SEC Technologies has another option: wireless blocking paint. One coat of this paint “creates an electromagnetic fortress by preventing airborne hackers from intercepting signals.” Sounds a little too much like something the government would be interested in, and less like a technology that would benefit the average Wi-Fi user who has already ditched the landline over a cell phone. The Register thinks the RF-proof paint would be put to good use in movie theaters, or similar places where cell phones interruption is frowned upon. EM-SEC currently sells laptop inserts and phone holsters with an electromagnetic shield that restricts the detection of Wi-Fi signals, which is another option that might deter laptop thieves. What a great idea.

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The 59-year-old, who has sold more than 200 million hard copies of records in a career spanning more than 40 years, has already released some of his more recent work online in the United States, but this will mark the first time his entire catalogue is available.

John said he had wanted all his music to be online for some while but time was needed to prepare the entire catalogue.

“I knew that the entire catalogue — not just the hits — needed care and attention to be released in this way,” he said in a statement. “Now that it’s happening, I’m pleased for the fans’ sake.”

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“We expect multi-touch to be prevalent in Apple’s major hardware products within three to five years — making its way into touch-screen Macs next year,” he said. “We also expect new touch-screen video iPods, ultra portables, more phones and possibly even TVs in the future.” The multi-touch Mega-Platform could add US$1 to the company’s annual EPS (earnings per share) during fiscal 2009. Reitzes is excited about the prospects for Apple in 2007, and is anticipating the release of the iPhone, Mac OS X 10.5, new Macs and new displays in June.

“I started to get scared,” says Jobs. Looking angularly trim in his trademark mock turtleneck and jeans (shopping, one is reminded, has never been integral to his lifestyle), Jobs is describing what he saw circa 2000. The company was increasingly dependent on mega-retailers – companies that had little incentive, never mind training, to position Apple’s products as anything unique. “It was like, ‘We have to do something, or we’re going to be a victim of the plate tectonics. And we have to think different about this. We have to innovate here.’”

The leap into retail, though, would be from a standing start. “We looked at it and said, ‘You know, this is probably really hard, and really easy for us to get our head handed to us.’ So we did a few things. No. 1, I started asking who was the best retail executive at the time. Everybody said Mickey Drexler, who was running the Gap.” Drexler agreed to join Apple’s board. Next, Jobs went looking for the one right person to run Apple retail. The answer was Ron Johnson, then a merchandising chief at Target who was pushing that company’s hugely successful foray into affordable design.

Apple donated 100 video iPods to the museum, which have been outfitted specifically with walking tours of its new Picasso and Modern Art and Brice Marden exhibits. The tours are broken into one to two minute snippets, appearing like song tracks on the iPod. And in lieu of album art, it has reproductions of the art.

The SFMOMA has already been producing free museum podcasts, but this is the first time it’s offering self-guided iPod tours. And less you are thinking about running off with an iPod, visitors must plunk down their driver’s license and credit card in exchange. The iPods have also been wrapped in a protective case in case they’re dropped. Link

We all seem to have one — an iPod, a BlackBerry, a cell phone — taking up more and more of our time, but can they make us too distracted to walk safely? Some people think so.

If you use them in the crosswalk, your favorite electronic devices could be in the crosshairs.

Legislation will be introduced in Albany on Wednesday to lay a $100 fine on pedestrians succumbing to what State Sen. Carl Kruger calls iPod oblivion.

“We’re talking about people walking sort of tuned in and in the process of being tuned in, tuned out,” Kruger said. “Tuned out to the world around them. They’re walking into speeding cars. They’re walking into buses. They’re walking into one another and it’s creating a number of fatalities that have been documented right here in the city.”

Pedestrians have been hurt and killed in the manner Kruger describes. Not surprisingly, though, iPod users are less than thrilled with the senator’s proposal.

“That’s not a distraction,” said one woman, iPod securely implanted in her ears. “You have your iPod in your ears and you’re crossing the street, you are looking with your eyes. You don’t have to hear anything, really … I guess.”

Added another New Yorker: “It’s a terrible idea. It’s outrageous.”

Kruger said not so fast.

“If you want to listen to your iPod, sit down and listen to it,” Kruger declared. “You want to walk in the park, enjoy it. You want to jog around a jogging path, all the more power to you, but you should not be crossing streets and endangering yourself and the lives of others.”

Kruger’s bill would only apply to big cities across New York state. We don’t know what kind of support it has in Albany, but he hopes that the New York City Council, which has already banned indoor smoking and trans fats in restaurants, will pick up the cue.