Conduits Technologies announced the release of Pocket Slides 2.5, a fully-featured presentation solution for Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC, Windows Mobile 2003, Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition and Pocket PC 2002 devices. Pocket Slides enables users to create, edit, view and give presentations on a mobile device. Existing presentations from Microsoft PowerPoint can be transferred from the desktop to the device using Pocket Slides’ conversion software. Pocket Slides 2.5 improves upon earlier versions by introducing additional device and desktop compatibility, enabling new options for VGA and projector output and a multitude of bug fixes.

The new version of Pocket PROMT allows file translation in Pocket Word/Pocket Word Ink and Rich Text Format. Moreover, it can instantly translate a Web page or email, or just a text typed on the keyboard. The translated text can be edited, saved as a file in the Pocket Word/Pocket Word Ink and Rich Text Format, or in the text format, and also sent to the Clipboard. And Pocket PROMT 5.0 includes a feature of simultaneous translation that translates the text on-the-fly, e.g. as it is being entered.

Is BPL the helpful key to nearly universal high-speed Internet access or a technology that could cripple our critical radio frequency infrastructure? This is the question that Computing Unplugged Magazine set out to answer. This article contains the result of our in-depth analysis.

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Poor Chano Gomez! When he pitched us an interview on Broadband-over-Powerline (BPL), little did this BPL manufacturer know that he’d be touching off a firestorm of debate. Two months and more than a dozen articles later, Chano’s graciously consented to another interview, this time to answer the charges against BPL from its detractors. We have to give special “props” to Chano. Not only did he agree to step up and answer some tough questions, he also did so while on vacation in Europe. So, special thanks go out to him for taking the time to help us understand this issue more fully.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

When we first began our coverage of Broadband-over-Powerline (BPL), members of the ham radio community who also read Computing Unplugged made sure we understood that there’s actually a controversy here, an important one. As we began to research the topic further, one organization’s name kept coming up over and over: the American Radio Relay League, better known as the ARRL. After some back and forth dialog, Allen Pitts, Media and Public Relations Manager for the ARRL, agreed to be interviewed by Computing Unplugged. What follows is that interview.

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We continue our editorial coverage of the broadband over powerline (BPL) controversy with a letter from Fred Stevens, a retired US Army Signal Corps Lieutenant Colonel who’s also an Amateur Radio operator. Fred took issue with some of our coverage of the BPL issue. Given his unique background, we asked him to expand upon his letter (he was quite annoyed with us). This is a worthy read. Fred has some very interesting perspectives. Because of some of the more controversial comments in the article, we’re obliged to state that the opinions of the author are not necessarily that of Computing Unplugged Magazine, the editors, or ZATZ Publishing.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.

PC makers, including Dell, are getting to work on notebook fire prevention. Executives from companies, including Apple Computer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo Group, all members of the electronic products standard group IPC’s OEM Critical Components Committee, plan to meet in September 2006 to begin work on a manufacturing standard for lithium-ion battery cells they expect will improve safety of the technology, used widely in notebook PCs and other electronics. The committee aims to take on concerns about notebook battery safety and the volatilities of lithium-ion cells, which have come into the spotlight in recent weeks, following several reports of notebook PC fires and the massive battery pack recalls by Dell and Apple Computer.

Toshiba revealed that it will launch two new series of secure digital, or SD, flash memory cards this fall that offer super-fast data transfer rates and read-write performance. The so-called Toshiba “high-speed series” will offer a maximum data transfer rate of 5MB per second, while the “ultra-high-speed series” will push transfer rates to as high as 20MB per second–double the rate of any other Toshiba-brand SD card. Both series will be rolled out first in Japan in October, then globally in November, a Toshiba spokesperson said.

VeriChip, the company that makes human-implantable RFID chips, is looking to span its equipment from newborns to the military’s enlisted. The company announced that it has made the first sale of its infant protection, wander prevention and staff duress system to the Brampton Civic Hospital in Brampton, Ontario. Separately, the company confirmed a day earlier that it is in talks with the military to test its implantable chips in two branches of the military.

Cellular telephones and wireless BlackBerry email devices may be addictive, but most business executives insist that mobile technology has improved the balance between their work and home, a study said Thursday. The study, by executive recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International, found that four out of five executives globally are always connected to work through mobile devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, laptops or pagers. More than a third of 2,300 executives surveyed in 75 countries believed that they spent too much time connected to communications devices.