Crank Up Some Light And Record Yourself Grunting
by Thomas S. Roche
Published July 30, 1999 in Scope

For the ultimate in disaster preparedness, you need to be able to create your own power. The Freeplay Self Powered Lantern lets you do just that, with a crank you turn for a while -- giving you up to five minutes of light whenever you need it, without batteries. The Freeplay Lantern can also be charged with a 12-volt adapter for two hours worth of light.

See also...
... by Thomas S. Roche
... in the Scope section
... from July 30, 1999

Tired of hitting "rewind" as you transcribe that business meeting? Olympus recently introduced their D1000 Digital Recorder. Comparable in price to Sony's digital recorders, it comes with an interface which transcribes your words into something vaguely resembling English using IBM's ViaVoice software. For laughs, try playing a Stones song into the D1000 -- "Honky Tonk Women," maybe?

Thomas S. Roche is a staff writer at GettingIt.