Word: iv
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...tunes, like Tommy Facenda's "High School U.S.A.," which had at least 28 different regional versions, each with a few dozen school names. Clark made records and, by not playing them, broke them. To get him to play their songs, singers made new versions of their 45s: George Hamilton IV turned "A Rose and a Baby Ruth" (covered, much later, by Marilyn Manson!) to "A Rose and a Candy Bar" so as not to annoy the show's candy sponsors. John Zacherle's horror-novelty song "Dinner With Drac" was toned down for Clark; a record was then issued with...
Before coming to the mall, I tried out the MA-IV at the Xybernaut headquarters. I surfed the Web, first checking out some Star Trek sites (it seemed the appropriate thing to do), then the soccer scores and my e-mail. I considered playing an online computer game, but then remembered that I'm lousy at those. So I sent a how-are-you message to my boss in Hong Kong. For the first 10 minutes I fumbled with the tiny keyboard and trackball. But soon I was able to write entire sentences with relative ease - about 10 words...
...this point, you're asking: What's the catch? Actually there are a couple. Problem No. 1 is that the MA-IV is no featherweight. All told, I'm carrying nearly 2 kg of paraphernalia on me: the heaviest bits are the CPU (900 g) and the lithium-ion battery pack (450 g). Being, ahem, somewhat heavyset myself, I scarcely feel the extra weight at first; but after 30 minutes my neck and shoulders are strained from wearing the 400-g headset. With time, practice and some gym work, I could probably get used to the load. Luckily...
Problem No. 2 is price. The current model costs between $5,000 and $6,000, far too much for a personal computer no matter how high the cool factor. The thing is, the MA-IV isn't meant to replace your trusty iMac: it is an industrial tool. Xybernaut sells these machines - a few hundred, thus far - to companies that have a large, widely dispersed maintenance staff. Bell Canada's workers, for instance, climb up poles and down manholes to fix phone lines and maintain highly sophisticated equipment. Rather than carry a bagful of printed manuals, workers strap...
...notion of wearables as a consumer product. "Why would you want to surf the Net or play a computer game while you walk around?" asks Schwartz, a genial 46-year-old who wears his skepticism lightly. "How would you survive crossing the street?" His argument against the MA-IV is that it simply takes a laptop computer and distributes its components around the body. The machine doesn't do anything that a laptop can't. He adds: "There are no compelling applications for wearable computers...