XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Tuesday, March 28. Today’s theme is what’s next? , and here are a some links to headlines about technology that is changing the way we live and learn.

• Gaming — Nintendo has announced that it is ramping up production of the DS Lite consoles to ease shortage pains in Japan.
• Blogging, mediacasting, and online creations — Podcasting may be popular but it seems to have little to do with the “pods.” A study by Bridge Data concluded that 80 percent of podcasts are either listened to and/or watched on a PC, or simply deleted. Also, if you’re interested in trying out a new, free podcasting solution, visit Evoca. In the political world, the Federal Election Commission decided Monday that the nation’s new campaign finance law will not apply to most political activity on the internet. The decision means that bloggers and online publications will not be covered by
  provisions of the new election law.

• Handhelds – Palm turns ten years old this week. Take a look back at the company’s history and how their work helped transform the handheld business. In England, a report is out that show cheating on exams is on the rise and cell phones are a contributing factor. “”Over recent years we have seen a noticeable rise in the number of mobile-phone related incidents in examination halls across the country,” said QCA Chief Executive Ken Boston.” Qualcomm is making a push to become a serious media player by pushing TV services to cell phones.
• Social Networks – Pete Cashmore provides this update on MySpace and discusses how the big social network site is breaking lots of rules (and building new paradigms in the process). Don Thorson has this great piece on the live web. “The live web changes everything. One -way communication, (an artifact of the
  printed page), is finally leaving us. The promise of hypertext
  style=”TEXT-DECORATION: underline”>
  href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext”> is now real and as a new generation grabs the wheel, it’s morphing the social infrastructure and changing reality as we know it - And once again, ”
  href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furthur” target=”_blank”>you’re either on the bus, or off the bus” .
• Technology Talks — Microsoft has provided further details about its Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere (WPF/E)software for writing applications to run on multiple browsers and operating systems.
  The WPF/E software is an alternative to Adobe’s Flash and will be released next spring after Windows Vista. This is yet further evidence of Microsoft’s announced commitment to be a player in the front-end graphics market.