TOP TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Remember those old diving suits with the big metal helmets and the weighted shoes that let you walk across the ocean floor? The divers carried no tanks, relying instead on a partner pumping air down a hose from the surface. If the guy up top decided to take a smoke break, or just nodded off, the poor diver would suffocate.

So forget that lazy, good-for-nothing smoker on the surface. This is 2011 after all. Replace his sorry ass with the PowerSnorkel, a “Power Snorkel Hookah.”

The hookah consists of a buoy with a pump and compressor.

Griffin’s DJ Cable lets you split the output from Algoriddim’s award-winning Djay app so that you can cue and mix like a real disk jockey. The y-shaped cable plugs into the headphone socket of your iPhone, iPad or Mac and sends the master and cue outputs down different wires. And unlike expensive USB sound devices to add a second output (to a Mac at least), it costs just $20.

A bargain, right? Well, not quite.

Want an iPhone, but don’t want a contract? Apple will now sell you a black or white one in 16GB or 32GB flavors, for a subsidy-free $650 or $750.

The phone is unlocked, meaning that you can put in any micro SIM (or cut-down regular SIM), from anywhere in the world. You’ll even be able to use a T-Mobile SIM, but the 3G still won’t work with its wonky GSM network.

Why now? Speculation says that Apple is trying to shift as many iPhone 4s as it can before a new model is introduced, probably in September.

The EcoWash is yet one more thing for you to carry on a camping trip, although that’s probably not a problem. If you’re the kind of person who needs to take a dishwasher into the great outdoors, you’ll more likely be driving an SUV than hiking.

The concept design resembles a hosepipe on a reel, and it seems like you’d actually be better off just spraying your dirty plates with that. The EcoWash works thusly: the pampered camper puts his plates and cutlery inside, where they are held in a cage. He then fills the thing with water and turns a handle. Just like a slow salad spinner, the EcoWash rotates the plates and they supposedly come out clean.

I have seen a bunch of different “solutions” to the problem of lost lens caps, but none of them really worked. Worse, they usually leave the plastic cap dangling which is both annoying and can potentially ruin your photo if it gets in the way.

My current solution is not to use a cap at all, relying on the camera’s hard case to protect the lens when not in use. If this Kickstarter project is successful, though, I may switch to the Camera Lens Cap Holder instead.

Adapted fromAlways On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future — and Locked Us In, © Brian X. Chen, to be published by Da Capo Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, on June 7.

For more discussion of the book, visit the Always On book page on Facebook.

One Saturday afternoon in January 2009, Rose Maltais picked up her granddaughter Natalie in Athol, Massachusetts for a short weekend visit.

There aren’t many iPad photo-taking apps yet, although there are plenty for editing. This may be because the iPad 2 is so new. It may also be because the iPad’s camera is so awful, an embarrassment along the lines of putting a pair of drum brakes onto Alberto Contador’s race bike.

One thing is certain, though.

Long absent from the mobile-device arena, Intel processors may arrive in tablets as soon as this summer.

Acer will launch a tablet powered by Intel’s “Oak Trail” processor, which could start selling as early as July, according to sources cited by DigiTimes. Asus and Lenovo will follow Acer’s lead shortly thereafter, say the sources.

To most of us, Lomo is the camera brand that inspired a gazillion digital knock-offs, apps that mash and mix your cellphone photos into something that would have been rejected by every picture editor in the days of film. Today, Lomo is ready to remind us just how cool the analog approach can still be, with the brand new Lomo LC-Wide.

The new camera looks a lot like the LC-A, but comes with some extras. First is the new lens, which puts the “wide” in the name.

The Meta Watch from Texas Instruments is the ultimate nerd accessory. For real, this time: the watch is a development platform aimed at software engineers.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the description from the product page:

Meta Watch is a wearable development system that enables rapid development of ‘connected-watch’ applications. With Meta Watch, developers can quickly and easily extend the interfaces of devices and applications to the wrist.

So, the watch’s geek credentials are firmly established.