Your pills are calling you
Boomer Tech
Feeling a little off this morning, like something's missing? Perhaps in your rush to make your morning meeting you skipped your daily dose of Claritin, Lipitor, Zeneca, or Zoloft.
Now imagine that your pill bottles were smart enough to ring your cellphone and say, ''Hey bonehead, you forgot me!"
Acton-based Clinical Technology Advisors (clintechadvisors.com) is offering a solution for absent-minded outpatients, the SIMpill bottle. It could prove a lifesaver for epileptics, organ transplant recipients, and those suffering from bipolar disorder.
The SIMpill, which costs about a buck a day to use, could also prod your curmudgeonly pops to comply with his cholesterol-lowering drug regimen, or tattle on your teen if he is avoiding his ADHD meds.
The SIMpill bottle cap sensor detects whether the bottle has been opened within a defined period of time. When the bottle is opened, its built-in cellphone mechanism sends a message to a central server, which records that you've taken your pill.
But if you do not take the cap off the SIMpill bottle by the end of the morning, for example, the server sends a text message to your phone (or to your more conscientious partner's or caregiver's phone, for that matter).
The text messages sent to your phone become more frequent as the time since your last dose increases.
Clinical Technology Advisors this year will provide SIMpill bottles for a Partners Telemedicine research study, in which doctors will test whether the bottles can improve medication compliance among patients with hypertension.
Last-minute Valentine
Oh, you sexy Bean!
If you really want to keep your sweetheart in style, forget the oh-so-bland rectangular Nano, and surprise her with a kidney-shaped Walkman Bean MP3 player instead. The fashion designer Luella Bartley this year is bringing a 1940s retro look to her runway rags and the Bean and Sony Ericsson Walkman phones.
In her sequined black skirt and waist jacket, and ''licorice black" Luella Bean, your gal will look as if she just stepped out of ''Blade Runner."
The Luella Bean also comes in coconut white, tropical ice blue, and cotton candy pink -- the colors formerly known as white, blue, and pink.
Bartley has created tattoo designs for the Walkman phones. One is a pink skull and crossbones against a muddy green; others feature anchors and stars, seahorses, and the name Luella.
The insides of the Bean and the Walkman phones are the same. The Bean has a pop-up USB jack for charging and transferring music. The Walkman phone supports music playback and has a camera for capturing still and moving images.
Audio
Nano cans for those who are not self-conscious
If you don't mind looking like a treasure hunter who's lost his metal detector, check out the Macally (macally.com) mTune-N. One of the headphones' cans has a dock that holds your wee Nano in place.
The mTune-N is a cordless headset with controls for the Nano on the outside of theNano can/dock.
That's good for klutzes like me who are always catching their cords on zippers and doorknobs.
The mTune-N's Nano control buttons mean you don't have to take the player out to adjust your settings. But, of course, you'll have to turn the headphones off if you want to see what's happening on the Nano's display.
Generally, I like cans more than the buds that come with most MP3 players. The mTune-N's leather ear pads are the type that offer better sound quality than those rather unhygienic ear buds. The buds also let a lot of environmental noise into your ear canal, forcing you to crank your tunes higher, which could contribute to hearing loss.
