Microsoft Openness Argument Wages On

Microsoft and their policies on openness are always a hot topic. A recent announcement declared that the software behemoth would be releasing a web platform known as Live Mesh.

Live Mesh aims to connect a user’s online and offline activities enabling them to work on any project regardless of where they are or what PC they are at.

Live Mesh is a genuinely bold bid that not only aims to bring together all of our computing activities, but also integrate every web enabled device in the same manner. Currently, many consumers complain that buying and using a new web enabled device as part of their daily lives makes things more difficult, at least in the short term.

As is often the case with any new product announcement, many are questioning the openness of the new Mesh system. While Microsoft has stated that it will run on open standards, some remain skeptical – based on a lifetime of Microsoft attempting to tie users down to using Microsoft products for virtually everything they do.

One thing that the new release does show is that Microsoft is taking the Internet much more seriously and intends to develop more products for what they now see as being their most important avenue of development.

All Go! For PSP Owners

Hot on the heels of the Go!Messenger service, Sony has announced that video download service Go!View will be released some time in summer. Sony is partnering with Sky to release the Go!View service.

Users will be able to download TV episodes, films, and other content to watch while on the go. In true Sky style, the service will be released with a subscription and a pay-per-view price package so users have the freedom of how they want to pay as well.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this release is that it’s the first official video download service available to European PSP owners. While no specific details have been leaked yet regarding the actual content that will be available, the listings should be pretty comprehensive and will almost definitely include the latest incarnation of Lost and 24.

While no firm release date has been announced, Sky and Sony have declared that it will be released some time in summer. Users will need to register first, then download content onto their PC, and then transfer it on to their PSP at a later time. It’s possible that a similar service may also be released for other handheld devices but, guess what? No official word on this has been released yet.

BlackBerry Pearl 8110 with GPS Now Available

US Telecoms giant AT&T have started offering the ‘BlackBerry Pearl 8110′ built by the guys at Research In Motion. The phone is available from Today and online for the US. The smartphone features a built in GPS receiver, with all round compatibility with the AT&T ‘Navigator’ GPS system.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8110’s include a microSD card slot for expanded memory a 2 megapixel camera with built-in flash and video recorder. One great feature of this phone is the 3.5mm audio jack allow you to use your favorite headphones to listen to music, I currently own a U600 and have an annoying usb style headphone jack which are rare to pickup as replacement.

Usual Bluetooth, as well as quad-band GSM. However, A 20-key ‘SureType’ keyboard and support for BlackBerry email allows as with most blackberry phones another great feature is instant messaging emailing and the flexibility of being able to add up to 10 work and personal email addresses including Gmail and Google Talk accounts.

In summary, this phone is for a business user and perhaps a fraction of the tech market. The RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8110 is available in store for $149.99 and a 2 year contract, ouch!

A perfect pair of jeans for geeks?!

Fashion Designer ‘Erik De Nijs’, has created a pair of jeans cleverly entitled “Beauty and the Geek” jeans. He explains “modern shaped trousers which are often worn by youngsters..”. The jeans have a keyboard along the front crotch, speakers stiched into the knees, in the back pocket is a “mouse”, and for you gamers out there, there is a joystick controller located just behind the front zipper.

This is thankfully just a proof of concept and are not available on the free market, Is that a good thing? yes, I’m not being funny when I say this but ‘dude’ get a laptop. This brings me to a more practical issue, What happens when you want to clean them? keyboard cleaner or will the washing machine suffice?

- G&G

skype goes unlimited, but its not quite unlimited, is it?

Skype have updated its suite of subscription price plans to include unlimited options. Prices range from US$2.95 to $9.95/mo, depending on what part of the world you fancy chatting too. Using its voice over IP service.

The top dollar package offers users unlimited VoIP calls to land lines in 34 countries worldwide, including europe. The plans work with the company’s desktop client and with Skype Mobile clients. You can still call other skype users completley free via internet, that won’t change.

skype have a fair usage policy you’ll get up to 10,000 calling minutes per month. So what this translates to is “skype offers 10,000 mins per month package”. rather than unlimited. However 10,000 minutes is sufficent call time for most people so i’m going to drop it.

One more thing, skype doesn’t have 999 or 911 so if you find yourself in a sticky situation you’ll need to use morse code… or your mobile.

Mac Clones Gain Popularity And Fire

With Apple having switched to Intel processors, a new generation of affordable and easy to make Mac clones has been steadily gaining popularity. OSX86Project.org even has a running wiki of tested component parts that are compatible with various builds of Apple’s OS. The open-source community, never short of free time, has been working to efficiently run emulators and create low cost LeopardOS based computers.

But in recent weeks, a new company called Psystar began offering their “OpenMac,” which is a Leopard-compatible computer starting at $399. Here’s a brief of everything that has happened in the past couple weeks:

Legal disuptes began immediately. Tech bloggers blew up Psystar with publicity. Reports came around that the claimed CEO didn’t even exist, and that there was no Psystar (Woah, Neo). Everyone and their lawyers had a comment to make about the End User License Agreement of Apple’s Leopard and its use on third party systems. Then Miami nerds drove out to Psystar’s address and photographed the building while shouting, “IT EXISTS!” And after many people who spent money on a two-week old company started having doubts about its authenticity, Psystar today announced its first shipment pickup is this afternoon.

Of course, if you aren’t like me, you’ll probably be curious to see if these things actually get there. I’ll stick to my Pentium 4 and Windows XP.

Free Wireless Internet Tied Up And Twisted

In nearly all semi-progressive, semi-wealthy cities there seems to be development for a free WiFi network—usually available in the business district/downtown area. In my home town of Sarasota, Florida, our free wireless has been up and running for almost three years. So why is it that the cities you’d most likely expect to be ahead of the curve, have been tied up in their wireless contracts?

Ambitious city-wide networks like the one planned in Boston have been ridiculed before they even left city hall. Most recently, Portland’s plans were halted as soon as the purportedly free wireless provider demanded free money. Numerous lessons have been learned from the stalls and plan changes in Philadelphia’s municipal wireless, and numerous more will be learned from the recent bill to congress for a hastily constructed, nation-wide wireless band.

Earthlink is one of the main bidders for these city-wide wireless initiatives, and consistently shows its lack of foresight. But then again wouldn’t the more popular ISPs bid well on these contracts if they actually thought such contracts were plausible?

A report released this year from the Institute of Local Self Reliance gives us this seldom-touted quotation, “Wireless solves the mobility problem; fiber solves the speed and capacity problems; and public ownership offers a network built to the benefit of the community.” If only practice was as sound as theory.

200 Million Song Pod coming soon?

After IBM’s recent announcement of their non-volatile memory technology, researchers at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) have upped the ante by several hundred percent Operating at fractions of a nanometer, functional nanoclusters shift electrons and act like switches which can increase storage capacity without increasing size.

Professor Lee Cronin from the University’s chemistry department proudly exclaimed, “This is unprecedented and provides a route to produce new a molecule-based switch that can be easily manipulated using an electric field.” At that point I became uninterested in the science and started considering how long it would take to download 200 million songs. In an age when HD space is barely an issue for the average consumer, and online storage options like Flickr for photos, Youtube for video, and Google for anything, what overall effect would this have on our daily lives?

Non-volative memory implies the lack of moving parts, but how secure will this new nanotechnology be centered around electric fields? Will I need to become a moving Faraday cage to keep my data from frying out in the elements?

WiFi SD Card Turns Any Digital Camera Wireless

Photo-bloggers, amateur papparazi, and teenage girls rejoice! Eye-Fi has launched their first version of a wireless add-on for nearly any camera. This incredibly clever SD card has a built-in WiFi transmitter, capable of being programmed to submit your photos to any number of over 20 online photosharing sites. Walmart.com has it listed for $99.84, which is an incredibly great price. Don’t be fooled by the 2 gb card size, after everything is transmitted you can simply clear and start taking pictures again. Picture yourself on your next vacation not having to carry around extra SD cards everywhere you go.

As the website’s Flash montage shows, this product is designed to bring us candid shots even quicker. Facebook, Flickr, and Photobucket availability are all built-in out of the box. I hope future software updates will allow for wireless Youtube video transmissions. As advancements in cell-phone photo, video, and audio in the US has been stagnant over the past 3 years, this product has the ability to bring live photo and video blogging into highquality life.

Twist And Browse with The Force?

Flicking your wrists is too barbaric. And sliding your fingers is so 2007. Welcome to the new wave in “active input” technology: The Force.

Microsoft’s research department has been experimenting with a pliable form of input commands that involves using force to bend, twist, push and pull your device. While the prototype was used primarily for web browsing, the responses can be programmed to carry out any on-screen action.

The research report says this new technology is capable of synergizing with other forms of “active input” (they really like that phrase), which is great for those of us who are already getting used to making the alligator-fingers motion on the iPhone.

Here’s a hypothetical situation of how I’ll soon read my morning news:

I double tap the browser icon on the screen to open up my New York Times homepage, and twist the unit until I reach the editorials. Nothing interests me so I fold the device inwards to go back to the front page. I slide my finger upwards on the screen until I reach an article on the latest predictions in oil futures. There’s a graph so I have to zoom in by sliding my fingers apart, the results are infuriating. At that moment, I get an instant message from an old friend who asks me how I’m doing. I respond by squeezing the device until a mad-face emoticon is sent. Now, where’s my coffee?

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