The Demo conference has been known as a launching pad for cutting edge technology and this year’s expo is no different.
Zink Imaging of Waltham, Mass., has unveiled a new way of printing digital images in colour without the need for an ink cartridge or ribbons.
The Zink inkless system stems from the company’s paper, which as dye crystals embedded inside. These crystals are heat activated by the handheld-size printer. From there the crystals colourize producing a small print.
According to Zink, the print will be long lasting and durable.
Wendy Caswell, president and CEO of Zink, said the company insists on delivering a revolutionary digital printing experience. Zink technology does not require ink to print and it can transform any device into a printer.
She added that the Zink technology could create a new mobile printing market. The company aims to bring printing to camera phones and digital cameras.
Chris Shipley, the executive producer of the Demo show, said each year millions of pictures are taken by camera phones and other devices but are never printed because consumers just don’t know how or the process is too difficult.
Zink has also manufactured an integrated digital camera/printer handheld device. The 7-mega-pixel device can snap photos the same way as other digital cameras and then print those images on a 2-inch by 3-inch photo paper.
Not to be outdone by Zink, DAVE also wants to capture the mindset of the mobile users.
DAVE stands for Digital Audio Video Experience and it is a technology created by Seagate Technology of Scotts Valley, Calif.
The DAVE platform delivers 10 to 20 Gb of wireless storage in an accessory smaller than many common slim-line cell phones. DAVE is intended to store, play and share digital files on mobile handsets, PCs, and other wireless-enabled devices.
Using Bluetooth or WiFi connections, DAVE can capture data anywhere up to 30 feet or 9.1 metres from your phone. DAVE is also open source so that third-party developers can build on other applications for this technology.
According to Frost & Sullivan, the number of mobile video download subscribers will jump to nearly five million in 2010 as compared to 250,000 in 2006.
Baseball slugger Barry Bonds made an appearance at Demo 07 to publicize Bling Software’s release of the first AJAX Web client for mobile handset.
With this announcement, Bling enables companies to build and deliver data-rich applications for cell phones using AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript XML).
Bonds, who is a customer along with The Onion Web site, singer Jay-Z’s sport bar and lounge, is using Bling for his fan affinity application on his Web site.
Industry analyst Seamus McAteer of M: Metrics said Apple, Google, and Yahoo has made the AJAX programming language a desktop success. Bling is the first to bring it to the mobile handset. Bling Software “blows away” the complexity barrier for creating mobile content.
Finally, Boston-Power Inc. of Westborough, Mass., showed its next-generation, lithium-ion battery for notebooks called Sonata at Demo 07.
Working with Hewlett-Packard, Boston-Power’s Sonata line is a drop-in technology that can be used in existing notebooks and mobile devices in the future. Sonata requires no notebook design changes. The product has safety features such as slower chemical kinetics, novel current interrupt devices, new thermal fuses, and pressure relief vents.
With a shipping date set for the summer, Boston-Power claims Sonata can recharge itself to 80 per cent capacity in 30 minutes.
John Wozniak, an HP Distinguished Technologist, said the company believes in lithium-ion as the best solution to power notebooks for the foreseeable future.
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