Tech for Lunch!

Techcrunch had a great article about Microsoft’s new gizmo, the TouchWall. Basically, it is a cheap version of the Surface PC, meaning you could get some of the “touch” functionalities without the price tag of the Surface. In details, however, they are two completely different products. The Surface PC is a multi-touch and vision system that uses cameras to sense what is on the table, where it is and what it is doing. It can determine, for example, if a cell phone is on the table and then interact with the phone in a variety of ways, such as pulling photos off of it.

The TouchWall is a much simpler system which consists of three infrared lasers that scan a surface. A camera notes when something breaks through the laser line and feeds that information back to the Plex software. The machine runs Windows Vista and another software which understands the “touch” commands and movements, called Plex.

There are no plans to mass produce or commercialize this product just yet, but we can already see the applications and with a reduced price tag, this could be interesting. We’ll have to keep on following this one to see if it will become available at some point.

See the TouchWall in action in the following video:

There is something new brewing in the world of computing. The Florida-based company, Psystar, offers a computer that can run any operating system, including Apple’s Mac OS X.

This is the Open Computer, which is offered in two versions, the basic, starting at $399 and the Pro, starting at $999. In other words, Apple clones are now available.

Historically, the Mac community has been able to evolve in a closed environment. But starting a couple of years ago, Apple computers were equipped with Intel processors, which facilitate the lives of people who specialize in everything that surrounds the industry of cloning and copying.

Of course, Apple’s lawyers are probably already on the case. One can assume that Steve Jobs has already declared war on these new clones. In its advertising, Psystar insists that their computers allow the users to operate Macs at a fraction of the price, since the Mac basic costs at least three times as much, with far fewer components and performance.

The Operating system that you choose to install (or get installed) is up to you and Mac OS X may be a bit more expensive, but with such a low machine price, you’re still way under Apple’s prices. Theoretically though, it is forbidden to run this Mac OS X on any device other than those made by Apple.

The only potential problems I see with these are the availability of device drivers if you decide to change some hardware in your machine or add some components…and perhaps the availability of patches which might refuse to install if they notice you are not running genuine Apple hardware.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see Apple’s reaction in dealing with this intrusion into their world. Can Apple legally prevent manufacturers from making hardware that is capable of running their software?

Pinnacle, a division of Avid (editing software used in television) offers a beautiful product to the general public, the Dazzle Video Creator Platinum. It allows you to simply capture images of your VHS and video cameras in your computer and then make montages to be transferred to DVD or video to the Internet.

The software comes with a capture card. An external module that you plug into a USB port on your computer. In this unit, you plug your VHS player, your video camera or any other video player connecting with RCA cables or S-Video.

You capture, edit and you create. During the capture, the software scans the video images on your computer. Once this stage is completed, it analyzes the images and divides them into chapters (like a DVD). This will help you when the time comes to create the menus. If you want to keep the images as they are (e.g. a TV show in full or video of your marriage) simply choose the beginning and end and voila!

If you wish to make a montage (best time, remove the ads, etc..), You can choose the samples to keep and paste, reverse them and choose transitions. The editing software allows you to simply create your montage and is suitable for most people. You choose the look of thee DVD menu, it gives a name to each clip and is almost finished.

Finally, you select the type of video you want. A DVD? A Web clip(Real Player, Windows Media)? A digital file in MPEG format?

If you have added several effects, transitions and added several titles, the computer will take some time to compile the video. Burn the result to the DVD itself and you have a true DVD as the ones you rent in video stores.

The software comes with Pinnacle Studio QuickStart, which offers a capture module only. This means that you cannot do anything other than DVDs or videos to computer.

The Dazzle Video Creator Platinum is a module which does not require installation. Just connect it to the USB port of a computer and you’re ready to go.

Be aware that any kind of video editing requires quite a bit of memory and processing power so make sure you have a good enough machine to do it. This will work on older machines but it just takes longer during editing and compilation.

I’m sure a lot of you have other suggestions for video editing software, but this is an easy to use solution for those who are looking for a quick and easy way to convert video to a digital media.

The Guinness World Record^TM for the world’s lightest mobile phone has been awarded to Modu for its tiny and sophisticated mobile phone.

Modu was awarded this prestigious honour after careful consideration by the Guinness World Records^TM judges, who declared that: “The lightest mobile phone is the modu, which weighs 40.1 g (1.41 oz).” Guinness World Records added: “modu’s dimensions are 72.1 mm (2.8 inches) x 37.6 mm (1.4 inches) x 7.8 mm (0.3 inches).”

The Modu Mobile phone is the first modular cell phone which allows it to be so small. You can slip it into various Modu jackets and Modu Mates which allow additional functionnalities and an entirely new user experience. Although it is the lightest in the world, the Modu still has all the standard functions of any standard mobile phone and is very easy to use.

I personally find that small gadgets like these do offer some enhanced portability options because of their size and weight, but with the “small and sexy” comes the “fragile and easy to lose”. I haven’t had one in my hands(yet) so I can’t say for sure, but I’d probably be a little worried about easily breaking it during normal use.

If all goes as planned, the Microsoft Surface will be marketed to the general public within 3 years. This is what the senior management of the company seems to be telling us.

In an interview with Fortune magazine, Tom Gibbons, the head of products at Microsoft, explained that the demand exceeds all expectations, but some design issues must be resolved before moving to mass production.

The Microsoft Surface is a computer, integrated into a tabletop and who’s touch screen measures 30 inches. There is no keyboard or mouse; everything is done using your fingers, a bit like Apple’s iPhone(but don’t worry, the Surface already had demonstration videos out before the iPhone was unveiled!). The results are downright spectacular. If you want to see Microsoft Surface in action, you can watch the following video:

This new gadget was introduced last year for the first time. The prototype that was used impressed many enthusiasts. Microsoft wanted to market this invention to the commercial sector, such as bars, restaurants and even casinos, with prices ranging from $ 5000 to $ 10000. But, obviously, the enthusiasm from the population has ensured that Microsoft will now mass market. The price of a so-called “family” version has not yet been defined.

According to Tom Gibbons, Microsoft was literally besieged on all sides by organizations and industries that seem very interested in this product. The problem is that the gadget is so new that it is almost necessary to write new software for each utility. Indeed, it is clear that the interface for the casino industry is not the same as for the general public.

For now, Microsoft is pulling all the stops to produce the first copies quickly for the commercial sector. The company is several months behind on the original schedule, since the product was supposed to be launched last year.

In the mean time, it was reported that the Microsoft Surface will be implemented in AT&T stores on April 17 in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco. AT&T said that the purpose of the Surface in each store will be for customers “to learn about the growing universe of mobile applications and devices“.

I personally cannot wait to actually try one of these nifty computers!

These days, I’m wasting/spending a lot of time looking around for a bunch of applications and components built with Adobe Flex. I have been reading up quite a bit on this very promising framework and talked about the release of the most recent version of the builder. It’s not very surprising to find some of the most amazing applications built by the company who created the framework, Adobe Inc.

Adobe Photoshop Express has now entered the public beta phase which means anyone can go ahead and give it a try to see what this application is all about. “Photoshop Express allows users to store up to 2 gigabytes of images online for free, make edits to their photos, and share them online in creative ways, including downloading and uploading photos from popular social networking sites like Facebook.“

Although Photoshop Express is marketed towards the “photoshop impaired”, it still has much to offer for experienced users as well. It’s a great way to share photos without using your own bandwidth and enables advanced effects in just a few clicks. I like the interface but I did hit a couple of bugs(keep in mind this is still in beta) and the application and the effects respond well and pretty quickly.

I have not had time to give this a complete look, such as uploading many pictures to manage an album, but what I was able to do with the sample albums is a good indication that Photoshop Express might be a neat application for many users to enjoy. Give it a try!

I don’t usually cover the gaming industry because that would require an entire blog dedicated to that subject, but sometimes an interesting tidbit comes along that is worth deviating for. I know quite a few people who will be interested by this news: Harmonix has announced that the very anticipated game Rock Band, will finally be available for the Wii on June 22th 2008.

Just like on the other consoles, Rock Band will ship as a special edition set which includes the game, drums, a microphone and a wireless guitar for $169.99. You can then add another guitar if you want to complete the band and… NO!, Guitar Hero III hardware will not work with this game.

Music rhythm games are the fastest growing genre of video games right now and Rock Band has been the best selling game for February of this year. I have played both Rock band and Guitar Hero III on the xbox 360 and both have a little something that the other one doesn’t. If it’s a party music game that you’re looking for though, Rock Band is definitely the way to go because you can get up to 4 players at once rippin’ through some tunes ;-) The Wii version will be a little bit different from other consoles because there will be no online playing and no downloadable songs because the Wii does not have a mass storage solution like the PS3 or Xbox 360.

Still, if the Wii is your console of choice - or the only one you have - you will be able to get your hands on Rock Band and have some fun.

Several restaurant owners in Europe, Japan and the United States have installed new gadgets within their establishment. It is a touch screen, through which customers can pass their order.

The idea behind this concept is to encourage impulse buying. If, for example, a person is looking at a beautiful picture of a chocolate cake, it is quite possible that he/she will be tempted and won’t have to wait for someone to show up to take the order. Does the principle work? It looks like it does… A sushi restaurant in Tel Aviv, where such a system has been installed, reported sales up by 11%. It appears that customers who reserve tables now require that a touch screen has been installed. Two small companies offer such a system for restaurants. They are the Israeli society Conceptic and Japanese society Aska T3.

But very large companies have already thought of this, including Microsoft.  Remember when the company launched the Microsoft Surface System. It is a kind of table glass, which is actually a huge touch screen, controlled by the movement of the fingers. These famous tables will be installed over the coming months in hotels, bars and casinos. They allow customers to play computer games, listen to music … and order meals.

Some technology followers believe, “we live in technology, and no one nowadays, fears a screen”.

I’m always a fan of merging technologies because they are usually a great way to facilitate user tasks and make something available to a broader audience. This one is about a little website that everyone must have heard of: Youtube. Each month there is an average of 66 millions viewers who flock to youtube.com to watch 2.6 billion videos. That’s about 57% of all video viewers on the internet, which is estimated at about 116.7 million according to Nielsen Online.

The second technology involved in this news snippet is another well known broadcaster: TiVo Inc. “Founded in 1997, TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO), a pioneer in home entertainment, created a brand new category of products with the development of the first digital video recorder (DVR).” The company has an approximate 30-40% market share in the DVR market, so it’s a fairly large audience to be able to reach and the TiVo box removes the requirement for a computer to watch Youtube videos.

The basic idea behind this move is to be able to broadcast Youtube videos to a larger audience, by removing - or at least, extending - the boundaries of the internet. Youtube videos are already available on some cell phones and via Apple TV to users who are not sitting in front of a computer. By the end of this year, TiVo users should be able to watch these videos directly on their television. This should be available to users of the TiVo Series 3 boxes, which also includes an HD model.

Although I’m not a TiVo user, I think it’s a pretty cool idea and this technology merge will allow many new users to get busy wasting a LOT of time watching Youtube videos. It’s like an addiction - Once you start watching, you just can’t stop and Youtube keeps suggesting more interesting ones to watch!

The Husqvarna Company has just put on the market what appears to be the ideal mower. It cuts the grass automatically. That’s right! It does not need human intervention to carry out its task. The name of the device is the Automower.

“The new Husqvarna Automower™ Solar Hybrid is powered by innovative and groundbreaking technology that combines solar power and electricity.”

“This will take Automower to the next level with higher performance and further reduced environmental impact” says Bengt Andersson, CEO Husqvarna Group. He continues, “90% of Automower is recyclable, it eliminates the need for fertilizers, it is almost silent, has no exhaust emissions at all and delivers perfect results every time without you having to lift a finger.”

This mower is a bit like a small wireless vacuum for your home. This is how it works: You must first set the limits of your lawn by installing a wire around the yard. The mower detects the wire in question and then changes direction. You can even create pockets in order, for example, to protect flowers or shrubs.

But what is most surprising of this device is its charging station which is installed outside. This is more or less than a “garage” where the mower will rest at the end of a shift. If it senses that its batteries are beginning to run low, it automatically ceases to cut the grass and will return to its docking station.

It is not available in Canada yet, but there are dealers all over the world. You can use their website to find a dealer near you and to get more information on this cool new gadget.