Tech Watch

VIRTUAL PUB CRAWLS
Just Logging On for a Quick Drink
Londoners beware! the next time you nip down to the pub for a quick screen break you might well find that you’re actually broadcast live on the Web as you sip your illicit pint. Now suspicious spouses have an easy way to verify the age-old “working late” excuse: just log on to www.viewpub.com. British leisure giant Whitbread has teamed up with Web design firm Viewpub to install webcams in six of its London establishments. They show live pictures on the Web from 6 p.m. until closing time every night. If the site proves popular the regulars in over 1,000 Whitbread pubs throughout the U.K. could soon be online. Far from being put off by this Orwellian intrusion, drinkers at places like the Tournament in London’s Earls Court, famed haunt of antipodean backpackers, are taking advantage of the cameras. “We get a lot of Australians and tourists waving with signs saying ‘Hello Mum’ and ‘Happy Birthday’ to friends and family logged on back home,” says manager Allen Piper. Across town in the business district Christina O’Sullivan, manager of the Railway Tavern, sees the webcams as a boon to business. “We can advertise upcoming promotions as well as what’s going on in the pub,” she says. “It’s also a way for people to see the pubs, decide if they like what they see and then choose which one suits them.” With over 3,000 hits every day it’s not just tourists who are logging on. “Locals can check whether a pub is busy and use [the webcams] as an atmosphere gauge,” says Gavin Reay, ceo of Viewpub. Viewpub has also set up an in-pub intranet to create a community spirit and host regular events, like interactive quizzes in which rival pubs compete against each other on large screens showing live shots of the opposition. This might sound like a good idea — until you see the victory “salute” of the team from the Hogwash in Watford.

SITE SEEING
Where to Get into Hot Water
If your idea of fun is bathing nude in a hot spring under the stars surrounded by snow-covered fir trees, or swanning around an art deco bathhouse with its own artificial beach, pay a visit to www.thermes.org, a guide to continental Europe’s natural thermal baths. The site offers a listing of spas from the Ahr-Thermen in Germany to Zurzach in Switzerland. All recommended resorts are low-cost and open to anyone: they don’t require visitors to sign up for a cure or a stay at a thermal hotel. Other delights include solariums, waterfalls, fountains, waterslides, saunas and mud baths. If you like to soak or wallow in a large town or ski resort, go to the “Grandes villes” or “Au ski” sections. Links lead to sites on the royal spas of Europe and vapor baths of the world, as well as hot springs in California and Japan.

MOBILE KARAOKE
Singalong Phones
Like it or not, cell phone karaoke is here, thanks to software from Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. Vocalists download standards like Dancing Queen and Let It Be from karaoke sites and sing along to on-screen lyrics. Mobile crooning is sweeping Japan and Korea. The U.S. gets the beat later this year when faster wireless Web connections arrive.

COLLABORATIVE COMPUTING
PC Teamwork
Get your PC to do something useful in its spare time — like help find a cure for cancer. A collaborative effort by Oxford University, Intel and U.S. tech firm United Devices — billed as the largest computational chemistry project ever undertaken — will harness the unused power of millions of PCs around the world to screen molecules for cancer-fighting potential. You can enlist your PC and download the necessary software at www.ud.com.

TRAVEL ASSISTANT
Routing for You
i-Tinerary’s free, downloadable, multilingual mTravel Assistant collaborates with a palmtop’s calendar software to act as a personal travel agent. It warns of flight changes and delays by palmtop or cell phone, then suggests and books alternatives. It updates schedules, and adds maps and flight and weather details. It books and cancels hotels and cars, and learns your preferences and corporate policies. The only downside: it also lets your employer know where you are.