packing

Sometimes paying more money saves you more money. My girlfriend recently increased her AT&T text plan from 250 texts a month to 400 texts a month. The result is that she's actually paying less now than she was before, since going over her 250 test message limit was actually more expensive than just paying for 400 up front.

She could have just texted less, but that's not very realistic, and it's nice to know wireless companies have a fail-safe for those of us who have a hard time controlling our indulgences. Alltel Wireless on Monday … Read more

The battery built into the Apple iPod Touch can last up to 23 hours if you're just listening to music--but who uses a Touch just for music? Watching movies, playing games, streaming radio, and browsing the Web can quickly zap your iPod's battery. Anyone who's been stuck in the middle of nowhere with a useless, dead iPod has had to learn this lesson the hard way.

If you need enough power to make it over the long haul, the Mophie Juice Pack is an external rechargeable battery that doubles the battery life of the iPod Touch. Unfortunately, … Read more

Quick health update: Wilson is doing well and is on the miracle, three-day, cure-all Z-Pack. MTI fills in for another awesome show where we cut into our fillet of coastal beef, hook up a few treadmills to World of Warcraft, tell a turtle to stop snitching, and give you a Justin PSYu update. I'll give you a hint: it's in monochrome.

My favorite story on today's show involves a research turtle that accidentally stumbled upon a marijuana field in in our nation's capitol. The little guy was walking around with a GPS transmitter strapped to his … Read more

iRobot announced a new addition to its lineup of industrial robots Wednesday.

The Negotiator, another tactical mobile robot that can climb stairs, seems to be a pared down, civilian version of the PackBot.

Like the PackBot, the Negotiator can climb stairs, work by remote control, and be outfitted with tools for reconnaissance and chemical detection.

iRobot already offers a version of the PackBot 510 with a kit for first responders. While some municipalities have adopted it, the PackBot hasn't exactly become a common sight at your local police station.

It seems that iRobot has finally realized that the PackBot, … Read more

Thanks to the iPhone 3G's purportedly sorry battery life, we think the must-have accessories for the iPhone 3G are arguably (1) an extra charging cable, and (2) a battery extender. We've mentioned the Kensington Mini Battery Extender before, but I personally find it adds a little too much length to the iPhone 3G.

MStation, which released the Mophie juice pack battery extender for the first-generation iPhone last December, has just announced its second version of the Mophie just for the iPhone 3G.

Dubbed the Mophie juice pack 3G, this portable charging dock even comes "precharged" right … Read more

The U.S. military has been working on a new use for old PackBots that will save soldiers time and aggravation, though not replace them completely, when it comes to chemical warfare.

With new Foster-Miller Talon and 510 PackBot models being introduced, the old PackBot models will be rotated out of use in combat.

The Department of Defense ordered that the older models be put to good use. Through a program towards that end, the 95th Chemical Company at Fort Richardson in Alaska has been testing out modded PackBots since 2005.

The new/old PackBot, called a Chemical, Biological, Radiological … Read more

PassPack is a password-saving service I first checked out back in January of last year. This past week it released a really cool and smart password-saving tool that exists separately from your browser and lets you manage your passwords while offline. It also syncs up with PassPack's cloud storage to let you access your shared passwords, then sync them to multiple, authorized computers.

The application's claim to fame is that you can access your passwords while offline and without the use of your browser. If you don't feel like installing a new, standalone app, you can get … Read more

In addition to an expected increase in sales to the U.S. military, iRobot says it will see growth in its unmanned robot platforms from foreign buyers.

The "Unmanned Systems Roadmap 2007-2032," a report put out by the Department of Defense last year, outlined a strategy to increase spending in unmanned technology for the air, sea, and ground.

iRobot, which has already been supplying the U.S. military with unmanned robots for use in ground reconnaissance and combat, has repeatedly said it will benefit from the military's increased need.

But the company now says that as its … Read more

My name is Justin Yu, and I'm a digital pack rat. That's right, my hard drive is ultra cluttered with bad photos, ancient MP3s, and obsolete software, but I can never bring myself to trash them--who knows when I'll need that essay I wrote in middle school on Benjamin Franklin? I know that as soon as I empty the trash can, someone's going to ask for that blurry picture of their knee I took back in '98.

Iomega looks like they have my affliction covered--the company just released a 1TB version of the popular eGo desktop hard drive … Read more