Home of the Future Becomes a Reality "Japanese government completes work on house that never runs out of beer or rice, and can monitor residents' health.... 'Every device in the home, even a small light, has a private IP (Internet Protocol) address,' says Yoshinori Sugihara, general manager of the Special Project Promotion Office of JEITA." [in PC World]

Note how the cell phone is used as a remote control for a lot of these features. Now if I just had an extra $37,450 laying around....

Next: Listen to Books on Phone. AT&T Wireless, Audible in delivery tests [via allNetDevices Wireless News]

I'm already an Audible premium subscriber, so I really like this idea.  I want this company to succeed because I think they "get it" AND they work with libraries. This is actual content I would switch cellular carriers for, too. I hope they're going to figure out how to let libraries lend audio content over the phone, too, not just bigco publishers.