At last, an inexpensive portable DVD player

DVD should have been more than a bit player in portable video.

DVD should have been more than a bit player in portable video. All it needed was an inexpensive, bug-name mobile device small enough and light enough to carry on subways, trains or the family8217;s next road trip. Now here comes the first such inexpensive portable DVD player from a major manufacturer: the Philips PET320. What took so long? The PET320 would have been a killer a few years ago. Even now, it8217;s a budget alternative to the iPod, with a bigger screen the iPod8217;s is 2.5 inches and built-in speakers. At only an inch thick, though, the PET320 is thinner than the video iPod. Finished in silver with blue trim, it plays DVDs, recordable DVDs, music CDs, video CDs and recordable CDs storing Windows Media Audio and MP3 files. No, it doesn8217;t download files like an iPod. Even though the PET320 looks like a throwback to the original portable CD player, it8217;s a certain conversation piece. Unfortunately, the screen size is a throwback, too. It8217;s configured like an old-style TV, a squarish screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Sound through the tiny speakers was audible, but hardly theatrical. For best fidelity, stick with the headphones. Philips estimates battery life at 2 1/2 hours, depending on how loud and how bright you like your movies. In my tests, the PET320 gave up with a series of warning beeps after 2 hours, 40 minutes. LAT-WP

Shuttle ready for launch

After completing the biggest overhaul of the space shuttle since it started flying 25 years ago, NASA said on Thursday that Discovery was ready for a July 1 launch to the International Space Station. 8216;8216;It8217;s been a long road for us, but indications are the vehicle is in good shape,8217;8217; said Steve Lindsay, the commander of the seven-person crew. Since the last shuttle flight in the summer of 2005, engineers have replaced 5,000 spacers between heat-resistant tiles under the nose of Discovery, changed 242 tiles and replaced 44 insulating blankets around the cockpit. The biggest change was removing 34 pounds of foam insulation from around cables on the outside of the giant external fuel tank that the craft rides piggyback into orbit. Engineers worried that exposing the underlying cables to the heavy air pressures of launch might interfere with the shuttle8217;s flight-worthiness. But NASA said wind tunnel tests showed there was a good margin of safety, even without the foam ramps. The changes are designed to prevent a repeat of a series of mishaps that plagued the last flight, chiefly the flaking off of a 1-pound piece of foam during launch. The foam did not hit Discovery, which landed safely after a two-week mission. But the incident was considered serious given that a falling piece of foam had damaged the shuttle Columbia in 2003, leading to its destruction on re-entry and the death of its crew.

N. Wayne Hale Jr., head of the space shuttle programme, warned that despite the new modifications, foam will still come off the tank, but that the biggest piece should be no larger than 0.2 pounds. The shuttle is scheduled to deliver food and water to the space station, along with a freezer, and an oxygen generation system that will allow the station to house six crew members. LAT-WP

Wrist communicator also tells the time

Dick Tracy may be able to get assignments on his two-way wrist communicator, but can he get hockey scores? The Microsoft Abacus Smart Watch can, and it has a few other tricks as well. The watch, to be available later this month, uses a wireless system created by Microsoft called MSN Direct that sends data over FM radio frequencies. For 179, you get the watch and a one-year subscription to the service, which includes news, weather, traffic information, stock quotes and movie listings. After that, an annual subscription will cost 40; for 20 more you can sync your Outlook calendar to the watch and receive instant messages through MSN Messenger. The Abacus Smart Watch comes with a choice of six animated faces and a metal or leather band, and has twice the memory of earlier models that worked with MSN Direct. It may give wimpier watches 8212; the kind that only tell time8212;a run for their money. NYT