DEMO 07 Conference

Headlines that caught our (Cybers) eye...

Wii News Channel Goes Live

Windows Vista Finally Arrives

The 17th annual DEMO 07 conference takes place January 30th through February 1st in Palm Desert, CA. It will showcase 68 consumer-oriented and enterprise computing innovations including video email and messaging, video ringtones, a GPS with wireless control, IM photos directly to the desktop, and software that tracks plagiarized blog content.

TechDeals.net

TechDeals.net looks to have some great deals listed...here's just a few examples...

Hanns-G JC-199D 19-inch LCD Monitor for $99.95

Buffalo 250GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive $69.99

Sandisk Sansa E260 4GB MP3 Player $129.99

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB DDR 400 PC3200 $139.99

Apple Macbook Pro 15.4" Core Duo Notebook $1399

Western Digital 250GB IDE Hard Drive $49.98

Online: www.techdeals.net

Gibson Signature Series Les Paul Standard flash drive

Mini flash drives are all the rage today. Prices have dropped and storage capacities have gone up. They're just about the handiest thing you can have as a computer accessory. Some even have style, but Gibson Guitars has topped them all with their latest entry into the consumer electronics market.

The coolest product so far is their Signature Series Les Paul Standard flash drive. It's a miniature replica of Gibson's world famous guitar, but it's really a 1GB USB2.0 flash drive. And it comes with it's own USB extension cable to hook up to your computer, which is a nice touch when a USB port is not within easy reach. Plus the drive has it's own case.

Gibson Audio also offers:
DVD Recorder - DVD+/-R Double Layer, DVD-RAM, Up To 8.3GB per DVD DL Disc
500GB External Hard Drive - USB2.0 - 500GB Maximum Storage - 7,200 RPM - 8MB Cache
GSL-3 Center Channel Speaker
GSL-2 Tower
3150 Joule Surge Protector
3240 Joule Surge Protector
7.1 A V Receiver
Digital Audio Fiber Optic Cable
HDMI Cable
CD-R Media
DVD-R & DL Media

Source: www.gibson.com/Products/Audio
Press Release: Gibson introduces consumer electronics at CES 2007

Nokia 6131 NFC phone pays for itself

A new technology known as Near Field Communications or NFC, allows you to make payments and share information. NFC is similar to RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification, but only works at close range.

Nokia has integrated this technology into a new cell model, the 6131 NFC phone, which works like MasterCard's Pay Pass. Proximity Payment.

Because you have to get so close to use them, these NFC readers operate like the smart ID cards we carry to read the scanners at the front door of your business or the gate at your apartment. Even more security can be added, in the form of a simple code that has to be input at the time of the transaction.

Nokia showed this off last week at CES. It sounds like a great idea. The new technology can also be used to read NFC enabled business cards and scan the information to your contacts, or scan in a phone number from an advertisment. The phone maker is testing the new system with both Visa and MasterCard, but don't expect to see this phone in the US for some time.
(read more)

The Best of CES 2007

cnet.com reviews the Best of this year's CES.

LG debuted the world’s first DVD player that supports both Blu-Ray and HD DVD! LG really does stand for "Life's Good!"Warner Brothers Studios announced it's own hybrid video disk, called Total HD, which will play on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drives.

Harman Kardon rolls out their mobile media manager Drive + Play 2.

Sony Ericsson W950i Walkman Phone:
3G - advanced digital music player with music management software -
4GB internal memory - built-in FM radio - stereo headset - USB cable
2.6 inch touch screen display - send email with integrated Opera8.0 web browser.
http://www.sony.com/ces/index.php

Wired.com talks about how everything gets connected. It's the year for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Gadgets In Vegas: Hi-Tech Goes Wild @ CES

Cool. Wireless TV.
HP MediaSmart TV has 801.11a/b/g/n WiFi adaptors & Ethernet ports.

Here's a neat idea...HP's new PC design with a wide 19-inch flat screen that tilts up to allow access to the integrated printer in back. But the print out comes out in front. Very smart design, now where's the specs?

Motorola O ROKR Bluetooth enabled headset built-in to a pair of Oakley sunglasses.

Sling Media announces their Clip + Sling which uploads and shares video clips from TV. They've partnered with CBS to develop a video community like YouTube, but with a focus on legal high quality content.

Cisco and Apple argue over the iPhone name. Oh, c'mon, both companies stand to make a fortune over this new phone, if everything works the way it's hyped to do. Sign your agreement and get over it already.

Google Earth4 goes 3D.

Finally, a portable keyboard that goes anywhere! The i.Tech Virtual keyboard. Laser and infared technology combine to project a full size QWERTY keyboard onto any flat surface.

Best of Innovations Honored this year @ CES

Sources:
www.engadget.com
www.gizmodo.com
www.crunchgear.com
www.on10.net
scobleizer.com

Apple iPhone More Than Just iTalk

MacWorld & CES ~ New Technology For A New Year.

The Apple iPhone will finally ship this June and it's a beauty! It's thin, sleek, and simple to use, thanks to it's 3.5 inch screen with multi-touch display. It looks like you can just scroll right through the menus with just a point and tap, and no stylus or button wheel to mess with. Nice navigation. Bloggers are going nuts covering it, so there's plenty of reviews, photos and video.

It can also be called a widescreen iPod, but it does so much more than just play your music. iPhone’s multi-touch display and the OS X Safari web browser may just finally put the wireless web in our hands. It also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! Search so you can instantly search for information, just like on your computer. iPhone also includes Google’s useful and innovative Maps service, so you can view maps, satellite images, traffic information and get directions, all from iPhone’s amazing easy-to-use touch screen interface.

Apple Inc. has totally moved into mobile technology with the iPhone, which follows their market share of iPods and MacBooks. It's kinda pricey to start at $499, but this device may just tip the scales from Blackberry back toward the Apple. 4GB is $499 and the 8GB $599 available in June in the US, and later this year in Europe. Cingular Wireless is the ISP.

Good looking specs too:
3.5 inch screen with 320 x 480 @ 160 ppi resolution
GSM Quad-band Wi-Fi (802.11), Cingular EDGE & Bluetooth2.0
4.8 ounces at 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches
Battery Life up to 5 hours on talk, video, web browsing, and up to 16 hours on audio playback.

It was a busy day...

Microsoft Home on the Vista

Microsoft: A new Vista on every desktop

Sony K750i MP3 Phone

RealNetworks and TiVo combine to share access to the Rhapsody music services

AsusXG Station External PCI-Express Graphics - MacWorld Expo - Nokia MultiMedia Phones

Sources:
www.engadget.com
www.gizmodo.com
www.crunchgear.com
www.on10.net
scobleizer.com

CES 007 What would Bond use?

Browsing CES; Day One:
If James Bond was at CES this year, what would he be doing, and which cool gadgets would he be using? The SpyCam has come a long way, baby.

Apple & Cingular = iPhone.
We've heard about Apple's rumoured iPhone. Now the word is Cingular will be the official provider of Mac's new wireless service, although it may only be GSM. How cool would iChat mobile be?

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet puts the web in your hands with:
- Wifi & BT
- VGA (640×480) webcam
- 4.13 inch screen (same as the 770)
- Stereo Speakers (770 has mono)
- Microphone has moved to the top.
- Audio jack and mini usb port have moved to the right side.
- Requires mobile phone (with BT) for cell connection.
- Integrated Stand, the n800 comes with a sleeve, rather than the sliding shell on the 770. Blog & Flickr pictures!

XBOX360 plugs into IPTV with DVR & VOD - DigitalVideoRecorder & VideoOnDemand.
The "new and improved" XBOX360 sports a 120GB hard drive with available HDMI ports. IPTV services will be multi-channel, multiple picture-in-picture, video on demand, and broadcast television, with DVR functionality. Bond would have the VideoOnDemand on a monthly subscription and a SpyCam in the palm of his hand. This will be the first major hardware update to the XBOX360 in over a year and a half.

Finally, I can setup my home network with full backups, because Windows Home Server will be available this year. Microsoft's mass data storage solution is a software suite that automatically finds and backs up all of the data on all of the Windows PC's on your LAN. It can be used to manage data stored within user accounts, shared folders, and external storage devices.

WindowsHomeServer also has Zune Connectivity and a Web Component that lets you login and access your backup data from any connected computer on the planet. Wow, think of it! Wireless access to your personal online storage (Area51?) from any connected computer on the planet. Redundant Storage capacity is expandable; data is reorganized on the fly as you plug in more hard drives.

I've had my eye on Dell's XPS 410 Desktop PC since last year, but this latest configuration is the final winner, with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 Intel processor, nVidia's GeForce 7900GS graphics adapter with 256MB of VideoRAM, a 20-inch widescreen Dell 2007WFP flat-panel monitor, 2GB of DDR2-667 RAM Memory, two 320GB hard drives in a RAID configuration for a total 640GB of storage, 16X multiformat dual-layer DVD burner, and a second 16X DVD-ROM drive. Integrated audio can handle up to a 7.1 channel surround sound speaker system.

The midsize tower has four drive bays, two internal and two externally accessible, plus two PCI Express 1X and three PCI slots open, six USB and two FireWire ports on the rear, and a FireWire and two more USB2.0 ports up front, and retails for just over $2000.

Q would find plenty of gadgets to equip Bond with at CES this year. Even Moneypenny would approve.

Sources:
www.engadget.com
www.gizmodo.com
www.crunchgear.com
www.on10.net
scobleizer.com
blog.wired.com

Only the Sony

Sony has some really great notebooks and now has a sub-model the size of a PDA.

Sony VAIO UX280P Micro PC VGN-UX280P

Intel Core 1.20GHz processor
Windows XP Professional
533MHz Front Side Bus
Integrated Wireless LAN & WAN with Cingular Wireless
Integrated Bluetooth
LCD 4.5" wide SVGA touch screen
40GB Hard Drive
1GB Memory PC2-3200 DDR2 SDRAM
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator w/128MB memory
USB2.0
Memory Stick Media Slot supports optional memory stick media

In fact, their entire catalog is great.

Source: Sony Style@ www.sonystyle.com

Microsoft Zunes In

The Zune Makes Waves @ YouTube...www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQg0JNaKeVM

Engadget did a full review of the Zune @ www.engadget.com/2006/11/15/zune-review/

Wii Will Rock You

Wii Fi

Wii Search

Wii Drum Machine Video on YouTube

Wii Remote Synthesizer

Have A Sharper Image

The Sharper Image website has an impressive array of hi-tech gadgets and gizmos, any of which would make a great gift for him or her...

Bluetooth Wireless Stereo Headphones let you listen to your iPod, computer, TV or stereo up to 30 feet away

The Ultimate Human Touch Massage Chair offers 8 preprogrammed massage sessions to soothe and rejuvenate sore muscles

Ionic Breeze air purifiers let you breathe easier indoors

Sharp 32 inch Aquos Liquid Crystal HD TV presents LCD technology in clear, high-resolution widescreen images in true 16:9 aspect ratio

Bose SoundDock Digital Music System charges your iPod as you listen to clean, undistorted sound

Magellan Prestige RoadMate Portable GPS system features 4GB hard drive, detailed street-level maps of all 50 states and Canada, with built-in microphone, speaker, 3.5-inch color LCD screen and integrated Bluetooth connectivity.

CybersView from the Eye & the Ear of the Beholder

We love personal technology and it's influence on entertainment. All these "gee-whiz" gadgets that impact our high-or low-tech lives can really enhance our lives or just make things complicated. We want to know the real deal, cut through all the "geek-speek" nonsense, and translate the keywords into simple english that we can understand.
Thus, CybersView.com is our personal look at personal technology and entertainment, from a critical viewpoint, or CybersView from the Eye and the Ear of the Beholder.

Some Recent Stories:
Bose Headphones @ Sharper Image
Most Innovative Digital Cameras @ PC Magazine
Peter Gabriel Filter Playlists @ blog.wired.com

Nike+ iPod Sport Kit - Nano or NoNo?

Nike calls it Nike Plus. Some students are calling it scary. We're just calling attention to it, because it's new, it's cool, and it could affect our lives, both postive and negative. We believe in knowing all the facts, good and bad, so we can make the best choices in life.

The Nike+ iPod nano sport kit fits a sensor into your sports shoe and uses your iPod nano to track your jogging or workout movements. Pretty nifty new use of existing technology, but students have already raised big security concerns. There are ways to hack and track someone using the RFID technology, but of course, you can just turn off (deactivate) the sensor from the Nike iPod sport kit.

Tune Your Run @ www.apple.com/ipod/nike

View video @ www.nike.com/nikeplus

Read more at Wired.com/news/technology