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Questions for Zer01

For the past few weeks we've received several e-mails inquiring about Zer01, a new company that it touting a VoIP cell phone service. From what we can tell, CNET readers are intrigued at the prospect, but they're also skeptical about what Zer01 is promising. Though CNET has written about the company only marginally, we've been more than skeptical too.

After debuting in April at the CTIA show, Zer01 quickly garnered analyst praise and several awards. But in the last two months, the company has been dogged by negative press questioning its business relationships and practices, the feasibility of its technology and the veracity of its claims. Citing "ethical questions" Laptop Magazine even rescinded its award from CTIA on August 4.

Indeed, valid questions about Zer01 have been raised. We won't repeat them all here--a simple News search will reveal many results--but we can offer a Q&A covering current developments. … Read more

The 404 395: Where we get to reboot Motherboard

Natali Del Conte's alter-ego, Motherboard, returns to the show to fight your computer worms and viruses! On today's show, we start off with a bit about fishing and gadgets. I think we have a new show idea: Ms. Del Conte will demo the latest fishing technology on a boat every week. Any takers?

Radioshack is trying to be cool again by renaming itself "The Shack." Too easy when it comes to jokes. There's no way that we're going to hang out at "The Shack." For a matter of fact, the only reason we can think to really go to Radioshack is if we needed something random, like a cable or a transistor.

Further down the show, we find out that scientists think women are getting hotter because of evolution. Apparently, attractive women tend to breed more, but for some reason or another this has no effect on men. We're ugly as ever. Natali testifies to this when she looks at Jeff and Wilson.

A recent graduate of Monroe College in the Bronx decided to sue her school after her information technology degree proved pretty useless in this economy. While we don't know the details of the situation, this can't be good for art school. Perhaps students will get disclaimers when they get Bachelor of Fine Arts or anthropology degrees?

We finish the show with some iPhone app updates. The new OS 3.01 has beefed up Wi-Fi connections in addition to its SMS fixes, but it still doesn't discount Apple's move to block Google's Voice app on its App Store. The Palm Pre gleefully still holds onto its Google Voice app. Finally, Steven Spielberg announces that he will be remaking the Jimmy Stewart classic "Harvey." Why? Didn't Hollywood see what happened to the remake of "Miracle on 34th Street?"

EPISODE 395 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video

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Crowded personal organizer

4ASoft Agenda offers to help users get organized in their busy lives. While it covers a lot of ground, this program's design will prevent most users from feeling comfortable and truly utilizing it.

The program's interface may overwhelm users with its abundance of command icons. The biggest hurdles are data entry fields which are small and unmarked. Users should reserve time for several experimental runs and a long, hard look at the online Help file. Users are presented with three separate organizational tools: Agenda organizer, Address Book and Jobs organizer. The Jobs Organizer is a helpful tool similar … Read more

Insignia's NS-HD01 is the first portable HD Radio--and it's only $50

The price of HD Radio technology has been dwindling over the past few years, with digital-capable car stereos and clock radios priced south of $100. But Insignia's new NS-HD01 adds two new wrinkles to the HD Radio equation. The iPod-size unit is the first truly portable (battery powered) HD Radio, and its $50 price tag makes it the most affordable HD model to date. The NS-HD01 is scheduled to hit shelves at Best Buy on June 12, but we got an early look at the unit. … Read more

Zer01 Mobile looks for distributors

Three months ago at CTIA in Las Vegas, I visited with Zer01 Mobile, a new VoIP carrier that's promising unlimited voice, messaging, and data for $70 per month. At the time, Zer01 promised a July 1 launch date, but the company didn't say as much in its announcement today.

First off, "launch" is too strong a word. Rather than going live today, the company instead said it was looking for distributors. You can't purchase service or phones on the Zer01 Web site. Instead, you'll have to wait for a distributor to deliver them to … Read more

Gadgettes 143: The 'sit on it' episode

This week's episode is inspired by Natali's incredibly appropriate (if not unintended) comment from last week's episode. Really, if you haven't heard it, check it out. Then listen to today's show where we discuss a wide array of chairs on which to sit. That's right, chairs are the "it". Why, what were you thinking?

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Episode 143

Divided Salli saddle chair

Street Sign Chair

MUR-01 speaker chair

Patio furniture for eating in the pool

Spray can caps make for unique chairs

Chair Socks: The 1970s flatter your furniture

Acoustical resonance massage chair

F-4 Phantom Ejection Seat office chair is the perfect way to dramatically exit a meeting

Hot Asian gadgets Barista Bot

It’s about time Cool, infuriating watch

Gender gap Go plate (Thanks Tyson!)

Pretty Terranium – Interactive installation

Tool time Sleeve Tattoos – Slip On Tattoo Sleeves

Kill me A prop for your boobs… Read more

Toshiba 1GHz smartphone launched, runs Windows

The 1GHz smartphone has arrived. A Japanese telecommunications carrier is the first to launch a device based on Qualcomm's much-anticipated Snapdragon processor.

Docomo is now offering the T-01A in Japan, while Microsoft is pitching the phone on its Japanese Web site.

This would mark the first commercially available product using the Snapdragon chip, a Qualcomm spokeswoman confirmed Monday. The chip's claim to fame is that it's an ARM design running at 1GHz. Typical ARM architecture chips used in mobile phones, such as the iPhone 3G S, peak at about 600MHz.

A legion of other chip suppliers offer … Read more

Google search, the fast way

Google's approachable and endlessly useful app Mobile App for Nokia S60 phones follows on the pattern Google has perfected for BlackBerry. Search is at this free app's heart. The search bar serves suggestions as you type and stores your history, both of which save you typing on subsequent searches for similar topics. You can even edit your history if the next search query is similar to the first; for instance, if you're querying ice cream cones and then ice cream bars. Submitted searches return results in the default browser.

To pave the search path even more, Google … Read more