NYC

Glance above and you'll notice a normal, elegant chronograph watch, correct? Not exactly... See, that jet-black dial is rocking 4-bit binary hour-bars in place of numbers, and looking very geek-chic doing so. Announced today, Cadence's 4-Bit Chronograph Watch is the chrono revision of its $80 4-Bit Watch, sporting a larger casing, darker dial, greater water resistance, and most notably, a UTC display to help you stay on schedule while globetrotting. The luminescent hands -- perfect for late-night hacking -- are kept in motion by an automatic Miyota quartz movement wedged inside of a 42mm stainless steel case, which is rated water-resistant to five atmospheres (165 feet). The watch is further protected by a sapphire-coated glass crystal, and topped off with a black leather band to keep things extra classy. When the 4-Bit Chrono ships come July, getting one around your wrist will set you back $195, but slyly wearing your geek cred is only $119 if you reserve one now...

Well, this might be a good reason for The Powers That Be to know your exact whereabouts. According to a team of MIT researchers, speeding up data rates on mobile devices could be as easy as tapping the various motion sensors found in run-of-the-mill smartphones. The scientists believe our wireless infrastructure is at the root of bottlenecks, with a handful of weak transmitters clumsily "handing off" data to one another as you move out of range. The solution: use GPS radios, accelerometers, and even gyroscopes to infer where you're headed, and then choose an access point near where you're likely to end up. The difference, they report, is dramatic: a 50 percent boost in throughput, along with improved success in choosing the best bit rate. To boot, if a base station is armed with location-based info, it can better predict when the devices connected to it are on the verge of losing contact. That's all good news, but sadly we doubt any amount of promising science is...