OTHER TECH

The Garmin nuvi 350 is an MP3 player and GPS navigation system all rolled into one.

Newcomers to Sound & Vision's HDTV test reports are likely to come across some tech talk that might seem confusing or arcane at first. The truth is, video technology has become much more complex since TV started to go digital and high-def nearly a decade ago, and a side effect of all that increased picture resolution and clarity has been mounds of strange new jargon.

I'm hearing voices from outer space. Even stranger, I'm hearing different voices in different rooms. Susan Stamberg lectures me in the kitchen, Frank Sinatra croons at me in the bedroom, and Swollen Member is scratching in the den.

From the outset the most intriguing thing about the Apple iPhone hasn't been the phone so much as the interface: a high-resolution touchscreen on which your fingers do the talking: Tap an icon to select an application, spread them to enlarge the picture, slide your finger to move the cropped image into view, swipe the screen to reveal the next slide. It all feels so natural.

Flash memory's time has come. Previously popular only in low-capacity MP3 players and digital cameras, the iPod nano seems destined to take this solid-state medium to a new level.

When Apple introduced its lower-priced line of iMacs in 1998, it made a big step toward its goal of getting Macintosh computers in the hands of a wider range of users. The line has undergone a number of changes since then, with new iMacs sporting everything from psychedelic candy-color cases to powerful built-in video editing capabilities.