Reporter’s Notebook

Solar-power for your computer is here.  Granted, this contraption from the Advanced Energy Group, the Solar PowerPACII, weighs 86 pounds and needs to be...

Red-eye reduction and facial detection technology have gone from a niche to mainstream digital camera technology quite rapidly. FotoNation provides both technologies to camera...

This is probably the best take I’ve yet read on the iPhone price cut (via Big Picture): Nobody forced anyone to buy an iPhone....

When I read stories like this about new battery technology, I get a boost of confidence that maybe we can outsmart our way out...

In our therapeutic culture, even cellphones need empowerment. At least that’s what I thought when I saw the news that there’s something called the...

Comcast cut Internet service to heavy downloaders, according to this Washington Post story. Mind you, these customers weren’t engaged in illegal activity; they were...

Forget about the environment — it’s old people who will be driving the market for new technologies.  During his IFA keynote, Philips CEO Rudy...

I went to IFA expecting a technology trade show, but the first day all anyone wants to talk about is design. Not that I’m...

Chicago has ditched a plan to blanket the city with wireless broadband Internet, the Associated Press reported. The reason for the scrap — too...

Two weeks ago, Skype suffered a major outage. The company has since issued an update as to what, exactly, brought down their service:The disruption...

Austria-based Memlite recently introduced a USB flash drive/cigarette lighter, with storage capacities ranging from 128MB to 4GB. Personally, the idea of keeping important data...

There is an interesting article in Telephony Online about the prospects for strengthening E911 requirements for VoIP providers.  The article details some of the...

A digital camera with a built-in printer will be launched by Zink and a yet-to-be-named manufacturer, according to the company. (Via DigitalCameraInfo.)Zink (which stands...

And I have the evidence to prove it. Well, not evidence per se, but hearsay and conjecture (and those are “kinds of evidence” according...

Letting customers write product reviews increases e-commerce conversion rates, Web traffic and average order values, according to e-consultancy and Bazaarvoice’s “Social Commerce Report 2007”...

The iconic door-to-door salesman personified by the Fuller Brush Man may no longer fill American streets, but the day of the door-to-door salesman is...

Warner Music posts a wider second-quarter loss.  In other unfortunate music industry news, Wired may have caught SoundExchange (the industry’s digital royalty collection agency)...

 Microsoft’s digital image file format HD Photo took another step closer to realization as a true industry standard when the Joint Photographic Expert Group...

Another day, another opportunity to lament my decision to be an editor and not a corporate lawyer. The music industry has once again decided...

From the start, Vonage has been an extremely aggressive marketer, spending hundreds of millions a year to cement the 5,6,7,8’s once-somewhat-enjoyable-and-now-excruciating version of Woo...

Hitachi had announced its intentions to launch the first Blu-ray camcorder last year. Now word is percolating that the camcorders could be introduced as...

Some interesting developments occurred this week in the battle over the rules that will shape the forthcoming auction of wireless spectrum.  First, more details...

If the success of the Baby Einstein DVDs has taught us anything, it’s that the way to a parent’s wallet is through appeals to...

The recording industry wants Internet radio stations to pay heftier royalty fees, a move many expect will kill off a chunk of Web broadcasters. ...

It might not be as high profile as the XM/Sirius merger, but the forthcoming auction of the analog TV wireless spectrum may be far...

Does anyone remember Toughskins jeans? I do. The memory of this ugly fabric covering the lower half of my body was burned into my...

Digitimes reports that “three of the top four Taiwan-based ODM/OEM makers of digital cameras, on July 6 reported their self-estimated consolidated revenues for June of...

According to USA Today, a number of states are considering banning a host of CE devices while driving. I’m always struck by these measures...

In a previous post on environmentally-friendly consumer electronics, I wondered if they really spurred consumers to purchase. According to the New York Times, not...

The New York Times’ Alex Williams shines some light on the arguments of those who critique the green consumerism movement that has cropped up...

Paris Hilton can create hype out of nothing. Britney Spears as well. But if these two ever wish to take it up a notch...

Even Steve Jobs must be surprised at the media frenzy around the soon-to-be released iPhone.  The electric current running through the press and Apple...

This PMA news item raises a question we’ll be putting to imaging executives at our forthcoming roundtable (due out in the Aug. 20 issue)...

Consumer electronics products have always had an impact on American politics and the industry is now getting a chance to practice its magic on...

Digital World Tokyo peered behind the curtain at some of the more esoteric projects Sony engineers are cooking up behind the scenes. Some interesting...

Several months ago I wrote about how the Web has changed customer/retailer relations. At that time I was speaking about a mattress company, but...

Consumers Reports has a top five in their forthcoming issue: 1. Missing the perfect shot because of slow shutter speed.2. Distant subjects are very...

I guess the lawyers at Major League Baseball felt a letdown after settling their fight with the cable companies (and some would say, a...

In case you haven’t read it already, the New York Timeshas an interesting piece on some internal hand-wringing at the nation’s largest retail chain....

A few weeks ago TWICE retail editor Alan Wolf commented upon a theory that Dell and RadioShack are potentially made for each other. Not...

Before Al Gore invented the Internet, TWICE editors occasionally popped up in the print issue to offer their thoughts on a recent encounter with...

That appears to be the up-shot of this report on a presentation given by Kodak CEO Antonio Perez. Kodak’s CMOS technology...