Have a Ball Dept: For those who hate looking for lost golf balls after a particularly bad slice (not us, of course!) there is RadarGolf, the first RFID solution designed to keep players hitting balls and not backing up the course hunting for them.

According to the Radar Golf website, “The system is comprised of an electronically ‘tagged’ golf ball and a handheld unit used to find the ball. When the golfer hits a shot that is difficult to locate, they pull out the handheld unit, turn it on, and point it in the direction of interest and begin walking toward their ball. By moving the unit from left to right, a pulsed audio tone (from the handheld unit) provides information on ball direction and distance. The golfer quickly walks in the direction of their ball and finds it within seconds, avoiding a delay in the game and the disruption to fellow golfers who come over to help look.”

We are not sure why wearing a big egg around your neck is high tech, or even appealing, but as far as innovation in the fairly dull MP3 player world, the EMP-Z II is definately the, er, bright egg in the bunch.

Not sure why a TV needs to be waterproof when you’re thinking of cutting the cord and going wireless, but apparently Casio is hoping you’ll sit poolside or right in the pool itself with its upcoming XFER XF-1000 WiFi TV. Bad note: only 640 x 480 resolution and 80211.b support.

Give me a g….

Determined to get the jump on Juniper, Ciso unleashed a new router, the CRS-1, that when tied together in a cluster can do 92Tbit/sec., or fast enought to transfer the entire US Library of Congress in 4.6 seconds. Sprint is planning to roll out live traffic on the platform in a few weeks.

Retro Tech Dept: Blending the ancient beauty of the radio tube with the high tech look of an analog/digital button-pushing dial-turning mad scientist console, Panasonic’s car stereo is definitely not your run of the mill car CD player. But you have to admit, it certainly keeps your attention.

We thought camera phones had peaked, but here is an interesting use for the technology. This month Semacode will release a system that will let camera phones turn bar codes into web addresses.

Does anyone remember the failed CueCat?

Apparently the author of Semacode does. Simon Woodside in an interview in Wired News reported that there are many uses for his technology. “Businesspeople could put Semacodes on their business cards to link to constantly updated contact information. Museums could tag exhibits with Semacodes to provide information in multiple languages. And yes, Woodside said, stores could mark their merchandise with Semacodes.”

Silent electric scooters are heading our way sooner than you may think. The “Metal Art Commuter” from Yamaha can be folded and then pushed along in the folded position. A switch activates the folding mechanism, and the whole thing is easy to pick up and go whenever you need to get out of Dodge. Many great shots and scooter abound here.

We always feared the “Do Not Call Registry”, thinking it was a front for identity theft, or at the least a quick way to hand over your number to telemarketers (Ok so we are a tad on the paranoid side), but it really does work. If you can’t take another annoying late night telemarket call, get your numbers on the list.