GPS + WiFi = no place to hide

location based services

Even if you manage to avoid the watchful eye of those GPS sats, your laptop or smartphone may soon be visible to the Wi Fi Positioning System .
The positioning system, mapped out by Boston-based Skyhook Wireless, is a vast national database of public and private Wi Fi access points (16.5 million them) in 2,500 U S cities, including Boston.
Now Skyhook is pairing WiFi Positioning System with GPS from SiRF Technology. The combined service will be available to the major wireless carriers this year.
The GPS portion will spot your device when the WiFi system is unavailable, as it is in remote areas. The WiFi Positioning System will locate your devices where GPS can't find you, indoors and between skyscrapers.
Companies will be able to use the network to locate Wi Fi equipped devices (including an increasing number of phones), if they are loaded with the appropriate software.
Say you are lost in the big city, and your intersection has no street signs. You can use Skyhook's software, for example, to triangulate your location in a second, and then find nearby points of interest. (PC users can download the software at skyhookwireless.com.)
You will also soon be able to use the Skyhook service on the iRiver W10 (pictured here), a multimedia device the company helped develop with digital maps company Navteq.
Video Games
Mama makes a chef My Wii are learning to whip up some good stuff for supper. Cooking Mama: Cook Off is Majesco Entertainment's first game for the Nintendo system that gets your whole body into the action.
Your challenge in Cook Off ( cookingmamacookoff.com) is to dice, chop, slice, and pour 300 ingredients in dozens of recipes as quickly -- and with as few errors -- as possible.
Cook Off (about $50) has the same anime Mama as Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS. Mama has adorable, sparkling bug eyes and a giant smile, as in the original. In the Wii version, she also has a high-pitched voice that blurts out reassuring (yet hard to understand) sounds. And she delivers priceless Japanese-to-English one-liners via text balloon, like this one: "Wii Remote VERY, VERY GOOD IN MY KITCHEN. I SHOW YOU."
The wireless Wii Remote is what makes this game more than a mental workout. It's your universal kitchen tool, for chopping up crab legs, sautéing shrimp, and whipping cream. The game works best when you are standing, as if in front of the island in your kitchen.
In multiplayer mode, you go shoulder-to-shoulder against your mates, battering cakes and grilling fish, just like in Hell's Kitchen. You can also submit your own family recipes at the Cook Off website.
Boomer Tech
A hearing aid for elder jocks closely resembles a Bluetooth earpieceMost hearing aids look like Play-Doh in your ear. But today's gr ay-haired iron men and women, who read GeezerJock magazine and whip their kids on the tennis court, are looking for something that looks sharp and can take a beating.
The Centra Active, from Siemens, is a rechargeable device resembling a Bluetooth headset. Siemens says many Americans take out their hearing aids when they exercise because they worry that sweat will damage the sensitive gadgets. But if you are road cyclist, that means you might be startled by a car sneaking up behind you. If you are a trail runner, you might miss the sound of a deer or coyote in the woods.
The Centra Active has a nanocoating that repels sweat and other moisture. And its electronic "windscreen" noise reduction and sound-smoothing systems should ensure the only whistling you hear is the wind through your bike helmet.
The Centra Active comes in various colors intended to match skin tones. I say bag those versions, and go for the black, white, or silver ones.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.