XplanaZine

Updates on: IBM releases two new services for alphaWorks, Wikimedia introduces high-quality printing capabilities for Wikipedia, five wireless trends for 2008, strong laptop sales during the fourth quarter, device allows authors to sign books remotely

IBM has added two new Web services to its alphaWorks (http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/) Web site, which provides “sneak previews” of the kind of technologies that are being contemplated at IBM research and development labs. The new Web services include IBM Sharable Code, a platform for managing Web 2.0-type mashup applications, and IBM Web Highlights — Campus Technology

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. announced a partnership that will make it possible to obtain high quality print and word processor copies of articles from Wikipedia and other wiki educational resources. The development of the underlying open source software is supported by the Open Society Institute and the Commonwealth of Learning. It is led by PediaPress.com, a start-up company based in Germany. — Information Today

Microsoft released updated institutional licensing terms for education customers. Microsoft’s subscription licensing programs for education, collectively known as the Campus Agreement and School Agreement (CASA), now offer two additional benefits–home usage and evaluation rights–as well as several other changes in the areas of license renewal, buyouts, prorating, and other program terms. — THE Journal

Andrew Hickey at EETimes makes a prediction what five wireless trends will define the industry in 2008. The technologies and issues he bets on are wireless LAN, open networks, legislation, dual networks, and web services. — EETimes Online

Strong laptop sales are making this a hot holiday shopping season for PC makers. In its Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, IDC projects that worldwide PC shipments will increase by 16.7% in the fourth quarter of this year, bolstered by the strong laptop sales. — Computer World Hardware

A device called the LongPen, originally created for Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood in 2004, so that she could meet remotely with fans, chatting with them by videoconference, allows authors to remotely sign books. The author uses a touchpad, which conveys handwriting to a remote autopen in a bookstore and is printed on the copy of a novel. More than two dozen authors, including Alice Munro and Norman Mailer, have used LongPen in 2007. The device is developed by Unotchit, a Toronto-based company. — The New York Times (free registration may be necessary to view article)