Electronic Equipment

Only a few years ago, bigger guns, badder enemies and louder explosives mattered most in video games. Now, small is beautiful, and Apple Inc.'s iPhone is largely responsible. The surprising emergence of the iPhone and its phone-less sibling, the iPod Touch, as hand-held game consoles has started to change the dynamics of the $40-billion game software industry.

Jam band Phish isn't forgetting about fans who can't attend any of its sold-out reunion shows this weekend in Hampton, Va. The group will make high-quality MP3 downloads of each performance available free the following day. "We really wanted to show our gratitude to all the Phish fans for their support and the overwhelming response they've had to these shows," lead guitarist/vocalist Trey Anastasio said in a statement issued Wednesday. "We only wish everybody could be there."

Trying to expand its book sales, Amazon.com Inc. released a free application Wednesday that lets iPhone and iPod Touch users read electronic books purchased at the e-commerce giant's Kindle online bookstore. The software performs many of the same functions featured on Amazon's $359 Kindle 2 reading device released last month, including bookmarking, noting, highlighting and adjusting the font size, the company said.

Publishers and authors now have the power to silence the Kindle 2 e-book reader. Amazon.com Inc. reversed course Friday on the device's controversial text-to-speech feature, which reads digital books aloud in a robotic voice. The company gave rights holders the ability to disable the feature for individual titles. The Kindle 2, which shipped this week, is a faster and smaller version of Amazon's gadget. It can hold more than 1,500 books and has 25% more battery life than its predecessor.

Amazon.com Inc. on Monday unveiled its second-generation electronic reader, a slimmer and faster version of the Kindle device it introduced 14 months ago with promises to revolutionize the way people read books. The average American hasn't come close to abandoning the printed page yet. Electronic books generate less than 1% of the $25-billion U.S. book publishing market. But they're a fast-growing segment of an otherwise stagnant industry.

A New Zealand man who bought an MP3 player from a thrift shop in Oklahoma found 60 U.S. military files, including names and phone numbers for soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, TV One News reported today. Chris Ogle said he found the files when he linked the device to his computer. Details of equipment at bases in Afghanistan and a mission briefing were found too, the report said. In 2006, the Los Angeles Times found stolen flash drives containing secret military data for sale at Afghan shops.

OMG! POTUS keeps his BB. After facing down his top security advisors, President Obama won the right Thursday to be the BlackBerry user-in-chief. Under an arrangement with security aides, Obama will get a new BlackBerry loaded with software approved by U.S. intelligence officials that lets him communicate with friends, family and close associates without fear of hackers reading his e-mail.

Though 2009 looks just as grim as 2008, organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show last week forecast a few rays of sunshine. The Consumer Electronics Assn. projected growth in organic LED displays, digital book readers, Blu-ray disc players and lightweight laptops called netbooks. Despite a projected 0.3% decline in overall consumer spending in 2009, the trade group said, people will continue to earmark a large chunk of their income for technology.

Children and seniors demand many of the same things from their technology: They want it to work right away. They don't want it to do a million things. And they need it to be secure. "Both groups need simple things with less functionality and more protection," said Robin Raskin, a former PC Magazine editor who founded twin conference sessions on technology for the two age groups at this week's Consumer Electronics Show.

Children and seniors demand many of the same things from their technology: They want it to work right away. They don't want it to do a million things. And they need it to be secure. "Both groups need simple things with less functionality and more protection," said Robin Raskin, a former PC Magazine editor who founded twin conference sessions on technology for the two age groups at this week's Consumer Electronics Show.