pointer

Hockey dad allegedly lasers opposing team's goalie

Some say our inner teen never leaves us, but merely takes on more sophisticated tastes.

One wonders, therefore, about the inner teen of a parent at a high school girls hockey game in Massachusetts, who allegedly brought along his laser pointer.

Did he wish to use it to feature some aspect of the home team's strategy? Not quite. He is accused of using it to distract the opposing team's goalie.

I know that hockey exists largely so that people can reconstruct each other's faces, but the idea that a parent could try to do this to a … Read more

Griffin crams laser pointer and pen into a stylus

Most modern business warriors don't need actual Swiss Army knives in the course of a typical work day. But they do love gadgets with Swiss Army-style features.

The Griffin Stylus + Pen + Laser Pointer not only sports a very long and specific name, it also delivers exactly what it promises. It's a stylus with a built-in pen and laser pointer.

This device is designed to withstand the rigors of the conference room battleground, survive the brutal world of tablet input, write grand poetry on actual paper, and amuse bored cats.

The pen part of the Stylus + Pen + Laser Pointer … Read more

Brace yourself for the era of the 'fingermouse'

LONDON--The same technology that exterminated the roller-ball computer mouse will claim another casualty soon: the four-way rocker switch that lets people point and click on countless mobile phones.

So asserts Jeff Raynor, principal technologist of ST Microelectronics' imaging division and a designer of the image sensors at the heart, or rather in the eyes, of optical mice. He spoke at the Image Sensors Europe conference here.

What will extinguish the rocker switch? What Raynor calls the "fingermouse"--a small, smooth pad you can sweep your finger over to direct a mouse pointer on a screen. Some newer BlackBerry phones sport the devices.

Fingermice use exactly the same image sensors as optical mice, but they're mounted upside-down, pointing upward toward a finger rather than downward toward a desk. The sensors take 400-pixel images, then recognize the movement of features in the photo sequence--desk irregularities or fingerprints, for example--to gauge motion.

Raynor's company makes silicon-chip image sensors for optical mice, so one shouldn't be surprised by his enthusiasm, but he is in a position to know what he's talking about.… Read more

Next-gen Web TV apps focus on the browser

PALM DESERT, Calif.--Companies have been trying to shoehorn the Web onto consumer TV sets for the past 15 years. However very few have been able to turn it into a profitable business, or, at the very least, something that finds a balance between being powerful and easy to use from the couch.

Still, some of those early missteps have led to hardware makers now putting Web services like Netflix, Twitter, and Facebook into their latest TV sets and Blu-ray players. There's also a growing group of companies that are trying to bring the entirety of the Web to the living room instead.

Three of these are launching new product iterations this week at the DemoSpring conference: GlideTV, Hillcrest Labs' Kylo Browser, and Viaclix. All three attempt to bring a full Web-browsing experience to TV sets.

Hillcrest Labs has actually been kicking around since 2001, and introduced its "Loop" remote control in early 2007. This is a special circular mouse that has had its buttons and ergonomics optimized for use on the couch. The tech inside it was also the source of a patent dispute with Nintendo over its Wii remote controller.

What the company introduced at Demo was a new browser called Kylo that works on both PCs and Macs, and makes use of the company's Loop hardware to make it easy to hop around the Web, and Web video sites. While users are able to download Kylo free of charge, and without buying a $99 Loop remote, the company is hoping it will spur sales of the remote.

Also offering special mouse hardware was GlideTV, which introduced a revamped version of its couch-friendly browser. Unlike Hillcrest's Loop, GlideTV makes use of a touch pad. Though it too is about finding Web video content to watch in a nontraditional Web browser. Its big new feature is that it scours the Web for new content, then separates it into channels. The new version also adds predictive text input so users aren't pecking out too many characters in a text search. … Read more

Three new Microsoft mice with Bluetrack laser sensor

Two years after it debuted its first Explorer Mouse with BlueTrack sensing technology, Microsoft is back with another update to its line of pointers. This time around we get three more devices: the Wireless Mouse 3500, the Wireless Mouse 2000, and the Comfort Mouse 4500, all available for presale on Amazon on Wednesday, February 24.

Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 ($29.95): Like the Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 that came before it, this update pairs your computer with a small USB plug called a "Nano Transceiver" and features a symmetrical shape with ambidextrous access to the rubber side grips. … Read more

Steal the slide show with Victorinox Presentation Pro

At this year's CES, Victorinox announced the newest member of its team, the Presentation Pro. This convenient business tool is small enough to slip into your pocket or onto your keychain, but don't be fooled by its mini size--this thing has every gadget you'll need to give a business slide show presentation.

Along with the typical array of scissors and knives that have made Victorinox a household name, the Presentation Pro also builds in a USB thumbdrive with up to 32GB capacity, a precision laser pointer, and even a biometric fingerprint scanner with compartmentalized data storage for … Read more

Bonjour for Windows 1.0.5 patches two DNS vulnerabilities

Apple on Tuesday released Bonjour for Windows 1.0.5., patching the DNS vulnerabilities first reported by Dan Kaminsky of IOActive in July. Bonjour for Windows can be found within iTunes. Earlier on Tuesday, Apple released DNS patches for iPod Touch. Bonjour for Windows 1.0.5 may be obtained downloading iTunes 8.0 or from Apple Software Downloads.

mDNSResponder 1 This patch affects users of Windows Vista, XP SP2, SP3, 2003, and 2000. The update addresses null pointer reference issue in CVE-2008-2326. Apple says the problem within Bonjour Namespace Provider lies in resolving a maliciously crafted ".local" … Read more

Bluetooth headset has a frickin' laser pointer

We're convinced that this gadget was invented by Dr. Evil fans simply for the shark references: It's a Bluetooth headset from Brando (of course) that comes with a built-in laser pointer.

It actually could come handy for PowerPoint presentations, though we'd recommend taking it off your ear before using the pointer to avoid looking like a trained seal. As for the headset, it has a range of 10 meters and talktime of 6 hours, according to Gadget Venue. And it comes with an integrated LED flashlight as well, because Brando can't resist cramming in as many … Read more

The TAD: A ring that helps you ring

This is not a sex toy. This is the TAD, a mobile phone accessory for the long-nailed or keypad-confounded. It's pretty simple really: You insert the pointy bit and then slip the ring over your thumb--hey presto, you've got a pointy thumb.

It might look a bit gimmicky, but if you've got very long nails you'll know how difficult it can be to tap buttons--the TAD could be the answer. It comes with three swappable pointers for different size keys--the pointed one you can see in the picture is for touch screens. It's not perfect, … Read more