DeepRockDrive offers live streaming, interactive concerts
Are you the kind of person who hates having to go through the trial and tribulations of attending a popular concert? The Las Vegas-based DeepRockDrive hopes to eliminate all headaches and hassles by allowing concert-goers to pay a flat fee to watch artists perform live streaming over the Internet.
During a special "second release event" at the BlogHaus booth at CES, co-founder Jeff Henshaw spoke about why music fans should care about the service.
Aesthetics plus noise cancellation make the Jawbone headset stand out
More handsets today are Bluetooth-enabled, with the result being that there is now a burgeoning side-market for Bluetooth-oriented devices. Headsets today range from as low as $30 to more than $125, with each model having different features and comfort levels.
Even though we walked the show floor and were offered the opportunity to test various Bluetooth headsets, Aliph's Jawbone headset really caught our attention. Instead of just recycling similar ideas and giving users a "new" headset, Aliph's technology was designed for use by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Up Close: Kaleidescape's high-end media servers
Kaleidescape is a name few consumers have heard, and probably for good reason: its home media servers start at $5,000 and reach upwards of $100,000. But the company had its wares on display at CES and we took a gander at the hardware and its user interface.
The Kaleidescape system works well; the UI is fast and it's surprisingly easy to navigate and load up a full library of content, whether audio, video or other. In addition, only one server is required per home, while movie and music players simply relay content to other rooms. But is it worth 20 times (or more) the cost of a TiVo or DivX Connected device? Only for a very select few.
Does Comcast have the recipe for re-making television?
Scott Fulton, BetaNews: You know the flavor of CES is changing somewhat when one of the bigger announcements of the week comes not from a CE manufacturer per se, but from what a big chunk of the nation thinks of as their local cable company. Comcast's plan, as outlined Tuesday by CEO Brian Roberts, has the opportunity -- if not yet the likelihood -- of literally changing television, one-upping TiVo and converting the high-definition display into the biggest consumer of data in the world's wired telecommunications system.
But is this all just a science fiction story? With the US converting to digital broadcasting in just 13 months, and with perhaps fewer people knowing that's going to happen than know about Britney Spears' custody battles, we have to acknowledge the fact that in just a very short time, the whole direction of the television industry could become a "jump ball." So we asked Sharon Fisher, former Gartner analyst and our CES analyst this past week, to figure out whether Comcast could really pull this off. Sharon?
Sling Media shows off new hardware, software player
Sling Media continues to grow its catalog of Slingbox hardware, this week adding a model that can stream content in HD and a new device called the SlingCatcher.
The Slingbox is a piece of hardware that connects to your television and Internet connection in order to let you view and control your TV from wherever you are. Programs are streamed to the SlingPlayer software and quality is adjusted depending on connection speed.
Xilisoft releases new iPod, iPhone ripping tool
While there are several tools already out there that do the same thing, this is the first ones to actually allow iPhone users to perform the same function.
The iPhone and iPod Touch use a completely different operating system than their predecessors, which likely had a lot to do with why it wasn't possible. However, Xilisoft has apparently figured out a way around that issue.
Microsoft president to retire, former Macromedia CEO to take his place
In a sign that Microsoft will indeed be marching to a new and different drum after Bill Gates exits the scene, its Business Division President will step down, and the former head of the company that created Flash will take his spot.
He was not President of Microsoft for all that long, but Jeff Raikes has easily been as much a part of the character of his company as Steve Ballmer. Having joined the company 27 years ago to forge what today could be considered its most successful and powerful product line after Windows, Microsoft Office, Raikes helped bring the "suits" into Microsoft.
Up Close: D-Link's DivX Connected device
Before the CES show floor closed for the year, we got some face time with D-Link's DivX Connected device, which as the name suggests, is a display extender for DivX content. The device has been available in parts of Europe since November and will ship in the US before the summer with a price of "under $250."
DivX has long had its codecs integrated into DVD players and other consumer electronics devices, but the DivX Connected platform is different. The company has developed the software and handled the hardware design itself through a partner ODM. That means manufacturers such as D-Link can easily put a DivX Connected device on the market.
DHS finds flaws in 180 open source software projects
Is Linux and open source software really more 'secure' than commercial software products? Maybe, yet maybe not. The US Dept. of Homeland Security and two research partners have now detected significant flaws in Samba, Python, Perl, and about 180 other open source projects -- but fixes are on the way.
Although some have claimed that Linux and other open source projects are more "secure" than commercial software, a bug-finding program sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now discovered significant flaws in 180 different open source software projects.
Intel subpoenaed for documents in new antitrust probe
The case against Intel's right to pay its channel clients for exclusivity has been a matter for a civil court. But if the New York Attorney General finds what he's looking for, the company could find the case against it both upgraded and multithreaded.
The spotlight will no doubt be turned on full for what is likely to become the next huge platform for technology litigation: Newly elected Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose surname is already monumental in his home state of New York, has issued subpoenas for documents in a criminal investigation against Intel's conduct.
NewsGator drops all charges, releases RSS clients for free
The maker of some of the most popular RSS and Atom tools for both Windows and Mac stunned everyone yesterday by declaring all of its consumer-grade software to be available free-of-charge.
The entire suite of RSS reader client products produced by NewsGator has been made free of charge, in a stunning though perhaps brilliant move by the company to draw attention to its enterprise-class RSS servers, which constitute the bulk of the company's revenue.
DRM-less Amazon MP3 store now complete with Sony BMG
With the last remaining label of the big four to join the online retailer's new music store, it could be argued that DRM is essentially dead.
Last week, Sony announced its plans to go DRM-free. It did not name any distribution points at the time, although analysts speculated that Amazon would eventually carry Sony's content.
Lexar to put Wi-Fi on a memory card
The memory chip manufacturer will use technology from Eye-Fi to add network connectivity for users of its own memory cards.
With wireless built onto the card, users will be able to send pictures directly from the camera to the computer. While Eye-Fi already has released its own card based on its technology, it sees Lexar as a way for Eye-Fi to gain mass appeal.
AMD shows off its Puma platform beating Centrino
Although AMD didn't have a major presence at CES, the chipmaker did have a reference design of its upcoming Puma platform on hand to show how it out-performs Intel's Centrino platform.
Puma is essentially the company's new "Griffin" processor paired with an ATI graphics chipset and designed for laptops. It also adds a chip dedicated for high-definition video that sits right on the GPU. The platform will be the first to support DirectX 10.1 in a mobile environment.
Universal: We're staying with HD DVD
5:00 pm ET January 10, 2008 -- Universal Studios has officially dispelled the rumors from Variety that it will drop HD DVD and switch to Blu-ray.
"Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format," said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment and also co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group.
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