Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

The best and most popular portable electronics products don't work for long without them, but the general consumer sentiment toward AC adapters is evident in the terms of endearment such as "bricks" and "wall warts" given to them. They're referred to with even more colorful language when they're accidentally left behind on a trip or are otherwise unavailable when needed.

But if a startup GreenPlug has its way, future portable electronics products may not come with an AC adapter, much like many printers today don't come with a USB cable. With engineering talent that ran design for Apple's DC power systems for the iPod and the MagSafe connector, GreenPlug is taking on one of gadetry's holy grails – a universal connector that can work on practically any portable electronics device. GreenPlug would turn the frequently forgotten and mismatched AC adapter into an accessory ecosystem. The company envisions DC charging hubs that would be available in conference tables at the workplace and in tables and walls at coffee shops.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

The US smartphone market may continue to be dominated by mobile platforms from Apple, Microsoft, and RIM, but Linux has been creeping into ever more mobile devices in the last few years. Some Motorola RAZR 2 models have donned a Tux, Palm is looking to Linux to drive its next-generation consumer smartphones, and Android's backers hope to spread it to an even wider array of handsets. Linux is also driving many avant garde connected consumer electronics devices such as the Chumby, Nokia N810, Amazon Kindle, Dash Express, and whatever the fertile minds tinkering with Bug Labs' modules are envisioning,. Even the remote control that houses the user interface of Logitech's Squeezebox Duet is a Linux computer.

However, none of these products is intended for as flexible a range of uses as a notebook PC, where Linux is being tested as a tool to achieve lower price points on a new generation of low-cost but style-conscious ultraportables. ASUS set the pace with Xandros on the Eee PC, and HP has tapped Novell SuSE Linux for the 2133 Mini-Note, but whereas the Eee's positioning has been somewhat of a loose hybrid between an adult OLPC and the Nintendo Wii's culture of global inclusion, the HP Mini-Note has been strongly focused on reckless, immature students while acknowledging potential for senior executives that have been known to share their temperament.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

Last Switched On introduced the Slacker Portable, a device that is as noteworthy for great value in bringing a steady stream and great variety of free music -- including on-demand favorites from those with a premium subscription -- as it is for its design quirks.

None of these are as frustrating as the device's touch strip used to provide quicker access to on-screen selections. Unlike the touch strips on older Creative Zen models, it uses absolute positioning that activates the button at that part of the screen. Unfortunately, this means that stray touches can cause the interface to jump from screen to screen and even skip tracks. The Slacker team may have considered the touch strip a compromise for a device without a touch screen, but at some point realized that their implementation wasn't up to the task. Slacker turns the touch strip off by default, and it will need a major overhaul to prove useful in future players. Fortunately, the jog dial Slacker includes is almost as efficient.

Other controls fare better as they represent hardware counterparts. The device's left side has a Favorite button (which designates that a track be played more often) and a Ban button (that prevents it from being played again in the future); its right side has the Skip button, which Slacker sees as a key differentiator from satellite radio. Most station management tasks, such as creating a new station or designating which stations show up on the device, need to be done from the Slacker site or desktop application.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

The Slacker Portable is the proverbial elephant being inspected by blind men. One is the crop of portable MP3 players, to which the device's service represents free, fresh music on the go in exchange for user control of track selection. Another is the bevy of online internet music sites such as Pandora, Last.fm, Finetune and others, to which it represents the leap from the beb to portable entertainment. A third is the traditional consumer electronics industry for which it portends a connected future. And a fourth are XM and Sirius, which now appear on track to merge in part due to the kind of competition that the Slacker Portable will ultimately provide.

The Slacker Portable picks up where last year's promising Sansa Connect left off. While that device was billed primarily as an MP3 player that boasted tight integration with the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service (now shuttering), the Slacker Portable is labeled as a "personal radio". MP3 files can be loaded onto the device, but that feature is more of an afterthought.

The device comes in three capacities that are billed as storing a different number of stations, which are either genres preset by the internet radio service available at slacker.com, or customized for the user based on a particular artist. One nice touch is that a device ordered from Slacker comes pre-populated with any stations you have set up on the site.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

A recently unearthed patent filing shows Apple is thinking beyond its current living room video vending machine, the Apple TV. Among a number of new features, the design specifies how DVR information could be sent to a portable remote control similar to Apple's existing iPod and iPhone, taking integration among its products to a new level.

And it's not just working together for the sake of some superficial "better together" marketing angle. How many times have you heard friends discussing some great new show that you missed? With the capabilities Apple illustrates, one could perhaps call up the TV listings right from their iPhone and schedule to record the next episode. What's unknown is how Apple would transfer recorded DVR shows to an iPod or iPhone -- would recordings by synced through iTunes? And, if so, would they be tied to an authorized account to discourage internet redistribution?

In fact, while the addition of DVR features might raise questions about Apple retreating from selling TV shows, it would really reflect the reality of these show purchases being opportunistic (as well as perhaps serving as a tactic to bring NBC back to the bargaining table). Besides, DVR integration with the iTunes store could lead to more revenue opportunities. In the aforementioned scenario, the DVR could offer the opportunity to buy the episodes missed so far.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

As demonstrated by last year's purchases of map providers Navteq and Tele Atlas, companies are betting big on the future of location-based services. Knowing, processing, and integrating the location of people and things can be a valuable bridge between the digital and physical worlds, but today most of the activity is in the simple direction of cars from a location to a destination.

Zoombak offers a portable unit about the size of a Zippo lighter that integrates a GPS receiver and cellular radio that reports back on its location when queried. The company offers the unit in two packages -- one for use in vehicles and the other for use with dogs.

The receivers in both products are identical and the packages are distinguished by their included accessories: the one for pets includes a collar attachment. Unlike that of one competitor, PocketFinder, the Zoombak receiver is not waterproof, but the company offers tips on how to make it better withstand the elements.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

When Sony included a DVD drive on its PlayStation 2, it was clear which technology was helping sell which product. After just avoiding being a victim of a format war itself, DVD was on its way to enticing consumers with many of the same benefits that had turned the compact disc into a huge success -- high-fidelity, portability, durability and the end of rewinding. The PS2 may well have been a success without DVD, but DVD did not need the PS2.

For the PlayStation 3, the issue was a lot murkier. While US sales of standalone -- that is to say, excluding PS3 -- players for Blu-ray and HD DVD were almost dead even in 2007, Blu-ray titles consistently outsold HD DVD titles. Part of this may have been due to Toshiba's heavy bundling of titles with HD DVD players, but PlayStation 3 owners seem to have bought Blu-ray movies in droves. While Sony consistently promoted Blu-ray's game and movie capacity as a PS3 selling point, the PS3 -- specifically its owners' embrace of Blu-ray movies -- was the major consumer factor in swinging the fate of the high-definition video disc for Blu-ray.

Yet the fight was fought at least as much by corporations as by consumers. Out of the gate, Blu-ray had more studio support and a Murderers' Row of consumer electronics companies -- Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Philips, LG, Sharp, and Pioneer -- backing the format. Not only did these companies account for the vast majority of DVD player sales in the US, they also accounted for most of the large-screen TVs, paving the way for bundles and other promotions that are sure to accelerate now that there is more security in buying Blu-ray.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

As discussed in last week's Switched On, the PopCatcher Ripper scours FM radio stations to separate the music from the mumble and transfer songs to flash drives, memory cards and several brands of MP3 players. Using the product, one can harvest hundreds of megabytes of music without any service or song acquisition fees or touching a PC.

However, there are some limitations. First, while songs are captured as 192 kbps MP3 files, captured song quality will be less than that of purchased or CD-ripped tracks due to the limitations of FM radio. Furthermore, files are named according to the order in which they were captured. There is no automatic song identification, nor does the company provide an Internet-based song identification service for captured tracks. Radio stations are inserted for the album title field. Because of these analog disadvantages, developing a version of the PopCatcher technology based on HD Radio would be a natural future improvement.

The beginnings and ends of songs will also often be a bit clipped although this generally wasn't as much of a disadvantage as anticipated. Also, because there is no programming guide or way to set manual recording times, you cannot use it to record talk-radio programs, one of the key applications of the PoGo Products' RadioYourWay devices.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

Before MP3 players, CD burning and even the Mini-Disc, there was the analog mix tape. Patient proto-playlist creators would wait as a needle hovered over vinyl, descending into a groove that would cue the synchronized pressing of 'Record" and "Play" buttons. The truly determined would stage vigils by a cassette-recording boombox, hoping to catch a telltale chord or DJ introduction to songs now offered on "FM gold" compilations.

Terrestrial radio recording has faded in the post-CD era. The original Napster established the PC as the epicenter of digital music acquisition. Portable players -- from last year's Sansa Connect to Archos Generation 5 players to the just-released Slacker Portable -- have only begun to break free from the PC's tether. Even these rely on broadband and WiFi for Internet service-based music discovery, making them pricey and relatively complex "poor man's" alternatives.

But new hope for the thrifty and technophobic is on its way from a Swedish company called PopCatcher. The PopCatcher Ripper records songs from FM radio and transfers them to an MP3 player. The product is no homage to the notorious Jack the Ripper, a depraved murderer who disemboweled destitute victims peddling sex, although that description approximates how the content industry characterizes entertainment pirates.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

Apple TV was overwhelmed by the introduction of the iPhone at the Macworld 2007 keynote, but the little set-top device has been the recipient of a complete makeover in 2008. The rich visual menus of the first release are now revealed only after traversing a textual navigation grid that looks austere for an Apple product and downright grim for a TV-based user interface. "Take Two" as it is being called, upgrades Apple TV's software and positioning, but the product will still struggle to break out of its niche in the mad rush to free movies from their disc detainment.

The first iteration of the Apple appliance was, like many products before it, focused on sending content from the PC to the television. Apple included a fast 802.11n receiver and even a hard drive for ensuring content availability when the network was offline, and the product's media serving was tied to its popular iTunes software. But ultimately, Apple learned that the music and photos that populate consumers' hard disks have a hard time competing for attention with premium Hollywood television. This curse of familiarity is especially insidious when it comes to video that demands constant replenishment.

As Steve Jobs noted during his Macworld keynote, Apple now "gets" that video is what consumers want on their TVs. And Apple TV should deliver. In fact, the movie rental and purchase proposition is now very similar to that of the device and service offered by Vudu, Inc., which has a head start on content but a higher price and nowhere near Apple's brand or distribution power. Apple is also offering podcasts, YouTube and its original ability to access personal content from PCs.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.
The MacBook Air is the third member of Apple's notebook line and weighs only three pounds while it barely penetrates the third dimension. Nonetheless, Apple is again banking that human factors -- particularly that bigger screens and keyboards are better -- will allow the blade-like profile of the world's thinnest notebook to slice into the traditionally slim market for ultra-portable notebooks.

The Air was certainly the show-stealer at this year's Macworld keynote. While some Mac fans were hoping for a pocket-sized productivity product, the best hope for that in the near term are third-party solutions that can turn an iPhone or iPod touch into such a device. Furthermore, Apple remains one of the few major notebook companies to not offer a product with integrated 3G wireless connectivity. While most of these products have been aimed at business users, the premium positioning of the MacBook Air should have exceptional appeal to these potential customers.

While the computer may fit in an interoffice envelope, the company clearly did not mail the effort in. As usual, Apple has asked much of its suppliers and some of its users in order to achieve stunning results. The Intel chip die package that powers the MacBook Air is 60 percent smaller than those used in other notebooks. For users, there are also compromises, including a bare minimum of ports that exclude wired Ethernet and FireWire. The latter has been a Mac hallmark since the days of the first iMac, but with camcorders now rapidly moving to USB and flash cards, the case for its inclusion where space is at a premium is not as strong as it once was.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

The last Switched On presented the Switchie awards for portable products. This special edition of Switched On highlights the award winners for home products.

The "Hi-Def Heaven" and the Home Product of the Year goes to the TiVo HD. It's not so much that TiVo's DVR functionality has advanced to become that much more compelling than those of cable-supplied DVRs. However, TiVo has evolved into a jack-of-all-trades that integrates traditional programming sources with Internet content and even homebrew applications when it has access to a PC. TiVo also wins points for enabling the Lifetime Subscription Transfer option, which unfortunately does not enable the reincarnated to take TiVo into their next lifetime.

The "Great Googoloplex" award goes to Vudu Labs' Vudu for a device that virtually obsoletes the video rental store, offering thousands of movies with instant access and an expedient way to navigate around them. Honorable mentions in the broadband set-top box category go to Apple TV and the Netgear EVA8000 -- the former for integrating a sync-and-store process that removes the vagaries of network performance and the latter for its support of high-definition content and Internet services.

The "Blue in the Face" award goes to Samsung for the Samsung BP-U5000 dual format Blu-ray and HD-DVD player for its attempt at reconciling the high-def disc format wars. The player's embrace of both camps' interactivity standards and lower introductory price has lent strength to the argument that two formats are sustainable.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

The consumer technology landscape shifted somewhat in 2007. Companies that were once major forces, including Gateway and Thomson Consumer Electronics, better known to most Americans as RCA, were acquired as their fortunes declined. MVNOs such as Amp'd and Disney Mobile closed their doors as did PC retailer CompUSA. Palm, forced to kill its "third platform" of Foleo, was saved from a similar fate by an influx of capital. Delivering alternative programming into homes proved too challenging for set-top boxes from Akimbo and MovieBeam. And there were changings of the guard at Dell, Sprint, AT&T, Motorola and Logitech, to name a few.

However, amidst all this tumult, a number of products were released that deserve recognition. In many industries, there is a defining award that recognizes excellence. Today, though, these products will have to settle for a Switchie, the third annual Saluting Wares Improving Technology's Contribution to Humanity award.

The "The Right MultiTouch" and Product of the Year Award goes to the Apple iPhone. While it was difficult to find news about this obscure device in 2007, the iPhone's slick user interface, polished applications and appealing interface navigation methods outweighed its EDGE network limitations and touch-screen keyboard compromises. With a sleek design taken for granted in Apple products, the iPhone was noteworthy for straddling the traditionally fragmented worlds of smartphones and fashion phones. The announced arrival of an SDK next year offers tantalizing possibilities.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

[We have a special treat today -- our Ross Rubin has penned yet another amazing poem, for which we'd officially like to nominate him as Geek Poet Laureate. They have one of those, right? If you enjoyed this, please also check out The Slight Before Christmas, Don't Buy This Stuff, and our all time favorite piece: The Maven, -Ed.]

The Arpus in ARPUville liked gadgets a lot
But a grouch who lived close to ARPUville did not.
How the grouch hated gadgets. He hoped they'd all break.
Even counterfeit knockoffs that kept it real fake.
(And those knockoffs are wrong. Not a soul who is wise'll
Knock off the fine writings of Theodor Geisel.)

Now perhaps it was DRM transfer futility
Or the wonky AC from his local utility
Or the terrible manuals barely grammatical
Or the versions of standards that were incompatible
Or the feature creep that took away from their essence
Or the rapid revamping and quick obsolescence
Or the tech support hotlines that spoke incoherence
Or the wireless networks slowed by interference
Or the UIs that frustrated each simple deed
Or the small LCDs that were so hard to read
But for whatever reasons that made him demonic
The grouch hated all that was made electronic.

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment.

In a year in which the OLPC foundation turned attention on its child-optimized OLPC stateside and Palm's backbone curved as it contracted Foleosis, an unlikely ultraportable rose to capture enthusiast praise.

Arriving late and at twice its original touted price of $199, the Asus Eee has succeeded in the muscle-driven PC market with modest screen size, processor, RAM and storage specifications and solid (but not outstanding) battery life. Its name and design philosophy take unabashed cues from Nintendo's Wii. And like its inspiration, it's been a budget-conscious blockbuster.

Reuters reports that Asus is now shipping 20,000 of the 2 lb. mobile computing quasi-appliances every month. The Taiwanese manufacturer has been so encouraged that it has raised its global forecast to five million Eees by the end of 2008 as it aims at becoming the fifth largest notebook PC company by 2010. Those are the kind of numbers that could make the top four take notice, setting off a frenzy of melodramatic pound-shedding to rival The Biggest Loser.