ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHEW HOLLISTER

I’LL ADMIT IT, I have an obscene amount of media: hundreds of apps, thousands of albums, countless hours of TV shows and movies, folder after folder of pictures and who knows how many plain old documents. That’s at least a terabyte’s worth of storage space. What’s a media geek like me to do if he wants to access all that on the road? Storing it in the cloud is a prohibitively expensive proposition — it’d cost me $1,000 a year to keep it on Amazon’s Cloud Drive (and that much space isn’t even available on Apple’s iCloud).

The answer? Make your own cloud. If you already have an external hard drive at home with all your media loaded on it, the easiest way to turn it into a remote-accessible personal cloud is to plug it into Pogoplug ($50, pogoplug.com). This sleek, router-size device has built-in software that provides an interface for accessing files on any of the storage drives it’s connected to. Setup is a cinch — all I had to do was hook it into my router with the included cable, stick the power cord into an AC outlet and connect my external hard drive to one of the Pogoplug’s USB ports. After a quick automated sign-in, my personal cloud was up and running. Now, whether I’m using my iPad, Android phone or laptop, I can access my files from anywhere via my.pogoplug.com. I can upload, download and share pictures through e-mail or public links, as well as download, upload and stream movies, TV and music — even iTunes purchases — to any Web-connected device. Simple.

Pogoplug is great when I have a wireless connection, but when I need to keep it local, I use the Seagate GoFlex Satellite ($200, seagate.com). While it looks just like any other flask-size hard drive, it has one killer additional feature: the ability to stream up to five hours from more than 300 movies to an iPad, iPhone, Android device or laptop via its own localized Wi-Fi hot spot. That means I can’t use it to surf the Web, but also that I don’t need Internet access for it to work.

What’s more, I can watch the pilot of “Terra Nova” while one of my colleagues (or family members) watches Bridesmaids, since the GoFlex Satellite can stream up to three different movies to three different devices simultaneously. Accessing the files is as easy as downloading and opening up the GoFlex Satellite app or launching your Web browser.

These hardware solutions may not have all the cool push features of iCloud, but they do give me access to more of my media at a fraction of the cost. What do I do with the savings? Buy more music, movies and TV shows, of course.

Tech columnist TOM SAMILJAN also has a large collection of vinyl and cassette tapes — none of which are saved online.

THAT THE PAIR sitting next to you have discovered that they’re soul mates is undeniably heartwarming. But their scintillating repartee threatens to disturb your sleep or interfere with your ability to hear every word of the critical-plot-twist-revealing dialogue in the movie you’re watching.

For reasons such as these, when I travel I bring one of two kinds of headphones — or sometimes both — that are designed to keep the din at a distance: active noise-canceling and passive noise-isolating. The former is an over-the-ear style combining a soundproof casing with battery-powered technology that creates inverse sound waves to help negate ambient noise. The latter are classic earbuds, which minimize outside noise by simply sealing up your ears with rubber tips. These can be bunched up into your hand and stored in your pocket, making them ideal for anyone who doesn’t want an overstuffed carry-on (but also making them easier to lose).

Which headphones actually do a better job of blocking out intrusive noise? More important, which make music, movies and phone calls sound the best? After spending the past year with about 15 different pairs on dozens of flights, I settled on some favorites.

First up: the high-end Bose QuietComfort 15 noise-canceling headphones ($300, bose.com). With clear, defined midrange and bass, these over-the-ear beauties sound every bit as good as most standard headphones do — a claim that can’t be made about all noise-canceling models, which often end up overcompensating and muffling the overall sound. The QC 15 is noticeably better at eliminating outside noise while preserving interior sound quality, no matter how hushed the dialogue or music might be. The cushioning around the earcups is substantial, which must have a lot to do with it.

The only other active noise-canceling product that can hold a candle to the Bose QC 15 is the Able Planet Clear Harmony ($350, ableplanet.com). These cans are slightly bulkier than Bose’s, but I found their bass packed even more of a distortion-free punch. I just wish they looked nicer.

Looks aren’t a problem with the Beats Studio headphones ($350, beatsbydre.com), which have a sleek one-piece design, a glossy, scratch-resistant finish and a bunch of hues to choose from. The noise canceling turned out to be less across-the-board precise than that of the Bose and Able Planet models, but the bass and midrange came through loud and clear.

If you’re keen on a lower profile — as well as a lower price and a lighter load — your best bet is a pair of earbuds. I found the V-Moda Vibrato ($130, v-moda.com) to be competitive with the battery-powered noise-canceling models in terms of keeping out noise. Isolation aside, the bigger the rubber earpieces are, the bassier and boomier the sound, and few earbuds deliver low-range oomph better than the Vibratos. Given that they’re playing directly inside your ear canal, the sound does tend to be dense, with none of the subtle separation offered by over-the-ear headphones, but if you don’t mind sticking things in your ears (and not sharing your headphones), these more than do the trick. Another plus: The Kevlar-reinforced cords are tough to tangle.

Slightly more refined, the Klipsch Image X10i earbuds ($350, klipsch.com) may dial back the bass a tad, but they deliver more clarity in the midrange — making them my go-to earbuds for classical music, jazz and acoustic tunes.

So, which kind should you bring on your next trip? The truth is, passive noise-isolating models are pretty good at what they do, and the amount of space they take up in your luggage is a fraction of what the noise-canceling headphones use. But pretty good isn’t the same as stellar. The verdict? Bring both.

Hemispheres tech writer TOM SAMILJAN would like to know where he can get his Sony Walkman Professional fixed.

OVER THE EARS
A century of headphones

1910
Nathaniel Baldwin builds the world’s first pair of modern headphones, which purportedly contain a mile’s worth of copper wire to transmit sound.

1958
Jazz musician John C. Koss creates stereo headphones.

1979
The Sony Walkman makes its debut with a pair of lightweight over-the-ear headphones, which quickly become the standard in portable headphones in the ’80s.

1989
Bose unveils the Aviation Headset, the first pair of consumer-ready active noise reduction headphones.

2000
The inaugural Bluetooth headset is released.

2008
Audio Bone releases the first wireless bone-conduction headphones, which transmit sound through the bones next to the ear canal.

October 2011
Jabra introduces a Bluetooth mono headset with active noise-canceling technology.

ILLUSTRATION BY GLUEKIT

EVEN BEFORE THE days of tweets, Facebook links and iPhone notifications, I was addicted to news. Yet despite my absorbing five daily newspapers and the “Today” show every morning, it was manageable. Today, it’s nearly impossible to keep up — especially now that I have 50-plus feeds inundating my Google Reader.

Fortunately, spurred by the iPad’s navigability combined with 24/7 Internet connectivity, a new generation of newsreaders has emerged, each promising to filter out the noise and serve up exactly what I want.

Flipboard grabs pictures and text from articles and displays them in a variety of magazine-style layouts, complete with a mix of fonts, sidebars and picture shapes and sizes. You can choose from curated feeds, ranging from food and travel to celebrity gossip and sports, or select feeds à la carte or import them from your Google Reader account. Flipboard is also an ideal way to view Twitter and Facebook feeds, turning a humdrum stream of link-laden updates into pages with newspaper-style layouts, in which each “article” is devoted to a news link shared by your friends. Downside: It works only on Apple platforms.

Scrollers, which feature stacks of picture-and-headline feeds grouped according to individual media outlets or subjects, can be easily browsed by swiping from side to side, making it a cinch to scan dozens of stories quickly. The two best scrollers, Pulse and Taptu, work on all Android and iOS devices. Pulse lets users create up to five pages of 12 feeds stacked on top of one another, which is handy for separating different areas of interest. Taptu, on the other hand, opts for a limitless stack of side-scrolling feeds (which I prefer, since it satisfies my need to dive head-first into information overload). It won’t necessarily help you filter information, but it does allow you to take big bites quickly.

Then there’s News 360. What it lacks in gloss it more than makes up for in innovation. When you link your Facebook, Twitter, Instapaper, Read It Later and Evernote accounts, News 360 will learn to unearth stories it thinks you might like. Users can click on a subject category in the left rail, and then scroll through an infinite list of the latest topic-specific headlines. At the top of each story page, News 360 inserts a list of links to every other media outlet’s version of the same story, while significant terms, names and other words are automatically hyperlinked to pop-up definitions. Plus, it remembers your settings across platforms, so the experience and story list will look the same whether you’re viewing it on an iPhone, iPad, Android phone, Android tablet, Windows Phone 7 device or your PC’s web browser.

Which of these will actually help find what you want amid today’s ceaseless information barrage? Well, if you’re looking for a better way to read Facebook and Twitter feeds, then Flipboard it is; if you spend as much time on your smartphone as on your computer, try News 360; and if you’re an info hound who still wants a bit of serendipity, you’ll likely get the most from Taptu.

After several weeks of news-hounding, tech writer TOM SAMILJAN can’t wait to get back to reading his novel (via e-reader).

AS A FREQUENT BUSINESS TRAVELER, I primarily need three things from my laptops: compactness, a spacious keyboard and battery life long enough to get me from New York to L.A. I also want a webcam and the ability to watch movies, play games or stream music without having to add external speakers. And a bit of style never hurts.

Five years ago, that was a tall order for any notebook, much less a business one. But thanks in part to ever faster and smaller processors, a serious work laptop can now be had for as little as $500. The models I recently tested all had webcams, two USB ports and memory card slots. Most important for business travelers, none was more than an inch thick.

The Lenovo X1 ($1,300) is essentially a slim, modern version of the classic Thinkpad laptop, down to the rugged black casing and the iconic red trackpoint controller in the center of the keys. The spacious backlit keyboard is spill-resistant and has molded keys that are a pure delight to use. The slim battery lasts only three hours, but can charge up to 80 percent in just 30 minutes, a feature that comes in handy during layovers. It’s fast, too, with the state-of-the-art i7 processor usually found in bigger laptops like the MacBook Pro.

Bigger and boxier, with subtly different shades of brushed metal across its casing, the HP ProBook 5330m ($800) looks the way a laptop might if Jacob Jensen had designed it for Bang & Olufsen in the ’80s. Which is fitting, as it’s one of the first business notebooks to really pay attention to audio. With the addition of Beats Audio, it offers surprising clarity and depth, and even bass that sounds full and defined without distortion. The ProBook also comes with a host of CIA-grade security features, like login via facial recognition (which requires posing for almost a dozen images from different angles), password and fingerprint.

While many business notebooks still come in black or brushed-metal silver, the Dell Vostro V131 (starting at $500) is a perfect example of the aesthetic liberation of the form. In addition to boring gray, it comes in a brilliant metallic red. Besides 9.5-hour battery life and a speedy dual-core i5 processor, the V131 has built-in WiDi, a wireless technology that lets your computer connect with, say, an office projector, in order to show presentations or videos.

The elephant in the room is the MacBook Air (starting at $999), a modern-day marvel that starts up in less than 30 seconds. Truth be told, the superslim Air continues to be my personal favorite for business or pleasure — not to mention a fine iPad killer — but I’m still a daily user of PCs as well. Why? Because, cool factor aside, where design and features are concerned, the greatest variety and innovation are happening in the PC/Windows arena. And in a world of ubiquitous Apple iPhones and laptops, variety is something to be championed.

TOM SAMILJAN can’t wait for the day when he can fold up his razor-thin OLED laptop and put it in his pocket.

WAY BACK IN 1977, a handheld device about the size of a vintage calculator hit the market. Powered by a 9-volt battery and distinguished by tiny red lights blinking across a tiny plastic screen, Mattel Football was one of the first shots in the handheld gaming revolution. Today, the exponential growth of mobile phone games — by far the most popular downloads at both the Android and iPhone stores — has taken the genre well beyond the mainstream and deep into the pop psyche. Meanwhile, Nintendo is adding extra dimensions to its biggest flagship titles for the 3DS, the Japanese gaming company’s 3-D handheld, and Sony, in an effort to stay in the game, just released the PlayStation-certified Xperia Play, complete with a slide-out gaming- controls tray. This winter, Sony will launch the successor to its PlayStation Portable, an HD, Wi-Fi-connected dynamo called the PSVita.

What all this adds up to is the biggest console battle in gaming history, thanks to wireless interconnectivity and the scope of today’s handheld market. Here’s a — ahem — handy analysis of the gear coming out now. Game on.

1. T-Mobile G2x with Google

($249 with two-year contract, www.t-mobile.com)

WHO IT’S FOR: Anti-Apple performance hounds

TOP GAMES: Need for Speed SHIFT (preloaded), Minecraft, Cordy, Riptide GP

PROS: The killer specs on this high-end Android smartphone are the dual-core Tegra 2 processor (smooth, detailed graphics), four-inch AMOLED screen (vibrant color), 4G network speeds (fast downloads) and HDMI line out for playing it all in high-res on your TV.

CONS: Battery life won’t last through a whole day, especially if you’re doing any gaming.

2. Nintendo 3DS

($250, www.nintendo.com)

WHO IT’S FOR: Kids, Mario fans

TOP GAMES: Mario Kart, Paper Mario, Super Mario, Luigi’s Mansion (all available for the holidays), The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (out now)

PROS: Catalog, catalog, catalog: It’s the only place you’ll find the aforementioned Mario and Zelda titles, as well as Animal Crossing and Kid Icarus (both available for the holidays).

CONS: Is there really a demand for 3-D?

3. Sony PSVita

($249, www.us.playstation.com)

WHO IT’S FOR: Socially networked fraggers

TOP GAMES: Uncharted: Golden Abyss, LittleBigPlanet

PROS: High-res graphics; dual tactile analog stick controls; an innovative touch-sensitive back panel; and an accelerometer and camera that enable the device to be used as a motion-sensitive, augmented reality controller.

CONS: It’s about as big as a waffle.

Illustration by Edward McGowan

BACK IN SEPTEMBER 2009, a group of 25 students, neighbors and professionals from companies like Google, Apple, Yahoo! and Intel met up at the Los Gatos, California, home of Denny Mayer—“a classic Silicon Valley neighborhood gathering,” he said—to fiddle with a tiny new product called Poken, which allows users to exchange contact information and links to social network profiles simply by touching two together.

The company calls the keychain-size device a “social business card,” and it’s out to make the paper version obsolete. But before anyone at Mayer’s house party had a chance to consider Poken’s

life-altering effects, they were struck by its design. “It was just so cute!” says Catherine Ford, a program manager at digital mapping company Navteq, whose first Poken was a sunglasses-wearing character with a round head, tiny body and four-fingered hand.

After the novelty wore off, Ford started putting her Poken to use, touching its palm to the palms of other guests’ Pokens, thereby performing what the company calls a “high 4.” Each high 4 allows the devices to exchange an encrypted code by using a low-energy radio frequency enabled by Near Field Communication technology. That code holds the key to a person’s digital life, which is revealed when a Poken is plugged into a USB port on a computer and a user’s profile launches. There, a timeline of all the new friends they’ve Pokened appears, containing links to whatever social networks they’ve attached to their Pokens.

“As soon as I got home, I plugged my Poken into my laptop, and I had immediate access to everyone I just met,” Ford says. “That’s when I knew this technology could have a lot of applications for our company.”

Stéphane Doutriaux, a 34-year-old who earned his MBA in Lausanne, Switzerland, conceived of the product after coming to terms with his inability to master business cards. “I don’t know what to do with them,” he says.

As a newly christened MBA and a seven-year veteran of the corporate world, Doutriaux knew that business cards couldn’t be done away with completely, so he set out to revolutionize them. “The goal was to be able to easily pick up digital information about the people I met and have a complete view of their online profiles,” Doutriaux says.

That means no more struggling to find people on LinkedIn, friending the wrong person on Facebook or not realizing that a potential client is huge on Twitter.

Today, Poken’s biggest clients are corporations like IBM and Microsoft, which pass the devices out at conferences, networking events and other trade shows. Catherine Ford from Navteq was so convinced by her Poken demo that she brought it to her company too, distributing the little doohickeys at a developer conference in Silicon Valley. The presence of Poken at Navteq’s booth created the most prized quality at a trade show: buzz. “It’s the perfect device to get people talking,” Ford says.

by Mike Albo // Illustration by Edward McGowan

SHOPPING FOR CLOTHES ONLINE is an exercise in guesswork. Those jeans may seem perfect, but often as not, when they arrive, you try them on and they look terrible. It’s enough to keep a potential e-shopper from buying. So for the past few years, retailers have been devising ways to lure hesitant customers into buying clothes without even touching them. There are a few different approaches. One site, Tobi, offered a feature that let customers interact with their real images via webcam, sliding clothing onto their “bodies” like paper dolls. Another, MVM.com, lets you build an avatar by selecting options for height, weight, hairstyle, coloring and facial features. Both show you how diff erent ensembles look together, but they still won’t tell you how those jeans are going to fit.

But two new programs rolling out this year will. Fits.me and Styku.com are likely to revolutionize online clothes shopping by creating 3-D avatars using shoppers’ own measurements. Fits.me is a virtual dress form made up of panels that stretch and contract to create thousands of sizes and shapes. A prototype on the website can be tested on Hawes & Curtis shirts. (There’s only a male mannequin, but a female mannequin is on the way.)

Styku’s version goes further into Na’vi territory. The concept is similar to MVM’s, but your avatar moves in 3-D, so you can see a virtual you, with your measurements and face (via uploaded photo) trying on clothes and then walking with stompy runway attitude, showing off the drape and movement of the garment.

Styku is an offshoot of Tukatech, a company that has been creating fit simulators, garment pattern rendering programs and other software for clothing manufacturers since 1995. “Hundreds of manufacturers around the world are already using our programs to create prototypes of sample garments,” explains Styku CEO Raj Sareen in an email. “Our customer base gets to utilize this data in a whole new way.” The company launched a “micro-site” last month. A full-fledged version is due this fall.

Whether or not these virtual dressing rooms will make purchasing clothing online the norm remains to be seen, but it does point to the continued trajectory of fashion becoming more and more customized, without the couture pricetag. At the very least, someday in the near future, maybe you will finally be able to answer the question, “Does this make me look fat?” from the comfort of your home.

Fashion writer MIKE ALBO thinks asking sales associates how clothes look is half the fun.

FOR THOSE WHO spend all day talking, texting, snapping photos of the kids and watching NASCAR on their phones, few things induce anxiety like having a nearly depleted battery and nowhere to charge it. According to a 2009 report by GSMA, a global organization of mobile phone manufacturers and operators, at any given moment nearly 500 million cell phone users around the world find themselves without access to electricity. With cell usage increasing daily, off – grid chargers-devices that convert sun, wind or good old-fashioned human power into an electric charge-are becoming big business.

The best of these new products combine renewable energy technologies with everyday functionality. Voltaic’s solar backpacks and messenger bags ($249) are made from recycled plastic and convert sunlight into talk time, while Nokia’s Bicycle Charger Kit ($40), expected to hit U.S. shelves in time for the holidays, harnesses pedal power to charge your phone while you ride. The fashion world is getting in on it too: Zegna Sport’s Ecotech solar-power jacket ($995) can deliver a full charge to phones after a few hours in the sun, and designer Andrew Schneider sells custom solar bikinis that charge iPods and other small accessories.

Leading the charge, so to speak, is U.K.-based GotWind, which over the last few years has released, among other products, a tent-mounted wind-powered generator and a kinetic dance charger (the harder you dance, the quicker the charge). At this year’s Glastonbury Music Festival, GotWind unleashed a prototype for thermoelectric wellies-rubber boots that source energy from body heat generated by walking; 12 hours of sloshing through puddles can store an hour of phone time-really.

“People loved the whole concept behind it,” says Dave Pain, managing director. “When they collapsed in their tents, they could plug their phones into their boots and be ready to go the next morning.” The company is in talks with a major shoe brand to produce a line of footwear that combines kinetic and thermoelectric energy to gather and store a charge throughout the day.

If you need further proof that the tyranny of the wall socket is coming to an end, how about this: In June, Apple filed a patent for a solar device that could render its next generation iPhones and iPads solar power–ready. At last, you can go camping and have your NASCAR, too.

At five-foot-three, ALYSSA GIACOBBE would happily pay for thermoelectric platform heels.

LIKE IT OR NOT, the 3-D revolution will be televised, whether via Blu-ray discs of Avatar, ESPN broadcasts on DirecTV or your PlayStation 3. New laptops from Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard are also going 3-D. And soon you’ll have the technology in the palm of your hand, in the form of the remarkable new Nintendo 3DS, a 3-D image–generating version of the Japanese gaming giant’s popular portable console, due in stores this year.

Unlike some TV-based three- dimensional experiences, which basically use 1950s-era technology, the 3DS is a modern wonder: small but stunning, with eye-popping depth of field. Best of all, you don’t even need special glasses to appreciate it.

One of the handheld’s most compelling features is a slider (similar to a volume control) that allows you to instantly adjust the level of 3-D, in case you’re feeling a little…out of your depth. But the 3DS does more than gaming. It can also take and display 3-D stills, thanks to three different built-in cameras, as well as show 3-D movies from Disney, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks.

That said, the image itself doesn’t look like much of an upgrade beyond those 3-D stills we’ve all known and loved since childhood (you know, the ones they gave out in Cracker Jack boxes). And as with other home 3-D offerings, the screen must be viewed straight on for the effect to be visible. Tilt the device in your hand even slightly—a common occurrence in the twitchfest that is gaming—and your entire perspective on the screen changes.

Hardcore thumb jockeys aren’t quite sold on the technology just yet. “Gaming at the highest level is about precision,” says Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO of Major League Gaming, a professional gaming league. “I think it’ll take a couple of interactive evolutions before 3-D games are solid enough for serious folks to play competitively.” Those serious folks are a tough audience. We all remember how they scoffed at Nintendo’s last great innovation, a little thing called the Wii, which remains the best-selling game console on the market.

Tech writer TOM SAMILJAN might just sit out this latest innovation and wait for 4-D.

IN THE BEGINNING, GPS devices were celebrated for making the world easier to navigate and eliminating the dangerous habit of driving with a 16-inch atlas. But as technology has evolved—these days parents use GPS shoes to keep track of their kids—automotive navigation systems have been forced to evolve with it, moving beyond the simple task of pointing drivers in the right direction and on to more complex things like computing traffic information, surfing the internet and speaking with funny voices (TomTom offers voice options from Darth Vader and Yoda to Homer Simpson, among others). But the new trend in navigation involves another gadget entirely: your cell phone.

According to a recent report by NPD Group’s Mobile Phone Track, four out of five cell phones sold in the fourth quarter of 2009 came with GPS capability. But there’s more to guiding drivers than maps—navigation devices must provide turn-by-turn directions, too. For a while, in-car GPS systems were the only ones able to do that. Then Google introduced free turn-by-turn technology on its popular Android devices last year, and now free turn-by-turn apps for the iPhone are popping up left and right.

“The market for incar GPS units is nearly saturated,” claims John Biggs, editor of gadget blog CrunchGear. But in-car GPS manufacturers aren’t hitting the brakes just yet. Quite the opposite, actually—they’re introducing smart new innovations that will take GPS to the next level. Companies such as Navigon and Garmin have introduced connected systems that pick up traffic and weather patterns via radio signal or “crowd sourcing,” a process by which drivers contribute reports about traffic and weather conditions that are then relayed to everyone else on the road, providing a smoother ride for all. Connected GPS units also allow users to browse the internet and search for deals like cheap gas.

Meanwhile, according to Tim Flight, the editor of GPSReview.net, other innovative third-party applications for the GPS—which will allow drivers to find and book hotel rooms, say, or automatically text friends an ETA— are just around the corner.

ALYSSA GIACOBBE would do anything Yoda tells her.

SEARCH PARTY

American cities with the most GPS-guided trips in 2009

IN THE MOBILE GENERATION’S coming of age, the ringtone was an early expression of self. A little dose of “Heya!” hinted at the buttoned-up businesswoman’s wild side. It was an easy icebreaker, a means of reinvention and, as the music industry will fondly recall, nearly a billion-dollar business.

For a while, ringtones were charming. But as technology advanced and the market grew, so did the opportunity for overkill—especially when one’s cell, left in a coat pocket, wound up serenading the office with the latest Black Eyed Peas megahit. In 2008, ringtone sales were down 24 percent from the previous year, when Americans shelled out $714 million for their phones to ring out the jams.

Can the ringtone be saved? Vringo, a New York–based start-up, is banking on it. Its plan is to bring social media, video and more targeted personalization to the business, which once made up 80 percent of the mobile phone music market. The killer innovation? Instead of downloading ringtones to your own phone, Vringo’s software allows you to choose the ring that will play on the phones you call. Better yet, you can send video as well—be it a clip downloaded from the internet or one you recorded yourself. There’s just one catch: Both phones must have the program installed.

Founded in 2006, Vringo hopes to become the Facebook or Twitter of ringtones by bringing the ever-popular social networking aspects of those sites to cell phones. “The ringtone died because no one was showing consumers what to do with it,” says Ross Neumann, Vringo’s content manager. “We make it possible to update your friends on how you’re feeling and give your call context. Are you happy? Sad? Just broken up with? It enriches the experience.”

And it allows you to better screen your calls. Has your ex changed his or her Vringo ringtone to “Baby Come Back”? Better let that go to voicemail.

Vringo is currently seeking partnerships with mobile carriers to offer the service through calling plans and already has several deals in place in the Middle East and Asia. Earlier this year it began the process of filing for an initial public offering, with hopes of raising up to $13.8 million. For now, the revenues are miniscule (just $36,000 in 2008 and 2009), and Vringo’s success is anything but certain. Still, Neumann, whose friends hear Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” when he calls, is not deterred. “People don’t use their phones to communicate their personalities,” he says. “We’re hoping to bring back that connection.”

ALYSSA GIACOBBE still thinks her Guns N’ Roses ringtone is charming.

LORDS OF THE RING

Ringtone sales were down in 2008, but they still brought in more than half a billion dollars from the world’s five largest markets.

TO MANY, BLUETOOTH conjures images of unwieldy earpieces and loud talkers. But when the technology was developed in the mid-’90s, it was meant to have a much broader application than hands-free chatting. Bluetooth was supposed to eliminate not only the wires connecting cell phones to ear buds but those passing between all the other electronic devices in our lives: computers, cameras, headphones, robotic dogs.

As those knots of plastic spaghetti under our desks plainly demonstrate, it never happened. The problem is Bluetooth’s slow transfer rate and limited range, which render it too weak for many applications. That’s left the world with some decent wireless keyboards and mice, but the vast majority of electronics have remained tethered to each other like huskies at the Iditarod. Until now.

Wi-Fi Direct, a new technology poised to replace both Bluetooth and wires once and for all, was recently announced by the Wi-fiAlliance—an Austin, Texas–based trade group that manages the wide world of wireless and includes such industry heavyweights as Intel, Apple and Microsoft. It will allow wireless devices to connect to and share data with one another without the use of a common server or network.

What’s more, Wi-Fi Direct will be easy to use, operating on a peer-to-peer basis and requiring only a simple software update. “What we’ve done is applied garden-variety Wi-Fi technology to enable two client devices to talk to one another, print a picture, share a video game or display something on a flat-screen TV,” says Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director at Wi-Fi Alliance, adding that only one device, whether it’s your PlayStation or your printer, needs the software. That device will be able to automatically detect and sync with others within a 300-foot range. Built-in security measures would prevent you from unwittingly sharing intimate photos of your honeymoon with the guy two laptops down at Starbucks.

In development for a year, Wi-Fi Direct should be everywhere by the middle of 2010. Tech bloggers, meanwhile, are already hailing it as the Bluetooth we never knew. “Farewell, Bluetooth,” wrote Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz. “It was not a pleasure to meet you.”

ALYSSA GIACOBBE isn’t wearing a wireless headset. She’s talking to herself.

TECH WATCH

More news from the cutting edge

DEALS.WOOT

This addition to prolific deal-a-day website Woot allows users to submit bargains, which are then voted on by other users. Think of it as a Digg for deals, and the best place to find a chicken-shaped slingshot for 96 cents. www.deals.woot.com

CAN’T YOU SEE I’M BUSY

Bosses don’t like their employees playing games, but everyone needs a break now and then. This devious site hides addictive time killers inside cleverly disguised spreadsheets. Who says “busy” means busy working? www.cantyouseeimbusy.com

WALK JOG RUN

Looking for a new route to walk, jog or run? This website and its iPhone app allow users to plot their own exercise paths in cities around the world and try out new ones plotted by others. Cyclists are welcome too. www.walkjogrun.net

IT’S BEEN TWO and a half years since Apple released the iPhone. That might not seem like a long time, but for true Mac heads, it’s an eternity. Steve Jobs had scarcely returned to work after dealing with health issues early this year when the anticipation went viral: Welcome back, dude. Now where’s the next game-changer?

Since then, the buzz has built to a fever pitch. Supposedly, Apple is set to release its newest gizmo this spring: a $700 tablet-like handheld device that will allow users to surf the web, watch video and play games from just about anywhere. Of course, that’s just an educated guess.

Tech bloggers began geeking out over this rumored doohickey months ago. Apple’s tablet “could be a Kindle killer,” enthused PC World. Tech site Gizmodo enlisted a chocolatier to create an edible version of the fantasy device. And in September, Wired.com mused that the gadget might save the print industry, though the author allowed that the whole thing might just be “a media-fabricated illusion.”

Anyone who’s fiddled with an iPhone can understand the excitement. The new device, which unlike digital readers is expected to replicate web layouts, as well as host video, audio and interactive features, “could reshape the book and magazine industries in the same way that the iPod and iPhone have radically changed music and phones,” says Jeremy Horwitz, editor of online magazine iLounge. “Tablets have failed so many times before, it’ll be interesting to see if the form can be made desirable,” says Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, adding that “screens sans keyboards” have been common in science fiction since Star Trek. (And hey, Roddenberry was right about those sliding doors…)

Just how long we’ll have to wait for the new gadget is hard to predict. Reports have cited a range of dates, from last September to mid-2010. According to insiders, the tablet’s been in the works since as early as 2003, but Jobs—who famously killed the Newton MessagePad back in the ’90s—is said to have wondered whether a tablet would actually be useful for much more than “surfing the web in the bathroom.” Apparently, he’s decided it will.

The buzz around the Apple tablet hasn’t deterred competitors from testing out their own models. Images of a Microsoft double-screened “booklet” device called Courier surfaced in September; Silicon Valley vet Michael Arrington’s industry blog group TechCrunch is cooking up something called the CrunchPad, and Barnes & Noble released its own e-reader last month. But others are no doubt waiting to see what Jobs has cooked up. “Just like with the iPhone,” says CrunchGear editor John Biggs, “once Apple shows the way, the rest will follow.”

ALYSSA GIACOBBE uses her boyfriend’s iPhone to locate Quiznos shops while on road trips.

TECH WATCH

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QUICKOFFICE

Among the iPhone’s limitations: lack of word processing and spreadsheet programs. Quickoffice rectifies that for $10, allowing you to work on both Word and Excel documents. Available at iTunes app store.

CRAIGSLY

A blessing for those hankering for a 1975 Schwinn but lacking the patience to monitor Craigslist, Craigsly sends email alerts each time your object of desire is listed. It won’t, however, help you haggle. www.craigsly.com

THIS IS PHOTOBOMB

To “photobomb” is to make a surprise appearance in a photograph without the knowledge of the subject, typically to riotous result. Giggle at entries, post your own. www.thisisphotobomb.com

PITY THE DISORGANIZED. Not only must they (fine, we) go through life—school, work, grocery shopping—in unrelenting befuddlement, they’re constantly being tempted by new gadgets that promise to deliver them from chaos. First came the Trapper Keeper, with its endless array of folders (so you can lose every scrap of homework at once?), then PDAs, with their damnably easy-to-misplace styli.

The latest product promising relief to the organizationally disadvantaged is a free piece of software called Evernote. While it’s still too early to tell if Evernote is going to put Post-It notes out of business, the early numbers look very promising—1.2 million users signed up for the service in its first year, a bigger debut than either Twitter or YouTube.

Evernote’s main function is allowing users to take notes in any form—by snapping pictures, recording audio, capturing web pages or typing words.

And unlike a fancy Moleskine notebook, you can’t lose it no matter how hard you try. Thanks to what’s known as cloud computing, every file sent to Evernote is uploaded to a “cloud,” essentially a server farm somewhere. From there, files are accessible on just about anything connected to the web—your home or office computer, your laptop, your cell (and eventually maybe your brainstem!). Say you’re browsing for recipes at work and find a good risotto. Clip it into Evernote and view it on your phone while you shop for ingredients. Back at home, pull it up on your laptop and start stirring.

But what really distinguishes Evernote is its uncanny ability to “read” text contained in images, which allows you to, say, take a shot of a business card and send it to Evernote, which will index the information and render it searchable.

The program’s early adopters are fanatical in their praise. But they’re the hard-core efficiency fetishists, the type who’ll cheerfully snap a photo of their car on their way into the Apple store, so Evernote’s geo-tagging feature can help them find it later on.

But what about the rest of us?

Those whose idea of organization is a 2005 day planner with the first three weeks of January filled out, or those who’ll eagerly sign up for the service and promptly forget the password?

Time to admit the obvious: We’re doomed.

New York writer TOM SAMILJAN actually thrives on chaos.

TECH WATCH

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TWEETING TOO HARD
A cavalcade of raw ego, this site collects the most obnoxious, pretentious and self-absorbed ‘tweets’ ever Twittered. Log on to read—or submit—examples, or to make sure you’re not already there. www.tweetingtoohard.com

RUNPEE
It’s the web’s first wiki-pee-dia. Taking the guesswork out of moviegoing, RunPee lists movies and their accompanying “PeeTimes,” the missable scenes that are perfect for a quick restroom run. www.runpee.com

FLIPNOTE STUDIO
Turn your brand new Nintendo DSi into a free pocket cartoon studio. Use the stylus to draw images, turn them into flip-book animations and send them to friends or upload them online. Free at www.nintendo.com/ds/dsiware