electronic devices

Novatel Wireless on Tuesday unveiled a line of what it calls Intelligent Mobile Hotspots, or MiFi, modems. With the MiFi line, Novatel hopes to drive a new ecosystem of broadband connectivity.

Novatel's solution works differently than existing router solutions that require an external broadband modem and serve only to provide connectivity. The MiFi line creates a personal cloud of high-speed Internet connectivity that can be shared between multiple users and Wi-Fi devices such as laptops, cameras, gaming devices, and multimedia players.

Three Asian electronics firms have agreed to plead guilty and pay $585 million in fines for conspiring to drive up the prices of LCD screens used in computers, TVs, cell phones and other electronic devices.

In a plea deal filed Wednesday, LG Display Co. Ltd., Sharp Corp., and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. agreed to cooperate in an antitrust investigation headed by the U.S. Justice Department. The plea agreement was filed in federal court in San Francisco.

LCDs, or liquid crystal display monitors, are the glass display screens on many laptop computers, cell phones and new TVs.

Advocacy groups and some legal experts told Congress that it was unreasonable for federal officials to search the laptops of United States citizens when they re-enter the country from traveling abroad.

Civil rights groups have said that certain ethnic groups have been selectively profiled in the searches by Border Patrol agents and customs officials, who have the authority to inspect all luggage and cargo brought into the country without obtaining warrants or having probable cause.

Solar technology. Love it. But let’s face it: who can carry around solar panels to power up all those everyday devices we carry around? We’ve seen solar beach bags, and out-of-this-world-priced pseudo-briefcases. But now there’s a product that is a bit more stylist, a bit more practical, and a lot cheaper.

Many employees -- frustrated that their companies are unwilling to pay for the laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices that they want on the road -- are spending their own money to get them.

Nearly 40 percent of professionals recently surveyed by researcher In-Stat paid for a laptop that they regularly carried. Cell phone users often picked up their bill. And company-provided personal digital assistants (PDAs), cameras and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are relatively rare, says the survey, released today.

The future of magazine publishing increasingly is appearing on a digital display -- not just a newsstand.

Advancements in software and hardware are making it easier for a growing faction of consumers -- including coveted younger readers called screen-agers -- to read their favorite publications on the Internet or download and read them later offline.

"It's not Jetsons. It's real," says Richard Maggiotto, CEO of Zinio, one of a dozen or so companies that specialize in creating digital editions of magazines and newspapers.

The European Union on Monday opened the way for air travelers to use mobile phones to talk, text or send e-mails on planes throughout Europe's airspace.

Midair service may be available as soon as this year on some airlines for passengers using European GSM technology. The United States and many other countries bar mobile devices in the air because of concern they could disrupt a plane's instruments.