Visiting Cal State Long Beach

At the request of The Orange County Register's science editor Gary Robbins, I'll be visiting his Journalism 303 class today to talk to his students.
Gary, the hardest-working person at the Reg, just started his own ScienceDude blog. He already keeps a busy blog for his class, which he teaches two days a week. He writes a science calendar every week. And he's a full-time reporter and editor. I feel like such a slug next to him.

Students e-mailed questions to me ahead of class, so in an attempt to outdo Gary, I blogged my answers. I decded to post them on my original blog, hosted at Blogger.com. If you page all the way down, you'll see some of my very first posts in the blogosphere. Of course, I didn't have time to get to all of the questions, but here's a few.

Why gadgets?

1. What are some requirements a new gadget must have for you to want to write about it and look into it more?
2. What is the main demographic you are writing for?
3. Do you think these new gadgets improve the quality of life or, as some might say, cause laziness?

- surfergirl20

Hi surfergirl20,

I started the column in February 2005 and have yet to work out a system. I do expect the product to be new, or quirky (a PDA watch), or make a claim (a laptop with a 10-hour battery) or is something that is difficult to understand unless I try it (a disposeable video camera?). There has to be some compelling reason for me to take time to test a gadget and write about.
I also give Orange County companies more attention since, after all, I do work for The Orange County Register.

Do these gadgets improve my life? Not all, but if there's one that does, I will buy it. Many gadgets are frustrating and difficult to use. The instructions are unclear or the hardware just doesn't work as expected. That's why I do reviews. If a gadget passes my test, hopefully it will pass everybody else's.

Lazy? No way. The time I save by using my PDA, GPS, VoIP or anything else in my high-tech arsenel, I can do other things like design my Web site, shop online or even spend a Sunday afternoon relaxing in front of the TV. Imagine that.

Convergence

Do you think that some day there will be one gadget that takes the place of all other gadgets? You will only need this one because it will take the place of all your others. It will be a: mini computer,Cell Phone, DVD player, Radio and itunes player, tape recorder, and digital camera and will be small enough to go any where.

Also what do see in the future for pod casting? Do think every form of entertainment and news will become pod casted?

Shawna Abbott

Hi Shawna,
I sure hope so. I hate carrying around my PDA/cell phone/iPod/USB storage key plus extra batteries and cables. I haven't found the perfect converged device for me, or maybe I just can't afford it. Some stuff already out there:

Palm's Treo, which is everything you asked for sort of except a DVD player. But you could create your own mini-movies and store them on a SD card. And it's only 6.3 ounces.




Toshiba's Libretto, a 2.1-pound mini notebook computer. It's just 6-by-8 inches. But while it's tiny, it's a full-fledged computer, complete with DVD player, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the usual Windows software. Everything but a cell phone and camera.

And then there's the Motorola ROKR, the first phone to integrate iTunes. It could do a lot more. Then again, it could do a lot less.

Solar energy and electronics

Hi Gadgetress!
My question is: Are big companies, such as Apple, considering the use of solar energy to replace the batteries for their new products? Products such as Ipods. Thank you.

- Juan Manuel Suárez

Hi Juan!
I'm sure there's someone at Apple wondering about solar energy. But right now, computer companies most likely doing something about alternative energy are the companies that spend money on research and development. Toshiba, for example, makes laptop computers. But is also builds hard drives, DVD drives, Wi-Fi cards, flash storage products and processors for the computer. It even has an energy division, though this is for industrial uses. Toshiba is very involved in the hunt for alternative energy for electronics. Until such companies develop the next battery, companies like Apple will just plod along.

But there are a number of solar-powered devices out there, if you search for them. Some that I found online:

Solio Solar Powered iPod Battery Charger. See a review

The Voltaic Messenger, which has solar panels on the side to collect solar energy to charge cell phones, satellite phones, PDAs, GPSs, iPods, cameras, etc. Read a review from Treehugger.com that calls it an "instant boy magnet."

A phone charger that requires human effort to charge? Cool. The Sidewinder Portable Cell Phone Charger... Read the review by The Travel Insider.

Gadget research 101

I was surprise to learn about most of the new gadgets you have provided for the readers of your blog. I don’t have a technological question, but would like to know how your research is conducted to find the latest in new technology. - Addye

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Hi Addye,
I skim a lot. I skim e-mail, several Web sites, magazines, online newspapers (I only have time to skim the print editions of the OC Register and LA Times - and not every day). People call me, I call people. Readers offer suggestions. The list goes on. I should be reading more of my "competition" (like Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and Dawn Chmielewski at the San Jose Mercury News) and visiting local companies more often because you always learn more than you'd expect when you do an interview in person. On a typical morning, I check out these sites first:

• My Yahoo, where I grouped together all of OC's public tech companies so I can see if they have any breaking news.
• CNET, an online tech-news site updated several times a day.
• Slashdot, which calls itself 'News for Nerds,' and readers post obscure tech news or news that matters to geeks.
• Google News, the Tech section, which is an excellent way to find out if anybody has written about a topic in the past two weeks. The one problem is that Google News logs everything so you may have to sift through a lot of the same PR wire stories.

Then I get my morning coffee.

For the Gadgetress blog, I'm trying post something new 2 to 3 times a week. One of those days, I focus on highlighting new gadgets from Orange County companies. Much of the local news I find out through e-mail, by companies telling me what's new. But e-mail isn't the only tool I use. Here's a few gadget sites and other Web sites I often check:

• Gizmodo, the Gadget Weblog
• engadget, which is part of the Weblogs network (also has blogs on HDTVs, autos and other topics).
• Daypop's top 40 list of what blogs are linking to, which is where I discovered Lost Frog and Just Letters.
  
• iLounge, an Irvine site that will tell me everything I want to know about what's new in iPods

Camera phones

Hello Ms. Chuang

Do you feel that camera phones will ever have the quality and clearity to be used in reporting the media? And how do you feel this technology will impact the industry as a whole?

Krystn Becker

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Hi Krystn,

Have you seen this? It's the world's first 7 megapixel camera phone. That's probably a higher resolution than what you have now. It's from Samsung and, unfortunately, not out yet. But it's coming. I blogged about it last March saying this: The SCH-V770, a 7-megapixel camera phone with 3x optical zoom. Why would anyone need such a nice camera on their cell phone, especially when fitness clubs, court rooms and other public places are beginning to regulate such devices? Well, I know that I hate dragging around my Nokia camera phone (less than 1 MP) and my lacking Nikon Coolpix (a gift). Plus, the V770 has that awesome feature of being a business-card reader. It takes a photo of the business cards, recognizes the text and files it straight into your address book.

Students with disabilities

Dear MS. Chuang, I am Julie Sparkuhl, I had emailed you before about gadgets but I wanted to clarify my question to you.

My first question is, as of right now Dragon Speak and Jaws are available to disabled students, what new computer applications are there for students to use?
My second question is that I have heard that there are dictionary pens for people to use, what are the best pens?
Third, what type of tape recorders do you recommend? I’ve seen all types and I myself do use tape recorders but now they’ve changed so how simple are these new tape recorders?

Thank you, again for your time,

Kind regards Julie Sparkuhl