I’ve been putting off writing about the Telikin because, arguably, any PC is suitable the older audience that the Telikin is aimed. I set my Dad up with a Linux machine and then a Mac Mini and he’s been surfing Drudge and listening to Polka like a champ for almost a decade now. Why spend $699 when you can feasibly hook Grandma up with a PC for $400 or so at Best Buy?

Well the Telikin is an entirely different sort of PC. Built as an all-in-one device, the machine includes an 18- or 20-inch screen, large-print keyboard, and a normal wired mouse. It runs an unnamed version of Linux and is completely locked down, dumping you into a kiosk-like experience that you can’t leave. The machine is, in actuality, a MSI MSI Wind Top AE1920 with some special software installed and you essentially pay a $60 premium for Telikin’s software.

I installed the Telikin for my mother who is approximately as computer savvy as our dog and, with a bit of coaxing, she was able to call via Skype and check an email mailbox I made her months before that she had never visited. Because the experience is completely curated, there is really no way to dump into a command prompt and the system supports something called Tech Buddy, which is essentially a remote desktop connection via any other PC.

That said, the Telikin is clearly limited and may upset tech-savvy folks. The buttons do exactly as they say – News gives you the news, Web gives you a browser – but there are a few quirks that may stymie some users. For example, email attachments aren’t automatically displayed, a definite problem for folks trying to send images and video, and there are no social media buttons (although there are shortcuts in the browser). You can log in using your Facebook account to see friends’ photos in the Photos tab, which is quite fun, but a social tab would be nice.

The system also has a basic word processor and calculator as well as a very simple file browser although you really can’t dig very far into the file system. In short, it hides everything from the user in order to ensure Mom doesn’t drag /var into the trash can.

Walt Mossberg found the Telikin to be a flawed experience but – and I’d actually cede to Walt here if pressed – but I feel it is nearly perfect for an elderly parent who needs a set-it-and-forget-it web experience. I didn’t noticed any of the bugs Walt noticed, which suggests that they have updated the machine over the past year. The price is just about right, too – $699 isn’t a lot to pay vs. a $599 Mac Mini without monitor – but again you’re paying a slight premium for stock hardware and a special OS.

Cheaper computers can be had and better experiences exist, but the Telekin seems to be an excellent choice for, say, a retirement center or home of an elderly relative. More computer-savvy folks like my Dad (who still types “Drudge” into Google to search for Drudge Report) are better served by a real computer with a real OS. Folks who are at a complete loss, however, may find this a superior experience.

It’s been a bumper few days for iPhone renders of late. And then some.

Last week we were wowed by some belief-beggaringly convincing ‘leaked photos’ of the much rumoured taller next-gen Apple smartphone. And although very beautiful they were, it was later revealed that they had sprung from the imagination of Dutch designer Martin uit Ulrecht.

But today, we’ve gone one better in the form of a concept design for the iPhone 5 featuring an entirely clear, transparent display.

Worked up by Dakota Adney and brought to wider attention by Cnet, the handset rocks what the renders' creator calls an ‘iClear retina display’ that retains current-gen Apple kits’ high pixel count but layers text and apps and whathaveyou on a translucent panel.

Cooler still, we think at least, is the way the handset projects a virtual keyboard onto surfaces for more efficient text entry.

So what are the odds of this kind of thing showing up on iPhone anytime soon? Well given Jonny Ive’s suspicion of anything gimmicky and tendency to favour function over fanciness, we’d say slim to none. But in the meantime, at least we’ve got Dakota’s amazing mock-up to enjoy.

Thanks to the growing popularity of food and drink-related apps, Apple is adding a dedicated section for the category to its App Store.

“Food & Drink” joins other app categories such as education, entertainment and finance as a part of an effort to help Apple device users find programs based on their area of interest.

The section lists the Food Network app as its top paid app, followed by Allrecipes.com, Fast Paeleo and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Apps from companies such as Pizza Hut and Starbucks are also listed in the section.

Apple is no stranger to adding new categories to the App Store. In March, it added a Catalogs section for visually-rich shopping catalogs.

At the end of August, mobile TV and video platform MobiTV filed its S-1 and announced its plans for a $75 million initial public offering. Founded in 1999, the company had been one of the early movers in the movement to bring live and on-demand TV to mobile devices, which led to partnerships with NBC, ESPN, Disney, CBS, and a bunch of other sizable media companies. The company closed over $100 million in outside investment in their time, had partnered with the big four carriers, and revenue was on the rise, so it seemed like a company on the road to a successful IPO, right?

Wrong.

Yesterday, the company essentially withdrew its public offering, citing “unfavorable market conditions.” Yes, in the wake of the Facebook IPO debacle, some companies got cold feet, and others would say it put a “freeze” on the IPO market, especially for tech companies.

However, IT service management company ServiceNow had, by most accounts, a successful IPO at the end of June. What’s more, travel search engine Kayak is moving forward with its plans to IPO, recently pricing shares between $22 and $25. The travel search engine has seen its IPO delayed on a number of occasions (it originally filed for an IPO in 2010), and its CFO left to pursue other projects, even joining the advisory board of a competing, next-gen flight search startup.

Certainly, Kayak still relies on ITA for its flight inventory and questions have been raised about the sustainability of its model, as next-gen competitors emerge and focus on personalization, granularity, and the world beyond price comparison. However, in the first quarter of 2012, Kayak saw year-over-year revenues increase 39 percent to $73 million and, as Sarah wrote last week, the company has been focused on product advancements, launching a redesigned iPad app, a new website UI, a more universal consumer experience, direct booking, and ramping up its mobile experience.

Palo Alto Networks is also on course to IPO soon, recently pricing its public offering between $34 and $37 a share, as it plans to sell 6.2 million shares. At the top of the price range, its valuation could reach $2.5 billion.

If these companies IPO successfully, it will go a long way towards warming that “freeze” in the IPO market. And, by all accounts, these two companies will get there — and fairly soon.

Which then raises the question, is MobiTV’s withdrawal of its IPO a result of a horrid IPO market, or something else?

Well, the fact of the matter is that, as Ryan wrote at the time of its initial filing, things didn’t look too pretty for MobiTV. It actually kind of makes you wonder what the company was thinking.

In its most recent S-1 amendment, MobiTV admits that it has a “limited operating history and a history of losses.” Really, the company has yet to turn a profit, taking a loss for the past three years. In 2008 through 2011, MobiTV showed losses of $25 million, $14.6 million and $14.7 million, and most recently, $11.7 million. Sure, those losses are declining, but it’s still in the red. As of December 31st, 2011, the company had an accumulated deficit of $120 million.

The company depends on four customers for most of its revenue (the four major carriers), and if any of those four were to terminate their relationship with MobiTV the company would be in trouble. It would be hard pressed to replace that revenue source, i.e. the company has few options in terms of supplementary revenue sources. They make this clear in the language of their S-1.

What’s more their customers control end user relationships, pricing and terms, and the market they’re operating in is constantly in flux, fragmented, and extremely competitive. Again, as the company says, “many of our current and potential competitors have greater resources than we do and offerings by over-the-top providers may cause consumers to reduce their demand for mobile content through carrier-branded services.”

Yep. MobiTV’s end users are seeing a growing landscape for mobile content that’s filled with choices, as Netflix and Hulu don’t have to depend on carriers, and that’s where most customers are going at present. Makes it hard to imagine that carriers are going to stick with them in the long run as things get tighter and customers opt for other sources for their mobile content.

What’s more, the company has been seeing its cash deplete at a fairly alarming and consistent rate, and with salary and benefits, it was paying its top five executive just under $3 million. All the while its four carrier customers make up about 96 percent of its revenue.

MobiTV is quickly trying to find its way into some fixes, mentioning strategic acquisitions, international expansion, and investing in R&D and managed services, but it’s hard to see how these lead to better margins — and none of this really makes one feel great about the future of the business model, with the tenuousness of its entire business should one customer choose not to renew its contract.

In some ways, it was a wonder that the company was tapping the IPO market, but we now see that it has decided that wasn’t such a good idea. Whether an IPO is in the cards in the future remains to be seen, but things sure don’t look rosy the way they stand now. Especially in such a rapidly changing and dynamic market.

Lightweight, wearable gadgets have changed our workout routines. Some of us consider it an integral part of every workout to monitor our heart rates, activity and calories burned in real time. Future devices may become even more enmeshed in our fitness routines.

Enter battery-free gadgets powered by body heat. If you run hard, bike for miles or work up a daily sweat, TEGwear technology will reward you with power.

Perpetua, a company that specializes in renewable energy solutions for wireless sensors, is marketing an insertable chip that converts body heat into electric energy.

The magic behind the chip is based on thermoelectric energy. TEGWear technology relies on two different temperatures — body heat and the coolness surrounding the device. It converts the difference between the two into usable energy.

The hardware can be easily integrated into lightweight, ultra-low power gadgets (it won’t be able to power your cell phone) that exercise buffs are already using. Perpetua is looking for product development partners to develop battery-free medical, fitness and safety gear worn on the body, according to the company’s marketing VP Jerry Wiant.

By 2014, fitness watches, strap-on sensors and on-body pedometers utilizing the technology will be available. The equipment is able to produce microwatts (one-millionth of a watt) or nearly a milliwatt (one thousandth of a watt) of power, which is enough to run ultra-low power devices such as a heart rate monitor.

“It can be compared to a coin cell battery,” Wiant tells Mashable. “This technology will last, if not longer, than the electronics it’s powering, up to 10 to 20 years.”

Would you like to use devices that tap into your body’s source? Tell us in the comments.

The search engine Blekko just launched ROCKZi, a visually compelling way to consume and interact with the fresh content that users care about the most. After selecting the category that you want to read (Geekery, The BiZ, Glitterati…), you are presented with articles in a grid view reminiscent of Flipboard on the iPad. You can upvote the article with the “This RockZ” button and leave a comment. Users can submit new articles and share them on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. On top of that, you accumulate karma points with every action.

However, don’t be fooled by the different product names — Blekko and ROCKZi go hand in hand to improve the human-curated experience that made the search engine popular in the first place.

ROCKZi was first conceptualized by a Blekko engineer during an internal hackathon and then developed into a full-scale product. “We didn’t want to present fresh content in a traditional news search kind of way by launching news.blekko.com and putting a search box there,” co-founder and VP of marketing Mike Markson says. “Blekko is all about curation — people want to curate, you just have to give them the right set of tools. The other goal with ROCKZi is to take the curation aspect out of the hands of just the power-users and hand it to the everyday users,” he continues.

Indeed, Blekko users have been identifying quality content in vertical categories called slashtags since the day it launched. It then allows users to refine queries with /news, /tech or /blogs for example — those slashtags are the keystone of ROCKZi as well. “Rather than making slashtags a searchable database, we wanted to turn it inside out and provide it as a feed,” Markson says. In addition to leveraging Blekko search assets to constitute ROCKZi’s news sources, news categories are searchable. Putting it another way, it is a less intimidating way of using slashtags by simply selecting the category you are interested in as a first step. Finally, ROCKZi uses Facebook Connect to show you the content your friends have submitted or liked and their area of expertise.

The website is now live and mobile apps are on their way. Blekko has raised around $50 million and, according to Markson, it had 5.5 million users in June. When it comes to monetizing the service, they are considering putting ads next to ROCKZi search results the same way they do in Blekko.