Life & Technology

Clip courtesy of the Nine Network Australia

Motorola Endeavor Earpiece
First up was the Motorola Endeavour Earpiece that bluetooth’s to your mobile hand set, which comes in both normal and stealth mode. Stealth mode’ uses the vibrations of your jaw to transmit what you are saying even in the noisiest environments. As a user talks, the sensor taps their vocal vibrations and converts them to speech so the listener hears your voice and only your voice. When in normal mode the unit uses CrystalTalk technology which reduces noise. It also is said to have a rapid charge by being able to generate 2.5 hours of power in 15 minutes.
$219

 

GorillaTorch
Then there was the GorillaTorch from Joby. This little fellow has a set of strong magnetised ‘feet’, which means that you can put it on any metal service. This could be handy in many different ways, such as putting it on your car when changing a tyre at night. The whole point of the unit is to be able to illuminate any target, hands-free. It has bendable and flexible legs comprised of medical-grade polymer and delivers 65 lumens of white LED light.
$49.95

 

Calvin Klein USB Sunglasses
A cute little gimmick – a pair of Calvin Klein sunglasses with a pull out 4GB USB port on the frame. It can store up to 1000 pictures; or p to 2-3 movies. I reckson these would be a great little number to take on holiday with you to store those snaps.
$299 Samsung HD Mobile
Finally, in a sure sign that mobile phone technology keeps reaching for the stars, Samsung has released the first ever mobile phone to have HD video recording. This means you can record in HD without having to have a handycam, and you can download high-quality videos to your HD TV. It also has an 8 megapixel camera (getting up to high-end camera quality), so it is a high-quality video, camera and phone in one. It will be available on Optus/Virgin/Crazy John plans.
$999

 

I’ve talked quite a lot recently about Internet and email scams and how not to fall for them. I though the subject had been done to death, and that most of the ways of trying to extract monies out of gullible people had been tried and tested.

Turns out I might wrong, with the latest coming out of Nigeria and the Cameroon now targetting the goodwill of animal lovers with their latest sick scheme – and they have done their homework, too.

What this idiots are trying to do is sell Australians dogs and cats that don’t exist via the Internet, with the veiled threat that the animal will be put down if it doesn’t find a suitable home. In one case, scammers even went to the extraordinary (although easy to do) lengths of have the logos and names of Aussie-based company put on what a person thought was a legitimate pet website.

Maybe it’s the hard financial times, but surely even if the fraudsters were successful, the pay-off would hardly be worth it, ye they seem to think so.
So, if you have any dodgy dealings with these kinds of websites, drop me a line. The more we can publicise them the better.

School was the subject of this morning’s discussion with Karl and Lisa, and how technology has developed over the past decade or so.

Back in the day it was blackboard and chalk when I was at school, then they moved onto whiteboards and ink markers.

A couple of years ago they started putting up interactive whiteboards connected to computers, which meant a teacher could give a lesson using this technology as an aid.

Today, we had the ActivExpression Handsets, which are nifty little devices that allow students to learn at their own pace. A teacher will ask questions that the children answer by putting in their answer. If a child gets the question right, the next one is a little harder. Alternatively, if a child gets the wrong answer, they get a question that is a little easier. This allows the student to learn at their own pace. There is even a little race that can be screened on the classroom television between characters that represent the children. The more questions you get right, the faster your character goes.

It’s not a bad idea, and it certainly gives children a new facet to their learning. As long as there is still interaction between the teacher and the children, then I’m all for it.