’Tis the season for giving, but what should you get for your tech-savvy friends and relatives? From high-tech toys to all-in-one organizers, we look at the latest and greatest in electronic gadgets. Guest host Kate Sophia talks with two experts about the gadgets themselves and the impact they are making on our lives.
Guests
Kate Sophia
Kate Sophia
Kate is a technical writer for the University of Minnesota's Academic and Distributed Computing Services. She received a B.A. in chemistry and theater from The College of St. Catherine in 2000. She currently enjoys writing for the Office of Information Technology UMart monthly, and assisting University e-mail, telephone, and network users on the 1-HELP helpline.
Drew Stevenson
Drew Stevenson
Drew is an information technology professional with the University of Minnesota's Academic and Distributed Computing Services. Drew has been obsessed with gadgets ever since he learned you could get a wristwatch with a calculator built in.
Bernard Gulachek
Bernard Gulachek
Bernie is the director of planning for the Office of Information Technology at the University of Minnesota, where his responsibilities include being aware of the impact of gadgets on the University community. While Bernie enjoys many gadgets, he does not own a cell.
Convergence
This is a trend related to technological devices. Some devices that originally had distinct purposes take on each other's functions and eventually become one device. For example, office communications used to take place on separate machines: one for typing a letter and another for faxing it to someone else. Today both of these functions can be managed by a desktop computer.
RFID
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a tracking and monitoring system that uses radio frequencies. It consists of three parts: the RFID tag that goes on the entity or items that you want to track, a reader, and a computer system.
Vodcast
Combination of the words "video" and "podcast." It consists of video content created by individuals and then made available on the Internet for download onto computers or video-capable players such as the iPod. Regular updates are usually made and are automatically downloaded when available.