Emerging Technologies You Need to Know
lala.com: next in the arena with AppleIf you are not sure that the success of the iPod is iTunes, then check-out lala.com. This brand new site offers free streaming in hopes that you will purchase albums (albums, not songs). Interesting is that your music purchased from lala.com can be uploaded to an iPod and accessed from any PC on the Web (because you store your music at Lala). At this point, I can't see the value in Lala given the catalogue-lke experience of navigating the site and shallow depth of the offered music. Shout it from the rooftops, the success of the iPod is iTunes (whether or not you have an iPod) for here one feels part of something (let's call it a community of music fans ) who are happy to have escaped the land of packaged music provided by the Industry (let's call this LaLa land). Christopher Perrien [Read More] |
PlayStation 3 and on-line learningWe know that Nintendo's Wii is killing the PS3 in consumer sales. One lesson for me from watching our 17 year old play with his PS3 on a HD TV is a reminder from 1987 when a Digital Equipment engineer speculated to me that 'someday advances in chip technology will enable us to act in our own movies.' At the time I tried to imagine 3D glasses and control units in movie theatres. PS3's clarity of graphics plus response time plus the active feedback from the control unit (controller) - you shake the controller and your character shakes - conveys the feeling of participating in virtual experience (far superior to 2nd Life IMO). The University of North Carolina joined the ranks of other universities offering their content on-line (Raleigh News and Observer June 3, 2007 UNC to push online degrees). Certainly a good idea; an energy saving idea; a community building idea; a globalized, 24/7 capability. Imagine if the education modules of UNC could be (and when they will be) conveyed with the clarity and excitement of a PS3 game. Learning (or employment) doesn't have to be hard to be valuable. Christopher Perrien [Read More] |
This Web TV Thing: will Joost make it happen?The founders of Skype hired the former head of Cisco Acquisitions to lead Joost, an Internet TV provider. I'm not that impressed with Joost so far mainly because you have to be invited to join, the web site is not that exciting (is the guy in the commerical performing magic or.....), and I am not sure of the promise of high quality imaging (doesn't this depend upon my PC?!). So if I marry the Apple TV to Joost (from the PC to my TV) does this obviate the need for Tivo and other recorders? Cable TV is so frustrating to me (hundreds of channels of junk) that I am skeptical that there is anything out there that I am missing. Will this new delivery idea unleash the excellent quality and innovative ideas that are out there (the university edition of YouTube) or only provide 50 more shopping channels in multiple languages? Christopher Perrien [Read More] |
Is an iPhone really expensive at $600.00Not if you bought 20 shares of Apple at the announcement of the iPhone ($86 / share); today the stock is $123.00+, a $37 increase or 43% improvement. Those 20 shares have earned $740.00 to date, enough to pay broker fees, taxes, the phone, and shipping. Maybe even a manual to understand all that this device will do besides telephony. I know, we'll see on June 29th. Christopher Perrien [Read More] |
PC over IPHow about a revised definition of portal? Instead of one PC with the screen divided into multiple sections, have 4 monitors attached to blade servers thousands of miles away. No fan noise, no heat generation, and alot less power consumption - on the order of 1/20 less (15 watts vs 300 watts for a desktop system. Talk about Net-Centric Computing or a Thin Desktop. Teradici of Vancouver, Canada believes that it has developed the technology to deliver this capability. Carry your data on a thumb drive or flash drive and plug-it into terminal (remember those) and use the processing power from way off. IBM and others intend to sell products based upon this technology later in the year. Christopher Perrien [Read More] |
