Macworld Expo shines without superstar Apple

SAN FRANCISCO: From star-gazing iPad applications to crystal-encrusted iPhone cases, a universe of products spun off of Apple gadgets flourished at Macworld Expo despite the absence of the sun around which they revolve.

Attendance was on track to hit 25,000 by the time the annual gathering of Apple faithful ends.

The crowd was down from the 40,000 to 50,000 people seen in years when Apple took part and chief executive Steve Jobs starred in presentations that included unveiling hot new gadgets like the iPhone.

Apple pulled out of the show in 2010, but engineers from Cupertino, California-based company still make pilgrimages to Macworld to see what fans and entrepreneurs are making of their products.

“The energy is still really high,” said Anna-Maria Pardini, who works for Hewlett-Packard tending to its relationship with Apple.

“The nature of the show has definitely changed,” she continued, noting she has attended Macworld Expos for more than a decade. “Eleven years ago there was no iTunes, no iPhone, and until recently there was no iPad.

“You’ve seen Apple expanding and changing markets, and changing the way we do things,” she continued. “It is like never stepping into the same river twice.”

Computer titan Hewlett-Packard (HP) makes hundreds of monitors, printers, hubs and other products compatible with Macintosh computers.

Interest was high in HP technology that let people wirelessly connect with printers from Apple gadgets.

Offerings on the crowded expo floor ranged from data storage devices and computer security services to applications for playing or working on Apple devices.

SouthernStars.com showed off Sky Safari software that essentially turns iPads into windows into the night sky.

A freshly-launched Sky Wire cable lets people use iPhones to command telescopes to automatically find celestial objects.

The array of iPhone cases included Luxmo designs coated with Swarovski crystals glued by hand in tiger, parrot, skull, frog and other patterns. Prices ranged from $300 to $350.

Rhinestone covered Luxmo iPhone cases priced at $75 dollars were available for fashionable but frugal technophiles. “Apple people enjoy making a statement,” said David Fung of Luxmo.

US+U claimed to have the most functional iPad case, with a cuff on the back as a handle so people could hold tablets single-handed in a fashion similar to paint palettes. A Waterproof Dry Case was crafted to vacuum seal smartphones in plastic while letting users still plug in headsets to listen to music.

“You could be in a sandstorm or out in the water and not have to worry about it,” Jordan Messick of US-based Dry Corp said. “If nothing else survives, at least your iPhone is going to.”

A Boom application that beefed up sound coming from Macintosh or iPad speakers was among ten products awarded “Best of Macworld” honors on Friday.

Another winner was Ten One Design, a startup that invented Fling joysticks that stick onto faces of iPads with suction cups to provide videogame console style controls.

“Once you get your thumbs on it, you will feel the difference,” said Ten One chief executive Peter Skinner. “What we really love about Fling is they are transparent, so you can see your enemies coming from all directions.”

The company behind Invisible Shield film that protects touchscreen gadgets from scratching took a best-of award for a Zaggmate aluminum iPad case with a wireless Bluetooth-enabled keypad.

“Zaggmate converts iPad into a netbook of sorts,” said Jason Melville of Zagg, adding that the company name is an acronym for ‘Zealous About Great Gadgets.”

He closed a co-worker’s iPad into the case and dropped it to the floor to make a point about the $99 Zaggmate’s ability to protect tablets.

Banners reminded people to mark their calendars for next year’s Macworld event in a clear sign that the independently run event was continuing undaunted without Apple.

Tech world stunned at Egypt's Internet shutdown

The Egyptian government's unprecedented shutdown of Internet and mobile phone access Friday stunned the world's technology community, which questioned whether the country can quickly recover from cutting such a vital link for commerce and communication.
The government's surprising move came in the face of widespread civil unrest, but essentially wiped the country off the world's online maps, said Jim Cowie, chief technology officer and co-founder of Renesys, a New Hampshire firm that monitors how the Internet is operating.
"It is astonishing because Egypt has so much potentially to lose in terms of credibility with the Internet community and the economic world," Cowie said. "It will set Egypt back for years in terms of its hopes of becoming a regional Internet power."
He said the long-term economic effects are unclear because "we've never seen a country rebooted on this scale before."
The shutdown illustrated how ingrained the Internet has become for everyday global communications.
Moreover, the unrest in Egypt, and that in Tunisia the week before, have once again highlighted how vital online social networks like San Francisco's Twitter Inc., and Palo Alto's Facebook Inc. and the video-sharing site YouTube Inc. of San Bruno have become in exporting ideals such as freedom of speech.
Protesters, for example, used a Facebook page to list their demands and rally support.
"A world without the Internet is unimaginable," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in an e-mailed response to the Egyptian shutdown.
"Although the turmoil in Egypt is a matter for the Egyptian people and their government to resolve, limiting Internet access for millions of people is a matter of concern for the global community. It is essential to communication and to commerce. No one should be denied access to the Internet."

Facebook and Twitter

Both Facebook and Twitter reported diminishing traffic to and from Egypt as the protests escalated this week, presumably as the government sought to filter those sites.
The precise "surgical" targeting of Facebook and Twitter wasn't surprising, though it failed to quell the uprising. But Cowie said he was astonished when the country began cutting all access, especially because Egypt has aspirations to become a Middle East hub for Internet operations.

'Obliged to comply'

Renesys watched as about 93 percent of Egypt's Internet traffic began to shut down after midnight Friday in Cairo. Cowie said he could track each of the country's major Internet service providers as they began a shutdown and data suggest government officials made a series of quick phone calls within a few minutes.
In a statement on the company's website, Vodafone Egypt also said that "all mobile operators in Egypt have been instructed to suspend services in selected areas. Under Egyptian legislation the authorities have the right to issue such an order and we are obliged to comply with it. The Egyptian authorities will be clarifying the situation in due course."
Cowie said there was only one other similar government-ordered online shutdown, in Burma in 2007, but that did not compare to the outage in as large a country as Egypt.
"What happens when you disconnect a modern economy and 80 million people from the Internet?" Cowie wrote in a Renesys blog. "What will happen tomorrow, on the streets and in the credit markets? This has never happened before and the unknowns are piling up."
The nonprofit Internet Society of Reston, Va., said that shutdown was "an inappropriate response to a political crisis" and "a serious intrusion into its citizens' basic rights to communicate."

'Ones that will suffer'

"Ultimately, the Egyptian people and nation are the ones that will suffer, while the rest of the world will be worse off with the loss of Egyptian voices on the Net," the group said.
Eva Galperin, international activist with the San Francisco digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the situation shows what can happen if laws are enacted to "put the power to shut down a portion of the Internet in the hands of a single person, whether it's the president of Egypt or the president of the United States."
Galperin also said that while social networking has given activists in Egypt, Tunisia and Iran a "powerful voice" heard beyond their own borders, the Bay Area is also home to companies that provide computer security tools that governments can use to identify and retaliate against them.
Activists living in countries ruled by authoritarian regimes should take precautions to not reveal personal information that could jeopardize their lives, she said.

Narus singled out

In an article published by the Huffington Post, Timothy Karr, campaign director of the Washington media reform group Free Press, singled out Narus Inc., a Sunnyvale computer security firm, for selling the Egyptian government tools for monitoring Internet and mobile phone traffic.
"What we are seeing in Egypt is a frightening example of how the power of technology can be abused," Karr said.
A spokeswoman for Narus did not return voice and e-mail messages requesting comment.

Where the money is: 3 giants launch venture to fund energy tech startups

GE, Conoco­Phillips and NRG Energy have partnered to create a venture to invest $300 million in early-stage energy technology firms.

The partnership, Energy Technology Ventures, will help fund 30 companies over the next four years, focusing on investments in North America, Europe and Israel.

Target technologies will include renewable power generation — an area where GE is already busy - as well as smart grid technology, energy efficiency, oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy, emission controls, water and biofuels. 

"Ten years ago energy was getting just a fraction of that venture capital, one-tenth of one percent," said Kevin Skillern, the head of venture capital investing at GE Energy Financial Services. "The statement these three companies joining together makes is that there is a lot of opportunity for such investments today. And it's not just a one- or two- year trend, it's a generational thing."

Skillern said oil's return to around $90-a-barrel and ongoing talk of regulators wanting to reduce industry emissions is creating demand for new energy technology.

"And it's not just clean-tech we're talking about," Skillern said, "but advancements in conventional energy technologies too." 

The deals will give the three partners minority equity stakes while allowing the 30 firms a chance for commercial scale collaboration. The partners didn't disclose how much each is contributing to the $300 million pot.

Already 3 commitments

GE Energy Financial Service's investment team will be at the core of Energy Technology Ventures, but Conoco­Phillips and NRG will have input into how the $300 million is invested. 

The fund already has made commitments to three companies in which GE previously has invested:

Alta Devices of Santa Clara, Calif., which is aimed at improving the production economics of advanced materials for high-efficiency solar energy.

Ciris Energy of Centennial, Colo., which is developing technology to biochemically convert coal to methane.

CoolPlanetBioFuels of Camarillo, Calif., which is developing technology that converts biomass into high-grade fuel and carbon that can be sequestered.

NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips are new to the venture investing business, but GE, through its GE Energy Financial Services and GE Capital Equity units, has been one of the most active investors in early stage energy technology. 

Princeton, N.J.-based NRG operates nearly 450 megawatts of wind power and 20 megawatts of solar power, and also is rolling out a network of electric vehicle charging stations in Houston and Dallas. GE is a technology partner on the electric vehicle system.

Houston-based ConocoPhillips is not as well-known for its energy technology investments as other super majors, such as Exxon Mobil Corp., which has made a major biofuels push, or Chevron, which has run a technology venture investment fund for more than a decade.

Personal connections

But Richard Germain, manager of alternative energy at ConocoPhilips, said the company does have a number of projects in the works, including wind energy storage in North Texas, advanced biofuels and biomass, and producing electrodes for advanced lithium-ion batteries. 

"Energy innovation is at the core of the company," Germain said.

The combination of the companies may also be based, at least in part, on personal relationships.

NRG Chairman and CEO David Crane and ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Jim Mulva have gotten to know each other through the United States Climate Action Partnership, a group of businesses and environmental organizations that called for strong national legislation on reducing emissions.

New technology can be the best medicine

Doctors And New Technology

We all know that smartphones, tablet computers and big-screen TVs are transforming the workplace and home. But the newest gadgets could also be a tonic for medicine and health care.

Cellphones have already proven to be a potent medical instrument in improving patient outcomes. Diabetes patients who are sent videos on their cellphones and actually view them are more likely to check blood sugar levels and comply with their care regimens, said U.S. Army Col. Ron Poropatich, who spoke at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.

And wounded veterans sent text messages via cellphone have better follow-up treatment routines and feel more connected to caregivers, said Poropatich, deputy director of the U.S. Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center at Fort Detrick, Md.

Several military-run treatment trials are testing the promise of cellphones and online apps in patient care. Poropatich foresees patients tracking their blood pressure and other measurements using computers and devices, and those findings being monitored remotely by caregivers. Similarly, cellphones and online video can connect care-intensive patients who want to remain in their homes with off-site doctors and families.

Both of Poropatich's parents are alive and "I would like to be able to log onto my Blackberry and see how they are doing," he said.

Already, commercial firms are making their own evolutionary strides in telemedicine and personal health monitoring.

A look at some of the health and medical advances on display last week at CES:

•Homebound parents can stay connected online using VitalLink, a touch-screen based computer system that allows real-time video chatting using the phone line and webcam. The New Jersey-based company created online software that can be used with touchscreens, no mouse or keyboard required. "We're keeping it easy to use for the elderly who are computer-phobic and don't have the skills," says company president Rich Brown.

Photo galleries can also be uploaded for viewing. Chat and photo software features start at $4.99 monthly; touchscreens start at about $300 (vitallink.net).

In some assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, VitalLink is being tested with an additional activity monitor feature that lets caregivers and primary family members track the resident's involvement. "If they are not active, you can try and call or you can initiate a call from their end and see what's going on," Brown says.

•For elderly relatives who want to remain in their own homes, the My Guardian Angel service provides automated fall and wander detection, emergency readings and other behavioral and medical monitoring. Residents wear a wristwatch that tracks location, sends out fall alerts, records body temperature and can be upgraded to record pulse as well.

Additional health data from Bluetooth devices (blood pressure, glucose monitoring) can be captured by My Guardian, too. Base price for the system with watch, wireless Internet gateway, three wireless electrical plug-in routers and charging unit is under $1,000; $79.95 monthly service (atguardianangel.com).

The system is highly customizable. "My mom does not like to sleep with (the watch on) and she takes it off every night. If she doesn't have it on by 8 a.m. I get a text message to call my mom and tell to put it on," said CEO Ed Caracappa. "It's a very complete and fully functional system for those who wish to age in place."

•Data tracking can also help those who aim to get – and remain – physically fit. MapMyFitness records and tracks your workout progress using free iPhone apps and compatible devices such as hear monitors and GPS devices.

Runners and bicyclists can wirelessly input data from a heart rate sensor (made by Garmin, Wahoo, Adidas or Timex, for instance) to the iPhone or iPod Touch (also compatible with Blackberry and Android devices). " That gives you instant feedback," says MapMyFitness senior mobile development manager Chris Glode. "You can just look at your phone and know whether you are in your target zone or not."

Other data types that can be input include runner cadence and speed, power expenditure (good for cyclists) and weight ($130-up, www.mapmyfitness.com).

Beyond that, a Web-based subscription service lets you view workout charts and reports, as well as training plans (free to $100 annually). "More and more people are wanting to track every aspect of their life using more and more sophisticated types of sensors," Glode says. "The data you get, in addition to how you feel during the workout and how many calories you burned, is crucial to people."

•Workouts can tracked and more enjoyable by incorporating your big-screen TV. BodyMedia's Fit Armband BW ($249) tracks calories burned and consumed, physical activity, steps taken and sleep. The Bluetooth device lets you monitor activity on your iPhone or Android phone already, but starting in April Panasonic will let you access BodyMedia's software on its Viera HDTVs.

That will allow exercisers to watch their activity levels and calories burnt add up while they watch movies, TV shows or while playing video games. "Our partnership with Panasonic is on the cutting edge for adding important health and wellness information to everyday TV viewing," says BodyMedia chief information officer Steve Menke. "The integration of a body monitoring technology with the TV is enabling real-time health and wellness management."

The marrying of consumer electronics and medical technologies is going to be needed especially as baby boomers age, Poropatich says. "Electronic devices are going to hooked to the cloud. That's all happening."

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New gadgets cook up tech euphoria

2011 International Consumer Electronics Show

 Jan. 14--As a slew of new devices were presented at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show that finished Sunday in Las Vegas, among the tech euphoria was a device that blurred the lines between what a cellphone and desktop computer should be.

The Atrix 4G was Motorola's newest mobile device that made its debut last week, a smartphone running Android 2.2 with a 4 inch gorilla glass capacitive high-res 540x960 resolution display, powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, with each core running at 1 GHz, theoretically delivering up to two GHz of processing power, and 1 GB of DDR2 RAM.

In addition, it will have 16 GB of onboard memory, which can be upgraded to 48 GB with a 32 GB microSD memory card.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the ITEXPO East, February 2-4, 2011 Miami Beach Convention Center, FL.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the ITEXPO East, February 2-4, 2011 Miami Beach Convention Center, FL.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the ITEXPO East, February 2-4, 2011 Miami Beach Convention Center, FL.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the ITEXPO East, February 2-4, 2011 Miami Beach Convention Center, FL.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the ITEXPO East, February 2-4, 2011 Miami Beach Convention Center, FL.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the ITEXPO East, February 2-4, 2011 Miami Beach Convention Center, FL.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the ITEXPO East, February 2-4, 2011 Miami Beach Convention Center, FL.

Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the ITEXPO East, February 2-4, 2011 Miami Beach Convention Center, FL.

Motorola claims this device to be "the world's most powerful smartphone," and with the special feature shown during the presentation, it certainly has facts to back up its claims.

Although it uses a newly designed dual-core processor like the also unveiled LG Optimus 2X, in addition to both a front-facing and a back-facing 5MP auto focus camera with a duel-LED flash, what sets it apart from the current line of devices is its ability to dock, which launches a webtop Linux or entertainment center environment, allowing the device for use as a desktop or laptop computer or a multimedia center.

When the device is released, multiple docks will be available.

One of the options is the HD Multimedia Dock that has ports to connect an HD monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

This creates a desktop experience with a full Mozilla Firefox browser and integrated Flash 10.1 for watching Hulu videos, all outputted at 720p.

Bringing pc-like power to the mobile platform, when docked to the HD Dock, all of the phone's capabilities will remain intact, in addition to 80 percent to 90 percent of PC functions available through cloud-based computing.

A file manager is available for saving all types of documents, which can be edited through webapps like Google Docs. When a more traditional PC experience is needed, virtualization is available through Citrix remote desktop support.

Motorola demonstrated the feature by remotely connecting to a PC running Windows XP fullscreen.

The Atrix can also be connected to an HDTV and used with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse for relaxed webpage viewing from the comfort of your living room or while connected to a TV, the home entertainment environment can be launched, allowing access to HD videos, photos, and music, creating an Apple TV-like experience.

The other dock available is the Laptop Dock which connects into a device that looks like a laptop, but is only a screen, keyboard and battery, with all of the computing power done on the smartphone, same as with the HD Multimedia Dock.

The Laptop Dock will get six hours of battery life and when disconnected, the user will be left with a fully charged smartphone.

When the smartphone is removed from its dock, the environment will remain, so when reconnected to the dock again, the user can continue web browsing where he left off. All brower tabs will still be loaded as well as videos.

The browser tabs are also available for mobile viewing once they are disconnected from the dock.

With such extraordinary computing power in your pocket, it's hard to believe where the Atrix's origins date back to nearly 30-plus years ago.

The first successful mass-produced cellphone came with the Motorola DynaTAC in 1984, known to many as "The brick," which weighed two pounds and offered just a half-hour of talk time for every recharging and sold for $3,995, and the computer was the Apple II, with two models, retailing at $1,298 with 4 KB of RAM and $2,638 with the maximum 48 KB of RAM.

The Atrix 4G has about 21 times more RAM than the fastest Apple II, weighing just 135 grams, and lasting for 8.80 hours of talk time and 264 hours of standby time in a super slim package only 10.9 mm thick.

With such vast improvements, it makes phones like Apple's iPhone 4 with its inhouse-built A4 processor, the same as in the iPad, becoming increasingly outdated less than a year after its release, even though it was also revealed for Verizon Tuesday.

Although no pricing was released by Motorola or AT&T, the only U.S. carrier which the Atrix will be available, it was hinted at launch for sometime this quarter.