RELEASE: AUGUST
Round Round Get Around
Downloadable music is cool, but imagine the mania if kids could dig the latest hits out of a cereal box or show them off during recess. Enter HitClips: a new music medium built for schoolyard abuse. The collectible singles are roughly the size of a piece of Bazooka bubble gum, and each contains one 60-second mini-song. They fit into candy-colored, solid-state players, from Tiger Electronics, that you can stash in your pocket or wear as an accessory. The Micro Player, pictured at left above, is no larger than a Pikachu keychain, with a single earbud permanently attached; the Micro Boombox at right measures a mere 21/4 by 31/8 inches. The chips cost around $4 apiece, and the Micro Player with one sample chip is $8 - well within allowance range for many 8-year-olds.
The mastermind behind all this is Andrew Filo, who also invented Sound Bytes, last year's school-sweeping la-la lollipops that play music through bone conduction when clamped between your molars. HitClips' audio quality is a bit higher up the sound chain, clocking in somewhere between FM and CD. Zomba Recording Group, an independent record company based in New York, is releasing Britney Spears and 'N Sync hitlets on HitClip. This takes some work - all songs must be re-engineered to make them small enough to fit.
The format was designed to allow upgrades - Filo says it's technically possible to put all of Elvis' greatest hits on a single HitClip-sized chip today, though the chip itself would be very expensive. Each HitClip contains both program information and its own hardware decompression circuit, in addition to the music data, paving the way for more sophisticated players.
While there's no word from Filo or partner Dave Capper on the possibility of adult HitClips - Bach, the Buzzcocks, or the King anyone? - plans are under way to convert classic rock artists like the Beach Boys. The move would expose them to a whole new generation of fans - at least 'til the teacher takes the player away.
Tiger Electronics: www.tigertoys.com.
RELEASE: AUGUST
Pure One-Handed Excitement
Sony makes the PDA juggling act easier with its under-$400 PalmTop, a handheld that lets you scroll and select one-handed, thanks to a programmable jog dial. (Entering alphanumerics still demands using the stylus.) Based on Palm OS 3.5, the palmtop has a matte silver-and-blue case, 8 Mbytes of RAM, and a Memory Stick slot. The fancy model (under $500) boasts a color display. Meanwhile, Sony also promises a full line of accessories, including a tiny digital camera.
Sony Electronics: (800) 315 7669, www.sel.sony.com.
RELEASE: SEPTEMBER
Creative Impulses
Is sex - much less sexual reproduction - already an out-of-body experience? This year's Ars Electronica should trip your trigger. Titled "Next Sex - Sex in the Age of Its Procreative Superfluousness," the conference promotes social intercourse among academics, artists, and scientists - including the Pill's inventor, Carl Djerassi, and Robin Baker, creator of the artificial womb - who will gather together to embrace the question, "In the future, who'll be having sex with whom, how, and why?"
Ars Electronica 2000 Festival for Art, Technology, and Society: September 2-7, Linz, Austria, +43 (732) 7272 79, www.aec.at/festival2000.
RELEASE: AUGUST
Thinner
Canon Vaio-izes the flatbed scanner with its superskinny CanoScan N1220U. The 3.3-pound portable measures just over 1 inch high - trim enough to fit into any briefcase or spatially challenged SOHO. Priced at $200, this CanoScan captures full color at 1,200 x 2,400 dpi. Both data and power run through a single USB cable, making setup easy. You can never be too cheap or too thin.
Canon: (800) 652 2666, www.ccsi.canon.com.
RELEASE: SEPTEMBER
Cruiser Envy
You can get a lot of boat for $7 million. The aggressively styled 105 Yacht is a carbon-fiber composite cruiser with four opulent suites, two hot tubs, a remote-control floating jetty for mooring, and all the electronic navigation, entertainment, and security trimmings. Invite the neighbors for G&Ts, then rally the 1,800-hp V16 engine and spur the 102-foot luxe craft into the sunset at a swift but stately 30 knots.
Sunseeker International: +1 (954) 984 2911, www.sunseeker.com.
STREET CRED
The Me Index
Gildergasm
Anglo Galactico
Witch Hunt
Anti-G Shock
Pharm Trek
It's a Wrap
ReadMe
Music
Comicopia
On Your Mark, Get Set, Row!
Interface-Off
Just Outta Beta
The Burrows of New York
Work Study
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