ManyMedia

Five-pen computing? Certainly mobile. Still in the works.

The design concept uses five different pens to make a computer. One pen is a CPU, another a camera, one creates a virtual keyboard, another projects the visual output and thus the display and another a communicator (a phone). All five pens can rest in a holding block which recharges the batteries and holds the mass storage. Each pen communicates wireless…

Devices computer, cool, display, mobileTech, output, phone, virtual keyboard, wireless

It should be no surprise that the paycheck is going digital. Much less frequently will we feel the tactile nature of an exchange of promises involving money.

More employers are replacing traditional paychecks with payroll cards, a new type of system that allows employees to get money out of cash machines instead of cashing checks.

Instead of getting a paycheck, employees can opt to get cards that are credited each pay period with their wages. Workers can use the cards to withdraw money from ATMs or they can use them like a debit card to make purchases.

Some users have to pay a transaction fee or monthly charge for the cards; in other cases, fees are waived. Employees who use the payroll cards often get a paper or electronic pay stub with wage and tax information.

Content bank, cards, debit, digital, money, paycheck, tracking, wages

Two news summaries/perspectives on an impending merger:

CINGULAR, VODAFONE SHOW THEIR CARDS TO AT&T

Expect to see news by the end of the day that Cingular Wireless and
Vodafone have made official bids for AT&T Wireless. There is a 5pm deadline
for bids today and the board will consider offers this weekend. They are
currently six national U.S. wireless carriers, but price and marketing wars
have eroded profits. ”Cingular is by far the most likely buyer here, with
a straightforward deal, for a whole variety of reasons,” said a Goldman
Sachs report out Thursday. Goldman cited Cingular’s ability to generate
greater ”synergies,” such as cost cuts, for the best investor returns.

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040213/5924807s.htm

CELLPHONE MERGER CURE

When cellphone prices drop because of competition, the historical cure has
been to merge with another company and losing a competitor. But that remedy
may not work any longer because of challenges from new technologies and a
rush of new entrants into the market. Mergers would likely have to shrink
the field of providers in half before they lead to higher prices and less
competitive behavior. One reason is that the big carriers sell their
services wholesale to resellers — like Virgin — who then retail to
targeted markets. Another factor is the growing popularity of Wi-Fi to
route calls over the Internet — and avoid conventional cellphone networks altogether.

Wall St Journal link

Network ATT, cell phone, Cingular, competition, merger, resellers, Vodaphone, wi-fi, wireless

Usability in a cell phone? What a concept.

A complaint filed at the FCC against Verizon Wireless and cellphone maker Audiovox has lead to the Toshiba VM4050 which can talk to users. In a recorded voice, the phone tells a user, for example, that the battery is low or the phone is in roaming mode. “This is certainly a significant step
forward,” said Darren Burton, a technology associate for the American Foundation for the Blind who is testing the phone. He said he most appreciated the voiced reports on battery level, signal status, roaming, new voice-mail messages and missed calls. But he said it still had “a way to go” in making other features equally accessible, like the phone’s menus, e-mail in-box, text messaging and Internet browser. Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires telephone makers and service providers to make their products and services accessible to people with disabilities. “We were hoping that Section 255 would be the impetus” for improvements to cellphones, Dr. Bonnie O’Day said. “Unfortunately, we had little compliance up until last year.”

Devices, Policy accessibility, blind, cell phone, disability, menus, requirements, speaking, Telecommunications Act of 1996, usability

Glowing or reflecting may be the difference between e-paper and flexible e-paper. Certainly the need is there (at least for the Military).

…the race is on. The U.S. Army announced Tuesday it will spend $43.7 million over the next five years on a center at Arizona State University that will develop flexible electronic displays. The idea is to give soldiers a tiny, rugged readout of current data about enemy troops, weather and geography that could take a bullet and still flash marching orders.

A few weeks earlier, Royal Philips Electronics NV announced that next year it will start making a test line of bendable electronic displays, with release of a consumer product slated for 2006.

The ultimate goal of the electronic paper chase remains a display that can be twisted, folded and taken anywhere that paper can. Scientists say the key lies in plastics — putting circuits controlling the images onto backings made of pliable plastic instead of glass and metal. Recent advances in organic electronics and plastic transistors may finally get the technology around that corner. …

Analysts say e-paper looks more promising than ever but faces hurdles. “They are still black and white, and one real challenge will be finding a way to make the balls color,” said Kimberly Allen, director of technology and strategic research for iSuppli/Stanford Resources. …

He envisions it going mainstream with a six-inch tube that fits into anyone’s pocket. Electric paper will roll in and out of the tube like a window shade, he said, with the tube’s innards serving as a writing mechanism, rearranging pixels on ultrathin plastic screens. Overhead, a satellite will beam signals to the tube, letting people read their e-mail, check out books and download newspapers from a gigantic library in the sky.

Devices bend, black and white, display, e-paper, flexible display, fold, glass, military, paper, plastic, twist

IBM has been developing a new analytical search engine that connects what people are saying, publishing, and doing. It sifts through gigabytes of web-based data to “discover patterns that even the most dedicated librarian can’t find.”

Now IBM has begun licensing the technology to create “buzz reports” for corporate clients. WebFountain scours Web logs, chat rooms, newspaper stories and every other source of information to determine whether the chatter about a new product is good or bad; is a certain rock group on the way up or a one-hit wonder?

WebFountain extracts the information to draw conclusions about associations between different people or words.

“We help you understand the data,” Gruhl says, noting that a gas-station company used the tool to discover that customers cared not only about the price of gas and free car washes, but about safety and whether they were likely to be mugged while pumping gas.”

Content connection, patterns, semantic web, semantics, SOHO nets, web 3.0