Tech Toy of the Month - Sprint AIRAVE
A lot of cellular users are frustrated by the lack of a strong signal inside certain buildings. This can be especially frustrating when that building is your own home or office. There have been solutions available to boost the signal strength inside a building, but none as technically interesting as this month's Tech Toy. The Sprint AIRAVE may be the first of a trend of devices to marry two important technologies - cellular phones and Internet service.
Currently only available on the Sprint network, the $100 AIRAVE is basically a mini cell phone tower that you can place in your home or office. Unlike other signal boosting technologies which simply retransmit the signal from a nearby cell tower, the AIRAVE uses your broadband Internet service to connect to Sprint's network. By doing so, users who are in extremely poor coverage areas can still receive strong signals. This is because the signal boosting is not dependent on nearby towers since the AIRAVE is relaying calls directly to Sprint's network via the user's Internet connection.
Another potential advantage of the AIRAVE is that Sprint does not charge airtime minutes while a user is connected to the device. Instead, Sprint charges a flat rate of $5 - $10 per month depending on the user's current plan for unlimited use of the AIRAVE. If a user uses a lot of cell minutes while located in a particular building, this can be advantageous. On the flip side, if a user is frustrated by the lack of coverage in a building, paying another $5 - $10 month to improve their coverage may not seem like a good deal. Some reports on the Internet state that Sprint may be offering the AIRAVE free of charge to customers with poor coverage, but of course, take these reports with a large grain of salt.
Another potential issue with the AIRAVE is with the requirement for a broadband Internet connection. Many areas that lack good cell coverage also lack broadband Internet! Many users in remote locations do have satellite Internet service, but it is not likely that the AIRAVE will work well with satellite Internet services. While satellite services can provide good bandwidth, they have high latency which will probably not work well with a cell phone call. So the AIRAVE probably won't be a good solution for users in remote areas.
If the AIRAVE does well, expect other wireless providers to follow up with devices of their own. These devices could become extremely popular, as it allows wireless providers to let users solve their own coverage issues fairly easily. In theory, this can save the wireless companies money since they may not need to deploy as many cell towers.
Contact Marcel for any questions you may have regarding the latest technology gadgets!
Most people are aware that Apple has just released the iPhone 3G (which incidentally, the 3G refers to the third generation cellular network, not a 3rd generation iPhone). Of course, the iPhone 3G has many new features. There are many articles out there that review all these new features so I won't go over those. Instead, I'd like to focus on something that many people don't realize. Many of the new features of the iPhone 3G are also available as an upgrade to existing iPhones and the iPod Touch.
One of the more simple chores that most of us put off doing is vacuuming our floors. Especially for those who have carpets that easily show dirt or crumbs, vacuuming can seem like a never-ending job. Wouldn't it be great if we could just have a little robot zip around our floor when we're not there and clean up for us? Apparently so, because one company has a whole line of little robots that vacuum our floors for us.
Over the course of the last 10 years, the Universal Serial Bus, otherwise known as USB, has changed the way we use computers for the better. Instead of several different types of ports, USB has become the standard for connecting nearly every type of computer peripheral available. Everything from keyboards to flash drives to printers to digital cameras can be connected via USB. USB is hot-pluggable, which means devices can be plugged in or removed without the need to reboot or without causing any damage, as was the case with older port technologies. The ease of USB has caused the 
This interesting tech toy has been out for quite a while, but many people have never heard of it. It is fairly unique in the world of tech toys, in that it combines "real" exercise and technology (when I say "real" exercise I mean not the kind of exercise you get from playing video games - not that there's anything wrong with that). Basically, the Nike + iPod consists of a small wireless device that fits in your shoe and an adapter that you connect to your iPod Nano. Nike makes a shoe that has a special "pocket" to fit the wireless device into, but there are ways to make other shoes work as well. When you go on a run with the wireless device in your shoe and the adapter connected to your iPod Nano, the Nano is able to keep track of many statistics, such as the time you've been running, the distance you've run, calories you've burned, or the current pace you're on.
Backups are something that everyone should do, but most people don't. Primarily, people don't do backups because of the perceived inconvenience of the backup process. Now, Apple has introduced a product that promises to make backups as simple as possible.
In the first Technology Bytes newsletter, written exactly one year ago, I wrote about the Apple TV. I said at the time that if users could browse and play their DVD collections on the Apple TV it would sell like hotcakes. It turns out that while I may not have been completely correct, I was on the right track. Up until now, the Apple TV has not sold very well. Apple has said that the main reason for this was due to lack of movie support on the Apple TV. Additionally, according to Apple's research, many users wanted the ability to rent movies over the Internet, rather than outright buying them.
No, they won't keep your eyes warm (or your ears for that matter), but iMuffs (
Rather than having a single tech toy this month, I've decided to offer a list of what I think are cool technology gift ideas for the holiday season. Some of the items on this list I've written about before. Others are new or have additional information. If for no other reason the items on my list are included simply because I think they are worthy. And I can do that because this is my list - so there! :)
Apple iMac & MacBook
Palm Centro SmartPhone
HDTV
Digital Photo Frames
Nintendo Wii
The first is the "Power Station". At $19.95, it is useful but inexpensive, charging up to 3 devices at one time. Available in black or grey plastic, it may not be the most aesthetically pleasing product, but if that isn't a consideration, then it should be a much appreciated purchase. You can find the Power Station at 
iPhone & iPod Touch
Slingbox
Nintendo DS
Myvu Personal Media Viewer
