Walmart, retail giant and arguably the Store for the Common Man, is making a push to be a technology leader as well.  At least, when it comes to laptops and desktops.  While other retailers are floundering in the sea of the depressed economy, Walmart continues to post profits.  Everyone is looking for a deal, everyone is looking to squeeze all they can out of what few dollars they have.  And kids are going back to school in a few short weeks, requiring more and more electronics.

And that doesn’t mean we have to buy our kids netbooks.  Not when you can get an HP laptop, running Windows Vista with 3 gigabytes of memory and a 160-gigabyte hard drive, for just $298.  Or for $548, you can pick up an Acer-made Vista laptop with an eight-hour battery, 3 gigabytes of memory and a 320-gigabyte hard drive.

At those prices, every Common Man (and Woman and Child) can have a laptop of their own.

The naysayers believe Walmart cannot provide what people are looking for – expert sales help and assistance after the sale.  But when you can get a laptop for $400 or less, having “expert” sales help is not necessarily a key to a purchase.  The people needing the help will still go to electronics stores for their laptop and desktop purchases, while more tech-savvy and economically-minded individuals will be hitting the local Walmart for laptops for their kids and even themselves.  And these days, more and more people are becoming tech-savvy or know someone who is who can recommend an item for them.  I know, I’m asked all the time what I recommend and where to go.  I’ll likely be adding Walmart to my list of places to pick up discount laptops that will do the job just fine.

Guilty.  I am definitely guilty.  I’ve done it before, I might do it again.  And I know lots of other people that do it too.

I’ve used my cell phone in the car while driving.  I’ve used it to talk, and I’ve used it to text.  More than once.  And I think I’m incredibly lucky not to have gotten killed (or killed someone else) by doing so.  In the last two or three months, I’ve made a definite effort toward not using my phone in the car unless I’m parked somewhere.  I’ve not stopped entirely, but I’ve reduced it considerably.  And I think I”m ready to give it up entirely, for my own safety and the safety of others on the road.

Distracted driving is distracted driving.  Talking on a cell phone, even hands-free, is distracting.  You are concentrating on the conversation, not the road.  You may think you’re concentrating on the road, the drivers around you, and that deer jumping across the lane in front of you, but the truth is, your brain puts the conversation first, which means the majority of your attention is there.  You’re driving a 3- 4- or 5-thousand-pound vehicle, a deadly weapon, and getting distracted by a phone call.  Any rational person can think this through, obviously, but how many of us, when that phone rings, can’t help but reach over and grab that phone and say hello?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has recently released studies that indicate that hands-free is no less dangerous than holding the phone up to your ear.  Plenty of stories have been in the news lately about cell phone accidents involving cars, commuter trains, buses, and even people walking down the sidewalk.

Harvard psychiatry professor John Hatey, in his research on attention, posits that the use of electronic devices like cell phones and MP3 players gives you a “dopamine squirt,” giving you a sense of well-being and connectedness that is addictive, almost drug-like.  No wonder we reach for that phone when it rings, even when it isn’t the right time to do so!

I hate to think that we need to legislate ourselves out of this, but if we can’t be responsible enough to put that thing away, then maybe that will end up being the only answer.

*Props to anyone who got the title reference to Star Wars.

The announced-with-much-hype Plastic Logic eBook reader looks like it is finally going to be available.  First announced over a year ago, the actual product has been hard to find in the wild, and so no one really knows if this is a legitimate contender for the eBook market.

I’ll wager that it is, and hope to get my hands on one soon.  The Plastic Logic eBook reader features something no one else in the market today can:  a reading space of nearly 8.5 x 11 inches!  This outdoes the Kindle DX by nearly half, and will allow true real-time navigation of documents and periodicals.  This, in my mind, has been one of the failings of the Kindle, and other ebook readers.  If you’re reading a novel or simple text, the Kindle is great.  I have one and love it for such things.  But if you need to read something with graphics, side-bars, footnotes, and other details, the Kindle, even in its DX form, just does not cut it.  The Plastic Logic model will handle these things with ease.

As an added bonus, the Plastic Logic reader is extremely lightweight while being extremely sturdy, since the entire device, including the reading screen, are made of plastic.  While I wouldn’t call the Kindle “heavy,” my DX does take some arm-strength energy to hold onto for more than a few minutes.

Plastic Logic has teamed up with Barnes and Noble and will be the recommended eBook reader for their newly-opened eBook store.  They have also teamed up with AT&T’s wireless network for speedy downloading.  Those using the device will be able to to use it on existing AT&T WiFi hotspots as well.  No price for the product, or the download service, has yet been announced.