Posted 11/24/09 at 10:30:00 AM by Alex Castle and Norman Chan

In a lot of PC publications, it’s the CPUs, video cards and other internal hardware that gets all the attention, with input devices relegated to a few pages here or there in the reviews section. But why should that be the case? Input devices are, after all, your point of connection to your machine. As keyboards, mice and game controllers have evolved over the years, so has the way we control and interact with our computers. That’s why we’ve chosen to give them the respect they deserve—by compiling a list of 50 of the most important, memorable, or just downright wacky input devices from the past, present and future of computing.

We’ve arranged our retrospective into logical sections: mice, keyboards, game controllers, and miscellaneous peripherals. Within each section, we’ve arranged the input devices chronologically, so read through from the beginning to get a sense for each devices history, where it’s at today, and where it’s going in the future.

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Posted 11/23/09 at 08:46:23 PM by Ryan Whitwam

The release of this app means that the 250 million users of S60 devices running 9.2 or later can enjoy the Spotify service. “We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Spotify to help realize their visions for a mobile version that can now reach hundreds of millions of music lovers that use Symbian based phones,” said Charlotta Falvin, CEO of TAT. Regardless of your feelings about Symbian, that’s more than can be said for US music lovers. Spotify is still only available in Europe.

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Posted 11/23/09 at 08:08:46 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Data Robotics is refreshing its excellent line of Drobo automated external hard drive enclosures. The Silicon Valley startup is launching the Drobo S and DroboElite. The Drobo S is similar to the standard Drobo but offers a fifth drive bay, allowing up to two drives to fail with no data loss. The new ‘S’ version also packs a faster ARM chip and an eSATA port to go along with the FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 ports. Users can enable dual drive redundancy via the software control panel.

The DroboElite is intended for enterprise use. It has room for 8 SATA drives, much like the older DroboPro. The Elite now comes equipped with two gigabit Ethernet ports as the only connection method. You won’t find any iSCSI or FireWire like on the Pro. There is however, a USB port intended for device management, not everyday use. The DroboElite is definitely not something for consumers to go pick up.

The new units are shipping now. The Drobo S is going for $799 and the DroboElite for $3,499. The standard Drobo will continue to be sold for $399.

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Posted 11/23/09 at 07:24:38 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Google has made it clear recently that it does not intend to compete with utilities. The Mountain View tech company felt the need to do so after its recent push to get the PowerMeter service up and running. Some have worried that Google might intend to take over the relationship with customers from the electric companies.

PowerMeter is a service that pulls data from special “smart” home electricity meters and feeds it into a web interface where users can track their use. Google’s Program Manager for Advanced Products, Ed Lu, explained that Google only wants to help consumers understand their energy usage better. He went on saying, “This is where we think we can help utilities with this particular problem.”

Google has held firm that PowerMeter is merely a tool to help people be more environmentally conscious. Google also says they don’t intend to make profits on PowerMeter, as it is a project of Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm.

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Posted 11/23/09 at 07:19:34 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Google has conveniently spurned its own Adsense policy by adding Adsense ads to Google Earth. The Adsense policy clearly bars developers from milking desktop applications using Adsense ads. The ads appear on the right side, in the search section of the application, and whenever a user clicks in one of the red markers. This could prove to be a precursor of a full-fledged invasion of the desktop, which could open a new revenue stream for developers of desktop apps.

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Posted 11/23/09 at 06:58:35 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Many tech analysts feel e-book readers will have to breach the $100 price point if they are to go beyond their niche audience. With the number of companies lining up to try their luck in the nascent e-book reader market increasing rapidly, the contenders will soon realize that e-readers will need a wider audience for even a few of them to stay in the hunt.

According to Scott Liu, chairman of electrophoretic display (e-paper) maker Prime View International (PVI), e-readers will not be breaching the $100 price point in 2010 as the demand will stay strong. He told Digitimes that electrophoretic displays are becoming affordable but his company is still not offering them to clients at reduced prices.

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Posted 11/23/09 at 06:38:35 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Wikipedia has become one of the largest crowdsourcing projects in the world since its debut about 8 years ago. It is also the fifth most popular website, garnering over 325 million visitors each month. Even with all this success, some are afraid for the future of the online encyclopedia. In recent years, volunteers have been leaving the site in huge numbers.

In the first three months of 2009, the English-language Wikipedia experienced a net loss of over 49,000 editors. Compare that to the same period a year earlier when only 4,900 editors were lost. The Wikimedia foundation is aware of the losses, but believes the wiki will be able to continue.

As for the cause, there are two basic schools of thought. The first is that users are becoming weary of the hostile environment Wikipedia can be. Some may not want to engage in heated debates about content. Add to that the increasingly restrictive rules Wikipedia has had to set forth to combat vandalism and you may have a recipe for desertion. Others feel that there just isn’t that much work left to do.  Many articles have already been written and rewritten, leaving little for the average editor to add.

Whatever the cause, we can only hope that knowledge continues to be aggregated in Wikipedia. Where do you come down? Is Wikipedia withering on the vine? Or has it just reached a level of maturity that requires less tending to?

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Posted 11/23/09 at 06:00:17 PM by Ryan Whitwam

In the wake of Google’s Chrome OS announcement last week, some have questioned the search giant’s software vision. Cofounder Sergey Brin popped in for a brief appearance at the event and made some interesting statements about the future of Chrome OS and Android. Brin said that Android and Chrome "will likely converge over time," but gave no indication of the form that might take. Indeed, the Chrome OS will reportedly have support for ARM based CPUs. Brin also talked up the similarity in the products’ code bases. Both are based on Linux and the Webkit browser rendering engine.

CEO Eric Schmidt also had something to say about Android and Chrome. The sheer murkiness of his statements is a little intriguing. Schmidt said that Chrome is for users on a real computer, a device with a keyboard and larger screen. However, he also said that Android’s real strength is its ability to run powerful PC-quality apps.

Cnet interviewer Molly Wood prodded Schmidt slightly about the possible overlap in the emerging Smartbook category. Schmidt was quick, yet broad in his dismissal saying, “let’s not prejudge what these things are best used for… our end users will ultimately judge.” Google seems to be waiting for queues from users to tell them how (if at all) these products will be integrated. So, post any thoughts you have in the comments.

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