The Buzz

Thin is in for Hasbro poster phones, radios

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 3, 2003

Look for cool, tech-related "tween" toys to be hits later this year.

With an eye on the key 8- to 12-year-old demographic, Hasbro Inc. is planning to introduce two new toy lines before the lucrative holiday shopping season.

One toy, called Thin-Tronix, is a thin, posterlike product that can hang on a tween's bedroom wall or door. Thin-Tronix, which will be available this spring, comes in two designs, a fully functioning poster phone and a poster radio.

The phone, about 2 feet long, is a working speaker phone once plugged into a phone outlet. The radio, about 2 feet wide, is a working FM radio, with adjustable volume control. Thin-Tronix wristwatches will also be available.

VideoNow, due out this fall, is a portable personal video player that will retail for $49.99. VideoNow discs, sold separately, will contain 30 minutes of content featuring Nickelodeon TV shows.

Will WiFi fly high in 2003?

Computer geeks have been agog over WiFi for a few years. Now it appears the technology for wireless computer access has gotten some mainstream buzz as well.

Although just 3 percent of Americans have set up a WiFi network at home, the rate could increase by 50 percent in the next six months, according to a survey by the Ipsos Group, a marketing research firm.

About 41 percent of the people surveyed by Ipsos said they had heard of WiFi, which allows several computers to maintain a wireless connection to the Internet over short distances. Of those who had heard about it, 38 percent were familiar with the technology.

This is expected to be a big year for WiFi because an increasing number of cities, stores, hotels and airports are creating "hot spots" with free or subscription-based WiFi access. Computermakers also are integrating WiFi access into new laptops and handheld devices.

Among those familiar with WiFi, 58 percent said they think the technology is easy to install at home, while only 9 percent said it isn't. But only 37 percent consider WiFi secure; 37 percent disagreed; and the rest did not know.

Fasten your seatbelts, then tune in your headsets

As entertainment options multiply in cars and vans, delivering the appropriate soundtrack to every passenger is becoming complicated. Unwired Technology, a company that supplies audio components to several automakers, will offer wireless headphones that allow listeners and viewers to choose from among four sound sources.

That may sound like overkill for motorists who have, say, a radio and a CD player. But Larry Richenstein, president of Unwired, said some vans and cars have DVD players, satellite radio receivers and game systems, all of which generate sound, in addition to the traditional audio sources.

The signals are sent to the Unwired WhiteFire headphones using infrared light rather than radio waves to avoid interference problems. Unlike most other wireless headphone systems for cars, WhiteFire uses digital rather than analog transmission. The system, which comes with a transmitter, a digital encoding computer and two headsets, costs $600; extra headsets are $180. Information is available at www.unwiredtechnology.com.

Smart cards could give access to specialized Web sites

Smart card technology is commonly used in high-tech IDs, transit passes, credit cards and advanced mobile phones.

Now a company in the United Kingdom called Internet PLC is moving the technology into online entertainment, using smart cards and computer-connected card readers to give users access to certain Web sites. These sites have content unavailable elsewhere online, the company says, giving music and movie fans an enticing reason to tinker with the technology.

Steven Landau, president and CEO of Internet PLC, says smart cards could enhance several forms of online entertainment, from distributing digital music to acting as authenticating IDs for people playing online computer games.

The system could help companies make money on the Net by tying smart cards to members-only online areas while making them accessible to people who don't want to hand over their credit card numbers or personal information.

For example, one Internet PLC project using entertainment smart cards lets users watch behind-the-scenes footage and interviews about the latest Star Trek film.

Smart cards, which have embedded computer chips of varying sophistication, are usually the same size as credit cards and colorfully emblazoned with the images of their theme.

Internet PLC's smart card system, which is called SmartFlash, requires a smart card reader, which is a device that connects to a computer's USB port. After that is installed, users need only to slide a smart card into it, then a Web browser automatically launches and goes to the secure Web site.

Net access at work a productivity booster, report says

You read and answer e-mail, do a little shopping, get caught up on the news, send instant messages, and you do your job.

As more workplaces are wired for Internet access more workers admit going online for personal use. At first glance, this may seem counterproductive, but the recent University of California, Los Angeles, Internet Report Studying the Digital Future (www.ccp.ucla.edu/) says otherwise.

Of those who had Internet access at work in 2002, more than 90 percent said they visited work-related Web sites on the job. More than 60 percent said they surfed the Web for personal use on the company's time.

These users, who include some of the bosses, continue to say that the Internet is a catalyst for workplace productivity. Only about 5 percent said they think personal use of the Net on the job makes them less productive, while 35 percent said they are somewhat more productive. Another 29 percent said they are much more productive.

Just more than 30 percent of on-the-job surfers said their online use has no effect on their productivity.

Many employers are keeping tabs on their workers' use of the Net, with nearly 45 percent of the respondents who use e-mail at work saying their e-mail is monitored either "somewhat" or "closely" by their employers. The same percentage said they know their Web use also is monitored.

-- Compiled from Times wires

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