reader

Mutant pen grows an SD card

We thought the whole pen convergence trend had subsided after seeing the most recent combo devices with built-in camcorders and DVRs. But video is apparently only the beginning for the versatile writing instrument, which also has designs on the storage market.

There have been many USB memory pens, as Chip Chick has noted, but now things have gotten downright silly with an SD card reader. The "3 in 1 Cocos Card Reader" also has a USB drive and actually writes, hence the three functions, with storage of up to 512MB.

But unlike the earlier surveillance-oriented pens, we wouldn'… Read more

Amazon to introduce Kindle e-book reader on November 19?

Amazon's long-awaited--and somewhat anticipated--Kindle electronic book reader may finally get its official introduction on Monday, November 19. At least that's the strong sense I got from a conversation I had earlier today with a PR rep inviting me to an Amazon event here in New York on the 19th. When I asked whether the product was the e-book reader, he wouldn't say (he gave me the usual "you'll have to show up to find out"). But since the Kindle was due to be announced back in October, it seems safe to assume, this is … Read more

Lexar's UDMA CF/SD reader

Lexar is about to start shipping a new reader to complement its line of 300X Professional UDMA CompactFlash cards. First announced back in February, the reader features two slots: one UDMA-compatible CompactFlash slot and one SDHC-compatible SD card slot. The reader's slick design includes an integrated cover for the card slots. If you press buttons on the sides of the reader, the middle portion pops up and the slots become accessible. When you're done, just push the middle part down and the slots are covered, so you don't have to worry about dirt or dust getting inside … Read more

Geeking out: Gorgeous digital edition magazines

Who says magazines are dead? Not Fortune Small Business Magazine, Hearst Magazines, or Red Herring. And certainly not Olive Software, the Santa Clara, Calif., company responsible for creating the interactive digital twins of their print issues.

Like the best discoveries, I stepped into Olive Software's work by accident, while flipping through the digital leaves of Fortune Small Business Magazine. As a champion of downloadable and Web apps for consumers, I wouldn't normally seek out this kind of story, but the experience was too gratifying not to share. After all, would I hold back from you?

Click once and the magazine blooms in its self-contained online reader. Click again, this time on the right arrow, and the cover unfurls to reveal a faithful representation of the magazine's glossy, full-page interior, down to the shadowed hollow where the pages meet the binding. Flip through to read articles horizontally across multiple pages, each one adhering to the original layout, rather than dive-bombing into a vertical scroll that makes do with the Web's predilection for linear storytelling.… Read more

PDF files under attack

On Monday, Adobe released a patch for versions 8.1 and earlier of its Acrobat and Acrobat Reader. This patch affects Windows XP SP2 with IE7 and Adobe Reader 7 through 8.1 and addresses the flaws cited in CVE-2007-5020. If exploited, a criminal hacker could launch malicious code on an affected system.

Security researcher Petko D. Petkov first blogged about the vulnerablity in September and predicted that shortly after the patch's release there would be a flood of proof-of-concept exploits on the Internet. He was right. Because of the extremely high risk, Adobe is encouraging everyone to install … Read more

Google Calendar to get Gears support?

Google Calendar could be the latest Google service to get the much-hallowed Gears treatment--Google's offline site viewing extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Earlier this morning, a post by Andy Beal on the Marketing Pilgrim caused a stir when he noted that he got a Google Gears security access request while logging into Google Calendar. Despite the pop-up, there was no offline functionality added to the service, or screenshots for proof.

Since publishing the post, Google has officially responded to Beal, stating that there are no specific announcements for any services that will end up with Gears functionality or … Read more

The Gizmo Report: Sony's PRS-505 Portable Reader System (part 2, software)

Before I finish my review of the new Sony PRS-505 Reader (you should probably read part 1 first, here), I wanted to mention that Sony itself has a corporate blog, hosted by corporate-communications manager Rick Clancy.

Clancy apparently has permission to stray slightly off-message, and a recent result of this permissive policy was a funny blog entry about an ill-conceived marketing slogan for the Reader: "Sexier than a librarian." Explaining the slogan, Clancy said:

Please be assured that this was a tongue and cheek effort on our part, playing off a certain stereotype or a fantasy, depending on … Read more

Doppler radar detects speeding hearts

The Army has turned to a Honolulu company for Doppler radar and advanced algorithm technology to be able to detect and monitor multiple subjects based on their heart rate, even through walls.

This means that soldiers will be able to detect someone hiding in a room before the door is kicked in, the company claims, and medics will be able to remotely perform triage and diagnoses or monitor casualties right through their flack jackets. It may also have homeland security and interrogation applications by allowing personnel to screen and identify individuals who may merit the third degree based on a … Read more

Better Gmail gets even better

If you're tired of waiting for Google to make some much-needed improvements to Gmail, Better Gmail has been adding useful functionality to the e-mail client since earlier this year. An update earlier this month finally gave Gmail what users have been clamoring for: integration with Google Reader.

Written by Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani, the extension is basically a collection of her favorite Greasemonkey scripts. It does more than just slap your feeds onto the bottom of your in-box, though. It adds a Collapse/Expand Gmail link to the top-left nav, just under the Compose link. This hides your e-mail and pulls the Reader up to the top, and swtiches to Expand when the in-box is hidden. It also adds a control panel to central left nav for managing your feeds, a neat work-around so that you can collapse the Reader's built-in navigation. The Reader pane is collapsible, too, so you can hide the perpetual distraction of feeds from the perpetual distraction of e-mail.

Mippin does socialized mobile content feeds

If you're looking for another way to read Web content on your mobile phone, there's a new solution called Mippin that will let you browse and sort through popular Web feeds about as easily as you can using a desktop RSS browser. The service was created to tackle the problem of so many sites not offering a "mobile" version for cell phone users.

Mippin serves a variety of feeds, which can be browsed and sorted by genre. You can also search by URL, and the service will do its best to convert the content into something … Read more