[Download Show #63 as MP3]
News
- Warner Music Goes DRM-Free
- Warner Music Group has announced that they will begin offering DRM-Free tracks via Amazon.com's Mp3 Store
- DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and can limit how many copies and on what devices you can play a purchased music track
- This means: EMI, Universal, and Warner all offer DRM-Free tracks leaving BMG/Sony the lone hold out.
- This is a big deal for DRM-Free music, and it should mean that BMG/Sony isn't far behind
- The Warner Group's announcement however does not make mention of releasing these DRM-Free tracks to other services like iTunes. So right now, it's Amazon only.
- The RIAA's Target in 2008: You
- So last year the RIAA won a court case that shook the grounds of the industry and the defendant ended up having to pay a large sum of money (they are currently in the appeal process)
- However the RIAA's next target is anyone who takes a CD they have legally purchased and rips the tracks to their computer so they can listen to the track on their computer or iPod (or other portable digital device)
- The RIAA lawyers are stating that digital rips of music from a CD that you have purchased are considered "unlawful"
- The RIAA already has one case in court about this very issue.
- Basically what this boils down to is that the RIAA wants you to buy a copy of every album/song for every type of use.
- If the RIAA manages to win this case, it will totally change the concept of Fair-Use laws in this country
- Wal-Mart Shuts Down Movie Download Service
- On Dec. 22 of last year, Wal-Mart shut down their movie download service, however no one noticed until after Christmas
- The service that launched in Feb. of 2007 offered Windows Media Files for download to PlayForSure devices
- Not much information is given as to why they shut the service down, but it can probably be attributed to HP ending support for the technology that supported the service
- Netscape Bows Out
- AOL has announced they they will stop development on the Netscape Navigator web browser if early Feb.
- This means the first mas market browser will fall away into obscurity
- It is important to note this event because Netscape ruled the browser world before the likes of Internet Explorer
- Also, because of Netscape, we got the Mozilla Browser suite which eventually led to the release of the Firefox Browser and Thunderbird email client.
Our New Year's Resolutions
PowerCast Technology
You hardly think twice about connecting your wireless laptop to the Internet, but you still have to fumble for a power cord when your battery runs out. How quaint. Soon those cumbersome power bricks will be a footnote in your grandchildren's history books, as being able to wirelessly charge devices becomes a .
What is it? Currently there are two technologies that accomplish wireless charging, one requires contact with a pad the other simply requires close proximity. Obviously not having to touch something makes the "coolness" factor go up, and makes it feel safer at least to me, which method will win out is not yet clear, but in either case you'll be able to simply place your laptop, phone, and music player onto a universal wireless charging pad that will immediately begin juicing them up. An adapter for your existing devices: $30. Not having to fumble for a power cord: Priceless.
When is it coming? Later this year both inductive and conductive charging technologies will emerge onto the market. WildCharge expects to roll out its first conductive-charging, the one that touches, notebook product in time for this year's back-to-school season, while eCoupled is pushing to get its inductive technology into cars, countertops, and desk surfaces by 2009. Look for wireless charging to become commonplace by 2010, after major phone and laptop vendors sign on to support it.
Octagon CPU
Regardless of what Moore's Law has to say, there's not much point in increasing processor speeds or doubling the bit paths in a CPU if the system bus can't carry the traffic. The problem is, processors today leak power, and the faster a chip goes, the more power it leaks in the form of heat. Both AMD and Intel have decided to focus on increasing the number of processor cores on a chip instead of increasing processor speeds.
The centerpiece of any given computer is it processor, which is responsible for the calculations that make the that make all of your software run. Placing multiple cores on a single chip dramatically increases the number of calculations that can be performed, without having to raise the clock speed of the chip itself. This way chip makers overcome the inevitable overheating problems that come from all that leaking power. And the more cores a manufacturer crams onto a single chip, the "faster" the CPU can go. However, the performance boost isn't one-to-one. Intel's four-core Q6700 performs just 26 percent faster than its same-speed, two-core E6700 on certain applications. (see the results of PC World tests) So while you will see improvement with eight-core CPUs, the speedup won't be as dramatic as it might sound.
When is it coming? Before AMD can start selling eight-core chips for the desktop, it needs to get its quad-core Phenom chips to market in this year. Intel has been selling quad-core desktop processors for about a year now, and it has announced eight-core chips for servers in 2008. Expect OctoCore--or whatever the company ends up calling it--to come to desktops in 2010.
Forget about running home to print out your photos or--gasp!--ordering prints online. The next generation of mobile devices will come with their own built-in printers.
What is it? Zink (short for "Zero Ink"), its a spin-off of Polaroid, and they've been working working for years on a new way of making photo paper. Zink paper, has a crystal substrate sandwiched between its layers that colorizes as it passes through a slim-profile printer. The printers themselves are so small that you can slip one in your pocket, and they can easily be built into cameras, laptops, or other devices.
When is it coming? This year, Zink will partner with a major camera vendor (name not announced) to release the first pocket-size digital camera with a built-in printer. This early model will produce 2-by-3-inch photos. At the same time, the company will begin selling a tiny handheld printer (probably for about $99) for camera phones; it'll print adhesive-backed photos that will likely grace the school binders of many eighth-graders. Two or three years after that, the technology may be integrated into laptops and other mobile devices.
Put Your HDTV Anywhere
Despite the wireless revolution happening all around your home, your high-def television remains shamefully hard-wired in place. Wouldn't it be great if you could put your TV anywhere you wanted, without worrying about where the cable jack was, and still get top-notch video quality? Soon you'll be able to do just that.
Wireless High-Definition Interface (WHDI) is a cable-free replacement for HDMI that uses a 5-GHz radio transmitter to send an uncompressed 1080p, 30-fps high-def video signal from a WHDI-equipped DVD player, game console, or set-top box, for example, to a WHDI-equipped TV across a distance of up to 100 feet. Because the WHDI signal is compatible with HDMI, you'll be able to buy HDMI wireless adapters for your existing entertainment gear--and that means you can finally rearrange your furniture the way you'd really like it, without having to run additional cables through your walls.
When is it coming? Amimon, which manufactures the WHDI chip set, released the technology to electronics makers at the end of August of 2007. Now the race is on to bring WHDI to market. TV makers have already begun demoing new wireless-equipped HDTV models at trade shows, and fans of bleeding-edge tech should be able to get their hands on hardware by anytime now. WHDI is expected to add about $200 to the cost of a new TV, so expect to pay a premium for the technology in throughout this year. WHDI adapters for your existing hardware will likely cost $300 to $400 for a pair of adapters (you need at least two--a receiver for the TV and a transmitter for your set-top box, for example--to get started). The Amimon Vice President of Marketing Noam Geri says, "In a few years costs should drop to about $10 for inclusion in a TV and $60 for the adapters".
Take Your Presentations Anywhere
Watching video on a cell phone is a pain. Even if you find the content you want, the tiny screen makes enjoying the program difficult. Before long, however, you'll be seeing shows right-sized again, thanks to your projector-equipped cell phone.
Microvision Pico projectors employ light scanning technology to generate a complete, full-color image from a beam of light. Inside, it is simply a single red, green, or blue laser bouncing off a tiny mirror onto a wall as large as 120 inches, from 12 feet away in a darkened room. By using a single beam of light rather than three beams, Microvision is able to make the projectors small enough to fit into cell phones without appreciably increasing the size of the phones. And the company even expects the integrated projectors to play a feature-length movie on just one cell phone charge.
When is it coming? Microvision has partnered with Motorola to build Pico projectors into mobile phones, the first projector-equipped model is expected to debut later this year or early next year. Right now the company is designing an accessory for PCs and game consoles that should be available by the middle or end of this year. Built-in projectors might add as as much as $150 to the price of a phone initally, and the the accessory projectors will likely cost around $200. But who wouldn't pay that for a Google-enabled Wi-Max Projector phone.
Five Terabytes Per Drive
Even if you're not a digital pack rat, you probably still manage to cram a lot of data onto your hard drive. Digital photos, movies, music, and overflowing e-mail folders can pile on the gigabytes before you know it. But don't worry: Way bigger hard drives are on the horizon.
When is it coming? HAMR is still very much a research project, but it should be coming to market in the next several years. Seagate expects to introduce 5TB HAMR hard drive by 2011, with capacities of up to 37.5TB to follow a few years after that.
A New Better Internet
TCP/IP, the technology on which the entire Internet is based, is no spring chicken. The current version of the Internet protocol, IPv4, has been around for more than 25 years. The old technology suffers from some serious limitations--including a shortage of addresses for all the computers that use it. Internet Protocol version 6 will change all that.
What is it? Unlike IPv4, which uses 32-bit addresses like 155.54.210.63, IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses like 2001:0ba0:01e0:d001:0000:0000:d0f0:0010. This small, simple change permits every person in the world--and even every computer in the world--to have a unique IP address. In addition, IPv6 features network-layer encryption and authentication, enabling secure communications between parties.
When is it coming? IPv6 is here right now, and has been for several years, but almost nobody is using it yet because the hardware needed for it remains more expensive than that for IPv4, and few network administrators are trained to manage it. However, the United States government has declared that it will move all of its networks to IPv6 by the summer of 2008, which even at government speeds means the technology should arrive in time to pick up the slack when the pool of available addresses runs out around March 2011. The depletion of addresses should also induce your ISP to update its network before long.
Tech Predictions
Gigabit Internet (2012): Dogged by the speed of your home broadband service? With a gigabit Internet connection over a fiber-optic line, you'll be able to download the latest movies in less than a minute at speeds up to 1 gbps.
Mobile fuel cells (2013): Now in development, hydrogen fuel cells will power your laptop for a week at a time using store-bought fuel cartridges.
Smart homes (2014): We've heard for years about the smart home--a house chock-full of computer-driven appliances that cater to your every need. As homes with built-in ethernet wiring become more common in several years, central home PCs will control everything from the thermostat to the lighting to the security system.
Probe storage (2015): Code-named Millipede, the probe storage system being developed by IBM will use atomic force microscopy (think itsy-bitsy dots) to store more than a terabyte of data per square inch on a polymer surface. An array of thousands of little probes will be able to read and write large amounts of that data far more quickly than today's drives can.
Nano lightning systems (2015): It has "lightning" right in the name, so you know it's cool, but it's really about cooling off your hardware. Microscopic nanotubes will use an electrical charge to generate tiny wind currents on the surface of your chips to cool them down without the aid of fans.
No comments:
Post a Comment