The Gadgets Page

Quick, what do the following gadgets have in common?

• Apple’s Mac Mini, iPod, and iPhone
• Sony’s Playstation II and Playstation III
• Nintendo’s Wii
• Microsoft’s XBox 360
• Amazon’s Kindle
• Hewlett Packard’s Mysterious Black Box

If you answered that they’re all manufactured by the same company, you’re right. FoxConn is Taiwan’s largest private company and China’s largest exporter. They produce all sorts of high-tech gadgets as an original equipment manufacturer.

Along with the ones I mentioned above, they make various computer parts for Intel, HP, and Dell, and countless cellular phones. While most of their manufacturing is done in China, they also have facilities all over the world, including several in the US.

It’s hard to find out detailed information about Foxconn. Their web site is a bit sketchy on specifics, and they rarely make the news in the US. The last time anyone heard of them in US tech news was when Apple dealt with some labor issues at their factory. But they seem to have a huge impact on the tech industry.

While they seem to do a fine job—I have no complaints about how my iPhone, iPods, and game consoles were assembled—it’s amusing to imagine iPods and all three major game consoles being made in the same company’s factories.

Once again, a group of concerned citizens are trying to save us from the evils of video games. This time, they are attacking Bully: Scholarship Edition.

• globeandmail.com: Teachers demand ban on bullying video game

The biggest problem I have with this game is that it’s not realistic enough. Surviving the school years is a difficult task, yet this group thinks that telling the truth about our school years isn’t appropriate.

Bully: Scholarship Edition features a shaven-headed teenager who adjusts to life at a new boarding school by harassing others, which the organizations say glorifies bullying. The abuse includes dunking pupils’ heads in toilets, photographing them naked and physically assaulting them. Teachers are also targeted.

“We’re asking retailers to be responsible,” Emily Noble, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, said yesterday. “Yes, they can sell it and make a buck out of this, but is this the kind of marketing that they want to be [doing], selling games that glorify violence?”

Mike and I were looking at this game at the game store the other day. I flipped through the guidebook showing me how to master the art of chemistry in order to create stink bombs and itching powder.

“I wish they made a girl version of this,” I said, “Then I would finally learn how to deal with girl bullies.”

Mike replied without missing a beat, “Too violent.”

And he was right. Games like this help us deal with bullies. They don’t teach us how to be bullies just like learning the exact buttons to push doesn’t teach us how to make itching powder. Just for once I would like a group of concerned citizens to actually PLAY the game before they protest it.

Hello everyone, I’m Thom Allen, and this is my first post on The Gadgets Page. Let’s dig right in.

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to put my hands on the Asus EeePC, which is a small mini style notebook computer. Thanks to Clint Savage for bringing it to a local geek gathering (CodeAway), and giving me a chance to see how it works. For a computer this small, limited storage and screen real estate, it worked quiet well. Linux is the default operating system on this PC, and it’s brilliant. Small footprint and minimal hardware requirements make Linux the perfect OS choice for a machine of this type.

Pros

1. Very portable. The small footprint makes it easy to throw into a briefcase or purse.
2. Uses solid state memory and storage. Adding a Secure Digital (SD) card to the device expands its storage capabilities.
3. Runs video and audio with little or problems.
4. Has USB ports for external devices. Devices connected to the EeePC would depend on available Linux drivers.

Cons

1. Small keyboard. If you have big hands like mine, this could be an issue—I tend to wonder on the keyboard and press the wrong key.
2. Solid State memory. I know I said this was a pro, but it’s also a con. Solid State technology means a finite amount of storage on the main system board. This means you can’t run down to your local PC shop and get an upgraded hard drive.
3. Small screen. Again, depending on your use of the machine, a small screen can make reading some text or viewing some videos difficult.

I highly recommend this PC. It’s very solid, and I’ve spoken to several people who have this machine and they tell me it has worked quite well. The price is generally low, compared to my T-Mobile MDA, which I paid more for than you can buy the EeePC. This makes it a great bargain in my opinion.

Last week I co-hosted a quick show with Twitter user acomputerpro where he compared the EeePC to the CloudBook. Watch it here. Next time I’ll give my two cents on the CloudBook.

My father purchased a new computer from Hewlett Packard‘s direct sales website. Upon opening the box, he found one component he wasn’t expecting: A black box, about 1″ by 5″ by 5″, with an HP logo on it. It had three unlabeled coax connectors, and included no instructions. Also included was a 3-connector cable that matched the connectors on the black box, and a card inside the computer with matching connectors.

Upon finding the black box, he tried to find out what it was using HP’s website, but it is unmentioned and unpictured. We also looked at the site of Foxconn, who manufactured the device, and found nothing. Amusingly, an HP technical support representative reached on the phone was also unable to explain what the device might be.

He tried hooking the black box up to the computer to see if it would give us any clues. Nothing happened.

We spent a while googling potential answers: was it a speaker? Some kind of storage device? A power transformer or conditioner? A psychological test by HP to see if people would hook up any strange device they shipped?

Finally, fellow Gadgets Page writer Matt Strebe provided the answer: Apparently it’s a MIMO Antenna. MIMO (multiple-in, multiple-out) is a new type of antenna used with the new 802.11n Wifi standard. It uses multiple antennas to improve communication. In this case, there are apparently three antennas in one black box, hence the three wires.

• Here’s another example of a MIMO antenna made by ASUS. This time the three antennas are more obvious.

So apparently HP was concerned enough about helping customers join Wifi networks that they included an external antenna… but not concerned enough to include any sort of instructions. Or to mention it on their website. Or to tell their tech support people about it.

At any rate, if you’ve found yourself with a Mysterious Black Box, go ahead and hook it up if you plan on connecting your computer to a wireless network. (No, it won’t work as a hub—it’s just for connecting to an existing network.)

Laura’s response to all of this confusion: “That’s why he should have bought a Mac.”