Retail: Features

TiVo will launch in Australia on July 29. It is both a set top box and hard disk recorder allowing users to record in High Definition free to air TV shows. Unlike the similar Foxtel IQ, which requires a monthly subscription fee, TiVo requires a one off $699 purchase price and no ongoing fees.

Amazon.com's Kindle has turned a long under performing category of tech gadget -- e-book readers -- into an overnight hit, and in the process has boosted interest in electronic paper display (EPD) technology. The Kindle and its rival, the Sony Reader 505, both boast e-paper displays that look unnervingly like printed pages and consume next to no power. However, today's EPDs -- and today's e-book readers -- are only the beginning.

The CTO's job can be both exhilarating and thankless. Exhilarating in that you get to explore new technologies and figure out how to apply them to create new business opportunities or solve thorny business problems. Thankless in that there's always pressure to do more with less, solve the impossible and get people to go along with change they may not appreciate the value of. The best CTOs use good people, the right technology and management skills to meet business challenges.

IT vendors and distributors say they will absorb surging transportation costs as a result of record oil prices.

There are few clearer bellwethers as to the imminent direction of technology than where venture capitalists put their money. They're about making money, so they look for industry patterns they think will lead to sure bets. And that means they invest where the tech industry has begun to coalesce its thinking, not on exotic new science fiction. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, VCs have invested a total of US$57 billion in startups -- mostly tech ones -- in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

When Craig Urizzola's company decided to make a seven-figure investment in a new ERP system, he contacted his local reseller to order hardware to run it on. "We told them exactly what we wanted and said, 'We don't need SANs or clustering or any of that,'" says Urizzola, CIO at Saladino's, a food service distributor in Fresno, Calif. "But their proposal came back with SANs and 10 more servers than we asked for. They just don't listen."

When the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program was first announced in 2005, media attention centered on two aspects: the US$100 price tag and the humanitarian nature of the project. Three years later, the environmental genius of these award-winning laptops still not only burns bright but even inspires copycats. Vendors such as Asustek and Via are working to bring their own low-cost, low-power computing devices to emerging markets and education.

Aggressive pricing and competition is going to make it a tough year for projector vendors and their channel partners, but rising demand in the consumer market and the promise of smaller and portable models means there's still plenty of opportunity out there.

A US woman whose lawsuit against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was thrown out by a federal judge last month plans to file an amended complaint in a move that could finally force the industry group to share details about its controversial techniques for investigating alleged file sharers.

You might think that measuring return on investment is one of those things that never changes. You'd be wrong.

The surge of Internet TV entrepreneurs promise movies and TV programs on any screen, anywhere, anytime, yet little attention is focused on the monumental challenge and new technologies needed to make video ubiquitous.