A new coffee maker hitting stores for the holidays can display real-time weather data, using a "smart objects" technology that Microsoft Corp. has been touting for years, but has been slow to take off. The $200 Melitta Smart Mill Brew, made by Salton Inc.
, takes advantage of a wireless-data system built by Microsoft to automatically display current weather conditions and forecasts. The first products to use the technology, watches from three companies that offered real-time news and other information, hit the market in 2004, followed by a home weather gadget from Oregon Scientific Inc. That's the message Sony Corp.
is trying to convey in announcing that the new game consoles - as powerful as supercomputers - can help Stanford University researchers analyze complex human protein structures and perhaps find cures for cancer, Alzheimer's and other ailments. Sony Computer Entertainment says that when Cure@PLAYSTATION 3 is launched, PS3 owners can register their machines with Stanford, download specially designed software and leave their machines online to process data when they're not playing. It's modeled after programs where personal computers process high-volume data for signs of extraterrestrial life and other tasks.
PCs already contribute to the Stanford medical research program. Clerics decry Quran ringtones: Muslim clerics at a leading seminary in India have asked people to refrain from using verses from the Quran as ringtones for their cell phones, saying the practice was un-Islamic. Quran verses "are not meant for entertainment," said Mohammed Asumin Qazmi, an official at the Dar-ul Uloom seminary in the northern Indian town of Deoband.
"Anyone who persists in using these should be ostracized from society." Ringtones with Quran verses or calls to prayers are popular among Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state. Huge attachment?
No problem, company promises: There's a new way to send large movie, music and other files without worrying about whether the e-mail systems can handle large attachments. Free software from Pando Networks Inc. automatically converts your attachments into a small file that your friend or relative can simply open to download the original file from Pando or elsewhere.
Beginning Tuesday, Pando is offering plug-ins to work with most Web-based mail services. Major e-mail providers generally limit the size of files you can send or receive to 10 megabytes. That's fine for text and even small photos - but try sending an entire photo album, music or video, and you run against the caps quickly.
And even if your provider lets you send the large files, the recipient's service provider might not accept them.
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