Office Max!

Gadgets are not really my thing but you can get the cheapest electronics here at Zhongguancun. There are a lot of electronic malls in the area and if you plan to canvass for the cheapest, you need to set aside 2 days to get around all the places.

According to the article, "the Memory Spot chip is roughly the size of a grain of rice with a built-in antenna and is based on CMOs -- a widely used, low-power integrated circuit design. The chips could be embedded in a sheet of paper or stuck to any surface, and eventually could be available in a booklet as self-adhesive dots, according to the company. The chip has a 10 megabits-per-second data transfer rate -- which HP says is 10 times faster than Bluetooth wireless technology and comparable to WiFi speeds. Storage capacity ranges from 256 kilobits to 4 megabits in working prototypes, which HP says enables it to store a very short video clip, several images or dozens of pages of text. Future versions could have larger capacities."

The motives behind this change of technology are dubious. TV stations want it to be able to make more money with all kinds of new digital and interactive services, governments want it because it frees up frequencies (thus enabling them to make more money for licences) and businesses selling TVs and electronics want it because they will make a lot of money selling all the new appliances which will be needed.

Office space clutter is not only annoying, but it can also be one of the fastest ways to lose a clients or coworkers respect. Here are a few tips and wholesale electronics devices you can use to cut down on the clutter and create a neat, clean, professional-looking office.

This is bad news for San Francisco just when they approved the Google/Earthlink deal to deliver free wireless access to the entire city. It looks like thieves are after citizens at internet cafes busy with the laptops and they snatch them right there in front of other patrons. Electronics sell well in some dark streets. When the thieves get resistance, it looks like they don’t mind assault:

So what’s the thing customers like about Microsoft products? they’re not cheaper, they’re not better, they’re merely more nearly ubiquitous. Walk into your local Best Buy to look at a digital camera and the clerk will assume you have a Microsoft PC. Try it: go to any consumer electronics store and ask for the Linux software that goes with whatever they’re selling -you’ll get nowhere unless you’re a masochist who enjoys being condescended to by a snotty clerk.

Hewlett Packard >Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. Intel Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated Electronics.

Today I got home from my vacation to Washington, DC. It has been around a week since I posted and since I have been home. I said I would be putting up sound seeing tours of Washington, DC during my vacation, but… it didn’t really work out. The reason is there is so much security in Washington that you have to either empty out your pockets at every checkpoint or you have to leave your electronics at a security checkpoint.

I went to devon and picked one up at this place called oversees electronics. it rules. i really like it. not only is it super fancy and cool looking - but it is quite a bit faster than the 6600. it also feels better. the keypad is kinda weird and i constantly have trouble with the * key. but other than that it rules. i really enjoy it.

F+R Hugs is a soft Lycra shirt with embedded sensors and electronics that allows to feel the physical closeness of a distant loved one, bringing the sensation of a hug.

HAL is the result of 10 years' work by Yoshiyuki Sankai of the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and integrates mechanics, electronics, bionics and robotics in a new field known as cybernics. The most fully developed prototype, HAL 3, is a motor-driven metal "exoskeleton" that you strap onto your legs to power-assist leg movements. A backpack holds a computer with a wireless network connection, and the batteries are on a belt.

Global organizations across multiple industries such as retail, automotive, industrial manufacturing, electronics, consumer goods manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, entertainment and financial services are using product information management software. Some of IBM’s global customers who are currently using IBM WebSphere Product Center include AlphaPurchase, Corporate Express, Conforama, El Corte Ingles, Unilever, and West Marine.

After Roman, saw a great presentation by Dave Chalk and Mike Agerbo. Dave talked about how how we all got to learn to adapt to more furious change. He talked about very large companies battling over competing technologies and that these battles get the consumer no further ahead. People just want things to work, and they want all their electronics to work together seamlessly, if needed. Mike then showed off some new technology for the house which basically centralizes storage of all people's music, photos, recorded...

Best Buy Co., the nation’s biggest consumer electronics chain, said Friday its fourth quarter earnings rose thanks to a February sales surge but offered a disappointing forecast for this quarter. It also said it will phase out using mail-in rebates over the next two years, bowing to customer complaints. Its shares fell more than 5 percent.

Nevins claimed that he opened the boxed camera at home to find no camera.

Best Buy officials, arguing that they had no way to verify Nevins' assertion, declined to take any action in the matter.

In response to that column, Greg Maas of Lansing said he had the same experience at a Best Buy in a different city - same brand of camera, same model, same camera-less box. But in Maas' case, Best Buy gave him a camera.

Be gentle, I'm the new kid. Engadget Podcast.23 03.21.2005

BestBuy.com vaulted over eBay Electronics to be the No. 1 computer and consumer electronics retail web site in February, fueled by a 20% gain in BestBuy.com�s traffic and a 29% drop in eBay Electronics�, Nielsen/NetRatings reports. Best Buy hosted 10.49 million unique visitors in February, up from 8.7 million a year earlier, while eBay Electronics hosted 7.84 million, down from 11 million a year earlier.

Okay, the complaint. I live in a medium sized city in the Midwest. We are too small for Best Buy and Circuit City, but big enough for Office Max, Radio Shack, Wal Mart, Sears, . . . etc. When I need something at the last minute, technology wise, Office Max is generally the only game in town. I do not know how they do their distribution, but they seemed to have pegged our market as "too clueless to know the difference."

A company called bun-J offers some fabulous mobile phone holders - such as these "classical bags" (left) which include pockets for credit cards. mobile blog.it spotted them at CeBit.

I'm bummed - it looks like I won't be able to get insurance for my Sidekick. Apparently you have to sign up within seven days of activation (for new customers) or ten days after switching phones (for existing customers), and I didn't know that when I bought the Sidekick on eBay. I didn't even know that insurance was recommended, but every website or discussion forum I've seen about Sidekicks has people mentioning broken scroll wheels, buttons falling off, etc. I have some friends who have never had those problems, but apparently they are quite common. I certainly wasn't eager to cough up the $4/month for the insurance, but given what I've heard I figured it was prudent. I tried begging Asurion, the insurer for T-Mobile, but the woman couldn't help me. I asked if she had other suggestions, and she mentioned homeowners insurance and auto insurance...I didn't bother telling her that I don't own a home or a car.

Save up to $70 instantly on clearance digital cameras at OfficeMax.com!

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