Let the study wars begin! To recap, a group of researchers previously documented the apparent (and note the word apparent) effect of cell phones on concentration. Now the premise of an Ars Technica feature looks even more compelling. What’s anyone to think after seeing “Correlation found between cell phone use, childhood problems“?

To summarize:

The results advocate a linkage between cell phone use (both maternal and by the children) and behavioral issues. “Children with exposure to cell phones (prenatally, postnatally, or both),” write the authors, “tended to have higher percentages of borderline or abnormal scores for emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer problems.”

The contradictions between the two studies are obvious; better concentration stereotypically leads a superior, more well-adjusted life right?

At least the folks of the study, as reported by Ars Technica, didn’t discount other factors that could’ve affected the results. For some reason, “higher rates of cell phone use correlated with low socioeconomic status and maternal psychological issues”, meaning it’s not necessarily the mobile’s fault after all?

This is where studies can be paralyzing, similar to the carcinogen craze of the early 90s and early 2000s. Don’t eat this, this, or that, because there’s a link between that and a higher rate of a certain kind of cancer. A few months later, another study with a completely opposite view comes out.

For now, it’s probably ideal to not do anything drastic, while researchers figure out ways to come out with more definite results that show absolutely clear links between cell phone use and any badness it may cause. Admittedly, that might be practically impossible, so can’t we just use the damned things?

Image courtesy of the Shawn Phoenix Reason website

Tags: cell phone studies, dangers of cell phone, studies of dangers of cell phones

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Apple doesn’t often say when it’s about to launch new products. It just launches them.

But Apple watchers have identified a number of actions that recommend new products in the pipeline, and Apple has just made one of them, AppleInsider states.

Apple “strongly suggested” that resellers bring in — or place immediate lump orders for — approximately 4 weeks worth of their top selling iPod models. Supplies of the players would begin to become extremely limited in the next seven days, the bulletin said.

Similarly, the company also advised resellers that it would be in their ideal interest to place at least 3 weeks worth of orders for existing Mac notebook models. In this part of the communication, Apple is stated to have specifically identified 13-inch MacBooks and 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros, but made no mention of the MacBook Air.

What’s in the pipeline?

History recommends that the entire iPod product line will get overhauled. Supposedly there are some bits of code in the new iPhone OS that suggests a much improved iPod Touch. The nano is also rumored to be getting a more massive and better screen.

As for the Macs, rumors of a big overhaul have been swirling.

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Gizmodo has a good preview of new services that Verizon plans to roll out on Fios TV over the next few months. Fios isn’t a full IPTV system, but Verizon wants to give Fios customers some of the customization and control that generally comes with Web-based systems.

Here’s the feature that sounds coolest to me:

But one of the more awesome, though subtle, features is the capability to pause a channel, swap to another one, pause it, then go back–so you could juggle two football games or Heroes and football, whatever.

In the past, Verizon has had some problems rolling out Fios updates. A new channel guide that reached North Texas in October drew complaints at first for being slow and generally bug-ridden. (Victor, the tech team’s resident Fios customer, never had any problems with it, so the complaints may have been overstated.)

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Intel has made its biggest deal yet for its Classmate PC - the low-cost notebook that has competed with One Laptop per Child and nComputing in bringing affordable computing to the classroom.

It is providing 500,000 Classmate PCs  to the Portuguese government for its primary school population, with units already arriving in time for the new school year.

Intel is also providing technology support for the “Magellan Initiative” as part of a long-term programme.

Intel said the government liked the Classmate PCs for their ruggedness, software availability and design for that particular age group. It said Portugal had looked at different options but it is not clear whether OLPC or nComputing were in competition with Intel.

Intel works with local manufacturers to make the Classmate PC, it now has 100 vendors in more than 50 countries.

I remain a little confused about how it sees this business. There seems to be a mixture of philanthropy, extending its brand in emerging markets and priming the pump for adoption of its low-power processors in low-cost laptops for the masses.
Arguably, it no longer needs to do this, now that Asus has led a charge of manufacturers into low-cost laptops with its eee PC.

The Classmate PC received an upgrade in April with a sleeker, more rugged design and better battery life for a selling price of around $350. Its new Atom microprocessor should be included in units later this year.

“This is a great example of how the Classmate PC can be used in mature markets,” Lila Ibrahim, vice president of Intel’s emerging market platforms group, told me, citing the growing reach into countries such as the US, Germany and Italy.

“It shows the range of emerging and mature markets we have and the scale and momentum that has happened over the past few months.”

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To be sure, nothing about the Femisapien is even remotely, er arousing? Yep, it has a busom and a trim waist, but it’s unimaginable anyone mistaking this for the real deal. Still, in man’s quest to create an artificial companion for their companionship and intimate needs, the Femisapien is perhaps a step towards realistic artificiality.

A realistic artificiality that consumer-friendly budget-wise (the Femisapien costs $99), and follows your every command (robotsrule.com claims the robot can memorize dance moves and act out skits). We just can’t wait for someone to make this baby human-sized and put on some realistic skin. Envision all the happy men once fem-bots become reality! Oh la la la.

Enough words, check out this “review”—a thinly-disguised but comprehensive video advertisment for the Femisapien.

What do you think?

Tags: fem-bot, female robot, Femisapien, WowWee

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Chris Morris speculates about next-generation gaming systems, conveniently throwing around terms like “PlayStation 4″ and “XBox 720″ even years before they’ve bene concepualized. While it seems like a cynical ploy to attract visitors from search engines, Chris does have something to say about the gaming gadgets we’ll be seeing in the near or not-so-near future. Continue reading for a summary.

Next-gen gaming is about hardware and software. “Work on Epic’s ‘Unreal Engine 4,’ a graphics engine for next-gen games, has been under way for almost two years now under the guidance of founder Tim Sweeney. ‘It’s not like there’s anything to show today,’ notes Epic Vice President Mark Rein.”

Intel’s planning to usurp NVidia. “Intel , meanwhile, is pushing its Larrabee graphics processing unit, which it believes will unseat Nvidia from its leadership position.” Er, these are the same people responsible for all those damned “integreated graphics” right?

Next-gen gaming will take some time. “…it could be closer to eight years before we see the PlayStation 4, Xbox 720 and Nintendo ‘Us’–or whatever they end up being called.” Yet another joke on the Nintendo Wii!

It’s probably to early to say anything about future gaming. In any case, Chris missed out portables like the PSP and DS Lite. Besides, everyone’s probably too busy enjoying their Wiis, XBox 360s, and PS3s to actually care.

image courtesy of techeblog.com

Tags: future consoles, future gaming, next-gen gaming, Nintendo Us, PlayStation 4, XBox 720

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Dell Inc. may release another digital music player and a download service, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Round Rock-based company axed its Dell Digital Jukebox line in 2006 following disappointing sales.

Now it’s developing a download service and sub-$100 device that take a different strategy than before:

Instead of simply selling a piece of hardware tied to someone else’s music service, as it did in 2003, Dell is working on software for a range of portable PCs that will let users download and organize music and movies from various online sources.

The music player Dell has been testing — the product’s name couldn’t be learned — features a small navigation screen and basic button controls to scroll through music play lists. It would connect to online music services via a Wi-Fi Internet connection, and Dell executives said they would likely price the model currently being tested at less than $100.

Meanwhile, Engadget pointed out this morning that Dell will release a pocket-sized LED projector weighing in at 1.1 pounds.

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(photo: MacRumors)

Engadget has a roundup of reports that some 3G iPhone owners are reporting hairline cracks in their phones.

The problem seems to be mostly with the white units, but Engadget does have a photo of a cracked black iPhone, as well.

It’s a bit reminiscent of the infamous cracks (or seams or whatever you want to call them) that plagued Apple’s visually striking Cube computers several years ago.

Any of you Tech Blog readers seeing cracks on your new iPhones?

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The blog SnarkMarket just opened my eyes to some truly wasteful spending:

As you might know, Benadryl (available at Walgreens.com for $5.29 for a box of 24 capsules) and Wal-dryl ($3.99 / 24 capsules) are otherwise known as “25 mg. of diphenhydramine HCI.” Compare. Yes, that is 400 tablets containing 25 mg. of diphenhydramine HCI, for about $10 when you factor in shipping.

“True generic” might sound a bit dangerous if you envision some dodgy “pharmacy” online, but as you see from the screen grab, we’re talking Amazon here.

And the savings are unbelievable for pretty much every over-the-counter medication. The generic Claritin depicted above is 1/11 its retail price.

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It looks like all models will be available at all Dallas-area stores.

Under the current system, the best way to get phones is to arrive at the stores before their 8 a.m opening, get a ticket for the phone of your choice and come back to claim the phone during business hours.

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