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Kleer teams up with Mercedes Benz to untether in-car headphones
We hate wires. We can't count the number of times that our headphones were unceremoniously yanked from our heads (or ear canals) because the wire got snagged while ordering our Brazilian man-servant about. Kleer solved this problem years ago but still haven't broken into the mainstream thanks in no small part to the preponderance of low-cost (and low-quality) Bluetooth headphones. That could change with the visibility provided by a new partnership with Mercedes to replace line-of-site infrared technology the company had been using. The deal will equip 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and S-Class models with Kleer's proprietary, low-power, CD-quality digital wireless audio emitted from a pair of video screens on the back of the seats. Occupants wearing the Mercedes-provided Kleer headphones or any compatible pair can then select which audio stream their headphones receive without interfering with Bluetooth or WiFi connected devices. Win, win.%Gallery-96188%
Text messaging celebrates 15 years of debilitating thumbs
Just days after the IBM ThinkPad threw a shindig for its 15th, now we've reason to don our party hats once more for yet another notable birthday. The mobile phone industry is celebrating the 15th year of the Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which was the "principal application behind text messaging first brought to market by Acision in 1992." Over the years, the basic SMSC box has evolved into an IP-based SMS architecture, and while early iterations had a capacity of ten messages per second, current setups can handle a nearly infinite amount (good thing, huh?). So here's to you, dear SMS, and while we certainly hope you manage to hang around another 15 years or so, how's about cooling off the perpetual price increases along the way?[Thanks, John]
USB MultiSwitch hub hits prototype stage
Thanks to those fancy chips from SMSC we saw back in April, USB MultiSwitch hubs are just around the corner, bringing convenient USB device sharing to your desktop early next year. Now SMSC has a prototype all prepped, and has answered a few more questions regarding the technology. It sounds like implementation is pretty straight forward: a MultiSwitch-equipped PC can share any of its USB-connected devices with any other MultiSwitch PC via a single USB cable, or you can mix things up with a MultiSwitch hub which provides its own sharing chops. Unfortunately, multiple users can't access a shared device simultaneously, you have to instead specify which user is using each device, which could get cumbersome. SMSC's tech does support Wireless USB, but only "upstream" to the client PC -- the shared devices themselves have to be wired USB connections. Still, despite these limitation we're sure we'll be able to find plenty of uses for the spiffy new hubs when they hit the market in "early 2007."
MultiSwitch hub will allow LAN-less USB sharing
Sharing USB devices is about to get a lot simpler thanks to a new hub powered by technology from chip developer SMSC, which will allow two computers to access up to four shared devices without the need to set up a local area network. Called the MultiSwitch hub, this device creates a proprietary behind-the-scenes network, allowing USB-equipped printers, cameras, hard drives, and other peripherals to be accessed by any combination of desktop, laptop, HTPC, or game console -- with both machines able to interact with the devices simultaneously, according to the developer. PC OEMs are supposedly working on MultiSwitch-enabled chips for distribution this fall, with the resulting consumer electronics products expected to hit stores early next year.
