Hasta La Gadget!

Pulling out an earbud is generally considered the pinnacle of MP3 player etiquette. It demonstrates a slight–but not overwhelming–interest in the world outside of your head. Sony Ericsson is harnessing this early 21st century move for its latest pair of headphones.

The new MH907 headphones, described by Sony Ericsson as “clever,” automatically turn off one’s music when an earbud is removed from the ear. Placing it back in one’s ear will start the music back up. The headphones do the same for initiating and ending calls.

No word yet on pricing or availability.

This article was written on October 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

Almost all of our MyFive articles up until now have been about things that we like, but we also want to use this as a way to discuss improvements to applications, websites, and more. It will kind of be like our Opera article where I wrote about things I would like to see in the browser.

Like many of you I’m a huge fan of the open source Firefox web browser, but there are still some things that I think it can improve on. So today I’m putting Firefox under the microscope!

In my list that I came up with I tried to avoid the more obvious things that can be done by extensions, such as advanced tab management. I also strayed away from mentioning anything that I know will be implemented in Firefox 3. Shall we got on with it?

1. Bookmark Sorting
   One thing that always irks me with Firefox is its inability to automatically sort my bookmarks. You can always manually sort the bookmarks, but even that can be quite a pain. When sorting by name it doesn’t treat sub-folders any differently than individual bookmarks, that means the folders become intermingled with the other bookmarks instead of being listed before them. I would expect this to work in the same way as a file explorer in an operating system, but it doesn’t.
2. Toolbar Management
   I would like to have more control over the toolbars without needing to install an extension. I should be able to quickly place the Tab Bar, for example, on the side or along the bottom.
3. Theme
   Right now there aren’t many browsers that have much visual appeal, and I would say that the two best looking ones are Flock and Internet Explorer. I especially love IE’s transparent effects on Vista, and something like that would be awesome in Firefox. What can I say, I’m a sucker for good eye candy. I also think that Mozilla should include the classic Firefox theme as an option for the same reason that all versions of Windows still contain the classic skin…some people just like things kept simple.
4. One-Click Private Browsing
   Firefox is making its way onto more and more public computers, and I would like to see a one-click option to get complete privacy. Sure it’s possible to wipe the history clean after you’re done, but maybe I don’t want to lose all of my history and cookies. If I’m paying bills or something it would be nice to disable all of the cookies and caching mechanisms.
5. No Restarts After Extension/Theme Installation
   Installing extensions and themes in Firefox is a regular occurrence for me, and sometimes it can become a pain having to restart the browser. I’m grateful that with Firefox 2 my tabs will be restored, but when I have dozens of tabs open it can take a minute or so for the browser to become usable after it restarts.

I did leave performance off of the list for a good reason, it’s because I’ve seen massive improvements in Firefox 3. That’s a story worthy of its own article though, and you’ll probably be seeing a write-up about Firefox 3 performance improvements in the next week or two.

So now it’s your turn! Hit us up in the comments with what you would like to see in future versions of Firefox.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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NEC today claimed the honor of introducing the first commercially available certified USB 3.0 (Superspeed USB) product. The companys snappily-named µPD720200 host controller has become the first product to claim that honor.

The device has actually been on the market since May of this year, and while the specification for USB 3.0 has been available since November, the host controller is the first product to be certified, offer[ing] manufacturers and consumers the assurance that it will function in accordance with the specification and will interoperate with the billions of USB-enabled devices that exist in the market today, in the words of a release issued today by the USB 3.0 board.

USB 3.0 offers transfer rates up to ten times faster than its predecessor.

You don’t really expect Microsoft to let Apple own the tablet space without a fight, do you? There have been a number of rumors bubbling around over the past year or so, involving the company’s top secret work in the space, reportedly led by Xbox/Zune guru, J Allard.

Among the evidence was that “magic wand” patent discovered earlier in the year. Microsoft’s Surface team is also supposed to be part of the mix–which, of course, makes a good deal of sense–after all, the Surface is, more or less, something of a giant tabletop tablet, right?

The project, which has been alternately referred to as Oahu and Alchemy Ventures, also seemingly gained a bit of legitimacy with the following Microsoft job ad for a Senior Program Manager,

Excited by Xbox 360? Fascinated by the technology that powers the Surface? Ever wonder how your Zune HD got built? Bring your talent and passion for building great products to the Manufacturing Test Engineering team! Our team is where all these cool products and more come together.

You have, of course, heard the saying “jack of all trades and master of none”, and it might have been coined for the Swiss Army Knife. While is is undoubtedly very convenient to have a tiny tool-kit in a pocket-sized package, the tools themselves are never as good as the standalone versions. The knife is hard to pull out and folds back in, chopping fingertips, when you press any way but the right way, the screwdriver doesn’t so much drive screws as scratch and tickle them, and the corkscrew somehow manages to slip one of your spinal disks with every bottle you open.

Swiss designer Thilo Fuente has teamed up with Wenger, the original Swiss Army Knife maker, and come up with some less diverse but certainly more functional tools, from a knife with an angled handle to make opening and wielding it easier, through a large blade with fold-out handles which change the function depending on where you place them, to a separate handle and blade which are screwed together and have an integrated grind-stone.

We think these designs are fantastic, and they retain the steel and aluminum materials and red/polished metal of the originals. All except the rather pocket-unfriendly set of five tools which are held together by a hank of red cord. Put these on sale, Wenger, and you’ll be getting a pocketful of my dollars.

Product page [Fuente y Fuente via Core77]

See Also:

• Swiss Army Knife Launches the Age of the Multitool
• Chill Out With The Swiss Peace Knife
• Bonfort Classic Swiss Army Knife
• June 12, 1897: The Swiss Army Gets Its Own Knife
• Roundup: Folding Pocket Knives