PDAs & Gadgets

News: Drag-and-Drop Napster

Roxio's Napster online music service, recently resurrected from legal purgatory, now allows you to drag and drop music tracks from the Napster application into more portable audio players. Previously, you could only drag and drop tunes to Samsung Electronics' YP-910GS device. Now, Napster supports 60 portable music players, including the Dell Digital Jukebox and Rio Audio's Nitrus, according to Roxio.

Tip: Keep Your BlackBerry From Turning Blue

You thought you hated the snow? It turns out that older "always on" BlackBerry models 857 and 957 may not work in cold weather, according to The Wall Street Journal. Even worse, a cold BlackBerry may have to be manually reset before it can retrieve e-mail again.

The problem is most likely caused by static discharge created during dry winter weather, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion told the newspaper. Keeping the device in a leather holster may reduce the chances of it shutting down in cold weather, the company said. In the meantime, I suggest that you take your aging BlackBerry only where it's warm--Miami, for example.

Cold temps aside, older BlackBerry models can make for inexpensive on-ramps to the wireless Internet. Intrigued? Read my "Wireless Internet on the Cheap" column.

Tip: Learn the PDA Lingo

Okay, I won't spring another pop quiz on you. But I will tell you about a site where you can learn some new terms, such as J2ME and Plucker, to throw around at your next PDA support group meeting. PDASupport.com, a handy resource for handheld groupies, has a useful glossary.