XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Monday, April 17. Today’s theme is getting there, and here are a some links to headlines about technology that is changing the way we live and learn.

• Gaming — Game Daily has a nice post on the use of voice in video games. This will become a more pervasive technology in all video games over the upcoming years. Also, look for LucasArts to continue working its way up the video game food chain in the upcoming 18 months.
• Blogging, mediacasting, and online creations — Dave Sifry, the founder of Technorati, has posted his updated State of the Blogosphere. Of note:
  • The number of blogs is doubling every 6 months
  • The blogosphere is 60 times larger than it was three years ago
  • 55% of new bloggers continue to blog after 3 months
  • 3.9 million bloggers update their blogs at least weekly

  Also, for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. Or, in this case, for every detractor there is a promoter. First, Forrester reported this podcasting stuff wasn’t so promising. Now comes an Arbitron study that says the future of radio is bright precisely because of … podcasting! Finally, BusinessWeek has this article about creating good Web Buzz. The secret formula? Blogging and solid partnerships.

• Handhelds – Wll, after all the buzz at CeBIT, Samsung is getting ready to launch its first Origami product into the market. Samsung is the first to bring Origami to market. The company is taking preorders now, and has invited journalists to a launch event on May 1. Also, the proof is in the profit for Sony Ericsson. Demand for their Walkman phone that plays MP3s and take pictures tripled profits for the company in the first quarter.
• Social Networks – Microsoft trying to up the ante in social networking apps. It is in talks to purchase
  or partner with two-year old startup Eurekster, creators of the social search tool Swicki. . Also, Om Malik has this interesting take on Web 2.0. He does some nice comparisons between Web 1.0 and the next generation of the Web. Is there really anything new under the sun?
• Technology Talks — One of the bigger gaps between open-source database program MySQL and Oracle has been the lack of a transaction engine. Well, that gap is getting ready to narrow as
  Solid Information Technology has announced that it will create an open-source storage “engine” for the MySQL.