Digital Tech News - Digital Technology & Consumer Electronics

New Wireless Technologies Explained

You may already be using Wi-fi 802.11 b/g for your wireless connections, but there are some new exciting wireless technologies on the horizon that will shake things up once again in the tech world. BusinessWeek Online took a look at some of these wireless network technologies in an article that will bring you up-to-speed on this fast moving space.

A Sampling of New Wireless Technologies

802.11n

Capabilities Stream high-definition video from one room of the house to another. Although the standard is not yet complete, it will cover distances greater than Wi-Fi's 300-foot range Supporters* Intel, Agere, Atheros, Texas Instruments, Airgo Availability 2006

WiMax

Capabilities Offers access speed of more than 75 megabits per second (the fastest DSL offers 32 megabits per second) over a 30-mile range Supporters* Intel, Nokia, Cisco, Sprint Availability Late 2005/early 2006

Ultra Wideband (UWB)

Capabilities Superfast connectivity over short distances -- under 32 feet -- much faster than existing Bluetooth technology, which covers about the same distance Supporters* Freescale, Intel, Hewlett-Packard Availability 2006

ZigBee

Capabilities Covers distances of up to 210 feet, but is slow -- a poky 250 kilobits per second. The big benefit: It uses very little power Supporters* Freescale, Honeywell, Samsung, Cisco, Epson Availability 2006 (already out in products such as light switches and remote controls)

more | BusinessWeek

Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 Review

PC World reviews the new Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, and finds that it has a strong mix of easy-to-use and sophisticated editing tools.

"As an all-around digital photo editing, organizing, and sharing package, Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10 was an also-ran when compared with offerings from Adobe, Jasc, and Ulead. But the new Digital Image Suite 2006 is now a contender, at least when it comes to organizing and sharing photos."

Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 includes Photo Story 3.1, which is also a free download from Microsoft. If you have not tried Photo Story you should...I love it!  Photo Story is a Microsoft Windows XP–only video-slide-show utility, with motion and music effects.

more | PC World

Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod Review

If you hate cords and wires as much as I do, you'll be happy to hear that Logitech has just released the new Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod players. I love this part: Just plug in a Bluetooth wireless adapter and you can listen to music in your iPod wirelessly up to 300 feet away.

The Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod have controls on the side that allow you to pump up (or down) the volume, and select tracks from your iPod playlists with forward / backward, play and pause control.  Rechargeable batteries will give you up to 8 hours of music listening pleasure. So what's the bottom line, are the Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod all that? CNET editor's think so.
Available in July - Price: $150 (ouch!)

ODEO Podcasting Service, Preview and Screenshots

OK, now that we know Apple is adding support for podcasting in the next update version of iTunes (iTunes 4.9), it looks like competing podcasting company ODEO is finally releasing details and news of forthcoming features.  ODEO will be launched soon, but ODEO is a new player in the online media game. Apple iTunes podcasting option will automatically be available to millions of iTunes users, putting Apple ahead of the rest in podcasts. I expect ODEO might be bought-out by a major company like Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo down the line, so they too can get in on podcasting.

For now, Phillip Torrone at MAKE Magazine has a preview, review, and screenshots of the new ODEO podcast service, and it looks like a winner.

"I'm really impressed with the ease of use, download tools, recording (great use of Flash com server, finally!) cross platform and niceties of ODEO- I think this is going to get a lot of people publishing and downloading podcasts. ODEO + iTunes 4.9 + iPodder 2.1 + iPodderX + AudioBlog + LibSyn + everything else that's going on right now, we're finally going to fill our 40GB portable audio players, and will all be recording a lot of important things to share."

more Podcasting news

Personal Multimedia Players Reviewed

Mobile-Review was on the scene at Computex 2005, and they've got the latest on new Personal multimedia players and gadgets that feature video, audio, and imaging capabilities all-in-one. These personal, portable media players are changing the way we watch and listen to media content, and they are getting even more powerful. Want to see for yourself?  Yes, you do.

Orb Networks - Engadget Interview

In other "personal-media" news this week, Engadget posted a J.D. Lasika interview with Orb Networks CEO Jim Behrens about the growing importance of personal media. Orb Networks is a web-based service that streams music, video, and photos from your Windows XP computer (Mac and Linux soon) to other Internet connected devices. You can access this digital media as well as streaming television with a laptop, PDA, or Smartphone.

Excerpt:

A user just needs to go to your site, download a free application and install it on a PC, and they’re off?

"Any device that has a Web browser in it, that’s right. We’ll connect it to their home PC and show them a display of all the media they have available. They can see their favorites or playlists or most recently recorded videos or whatever."

"It’s about you getting to any of the content you already own on any device anywhere you connect to the Internet, but also being able to format the bit rate for other content that may not be accessible on that device from other places."

If you're looking to access music, live television, videos, photos and other digital content at any time from any device that can connect to the Internet, Orb Networks is a must-see service.

Engadget interview

Wired NextFest 2005 Innovations

Later this week, Wired invites you to “experience the future” at Wired Nextfest 2005. NextFest 2005 is an exposition that brings together innovations from top scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs.

Inspired by World’s Fairs of the past, WIRED NextFest presents the future. During this three day festival, Chicago can experience more than a 100 hands-on exhibits including robots, flying cars, private space planes, homes of the future, unmanned aerial vehicles, hypersonic sound beams, invisibility coats, and much more. Last year, WIRED NextFest.2004 attracted 25,000 attendees and establishing WIRED NextFest as a world class event. This year, we will revisit the future, bigger, bolder, and better, with WIRED NextFest.2005 at Chicago’s Navy Pier, June 24 – 26, 2005.

Motorola Technology Innovation Week Chicago also starts Monday at Thompson Center Plaza and concludes with WIRED NextFest 2005 so you can experience new technologies from Motorola and a host of other high-tech companies. Motorola will be showing off new and future technologies that bring seamless mobility to life, and maybe... a new RAZRberry?

Camera phones Cause Concern

Apparently cameraphones stole the show at CommunicAsia in Singapore last week. Some camera phones rival the quality of most digital cameras, with a few camera phones capable of taking pictures as large as 5 and 7 megapixels like Samsung's SCH-770 mobile phone with seven-megapixel camera -- more powerful than many digital cameras.

Personal-media Revolution

With more homes being connected to the Internet via broadband connection, the desire to transfer and access large media files is growing. Digital media such as video, photos, and audio are also being referred to as "vlogs", "podcasts", "soundseeing", "mash-ups", and "photo weblogs."   These new media trends have got people creating their own personal-media with today's affordable digital cameras, recorders, and software.

But once you've created your digital masterpiece, how do you store, or share your content? Now there's a place that will host your media forever — for free.

Ourmedia is several things in one.

• An open-source project built and staffed by volunteers

• A destination Web site that freely hosts grassroots video, audio, music, photos, text and public domain works    

• A community space to share and discuss personal media    

• A learning toolkit to help our members create rich and compelling works    

• An archive so that these works can be preserved for the ages    

• A clearinghouse that allows anyone to search for licensed video, audio or music, download it and remix it, with proper attribution. Legally.

J.D. Lasica, co-founder and executive director of OurMedia, says "Our mission is to advance the personal-media revolution. We're not going to put big media out of business, but there's a real wellspring of creativity at the grassroots level that we've seen over the last several years. We want to make it really easy for people to share their creative works with the whole world. We want to be the center of push-button publishing."

more | InternetWeek

Samsung Digimax Pro815 8-Megapixel Digital Camera

If you happen to be in New York City, try to get over to Columbus Circle where the Samsung Experience store is located.  It's worth the trip if you're into tech gear and gadgets. The Samsung Experience, a 10,000-square-foot interactive space of virtual reality experiences and digital technology, is open to the public. Located on the third floor of The Shops at Columbus Circle in the Time Warner Center, Samsung has created a range of experiences, each of which ties the Samsung brand and technology to the experiences of everyday life. If you can't get to NYC, The Samsung Experience website will take you right inside. Check it out!

PC Magazine reports that at Samsung Experience, the new "prosumer" Samsung Digimax Pro815 digital camera was "officially" unveiled. This 8-megapixel SLR-styled digital camera features a large 3.5-inch LCD (the largest TFT LCD screen on a digital camera) along with a 1.4-inch LCD on the top of the camera for quick thumbnail photo viewing or waist level shooting. Nice. With a 15X optical zoom and Schneider-KREUZNACH optics lens, the Samsung Pro815 brings pro digital photography features to consumers.

Samsung Pro 815  details