News In Brief
Product Pipeline
Let the MP3s Play:
Rio's new line of digital audio players includes both hard-drive and flash devices, as well as one that offers an innovative new storage format. The $299 Rio Nitrus (left) is among the first players to feature the new Cornice Storage Element, a small device thinner than a flash memory card. The Nitrus has 1.5GB of storage, enough to hold about 375 typical songs, and is smaller than a deck of playing cards. The $399 Rio Karma, meanwhile, presents a 20GB hard drive in a square package that is somewhat thicker than the Nitrus. Both devices support USB 2.0 for quick and easy transfer of music files.
Photograph by Marc Simon
Disposable Digicam: Ritz Camera Centers has unveiled a single-use digital camera that costs only $11. The Dakota Digital Single-Use Camera features 12MB of internal memory to capture up to 25 snapshots, plus an automatic flash, but you must return it to Ritz to obtain prints and a photo CD of your photos.
Photograph by Rick Rizner
Tidbytes
Spam Watch: Ever worried that your spam protection could be too powerful? False positives, legitimate e-mail that is incorrectly identified as spam and blocked, could be just as problematic as unsolicited messages: Ferris Research reports that false positives will cost U.S. businesses almost $3.5 billion this year alone.
Don't Be Afraid: Linux isn't just for geeks anymore. Doing office tasks such as composing e-mail, creating files, and copying CDs was only slightly more difficult for a group of novices using Linux-based systems than for one using Windows XP-based PCs, according to a recent study by Relevantive, a German research firm.