Livescribe's Pulse can record notes from a meeting in ink and sound, as well as perform other tasks, such as translating a handwritten word from English to Spanish.
(Credit: Jared Kohler/CNET News)It's not my beat, but digital pens are a bit of a pet interest of mine, so I like to try and keep you up-to-date on them when I get a chance.
In that vein, I thought I would let you know that Adapx, which specializes in writing software that ties digital pens to other applications, announced its latest product--one that combines the digital pen with Excel. The result is that forms can be filled out in ink and paper, but the data is captured electronically. It made the announcement at this week's Demo show in San Diego.
Seattle-based Adapx already has a product that ties in with Microsoft's OneNote. The company is one of a host of firms that are trying to make a go of digital-pen products.
One that I have spent some time with firsthand is LiveScribe's Pulse digital pen. The big thing this start-up adds to the mix is the combination of audio and ink. That makes it particularly handy for note taking.
The audio notes can be played back on a PC, but they can also be played straight from the pen. By clicking various points in one's notes, you go straight to that part of the audio. That makes it especially handy for students or journalists.
I've been playing around with it for a while now. I've been meaning to get around to a full-on review. In lieu of that (at least for now), I will just say that I find it very useful. It should get even more useful later this year, when Livescribe launches a Mac version of its desktop software and enables users to print on the special "dot" paper at home, rather than having to buy notebooks from Livescribe.
After some initial sluggishness getting to market, Livescribe has been getting particularly good play at Target. I've spotted nice displays in the stores, and it's also been featured in several weekly circulars. Livescribe won't give sales figures, but it says it continues to exceed Target's weekly forecasts. The Pulse has also been available for sale on Amazon.com since July and is in several college bookstores.
Invision.TV has created a personal recommendation engine for the Web that allows viewers to get a better selection of Web-based video content to watch.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)SAN DIEGO--There's so much video content on the Web today--YouTube, ESPN, news sites, and so forth--that it can be difficult to find what you want to watch.
That's the premise behind Invision.TV, a company that has created a dashboard for aggregating and sharing Web-based video content.
The idea is based on interactive TV program guides that many of us are familiar with through our subscription TV services, for example. But instead of giving you selections of content from TV services, the video all comes from the Web.
The service embeds many Web video sources' players into its dashboard, while with others it simply links out to sites. But either way, it gives users seamless control of a wide variety of content and an easy way to find what they want to watch.
Additionally, it has a social networking element, allowing users to share video content with friends on, say, Facebook.
All told, this seems like a nice way to deal with the massive amounts of video content that's available online at any time--and to keep up with your favorite sites' videos, all without having to search sites individually.
SAN DIEGO--If you're the kind of person who runs a lot of PowerPoint presentations, you probably are very familiar with trying to connect your computer to a million different projectors.
But a Taiwanese company called Awind showed at DemoFall today a product called MobiShow which is designed to take the difficult and complex connection problem--what if you don't have the right cables--folks like this face on a regular basis.
MobiShow is a mobile-phone and Wi-Fi based projection controller.
The idea is that with MobiShow running on your mobile phone, you can use that device as what amounts to a remote control for the presentation.
You would run MobiShow--which would be connected to your computer via Wi-Fi--and then use your mobile phone to set the proper screen resolution, as well as to easily click through various slides in a PowerPoint presentation.
This would be extremely useful for the road warriors who until now have been forced to try to always remember to bring the various cables and connections they need to hook up to clients' projection systems. Instead, they can rely solely on their computer and their mobile device.
SAN DIEGO--We all have very busy lives and a big part of that is trying to manage a steady flow of new information.
Here at DemoFall today, Alerts.com unveiled its new intelligent alerts delivery dashboard.
The idea is that users can pick and choose Web sites on which to set up alerts and then aggregate them all on the Alerts.com site for delivery to whatever devices they want.
For example, if you're looking for an apartment and want to use Craigslist to find it, you can sign up for an alert directly through Alerts.com--instead of having to set it up on Craigslist itself--and then select where and how you want the alert delivered.
The same is true for dozens of other Web sites in many different categories, such as entertainment, sports, news and so on.
Once all the alerts are set up, you can use a pretty simple dashboard to organize and control them all. The dashboard shows a list of all the alerts, how the information from them is to be delivered and an easy on/off switch.
The Plastic Logic digital reader is a thin, light device that can store all kinds of digital documents.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)Why would you want an Amazon Kindle, which is kind of bulky, not too attractive, and of limited scope when you could have a real digital document reader that is thin, easy to use, and very strong?
That's the business case from Plastic Logic, one of the first companies to be on stage at DemoFall this morning.
The company's plastic reader is designed to store dozens or hundreds of business documents on a very thin digital reader. It can store e-books, magazines, newspapers, PDFs and all kinds of information, the company said.
It's made with plastic, not glass, meaning that it is designed to be strong and to be able to stand up to being hit with objects or, presumably, even dropped.
It looks pretty cool, and is said to weigh only ounces, "not pounds," has a battery that lasts days and can be read in bright daylight.
The company hasn't given this product a name yet, and it's not clear when it will be available. But Plastic Logic said it is opening a Germany manufacturing plant later this month, so it shouldn't be too long.
(Credit:
Real Networks)
Related coverage: Could Apple add RealDVD-like DVD-ripping to iTunes?
RealNetworks will soon let users rip DVDs to their hard drives--legally. The company will be unveiling the RealDVD software at Monday's DemoFall conference in San Diego, but CNET got an early look at the software. Our hands-on impressions follow:
Operation is simple and straightforward. Once the RealDVD software is installed, just pop a DVD into your PC, and the program will copy the entire disc to your hard disk. Depending on the read speed of your computer's DVD drive, the operation will probably take 15-20 minutes (for dual-layer discs that house 7 to 8.5GB of data). You can copy as many as your hard drive will hold, and the program's browsing screen gives you the cover art and relevant metadata (cover art, stars, directors, plot summaries, ratings).
Whether you're at 37,000 feet or you're accessing the program on a home theater PC hooked up to your TV, you need only click on the movie you want to watch, and it'll start straight away. (We say "movie," but RealDVD works just as well for TV shows on DVD as well.) The files are uncompressed, and include everything on the disc--all the extras, and all of the surround sound and alternate audio tracks. Videos can only be watched in the program's built-in software player, but you can toggle to full-screen viewing, and videos autoresume wherever you last left off.
... Read more
This was the most entertaining idea at DemoFall so far, and probably the most ridiculous: MixGet (site not live yet). It's technology that turns individual cellphones into synchronized music players. So if you have a crowd of people together, one person's phone might play a guitar track, another vocals, another drums.
The presenter tried to justify this product as a potential new kind of ringtone, but I'm not sure I see it. This project is from Redsquare Ventures, which is trying to bring Russian entrepreneurs' ideas to market.
I love this idea. But I don't see the market.
From Demo: Truphone works on mobile phones that have WiFi and can route your calls over the data network instead of your cellular connection. Pretty useful for saving money, especially for international roaming, when calls cost a fortune.
The big news is that the company has managed to port Truphone to the iPhone. So now you can make really good use of that WiFi radio in it. In the demo, the presenter showed a call from a phone with no SIM card in it.
I'm sitting in the audience at DemoFall listening to organizer Chris Shipley interview three young entrepreneurs (Emile Petrone, 22; Michale Callahan, 24; Arash Sabet, 25) about their innovations. The technology they're talking about is fascinating: Sabet, for example, designs surgical equipment, including a brain retractor he's developed in his work with neurosurgeons. Callahan showed off his Audeo throat mic that reads silent, pre-vocal utterances and converts them into computer input or audible speech. Petrone is working on Knowble, which looks like a social network for researchers.
How do these young guys do what they do? They're smart, but Shipley is digging in to find that they are not loners. These inventors seek out and work with smart teams and with mentors. They don't even like being called "inventors," since it connotes a solo stereotype they're trying to move beyond.
They are not from Silicon Valley, either. They have to work harder for the money. Callahan is "pro-California" though. It's clear he'd rather invent than scramble for money. All of them are idealists. And why not? At this point in their lives they can afford to be.
L to R: Chris Shipley of Demo, Arash Sabet, Emile Petrone, Michael Callahan
(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)All you angel investors, do us all a favor: Take that money you were going to give to your next me-too Web 2.0 startup and shunt it over to people like these.
Myxer introduced a new feature at DemoFall: a widget to instantly upload photos, videos or ringtones to mobile phones.
(Credit:
Myxer)
It's aimed at people who want to make money on things like wallpaper and ringtones but don't have the technical know-how or the resources to distribute it themselves. Mobilized by Myxer is a delivery platform that can push any content to any phone. They've promised to keep up on the constantly fluctuating mobile standards and phones that enter the market so you don't have to. The only requirements are that users own the content they want to distribute, and know how to drag and drop the content into the publishing wizard.
And, hey, it's got an endorsement from Tay Zonday, the Internet phenom behind "Chocolate Rain" who sells the ringtone version of his song for $1.99 through the service. What else could you ask for?
