Your Technology

By Anita Hamilton

Manners in the Digital Age

Don't you hate it when someone at the next table in a restaurant thinks it's cool to yammer away on his cell phone? Well, there's a new book out to set him straight: Wireless Etiquette by Peter Laufer ($14.50 from Omnipoint, available at branden.com) Maybe you can copy a few appropriate pages for your briefcase and pass them out to offenders.

Better than Books on Tape

Busy, literate people have long employed audio books to get the most out of their drive time. In January they can go digital, searching an online archive (at audible.com of more than 16,000 hours of audio books, radio broadcasts, lectures and daily summaries of the Wall Street Journal, then downloading selections to the MobilePlayer-PLUS from Audible in Wayne, N.J. The $300 pocket-size device comes with headphones and holds eight hours of content.

The Palm III's New Trick

Turns out the popular Palm III handheld computer is even handier than people realized. Last week maker 3Com confirmed rumors that a free program that lets the unit double as a remote control for TVs can also be used by thieves to unlock car doors equipped with infrared remote locking systems. But only a few cars (including some Mercedes-Benz) use such a system, and because a thief must first copy the code from the remote sold with the car, 3Com declared such break-ins "nearly impossible."

--By Anita Hamilton