Strange New World: Picks of the Week

July 26, 2007 — -- Life in the Gadget-O-Sphere slowed to a crawl this past week. The summer holiday consumer electronics demonstrations that give us the final look at what will be in stores this winter are safely out of the way. There was no new, new thing: iPhone is still the only gadget that matters.

So our thoughts -- and our picks for the week -- turn to larger, more transcendent, even other-worldly items: the possible mutation of Google into a telecom company, the strange twist in a $100 laptop designed for the developing world, and our first pick of the year nominee: our brave Martian rovers.

Here, then, are the top three for the week.

First 'Pick of the Year' Nominee: Opportunity, Spirit Tough It Out on Mars

There is a life-and-death drama unfolding on the surface of Mars -- never mind that it is the life and death of a mere machine. Our two Martian rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, and their human handlers at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif., have been fighting to stay operational during a month-long Martian dust storm.

There is enough junk blowing around in the frigid Martian air up there to hide 99 percent of the sunlight, and these units need that sunlight to power themselves. Mission commanders have had to try every trick to keep them in the game and now the rovers do just about nothing more than stay warm and report back every two or three days.

Whether doom awaits these brave little R2-D2s or not, their performance already has been nothing short of miraculous. These units were expected to operate for just 90 days; now more than three years later, much to their creators' astonishment, they're still at it: pushing back the thin line of what we know from what we don't.

NASA takes its fair share of abuse these days for its poorly funded, ludicrously political space missions. But on this day, on this field, they are the champions: This round of Martian mobile exploration is a singular design, engineering, operational, and most important, scientific achievement.

All who took part in this mission deserve all the credit in the world -- including our first nomination for tech story of the year.

Google Is on the Phone; The rest of the Web Better Watch Out

Larry Page and Sergey Brin are no longer satisfied with owning a jumbo jet. They want a phone company, too. Search giant Google is bidding on a whole mess of the wireless spectrum. And it's clear why: What passes for service from most cable, phone and wireless providers is a flat out disgrace. And the lack of connectivity is hurting Google's core business of selling search ads.

We like the smell of Google getting into the service provider game because, while many folks in big towns and at big companies have excellent Web access, in the rest of the country, broadband connectivity sort of works when it feels like it. We see a constant stream of complaints from parts of Maine, Arizona, Nevada and Maryland, to name just a few.

Google is proposing to invest $4.6 billion in spectrum alone. And a well-funded wireless communications network could make a big enough splash that other providers will have to clean up their act to face this new competition.

If Google can figure out an innovative way to offer Web access, then watch out Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and the rest. Life for you will get tough -- fast.

The $100 Laptop: Charity vs. Big Biz in Ultimate Gadget Smackdown

Cheap portable computers are a big story this week. A nonprofit organization called One Laptop Per Child trumpeted loud and hard that it has begun production of 3 million "$100 units." These cute little green laptops are cheap, rugged and built for a Third World infrastructure. This is clearly a worthy endeavor but not necessarily revolutionary; the private sector is getting pretty darn close to the "$100 laptop" bar all by itself.

The One Laptop Per Child computer is not really $100; $175 seems like a better figure from the numbers we have seen. And earlier this year, Asian computer maker Asustek showed a legitimate $200 laptop at the Computex 2007 trade show. Is this nonprofit in a neck-and-neck race with private enterprise? That remains to be seen, but since the law of unintended consequences is always in full effect in the electronics game, we cannot wait to see who actually does what with each type of "$100 laptop."

Jonathan Blum and Dan Evans co-host "Strange New World," a weekly syndicated radio show. Blum hosts the blog Blumsday.com and Evans is a features editor at PC Magazine.