No moving parts: Ergonomic mouse can track on virtually any surface, even your lap. Light: Red LED shines on work surface Optical sensor: Sends 1,500 ‘snapshots’ of work surface per second to digital signal processor Digital signal processor: Translates the changes between the snapshots into on-screen pointer movements. Wheel: For easy scrolling Programmable side buttons: Can be remapped to handle program shortcuts and game functions.
AUDIOA String of Musical Notes
Last week there was more online music news than you could shake a drumstick at. Microsoft hoped to dominate the buzz with the announcement of its MP3-killer: a music compression- and-distribution system called MS Audio 4.0, which promises files half the size of MP3 files with better sound quality. (A Microsoft VP even played blues guitar before the demo to prove “that we’re not all geeks.”) But the company faces an up-hill battle, since none of the five major labels supported the launch. RealNetworks stole some of Microsoft’s thunder by purchasing Xing, a leading MP3 software company, and by partnering with IBM (which is already working with the Big Five record companies on the Madison Project) to distribute music over modem connections. Meanwhile, Diamond Multimedia announced a higher-capacity Rio, and Creative Labs is shipping its first MP3 player; both can store an hour of music.
VIDEOPutting ‘Bugs’ in Place
Prepare to get bitten by it one more time. This week Disney and Pixar’s computer-animated hit “A Bug’s Life” is coming out on VHS and DVD. To ensure the best possible picture quality, the film was digitally transferred directly from the original computer files rather than from film to video. In another first, several of the film’s wide-screen shots have been reframed for standard TVs by moving characters and other elements closer together so that they would fit in the narrower space. Buggin’!
