SURF WHILE YOU鈥URF
Intel, inventor of the microprocessor, has come up with the ideal gift idea for web-obsessed beach bums: an internet-enabled surfboard.
Developed by Intel to promote its sponsorship of this month鈥檚 GoldCoast Oceanfest surfing competition at Croyde Bay in south-west England, the top surface of the board incorporates a built-in tablet PC with a Wi-Fi antenna and even a built-in webcam to capture those special moments at sea.
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Protected from seawater by a thin sheet of clear PVC, the computer鈥檚 touch screen can still be operated when the board is wet. Topside solar panels help charge the tablet鈥檚 battery.
Novel ideas like Intel鈥檚 may be what the tablet PC needs to rescue it from oblivion. Last week, market researcher Instat/MDR of Scottsdale, Arizona, reported that the expensive machines have been a flop outside three small markets: healthcare, real estate and insurance, where the tablet鈥檚 pen-based computing is an attractive replacement for paper notebooks. A drop in price, bigger screens and better software could boost the tablet鈥檚 prospects, says Instat.
DOUBLED-UP DISCS
Get ready for yet another new disc format. The DVD Forum, the international trade association that polices the DVD format, has agreed to allow the movie and recording industries to combine DVDs and CDs on one disc 鈥� with a movie on one side and music on the other.
There are currently two groups vying to develop the best 鈥渇lipper鈥� disc technology, which involves bonding a thinned-down CD back to back with a thinner than usual DVD. A European group led by disc pressing firm Sonapress is working on a format called DVD Plus, while in the US five major record firms have already begun test marketing a flipper format called DualDisc.
The tests are intended to find out whether there are practical problems, such as warping or dishing, caused by the stresses that can result from bonding two different thickness discs back to back. A spokesperson for Philips, which along with Sony invented the CD format, warns that flippers do not completely meet CD specifications. 鈥淲e strongly advise the [record] labels and disc manufacturers to warn consumers of possible playback problems,鈥� he says.
