Product Inspiration

The effective range of cell phone towers and wireless internet hubs has a lot to do with how high they are mounted. In the conventional world, this translates to building taller towers and mounting on tall fixtures. Now, with dropping prices of electronic components and a rising demand for remote data and phone connectivity, its becoming cost effective to send “disposable” cellular and wireless internet stations up on balloons, which provide communication for a wide area on the ground.

This could be a great way for us rural folks to get reliable voice and data reception out in the middle of nowhere. Personally, I think it has a lot of potential, especially given the fact that “a single balloon can serve an area otherwise requiring 40 cell towers.” Lets just hope one doesn’t get sucked into a jet engine and cause a plane crash.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120347353988378955.html?mod=blo g

Controlling a computer with your brain has been the stuff of science fiction for years. It has also been achieved with some limited success in laboratories around the world. Neurosky is one of the first companies who seem to have made a functional and useful product using a brain interface. You wear their headband around your head, and are able to control video games by your thoughts alone.

While the technology has a long way to go before we can throw away our keyboard and mouse, its nice to see that someone’s gotten this technology far enough to sell an actual product based on it.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/10/hands-on-or-bra.html

From Betamax to Minidiscs, from Memory Sticks to Blu-Ray, it seems like Sony is always hell bent on making some type of proprietary format out of any new communication or storage medium.

In its latest attempt, Sony has created ‘TransferJet’, a short range high-bandwidth wireless communication architecture. My gripe is that this technology already exists as Ultra Wideband (UWB), and its currently being used for devices such as wireless USB routers. Basically, Sony took UWB, made some improvements to the widely adopted system, and branded it as their own.

Sony, please stop making all of the proprietary formats. Only a small fraction of other devices are ever compatible with your custom formats, and it ends up giving everyone headaches when their Memory Stick full of pictures can’t be uploaded using a conventional memory card reader. While I’m sure you end up making more money from these custom formats, it sure leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=2052100 37

This simple, yet effective design prevents your audio jack or headphone connector from being damaged when you accidentally yank on it in the wrong direction. The flexible nature of this connector allows it to bend and pull out of the earphone port with ease. I like the simplicity yet effectiveness of this idea, and bet there are quite a few other areas where a similar breakaway design could save us countless headaches.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/02/replug-breakaway-cable-protects-you r-3-5mm-jack/

Cell phone manufactures have FINALLY gotten together and decided to standardize their cell phone charging connections, which will make it much easier to borrow someone else’s charger when you forget yours on a business trip. Luckily, its not just one or two of the big players, but 5 companies: Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson.

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/09/21/cell_phone_man u.html

Technorati : cell phone chargers