Influence Forum roundup

Posted Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 10:15 am by Jason Cartwright

So as you’ve seen over the past few days, I’ve been posting my notes from the sessions I attended at the Influence Forum. I’ll now spend some time today, cleaning those up, removing any boring bits, do some additional research and expand some items.

So please take the time to go back and review these as the conference offered some really great discussions and information about what’s on the way.

It was my first Influence Forum and overall a great experience. The sessions provided some great discussions, while the lunches and evening events provided valuable networking opportunities.

I’m sure next year will be bigger and better and would love to attend again.

Home Entertainment

Posted Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 11:33 am by Jason Cartwright

7Tivo – try and get techAU.tv delivered on Tivo when it launches in Aus.

Twin tuners – HD, based on Series 3, modifications including PAL.

Can FF ads, not skip entire ad.

tivo.com.au to get more updates soon – watch this space. 

John – Samsung

Focus on Full HD (1080p)

Movement away from component, multiple HDMI ports on TV’s.

Moved from version 1.2 to 1.3 of HDMI – includes CEC – Consumer Electronics Control (1 remote controls any device)

Prediction that within the next couple of years Full HDTV’s will be the standard.

Question about how much Australian content in in HD. Required is 1020 hours a year, most broadcasters doing more.

Comment about users still struggle to know about HD quality levels.

Speaker from Asus on Home Automation

Smart wiring

Wireless devices are an option for existing homes.

Options for distribution – Go big or go niece

Speaker about 802.11n
Designed to compete with a wired network.

Spoke last year about 802.11n draft 1.0

About designed to be about twice the range of current wireless, and 3,4,5 times the speed approaching the real speeds of 100Mb.

Expectation was that n standard would be ratified by about this time this year, however it’s now going to be around October next year.

Most changes form draft to final release should be able to be updated with Firmware.

Draft 2.0 currently, Draft 3.0 due next year.

Fine tuning the standard to avoid interference with BlueTooth and other wireless device spectrums.

5x speed, 2x the range – verified by 3rd party testing.

Home network adoption of 802.11n should be very prevalent by end of 2008.

Tivo may be upgraded to N via USB port, or may be a new version of Tivo.

Podcasting panel

Posted Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 10:33 am by Jason Cartwright

9.30 this morning, I sat on a podcasting panel at the Influence forum. The other people on the panel are Ian Yates from itradio.com.au and Roulla Yiacoumi from the podcast Bran.

Some topics discussed in the session are:

Overview of techAU
- Gaming, Gadgets, Social Networks, Phones.

- Impacts of broadband speeds in Australia on audience.

- Big issues (Storage of files – providing the podcast in multiple formats can easily be 400 Mb +)

- Adoption of HDTV’s is growing, which feeds the need for content in HD. I think podcasts have a significant role to play in this arena. We have the pro-sumer level tools to create HD, but our limitations are cost of hosting and bandwidth limitations.

Demo session

Posted Monday, September 10, 2007 at 3:01 pm by Jason Cartwright

In a product demonstration session at the moment, featuring displays from Samsung, Netgear, NRG / AMD, My net phone and more.

The new upcoming phone were impressively thin. Netgear displayed their new router with VOIP configuration built in.

Evolution of the PC

Posted Monday, September 10, 2007 at 11:16 am by Jason Cartwright

Speaker from AMD

Introducing 4 cores this year, 8 cores next year
Fusion released next year (late 2008/2009) – combines CPU / GPU.
Using 65nm atm, moving to 32nm next year, then 25nm, reaching limits of making transistors down to the size of atoms. Next evolution to light.
Currently 65w moving down to 45w, estimation of by 2010 processor power consumption to 20w – heat not longer an issue.
AMD Live – suite of software packages for Home users, communication, handle data, media centers.
Fusion price point is aimed at entry level pc’s, top end systems will still required dedicated GPU.
Games now supporting multi-core, releases in the next month or 2.

Question to magazine editors about why we haven’t seen processors on front pages, response was the move away from clock speed, and core 2 has ruled processors.

Speaker form Asus (Emmanuele Silanesu)
Evolution from dedicated cards to being integrated to motherboard.
In-car-PC’s and Home Theatre PC’s upcoming areas of development.

Question about RAID on motherboards – about 1/3 of Asus products.
EEE PC to begin in Australia later this year. Price point in US is a subsidized – around AU$400 but will contain bluetooth etc.
I asked if Asus would supply the software for the in-car PC or look at Windows Automotive, he wasn’t sure.

Speaker from Acer
Figures show that PC’s are still growing, but not as fast as laptops.
Acer offering 3ltr Ultra Mobile PC.
Storage and Media
Acer to have HD-DVD and Blu-ray RW drives by the end of this year.
22″ LCD monitors are the sweet spot for price point, 24″ LCD’s will be the best option in the next 12 months.
Question if Acer will have a 13″ Laptop, response: they currently offer 12′s and 14′s.
Quantity of 17′s sold is reducing in favour of 19′s in commercial applications.

Speaker
Evolution away from PC’s to Laptops, where they’re heading.

Wireless
- GPS, access anywhere

Portability
- demonstration of handle on laptop, easier to carry. Consideration of how to carry in vehicle, needs required maybe secure area, could be charged while driving, connect to other car systems.

Durability
- Needs to hold up under most conditions, i.e. direct sunlight.

Weight

Podcasting Panel 9.30am tomorrow

Posted Monday, September 10, 2007 at 11:02 am by Jason Cartwright

Tomorrow morning I’ll be sitting on a Podcasting panel, I’ll be preparing some notes later today, but for the most part it should a fairly informal, off the cuff discussion, Like many of the sessions I’ve been to at Influence, I’m sure some really good conversations will be generated.