Auri's Blog

Ok, I’m sitting down for an awesome California Club sandwich at Sidecafe in Bally’s. I hope it’s as good as last time…

I hit the Intel and Microsoft booths this morning, and here’s what I have to report:

Intel:

• ClearWire was showcasing their In-Car WiMax service with a decked-out Smart car. Big touchscreen with Internet access, streaming audio and video, and a custom shell, all running Windows XP. Of course, ClearWire doesn’t offer any customization – that was all done by a show in town. The guy giving me all the details had heard of and read my book, Geek My Ride. So did practically every other guy in the Mobile area. How cool is that?
  • The WiMax service has three tiers – 2, 4, and 6 MBit burst rates. 2 MB starts at $30/month and is available in Portland and Baltimore. More cities are coming. More info at www.clear.com. Cool domain.
  • The bummer about the PC was no gesture control. So there was a clunky interface for moving around the screen. Too bad.

• Uleader Design had a super blatant ripoff of the MacBook for their laptop design. Boo.

• Dynamically Linked Displays concept. Ok, this was cool. The laptops / devices / whatever broadcast their available services to other nearby devices on the wireless network. The service on display was, well, display sharing, so you could access the display of another device and move windows around between the displays, as though they were connected to your machine. Of course, you’re limited by bandwidth, and this is only a technology preview, so the devices weren’t aware of "where" they were in relation to the other devices, but whatever – it was still a great idea.

Microsoft:

• Showed off lots of Windows Mobile devices, none running any new version of Mobile, so bummer. But cool phones of note:
  • HTC Touch HD. When I asked I was told "That version of the Touch HD isn’t coming to the U.S." and was then winked at.
  • T-Mobile’s Shadow II was on display. A bit thick.

Correction from Yesterday:

• The language Microsoft was showing was Kodu, not Bodu.

Addition from Ballmer’s Keynote:

• Sorry, forgot to mention the new XBox Live Primetime service. Basically, at pre-set times of the day, you can login to XBox Live and participate in huge community events. They showed a Quiz Show like game that was pretty cool, and you can play against your friends, your community, the World, whatever. Great idea.