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As if there’s not enough crap in the consumer electronics market right now, Cisco Systems has decided to throw in its hat, announcing that it plans on selling phones, radios and even home theater equipment—all to link up to the Internet. Obviously, Cisco believes its networking superiority will give it a leg up in this community, though I’m not sure how consumers will take to the idea. We’ll let you know when we see the first product.
That the Xbox 360 can stream video from your PC to your nice, big TV is a well-known feature. Well, at least in video formats that Microsoft approves of. Naturally, that leaves out DivX. Sure, you could convert your files to 360-compatible WMVs, but where’s the fun in that? Using mceDivX360, you can now stream all those DivX and Xvid movies you’ve accumulated over the years straight to your 360. While it technically still converts the files, it does it on the fly, so you really don’t even notice.
Nokia’s trickling out the phones this month, this time announcing a simple quad band GSM/GPRS clamshell. The 6125 isn’t a 3G phone, but it does have its perks, like a 1.3-megapixel camera, FM Radio and a media player that supports MP3, AAC, WMA and MP4. And along with Bluetooth, infrared, USB and a hot-swappable microSD mamory card, it’s also one of the first Nokia phones to come with a Macromedia Flash Player. Should be available second quarter for about $280.
C|Net has a surprising story about a seminar given by a top judge at the U.K.’s Court of Appeal who specializes in intellectual-property law. According to the article, he has “questioned whether software patents should be granted, and has criticized the U.S. for allowing “anything under the sun” to be patented.” Is the tide turning?
If, like me, you’re more than a little concerned about the privacy aspects of RFID there’s a useful enthusiast’s web page on making your own RFID-blocking wallet. OK, it’s never going to win any prizes for beauty or garner fashion awards but should be effective and seems perfectly practical.