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Verizon Wireless plans international cell phone
By Staff and wire reports
Published March 1, 2004

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Verizon Wireless plans to begin selling this spring a cell phone that can be used around the world as well as in the United States.

The phone will have chips for two kinds of wireless network systems - the CDMA standard used by Verizon in America and the GSM standard used in most of the rest of the world. In most places, the GSM calls will be carried by Vodafone PLC, the British cell phone company that owns 45 percent of Verizon Wireless.

The phone is due out in April. Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Boyd Raney would not disclose the price or the phone's manufacturer.

She said the phone is designed for workers for international companies that "increasingly need and want and ask for a phone of this nature."

U.S. cellular carriers that employ the GSM standard, including Cingular, T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless, already offer phones usable worldwide. But Verizon Wireless would be the first to provide dual service on CDMA and GSM networks in one phone.

Sprint PCS, the other national CDMA carrier in the United States, plans a dual CDMA/GSM phone later this year.

Long-range remote controls on horizon
A set of low-cost devices to be introduced this spring can operate every audio and video component in the house - even from outdoors.

Companies such as Philips Electronics and Sony make inexpensive universal remotes designed to replace the array of devices that litter many a coffee table. But Scott Wellington, the marketing manager for Universal Remote Control, says the three models introduced by his company are the only ones in the $100-to-$200 range that can transmit radio frequency signals. Equipped with an optional $75 receiver, the MRF-100, the remotes can control TVs, CD players and other devices from as far as 150 feet, even from behind a closed door.

That may seem like a solution in search of a problem. But Wellington says it is not always convenient to go to another room to change a CD that is being piped through distant speakers.

The Universal Remote Control URC-300 ($200) has a liquid crystal display touch screen that can be customized to replace 15 other remotes.

That device and its siblings, the URC-100 ($100) and URC-200 ($150), are to reach electronics stores in April. They can store strings of programming commands that with the touch of one button will turn on the right appliance and select the proper input to play a DVD or CD or watch TV.

Each model comes with an instructional DVD, increasing the chances that today's couch potato will turn into tomorrow's patio potato.

Bay area seminar focuses on computer, online security

A free daylong seminar for consumers and businesses about computer and online security issues will be held twice in the bay area. Sponsored by Secure Florida, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Cybersecurity Institute, C-SAFE: Cyber Security Awareness for Everyone will cover a range of topics, including viruses, spam, fraud, identity theft and network protection.

It will be held March 30 at the FDLE office, 4211 N Lois Ave., Tampa, and April 1 at the St. Petersburg College Allstate Center on 34th Street S, St. Petersburg. Registration is required because space is limited. To sign up, go to www.secureflorida.org

Tips for "Degunking Windows"

The cheapest infusion of power to a Windows XP computer can now be had for a mere $24.99.

It's not a faster processor or more memory but a well-done book titled Degunking Windows, Peggy Rogers writes in the Miami Herald. While the book focuses on speeding up and troubleshooting Windows XP, many of its tips also apply to earlier Windows versions.

Degunking Windows, just published by Paraglyph Press (www.paraglyphpress.com) tells you why - and where - gunk piles up, often without the user's knowledge, and how to eradicate it.

It offers a bundle of guidelines that not only strip the useless stuff from your machine and buttress its weak areas but also teach you quite a bit about the operating system.

Talkback to Personal Tech

Comments or questions about tech news of the day can be posted for Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow at the Times Talkback site (www.sptimes.com/talkback)

- Compiled from staff and wire reports

[Last modified February 27, 2004, 11:23:35]

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