Digital Tech News - Digital Technology & Consumer Electronics

Bill Gates on Future Digital Lifestyle

Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently celebrated his 50th Birthday, and in a speech given at the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Engage 2005 conference, he shared his vision of the future and what we can expect to see in future technology for our digital lives. Of course when Gates has a "vision" or prediction of what's coming, you can pretty much count on it being realized. He's got the money to make it happen right? Bill Gates spoke about 3D Virtual Reality scenarios, future of advertising, high-speed wireless Internet, IPTV, and more.

Unsurprisingly, the main elements of Gates’ dream tie in neatly to Microsoft’s core product lines and interests, such as Tablet PC, MSN Instant Messenger, Media Center, HD DVD and the Xbox 360. Few people will disagree that digital devices will have a much greater impact on the way we live in the 21st Century.
read | Digital Home Magazine

Gates explained his vision of a 3D future as the ability to access distant places from your living room: "You'll be walking around in downtown London and be able to see the shops, the stores, see what the traffic is like. Walk in a shop and navigate the merchandise," he said. "Not in the flat, 2D interface that we have on the web today, but in a virtual reality walkthrough." read | DCCCafe Weekly

When asked whether he thought the online advertising industry would continue to see the phenomenal growth of the last few years, Bill Gates said he saw the debate between online and offline advertising as obsolete, because soon all media channels will be powered by the internet. As the boundaries blur between the virtual and physical world, Bill Gates stated “the future of advertising is the internet.”  read | Strategiy.com

HTC Breeze Smartphone

MSmobiles reports there's a new HTC Breeze smartphone on the way with the following Specs: Edge, GPRS, Quadband, 320 by 240 QVGA, Bluetooth, 1.3 Megapixels Camera w Flash & CIF Video Cam (front), TI OMAP 850, 64 RAM, 128 ROM, Micro SD slot Dimension (112.4 x 49 x 14.8 mm)

French website Mobinaute says that the HTC Breeze is GSM, GPRS, EDGE et UMTS, Bluetooth AND Wi-fi. They also add that the HTC Breeze smartphone will have a 2 Megapixels with Flash.

HTC Breeze release date: around May 2006

More mobile phone news and reviews

Total Immersion PCE Workstation

This looks like a great way to work or play on your computer. Personal Computer Environments Total Immersion PCE is designed for power users like programmers, video editors, and anyone who spends long hours working on a computer screen. Sitting in one of these set-ups must give you a feeling of total control, it kind of looks like a workout machine. It would make a nice gaming station and ergonomic digital workstation at my pad.

The Personal Computer Environments Total Immersion PCE, created by MYPCE turns the idea of a computer workstation inside out, making users the centrepiece of a personalised, ultra-comfy command centre. more | Gizmag

It ain't cheap though. costs US$2750 and you have to add your own screens, computer, and speakers.

Canon Optura 600 Mini-DV Camcorder Reviews

It's not easy to find a camcorder that shoots quality video AND still digital photos in the same package, and that's one of the features that makes the Optura 600 stand out. Canon Optura 600 Mini-DV Camcorder reviews show that this device has a lot to offer in a compact device.

The Canon Optura 600 Mini-DV Camcorder incorporates a 4.2-megapixel CCD; it uses 3.5 megapixels for video (which is then downsampled to DV resolution) and 4 mega pixels for still photos. The lens offers 10X optical zoom for both still and moving images. You can shoot video in traditional 4:3 mode or a wide-screen 16:9 letterbox format. read review | Cnet

ColorWare Scratch Resistant Colors for iPod

Want to stand-out with a unique looking iPod video player? ColorWare has announced that they will be coming out with some fresh color stylings for the new Apple iPod. The scratch resistant 2X coating will be available in a variety of colors, as well as a custom coloring option. A 30GB version of the iPod will sell for $365, and the 60GB version for $465.

Styled-up ColorWare iPod nano players are also available.

more | ColorwarePc.com

via |MobileWhack

Orange SPV C600 Smartphone and SPV M3000 wireless PDA Announced

After announcing the SPV M5000 (HTC Universal) last month, Orange is now introducing two new Signature devices for their business range in Europe.

The new Orange SPV C600 Smartphone (HTC Tornado) and the SPV M3000 wireless PDA (HTC Wizard), both run Windows Mobile 5.0 and use Orange's EDGE wireless network. Why don't they work with Orange 3g network? The EDGE network has more coverage, and, not enough customers have signed up for 3g service yet. The new Orange Signature devices allow Orange business customers to easily connect their employees’ mobile devices to Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server, without additional software.

The SPV C600 allows customers to access their email, use their calendar and synchronise data with their desktop, as well as making calls and sending text messages in the usual way. The SPV M3000 is Orange’s second Windows Mobile 5.0 wireless PDA. It has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard for data entry, in a stylish,compact form factor.

Sega iDog Color

The Sega iDog is back in the news, this time with iDog color versions. Sporting new colors including the pink "Lovely version", and the sky blue "Happy version" these digital robot iDogs could be a hit this Holiday shopping season...if you can find one.

Women's Game Conference

According to the International Game Developers Association, 88.5 percent of video game makers are male, but the Game Initiative's Women's Game Conference in Austin, Texas (October 26-27, 2005) is helping to "change the game" by focusing on a variety of women's topics in the computer and video game industry. Along with trying to get more women in the game industry, the Women's Game Conference also tackles issues including examining career paths for women in the industry, issues related to working in the gaming industry as women, how women are portrayed in video games, and women and girls as consumers of games.

Women's Game Conference - WGC 2005 Sessions include:

• Keynote by Kris Soumas, VP Interactive, Lifetime

• A Facilitated Networking Event

• A Talk on Sex in Games by Brenda Brathwaite

• The Recruitment and Retention of Women in the Game Industry

• Games for a Diverse Audience Team Building: How a Diverse Team Makes a Big Impact

• A Discussion with Clan PMS and the Frag Dolls

• Casual Games: Reaching the Female Market

• Increasing Marketshare: The Marketing of Games to Women

• What Women Want: A discussion between female casual game consumers and the marketers and developers who serve them.

Sound interesting? Check it out!

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Open Content Alliance vs Google Print

Google Print has got competition. The Open Content Alliance (OCA) is bringing together libraries, publishers, printers and hi-tech suppliers to create a universally available digital library. The goal is to build a permanent archive of multilingual digitized text and multimedia content. OCA's digital library alliance is backed by Yahoo, HP, Adobe, and now Microsoft Corp. has joined the party. More than a dozen major libraries in North America, Britain and Europe are also working with the Open Content Alliance.

"If we go and bring universal access to all human knowledge it will be remembered as one of the great things humankind has ever done," Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive and the organizing force behind the OCA said. 

WiMax World 2005

The WiMax World 2005 conference and exposition takes place this week in Boston from Oct. 26-28, featuring 160+ sponsors and exhibitors and 130+ speakers covering every aspect of WiMAX and mobile broadband trends over 3 days. WiMAX World Expo will also feature the largest exhibition in the world of wireless and mobile broadband solution providers serving the WiMAX marketplace.

The seven main conference tracks include:    

* WiMAX Business Track    
* WiMAX Technology Track    
* WiMAX and Wireless Broadband for Municipalities    
* WiMAX and VoIP Track    
* WiMAX Deployments- Case Studies    
* WiMAX Broadband Backhauls    
* WiMAX Ecosystem led by WiMAX Forum