Gadgets

Video game modifications, or mods, offer creative gamers a way to bring their own genius to preexisting video games. They can be used to create original characters or entirely new levels and scenarios, which can then be shared over the Internet with other gamers. Fortunately, you don't have to be an expert computer programmer to create your own mod. A variety of programs and tutorials are available on the Internet to help you get started. Because of its popularity, most of the available tools apply specifically to the game Half-Life, created by Valve Software.

"I'm Jewish," a friend told F. J. van Wingerde, "but I'd convert to Christianity for one of those." She was joking about Fujitsu's Hello Kitty laptop—the kitschiest incarnation ever of the world's kitschiest cat. Van Wingerde, a software engineer at Nokia, decided to play a joke on his friend. With spray paint, decals, a yo-yo, and a feather boa, he and his pal created an even more garish laptop, which they sent to her.

If you're like Patrick Rael, you not only dream of a world populated by androids, you dream of building them yourself. Rael can't tell you how to do that, but if you have a few hundred bucks and a couple of Web cams, he can teach you to build R. Maxa robot Web cam head that blinks, pivots, and gazes toward that future of your dreams.

Waiting for the DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM format wars to end before buying a DVD recorder? Things will get worse before they get better, as blue-laser DVD recorders hit the market over the next two years.


The so-called Blu-Ray recorders use a 405-nanometer blue laser to record 13 hours of TV-or 2 hours of HDTV-onto a 27-gigabyte disc. The recorders currently on the market use a red laser, which has a longer wavelength and thus packs only 4.7GB of data onto each disc.

Color cellphone displays, arriving this summer, are spawning some fairly sophisticated (for the tiny screen size) games as well. You'll find old classics, such as Sega's Monaco GP, along with new releases like EA Sports 2002 FIFA World Cup, Sega's Monkey Ball, and Cybiko's CyRace (shown). Some games, including Jamdat Bowling, use the phone's vibration mode to provide tactile feedback. You can even play over a wireless network: AT&T Wireless offers puzzles, virtual pets, and head-to-head combat games, and Sprint PCS will launch its high-speed service with several titles this summer.

It's travel surfing made simple: New high-speed data plans, which began rolling out this spring from the major wireless providers, turn your cellphone into a modem, enabling you to get e-mail or surf the Web from anywhere at speeds of about 40Kbps. You can either connect via a laptop, or use your cellphone's color display. Picking the provider that's right for

The Olympia Soundbug can turn most smooth, flat surfaces into a speaker. The key: When a magnetic field is applied, a smart military material called Terfenol-D creates vibrations to generate sound. Its tinny audio isn't anywhere near stereo-or even boombox-and it doesn't work
on hard-to-grip wooden surfaces. Price: $50.

www.soundbug-us.com

Black & Decker's 9.6-volt DustBuster Cordless Floor Vac ($65) is actually three vacuums in one, converting from an upright to a full-size hand vac to a DustBuster. Meanwhile, put Dirt Devil's Power Flex Stick Vac ($50) into a corner and its rectangular nozzle retracts into a triangle to get at otherwise impossible-to-reach grime.


www.blackanddecker.com
and
www.dirtdevil.com

The iGlassware prototype senses when it's almost empty and signals for a refill. Working like a capacitor, the glass's sides are the conductive plates and your beverage the insulator. As the glass nears empty, a microchip sends a wireless alert, along with the glass's unique ID, to the wait staff.

www.merl.com

By shifting the angle of the interior rear-projection system, Mitsubishi has cut the size of its 42-inch widescreen HD-ready TV
by 15 percent. Bypassing expensive LCD, DLP, and plasma technologies, Mitsubishi used CRTs, standing them vertically instead of at an angle in its WS-42311 model. The approach creates a svelte 39- by 25- by 31-inch form. Price: $2,199.

www.mitsubishi.com

We love new tech, but it takes a lot to make two PopSci staffers say "Cool!" in unison. That's what happened when Amichai Turm, chief technology officer at Israel-based VKB Ltd., fired up his company's prototype keyboard. The wee 1.4- by 1.4- by 2.6-inch device isn't a keyboard at all, but a small projector that transmits a full QWERTY display onto the surface in front of you. Touch a letter or number, and you hear a comforting clicking sound as your PDA or cellphone registers the input. In our informal tests, the device made surprisingly few errors.

U.S. cellphones are pocket-protector chic compared with what you can buy in Europe and Asia. The only good news is this: The design gap is narrowing, thanks to Europe-friendly GSM network proliferation here in the United States (AT&T, Cingular, and VoiceStream), and Sprint PCS's and Verizon's continuing rollout
of Asia-friendly CDMA third-generation networks.

Half the fun is getting there? Please. If you fly frequently, you know all about long security lines, delayed flights, and no room in the overhead bin. Driving isn't any better, especially this time of year (you know it as summer; most states know it as construction season). We wish we could say this special section will cure all your travel ills. It won't. But we do promise this: The products and services you see here will make your travels more convenient, more productive, and more fun.

Finally, all your dirty dishes fit in one dishwasher—including that broiler pan. Maytag's JetClean II has a third dish rack, located closest to the pump for high water pressure. All are vertically adjustable. There are also four washer arms. Price: $599.

Don't let the size (26 by 11.3 by 7.5 inches) of Sony's CMT-LTHD micro audio system fool you. You can stuff 300 CDs' worth of music into its integrated hard drive, a first for micro systems. Just pop

in a CD and rip songs directly to the hard drive for storage. Available in July for approximately $1,000.


www.sony.com