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The WAVE Report on Digital Media 3D --- Media Creation --- Shared Space ---Published by 4th Wave, Inc.--- Issue #0619------------------5/12/06 |
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0619.2 Game Console Growth
0619.3 Wireless Solutions
ZigBee Alliance Announces Second Annual Developers' Conference
0619.4 Micro-Power Sources
Oak Ridge Micro-Energy Solid-State Batteries Could Be Power Source of the Future
0619.5 Spyware Proliferation
Webroot Reports Highest Spyware Infection Rates since First Quarter of 2005
0619.6 Consumer Behavior
Stanford Business School Research: When Culture Impacts Consumer Behavior
0619.7 Modeling Displays
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0619.1 Conversion Plug-Ins
***Markzware's Q2ID Adobe Plug-in for Microsoft Windows! Converts QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign with One Click
SANTA ANA, Calif.
May 9, 2006
Markzware, prepress software developer of PDF preflight, data conversion and content delivery solutions, has announced the immediate release of the Microsoft Windows version of Q2ID, the QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign conversion tool. This simple Adobe InDesign Plug-in requires an installed version of Adobe InDesign v3 (CS) or v4 (CS2).
Markzware's Q2ID (QuarkXPress to InDesign) enables Adobe InDesign Windows (and Macintosh) users to convert QuarkXPress 3.3, 4.x, 5.x and 6.x data into a native InDesign document format. Q2ID converts numerous elements of a QuarkXPress document including, but not limited to: layers, page size, style sheets, fonts, text, images, lines, tables, etc., provided Adobe InDesign supports the elements.
Since the introduction of Q2ID, several improvements and new features have been added to both the Macintosh and Windows versions, which include:
-- Conversion support for layers created with onOne Software's QX-Tools
-- QuarkXPress Project Documents with multiple layouts can be converted directly to individual InDesign files
-- Support for editing based on Styles
Q2ID for Windows may be purchased through an authorized Markzware reseller such as CDW, MacMall, MacConnection, SHI, Software Spectrum, Programmers Paradise and through Markzware Direct Sales, or at Markzware's online store.
http://www.markzware.com/store_usa/
***Despite Household Saturation, JupiterResearch Finds That Connected Console Revenues Will Grow 150% From 2008 To 2011, Reaching Nearly 2 Billion Dollars in 2011
NEW YORK
May 9, 2006
JupiterResearch has announced that the next generation of Internet connected game console revenues will grow from roughly $800 million in 2008 to nearly $2 billion in 2011. According to a new report from JupiterResearch, "US Console Games Forecast, 2006," increasing the value of each console household is key to growth.
Industry console revenue growth will reach a high of $12.2 billion in 2007 when new platform sales are strongest. Then in 2008, the battle for the living room will begin in earnest with significant revenues coming from the connected console. At this time, one in ten households in the US will have a connected game console, and by 2011, this percentage will double. Driving the adoption of greater console usage by more household members will be a key factor to the success of the business.
According to JupiterResearch, game systems in their current form have reached household saturation in the US but the next generation of console revenues will grow as vendors deploy a variety of strategies and content to attract new family members.
Among the key elements that will attract the second and third players on consoles will be the availability of a large catalog of casual games. Publishers and platform suppliers can reach a large audience of about 75 percent of US online users that have interest in playing these titles. Consumers will no longer be confined to traditional platforms for social and casual gaming activities.
JupiterKagan has forecasted that, by 2008, more than 50 percent of US households will have broadband Internet access and nearly 35 percent will have a home network. They foresee an industry shift to digital distribution especially for casual games and other content that will attract an estimated 24 million households in the US to get connected. That will contribute to the revenue growth from $800 million to nearly $2 billion in 2011.
http://www.jupiterresearch.com
***ZigBee Alliance Announces Second Annual Developers' Conference; ZigBee Hands-on Product Development at Sensors Expo & Conference
SAN RAMON, Calif.
May 9, 2006
The ZigBee Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in home, commercial and industrial applications, will be hosting its second annual Developers' Conference in Rosemont, IL, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center on June 5-7, 2006 in conjunction with Sensors Expo & Conference.
The Conference is a three day event for hardware and software developers interested in incorporating ZigBee wireless sensor and control networks technology into new products. The ZigBee global standard addresses control and automation needs for the home, commercial and industrial markets. Participants will have the unique opportunity to compare ZigBee compliant platforms, test transceivers, microcontrollers, network stacks and developer tools and gain knowledge from the engineers responsible for the design of ZigBee technology. The Developers Conference will jump start or complement your ZigBee product development and market entry.
At the conference, speakers from a wide range of technology and product manufacturers in the ZigBee Alliance including Agilent Technologies, Atalum, Cirronet, Crossbow, Daintree, Ember, Freescale Semiconductor, Frontline Test Equipment, Integration, Motorola, Philips, Silicon Laboratories, Software Technologies Group, Texas Instruments and ZMD will present on the state of ZigBee wireless sensor and control networks technology.
Participants of the conference will receive a CD with all conference materials as well as the ZigBee specification, one of the most downloaded specifications in recent history. For registration and conference details, please visit:
http://www.zigbee.org/en/events/developersconference_2006.asp
***Oak Ridge Micro-Energy Solid-State Batteries Could Be Power Source of the Future
OAK RIDGE, Tenn.
May 9, 2006
Electronic devices continue to shrink in size due to competitive pressures for more portable electronics. While the majority of electronic components have been scaled downward, traditional batteries have failed to keep pace. Oak Ridge Micro-Energy believes it has an answer.
Oak Ridge Micro-Energy designs and produces thin film, solid-state batteries for commercial, consumer, industrial, homeland security, government and medical applications. Today, an Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film battery is in production at the company's facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The thin film components of the battery total less than six micrometers (0.00024") thick and can be applied directly to wafers or integrated circuit packages. They can withstand the pressures and temperatures of tire manufacturing and the high temperatures required in new, environmentally mandated, lead-free semiconductor processing. The Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film battery can be made in any shape or size, and its extraordinary cycle life means that it can be permanently embedded into a system that will last for years. It is readily scalable to fit the smallest of applications.
The Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film battery is a solid-state device, meaning that it does not use a liquid or polymer electrolyte like other conventional lithium or lithium-ion thin batteries. This feature allows the battery to withstand temperatures of over 265 degrees Celsius in a discharged state. The battery also can fully recover from long storage in a fully discharged state, and it can withstand extreme hydrostatic pressure and G forces.
The Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film battery is a robust energy storage device that can be easily engineered to fit a wide range of microelectronic products. Unlike conventional batteries, the cost of a Oak Ridge Micro-Energy battery does not increase with reduction in size (constant $/cm(2)). The ability to permanently embed the battery into a microelectronic system makes it attractive for low maintenance, portable electronic applications.
There are many and wide ranging applications for of Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film batteries:
Embedded tire sensors powered with an Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film battery can, for example, measure and store tire pressure and number of rotations. Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film batteries can be used to power wireless sensors the size of a dime, or much smaller, to detect biological or chemical contaminants and transmit this information to a local receiver. Airline baggage tags with Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film batteries embedded inside of adhesive paper along with a transmitter could be used to pinpoint the exact location of a passenger's baggage.
Oak Ridge Micro-Energy has developed a thin film battery for miniature medical devices that can be implanted deep inside the human body and enable physicians to assess and treat a variety of medical conditions in a noninvasive manner. The dimensions of the battery for this device are about 0.3" x 0.1" or about 50 times smaller than the ORME battery designed for powering the wireless diagnostic wafers.
The Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film battery can power non-volatile computer memory. The small form factor can reduce the package size by many times. In smart credit and security cards, an Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film battery embedded in plastic could provide exceptional levels of consumer protection. For example, the cards may contain digitized fingerprints stored in memory or provide real-time balances on a screen powered by an ORME thin-film battery.
Active radio frequency identification (RFID) tags powered by an Oak Ridge Micro-Energy thin film battery eliminate the need for line of sight when using, greatly increasing the transmitting range. As well, these RFID tags can also store more information. Imagine an inventory manager being able to sit at his desk and knowing in real time the location of every item in a warehouse.
In the future, additional products will be developed which are designed especially to take advantage of the thin film battery's small size and outstanding performance as the company continues to develop and improve their product.
In September, Oak Ridge Micro-Energy Inc. announced a successful first manufacturing run of thin film lithium-ion batteries with better than expected yields.
***Webroot Reports Highest Spyware Infection Rates since First Quarter of 2005; Alarming Resurgence of Adware and Most Malicious Types of Spyware Results in Dramatic Increase in Overall Consumer Infection Rates
BOULDER, Colo.
May 9, 2006
Spyware staged a significant counterattack during the first quarter of 2006, according to latest State of Spyware report issued by Webroot Software. A dramatic rise in the prevalence of adware combined with a significant increase in the most malicious types of Trojans and system monitors resulted in the highest consumer infections rates since the first quarter of 2005.
According to the report, the first quarter of 2006 saw a 15 percentage point jump in the share of consumer PCs infected with spyware: from 72 percent in Q4 2005 to 87 percent in Q1 2006. The average instances of spyware on infected machines increased 18 percent over the previous quarter to an average of 29.5 instances of spyware per infected PC, up from 24.9 instances in Q4 2005. Webroot also witnessed a significant rise in Trojan horse infection rates with an increase to 29 percent, up from 24 percent during the fourth quarter of 2005. The overall incidence of the most prevalent Trojan horse, Trojan-Downloader-Zlob, doubled during the first quarter.
Webroot Software has concluded that these alarming figures illustrate that spyware is a problem that Internet users are going to be battling for years to come. Spyware has proven itself as more than a simple 'flash in the pan' security threat. The company advises that this is a real threat that is financially motivated and will not stop spreading. It is imperative that users protect themselves with a proven anti-spyware solution that offers superior blocking, deploys frequent updates and protects against the most dangerous types of keyloggers, system monitors and Trojans.
Most surprising -- and perhaps most alarming -- is the dramatic rise in the prevalence of adware during the last quarter. Despite recent litigation and legislation designed specifically to thwart the efforts of unlawful adware vendors, Webroot recorded that the percentage of PCs with adware increased to 59 percent, up from 45 percent in the last quarter of 2005.
Within the enterprise, the average instances of spyware on infected PCs held steady at 21.5. The consistent number of Trojans may indicate that many enterprises still rely on legacy anti-virus programs or perimeter anti-spyware solutions to protect their networks. Unfortunately, the large economic potential of a spyware-infected enterprise to a spyware developer is driving an innovation cycle that is greatly outpacing these limited defenses.
This latest edition of the State of Spyware report comes on the heels of the release of Webroot's "Spyware & Small Business," an informative guide developed exclusively for small and medium-sized businesses to educate and inform them on the massive risks spyware poses to their company's networks and assets. In preparation for this guide, Webroot found that more than 50 percent of SMBs experienced a spyware attack during the first quarter of 2006. Smaller businesses are especially attractive to spyware criminals due to their often limited IT resources and lack of network security. The ramifications of these spyware attacks are particularly disturbing. Sixty-five percent of affected SMBs experienced slowed system performance, 58 percent reported a reduction in employee productivity, 35 percent experienced a negative impact on their bottom line and 20 percent reported a loss in sales.
The State of Spyware report is issued quarterly as an in-depth review and analysis of the impact of spyware, adware and unwanted software on consumers and enterprises. The foundation for much of the analysis and trends reporting comes from Webroot's consumer and corporate SpyAudit tools and from online research culled by Phileas, Webroot's automated spyware research system. The SpyAudit tools invite both consumers and enterprises to scan specific PCs and determine spyware infection levels.
http://www.webroot.com/sosreport
***Stanford Business School Research: When Culture Impacts Consumer Behavior
STANFORD, Calif.
May 10, 2006
You need a new computer. You log on to the web and spend time thoughtfully perusing various vendor sites to determine the best fit for your needs. You think you've made up your mind. But then you're whizzing down the highway and pass a billboard touting a different computer. You have only a few seconds to absorb the advertising message, but you're swayed in ways you hadn't anticipated. What's going on?
According to new research, it may have to do with your cultural biases. Or, to be more specific, the instances in which culture matters -- and the times it doesn't.
When does culture influence consumer purchasing decisions? This is a complex and underexamined issue recently explored by Donnel Briley of the University of Sydney and Jennifer Aaker, the General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Their paper, titled "When Does Culture Matter? Effects of Personal Knowledge on the Correction of Culture-Based Judgments," is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research.
Four experiments found that culture-based differences show up when information is processed in a cursory and spontaneous manner. So when you passed that roadside billboard, you were likely to be influenced by advertising that appealed to your particular culture. But when you had the time to deliberate more -- by examining information on the web, for instance -- attempts by advertisers to rely on cultural factors tended not to be as successful.
For example, in a pilot study, Anglo and Asian American students at a California university with an ethnically diverse population were asked to view advertisements for Welch's grape juice. Some participants were instructed to give their immediate reactions to the advertisements, while others were told to think more carefully before evaluating the effectiveness of the ads.
Half of the ads were "promotional" in their appeal. That is, they focused on the benefits that could be gained by drinking the juice -- e.g., "Welch's grape juice can lead to higher energy levels, is great-tasting as well as energizing, and is fun to drink." The other ads had "preventive" appeals: They highlighted problems that could be avoided by drinking Welch's -- e.g., "Welch's grape juice can reduce the risk of some cancers and heart disease, helps keep arteries clear so that blood can flow freely, and is healthy to drink."
The results were instructive. When participants gave their immediate reactions to the advertisements, Asian American participants heavily favored the preventive messages; Anglo Americans had the opposite reaction, rating the promotional messages as more effective. This tallied with the researchers' theories that Americans, who value achievement, accomplishment, and independent thinking, would focus on the positive consequences of their purchasing decisions. On the other hand, Chinese subjects, who tend to value protection and security, and have more interdependent ways of viewing the world, were expected to concentrate on the negative consequences of their actions or decisions. All this bore out when subjects gave only a cursory glance at the ads.
Yet this disparity disappeared when participants engaged in more thoughtful deliberations. There were simply no significant differences in how the two groups rated the effectiveness of the advertising when asked to be more careful in their evaluations.
Cultural vs. Personal Knowledge When Making Consumer Judgments
So what determines whether culture matters? A key factor is the extent to which you draw upon cultural versus personal knowledge when making purchasing decisions.
General cultural knowledge includes implicit theories about the world we live in that are largely shared by the members of our society. But in addition to this shared set of ideas, we also have personal knowledge that can conflict with accepted, culturally derived practices. For example, a boy growing up in China may generally accept the importance of his relationships with others, and therefore seek to keep harmony with family members. But more personal knowledge -- such as being exposed to pictures of American cultural icons like Green Day or Madonna -- may lead him to sometimes wear clothes that his parents don't like. In other words, when pressured to form a quick judgment, we generally rely on cultural norms as a "default." But when making a thoughtful deliberation, we're more likely to engage in an internal debate, and waver.
In the research, this pattern held across product categories, and in two-country (Hong Kong vs. United States) comparisons. Taken altogether, these results underscore the idea that culture simply does not exert the constant, unwavering effect on consumer judgments as previously thought.
Implications and Significance of the Research
This research has important implications for brand and global marketing efforts by consumer-oriented companies.
After all, notions about cultural differences are often the basis for international marketing communications as well as global brand management strategies. Indeed, the perceived importance of cultural issues has been increasing, fueled by new technologies that allow marketers to reach consumers across country boundaries. Marketers are spending increasing amounts of time and effort trying to understand subtle cultural differences. Witness the efforts of Nike, IBM, and Google.
But for a message to be effective, marketers must understand not only how to tailor a message to a particular culture but when such cultural-values-based messages are most effective. For example, this research suggests that marketing communications that hinge on culture-specific values might work best when advertisements draw brief, focused attention (e.g., online banner ads, roadside billboards).
Additionally, this notion that culture sometimes guides consumer judgments and behaviors and at other times does not could be helpful in understanding conflicting findings in previous research. For example, although numerous studies have found cultural differences matter enormously to consumers, in other studies such differences sometimes fail to appear. Such failures tend to offer uninteresting findings and often remain unpublished. The present research suggests that this may be due to differences in the conditions under which participants provide their responses.
Researchers also may want to consider the distinction between personal and cultural knowledge. When will personal knowledge override socio-cultural norms? Answers to such questions will further illuminate the psychology of consumers across cultural contexts and shed insight on what types of global marketing efforts may be most effective.
***Fakespace PowerWall Display At UK University Gives New Perspective on Molecular Modeling in Materials and Life Sciences
Marshalltown, Iowa
May 8, 2006
Fakespace Systems Inc. has announced that it provided a PowerWall to the first regional visualization center in North Wales, United Kingdom. The University of Wales, Bangor now features a state of the art large-scale immersive display that will be used to drive new discoveries in molecular modeling and materials and life sciences.
The Molecular Modeling and Visualization Center was established at the University of Wales, Bangor Chemistry School with the goal of attracting world class researchers and specialist materials companies to the region. The six foot by seven foot stereoscopic wall display will help researchers at the School of Chemistry better understand problems in molecular and materials modeling and quantum mechanical research. With virtual reality, or immersive visualization, researchers get a whole new perspective on their data compared to what can be achieved on a small 2D screen, such as a computer monitor. Using the visualization center, chemists from the University and industry will gain deeper insights into the properties and performance of different materials, without actually having to experiment on the materials themselves.
The models and simulations viewed on the Fakespace PowerWall are created using Accelrys Materials Studio software and a number of custom written applications. The data are then transferred to Amira software which drives the visualization graphics. The large-scale display provides a sense of data immersion so that researchers can actually observe properties and characteristics from inside and in-between molecules in a virtual quantum world.
The Fakespace PowerWall is a flat, large-scale stereoscopic visualization system designed for collaborative work and compelling presentations. It provides a bright 3D display for working with highly accurate detailed models. A slightly different image for the right and left eye creates a true stereoscopic effect and motion tracking intensifies the sense of reality by changing the perspective of the model being viewed depending on the position of the viewer.
The immersive display system is powered by a custom designed computing cluster server, with 16 dual Opteron processors running Linux. The solution provider, Gaia Technologies Plc., used Infiniband for communication between servers and provided a two terabyte expandable storage area network for the center.
The visualization center was funded by The Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO) through the ERDF programme with match funding from a number of partner organizations including Accelrys Plc, Gaia Technologies Plc, Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), The Sir William Ramsay Memorial Trust and The University of Wales Bangor
In addition to university and industry research the Molecular Modeling and Visualization Center also provides support to the North Wales Optoelectonics project, OpTIC, and will be used in collaboration with a number of other evolving North Wales research facilities such as the Centre for Advanced Software Technologies (Technium CAST) also located in Bangor and The Wales Centre for Visualization at Aberystwyth in West Wales.
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Copyright 2006 4th WAVE, Inc.
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