crwulff writes "The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle today is carrying a story about Kodak's newest OLED display venture. Unfortunately only a prototype to look at here but at least it is on the way in a couple years." It's worth it just for the photograph. Maybe best to hold off on a plasma TV ...

Anonymous Coward writes "There is a beautiful translucent red iBook mod that has surfaced on eBay, and the creator's homepage More and more of these mods are around lately.. pretty incredible." Update: 10/15 23:34 GMT by T : Anonymous Coward writes "Just a little note about the iBook Red Mod. The Ebay link has changed. And the author has posted a tutorial on his site."

droleary writes "Looking for more ways to fit the new iCal into your life, or just a way to check web site updates without it looking like you're not working? Well Subsume Technologies has just announced a cool new way to do it: wCal. You can subscribe to frequently updated calendars that are headlines of (hopefully a growing number of) web sites, including a constant-refresh-ending Slashdot: Apple calendar (the press release has the subscribe link)." I first heard of this idea from Morbus Iff back on Sept. 11, and am still not convinced of the utility, but it's an interesting idea. Maybe it will catch on.

Cutriss writes "CNN's usually dry and uninspired reporting was interrupted today by this interesting and rather well-informed piece by Eric Hellweg from the Technical Investor section. It compares and contrasts efforts from various companies in squashing/supporting the hobbyist community. It's rather well-timed, considering recent events."

rael9real writes "NOMAD has intoduced a new player. It has USB 2 and FireWire (finally), and supports WMA and MP3. It has a 20GB drive like the high-end iPod, and supposedly holds more music because it supports WMA (though why someone would want to use WMA is beyond me). It *is* cheaper than the iPod, though. Looks like a definite competitor. Maybe it'll drive iPod pricing down." Update: 10/14 21:21 GMT by T : Note that the listed specs for the player mention only "USB," not USB 2.

00_NOP writes "The hobbyist's favourite console - the Dreamcast - comes with one of those braindead Winmodems that have made it very difficult for those on the active DC development scene to use. But now all that is about to change. Thanks to a find on the internet and some heavy duty hacking - real modem support is almost here. This is fantastic news for the Linux and the NetBSD teams and for *nix advocates everywhere - as immediately millions more people could access these OSes and use them in a meaningful way to get online etc. Don't forget - four million plus of these things were sold in North America alone!"

An anonymous reader points to Richard Menta's review of the Archos Jukebox Multimedia (mentioned in this earlier Slashdot posting). Here's a snippet from the review: "Right now my wife and I are watching an old episode of a TV show no longer broadcast in our area or available tape. How are we watching it? We are playing it off of a 9oz. MP3 player -- where I have digitally stored the episode -- hooked up to the small TV in our room and inconspicuously placed on top."

fist_187 writes "Tom's Hardware Guide has a story on the smallest PC since the Mini-PC: The MicroPC. It's a Pentium 4/2400 MHz machine, but you'd probably mistake it for a cable modem. I'm sure this trend will continue on to the Nano-PC, Pico-PC, and the Dick Tracy Watch."

ilsie writes "Numbnut says it all in his post at xboxhacker.net. To quote his post, 'On behalf of the Xbox Linux Team, I am proud to announce that at 10:45BST the 'v1.1' secure version of the Xbox was proven to be running arbitrary BIOS code in a normal 256KByte modchip - with no additional hardware required. In short, in under a week we were able to normalize the new box to enable it to interoperate with Linux properly.'"

Hanno asks: "There are US companies selling Japanese gadgets not available in the US to local customers. But what about buying American hardware in Europe? I'm thinking about buying a US laptop that is not sold in Germany and the import, payment and warranty issues are giving me a headache. Has anyone else done this and what was your experience?"

NickSD writes "ChipGeek has an interesting article on increasing x86 CPU performance without having to redesign or throw out the x86 instruction set. Check it out at geek.com."

anocow writes "According to this press release at Nikkei Biztech (Japanese), Toshiba will be selling a Bluetooth enabled 5 gig external hard disk called the "Hopbit". It will be priced at 49800 yen. Apparently it will run on batteries for a maximum of 6 hours continuously. Talk about mobility!"

MooseGuy529 writes "About two years ago, for Christmas of 2000, Cybiko, a Russian company (IIRC) created the Cybiko, a handheld wireless device for teens/"tweens." They later created the CybikoXtreme, a sweeter-looking model with voice chat/recording and a nicer keyboard. Unfortunately the wireless didn't go that far (150-300 ft max) and Cybiko went on to UK markets and then to making games for cell phones. However, I have seen several cool uses of Cybiko, including Using the Cybiko for APRS over Ham Radio and using MiaChat to connect the Cybiko to AIM. People have suggested things such as using them in schools for wireless roll-call or such things. My question for Slashdot is does anyone know of or have ideas for any interesting uses of Cybiko?" For the curious, Ask Slashdot last did a story on the Cybiko back in February of 2001.

mjpalm21 asks: "A friend of mine recently sent me this story on a new universal power technology that charges devices through your desk. This is a cool idea, but it seems complex. I have long wondered why there isn't a universal power bus (UPB) along the lines of universal serial bus (USB). UPB would work like this: You would buy a n port UPB hub for your desk, and then all of your electronic devices (cell phone, PDA, computer speakers, modem, phone, hubs etc.) would plug into the hub via a standard UPB cable. I would think that the device manufacturers would be all over this as it would reduce their product cost (no need to bundle a power brick), reduce their packaging cost (smaller box), increase customer satisfaction (I know I would be happier), and give them another device to sell (the UPB hub and all those cables)! Why hasn't this happened yet and what would prevent it from happening?"

Giggles Of Doom asks: "I am a long time Windows user who is getting ready to make the plunge and move to Linux. Microsoft is just getting on my nerves. Anyway, I have made a little list of things I do in Windows that I will still need to be able to do in Linux. A BIG one of those is syncing the data from my PDA with my main computer's mail program. The mail program will probably be KMail, unless others can suggest a better one and give reasons why, and my PDA is a Audiovox Maestro, which is really a rebranded Toshiba 'PDA-1032' running Pocket PC 2002. It has a USB cradle. What Linux solutions are there for this task? I would hate to have everything else work great, but have to boot to Windows or load VMware just to sync my contact info. Remember, I am a Windows user trying to convert, but any solution would have to be pretty user friendly."

Embedded Geek asks: "I am a software developer with access to (conservatively) $100K worth of emulators, protocol analyzers, and debugging equipment at work. Nevertheless, as in every lab since Frankenstein's, I can never find a meter or screwdriver when I need one - and God help you if you need electrical tape! Over the years I have accumulated a personal toolkit to fill the gaps between what my employer provides and what I need to get my job done. In addition to the basics (a meter, screwdrivers, cable ties, boxcutter, extra power cables, duct tape) I have a number of oddball items that have come in handy (serial cable gender changers & converters, a dental mirror, dental picks). I'm curious what other items slashdotters doing hardware/software development have found useful that their bosses never provide. What about those in the IT/support world?"

daanger0us writes "There is an excellent review of the Sony Vaio C1MW PictureBook that uses the Transmeta Crusoe CPU and has a built in camera so you can capture all those special moments. Here's an excerpt: 'Size is not the only identifying attribute of this VAIO. The built in Motion eye camera is really the most intriguing part of the design - and probably the selling feature. The camera is built in on top of the screen and can flip to point to or away from the driver. The software loads at the push of the capture button and live video begins showing up within seconds. JPEG shots or MPEG2 video can then be recorded and replayed quite easily. With the included 30 Gigabyte hard drive a quick calculation shows that about 10 hours of streaming video and audio can be recorded at a time before running out of room.'"

psychictv points to a NYT story about discarded cell phones as an environmental hazard. The study mentioned in the article is available online. Every year or so we run a story on paper, disposable cell phones but even these would generate a fair amount of waste.

the beava writes "Palm has officially announced the release of their latest handheld, the Zire. At $99 dollars (retail), it looks like they're trying to market this thing to people like parents and children. " Not a bad looking unit for the price.

raj2569 writes "Business Line is reporting that kaii (hand in South Indian languages), a Linux PDA to hit the market in Oct. Based on Hitachi SH7727 @ 160MHz, with 64 MB SDRAM, 32 MB Flash, 3.5" Colour TFT (320x240x64k-16 bit) and USB host controller, the device looks cool. The monochrome will be priced at $200"