Two Datastick Vibration Spectrum Analyzers, the VSA-1227 and VSA-1247, are the first ruggedized PDA-based instruments for vibration analysis using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) displays for ICP accelerometers, announced Datastick Systems. The announcement was made at ISA Expo 2004 in Houston by Michael Scandling, Datastick VP Marketing, who also announced new Datastick Spectrum software for spectrum analysis with Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) displays.

A U.S. court has temporarily shut down an operation that used spam email to drum up customers for a fraudulent work-at-home scheme. Gregory Bryant and Nadira Bryant of Florida promised recipients of their unsolicited email that they would earn $4 for each envelope they stuffed and mailed as long as they paid $24.77 for a start-up kit. Those who paid for the kit instead got a CD-ROM explaining how to get others to pay money for an envelope-stuffing kit.

IBM has taken computing security and data protection to the next level today with the introduction of the first ThinkPad with an integrated fingerprint reader. The fingerprint reader is built into select models of the ThinkPad T42. With the new reader, located on the wrist rest below the arrow keys, users swipe their finger across a small horizontally oriented sensor to log-on to their systems, software applications, web sites, or databases.

The DeskBridge has been styled to fit in with any hotel guest room or hotspot d

Panasonic unveiled their smartSD technology that marries SD cards and RFID chips. One of the features that is clearly articulated is encryption of SD memory data using a key stored in an RFID chip — this encryption prevents someone from reading the contents of the SD memory when your smartSD card is lost.

UnwireNow, a San Francisco based wireless networking design and deployment firm has announced San Francisco’s first official WiFi network. The free WiFi service located in Union Square, San Francisco’s most concentrated shopping and hotel area will encourage more visitors, demonstrate how wireless broadband technologies can support economic development and provide increased public access to high-speed Internet service.

SanDisk now offers the world’s first 8 gigabyte (GB) CompactFlash Type I card, 4GB SanDisk Ultra II Memory Stick PRO, and 2GB SanDisk Ultra II SD cards. The new high capacity SanDisk Ultra II cards are designed to be a reasonably priced, high performance solution for the photography channel and were announced at the Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany.

palmOne introduced the Tungsten T5 handheld with 256MB of flash memory. The Tungsten T5 handheld’s flash memory protects information even if the device loses its charge, and doubles as a portable flash memory drive. The T5 comes with an Intel 416MHz XScale processor, built-in Bluetooth, a 320×480 display in landscape or portrait mode, and uses Palm OS 5.4.

Toshiba is putting its .85 inch micro hard drives into volume production by the end of the year, ahead of schedule according to the company. Toshiba’s tiny hard drive is the first drive to deliver multi-gigabyte storage in a sub-one-inch form factor. The drive, announced earlier this year, will initially be available in in 2GB and 4GB capacities.

Adobe has released an updated version of its Reader for the Pocket PC. Adobe Reader for Pocket PC 2.0 delivers new features such as mobile data entry, wireless printing, downloading digital editions, and slide show viewing.