__ Just Outta Beta __
__ A Global Calling __
While roughly half of the world's population has yet to make a phone call, the much anticipated arrival of satellite telephony will soon allow globetrotters to make digital wireless calls atop Mount Everest, in the middle of the Sahara, and almost anywhere else on the planet. Sat phones may eventually connect the phoneless masses, but not before the stratospheric prices fall enough to entice consumers on Main Street.
Arriving September 23, the Motorola-backed Iridium system becomes the first handheld sat-phone service to hit the market. Iridium effectively blankets the globe with wireless service by augmenting existing cell networks with a web of 66 low Earth orbit satellites. The first-generation service will concentrate on voice transmission and paging, while Macrocell, a high-bandwidth system, will arrive a few years hence.
Initially, Iridium's service will cost 30 percent more than cellular rates and the phones themselves will run US$2,500 to $3,000 a pop - all that for calls with an uncomfortable quarter-second of latency. Competition from rival systems such as Globalstar and ICO - arriving in the next few years - should eventually drive down prices and improve service, but in the meantime only international men of mystery, well-heeled foreign correspondents, and other global trendsetters will have the convenience of untethered worldwide communication.
- Tim Dickinson *
__ Ring-Free Zone __
As telecommunications appliances become smaller and cheaper, people use them anytime and everywhere," says NetLine Technologies marketing VP Gil Israeli. "The result is that cellular operators make a fortune and our quality of life deteriorates."
Choosing to outsmart those service providers, the Israel-based communications company NetLine has introduced C-Guard, a device that blocks cell-phone use in an enclosed area and creates a predefined ring-free zone. The tiny wall-mounted gadget can be used to keep movie theaters quiet, prevent electromagnetic interference on airplanes and in hospitals, and enforce call-free zones on military bases, where eavesdroppers might tap security-sensitive conversations.
In fact, the engineers at NetLine learned to combat unwanted communications while serving in the Israeli army. And the technology, which works by blocking a handset's communication with a service provider's base station, reflects this training as well as Israel's infatuation with cell phones. When you ask the folks at NetLine what they think of the Holy Land's cellular obsession, you get an opinion that is becoming increasingly prevalent across borders.
"The need for regulation of cell-phone usage will increase dramatically," says Israeli. "The public will demand adequate solutions that require cellular operators to exercise more control over their services." In the meantime, NetLine's solutions allows you to take matters into your own hands.
__ Muscle Cars __
It's hard to get the feel for car racing on a computer keyboard, but Trans-Am Racing '68-'72 tries awfully hard to achieve realism. Gamers choose from among 13 muscle cars - including Camaro, Dart, or Mustang models - and compete on 12 authentic road courses. Accidents are rendered on the fly, instead of in typical preanimated sequences. And players must negotiate the pit stops with as much skill as they use on the courses.
__ Bionic Ear __
Traditional hearing aids simply amplify sound - creating a cacophony of mixed noises inside a wearer's ear. Even most digital hearing aids do little more than filter out background noise. But the new Cetera hearing aid - which includes a customizing algorithm - actually restores the brain's ability to locate a sound's starting point and allows the wearer to focus on a single voice in a noisy room.
__ Curiously Strong Computer __
For people who like to get down and dirty, the new Mighty Mite is a 4- by 5.75- by 1.1-inch single-board computer featuring a 200-MHz Pentium processor with MMX technology - in other words, a PC about the size of a 3.5-inch hard drive that can run Windows NT. Of course, you have to be willing to eschew luxuries such as an enclosing case and power supply, but for sheer size and power you can't beat the Mighty Mite.
__ Info Armageddon __
Cyberwar may lack the immediate body count common in conventional warfare, but its implications are still devastating - especially for the American way of life. The Next World War: Computers Are the Weapons & the Front Line Is Everywhere, a new book by James Adams, explains how the US government's reliance on digital technologies has altered the global balance of power. The former Washington bureau chief for the London Sunday Times claims that US techno-dominance puts the country in a position of both privilege and extreme vulnerability.
