IT鈥橲 YOUR HI-FI ON THE PHONE
Forget CDs, it鈥檚 your cellphone that you鈥檒l be playing in future hi-fi systems, says Motorola.
In July, the Texas-based electronics firm licensed Apple Computer鈥檚 iTunes software so that users of a forthcoming Motorola phone can download paid-for music tracks onto their phone instead of an iPod. Now Motorola is planning to launch a system that will allow you to play back your cellphone-based music collection through any hi-fi in your house or garden shed.
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Motorola鈥檚 DC800 Home Gateway unit, due out early in 2005, will sit alongside a conventional hi-fi to receive music broadcast by the cellphone over its Bluetooth microwave link.
The Gateway unit will use an ultra-sensitive microwave receiver that increases Bluetooth鈥檚 range from the typical 10 metres to 100 metres to cater for use at the bottom of the garden.
The phone will transmit the music at 700 kilobits per second, giving near CD-quality sound. Motorola product manager Fred Zimbric says the firm will take steps to ensure the unencrypted music bitstream cannot be recorded off-air and pirated, but he cannot yet say how this will be done.
ZAP THAT BLASTED TELEVISION!
Ever been stuck in an airport, bar or gym with a television blaring noisily in a corner and had no way to turn it off? San Francisco-based inventor Mitch Altman is offering a way to restore tranquillity: a cheap key fob-sized remote control that can turn off just about any TV.
The $15 remote tries every known infrared TV turn-off command, one by one, for 69 seconds, starting with those for the most common sets.
Available in separate versions for North American and European sets, TV-B-GONE doesn鈥檛 damage the set, and can switch it back on ().
Altman calls his invention 鈥渙ne of the first truly useful uses of technology鈥� and describes the din of 鈥渟econd-hand media鈥� as a blight comparable to passive smoking.
The idea of gadgets that turn off the technology owned by others could go further. Altman told the WiredNews website that friends have asked him to look into the idea of a gadget that silences the booming 鈥渟ub-woofer鈥� speakers that make cars vibrate. Still others would love to be able to silence any unattended car alarm. Cellphone jammers already exist, of course, but are illegal in many countries.
