News In Brief

Product Pipeline

Palm on Wrist: Fossil's Wrist PDA with Palm OS has more than time on its hands: It also has a backlit 160-by-160-pixel touch screen with a stylus and the hardware to power it. The watch comes with 2MB of internal memory, an infrared port to support beaming, a rechargeable battery, and a clutch of Palm applications. Prices range from $275 to $295, depending on the wristband.

A less pricey data watch (without the Palm operating system) is Timex's $90 Ironman Data Link USB model.

Did You Know?

Baby boomers are hesitant to bank online, a survey conducted by Knowledge Networks suggests. The research company surveyed a group of more than 1200 people between the ages of 39 and 57. Its results show that while almost half of them have made a purchase online, just 22 percent maintain an online bank account. And only 6 percent of the survey's respondents have used an online broker, the study shows.

Product Pipeline

Easy on the Eyes: Eyetop eyewear may look like a pair of ordinary sunglasses, but it's anything but. The foldable glasses include a miniature 320-by-240-resolution screen in one sidepiece that lets you watch videos and view images and other information. The Eyetop shades connect to a control unit that attaches to your belt and can link to most video sources (including a notebook PC) via an A/V output.

Thin Is In: Voltaflex is taking lightweight batteries to a whole new level. The company is working on very thin, rechargeable lithium and lithium ion batteries that look like a piece of paper. The flexible, thin-film batteries are designed to power such portable devices as handhelds and cell phones, providing a thinner, lighter, and safer power source.

Did You Know?

We continue to use the Web to hunt for work. Over 17 million surfers--that's 13 percent of the active online population--logged onto a career site in April 2003, according to Nielsen NetRatings. Professionals were the likeliest to check career options online, with one in five logging onto a career site, the company reports.

Product Pipeline

Flashy Storage: The FlashTrax handheld device from SmartDisk provides portable storage for your multimedia files. Carrying a 30GB hard drive, a 3.5-inch LCD screen, and a CompactFlash slot, the unit can store, display, and play all types of multimedia files, including digital images, MP3s, and video. The $499 FlashTrax connects to your PC via USB 2.0.

Top 5 Downloads

1. Clean System Directory 1.7 (70KB) This software helps to remove stray DLLs from your system.
   
   
2. Spybot Search & Destroy 1.2 (3.5MB) Protect your privacy by removing spybots and replacing them with empty dummies.
   
   
3. ZoneAlarm 3.7.143 (3.6MB) Use this top-notch software firewall to defend yourself online--especially if you have broadband.
   
   
4. WebWasher Classic 3.3 (1.1MB) Protect your sensitive files from threats that come from either inside or outside your network.
   
   
5. SpamCatcher (2.2MB) Block spam by creating rules that identify and blacklist bulk e-mail.