Personal Computing
Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) Alliance to promote One Terrabyte Data Disks
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February 5, 2005 Six companies including CMC Magnetics, Fuji Photo Film, Nippon Paint, Optware, Pulstec and Toagosei have announced the formation of the "HVD Alliance" to promote the development of HVD technology. Holographic recording technology records data on discs in the form of laser interference fringes, enabling discs the same size as today's DVDs to store more than one terabyte of data (200 times the capacity of a single layer DVD), with a transfer rate of over one gigabit per second (40 times the speed of DVD). This approach is rapidly gaining attention as a high-capacity, high-speed data storage technology for the age of broadband.
Apple finally introduces an affordable Mac - Mac mini to sell for US$499
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MACWORLD EXPO, SAN FRANCISCO, January 11, 2005 Apple today introduced the Macintosh for the masses - the long-rumoured, affordable, compact, bring-your-own-screen Mac mini. Just two-inches tall and weighing only 1.3 kilograms (2.9 pounds), the Mac mini redefines design for the sub-US$1,000 desktop. Mac mini offers the processing and graphics performance to take advantage of demanding consumer applications with either a 1.25 GHz or 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 processor and ATI Radeon 9200 graphics with 32MB of dedicated DDR memory. Both models come with a slot-load Combo drive for watching DVD movies and burning CDs, and up to an 80GB hard drive for storing digital media creations.
US$200 Data Destroyer Device Stops Information Theft on Discarded Discs
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UPDATED June 1, 2005 The potential for the theft of data or sensitive business information via CD-ROMs being thrown in the trash is very realistic - garbage screening is a rudimentary and commonly-used industrial espionage technique. And despite their seeming vulnerability, you'd be surprised what you can get off a CD-ROM using data recovery techniques. So what to do? Buy a Data Destroyer Office PRO - the automated desktop device can destroy the information on up to 50 CDs and/or DVDs by pressing a single button.
Pantech GI 100 mobile offers fingerprint operation
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December 11, 2004 A state-of-the-art fingerprint recognition sensor has been built into the new Pantech GI 100 mobile phone, offering increased personal security and "secret" dialing functions. The clamshell design GI 100 also features a 1.3 megapixel camera, video caller ID and innovative video "wallpaper" in a black and silver, compact GSM phone.
Airline internet access now available at 35,000 feet
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December 4, 2004 High-speed broadband internet access will be available in-flight on Singapore Airlines (SIA) routes thanks to a definitive service agreement between the airline and Connexion, a business unit of The Boeing Company, that will allow passengers to stay connected with their digital networks while flying at 35,000 feet. SIA will also transform in-flight entertainment with live international TV beamed through Connexion to passengers' laptops in a "CyberCabin" environment.
The future of the human-computer interface
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December 2, 2004 A new Australian research facility called the Visual Information Access Room (VIAR) is at the forefront of the coming revolution in human-digital interaction. The current keyboard, mouse and screen configuration will soon be replaced by digital interfaces that utilise touch, gesture and voice control and seek to integrate seamlessly into our environment. Launched by the National ICT Australia (NICTA), the Sydney laboratory looks like a futuristic office, but is in fact a test facility where sophisticated 3D models of complex systems and innovative ways to interact with complex data quickly will be developed.
Logitech V5 cordless notebook mouse
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November 28, 2004 Logitech has released an innovative, ultra-thin mouse for notebook computers. Incorporating an expandable chassis, 2.4 GHz wireless technology and a touch-sensitive, solid state scrolling panel in place of the scrolling-wheel, the V5 cordless mouse is designed as a practical, usable tool for the mobile professional and fast-growing notebook market.
Competition promotes nanotech business
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November 24, 2004 Designed to foster commercial innovation in the expanding field of nanotechnology, the International Nanotechnology Business Idea Competition provides a glimpse at the diverse range of applications for science on a nano-scale. Among them - and the eventual winner - the next generation of flat panel displays from QD Vision that will use quantum dot light emitting diodes to produce images on flat panel displays via electroluminescence.
orbiTouch sliding keyboard offers keyless typing
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November 15, 2004 The orbiTouch sliding keyboard from Keybowl uses a pair of ergonomically sculpted domes to "type" characters with the same precision as pressing a key. This keyless typing opens up the world of computing and information access to people with repetitive stress injuries and limited hand use and challenges the dominance of the QWERTY keyboard design, a relic from the typewriter era of over a century ago.
This is way nerdy stuff - significant way nerdy stuff
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November 8, 2004 Apple's forthcoming Tiger operating system offers a compelling advantage. The following are Apple's words, but we concur and we think the advent of this system at this point in time is a landmark. Tiger will enable unmitigated access to meta-data for all. This access will enable the development of data-mining tools that will enable the world to mine its digital assets more effectively. If you were waiting for Apple to follow up the iPod, a product that established its presence in the entertainment industry, then this is it. This is devilishly clever! Meta-data is, succinctly stated, data about data. It provides a description about the data contained in a file such as (but not limited to) its height, width, size, creator, copyright holder, title, editor, created date, and last modification date. In practice, there is so much data that can be considered meta-data that these descriptions usually are generalized as a dictionary of descriptive attributes indexed by keys. You can think of it as the "what, when, and who" of a piece of data.
VisiKey keyboard enhances keystroke visibility
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November 8, 2004 The days of struggling to see small keyboard letters are over thanks to the VisiKey keyboard with it's Enhanced Visibility Lettering System, which offers keynotes 430% larger than that of a standard keyboard. These innovative keyboards, which come in wired and wireless versions, have a simple idea driving them - larger lettering + high contrast = increased visibility and more comfortable use. VisiKeys Enhanced Visibility Keyboard also fill the gap for the estimated 50% of computer users that are not touch typists.
Ebay - the Caveat Emptor or the Tylenol Defence?
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November 8, 2004 After years of building up one of the most successful internet-based businesses ebay is under attack and under threat. Ebay is becoming a victim of its own success. Despite stringent codes of conduct, a few unscrupulous users are finding ways of bypassing the rules, resulting in the availability of prohibited items and in fraudulent transactions. This is exacerbated when buyers discover that the "secure" payment mechanism is not quite as secure as they thought and ebay appears to dismiss their complaints. It all becomes grist to the media mill.
The foundation of the ebay business model - trust - is being eroded and ebay need to react. But why and how?
Tenth birthday of the humble banner advert
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November 7, 2004 Oh no, we missed another birthday. This time it was the tenth birthday of the humble banner advert. On October 25, 1994 the first banner advert appeared on HotWired. Interestingly, it did not make news and the whole world missed it, probably because it seems to have been around longer than that. And whereas the fledgling industry of 1994 had trouble explaining what the internet was, the internet will account for 3.5% of global advertising expenditure in 2004.
The AT&T advert's slogan was "Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE?" and the advert was created in the 468 x 60 pixel format because it suited the site's layout.
AMD to connect developing populations to the net
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October 29, 2004 Chip developer AMD is developing a low-price PC for 'emerging markets' with the aim to connect 50% of the world's population to the internet by 2015. Despite the massive changes rolling out in the digital world, most statistics put the current online population at only 10% of the world population. The Personal Internet Communicator (PIC) will cost approximately US $185 for just the computer, and $249 for both the computer and a 15-inch monitor and is targeted at consumers in developing countries.
NEC Fuel cell laptop to go on sale this year
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October 29, 2004 Japanese electronics company NEC has shown the latest prototype of a laptop with built-in fuel cell, claiming the prototype has 10 hours life, extending the life of the traditional battery powered laptop by up to 50%.
Early versions of the NEC fuel cell laptop have been shown several times over the last two years, but this time the company intends to put a fuel cell laptop on the market in Japan before the end of 2004.
Whatsmore, NEC expects that the efficiency of the fuel cell can be boosted to increase "battery life" to more than 40 hours between refills by 2006.
palmOne nearly doubles handheld storage to 256 MB
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October 23, 2004 Handheld computing benchmarks have nearly doubled with the introduction of the Tungsten T5 from palmOne, which has 256 MB of RAM and acts as a portable flash memory drive that keeps data protected even if it loses its charge. With an estimated retail value of AU $749, the next generation Tungsten T5 offers the ability to carry more data and applications on a handheld than ever before.
Sanyo HDD Gorilla follows the call of the wild
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The Gorilla NV-HD 500 from Sanyo is a navigation device/ DVD player with a 20GB hard drive and a GPS receiver. It can be used as a handheld device or put into a cradle in a car for full entertainment functionality. In navigation mode, the HD Gorilla serves up dynamically updated maps from the hard drive when the device is mounted near the car driver.
These visualise in full colour 3D the area you're driving through or inquiring about, using a cartoon gorilla Avatar that represents the car or person in motion and gives the system it's name.
If it's mounted on a headrest, for viewing by people in the back seat, it will also play DVD movies and serve as a surround sound car stereo.
The price will be about $500, company representatives said.
OQO fits a PC computer in your pocket
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Honey, who shrunk the computer? As reported in earlier Gizmo articles the future of fully functional pocket PC's has arrived, with miniature models from Sony, Flipstart and now San Francisco based OQO. The OQO model 01 'ultra' personal computer has been coming out for a while - Gizmo's own Dave Weinstein even visited the company to report on it's progress.
Perceptual User Interfaces Using Your Nouse
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The Computational Video Group at NRC-IIT (Canada's National Research Council- Institute for Information Technology) has developed the innovative interface by approaching it from the point of view of face tracking. They've designed a vision-based perceptual user interface to provide a hands-free alternative to a mouse or joystick. Invented by Dmitry Gorodnichy, the trade-marked 'Nouse' with the slogan "use your face as a mouse", uses the motion of the head to control a cursor. Blinking one's eyes takes the place of the left and right mouse buttons.
Microsoft unveil aesthetic and functional hardware
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Microsoft makes great hardware. It’s true! Whatever your opinion of the company and it’s software, it’s a simple fact that Microsoft keyboards and mice are very user friendly. The company has just unveiled a new range of hardware products that focus on reducing fatigue and improving the man-machine interface – and offering enhanced secutiry via fingerprint recognition.
Creative Zen Portable Media Center based upon Microsoft Software
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A new era could potentially begin this week with the release of the AUD $999 Creative Labs Zen Portable Media Center (PMC), a tiny device with a 3.8" colour LCD screen and 20GB hard drive that will play Windows Media Video, Windows Media Audio, MP3, JPEG, and TIFF files. Such devices have been coming to market from lesser-known manufacturers over the last 12 months but have not become mainstream as yet, largely because only the very earliest of adopters have embraced the concept.
New software for sharing your life on the internet
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Andy Warhol once said that in the future everybody will be famous for 15 minutes. Well move over Andy - the future has arrived with recent collaborations between communications giant Nokia and blogging innovator Six Apart which will create a powerful multimedia blogging experience for people who want to share their lives online - as they happen.
The form factor of the future PC could be emerging
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The form factor for a future generation of personal computers may be emerging as two new projection technologies promise to overcome the remaining major stumbling blocks to miniaturisation - the screen and the keyboard. Miniaturised projection technologies for both keyboard and screen which can be incorporated into a PDA or phone could pave the way for a full desktop experience from a portable device. The virtual keyboard from VKB is a projection keyboard using both infrared technology (to produce an invisible circuit) and laser technology to project a full-size keyboard that performs exactly like a real one.
Apple Unveils the New iMac G5
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Apple has released the first pics and information on the next generation iMac, featuring the high-performance G5 processor and a new design that integrates the entire computer into the flat panel display. The iMac G5 packs a complete computer system into two inches of depth - Apple claims it's the world's thinnest desktop computer. The new line offers 17-inch or 20-inch active matrix widescreen LCDs and G5 processors running up to 1.8 GHz.
The Designer Mouse by Philippe Starck
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High profile European designer Philippe Starck has provided the centrepiece of the latest collection of input devices Microsoft design executives. Microsoft's first designer mouse, Optical Mouse by S+ARCK is certainly eye-catching with an illuminated coloured spine and sleek silver shape.
Nanotechnology promises massive data storage on a single disk
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A breakthrough invention and patent in nanotechnology will keep data storage technology in touch with its ever-increasing requirements of mass data storage well into this millennium. Michael E. Thomas, President of Colossal Storage Corporation, is the inventor of rewritable ferroelectric molecular optical storage nanotechnology which could become a pioneering development in the technology of mass data storage.
Sony Memory Stick reachs 2GB capacity
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Sony has upped the size of its Memory Stick PRO to 2GB in the standard-size and 1GB in the Memory Stick PRO Duo size. In addition to the higher capacities, the new Memory Sticks and are high-speed read and write capable, and compatible with a vast array of current Memory Stick PRO devices.
A Computer for the world's 4 billion illiterate and poor people
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The PCtvt concept being developed at Carnegie Mellon University is aiming to deliver a combined PC, TV, Video and Telephone at a cost of under US$250 by 2007. The radically simple design is aimed at illiterate users and aims for a ONE minute learning time. If the goal can be achieved, and the project sufficiently supported, it has the potential to significantly empower the illiterate everywhere by giving greater importance to voice and video communication rather than reading & writing. The cost of ownership of the computer has been designed to be as low as possible so it can be used as a communal resource in poor villages.
Fingerprint Recognition Wireless Phone
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Pantech, a leading Korean mobile phone producer, has launched the world's first "fingerprint-recognition" phone. The Pantech GI100 is designed for user-friendly security and convenience and offers a level of security beyond normal passwords, with the fingerprint used for lock-in keys, memory dials, and games.
Oyster laptop docking station promotes better posture
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Given the long hours we all spend slaving over a hot keyboard, a sound ergnomic posture is becoming an increasingly important consideration, so the oyster laptop docking station really caught our eye. While traditional docks connect the laptop to peripherals (i.e. desktop monitor), Oyster repositions the laptop perpendicular to the desk's surface retaining use of the LCD screen and accommodating a full-size keyboard.
First mainstream Handheld PC for the Blind
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HP and VisuAide have shown the Maestro, the first mainstream handheld PC for the blind and visually impaired. Built on the HP iPAQ Pocket PC h4150 platform, Maestro is the most affordable and compact personal digital assistant yet available to the visually impaired. Maestro features text-to-speech technology and a tactile keyboard membrane over its touch screen so the visually impaired can use essential information-access and communication applications without using a stylus.
New Toshiba laptop runs DVD and TV without booting Windows
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Toshiba's new Qosmio computer is a further convergence of portable personal computing and audio-visual capabilities, and for the first time in a PC offers access to the TV, TV recording and DVD functionality without having to boot the computer. The Qosmio series will be rolled out worldwide, with the three models in the initial Qosmio E10 series scheduled for launch in Japan on August 6. All three will feature 15-inch screens, and Toshiba will expand the line-up with 15.4-inch and 17-inch wide-screen versions by the end of 2004.
OQO readies its Model 1 uPC
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Dave Weinstein drops in at OQO HQ to take a sneak peak at the upcoming Model 1 Ultra, the company and the plans. The Model 1 is a full capability PC in the form factor of a PDA.
Sony 8.5GB Double Layer recordable DVD launched
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Sony has announced a DVD world-first technology - Dual Layer DVD Recordable. For the first time, consumers will be able to burn full-length DVD discs. With almost twice the capacity of existing recordable media and holding up to 8.5GB, the discs can be played in the majority of existing DVD-ROM drives and DVD video players. The new disc capacity now matches what is already available with pre-recorded ROM & movie discs.
Bill Gates Outlines Technology Vision to Help Stop Spam
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Microsoft Outlines Policy and Technical Proposals Aimed at Helping Contain The Spam Problem, Including the Development of Caller ID for E-Mail
