Beyond Binary

CES 2010 formally kicks off Wednesday night with a keynote address by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that starts at 6:30 p.m. PT.

Ballmer is expected to play up the high points of Windows 7 and to talk about other topics near and dear to Microsoft, ranging from its game technology to touch-screen interfaces.

I'll be bringing you details from the keynote speech and offering commentary on what Ballmer and Microsoft are up to as the presentation commences.

Lights go down at Hilton Center--and stay down.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

6 p.m.: Hilton Center is filled up. On stage, naturally, are a whole mess of PCs ranging from the teeny to the large. Still a bit early--half an hour until Ballmer...

6:30 p.m.: Lights just went dark here.

6:35 p.m.: Lights down, music still playing. No one on stage, though. " We are having a small power problem. Please remain in your seats." (And here I thought they were just being green.)

6:37 p.m.: We're not ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog

LAS VEGAS--Ahead of Microsoft's keynote on Wednesday, I had a chance to sit down with Entertainment and Devices head Robbie Bach to get his thoughts on some of the hottest topics in tech.

I tried (albeit with only mixed success), to pin him down on Windows Mobile 7, Google's recent Android moves, Project Natal, as well as the rumored tablets from both Redmond and Cupertino.

As for Natal, Bach wasn't ready to open up too much beyond confirming that it will ship this year.

"We'll announce that Project Natal will be available Holiday 2010, so this coming holiday, which is very exciting," Bach told CNET. "It's important news not just for consumers. It means retailers will want to get ready. Our game publishers are busy producing games for Project Natal. I think you are going to see a lot of momentum and excitement build over that."

Aiming to pin him down on price, ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog

LAS VEGAS--It's what gamers had expected, but Microsoft is officially confirming that it plans to release its Project Natal Xbox add-on later this year.

Natal, which that lets people play games using their bodies as a controller, was shown at last year's E3 trade show. There were indications that it was planned for a holiday 2010 release, but Microsoft had not officially said so.

The software maker had hoped that the news would come on stage later Wednesday, as part of CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote speech, but word leaked out after Microsoft briefly posted a video with Robbie Bach to its Channel 9 developer site.

In the video, Bach also mentions another new Xbox feature: Game Room. Game Room is a feature of Xbox Live that lets users create their own arcade. In addition to playing classic games, such as those written for Atari or Intellivision, users can organize the machines and allow their avatars and those of friends to move throughout the virtual arcade.

Through Xbox Live users will be able ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog

Livescribe's app store was meant to increase the appeal of its Pulse digital pen, however a number of glitches have instead led to frustrations for many users.

(Credit: Livescribe)

Digital pen maker Livescribe acknowledged on Friday that the launch of an app store for its digital pen has led to a host of problems for many users, including issues that interfere with its main note-taking feature.

The start-up launched a long-awaited app store last month, hoping to boost the appeal of its Pulse smart pen. The store included a range of applications from free games, to language translators, to specialized programs such as a Torah-chanting tutor.

However, since the store launched in beta form on November 19, customers have been experiencing issues ranging from difficulties downloading the applications to problems with the core "paper replay" feature, including challenges transferring recordings to the PC.

In an e-mail, Livescribe CEO Jim Marggraff apologized for the issues and said the company is working on fixes.

"With this new software, we inadvertently introduced some bugs that compromised our platform's performance," Marggraff said in a letter to customers.

Here's the full text of his e-mail:

On November 19th, we launched the beta (test) version of our Application Store to provide access to free and fee-based smartpen applications for Pulse users. The changes that enabled our Application Store included substantial advancements to our entire platform, including the smartpen, PC and Mac Livescribe Desktop software, and Web services.

With this new software, we inadvertently introduced some bugs that compromised our platform's performance. I'm writing to sincerely apologize for these problems, and to provide an update on the progress we've made in addressing them.

While we have solved many of the major performance issues, we are still making improvements. Between now and Christmas, we will continue to deploy additional updates to improve occasional issues related to uploading larger-sized pencasts, downloading purchased applications, transferring audio from smartpens to the desktop, and installing new software.

We expect these enhancements to address most known issues and to substantially improve service.

Through this rollout, the support from our community to assist us in working through these issues has been critical and extremely helpful. Thank you for your guidance and patience. We're committed to your satisfaction, and to improving our communication as our global community continues to expand.

Please send any requests for assistance to our customer service team, reachable by phone (1-977-727-4239) or e-mail at cs@livescribe.com.

Happy Holidays,

Jim Marggraff, CEO

To get a sense of what the digital pen apps look like when things are working, here's a video I did last month.

With all the buzz over the tiny LCD screen on the bottom of Barnes & Noble's Nook, I was excited to get some time with the Entourage Edge, a device that pairs a large 9.7-inch E Ink screen with an even larger 10-inch LCD touch screen.

I got that chance on Monday, when the company stopped by CNET with a prototype of the product, which is set to ship in February for $490.

The goal of the Edge, the company says, is to offer a device that can replace the textbooks and notebooks carried around by typical high school students.

"We just thought here was a way to take technology and apply it to what they carry around," said Entourage Systems Vice President Doug Atkinson. "The initial goal was to put a 30-pound backpack in a device. I think we've achieved that."

There are a lot of features to like about the three-pound device, although, it definitely has the look and feel of a first-generation product.

The Edge's main selling point is, of course, the fact that it has two screens to do true work on. Unlike the Nook, which uses its color screen only for navigating the eBook and as an on-screen keyboard, the Edge's LCD can be used to run a variety of Android applications or to browse the Web.

The electronic ink side, meanwhile, can be used not only for reading books, but also for taking notes, using a stylus.

One of the Edge's many neat tricks is letting you go back and forth between the two screens. ... Read More

It's sort of Hunter S. Thompson meets the Twitter generation.

Five employees of accessories maker Griffin Technology are driving cross-country from company headquarters in Tennessee to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which begins January 7.

Five workers from the iPod accessory maker will be making the 2,476 mile trek from Tennessee to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show in January in a restored 1972 Volkswagen van.

(Credit: Griffin Technology)

Their mode of transportation for the 2,476-mile trip will be a 1972 Volkswagen Westfalia mini-bus that company workers have been restoring. The work has been led by chief mechanic Mark McGlon, whose day job is managing branding efforts for Griffin, which is known for its iPod and iPhone accessories. McGlon and four others from the company will head out in late December on their way to Sin City.

The Griffin-mobile is making scheduled stops on December 30 in New Orleans, December 31 in Austin, and January 2 in Phoenix, and is slated to be at the Grand Canyon on January ... Read the full post at CNET's CES 2010 blog

The Livescribe app store, now in beta, allows users to download applications to their pen ranging from inexpensive games to a pricey--but handy--Bar Mitzvah tutor.

(Credit: Livescribe)

It took a little bit longer than the company had hoped, but the Livescribe digital pen now has its own app store.

The store, which requires pen owners to upgrade their desktop software to the new version 2.0, offers a mixed bag of new applications that range from free programs to one that costs $99.

The programs, which all work without a computer, include games like video poker and hangman, along with utilities like a Spanish-English dictionary. The one that caught my eye the most was the priciest app--the $99 Magic Yad application, which works to help those studying for their bar or bat mitzvah.

The Magic Yad (which gets its name from the Hebrew term for the pointer used to keep one's place in the Torah) consists of Torah and haftarah portions printed on the special dot paper. When an aspiring Hebrew learner clicks on a particular word, they can hear how it is supposed to be chanted. They can also record themselves reading the same part and compare the two.

Typically, learning one's bar or bat mitzvah portion requires hours with a tutor.

"This solves an expensive pain point for parents," Livescribe senior director Eric Petitt said in an interview last week.

While the Magic Yad might be a killer app for the 12-year-old Jewish set, most of the other applications are largely fun add-ons, but not the kind of thing that might make one rush out and by the pen. It's main attraction is still the "paper replay" feature that lets one record audio and synchronize the audio with their handwritten notes.

The games are interesting, if not all that advanced. Drawing five circles on the dot paper lets one play video poker and choose which cards to keep. The cards themselves appear on the pen's small LCD screen. To play hangman, one simply writes the letters they wish to guess. They then see on the screen whether they have gotten closer to solving the puzzle or if they just added an appendage to their hangman. And, as only fitting, there is also a dots game. (Livescribe uses special paper with tiny dots that allow the ink to be digitized properly),

Livescribe started shipping the Pulse pen last spring. It has since added Mac support and expanded the number of models it offers as well as the places it can be found, which now include Best Buy and some Apple stores.

As for the app store, it's in beta. For now, Livescribe envisions a revenue split where it takes a 35 percent cut and the developer gets 65 percnet, although it is still finalizing its terms.

Here's a video I did showing some of the new apps in action.

T-Mobile USA said late Monday that it is resuming sales of the Sidekick after pulling it off the shelves in the wake of last month's massive outage.

The wireless carrier said that the Sidekick 2008 will now sell for as low as $49 with a two-year contract, while the Sidekick LX 2009 will be priced at $149 with a two-year contract.

T-Mobile Sidekick LX

(Credit: CNET)

"T-Mobile is pleased to announce that Sidekick sales have resumed," the carrier said in a statement.

The company is still dealing with the aftermath of the outage, which left customers without access to their data for weeks. Most customers have now been able to get much of their data back, although photos are being e-mailed to customers rather than being restored to the device.

Although sales have resumed, the question is whether the device will ever be able to regain the confidence of consumers.

It's also an issue for Microsoft, whose Danger service powers the Sidekick. The software maker on Tuesday is expected to announce another key cloud-based effort, the final version of Windows Azure.

Vitamin D, a start-up formed by three ex-Palm executives, is releasing a public beta of software that consumers can use to detect human motion in their security cameras and create rules on what to do when someone is spotted coming or going.

(Credit: Vitamin D)

The great thing about security cameras is the fact that they let you record things without needing to have a human being physically there.

The downside is that, in most cases, it takes a human being to figure out whether there is anything interesting there. Sure, there is motion-sensing technology, but such systems are often fooled by animals, cars, or even by a tree rustling in the wind.

Three former Palm executives think they have some software that could help shake things up. Their company, Vitamin D, is releasing a public beta on Monday of software that can detect and isolate human motion, potentially allowing the growing number of surveillance cameras out there to be a whole lot more useful.

The software, which works on either PCs or Macs, puts a yellow box around any human motion it detects and can be further refined to show only someone coming or going from a particular area--say entering or leaving through a particular door. The software is designed to work with any IP camera or even an inexpensive Web cam.

Getting in the surveillance game is admittedly a bit of a shift for early Palm employees Greg Shirai and Rob Haitani--two guys who have spent most of their careers creating consumer gadgets.

But, after years of listening to Palm and Handspring founder Jeff Hawkins talk about his brain research, Shirai and Haitani, along with Celeste Baranksi, another ex-Palm executive, thought they had a way to make a business out of it. "We were always fascinated by what Jeff was doing," Shirai said. Vitamin D's software is powered by artificial intelligence technology licensed from Hawkins' Numenta start-up.

Shirai and Haitani say they are starting with the security camera industry because that's the first application the technology can be used in. But over time, they hope to refine the technology such that it can have broader uses, such as powering object-based search within video streams.

Haitani gave a preview of the technology at this year's Demo conference. There's also a video of the technology in action on Vitamin D's Web site.

Using artificial intelligence makes the system remarkably adaptable, Haitani said, something that is not the case even with very high-end systems that use various rules to try to identify humans.

Vitamin D's software, for example, is able to pick out two people carrying a lawn mower, someone crawling, or even a person pushing a stroller--all shapes that don't look a lot like what an algorithm might think of as human.

"You can see how the shape-based rules quickly break down," Haitani said.

The technology isn't perfect. It isn't well suited to nighttime work, or anything where there isn't sufficient light. "We actually would not do well in poorly lit scenes," Shirai said.

Shirai and Haitani have been using the software at their homes and office to try it out. They haven't caught any thieves yet, though there was one scare, Shirai said.

He noticed a group of people struggling at the company's front door early one morning.

"I thought, oh my gosh, there are these people breaking into our office," Shirai said. In reality, he had found something far less sinister--what time his office's cleaning crew came each day.

Haitani said he also learned that his house is frequented by hummingbirds when he is not there. "Apparently my front lawn is this crossing path," he said.

For those who have security cameras, particularly consumers and small businesses, Vitamin D's software can offer significant time savings. Going through all the motions detected in hundreds of hours of video--even if one only spends 5 seconds on each clip--could require hours of work. By contrast, narrowing it down to just humans might cut that workload down to just minutes, as the two demonstrated last week, showing me examples from their collection of surveillance tapes.

The software will be free during the public beta, though the company hopes to start charging for a final version in the first half of next year.

Other potential customers could be law enforcement or even the intelligence community. Indeed, In-Q-Tel, the investment vehicle for the intelligence community, is among Vitamin D's early investors, along with HTC, the cell phone maker that Haitani and Shirai know well from their Palm days.