Juniper Foo | Feb 22, 2005

Ready for little tykes to cart USB thumbdrives instead of huge tomes of textbooks to school? SanDisk, which recently launched
SD cards with built-in USB and
translucent flash memory cards, aims to change the face of textbooks as we know it, while reaping a few e-publishing profits along the way. Its Cruzer USB drive strives to pack e-books into a special secure drive called BookLocker. While this is unlikely to raise eyebrows, the BookLocker begs to differ with enhanced software that securely provides electronic texts for educational applications and markets (albeit via proprietary DRM). Of course, unlike readily accessible paper-based books, users will still need a PC or notebook to read off the BookLocker.
Price: N.A.
Availability: The US
Device: USB flash drive for secure digital books
Basic specs: N.A.
Juniper Foo | Feb 07, 2005

If you detest the boxy look of Wi-Fi finders, check out media artist Karen Lee's flower power creation for her final thesis project. Dressed up as a wearable flower, Hotspot Bloom allows style-fussy hotspotters to accessorize their person with one. Inside, it's still the same nuts and bolts to detect wireless networks (802.11b/g) in the vicinity. Except that a blinking flower looks so much purdier.
Price: N.A.
Availability: Thesis project at
Hotspot Bloom
Device: Wi-Fi detector
Basic specs: Full spectrum LEDs, a PIC microcontroller