School Tech Futures ... Laptops or Tablets?

One of the more interesting trends in recent months, has been the adoption of tablet based computing for education. It seems that Tablet PCs have become a prerequisite in several of the top schools and universities in the US. Aside from the natural pen interface, the benefits of Tablet PCs are many:

The Tablet is a green solution, because of the fact that you can write notes and create documents without wasting paper.
You can carry your manuals with you, in electronic format.
Some have excellent recording capabilities, so that you can capture essential lectures for later reference.
The capability for wireless and remote conferencing and annotation is a real boon.
Wireless access also allows fast access to information whilst on the move or in even class.

The other thing that all this technology does is, is that sitting in the back of the class won't save you from the spotlight ... the teacher can pick you at random and with wireless tech being what it is you'll have to show you're paying attention. Just one warning ... don't doodle or write love notes as you could find your secret desires revealed to all. Now, how’s that for an idea for a product ... A doodle app which creates a note layer which is invisible to other devices on the network.

I've always held a lot of hope for the future of pen computing. I just want the capability to be able to draw on computers like I can on my sketch pad. It's close, but not quite ready for primetime.

Confusion over Support for Blu-ray or HD DVD Films.

Several sites are reporting some confusing information on whether or not 32-bit Vista will or won't support Blu-ray or HD DVD natively. I think it's going to be a watch this space kind of situation ... Microsoft cannot even possibly consider releasing Vista without native support for these media types. The confusion seems to have arisen over comments reportedly made by one Mark O'Shea, a Microsoft OEM systems engineer about Windows Media Player 11 shipping without support for playback of commercial Blu-ray or HD DVD films. I think that Microsoft will have to come up with the goods or else face widespread ridicule.

Logitech's VX and MX Revolution mice

Talk about cool looking mice. With the MX Revolution and VX Revolution, Logitech spared no expense in producing these new mice. They both feature a MicroGear Precision Scroll Wheel, which enables force feedback application support. The Alloy wheels, of which there are two on the MX, and one on the VX, can spin freely and smoothly for up to seven seconds in addition to the ratcheted scrolling motion we are already familiar with. These mice promise some excellent capabilities. The MX aimed at home users, whilst the VX is designed for mobile users. For more information on these mice, visit the Logitech Revolution product page.

Apple Settles with Creative over Music Patents

Apple has agreed to pay $100 million to Creative for a license of its technology for organising music tracks on portable devices. This agreement ends all legal disputes between the two companies benefits users and both vendors. Creative plan to continue with their Zen player and also with plans for producing accessories for the iPod and their players.

New Powerpoint Trojan

It seems that yet another Trojan has emerged which uses a PPT file to deliver its malicious package. Talk about frustrating, it is yet another example of why you should avoid looking at stuff which comes from external sources. This Trojan apparently has the potential to turn your machine into a Bot which helps hackers attack their intended targets. This latest trojan is not covered by recent security updates from Microsoft.

Another Bot type package is also doing the rounds and this one however can be protected against by using one of the recent Microsoft Patches. Microsoft's patches can be obtained from Microsoft's Windows Update site or via its automatic update service.

Vista to Ship in November?

No wonder people are confused ... Several news sites are reporting that Microsoft will likely ship in the 2007. OEMs will start getting the OS in for new systems sometime in November. Release Candidate 1 of Vista should be out early September. More modifications will be made to release candidate so we should no really be seeing a final gold master based version until October. Does this mean we'll see it in time for Christmas? Microsoft has also promised coupons offering free upgrades for purchasers of computers from certain manufacturers in the holiday season. This is to encourage people to buy during the Christmas shopping period instead of waiting till Vista is officially released.

Shuttle Release Intel Core 2 Duo Model.

As a long time shuttle user I've enjoyed the pleasure of working with their SFF (Small Form Factor) computers. The latest model SD37P2 supports the Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Duo Extreme, Pentium Extreme, and Pentium D processors. The barebones unit comes with a front side bus of 1,066MHz and supports up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM. With dual PCIe (x16) slots with ATI CrossFire technology it'll make for a mean gaming box. Throw in built-in Gigabit Ethernet, 10 USB slots and 7.1 channel HD audio and lots of other goodies and you'll no doubt enjoy woking with this small gem. For more info visit the Shuttle SD37P2 product page.

Google Talk Adds New Features.

Googles IM service has been upgraded and now includes voice and file transfer capabilities. New features include a drag and drop file transfer capability which thumbnails images and allows the messaging service to optimise how the files are transfered. The voice capability is good, as is the ability to be able to leave voicemail. It is something I'd like to see in my chosen IM services.

Sony Release 50GB Dual Layer Blu-ray discs

Talk about massive data storage ... the recordable media battle goes on with Sony firing their latest salvo. Sony announced the availability, to US consumers, of their 50GB dual layer Blu-ray discs. Each disk, will be able to contain up to 4 hours of HD quality content, and transfer speeds of up to 24 Mbps. This, in addition to the promised "archival reliability" should make the storage and back-up of your valuable data a fairly safe proposition. I for one, hope that both Blu-ray and HDDVD as formats get their act together and stop making people chose. Give me a unit which can access both...

Tom Tom One Announced

For those of you who enjoy the use of gps based navigation Tom Tom have announced the US release of their Tom Tom ONE which is an advanced GPS receiver … featuring SiRFstarIII™, Bluetooth, and CF based pre-installed maps. It will sell at a great suggested price of only $499 US retail and at this price the 174 gram unit is bound to be a success. For more information please visit the TomTom website.

BabelPix™ Keyword Translator

I received an intriguing email from Marc C. Johnson of Bedouin Ventures, LLC. His company has just announced called BabelPix™ a great tool which translates keywords which embedded in images, into foreign languages. It does so, by allowing you to select the image(s) to be translated, and then allow you to specify a target directory into which your translated image(s) will be placed. The product is aimed at photographers and designers who create images for sale through stock agencies and facilitates the easy access to their images in other language markets. It currently supports English to Spanish and back, other languages will follow. BabelPix™ is available in Mac, Windows and Linux versions. For more info on this product, visit the Babelpix homepage.

New Tech and News Coverage

Hello all,
I would like to introduce myself; I am Mario Georgiou and have been a long time contributor to Kickstartnews. My focus on digital imaging and design technologies has been the central basis of my involvement here. However, having been given the opportunity to contribute to the Hot News column, I am looking forward to providing news and coverage of technologies which are important to all visitors here. I hope that I don't disappoint you or make a fool of myself.