Sat January 08 2005
Archos PMA400 video player debuts at CES'05 |
07:49 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video As I promised you earlier, the fabled Archos Pocket Media Assistant PMA400 (official website, English manual) had its first debut at CES yesterday afternoon. It will be available at the end of January for $799; some accessories are already available now. The complete specs: Capacity: 30GB |
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Mobile phones with Toshiba harddrives? |
07:32 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones Toshiba announced at CES last week that it will be shipping its mobile phone-oriented 2GB, 0.85in hard drive by the end of January. And according to The Register, a 4GB version will ship mid-year, with 6GB and 8GB drives shipping in 2006. Toshiba is pitching the part at "next-generation mobile digital devices", but it's a good bet phone makers are going to take a keen interest in the drive, particularly given the clear convergence between handsets, PDAs and, increasingly, digital media players. Toshiba's hard drives may enable handset makers to incorporate large storage capacities more cost-effectively than they can with Flash-based memory cards, and potentially reach higher capacities more quickly. I was never a big fan of flash devices, so I hope that PPC vendors will incorporate these harddisk drives soon! |
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Fri January 07 2005
Microsoft ActiveSync 3.8 released |
09:52 AM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones Microsoft just released ActiveSync 3.8 for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones. It contains fixes making synchronization more trouble free and includes all the significant improvements brought to you in ActiveSync 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7.1. |
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Thu January 06 2005
Bill Gates -- Supports Strong Intellectual Rights Laws |
10:26 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge In this new digital era, many are questioning the current intellectual property laws and are calling for reform. The recording industry has ruthlessly pursued file sharers even beyond what most people consider fair and reasonable. Many people wonder why it's in our best interest to keep a song's rights protected for many years. How long is long enough for content rights to get reasonable returns on the original investment required to create the work? The battle cry has been that we must protect property rights or we will see less great movies and music and writing. The content will start disappearing because there just won't be enough revenue in it if we weaken property rights. In fact it is argued that not only must the content be protected, but the content owner should have full control over how and when it is viewed or used. In an interview with Bill Gates at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by CNET news.com, we hear his thoughts about intellectual property. He answers with some pretty amazing comments like
and
Check out the article itself for more of the context for what he has to say about intellectual property and many other issues related to Microsoft's business. But however you slice it, a big opportunity for Microsoft lies in making the most of the large revenue streams associated with content providers and content delivery systems. Microsoft is unlikely to support any weakening of copyright or patent laws as long as they expect to have a piece of that pie. Good or bad? I suppose that's the $1,000,000 question. |
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Pocket PC and Smartphones Will Merge |
09:17 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones InfoWorld is reporting that Pocket PC and SmartPhone brand names will disappear over the next year or two. They will be merged into a single Windows Mobile product brand name. This announcement came from an interview with Scott Horn, a senior director in Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices group, at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. I don't know about you, but I like calling them Pocket PCs, and I'll miss it. Palm still works well for PalmOne devices, or even Zodiac PDAs, and I don't want to give up that name either! The new brand name, Windows Mobile, sounds much more like the OS than the device, but hey, Microsoft is all about the operating system, so I guess they prefer that the focus stay on them. So what lingo are we left with? What do you think we'll be calling Pocket PCs in the future? Got any ideas?... Discuss this story by responding with what you think we'll be calling them! (Family-safe language please.) |
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Gadgets are no longer just for geeks... |
08:43 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Lounge Before Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates gave his key note speech (thanks to Doctorow for the link) yesterday at the CES, NBC TV network's Conan O'Brian said something that made me chuckle: The theme of this year is that gadgets are no longer just for geeks. That's right, look around you ... they are also for nerds and dweebs. Let's think about this for a second. Consider what Apple has achieved with its iPod music player, this little device that enables users to download up to 10,000 songs into a sleek white and silver rectangular device, slimmer than a pack of cigarettes. Apple managed to get rid of a nerdy stereotype and to attract in no time a less geeky crowd with very advanced technology. Really, is it still the techno-loving geek -- the kind of person who goes to great length to be the first to try out something new, whether hardware, software, or gadgets, the kind who goes into seclusion for days when a coveted new gadget arrives -- who is mainly driving the gadget market today? This post is also a poll, so make sure to give your vote! |
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Sony introduces Memory Stick Pro with 4GB |
08:01 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones Sony is doubling the capacity of its flash media product line again with the introduction of a 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media at the CES 2005. The Memory Stick Pro High Speed media not only offers higher capacities and is high-speed read and write (up to 80Mbps) capable, but is also compatible with a vast array of current Memory Stick PRO devices. Sony's new flash media flagship won't come cheap though: The 4GB Memory Stick PRO (High Speed) media will be available in March for about $900. |
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iSilo/X V4.2 released |
05:23 AM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | iSilo/X iSilo and iSiloX V4.2 were released earlier today and are now ready for your download. New highlights of the reader iSilo: New highlights of the the convertor iSiloX: |
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