A little known (but much loved by me) feature of every iPod (except the Shuffle) and the original iPhone was that you could charge the phone using the FireWire port on your computer. Of course, it's been quite a while since you could transfer data over FireWire, but you could …

Lawrence Lessig has an article in Wired this week where he theorizes that municipal WiFi may be the Linux that keeps the Phone and Cable companies from dominating the last mile. Does he make sense?

For those curious about high-speed wireless connectivity, you can check out Apple's 802.11 FAQ where they inform us that all Core2 Duo machines (except the 17" 1.83GHz iMac) are capable of N.

Well, Microsoft has announced Zune, it's answer to Apple's venerable iPod franchise. Let's see what it has to offer. The "killer feature" of Zune is the Zune Marketplace that supports Zune-to- Zune sharing of "full-length sample tracks" of songs, pictures, or playlists. According to the press release, you'll be able …

Just for fun, here's the article that I wrote on March 6th 2003 that spawned the idea for my recently issued patent. I still think it's a frightening idea, but at least now I might have some control over whether it happens. While writing a summary story on a Wired …

Well, our elected officials are at it again. Presumedly as a part of their efforts to free commerce, Representative Pete Sessions (R-Dallas, TX) has decided it would be in all of our best interests if the Federal Government banned the creation of WiFi networks by municipalities to let the free …

An article from InfoSync World describes the new Nokia 770 Internet tablet device, a linux-based touch- sensitive WiFi web access terminal. This thing is rumored to be coming out this fall at a price point near $350, making it much more compelling than the larger and more expensive Windows- based …

Don't bother trying to do any anonymous surfing in the library in Naperville, IL after the beginning of the summer. As a matter of fact, don't borrow your friend's library card either, because it won't work. Starting in June, the library will be replacing their library card+PIN security system …

According to an article from Wired, the list of people complaining about the State Department's plans to embed RFID tags into US Passports is on the rise. Most recently, the Business Travel Coalition and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives have announced their opposition to the plan. At issue is …

Well, it appears that the over-zealous FCC is once again on the verge of diminishing choice and competition in an area that has been dominated by monopolies for years. An article from CNet this morning discusses the likely overriding of state laws that currently require (in some jurisdictions) the incumbent …

According to an article from Wired, the US government is planning to insert RFID tags into our passports starting in 2005. Whereas more secure passports is a fine idea, I'm struck be the choice of RFID over a contact-based mechanism that would offer security without the ability to read over …

According to an article from Wired, the state of Virginia (of which I am currently a resident) is considering using a combination of biometrics and RFID technology to make driver's licenses more difficult to counterfeit and steal. Whereas the biometric aspect makes a certain amount of sense when attempting to …

According to an article from the Associated Press (courtesy of Yahoo!), Verizon Wireless, Cingular and Sprint have agreed with Attorneys General of 32 states to provide additional information and flexibility to customers. Among the concessions are: more detailed coverage maps, the ability to return phones within 3 days, and a …

Initial user reports on AccellerateYourMac are good on Apple's new Airport Express with AirTunes. If you haven't heard of this, Apple's released a $129 802.11g (WiFi) gateway that allows you to play your iTunes through speakers attached to the device. Great if you don't have a wireless network already …

Startup company, OQO is showing off their OQO Model 01 hand-held computer. It's a bit larger than an iPod and weighs 14 oz., but runs full-fledged Windows XP on a 1GHz Transmeta CPU with a 20GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM. The machine also packs Bluetooth, WiFi (802.11b …

Apple has released (available through Software Update) a new version of their Bluetooth drivers for the Macintosh. Bluetooth Update 1.5 (available for Panther users) will allow you to use a Bluetooth headset for your iChat connections and other sound I/O. Further, if you are near a Bluetooth printer …

Those traveling on Amtrak in the north-east corridor will be happy to hear that the train service provider is expanding their WiFi experiment to include stations in: Boston, Providence, Wilmington, and Philadelphia as well as Penn Station in NYC. This according to an article from CNet.

Those who have an interest in RFID (Radio Frequency ID) technology may be interested to note that the newly-established standards organization, EPC Global, has appointed (or is that anointed) Verisign to run their registry. EPC Global was established to take over for the Auto-ID lab, which was founded by MIT …

There is an interesting article from The Dallas Morning News that describes the phenomenon of workers who run their "offices" out of coffee houses and use WiFi and cellular phones to keep themselves connected to the world. As somebody who often falls into this category, it's amusing to see it …

According to an article from CNet, iPass and T-Mobile have signed an agreement to allow roaming between their networks. For customers of either network, this effectively doubles the number of "hotspots" where access is available. T-Mobile has about 4,000 (mostly in the US) and iPass has about 3,000 …