But until now there's been no way to transmit location data to someone else. Garmin's NavTalk, the marriage of GPS receiver and analog cell phone, lets you do just that - provided your friend has a NavTalk, too. Like a classic Volvo, this Gateway has an appealing boxy shape when it's closed. Weighing just over 5 pounds, the FireAnt carries a 300-MHz Pentium II and a 56K modem. The topper, though, is an onboard DVD drive that lets you bring your own movies on a plane and blow off the in-flight flick.
Battery life is still limited, but it's enough for two hours of private cinema.
TiVo wants your boob tube to be all that it can be. Pretty soon you have your own network. Fresh programming guides download every day at 4 a.m. And, thanks to the high-capacity hard drive and intelligent streaming, you can pause and rewind live broadcasts in progress. As Hitchcock showed us, some fowl are best viewed from afar.