Wired thinks Tablet PCs are finally taking off.
The idea for the tablet PC — a portable device to allow users to enter data with a penlike stylus — had been percolating quietly ever since chipmaker National Semiconductor announced a design in the dot-com boom years for a simple Web-browsing pad that manufacturers could use to make the devices.
Unlike price-pressured desktops, tablet PCs are able to command premium pricing — ranging from about $1,000 to about $2,300. They are now sold by major PC manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Toshiba, NEC, Fujitsu and Gateway.
Still lacking in apps (even if the underlying operating system is Windows).
Devices computer, mobileTech, PC, stylus, tablet
MobileMag has an article on Nokia’s newest device. Yes, it’s pretty wild.
Taking Nokia design to a new level, the device incorporates a 65,000 color screen as the heart and soul of its front face. The Nokia 7600 enables people to capture pictures and videos, send and receive multimedia messages* and mobile email and listen to music. With this phone, people can also take advantage of the increased speed of the next generation of mobile networks by watching good quality live video content directly from their handsets.
Devices 3G, camera phone, cell phone, handset, mobileTech, phone, video
Environmentally friendly optical discs to hit the market this December.
Officials of Sanyo Mavic Media Co., a subsidiary of electronics giant Sanyo Electric Co., said they have found a way to manufacture 10 high quality compact discs from a single corncob.
Named ‘MildDisc’ by Sanyo Mavic, it is equal to conventional plastic optical discs in quality and produces no dioxin or other hazardous material when it is burnt. Moreover, MildDiscs can be degraded into the harmless soil by using micro-organisms.
Devices biodegradable, CD, corn, eco-friendly, ecology, optical
Hurricane Isabel had its nasty effects on many east coast offices, causing many workers to seek a digital connection elsewhere.
When the lights went out in Bethesda last week, Clemens Kochinke fired up his emergency generator and plugged in three things, in this order: the fridge, the freezer and the computers.
Then he put a sign in his front yard to let any laptop-toting neighbors know that if they wanted to check their e-mail, they could log on to the Internet through his wireless connection. ‘Internet Access. Free Access when Generator is on,’ his sign proclaimed.” …
Marie-Louise Murville, a business strategy consultant, has been staying on top of her projects by hauling her laptop to places with wireless Internet connections — Starbucks, the “Jamba Juice Cafe” at Whole Foods, a friend’s apartment in Georgetown. She normally works from her home office near the Naval Observatory but has been without power since last week.
The hurricane caused power outages and phone problems (including cell phones in some areas), among other disaster-related results. Many people responded by quickly addressing their digital disconnect: life will return to normal once they’re online again.
Devices, Network disaster, emergency, hurricane, mobileTech, natural disaster, networking, outages, phone, power, wireless
Under the aegis of preventing illegal use of commercial media, IBM announced new plans called extensible Content Protection (xCP).
xCP includes encryption software that allows media providers to give consumers the right to, for example, watch a movie on a DVD player and any other xCP-compliant device on that consumer’s home network. The software will let media companies protect their intellectual property and be simple enough for consumers to use, according to IBM.
Such safeguards will allow the media and entertainment industry to develop viable business models for content distribution, which at this point are lacking, said Steve Canepa, vice president of strategy for IBM’s media and entertainment industry.
“The ground we’re trying to get to is to maybe take the focus off rights specifications for control and limitation in what can be done with content and to change the focus to self-enablement and a new user experience,” Canepa said.
Sure, take me, I’m yours. I’m only a consumer, after all.
Content copy protection, distribution, DRM, P2P
Here’s a problem waiting to be discovered: TVs and other home and office devices that call the police when they are moved.
Big Brother technology that already allows people to be tracked through their mobile phones could soon be installed in household objects, tipping off police if they are stolen.
Televisions, DVD players and computers could be fitted with microchips identifying their location and their normal proximity to each other, automatically alerting police if they change unexpectedly, according to a scientist on Wednesday.
I don’t think we’ll have to get permission from the local police station if we want to rearrange our offices. Or will we?
Devices, Network authority, motion sensor, television
Worried about visitors snapping pictures of your secret stuff with their cell phone cameras? Now there’s an answer.
Iceberg Systems is beta-testing Safe Haven, which combines hardware transmitters with a small piece of control software loaded into a camera phone handset. When the handset is taken into a room or building containing the Safe Haven hardware, the phone is instructed to deactivate the imaging systems. The systems are reactivated when the handset is out of range.
Devices camera phone, cell phone, deactivate, jamming, mobileTech
In a paper reminiscent of the movie “Desk Set,” Cornell held a little race against Google Answers.
This paper presents the results of a modest study conducted by Cornell University Library (CUL) to compare and contrast its digital reference services with those of Google Answers. The study provided an opportunity for librarians to shift their focus from fearing the impact of Google, as usurper of the library’s role and diluter of the academic experience, to gaining insights into how Google’s approach to service development and delivery has made it so attractive.
Content information, question, reference, search
NY Times is reporting (subscription required) that:
The nation’s largest cellular phone companies are set to announce today a voluntary seal-of-approval program in hopes of staving off more restrictive consumer legislation. …
All companies that display the seal must provide a minimum 14-day trial period for new customers, coverage maps describing where service is available, and specific disclosure of rates and plans, among other things.
That might be legislation following several current class action suits for problems such as these, right? Or is it just bureaucracy-think?
Tom Wheeler, the president and chief executive of the trade group, said in a statement that intense competition among the cellular companies had made them more responsive to customers than companies in other industries are and that formal regulation was unnecessary.
“Complaint rates are lower than those of more regulated telecom sectors,” Mr. Wheeler said. “So dragging wireless down with heavy regulations is simply old monopolistic think, and only hurts consumers.”
Devices, Policy cell phone, class action, competition, disclosure, guidelines, legislation, mobile phone, Policy, rates, telecom
Coming together? What will they think of next?
New wireless networking chips for handheld devices are giving second life to the 802.11b standard and could soon test the theory that Wi-Fi and cellular data services can work hand in hand rather than compete.
Broadcom and Royal Philips Electronics have developed a chip that does wireless networking on portables, including phones. Combining is a good thing:
Wi-Fi delivers large amounts of bandwidth over short range, while cellular data networks deliver relatively small amounts of bandwidth over a wide range. As a result, each can compensate for the shortcomings of the other.
Devices, Network 3G, 802.11, cell phone, chip, data, mobileTech, SOHO Nets, wi-fi, wireless