in later versions.  read more »

If you're going to be in Las Vegas, definitely check out the Microsoft Surface interactive table at the i-Bar in the Rio Hotel. You can play games with your friends, order drinks, check out maps, and flirt with other tables around the club thanks to overhead cameras. The technology looks very cool, and I'm really eager to check one out (no thanks to the cheese factor of the promo video.)  read more »

I like free wifi as much as the next girl, but there's nothing worse than going to a coffee shop full of people with laptops with free reign to do anything they want, screeching speeds to a halt. A lot of places will block torrent sites, but still, the number of people using the wifi accumulates all day long when even casual surfing makes the network slow (not to mention all of the people using it in the neighborhood.)

Starbucks is capping people at 2 hours with their new wifi service, and they control it by forcing users to get online via an active Starbucks card. It's not the most convenient way. Recently, I went to Chicago and got online at Argo Tea. They hand out business cards with unique login information which expire 2 hours after logging in. It was simple and effective. But what about cutting out the middle man? Welcome the coin-operated wifi hotspot by Handlink.  read more »

With more and more places offering free wifi and a nice respite from the typical office environment, more and more people are getting work done at the coffee shop, but drinking coffee causes the need to tinkle. When that happens, what are you supposed to do with all the stuff you've carted to the restaurant...the laptop, the iPod, the phone, the computer bag, and the purse? Sure, the smart thing to do is pack all the stuff up and take it to the bathroom with you. But what if you're in a crowded place and you don't want to give up your table?  read more »

Until someone invents a transporter, I'm going to be plagued with the dread of sitting on a plane. It's part fear, part boredom. I go so far as to seek out the airplanes with cool entertainment systems when I'm looking for reservations. Like most things that take longer to implement than they should, I've not allowed myself to get excited over the banter of internet in the air. In-flight internet is something that would make flying a lot less painful, but where is it?

In April, the FAA cleared the production and implementation of Aircell's on-board wifi system, which American Airlines is geared up to test sometime this year on its transcontinental flights. Still, how often do I fly to New York? I need widespread connectivity, people!  read more »

Using Firefox over Internet Explorer is a no-brainer. It's safer, stabler, isn't stifled by Microsoft's hold on the world, and it just does cool stuff. The amount of customization and extensions is astounding. I don't have to tell you how open-source technology breeds real innovation. Anything you could possibly want a browser to do is probably already created as an extension. Want to download YouTube videos to your computer? Just install Video DownloadHelper. Maybe you really can't get used to a browser that looks different than IE7. No problem. Just install the Vista-aero theme and pretend you're using Internet Explorer, only a thousand times better.  read more »

Ever been tempted to cover your angelically white MacBook in a Pepto-Bismolly pink hard case? Guilty as charged here! Now, you can get a laptop directly from the factory covered in hot-pink...leather (if you aren't afraid of running Linux and you live in Europe.)  read more »