VIBRATING BONES: Call me old-fashioned, but I feel attached to speakers. Innate pieces of metal and plastic vibrate in harmony to produce sound waves to caress the ear. The idea of substituting my body parts to carry out the vibrating bit of the business just doesn't hit the right note for me. But hey, bone conduction, to give it its due title, is a technology that is getting its 15 minutes' worth. Temco is doing its bit with the HG40SAN-TBT, a hands-free Bluetooth headset that allows you to hear music and conversations thanks to vibrations transmitted from the headset via your skull. The battery life is three hours for telephone conversations and five hours for music playing and the set weighs in at just 50 grams. Maybe I am just not good at using my head.
NINTENDO HANDSET: Taking a more conventional approach to communication, the official Nintendo DS Handset is due to arrive on April 22. This will allow players to converse with one another over a Nintendo WiFi connection without having their brains vibrating.
CRANKING IT UP: At the opposite end of the technology spectrum is the hand-crank cell phone charger. It is intended as an emergency gadget and does double duty as an LED flashlight. Just apply a tad of elbow crease to the crank and you can recharge any Japanese cell phone or put a bit of light on the subject. For more information see www.nodaya-net.com