said to offer up to double the
compression efficiency of JPEG with
fewer damaging artifacts, which
results in higher quality images that
are only half as large. In addition,
the technology offers increased
image fidelity, preserving the entire
original image content (i.e., “lossless
compression”) and enabling improved
exposure and color adjustments.
The format does not seem to have
generated a great deal of software support so far, but Microsoft has announced
the beta release of a set of HD Photo
plug-ins for Adobe® Photoshop®, developed with the help of Adobe Systems,
Inc. The plug-ins support both the CS3
and CS2 versions of Photoshop software
and will be available for Windows®
Vista™ and XP, as well as Mac OS X. By
the time you read this, they should be
available — for free — from
www.microsoft.com/downloads.
ANOTHER NEW SEARCH
ENGINE
If you thought the World Wide Web
had enough search sites, meet
hakia Galleries ( www.hakia.com), an
innovative “meaning-based” engine. It
delivers categorized search results
(the galleries) in response to a short
query, providing the equivalent of 10
search variations.
The hakia Galleries cover a range
of topics, including diseases, company
profiles, data about cities and countries, and famous people. Current
examples of the hakia Galleries (there
are said to be thousands available
already) include Anna Nicole Smith,
Pokemon, Tokyo, Red Sox, cancer,
chocolate, Vioxx, cello, and George
Washington. And the engine will keep
getting better, as the coverage of
hakia Galleries is slated to expand
continuously throughout 2007 via an
automated “distillation” algorithm.
802.11N UPGRADES
AVAILABLE
If you happen to be the owner of an
Intel-based Mac that was built
before Apple started putting 802.11n
wireless network cards in them, you
now have an alternative to living with
the older, slower WiFi capabilities.
For $149, QuickerTek, Inc. (www.
quickertek.com), will sell you an
upgrade card or — for $199 — will
install it for you.
The cards are made to the same
specs as the Apple products and fit
into the AirPort slot. They work with
all 802.11/b/g/n WiFi equipment,
including AirPort and AirPort Extreme.
They are compatible with all of the
newer 17-, 20-, and 24-inch iMacs, as
well as pre-802.11n MacBooks and
MacBook Pros, but you’ll need to be
running OS X 10. 4. 8 or later.
CIRCUITS AND
DEVICES
INSTRUMENTS INCLUDE
TEMPERATURE
MEASUREMENT
PHOTO COURTESY OF EXTECH INSTRUMENTS.
■ Extech’s meters feature built-in IR
temperature measurement.
If you need to, for example, test a
high-voltage breaker box or make
physical contact with an active
electric motor, it can be pretty handy
(and a lot safer) if you can first point
something at the target area and
check for hot spots, given that large
temperature rises may indicate
problems with motors and circuits. A
noncontact infrared thermometer
would do the trick, but who wants to
carry around an extra instrument?
That’s the basic idea behind a
series of test instruments from Extech
Instruments ( www.extech.com). The
company originally introduced a
patented line of digital multimeters
with the thermometer included, but
now also offers a clamp meter,
tachometer, anemometer, humidity
psychrometer, and hygro-thermometer,
all using IR technology.
The thermometers incorporated
into the Extech products feature a
temperature range as low as - 58°F
(- 50°C) to a high of 932°F (500°C),
and a built-in laser pointer allows a
user to pinpoint the target area. This is
particularly useful for small targets and
hard-to-reach areas.
The cost isn’t exorbitant, either, so
you might want to consider the EX470
multimeter, for example, which sells
for about $125. If nothing else, you
can check the temperature of your
beer from across the room with it.
FOUR-IN-ONE MODULE
PHOTO COURTESY OF FRONTIER SILICON.
■ The Venice 6 provides four types of
audio in one module.
An interesting new chip from
Frontier Silicon ( www.fr
ontier-silicon.com) is the Venice 6, billed as
the world’s first four-in-one module
capable of receiving Internet radio,
digital audio broadcasting (DAB), FM,
and music streamed from a PC. It
integrates a WiFi, DAB, and FM front
end with an on-board WiFi antenna,
enabling audio manufacturers to build
a new generation of versatile radios
for the global market.
Based on Frontier’s Chorus 2i
processor, the device streams radio
stations and music files in several
formats and protocols, including MP3,
WMA, and Real Audio. It provides
access to over 10,000 Internet radio
stations plus a wide selection of
podcasts with only a few key presses,
accessed through a vTuner Internet
Portal that manages all the stations.
A company representative noted,
“Audio manufacturers want to build
products that can be used and sold
anywhere in the world. With the
May 2007 9