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RELEASE: OCTOBER
HomePlug
The Gist: Smart Homes For Dummies
Home networks have traditionally been the province of hobbyists. Stringing Ethernet cable, installing phone jacks, or buying wireless LAN hubs is hardly rocket science, but each involves extra steps that average consumers have been unwilling to take. The HomePlug standard eliminates the need to think, allowing anyone to build high-bandwidth networks just by plugging devices into power outlets.
The new spec comes from the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, an industry association of 90 networking, hardware, and power companies. It aims to turn your home's existing electrical wires into a single fat pipe that carries TV, phone, and other data along with the juice. Getting the noisy 115-volt AC lines in your house to handle high-speed data represented a considerable technical challenge, but under ideal conditions, the protocol moves 14 Mbps - far more than control networks such as X10 and CeBus.
Under the real-world conditions of variable voltage, interference, and crappy wiring, HomePlug's throughput is 8 Mbps, 80 percent of the time. To get there, devices monitor conditions on the wire to determine the safest length and modulation for each packet, and add a few microseconds of previously sent information for redundancy. Unlike TCP/IP, HomePlug prioritizes packets, fast-tracking audio and video streams for smooth playback while text waits. Security comes via 56-bit encryption - a necessary feature since all the signals on your network flow back to the utility's local transformer, putting you and your neighbors on the same information grid.
Power companies have a lot to gain from HomePlug. The utilities would love to turn the staid electrical outlet into the information jack of the future. HomePlug must duke it out with other formats, including dedicated Ethernet, phone, and wireless. But in the process, smart-home networking will cross the chasm to general adoption. As automation expert Bob Hetherington explains, "The bottom line is, you'll go into Wal-Mart, buy a device, plug it in, and it'll work. Then it'll be real." Expect to see compliant products sporting the HomePlug logo in stores by year's end.
HomePlug: www.homeplug.org.
RELEASE: OCTOBER
iPublish.com Fall 2001
The Gist: You Pick The Hits
Travels, a science fiction novel by Jerry Davis, and two other titles took an unusual path to publication. They were "discovered" on iPublish.com, a book division of AOL Time Warner. Here's how it works: Readers using the site review and rate 15-page excerpts from each submission. Professional editors then read the full manuscripts of high-scoring books. Can't authors recruit shills to push their efforts? "It doesn't work," says editorial director Claire Zion. "We know when a book is bad."
iPublish: www.ipublish.com.
RELEASE: OCTOBER
Big Briar minimoog Voyager
The Gist: Redesigned Moog Is Touchier Than Ever
The minimoog Voyager makes the defining synth of the '70s even more expressive by incorporating a velocity-sensitive keyboard and a Tactex touchpad that registers pressure as well as position. Pioneering inventor Robert Moog sees the monophonic, MIDI-capable Voyager as a way to re-create his instrument for the current analog-synth revival. What was Moog's hardest challenge in developing his new baby? "Getting the minimoog trademark back," he laughs.
Big Briar: (800) 948 1990, www.bigbriar.com.
RELEASE: FALL
Oster In2itive
The Gist: Whip It Good
Oster's In2itive mixes up 40-plus preprogrammed sequences designed by chefs to eliminate guesswork. Pick your dish on the LCD screen, then leave it to the three reversible-action blades to spin as long as needed, change speeds, and stop. Never again will your smoothie come out like salsa or your crumbled-nut topping like baby food. Best of all, in the event of some bizarre crisis, the blender's Lexan jar is bulletproof.
Oster: (800) 334 0759, www.oster.com.
RELEASE: NOVEMBER
Novatel Wireless Merlin G301
The Gist: The Mother Of All Wireless Cards
Nervous users of financially shaky Iridium or dead Ricochet can relax: Novatel Wireless' Merlin G301 keeps you and your PC online wherever your itinerary takes you. Available from GPRS providers AT&T and VoiceStream, the GSM/GPRS PC card connects your voice and your data through a blistering (for wireless) 53 Kbps over GPRS networks and an old, reliable 14.4 on GSM systems. And with triband compatibility, it works in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Novatel Wireless: +1 (858) 320 8800, www.novatelwireless.com.
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