Sun Releases New InfraSearch-based Software
Sun Microsystems released new software that it claims can help Web users tap into computing devices and services that today's Internet doesn't accommodate. Sun has chosen the slogan "find it, get it, use it" to describe the software, called "Jxta" and pronounced "juxta." Sun said Jxta will let people tap into an "expanded Web" that extends beyond today's Internet.
The description indicates the presence of the InfraSearch software Sun acquired in March to bolster the Jxta effort. InfraSearch, based on Gnutella software, enables searches across interconnected computers lacking a central index. Sun wants Jxta, unveiled in February by inventor Bill Joy, to power a new generation of services on the
Internet. Jxta would provide a foundation for running programs across a host of "peers"--potentially every sort of computing device from desktops to tiny cell phones to mammoth servers.
Jxta will enable services to be run across the distributed network of devices. Joy said in February it would likely be incorporated into its grand "Sun One" software strategy, a program that competes with the .Net vision of Sun's perpetual foe, Microsoft.
Presenter to Launch Version 3 of iPresentation Suite
Presenter Inc. is preparing for the April 30 launch of version 3 of its iPresentation Suite, a Web-based software package designed to help train sales staff, with new administration, authoring, video and wireless capabilities. Sales managers can create or change Microsoft PowerPoint presentations and then post them online using the new
iPresentation Authoring Server. Sales managers can use iPresentation Video Studio to add narration for the presentation. The Management Server lets an administrator set up security policies, user and group accounts, and authoring privileges. In addition, sales professionals that are on the road can view the presentations over a Pocket PC
and listen to the audio portion using a mobile phone.
8th Annual Southern Gaming Summit Scheduled for Biloxi
The 8th Annual Southern Gaming Summit slated for May 9 and 10 in Biloxi, Miss., will have an Internet focus to it. The seminar, "Internet Gaming: Changing the Face of an Industry," features a panel of top Internet gaming experts. Moderating is Ron Rychlak, Assistant Dean at the University of Mississippi Law School and author of numerous law review articles with an emphasis on gaming law. Panelists include Anthony Cabot, chairman of the gaming practice group at Lionel Sawyer & Collins in Las Vegas and author of the "Internet Gambling Report"; Frank Catania, president of Catania Consulting Group in New Jersey, a consulting firm with extensive gaming experience; and Tom Rodgers, president and CEO Carlyle Consulting in Virginia, specializes in the formation of legislative strategies in the areas of tax, trade, intellectual property and Native American issues. The Internet gaming seminar is one of more than 20 seminars and keynote addresses that span the course of the two-day Summit. A complete schedule of events is available at http://www.sgsummit.com. The Southern Gaming Summit is the only gaming conference devoted solely to the casino industry in the South and the
Midwest and is the only conference endorsed by the entire Mississippi gaming industry.
Sony, Ericsson Merge Mobile Ventures
Ericsson AB and Sony Corp. have agreed to merge their mobile phone terminal businesses in a joint venture to be known as Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd. The company will be based in London and is to begin operations Oct. 1. Each company will take a 50 percent stake in the venture, which will leave Ericsson free to concentrate on mobile phone infrastructure equipment, a sector where it is a world leader. The joint venture will initially employ about 3,500 workers worldwide, with 1,000 coming from Sony and 2,500 from Ericsson. Sony is putting between $300 million and $500 million into the venture, said Katsumi Ihara, a corporate executive vice president of Sony who has been tapped to serve as president of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.
The entity is to be self-contained, with responsibility for product research, design, development, marketing, sales, distribution and customer service. It will market existing product lines under the Ericsson and Sony brands, but is chartered to create a new range of future-looking products under a unified brand. Those new products are to appear
in the second half of 2002.
Mechanical Technology Turns to Cell Phones
Mechanical Technology Inc., a 40-year-old company devoted to commercializing direct methanol micro fuel cells (DMFC), will attempt to apply its technology to battery packs for cell phones and other handheld portables. The company believes it can develop fuel cells with 10 times the capacity of a standard cell phone battery in the same form
factor. Staff additions announced last week will bring a critical mass to MTI's development process, said President William Acker. Jay Neutzler and Xiaoming Ren, celebrated inventors of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology, will join MTI in systems engineering capacities, Acker said. Ren comes to MTI from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which had licensed DMFC technology to MTI earlier this year.
Like an ordinary battery, the micro fuel cell is electrochemical in nature, except that it uses a continuous fuel source for the electrochemical reaction, Acker said. Unlike battery technology, the amount of energy available from a fuel cell is dependent not on the storage capacity of the energy source, but on the amount of fuel you can bring in, he said. By loading a liquid electrolyte from cylinders the size of a fountain pen cartridge, MTI believes it can power a fuel cell with 10 times the amount of "juice" or "talk time" as that produced by a conventional lithium-ion cell phone battery, Acker said.
Icinergy Announces Design Planning Product
Seeking to provide a "virtual prototype" early in the silicon design process, EDA startup Icinergy Software announced its SoCarchitect design-planning product this week. The company is a spin-off of EDAConnect.com, an online provider of EDA tools. Icinergy promises that SoCarchitect will capture physical chip design attributes before RTL coding begins. It creates a high-level floor plan and provides estimates of timing, power, area and routability. The hierarchical floor plan can then be refined as designers synthesize and lay out individual blocks. SoCarchitect may seem like unusual technology to come from EDAConnect.com, which mostly resells other vendors' pc-board layout tools, but the product has been brewing for years. The seeds of Icinergy were planted in 1999 when EDAConnect.com purchased Javelin EDA, an Ottawa startup developing automatic placement technology for ICs and pc-boards.
Intel Rolls out Fastest Pentium 4
Intel Corp. introduced its fastest Pentium 4 processor at bargain-basement prices Monday, putting pressure on rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to match the speed and the price tag. The chip-making giant said the low price of the 1.7 gigahertz Pentium 4 is a reflection of production savings that are being passed on to customers. Many analysts believe it is an attempt to boost Intel's sagging share of the semiconductor market. The new processor will sell for $352 when purchased in bulk. By comparison, when Intel unveiled its 1.1 GHz Pentium III last July, it carried the hefty price tag of $990. The company also will cut prices on its slower Pentium 4 processors next week. The 1.5 GHz model, which debuted in November for $637, will sell for $256. The 1.3 GHz processor, which was originally priced at $332, will cost $193.
Problem Gambling Seminar Set for New York City
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), the Century Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), will present High
Stakes: Substance Abuse and Gambling, a one-day conference, on June 12, 2001 at CASA's offices in New York City. The conference will feature experts in health and social policy, businesspeople, elected officials, among others. Through a series of panel discussions and presentations, High Stakes will explore the relationship between gambling and all types of substance abuse and consider the public policy and public health implications of this connection. Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D., Director of NIDA, and Steven E. Hyman, M.D., Director of NIMH, will make keynote presentations.