In a world of smartphones and tablet devices, Hewlett-Packard’s 12c is a relic of the 1980s. An electronic device with one fundamental function: financial calculations. And, by today’s standards, not even a particularly sophisticated financial calculator.Yet this month, it is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a special “Platinum” edition. The company is coy about figures but it is estimated to sell tens of thousands of these $70 calculators every year. It has never been out of production.
The whole Taylor family operates a wide mix of smartphones, perhaps reflecting differences in our personalities and preferences.
My two younger daughters (in their 20s) each run Google Android handsets (HTC and Samsung); my son, who lives in the UK, loves his BlackBerry Bold because of its mobile e-mail and free BlackBerry Messenger services; and my eldest daughter, a television field producer in San Francisco, uses a BlackBerry for work and an iPhone 4 for everything else “because it’s cool”. Read more
Desert Island hard disks
Travelling gadget-light is easy these days, with smartphones and tablets now as powerful as PCs and fulfilling multiple functions.
However, this week’s Personal Technology column in the FT’s Business Life section looks at eight devices to take on vacation that weigh no more in total than a traditional laptop. You can read the column here and click on the links for fuller reviews of the MacBook Air, iPad 2, Seagate GoFlex Satellite, Nook 2nd Edition, Motorola Photon 4G and Sony 3D Bloggie HD. Read more
Wimm Labs launches Android watch
In the decades since Dick Tracy got his own wristwatch radio in a cartoon strip, many technology companies have tried and failed to produce a successful wristwatch gadget in real life. Wimm Labs, a Silicon Valley startup backed by Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, is the latest to come up with a wearable device, insisting its own timepiece tells us the wristwatch gizmo’s time has come. Read more
Boxee comes to the UK with BBC iPlayer
Boxee, the internet entertainment service, is bringing its TV set-top box to the UK this week. Netflix, Pandora and Major League Baseball have proven popular on its D-Link-manufactured device in the US since its launch last year, allowing owners to watch web TV and their own digital downloads on the big-screen TV set. Read more
Lark “un-alarm” gives wake-up nudge
I was up with the Lark this morning – not the bird, but a new wearable “un-alarm” that wakes the user, but not the person sleeping next to them. Lark is an intelligent wristband that links via Bluetooth to an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad app, where an alarm can be set and sleep patterns recorded. It vibrates silently at the appointed time to nudge you awake without disturbing a partner who rises at a later time. Read more
Livescribe almost connects up dots
Livescribe is making its digital pen technology easier to share and afford, with new software that will convert notes to common formats inside popular services and the launch of a budget version of its Echo pen. Livescribe Connect will allow notebook pages to be exported easily in an Adobe Acrobat PDF format that includes both handwritten pages and the embedded audio recording made by its Echo smartpen, which will now be available in a $100 (£100, €130) 2Gb version. Read more
Welcome to the 500Gb iPad
Anyone buying a 16Gb iPad and finding it full to the brim with videos and music in no time at all may experience a little buyers’ remorse at not going for a bigger capacity. There is no means of expanding the iPad’s internal Flash memory once bought, but a groundbreaking wireless hard drive from Seagate launched today provides one effective way of getting round storage limitations not just on the iPad but on any Wi-Fi enabled device. Read more
Chumby 8th wonder of the web
To be chumby8-ed is to be transfixed by a constantly changing 8-in screen informing you of all the weird and wonderful happenings on the web. In addition, the new Chumby8 is part digital photo frame, part internet radio and alarm clock. Read more
Gadgets for geeky New Year resolutions
My geeky New Year resolutions for 2011 are the same as 2010 – back up my stuff, digitise content, clean out my computer and centralise my media.
At least this year, I have a few more tools to review and help me finally achieve this – namely a Drobo S, a Western Digital My Book Live external drive, an Eye-Fi Pro X2 memory card, iolo’s System Mechanic 10 software and the MiCorder. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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