Cool Products Archive - 6

Featured Product Archive

The inventions and products featured on these pages were chosen either for their uniqueness in the RF engineering realm, or are simply awesome (or ridiculous) enough to warrant an appearance.

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RF Cafe: SpaceTime for iPhoneAre you like most people and are frustrated by not being able to graph 3-D Klein bottles and electric fields, or find  complex roots of polynomials on your cell phone? Well, SpaceTime 3.0 has solved that problem (pun intended). Nerd Nirvana is one step closer to reality. Bessel equations... Don't leave home without them.

1-30-2009

Clock for Ham Radio Operators:  Ham Radio is not just a hobby....etc.A couple years ago, the TechNote Time folks were advertisers on RF Cafe. I suggested back then that they come up with something for RF engineers and Hams. They now have a nice line of inexpensive items, from laminated Smith charts to Ham-themed clocks, decals and ornaments. Tell them Kirt sent you.

1-2-2009

RF Cafe Cool Product - Prismark Wireless Technology ReportI spent nearly six years investigating and reverse engineering end-user products and ICs for wireless devices. During that time, I found the Wireless Technology Reports generated by Prismark to be absolutely the highest quality resource for augmenting my own work. If you need the expertise of someone who is a walking, talking (multilingually at that) encyclopedia of the wireless market, ask to speak with Mark Christensen; his in-house presentation will definitely keep the attention of your staff.

12-5-2008RF Cafe: DTV converter boxThere really is nothing cool about this typical DTV converter box. It is of the type that is needed to receive digital signals on an old analog television. The government has been issuing $40 coupons for a year. Guess what a lot are being used for? People use them to buy a box for about $10, then sell it on eBay and other venues for about $30. It is illegal to just sell the coupons, so I'm sure that never happens. More easy money at taxpayer expense.

2-6-2009

RF Cafe: Navatel's MiFi portable WiFi hot spotNovatel Wireless introduced its Mi-Fi™ personal wireless router at CES 2009. It will run up to 4 hours with continuous use, or 24 hours on standby using a built-in battery. The target price is <$200. It will be interesting to read the headlines about the hacking opportunities that will be exploited with this little marvel.

1-9-2009

RF Cafe: IDEAL Scientific Equipment CompanyAre you tired of your projects not working as designed on the 1st pass (or 2nd, or 3rd, or...)? Your troubles may be over thanks to a line of products offered by the IDEAL Scientific Equipment Company. Base your next design on their selection of Hookian springs, magnetic monopoles, frictionless bearings, inextensible strings, or other time-saving (and butt-saving) devices that heretofore were only available in college textbooks. Is your work in the nano world? Get yourself a quantum mechanical tool kit. Hurry, supplies are limited.

12-12-2008

RF Cafe: Phone board prototypeFor less than $100, Infineon has a phone reference design board available that features built-in functionality for a low-cost dual-mode GSM/Wi-Fi solution. It could serve as a platform for developing a data interface for over-the-air control and monitoring applications. Here is the XMM1013 datasheet with block diagram.

2-13-2009

RF Cafe: Wireless Swiss Army KnifeYou have seen reports of guns that will only fire when the owner is pulling the trigger. Here is a Swiss army knife that requires the owner's fingerprint to open. Rather than including accessories that help you survive in the wilderness, the Presentation Pro, by Victorinox, provides removable 32GB USB flash drive, a laser pointer, and a Bluetooth-powered remote control... for survival in the office. 

1-16-2009

RF Cafe: EDG Video Business Cards by Jump LabsTired of people throwing your business card in a drawer - or worse yet, in the trash? Here is an innovation by Jump Labs that could have people showing off your card rather than tossing it. Their EDG (pronounced "edge") cards cost between $17.50 to $29.00 per card - about the price of a box of 100 traditional high quality business cards. with a 2" color LCD, touch controls and a USB port, the "wow" factor could easily justify the cost.

12-21-2008

RF Cafe: Lemon ClockThis Citrus Clock, by Anna Gram (?) runs on lemon power. An electrolysis of zinc and copper probes inserted into a lemon creates an oxidation phenomenon that creates the current. The clock reportedly runs for two weeks on a single lemon.

2/20/2009

RF Cafe: Power Line Carrier Home Controller Systems by InsteonBPL has gotten a lot of bad press, and for good reason. A more localized form of BPL is power line carrier (PLC), which sends signals through house or office AC wiring. Is it not without interference issues, but generally co-exists fairly well with everything else. This line of PLC products from Insteon is an easy way to automate your home, even if just to control an overhead fan or outside floodlight w/o needing to wire a switch directly. Work is underway to use AC wiring for local broadband nets rather than using coax and CAT-5 cables. 1-23-2009

RF Cafe: 2009 New Year's Eve Times Square BallOut with the old. In with the new. That is the symbolism provided each New Year's Eve when the brightly lit ball descends the tower at One Times Square. This year, even the ball is new. It is a 12 foot geodesic sphere, double the size of previous balls, and weighs 11,875 pounds. Covered in 2,668 Waterford Crystals and powered by 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDS, the new Ball is capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns producing a spectacular kaleidoscope effect.

12-26-2008