A fascinating marriage of oddly divergent design concepts, remobeads take me back to my Catholic childhood and memories of saying penance for my sins. (I used to confess to teasing my little brother nearly every week, just to have something to say to the priest in the booth.) I found it soothing, back then, to run the rosary beads through my fingers as I said the prescribed prayers... and TV can sometimes be soothing too. OK, there's one connection.
So here's what remobeads do: By pressing gently on the beads, you can move from TV channel to TV channel. In the picture you can see that each bead has a channel number or logo. If this product comes to market, in these days of cable and satellite, we're going to need a pretty long string of beads. Or maybe we're just supposed to add our favorite channels to the string. Anyway, the beads glow, so you can find them in the dark, probably much easier than finding a remote. And according to the designer Dima Komissarov's Web site, "as an option, you can add a sound - enjoy listening to your favorite mantras while switching the channels." This is getting downright ecumenical.
I'm not much of a drinker anymore. Nope, those college days at SUNY Albany are just drunken distant memories. So, when fellow blogger Carol Mangis asked if I wanted to test a digital breathalyzer, I was hesitant at first since I'm such a lightweight now. Luckily, I have a boyfriend who is presently living out those college days, and he was more than happy to assist in the drink testing.
So last Saturday night, he and I drove to Savoy's Restaurant and Boiler Bar (which looks like a house, I know) to drink and listen to the live band playing, The Loop. The special for the night was $4 Captain Morgan & Coke drinks, so immediately my boyfriend's eyes lit up. For the first drink though, he settled on a Corona, and I had a SoCo & Sprite.
I was the one driving, so I figured I'd have one more drink, a Corona. For the next two hours, my boyfriend switched to Rum & Coke and had 7 of them. I knew it was time to go home when he started to slur his words and greet everybody who walked by. We got into my RAV4 and I tested my BAC level with the first digital breathalyzer, the AlcoHAWK Slim: .05. The second digital breathalyzer, the AlcoHAWK ABI, gave the same reading. So I was good to drive, since the legal limit is .08.
After my boyfriend pleaded with me to stop at 7-Eleven for a hot dog, we arrived at my apartment. I then let him test his BAC level. The Slim device produced a .14 reading, and the ABI had a .15. I tested mine once more, and both devices gave me a reading of .03. So, within an hour, 1 beer and 1 drink produced a .05; after 1 beer and 7 drinks for him produced a .15.
I was actually surprised that after only 2 drinks I had a .05, so it just goes to show it doesn't take much. As for my boyfriend, I put him to bed and placed a bowl next to him while he slept just in case, well, you know.
Both AlcoHAWK devices are designed by the company Q3 Innovations. I liked the AlcoHAWK Slim because it fits right in your pocket or purse. I felt that it was pretty accurate, but it takes awhile to warm up. The AlcoHAWK ABI is a bit bigger than the Slim. It's actually the company's best selling unit. The ABI takes less time to warm up than the Slim does, which is handy for impatient drunkards. If I had to choose one over the other, I'd go with the ABI, just for the fact that it seems more accurate (since it's DOT approved) and comes with a car charger.
AlcoHAWK Slim (Buy it $74.99): -Newest -Sleek design, weighs .3 lbs -Very portable -Comes with 5 mouthpiece covers -Foldable mouthpiece -Detects a BAC reading of .00 to .40% -Requires 2 AA batteries
AlcoHAWK ABI (Buy it $99.99): -Hard shell carrying case -Soft zipper cover with wrist strap -12 Volt A/C Adapter for car-charging -DOT approved -Comes with 5 mouthpiece covers
-Detects a BAC reading of .00 to .40%
-Requires 9 Volt battery
It is extremely important to wait 20 minutes after your last beverage and food consumption before testing these digital breathalyzers. To properly ensure an accurate reading, follow these tips.
Stay tuned next week for more digital breathalyzer tests, and Happy Cinco de Mayo!
Place an order by tomorrow and you can get Norton Ghost 10.0 from Buy.com for free after $60 in rebates. Symantec has been positioning Ghost as a backup tool in recent years, but I still see it mostly as a disk imaging application. It's a very useful tool for creating a snapshot of your hard drive that you can store on another disk, CDs or DVDs. I typically do this when I get a new computer and finally have all my software installed and configured the way I like it.
There's a $40 rebate that's exclusively for Buy.com customers. But there's also $20 back for competitive upgrades when Ghost is purchased at nearly any store. If you thought you'd lose out on that one because you never used a Ghost competitor, think again. Symantec definition of competitor is incredibly broad to include pretty much any type of utility or security software. If you own a PC, you have to go pretty far out of your way to not qualify. When you see vendors offering these competitive upgrades, always read the fine print. You may be surprised.
When using the digital breathalyzer it is very important to wait 20 minutes after your last beverage and food consumption. Why? Because the alcohol residue in your mouth and on your lips will not only give you an inaccurate reading, but it can also damage the sensor. (I know, because the first Slim device I was sent stopped working because someone hadn't waited the 20 minutes.)
If you can't wait the 20 minutes, Q3 Innovations recommends that you rinse your mouth out with water before testing.
It is also essential that you do not test the breathalyzer in bars or where there is heavy drinking and smoking going on. Be outside or in your car.
How to Test the AlcoHAWK Slim:
1. After 20 minutes, turn the device on.
2. Wait 60 seconds (you'll see the device counting down).
3. Once the blinking red light appears, you'll hear a single beep.
4. Take a deep breath. Start blowing into the mouthpiece for approximately 5 seconds or until you hear the beep.
5. Your reading is then displayed in 2 decimal places.
If others are going to use the device, make sure you replace the mouthpiece with another cover. Allow 2 minutes for subsequent testing.
How to Test the AlcoHAWK ABI:
1. After 20 minutes, turn the device on.
2. The detector will start to count down from 200 on the display.
3. Once the green light appears, you'll hear a single beep.
4. Take a deep breath. Start blowing into the mouthpiece for approximately 5 seconds or until you hear the beep.
5. Your reading is then displayed in 2 decimal places.
Again, if others are going to use the device, make sure you replace the mouthpiece with another cover. Allow 2 minutes for subsequent testing.
Today, Griffin has announced the iClear for the iPod with video. The iClear is a transparent case that provides full screen protection. So yes, you have to keep staring at those plain white or black surfaces.
Almost everything we think we know about hybrids could be wrong.
Despite the conventional wisdom that hybrids are pokey, some may even be faster than their non-hybrid equivalents. Hybrid mileage may not suffer any more than that of non-hybrids, when tougher EPA tests take effect. And those multi-thousand-dollar batteries under the back seat may last the life of the car (and won't electrocute rescue workers). That's my takeaway from a Toyota-Lexus technology day on their pride and joy, the hybrid car.
Lots of facts and figures were tossed at us, and one very important question was raised: Doesn't the Geneva Convention specify a 90-minute limit on PowerPoint presentations, especially when they delay you from driving new cars along the Pacific coastline? Also called to mind was the line, attributed variously to Disraeli and Mark Twain, that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Assuming Toyota and Lexus were putting their best feet forward (but not lying through their teeth), hybrids are evolving to the point where potential downsides are fading in the face of improving technology. Here are some common hybrid myths, the Toyota-Lexus company line, and my take.
Myth: Hybrids are slow.
Reality: The first hybrid cars were built for maximum economy (okay, they were kind of slow). But the current generation doesn't vary significantly from similar non-hybrids, and in performance-oriented cars, the electric motor acts much like a turbocharger. The Lexus GS450h sport sedan hits 60 mph in 5.2 seconds, a tick faster than the non-hybrid GS450. My seat-of-the-pants testing confirmed that this is a sports car and a hybrid.
Myth: New EPA tests will hurt hybrids worse than they hurt other cars.
Reality: The perceived shortfall may be trick of mathematics. Americans use the non-linear miles-per-gallon measurement, and Europeans use the liters/100km fuel-consumed measurement. Non-linear means that if you lose 5 miles per gallon off a 50-mpg hybrid, that's not the same as losing 5 mpg off a 15-mpg SUV. This may be more accurate when it's phrased like this: consumption rises from 2.0 to 2.2 gallons per hundred miles in the first case, and rises 6.7 to 10 gallons per hundred miles in the second case. In real-world terms, if the 60-mpg Prius (city rating) drops to 48 mpg, which the government says may happen, that's a shortfall of 12 mpg, or 20 percent, which seems huge. In 12,000 miles of driving, gas consumption climbs from 200 gallons to 250 gallons, or an extra $150 a year if you're buying $3-a-gallon gasoline. Not so huge on a $25,000 car.
On a car getting 20 mpg, a similar 20 percent falloff between old and new testing methods would drop you to 16 mpg, and your annual fuel consumption would climb from 600 to 750 gallons, raising your fuel bill by $450 a year. Using instead the extra-50-gallons-consumed measurement, that would equate to a 20 mpg car falling to 18.5 mpg, which seems like a drop in the bucket.
Myth: Hybrids have a greater real-world mpg shortfall.
Reality: On miles per gallon, Toyota says possibly; on a gallons-per-year basis, it's less clear. For five small and midsize cars (the Prius, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Camry, Chevrolet Malibu, and VW Jetta Diesel), the difference between EPA ratings and third-party, real-world results ranged from 48 extra gallons per year (Corolla) to 89 gallons (Malibu), with the hybrid Prius right in the middle at 68 gallons.
That said, we'd still like to see more testing to clarify the difference and also to clarify whether hybrids force a measure of discomfort on owners (such as air conditioning shutting down at traffic lights and no seat heaters in some cars), to get the best mileage. Also, there's a question of whether lead-footed driving has a greater impact on fuel consumed by hybrids. We're all for that kind of testing—if we get to do it.
Myth: You'll go broke replacing hybrid batteries.
Reality: The battery won't wear out. Really. "We think it's a life-of-the-vehicle battery," says Dave Hermance, Toyota's executive engineer for advanced technology vehicles. "We don't expect to have any claims for battery failure."
A hybrid battery has an easy life compared to the battery in your laptop, cell phone, or digital camera, which may last 500 to 2,000 charge-discharge cycles. Most stressful on the battery is the top and bottom 20 percent of the charge cycle, meaning from 80 percent to fully charged, or from 20 percent down to discharged. Hybrid car batteries live in the middle 60 percent and are actively monitored, cooled (by fans in the battery packs), and not subjected to charge/discharge in temperature extremes. That's why a hybrid car's gasoline engine may start up immediately in cold weather whereas in warm weather, it would drive off under the electric motor.
Some first-generation Prius owners have hit 200,000 miles, and some current-model Priuses (the ones with the split back window) are hitting 100,000 miles, Toyota says, all with no battery failures. According to a Toyota statement: "We have not had any service replacements, warranty or beyond, for decreased capacity." This seems to mean that if there have been replacements, they haven't been because of tired batteries. Toyota warrants the hybrid battery for 10 years or 150,000 miles. If you needed a new battery, and it wasn't covered under warranty (say if you crashed the car), it would cost just north of $2,000. Continued...
Myth: Plug-in hybrids have a great future.
Reality: Maybe. So-called plug-in hybrids that operate mostly as electric vehicles, and then switch to gasoline motors in case you drive too far before you get back to the electrical socket, tax the abilities of current or near-future battery technologies. The temptation is to run them from 100-percent charge down to nothing, for greater range, but that means the battery probably won't last. Toyota doesn't see any battery technology on the horizon that makes plug-ins viable. For the longer term, it's worthwhile to continue the research.
Myth: Hybrid systems are for gasoline-powered vehicles only.
Reality: The technology works well with a wide variety of engines: gasoline, diesel, and even hydrogen, as that comes to market. In fact, for some non-gasoline engines that work most efficiently within a narrow rpm range (around 2,000 to 3,500 rpm), the hybrid makes more sense, because it can store energy for peak periods when the engine otherwise would have to run at higher rpm. Urban buses from DaimlerChrysler and GM match diesel engines working in a narrow rpm band with big battery packs to deliver large economy gains. Going from 3.5 mpg to 4.5 mpg represents a 29-percent improvement, for instance.
Myth: The future is hydrogen.
Reality: Honda engineers have a joke that hydrogen is a natural party animal, because you never find it alone. To separate hydrogen atoms from their associated molecules is an energy-intensive process. The net energy expenditure and the smokestack emissions depend a lot on the process. Do this in California where many power plants run off natural gas, and it's reasonable; use a coal-fired power plant, and it's not.
On this point, Toyota raises some interesting questions, but hydrogen isn't Toyota's baby. It's more a European-automaker thing, and BMW is pushing hardest.
Myth: You'll never get back the hybrid price premium.
Reality: You probably will, but it's going to take years. Toyota didn't offer a lot of insight (read: spin), so we suspect this is an open issue. The premium can be $2,000 to $4,000; $3,000 is typical. Government tax incentives have been scaled back, and there's a per-automaker cap, meaning Ford will have incentives left long after Toyota.
Assume that you paid $3,000 extra for a Toyota Prius over a comparable non-hybrid and that the Prius gets 45 mpg versus the other car's 30 mpg, over 12,000 miles of yearly driving. The Prius burns 267 gallons of fuel, and the non-hybrid burns 400 gallons. At $3 a gallon, you'll save 133 gallons, or $400, so the payback takes 7.5 years. Drive 20,000 miles pumping $4 gasoline, and payback happens in 3.4 years; drive just $10,000 miles at $2.50 a gallon, and you'll see the payback in 10 years and 10 months.
Federal tax credits, while they last, let other taxpayers help you cut your payback period to as little as a year or two. Through 2005, everyone who bought a hybrid got a tax deduction. Now, though, buyers get a tax credit of $500 to $3,400 for the first 60,000 hybrids each parent automaker sells; it then starts to fade out in the quarter after each maker hits the allocation ceiling. Toyota/Lexus will burn through theirs this quarter (they sold 107,897 hybrids in 2005), while Ford/Mercury will still have credit-eligible cars at the end of the year. On the Prius, the full credit is $3,150, just about what the hybrid premium is compared with a non-hybrid.
Thanks to PC Magazine Editor, Reviews Lance Ulanoff for this story!
China may have its first commercial home robot. Or it may not. According to a report from the Xinhau News Agency and Reuters, the Shenyang-based Xinsong Automation Co. has developed something calling the Liangliang robot. The roughly 2-feet-tall robot, according to Xinhau, is Web-ready, able to respond to spoken commands, and can avoid obstacles.
The report offers little detail beyond that. There are no photos, technical specs, price, or delivery date; just this cryptic report. The Xinsong Automation Co., which has no Web site that I could find, is apparently affiliated (or may be part of) the Chinese Academy of Science. Yet the English version of that organization's Web site offers no mention of this new robot. So is this robot real or unreal? I'll reserve my judgment. If you find out more than I did, please post here!
Big props to Engadget for getting a Helio Kickflip before I did - word on the street is they actually shelled out some cash to buy one, as opposed to waiting for the loaners that most tech journalism runs on. But there seems to be a lot of UD (uncertainty and doubt, without fear) about Helio both on the Engadget Mobile comments thread and on the Howard Forums discussion board, so I thought I'd clear some things up with 10 answers.
1. Helio, as it's shipping now, is not a power user carrier or an Internet focused carrier. It is a carrier targeted at young people with relatively deep pockets and a love for social networking. Keep that in mind when you look at their services. Yes, this approach makes me sad, as you know; I've been told it may change in the future, and I hope it does.
2. No, you cannot connect your Helio phone to your PC as a modem so your PC can access the Internets.
3. No, it doesn't have a Web browser. Only WAP. I'm not sure whether you'll be able to load the third-party Opera Mini browser, though -- that's something I aim to check out.
4. No, it doesn't have Bluetooth.
5. No, it doesn't have a native email client. You access email through WAP.
(If answers 2-5 concern you, look again at answer #1. This is not a power user service right now. It's for people who want a great-looking cell phone with a good camera and lots of games that posts to MySpace.)
6. No, you can't use the Helio phones on Verizon or Sprint or any other carrier, and you can't use Verizon or Sprint phones on Helio. If you like the phones, subscribe to the carrier.
7. No, it's not going to be sold in any countries other than the US for now. While I could imagine them expanding into Canada in theory, they're definitely not going to Europe or any other continents. With a US-based subscription, the Helio phones can roam in 36 countries including China, India, and South Korea (if they have roaming agreements) -- but they're doorstops in western Europe.
8. Yes, all of this may change, and soon. Helio has said they'll be releasing more power-user devices in the future. Sky Dayton ruled out PC-modem tethering in an interview with Gizmodo recently, but he's changed his mind about things before.
9. Yes, you can put your own media on the device, as long as it isn't DRMed. The phones come with a Windows (not Mac) app called Media Mover that will supposedly reformat videos for the phone. I'm still not sure whether you can use your own media as ringtones, though. I'll have to check that out.
10. Yes, Helio's primary network for now is Sprint. They're using Sprint's network for EV-DO coverage, their coverage map is identical to the one on the Sprint Web site, and the data services will work when you're in a Sprint EV-DO city. But they have deals with Verizon as well, so their coverage may improve/expand.
May is a popular month for getting wasted celebrating. (Then again, what month isn't? Still...) There's May Day, Cinco de Mayo (which is today), Senior Proms, graduation parties, Mother's Day, and Memorial Day weekend. So we at GearLog are officially designating May as Alcohol Safety Month.
Of course, the only way to be safe while drinking is to know your limits and not to drink and drive. But how many people really know how much they can handle before they're drunk-dialing or throwing up on the shoes of a 6-foot tall bouncer? (hehe) And how many people opt to call a cab or bring along a designated driver?
Apparently, California and Texas are the worst when it comes to drunk driving: over 1,500 traffic deaths were alcohol-related in 2004 alone (source: MADD). What's even scarier is that every 2 minutes in the U.S., someone is injured in a crash due to alcohol (source: AlcoholAlert.com).
Undoubtedly, you've heard the myths of how to get sober quickly: put a penny under your tongue, take a cold shower, drink a few cups of coffee, eat bread... (Hasn't MythBusters covered this?) But, the only sure-fire way of getting sober is to give your body time.
One objective way to determining whether you should get behind the wheel is to use a digital breathalyzer. It didn't take long here at PC Magazine for people to volunteer themselves as guinea pigs by testing one of 7 different breathalyzers. Each day next week, you'll be hearing about their different experiences with the devices and just how drunk they got. Then, we're going to round up all of the breathalyzers and test them against the big Kahuna: the FC10 breathalyzer, which is used by law enforcement. (This is why our jobs are so great: we can get drunk on company time after hours and write about it. Gotta love it.)
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