Gadgets help fight fires

In a world of new gizmos and gadgets, at least one department is using technology to fight fires, says 14WFIE.

On-board computers, thermal imaging cameras, and daily critiques of fire operations are the norm for firefighters in Madisonville.

Chief John Stewart said, "Having the technology to map out a visual confirmation and a mental image of what we are facing when we get there, aids our officers in making decisions”.

Unable to sign up enough new cellphone subscribers, Sprint Nextel is betting it can outflank rivals by renting the excess capacity on its network to makers of consumer gadgets, says Wall Street Journal.

Sprint, which has spent billions rolling out a high-speed data network, already handles wireless book downloads for Amazon.com's Kindle reader, though Sprint's involvement is largely hidden from the public.

The company is now talking with companies such as GPS device maker Garmin, Eastman Kodak and SanDisk, which makes storage devices, about delivering wireless Internet service for their products, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Smartphones, beefed-up cellphones such as Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone, come with an operating system, do e-mail, surf the Internet and also offer digital music, digital camera and personal navigation features, states Wall Street Journal.

For a long time, these offerings paled in comparison to what you could get by buying separate specialised devices.

But more recently, smartphones have improved their horsepower and added larger screens, five- to eight-megapixel digital cameras, programs that can display turn-by-turn navigation, and free one-year subscriptions for unlimited downloads of music. For many consumers, that means the time has finally come to shed multiple devices.