Long Island Technology Briefs: November 3, 2006

Long Island Business News, Nov 3, 2006 by LIBN Staff

You want fries with that personalized iPod content?

An all-time burger joint stalwart, the coin-operated jukebox, may be spinning its final tunes.

For decades, the jukes have hunched over tables in diners and burger huts, spinning vinyl (or compact disc) recordings of everyone from Sinatra to Meat Loaf. But the emergence of new audio and video technologies may finally silence a '50s-style tradition as familiar as a cheeseburger deluxe - or at least reinvent it.

As the 21st century dawns, the American Burger Company - billing itself "a new millennium hamburger stand" - is introducing "iPod Jukeboxes," which allow restaurant guests to listen to iTunes and download television shows via their iPod right at their booths.

Owner and "burger visionary" John Tunney has installed a dozen Logitech MM50 casings, designed to fit all iPod devices, inside his new Hicksville restaurant, according to a press release from WordHampton Public Relations. The Hicksville location is ABC's third, joining eateries in Huntington and Atlantic City, N.J.

"We've yet to find another restaurant offering this perk to their customers," Tunney said in the release. "We're proud to be on the forefront of this trend."

The iPod jukes are only the latest technological treat offered by the ABC. The company's restaurants also feature enormous plasma screens broadcasting nutritional information, cool burger quotes and burger facts, as well as free WiFi service for the cordless Web surfer; the Hicksville restaurant plans to allow customers to "self- order" through digital screen technology, the release added.

Tunney - who also prefers the moniker "burger maverick" - plans additional ABC locations in Smithtown, Port Jefferson and Riverhead.

New e-mail solution for digital designers

Brooklyn-based Rubenstein Technology Group Inc. has announced the release of RubyMail 2.0, a full-service e-mail marketing solution developed specifically for digital designers and online marketing professionals.

Targeting graphic artists and interactive marketing professionals, RubyMail offers "a completely outsourced service for converting - digital media images into highly effective e-mail marketing campaigns," according to a press release from the Rubenstein Group. RubyMail requires no coding, the release added.

The solution, based on Rubenstein Technology's RubyCommunicate application, allows users to create "virtually any kind of e-mail visual experience, with no technical 'back-end' knowledge required," according to the release.

War wounds spur new high-tech limb

Great strides in technology are inevitable in times of war, according to Scott Sabolich.

That includes the technology of artificial limbs, according to the owner and clinical director of Oklahoma City, Okla.-based Scott Sabolich Prosthetics and Research Inc. Whenever there's a war, he noted, there's an increase in research money for better prosthetic technologies.

"The crazy thing is that it takes about 1,000 military veterans to lose their legs in the war in Iraq to bring about these kinds of things," Sabolich said. "Little do people know that really about 3,000 people each week lose a limb in the United States."

The latest war-fueled artificial-limb boost comes in the form of an ankle: Proprio Foot, designed and engineered by California-based Ossur North America, an offshoot of Reykjavik, Iceland parent Ossur.

Replacement ankles previously were designed on the most basic of mechanical levers. A spring-loaded structure allowed the joint to be articulated, but it held the foot fairly rigidly in place at a 90- degree angle to the leg. Anyone wearing such an ankle couldn't walk with a smooth stride without stubbing the toe.

The Proprio Foot is balanced by a small gyro and adjusted by many calculations in its microprocessor.

According to a U.S. Senate report, the rate of surviving soldiers who have required some amputation from activity in Iraq is double the historic military rate of 3 percent. Most casualties pass through Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center; the Associated Press reported nearly 2,800 soldiers from Iraq have been treated there, including 70 amputees.

"I just wish we were able to develop better technology whenever anyone loses a leg," Sabolich said, "instead of waiting for a war."