My Wallet is Ringing

Imagine paying for things with your cell phone. The Wireless Wallet is an idea that is picking up steam again, after the initial hype during the dot.com bubble fizzled along with everyones stock portfolio. As usual, Asia and Europe are ahead of the United States in the introduction and use of new technologies using wireless data networks. In places other than the US, consumers are buying soda pop, paying for songs on jukeboxes, purchasing their groceries, and going to soccer games just by waving their cell phones at a machine!

In Sweden and the British Isles, drivers are sending text messages to the parking meter to pay for their parking, instead of stuffing it with coins. Think of the savings of time and trouble of not having to race the meter maid out to your car, to plunk in more change, you could simply send a message from across town! The Japanese are probably the most advanced at this technology, right now. They are using phones with embedded debit card chips that allow them to shop at restaurants and grocery stores and pay with their phones. The service is available in around 20,000 stores.

US companies often look to DoCoMo Company in Japan for inspiration and innovation, and they are watching the Japanese begin to use the phone as a replacement for train tickets. All of our wireless providers and phone manufacturers are currently involved in projects bringing this technology to our shores. Last year in Dallas, Texas, Motorola and Mastercard had a trial run of a few hundred consumers using the wave and pay system at stores and gas stations. The technology is called near field communications and works when the device is about 8 inches from the sensor, similar to the check out scanner in supermarkets.

Wireless companies are convinced the wireless wallet is worth developing because consumers in the US spent over 220 million dollars on Ringtones in 2004. J. P. Morgan Chase is testing the similar idea of cards that can be swiped to pay for things. They are involved with McDonalds and the 7-Eleven convenience store chain at implementing this in over 5000 stores. The idea is to then embed the contactless cards into phones. Some are still not convinced that this is a tenable idea, but Major League Baseball is intrigued by the technology, because they see it as an efficient way to get large numbers of fans into the baseball parks in a short amount of time. I can just imagine a promotion where your phone is singing the tune: Take me out to the ball game

As ubiquitous computing emerges, I think we will see our phones become TVs, music players, organizers, video arcades, Internet surfing devices, and more. And yes, it looks like they are well on their way to becoming wallets. The next time someone asks you for spare change, you can say, sorry, I left my phone at home!

A leader in technology reporting, Julia Hall has published articles about the latest digital devices and gadgets for over ten years. After graduating from MIT with a degree in electrical engineering, Julia turned down huge salaries from some of the most recognized fortune 500 companies in the world to pursue her dream of becoming a leading consumer advocate. Julia uses her expertise to cut through the too good to be true deals offered by high tech companies to reveal the real steals and the real duds that we're bombarded with daily. If you enjoy staying on the cutting edge of technology, whether for business or pleasure, but find yourself occasionally confused by the overwhelming information out there let Julia be your guide.

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The Importance Of Good Pre-Diabetes Information

Type II diabetes has now reached epidemic proportions according to the center for Disease Control and that means that there are literally million of people walking around today not just with type II diabetes but, more importantly, with as yet undiagnosed diabetes or diabetes which is in its early stages of development.

This early stage type II diabetes, during which blood sugar levels are elevated but not raised sufficiently to warrant a diagnosis of diabetes, is known as pre-diabetes and, although it may not appear to be of serious concern, studies show that, even at this early stage, permanent long-term damage is being done, especially to the circulatory system and to the heart. Pre-diabetes currently affects over 50 million Americans.

Because pre-diabetes does not present any symptoms, the only way to tell whether or not you are suffering from it is to ask your doctor to test for the presence of the disease. Now, since we cant start testing the whole population this leads to the question of just who is most likely to be at risk from pre-diabetes. Well, in simple terms, if you are over the age of 45 and are overweight (and this mean not just grossly overweight but even modestly overweight) then you should consider asking to be tested. If you are under the age of 45 and are again overweight then testing may also be advisable but, in this case, you should discuss this with your doctor and be guided by him.

Testing is a fairly simple process using one of two standard tests a fasting plasma glucose test or an oral glucose tolerance test. These tests will indicate whether your blood glucose levels are normal, pre-diabetic or diabetic.

The good news is that, if your test reveals that you are pre-diabetic then bringing your blood glucose levels back down to normal and returning your body to a good state of health and forestalling the onset of diabetes is generally quite simple.

Although medication can be used to correct pre-diabetes, tests have shown that a simple program of diet and exercise, combined if necessary with a relatively modest weight loss, can often return blood glucose levels to normal quite quickly and, as long as you maintain a healthy diet and an exercise program, there is no reason at all why your blood glucose level should not remain at normal levels for a considerable period of time. This does not of course mean that you will eliminate the risk of developing type II diabetes altogether, but it does mean that you can delay its onset and prevent early and irreparable damage to your circulatory system and heart.

When we talk about a program of weight loss and exercise here we are not talking about anything too drastic and a reduction in weight of as little as 5% to 10% and a light exercise program of say 30 minutes of brisk walking 5 times a week can be sufficient.

Pre-diabetes is a serious problem which is both easy to detect and simple to treat. All that we are really lacking at the moment is sufficient publicly available pre-diabetic information.

For more information on diabetes treatment try visiting http://diabetes.personal-health-guide.com a website that specializes in providing information on diabetes prevention, diabetes type 1 and type 2 and some lists of diabetes diet tips

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PS3 To Cost Twice As Much As Xbox 360

According to Merrill Lynch, because of the cost of hardware components, the PS3 may cost twice as much as the Xbox 360 by the end of 2006. The report includes estimated breakdown of hardware costs by component at the time of launch and 3 years from now.

The new figures show that the majority of the cost are from the Blu-Ray drive, and the Cell processor which total $580 alone. After three years, the manufacturing cost of the two will drop to $180 total.

Several months ago the same team released data which compared the cost of the PS3 to the Xbox 360 (see below). As you can see, the estimated costs of Blu-Ray and the Cell Process have increased dramatically.

On the cost of goods side, Merrill Lynch believes that the Cell processor will initially cost $230 to make which is more than the Xenon CPU which currently rings in at $100.

Though price reduction will eventually drop to approximately $30, both the Nividias RSXand the ATIs cost about $70 each to produce.

iSuppli, a well know Market researcher, did a break down on the cost of all the components used by Microsoft in the Xbox 360 and found that the cost per console is roughly $525, or almost $400 dollars less than thn the Sony PS3.

The results of the report are based on the assumption that Sony will have to sell at a loss due to the estimated costs of hardware. However, if Sony is willing to be aggressive on pricing with PS3, the report concedes that many of these numbers are likely to change.

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