Tech Toys Tease Congress

[tamarisk]

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114761,00.asp

Tech Toys Tease Congress

Morphing phones, wired appliances, and copyright security highlight annual Internet fair.

Adrienne Newell, Medill News Service
Thursday, February 12, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Homeland security technology, a test-drive of the Net-connected Xbox, free food, and tchotchkes drew Congress members, staffers, and others to a tech fair here, but it was the next-generation cell phones available only in Japan that drew the crowds.

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"I want to see the neat phones," one woman said, pushing her way past tables of gutted pineapple boats and depleted stores of cold cuts at the seventh annual Internet Caucus Reception and Technology Fair Wednesday evening on Capitol Hill. It was a frequent refrain throughout the two-hour reception. The DoCoMo vendors displayed shiny mobile phones that twist into little digital cameras, along with personal digital assistants and giveaway Japanese kites.

DoCoMo is the largest cell phone carrier in Japan and offers an i-mode option so users can send multimedia content through their phones. Though the service isn't offered in the U.S. yet, the phones in Japan and those shown at the tech fair also have videophone capability, with real-time video and sound.

The phones' most visually accessible sell was, of course, their capability to twist into cameras--sort of Transformer toys for adults. The phones have two sets of camera lenses. One works as phones with camera capability operate now. With the other set, you can turn the display section of the phone around and down, hiding it and changing the phone into a compact camera with a second lens on the outside.

Attendees included a crush of about 500 members of Congress, their staffs, business people, lobbyists, and press. They took in the security tools aimed at homeland security efforts as well as more lighthearted product demonstrations.

Other Exhibits

The hot topic of copyright was addressed by at least one vendor.

Audible Magic, calling its product a "breakthrough in P2P management," was hawking an appliance that hooks directly into a network to identify copyrighted files being shared and halt the download.

The product can block only copyrighted material or all P-to-P transactions, and is intended primarily for universities and businesses that want to minimize or prevent file-trading on their networks.

It works by identifying each P-to-P interaction like a digital fingerprint. Every time a P-to-P transaction takes place, the appliance matches its "fingerprint" against Audible Magic's database of files.

Many record companies have cooperated by sending files of their songs to Audible Magic, which uses the data to compare the files being traded, says CEO Vance Ikezoye. The ones that match as copyrighted material are blocked from transmission.

Ikezoye notes the device's capability to differentiate between copyrighted and noncopyrighted files as its strongest point, saying it allows P-to-P activity for legitimate purposes and could cut out illegal uses.

The Consumer Electronics Association had the biggest display: A reproduction of the digital home of the near future. Its massive mock-up included a bedroom, living room, study, and kitchen displaying the newest home networking technology.

[shawners]

im sure they didnt like the voice phone recordings that are being offered =)