From MP3 to audio in 3D

Karlheinz Brandenburg of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology helped develop the MP3 format more than a decade ago, setting the stage for a new era of music consumption. Lately, he's been adding a new dimension to his audio achievements -- technology to deliver sound in true 3D.

Tuesday at noon, Brandenburg unveiled the first U.S. deployment of this technology at Mann's Chinese 6 theater in Hollywood. Distributed by a Fraunhofer spin-off called Iosono, the 3D sound system consists of dozens of wall-mounted speakers controlled by software that dictates what each one of them plays at any given moment. The point is to make the audio appear to come not from speakers, but from different spots in and around the enclosed space. As with 3D video techniques, "wave field synthesis" technology creates not just the sensation of sound extending out from the screen -- which surround-sound techniques can also do -- but also the illusion of sources deep behind the screen's surface. It's also more precise than surround sound, and the listener doesn't have to be in the center of the room to get the full effect.

More trouble for Hollywood? Kevin Rose ditches cable, TiVo for Internet, Netflix

Kevin Rose is an influential guy in Silicon Valley, the kind other young gearheads follow. And that includes on micro-blogging service Twitter, which is where Rose announced to the world that he had canceled his Comcast cable and TiVo subscriptions.

"From this point forward I'm going all internet / netflix," he wrote. A few dozen FriendFeed users posted comments about his decision, with many saying that they had done the same or were thinking about it.

Rose, the 31-year-old who helped start such sites as Digg, Revision3 and Pownce, says he realized he was only watching a handful of shows and about 10 to 12 hours of programming a week. And although he still dug loading up Blu-ray movies on his 110-inch high-definition projector TV, he was just as happy to tune into "Lost" at ABC.com and "Heroes" on Hulu.com on the small screen. A fan of the Green Bay Packers (his grandfather played center for the football team), he could kick back and watch games streamed live on NFL.com.

He can also get streaming video through a Netflix set-top box manufactured by Roku and, soon, on his Xbox 360 console. BitTorrent fills most other gaps. Or Rose hits house parties or local bars to pick up entertainment he misses elsewhere.

It's a big improvement from the days when he had to wait six to eight hours to download pirated versions of his favorite shows, Rose says. Today even pirated shows are a snap. "Now most of the stuff is Flash encoded. It's a single click," he said.

Rose should be in the cable industry's sweet spot. He takes his entertainment seriously. But he said he decided to dump Comcast after ...

Around the Web 10.29.08: Astronauts vote, Yahoo gains share, Christian Science Monitor goes paperless

-- Winning the award for the citizens voting from farthest away: astronauts in spaaaaaaace. Wired

-- Tech CEOs are urging all the employees they haven't yet laid off to vote, via online video clips. CNet

-- Hollywood may not be recession-proof anymore. Thanks a lot, Internet. LAT

-- Yahoo gains search market share, Microsoft loses it. Google still rules. Bloomberg

-- More on the global code of conduct agreed upon by tech giants. BBC

-- New Yorkers were treated to a two-minute TV blackout to warn them of the upcoming transition to digital TV. What is this, China? Bits

-- People might be cheating in online traffic school. But will they prosper? LAT

-- The Christian Science Monitor scraps its print edition and goes digital. LAT

-- Online retailers see a drop in visitors for the 8th straight week. CNet

-- Sony's quarterly profit falls 72%. Ouch. NYT

-- BlackBerry Partners Fund announces its first investments in applications that might someday make the BlackBerry as cool as the iPhone. VentureBeat

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: Astronauts at the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Xbox Live gets a makeover to appeal to the masses

Calling all soccer moms, Joe Six Packs and anyone else who doesn't play video games. Microsoft wants you.

The Redmond, Wash., technology giant is sprucing up its Xbox Live online game service next month to become more inviting to average consumers who may not know, or care, about Halo. The new look, scheduled to launch Nov. 19, lets people use Microsoft's Xbox 360 console to create and customize avatars, try out games and navigate through a library of 30,000 movies, TV shows and video clips.

To veteran Xbox players, this may not be overwhelming news. They already know how to get around Xbox Live to buy episodes of "South Park," download games and squeeze in a few live rounds of Halo with their friends -- all before breakfast.

For everyone else, Xbox Live can appear to be an intimidating playground for teenage males. That's why Microsoft has been working hard to make its service more approachable to lure in other consumers. It's also adding more mainstream content, such as on-demand movies from Netflix so viewers can stream films to their televisions from their Xboxes. Next year, Microsoft will host live game shows, called Primetime, that anyone can jump into.

Microsoft has some serious couch-time competition. Sony, which makes the PlayStation 3 console, has also announced ...

SightSpeed folds into Logitech

Telephone rebels have long flocked to Skype, Vonage and other Internet-based calling services that offer cheap to free calls.

Now SightSpeed, with its well-regarded video conferencing capabilities, hopes to take its Internet calling service beyond computer-to-computer -- or even phone-to-phone -- connections as part of a deal announced late tonight to sell itself to Swiss peripherals maker Logitech International for $30 million in cash.

Berkeley-based SightSpeed, which has been battling bigger rival Skype Technologies, hopes that the all-cash acquisition will lead to new ways to make video calls through other devices, though founder Peter Csathy declined late Tuesday to provide much more information.

One could surmise, though, that Logitech hopes to use the television, among those other devices, to let friends and relatives call each other to show off the baby's first steps or the senior in graduation garb.

The deal, which both sides hope to close in the next few weeks, gave the companies a chance to be somewhat obtuse in a statement on which they wouldn't elaborate.

The acquisition should "help us move more quickly toward our goals for video services that complement the way people socialize, communicate and enjoy entertainment," said Junien Labrousse, executive vice president of Logitech's Products group.

He said the company's research shows that there is a "large untapped market" for communicating through video calls. But folks want the technology to be "integrated into their family lifestyle, which means going beyond the PC," Labrousse said.

SightSpeed, of course, isn't the only Internet calling company with video. Skype itself has long had a video component, and some customers see little difference between the two.

Founded in 2001, SightSpeed has 25 employees. Csathy said he and all the employees would remain with Logitech.

-- Jim Granelli

Just try surfing the Web in China. Seriously, here's how

China might be excelling in the world economy, pioneering rainmaking technologies and scaring the rest of us by drumming perfectly in unison, but it's not very good at protecting its citizens' Web privacy. And that's been in the news a lot lately. For example, Microsoft is employing an anti-piracy tactic to blacken the computer screens of people using pirated Windows software. The blackout reappears every 60 minutes as a way of urging people to get the legitimate product.

Now, a Firefox add-on that lets users see what it's like to surf the Web in China is getting a lot of attention, spurred by blogs such as Gizmodo and Make Magazine. The browser add-on, called China Channel, re-routes your IP address through China, meaning you're subject to the same censorship as a Web user in China would be. Once you connect (and it might take a few tries if your workplace has a firewall), you'll see a message that says "Welcome to China!" inviting you to browse away.

A quick search on the China Channel found that a few obvious terms were banned: "banned words in China," as well as "Falun Gong" and "Epoch Times," the newspaper founded by Falun Gong practitioners. Try accessing those and you'll see a page that says, "Connection has timed out." Same thing if you try to visit the website Tibet Truth and a GigaOm page about China and Skype.

Surprisingly, the China page of Human Rights Watch was accessible, as was the Wikipedia entry about Tiananmen Square. China lifted a ban on sites about Tiananmen in advance of the Olympics.

"It's really important to spread knowledge about the censorship that's going on in the Internet right now" in China and all over the world, Tobias Leingruber, one of the creators of the China Channel, said in a video on his personal website. The goal of the project is to "get people to think about this and to talk about it" and hopefully change it, he said. In Germany, artists and developers protesting online censorship there in 2001 convinced the government to loosen some of the restrictions, he says.

Some tech companies are starting to think about ways to work in countries with repressive governments. The New York Times reported today that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo plan to introduce Wednesday a global code of conduct with the goal of protecting online speech against government intrusion. They're starting a Global Network Initiative that they say will commit them to minimizing the impact of government restrictions on freedom of speech, according to the article, which followed up a scoop by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The New York Times story, so far, was not blocked on the China Channel.

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: Women greet visitors to the Hitech Forum in China. Credit: Adrian Bradshaw / EPA

Mitsubishi laser TV zaps in for the holidays

For those demanding the latest in HDTV eye candy, Mitsubishi’s long-awaited laser televisions are finally dribbling into stores. Debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in January in a Vegas nightclub, the LaserVue TVs displayed a sharp image from all angles and deep colors, although it was a bit difficult to tell amid the pumped-in smoke and dancing showgirls.

But unless you’re getting one of those government bailout-subsidized bonuses, you may not even want to look. The 65-inch model out now carries a price tag of about $7,000. And the screen isn't even flat. The laser TV, which is similar to a DLP set except that it uses a laser instead of a bulb for its light source, is nearly 11-inches thick. That makes a laser TV practically an elephant in the room in this flat-panel era.

If you get one and hate it, maybe you can break the screen and do home Lasik.

If an old-fashioned DLP is good enough for you, you can pick up a 65-inch model for less than $2,000 these days. Flat costs more, but you can get a Sharp 65-inch LCD model for about $3,500 and up.

And stay tuned. Prices of high-definition TVs are likely to drop for the holidays. Perhaps they will not just drop but plunge, considering the economy.

-- David Colker

Photo by Mitsubishi

Around the Web 10.28.08: Cloud computing and blimp flights

-- Microsoft unveils Azure, its cloud computing program, which delivers software over the Internet. Wash Post

-- Google settles a lawsuit with authors over its plan to scan books and post them online. AP via LAT

-- Google's green investments are looking pretty smart right about now. NYT

-- Third time's the charm: Google adds calendar and gadget features to Gmail. The sample user calls his mother "Mum" and is afraid of bears. Gmail blog

-- An anti-piracy feature in Windows is really annoying some users of bootlegged software in China. LAT

-- Ad networks are consolidating as business slows. WSJ

-- In case you thought Ted Stevens, the senator recently convicted on corruption charges, had nothing to do with tech, you're wrong: He was the one who called the Internet a "series of tubes." CNet

-- The 2000s are getting to seem more and more like the 1920s: A commercial blimp takes flight in Northern California on Friday. Wired

-- Venture capitalists are earning less money than they used to. Wah, wah, wah. Mercury News

-- Verizon said earnings were up 31% in the last quarter. Guess the company didn't need the iPhone after all. AP via Mercury News

-- Walmart.com is rolling back prices on some music downloads to 74 cents, making a song less expensive than a Coke, a bagel and a pound of gummy worms. Engadget

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: TW Collins via Flickr

InMotion offers music in airports for the forgetful traveler

It happens to even the most prepared traveler: You get to the airport, turn on your iPod, and think, "Gah! I forgot to update my iPod and all I have on it are old Christina Aguilera songs! However will I weather the flight to Nashville?"

Previously, the only solution to this quandary was to download new songs using WiFi on your computer and then transfer them to your iPod (unless you have a phone that lets you purchase songs from it). But now, travelers can go to InMotion kiosks at 20 airports across the country (including LAX) and buy digital music, then plug their iPods or other devices into the kiosk and download the tunes. For now the songs are only from the catalog of one record label, EMI, but still, it's an improvement.

InMotion kiosks already offers free downloads of travel podcasts, sample periodicals from Audible.com and some music, but EMI will be the first major label to offer paid music downloads. EMI represents artists such as Coldplay, Al Green and Katy Perry, which means now the forgetful traveler will be stuck in a different situation: at the airport, a few dollars the poorer at an InMotion kiosk, thinking, "Gah! I just downloaded the song "I Kissed a Girl" and am going to have it in my head the whole flight to Nashville!"

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: Even hairy arms can now buy music in airports. Credit: InMotion

Digital billboards get a little creepier

Technology can be creepy. Remember that scene from the 2002 film "Minority Report"? John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, walks through a hallway of digital screens that recognize him and shout advertisements: "John Anderton! You could use a Guinness right about now."

Something like that may not be too far off as digital billboards become more popular with advertisers. Research firm PQ Media predicted today that the market for digital out-of-home media in the U.S. would grow 11.2% to $2.43 billion this year. Globally, it's expected to expand 14.5% from 2007 to 2012. That makes digital billboards one of the fastest-growing advertising mediums around.

Companies are jostling to provide ways to make these digital screens even more effective. That includes TruMedia Technologies, a Florida company with research offices in Israel (company motto: "Every Face Counts"). TruMedia provides cameras and software for retail locations so the stores can show different on-screen ads depending on the gender and age of the person watching. The company says it soon will be able to also play different ads based on the race of the person watching.

Dr. Vicki Rabenou, chief measurement officer at TruMedia, presented the technology at the WebbyConnect conference in Dana Point on Friday. Here's how she says it works:

A device placed on, say, a supermarket shelf scans the face of the person standing in front of it. It determines whether the person is a man or a woman and sends that information to a digital screen nearby. The screen will play an ad for women's razors if a woman is watching, Jeeps if a man is watching, or Gap if both a man and woman are watching. "People are not even aware that they are being watched and monitored," Rabenou said.

The video analytics software to do this was developed for the Israeli homeland security department. It can determine, by facial clues, the gender and age of the faces it scans. By next year, the company says, the software will be able to ascertain ethnicity as well.

The device can also track how long people stand in front of a retail display, determining whether the display is clear. In an Israeli trial, it helped advertisers realize that a lot of men were buying Pampers on Thursday nights, so the company started a promotion that gave free razors to shoppers who bought two packs of Pampers. Rabenou said sales skyrocketed after the promotion. "Advertisers will use our systems as a real-life focus group," she said.

Of course, this may make some people a little concerned about the world turning into "Minority Report." Rabenou assured the crowd at WebbyConnect that TruMedia was "fully respectful of audience privacy," and added that "Big Brother is not watching."

The company doesn't track who specifically is watching the screens or standing in front of the displays, she said, just a person's gender and, as the technology develops, race and age. Besides, she said, retailers don't want to be perceived as spying on their customers, so they'll be careful how they use the technology.

Still, the parallels with "Minority Report" weren't lost on one audience member, who referenced the movie in a spiel protesting the technology. "I'm horrified by what you're offering," he said.

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: A woman watching a screen equipped with a TruMedia device will see ads targeted at women. Credit: TruMedia