Cardo Bluetooth Adapter gives phones PAN

"Cardo Systems today announced at CTIA the availability of the universal adapter for the Cardo allways, a Bluetooth headset that fits over a user's ear or uniquely clips onto eyeglasses or sunglasses.

The Cardo universal adapter converts virtually any standard mobile phone into Bluetooth-capable cell phones. Once plugged into the audio jack of the phone, this compact accessory will convert standard mobile phones into Bluetooth capable devices, allowing smooth operation with the allways headset recently launched by the company.

Both the universal adapter and allways headset come factory-paired with 2.5 millimeter cell phone jacks and additional connectors for many older models. The Cardo universal adapter also comes with two velcro adhesive pads that attach to the back of any cell phone, eliminating the need for cumbersome buckle attaching. With a red & blue LED light, users can tell the charge and power on status....

The allways Bluetooth Headset is available for a suggested retail price of $99.99 USD, while the allways Headset & BT Adapter has a MSRP of $164.99 USD. Both units are available now. No word was available on compatibility of the adapter with Bluetooth headsets from other manufacturers." [infoSync World]

I'm going to have to check this out since a wire-free headset is the main reason I want Bluetooth in the Treo 600. Very nice!

5:42:52 PM    

• "Dogpile Toolbar has launched its newest toolbar, which comes with an an RSS Tool for grabbing RSS and Atom-syndicated content. The Toolbar can display feeds constructed in RSS .91, .92, and 2.0 formats. The Toolbar also supports the Atom feed format." [Lockergnome’s RSS Resource]
   
• Index and Search Your Computer, RSS Feeds, and the Web With New Desktop
  From an overview article that that I've co-authored with Barbara Quint, 'Lycos has launched a free toolbar search product [IE, Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP] from HotBot, their search service,which is 'the first product to integrate traditional desktop search with Web search within the browser.' The same search tool can now reach the Internet, e-mail folders for Outlook or Outlook Express, and user documents stored on a hard drive. The free application does not even require registration. It also incorporates a blocker for pop-up ads and an RSS News Reader syndication. Searching reaches six file types: MS Office, PDF, RTF, and text. Indexes created to track e-mail and user files remain stored locally to protect user privacy.' " [Resourceshelf]

So toolbars are continuing to evolve, with library services nowhere in sight. I'm more intrigued by the Hotbot toolbar, with its ability to index my hard drive. I love the Lookout search toolbar for Outlook, so combining that functionality with searching my RSS feeds could be incredibly efficient. I'm confused as to what list of RSS subscriptions the toolbar indexes, though. Hopefully it's not a second list that needs to be maintained separately from any existing user aggregator. I'll have to find time to give it a whirl, especially to see if I can add SWAN to its list of search engines.

Oh, and an important note from Gary's article: "Indexes created to track e-mail and user files remain stored locally to protect user privacy," and it's Windows only.

5:42:01 PM    

Jon Udell: Blog/print synergy: my strategies. For almost a decade I've used the Web -- and most recently my blog -- to research, develop, and enhance the articles I write for magazines. When I ran into Dan Gillmor at SXSW we discussed some of my strategies, and Dan asked me to write them up. Seems worth doing, so here goes. Much of this concerns the IT trade pub ecosystem specifically, but I think the principles will generalize. The basic pattern is simple: a story gestates in blogspace, appears in print and online, and then matures in blogspace.

[Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

5:37:56 PM