Headworx

ClearType seems to be the most forgotten feature of Windows XP (yeah, I know, everybody is thinking of Vista now and XP is no longer of any interest...). But if you happen to have a notebook (or an LCD screen, preferably connected to a digital video port), you should try it. There are several ways to turn ClearType on. First (the least obvious) is: right-click somewhere on an empty desktop area, select Properties, then the Appearance tab and Effects button. Second line from the top lets you select ClearType as a "method to smooth edges of screen fonts". There is a better way. Go to Windows XP Powertoys page and you will find the ClearType Tuner application there. Install it and run. It will guide you through a simple wizard that will select the best ClearType settings for your environment. And if you have not been using ClearType yet, you will not believe how brilliant your screen is going to look. Sometimes the best gems are just lying at our fingertips and we do not see...

Here it is. The next thing I had to do with my new Sony Ericsson stereo bluetooth headset was to make it work with my iPod. This is an obvious direction. The whole idea is to get rid of the cables and have just one universal headset that works with a phone, a notebook (including VoIP calls) and a music player. And of course switch automatically between the devices, especially to pause the music when the phone rings and resume playback once the conversation is done. Up to this day there has not been a product able to do this, although the scenario seems to be so natural and expected... One day (must have been some two years ago) I even proposed the iPod itself could behave as a bluetooth phone headset, pausing the music and taking calls as needed. But nobody listened... So now what is pictured here is how the upcoming next generation (delayed) iPod will look like. A headset, a phone and an iPod. Working together seamlessly. Too impatient to wait? Then follow my formula. First you ha...

A2DP . Advanced Audio Distribution Profile. Or just wireless stereo. This will be big. It was mentioned here before, when I wrote about annoying headphone plugs incompatibility problem. And guess what... it has been solved. How? By getting rid of cables and plugs. Yes, cables are gone, forever. Bluetooth has been with us for years. Most of us have been using a wireless headset with a mobile phone. But then we used to have a separate headphones for media player (like iPod) and another set for use with a PC (for Skype or Google Talk or another form of VoIP). Personally I hate carrying three devices serving the same purpose, and that is why I complained ... Now it is time to throw all the previous sets away. Thanks to the Sony Ericsson HBH DS970 Bluetooth stereo headset. DS970 has everything I wanted: It is a sound isolating in-ear design, perfect for noisy environments, without an extra bulk. The drivers deliver very good sound with rich bass (as always with Sony, I should say). The ...

Finally one of the biggest PC problems has been solved. Metadata synchronization. I wrote about metadata challenges before, pointing to Google as a potential solution on the horizon. So what exactly is the problem? OK, it affects only those who happen to use more than one computer. Do you? I bet everyone had this problem at least once, even when using just one PC. And then migrating to a new one. What hurts you the most? When you power your new machine and fire the Internet browser, you quickly notice all of your favorite links are missing. They are left on the old PC. And suddenly many of the web sites start asking you for passwords, that your previous PC remembered. And many sites you have carefully customized are no longer customized to match your preferences. What has happened? Well... it is just your metadata missing. Metadata is data describing other data. In this very case are the favorite links and bookmarks you collect. And cookies that store your customizations. If metadat...

There are several technologies that had their time changing our World. Block printing, steam power, electricity, telephone, radio, television, transistor, microchip, Internet. After each of these inventions it is hard to imagine world without one. So what is / will be the most important technology introduced in the first decade of the third millennium? Probably nanotechnology. But what exactly is nanotechnology? Many think it is another brave new way to manufacture tiny electronic parts. It may be that, but the nanotechnology is something much broader and you may be surprised what end products we get... Nanotechnology is about constructing materials by controlling their shapes at the nanoscale. Basically a process of creating structures by controlling the position of every atom within that structure, to achieve the desired end result. Take trousers for example. What would you expect from new generation of trousers AD 2006? Would you like them to be wrinkle-free straight from a dryer?...