Gillian Shaw
Sun

1. Xperia X10, Sony Ericsson, price not announced

I had a chance to try out the smartphone that Sony Ericsson is hoping will help it leapfrog over the competition. The company has lagged getting into this market, and faces stiff competition from earlier entrants. So it’s upping the ante with this top-of-the-line model. Based on the Android operating system, the touch screen Xperia X10 has a couple of features that address the demands of our heavily networked world — Mediascape and Timescape. Timescape collects all your communications into one spot — whether it’s text messages, phone calls, Facebook or other connections. It also has face recognition so once you tag a friend, every time he or she appears in a photo your phone is smart enough to remember who it is, making it a virtual organizational assistant. The “infinite” button in Timescape recaps all your dealings with contacts, while the same button in Mediascape brings up information on your favourite artists or celebrities. Add an 8.1-megapixel camera with video, GPS, Wi-Fi and other features you expect to find in upper-end smartphones. No price has been announced, but when I asked, Sony Ericsson indicated it would be comparable to the iPhone and other high-end smartphones. It will be released for the Rogers network this spring. www.sonyericsson.com

2. VPC-CG102 camera, Sanyo, $329

Sanyo has a new line of what it is calling HD dual cameras, delivering HD1080/60i video and still photography. The VPC-CG102 has 14-megapixel still photos and a five-times optical zoom with a twelve-times double video zoom, while the horizontally formatted VPC-GH2 has the same features an me price tag. Both have a 6.9 cm (2.7-inch) LCD screen. The two cameras are among five in the new lineup, with the higher-priced VPCCS1 and VPC-SH1 (at $439 and $549) featuring a sound zoom function with various modes so when you are taking video, you can focus the sound recording on the subject you are zooming in on. www.sanyo.com

3. Customizable covers for iPhone, BlackBerry, Kindle, laptops, Gelaskins, from $15

I’ve been having way too much fun coming up with designs to gussy up my iPhone and laptop. Spiderman was the first to catch my eye, making the perfect present for a pal who is a fan of the Marvel Comic hero. Added to that are a range of designs from National Geographic to various artists, Dark Horse Comics, Tokidoki, Upper Playground and others. Or you can upload an image — photos or artwork — to create your own. Covers for most devices, including gaming consoles like the Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii. Dressing up your gadgets has never been so fun. vPlus gives them a protective cover. www.gelaskins.com

4. Touch control monitor, Sceptre, $270 US

The latest in Sceptre’s LED PC monitors is this 24-inch (61-centimetre) 1080p version with the company’s “sensitive touch control,” that is onscreen touch control keys to manage brightness, contrast and other screen features. At 1.3 centimetres thick and weighing about four kilograms, it’s a slick and slim monitor for gaming or other larger-screen tasks. www.sceptre.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Matt Hartley
Sun

Apple Inc., the company that brought you the indefatigable I’m a Mac advertising campaign, is taking its marketing might into the mobile world and onto the iPhone and iPad.

On Thursday, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled a series of updates to its iPhone OS software, which included the formation of a new mobile advertising network — dubbed iAd — that will deliver ads into the applications built by third-party developers and sold in the company’s App Store.

Apple said it would sell and host the advertisements, while developers will be able to keep 60 per cent of the revenue generated by the ads that appear in their applications. Apple will keep the remaining 40 per cent of the revenue.

“For a lack of an elegant way to say it, we think most of this mobile advertising really sucks, and we think we might be able to make some contributions,” Jobs said during Apple’s presentation in San Francisco.

For developers, the new iAd network opens up a new way of generating revenue from applications beyond the original sales price.

For Apple, the creation of the iAd network not only makes its application marketplace a more attractive destination for developers, but gives it a foothold in the burgeoning market for mobile advertising, setting the Cupertino, Calif.-based company on a collision course with Google Inc.

Unlike on the PC, where Google has built a sizable business by running ads beside search results, Apple believes the market for ads on mobile devices is stronger inside applications.

“Search is not where it’s at,” Jobs said. “People are not searching on a mobile device like they are on the desktop.”

Apple’s launch of the iAd network is the latest in a series of recent developments which have led to rising tensions between the two Silicon Valley tech titans as they struggle for position in the mobile market.

In January, Apple announced it had purchased the mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless. The move came just two months after Google beat out Apple in a bid to purchase AdMob, a Quattro competitor. Apple has also sued HTC Corp., maker of the Nexus One — also known as the Google Phone — over a patent dispute.

“Although iAd takes a decidedly different approach by delivering advertising within applications instead of alongside searches and other online services, it’s as close as we’re going to get to a shot across Google’s bow,” said Carmi Levy, an independent technology analyst in London, Ont.

“These two companies are increasingly butting heads in the mobile hardware and services space, and iAd ups the ante significantly.”

It remains unclear whether Apple will allow third party ad networks, such as Google’s AdMob, to continue to serve ads to applications which run on iPads and iPhones, said Josh Martin, a technology analyst at Strategy Analytics in Boston.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Jason Magder
Sun

Early adopters be warned: if you plan to buy a 3-D television, you better like monsters.

The DreamWorks movie, Monsters vs. Aliens, is the only programming available for viewing on 3-D televisions, which hit the market last month.

Other 3-D movies will be coming out by the end of the year, but in Canada, 3-D programming from cable and satellite providers could be months or even years away.

That doesn’t seem to stand in the way of projected sales, experts say.

Megan Pollock, the director of communications for the Consumer Electronics Association, said her group estimates about one million 3-D televisions will be sold in the U.S. in 2010.

“For the first year out, that’s a huge number,” she said.

She added that’s because Samsung and Sony have priced their 3-D televisions in line with 2-D high-definition televisions.

“I think they really hit the correct price point,” Pollock said. “At this point, no one is ever going to watch 3-D 100 per cent of the time. You can’t ask consumers to shell out a lot of money for something they’re going to do occasionally.”

Tracy Verrall, audio-video product manager for La Boutique Electronique in Montreal, said she’s selling 3-D as a bonus feature.

“If someone comes in looking for a really good TV, [the 3-D TV] is the one we’re going to sell them,” Verrall said. “We’re telling people, ‘This is the TV you should buy, and by the way, it has 3-D, so when the material becomes available, it’s a bonus.'”

Verrall said her store received 3-D televisions two weeks ago, and has already sold two units.

To make up for the lack of content, 3-D televisions from Sony and Samsung can convert any 2-D image into a simulated 3-D image, although Verrall said the quality isn’t as good as a program designed for a 3-D television.

That will have to do for now, because even though three television stations will be available in 3-D in the U.S. this year, Canadians will have to wait months or even years. Spokespeople for both Bell Canada and Videotron said they have no immediate plans to carry 3-D stations.

If lack of content is a hurdle, then so too is the cost of equipment needed for a three-dimensional viewing experience. A 3-D television requires a special Blu-ray player — a cost of about $400– and 3-D glasses, which run about $250 per pair. Some stores now throw in two pairs of glasses and the player for free.

The technology for 3-D televisions is equivalent to Imax movies. The glasses, which are battery operated, are like LCD screens that have shutters, which open and close 120 times per second — in sync with the television. Verrall said that’s superior technology to most movie theatres — which have glasses with polarized lenses — and should cut down on nausea that plagues some viewers.

Christopher Pack, an assistant professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute, agrees.

He said the technology will eliminate some of the problems associated with movie theatre 3-D technology, which has one lens polarized vertically and another horizontally.

However, he said there will always be a small portion of the population that will get a form of motion sickness when they watch 3-D television.

“In real life, you cross your eyes a bit as an object comes to you, and then each eye individually changes the shape of its lens,” Pack explained. “The problem is in a 3-D movie, the object isn’t really approaching you, so it’s natural to move your eyes, but you don’t want to adjust your lens, because that would cause the movie to become blurry. The two reflexes are in conflict with each other, and that causes a form of motion sickness.”

Pollock said some people can’t see 3-D at all, because of problems with their vision, while people who have had a specific type laser-eye surgery, where one eye sees distance and another sees close, also won’t see 3-D.

That’s why Verrall says people should try the technology out for a few hours before buying.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Doug Ward
Sun

Walk BC is launching an interactive online map that provides information on walking routes across the province.

The map, located on Walk BC’s website, provides a description of each route, including its location, distance, level of difficulty, safety and access to amenities.

“It will be a one-stop shop for information on walking in every community in the province,” said Eva Robinson, manager of the BC Recreation and Parks Association.

Robinson said demand for an online map came from recreation departments and from walk leaders trained by the two-year-old Walk BC organization.

“Walking is the safest and easiest way to get people to include exercise in their daily lives,” Robinson said.

“Anybody can walk so long as they’re mobile, whether it’s your 80-year-old grandmother or your five-year-old.”

Walk BC is a joint initiative of the BC Recreation and Parks Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC &Yukon.

The map, located at www.walkbc.ca,already includes data provided by a hired researcher and by walking groups.

But Walk BC is urging walkers across the province to contribute information on routes in their areas, by entering data into a survey included on its website.

“This is a push to get members of the public to detail their favourite walks,” Robinson said.

The map will be powered by Google and will be able to help people find routes that fit their physical abilities.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Reuters
Sun

Nintendo plans to launch a new model of its DS hand-held game console that allows users to play three-dimensional (3-D) games without using special glasses, aiming to reinvigorate demand for the five-year-old machine.

The Japanese company said the new portable player, tentatively named “Nintendo 3DS,” will be able to play titles created for previous DS models and will be launched in the financial year starting in April.

Nintendo, which competes with Sony and Microsoft in video games, declined to give details such as price and launch dates, but said more information will be announced at the E3 video game trade show in Los Angeles in June.

“This will certainly stimulate demand for the DS,” Rakuten Securities analyst Yasuo Imanaka said.

“But, we need to keep in mind that this is a portable machine. If you expect the kind of full-blown 3-D visuals shown on TVs or in movie theatres, you could be disappointed.”

Sony plans to release 3-D titles for its PlayStation 3 game console in time for the planned release of its 3-D TVs in June. That game console can be upgraded to become 3-D-capable using a software update.

Electronics makers and software creators have high hopes that growing interest in 3-D movies, sparked by the sci-fiblockbuster Avatar and other recent titles, will drive sales of their 3-D-capable hardware and software contents.

Nintendo has sold more than 125 million units of the DS worldwide, but the company expects unit sales of the dual-screen machine to fall four per cent in the year ending March 31, its first ever decline in annual sales.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Upstart Ontario firm takes worldwide war to hackers

Vito Pilieci
Province

An announcement earlier this week that the Mariposa botnet — a network of computers infected with a virus that can be controlled remotely without owners’ knowledge — had been dismantled has focused a bright spotlight on a small Ontario company with ambitious plans.

Defence Intelligence Inc., a seven-person firm based in Ottawa, believes the demise of Mariposa is a perfect example of what its products can accomplish.

“We would probably be shutting down things like Mariposa once a month instead of once a year,” said chief executive officer Chris Davis, complaining about the shortage of venture capital available for expansion because of the unsteady state of the economy.

He plans to use his company’s success to attract more financing, hire more staff — and bring more hackers around the world to their knees.

“Mariposa is simply one of hundreds of botnets we track on a daily basis. We have got these sensors placed at various research partners around the world. We are able to see botnet traffic and watch how they form.”

It was largely thanks to the information provided by Defence Intelligence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and police in Spain were able to destroy the rogue computer network — made up of more than 13 million infected computers from 180 countries — and capture some of the key players involved in its operation.

The hackers behind Mariposa had access to all the personal, banking and credit card information on infected computers. The botnet included infected machines inside the offices of more than 40 major banks and a vast majority of the top companies on the Fortune 1000 index.

The personal information of more than 800,000 individuals has also been recovered as a result of the FBI’s Mariposa investigation.

Defence Intelligence makes software that monitors incoming and outgoing transmissions of every computer on a corporate network. Using its own network of sensors — which track the development and expansion of rogue computer networks globally — the company can red-flag certain websites and Internet addresses being used to steal information.

If a computer on a corporate network is sending information to a location that has been identified, Defence Intelligence will know and can step in.

“We’ve got three government departments using it right now, which I can’t name, and one of the largest financial institutions in the world,” said Davis.

“We have a product that really works against this botnet thing.”

The software is the brainchild of Davis, who started his career as a security consultant for the federal government in the early 2000s, bouncing from contract to contract.

It was at this time he met Chris Ginley, who was to become a co-founder of Defence Intelligence.

In 2005, Davis was given the chance to put his security knowledge to the test as a technical lead of global security for Dell Computer Corp. at the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas.

He took the job and a few months later invited Ginley to come down and join him.

The two were tossed headfirst into the growing botnet problem, which was then in its infancy.

Since he came up with the idea for Defence Intelligence, it has identified and helped to protect its customers against dozens of botnets and malicious software programs — with Mariposa botnet being the jewel in its crown.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Murray Hill
Province

If you’re a road warrior then you’ve probably more than once wished you had a scanner to bring along to scan digital copies of documents. Scanners have come down in size a lot in the past few years, but there aren’t a lot of them to choose from if you travel.

Canon’s imageFORMULA P-150 personal document scanner is one of the new, compact scanners designed for those of us on the go. The Scan-tini, as it’s called, is just the right size to slip into the bottom of a computer bag or backpack, and it has enough functionality to be a valuable asset on the road.

The P-150 makes its mark by being very small, lightweight and offering advanced features for such a small device. It gets power from your computer, however, if you wish, you can buy the optional power adapter. The device doesn’t come with an adapter, and you power it via USB attached to your PC. It’s worth noting that the P-150 only works with a PC, so Mac users need not read any further.

You don’t need to load up any software when using this scanner. The embedded Canon CaptureOnTouch Lite software takes care of getting documents onto your computer automatically — a nice touch. The P-150 is a duplexing scanner — it scans both sides of the document automatically and you’re not required to turn the thing over to scan the backside. Rated at 15 pages per minute in black and white and 10 pages per minute of colour scanning, the P-150 isn’t a slouch by any standards. The quality of output is on par with many other much larger desktop scanners; I used my test version to scan a number of colour documents that needed to be sent to customers, and they were good quality.

Weighing in at just under a kilogram, the P-150 is only 4.1 cm x 27.9 cm x 9.4 cm. It can use either one or two USB connections for power, with the single connection consuming 2.5W, while the double connection consumes 5W of power. It’s a 24-bit RGB scanner (red, green, blue) with auto colour detection and an output resolution from 150 dpi up to 600 dpi. It’ll scan documents from 5-cm to 21-cm wide and 6.9-cm to 35.6-cm long, so you can scan everything from business cards to legal-sized documents. You can also batch scan up to 20 pages, so you’re not stuck having to feed the scanner documents one page at a time — a very nice feature.

The software that comes bundled with the P-150 includes the Canon CaptureOnTouch, CaptureOnTouch Lite, Nuance PaperPort and New Soft Presto! BizCard.

Available now, the Scan-tini has a suggested retail price of $385.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Troy Wolverton
Sun

The PC has been at the centre of the computing universe for three decades. But that’s about to change.

Within two or three years, smart phones will outsell PCs, if analysts’ projections hold true. Already, netbooks — essentially low-cost laptops with more limited capabilities than standard PCs — are the fastest-growing part of the PC market.

In coming years, the very idea of having a centre for computing in the home is likely to go away, replaced with a distributed array of linked devices that will include not just smart phones and notebooks, but TVs, set-top boxes, tablet devices, appliances and even alarm clocks. These devices will largely eliminate the need for a powerful PC and allow us to communicate with friends, access information such as stock quotes and control things such as lighting and alarm systems, wherever we happen to be inside or outside our house.

The folks at Google have been talking a lot lately about this transformation. John Herlihy, who heads Google’s European operations, stirred up a fuss earlier this month when he declared that the PC will be “irrelevant” in three years, replaced by smart phones. And last month, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company plans to focus on services and applications for high-end smart phones, not PCs.

Herlihy is overstating the case. Hundreds of millions of PCs will be sold in the next few years, expanding an existing base of about one billion PCs in use. For many people, the PC will continue to be their primary computing device for years to come.

The first computer for many others, though, particularly in the developing world, will be a smart phone. Even in the developed world, many people already use smart phones for tasks they previously undertook on a PC.

The power of the processors inside smart phones is increasing rapidly, allowing them to run increasingly complex applications.

At the same time, the speeds of the data networks they connect to are increasing as well, allowing the devices to more easily access powerful applications stored in the cloud.

As capable as smart phones are becoming, though, they’re not likely to take over all of the PC’s uses. Instead, they’ll be supplemented by other devices.

For example, many analysts expect Apple’s iPad to follow in the iPhone’s path as a hit device and spearhead a new market for tablet computers. There’s a good chance that many people will replace notebooks and desktops with those devices for watching Internet-based videos and playing games. That’s because they have large, bright screens like notebooks, but they are easier to hold and much more portable.

But the transformation of computing won’t end with tablets.

There’s a good chance that your TV, refrigerator, toaster oven and other appliances have processors inside them.

So do many toys, not to mention your iPod and digital camera. Your car probably has several. Game consoles have processors that rival PCs in power.

Now networking technologies are starting to link these computer-enabled devices together. Some of the devices are even starting to get full-scale operating systems that will allow them to run multiple applications, much like a PC. And new interface technologies offer the possibility of interacting with these devices in more natural ways than a keyboard and mouse.

Together, these developments are paving the way for a new kind of computer, one that’s made up of many distributed parts.

You can glimpse the future in things like Sonos‘ multiroom speaker system. It lets you stream music from Pandora to a speaker in your bedroom while playing a song from your music library in your study. Although a PC can be used in such an arrangement, it’s unnecessary: You can control what’s playing with an iPhone and store your music on a networked hard drive.

Similar systems can control lighting, thermostats and alarms.

In the near future, you most likely won’t need a smart phone. You’ll be able to get stock quotes by talking to your alarm clock. And you’ll be able to start a video conference from your TV by talking and waving to it.

The PC has been a great tool for many years. But its replacements promise to make computing an even more central — and personal — part of our lives.

San Jose Mercury News

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

If you thought you went through money quickly before, try the Zoompass Tag

Gillian Shaw
Sun

Canada‘s major wireless carriers have announced a new mobile money system that can turn your cellphone into a wireless payment machine.

EnStream LP, a joint venture of Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus, launched a three-month pilot project for the Zoompass Tag, a sticker that converts your mobile phone into a virtual credit or debit card when it’s swiped across a point-of-sale terminal at a checkout.

It’s a little like having a prepaid coffee or gas card. Order up a coffee or fill the tank, swipe your phone and it’s paid.

The new payment system follows up on Zoompass, EnStream’s first mobile application, which was launched last year, allowing Canadians to use mobile phones to exchange money with friends and family.

“The service type environments are the ones that benefit the most,” Christian Ali, EnStream vice-president, product development, said of the new Zoompass Tag.

“You get your coffee, you tap for payment and it’s completely done within literally two or three seconds or less. It’s really all about convenience.”

The phone sticker works with a con-tactless point-of-sale reader such as a PayPass and users can see transactions logged immediately. And they can track their transaction history on their phone.

You can use the Zoompass tag to pay where there are PayPass readers, at such outlets as Tim Horton’s, Petro-Canada, McDonald’s, Superstore and other retailers.

The current Zoompass Tag trial has about 200 participants and Ali said consumers can sign up on the website, www.zoompass.com,to participate in future trials.

Does this mean that losing your cellphone is the same as losing as your wallet? No, according to EnStream, which says customers’ financial information is stored on secure servers and not on the mobile phone. Ali said the Zoomtag can be deactivated if a phone is lost or stolen and consumers are protected from liability.

“Because it is a MasterCard product, there is zero liability,” he said. “Customers are never responsible if their card or tag is compromised.”

The Zoompass tag is linked to the Zoompass prepaid MasterCard, and the Zoompass account of the user. The user can set limits on the amount of money available for the tag, just like loading up a coffee card for future purchases.

Ali said the service is popular with parents who want to give money to their children who are travelling or away at university, giving them a way to put a limit on spending and track it at the same time.

While the Zoompass Tag can be used only in Canada, the Zoompass MasterCard can be used anywhere in the world where MasterCard is accepted.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Lowell Conn
Sun

1. Dual halves its competitors: It’s tough to discount Dual AV’s XDVDN9131 single-DIN car stereo, considering it’s already been discounted — costing about half the price of similar products from more established brands. Dual is obviously conscious of the fact its competitors are deemed more established, as the company’s 2010 marketing campaign is built around the fact it has been in business since 1935. The XDVDN9131 features a motorized seven-inch touch screen, front-panel USB and SD card reader complementing the DVD/CD slot, Bluetooth, iPod control and a navigation system with pre-loaded maps of Canada and the United States as well as two million points of interest. The navigation system offers a speed-limit alert that would have been a nice addition to our family drive two Saturdays ago. Admittedly, the feature set, while robust, is on par with many other flagship products in the marketplace, but one cannot ignore the major difference that is the XDVDN9131’s lower price. $550; visit dualav.com.

2. solBAT has the sun on lockdown: Times are tough for the gadget trade.

The economic malaise has halted production, so a first quarter usually ripe with new products has been slow. This means there are fewer new gadgets to write about, resulting in atrophy for car silicon writers. Therefore, we give a big shout-out to Scosche, whose new solBAT II solar-powered battery backup and charger is not entirely a car product but qualifies because its core product shot features the device in operation while affixed to a car windshield. Featuring a two-light indicator to let users know when the device is charging and when it is passing energy to an attached phone, MP3 and other USB-powered devices, solBAT II arrives with a windshield mount and is designed to soak up rays when the car is in commute mode and transmit them to your portable device. At its price point, it is a reasonable alternative for those looking to buy a car cigarette lighter adapter, so the choice becomes sapping car battery or using what Mother Nature has provided. $30 US; visit scosche.com.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun