Charlie and Stephen talk about how technology is being rapidly adopted in schools, and also discuss how Microsoft is considering its entry into the digital audio player market and its Xbox 360 sales, and the new Sony HDV camcorder for consumers that will sell for less than $1500. They also announce a contest with a prize worth over $1000.

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Articles by Stephen and Charlie

Skype Phones
by Stephen Schleicher
Skype users, rejoice. No longer are you confined to using those cheap headsets you buy at the local Wal-Tar-Co. What you need is something that looks like a real phone. CES 2006 had companies unveiling Skype phones left and right. Here is a sampling of some we saw.
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NextGen House: Packed With New Technology
by Charlie White
In one of the most concentrated demonstrations at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a group of companies banded together to create the NextGen Home Experience. A house was constructed in the parking lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and stoked with the latest in high-tech home control and entertainment gear. Let's take a tour through that house, taking a look at the latest gadgets and gizmos that make up the highest of high-tech homes.
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Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot
Interview by Stephen Schleicher
Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot debuted this week at the Sundance Film Festival.  Completed in 55 days, Fumi had a little help from students at San Jose State University and Adobe.  Digital Media Net’s Stephen Schleicher interviews director David Chai about the project.
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Stephen Schleicher
Charlie White

Adobe Systems

Verbatim

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DV Creators

Show Note Links
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Norelco SmartTouch 9190 XL Razor
The Art of Shaving
Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking 8
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Hays High School

Rapid-Fire Roundup® of Cool Products

Sumo Omni Chair
This is a giant pillow that is the ultimate solution for relaxing. It's certainly not your typical bean bag chair, because it's supersized. Flatten it out and make a bed, scruntch it up and make a high-back chair, or kick back and relax just like you did in the 60s, man. The Sumo Omni chair comes in a variety of colors and retails for $169.

Pink Razr from Verizon
The exquisite Motorola Razr phone is now available in pink at Verizon. Sure, you could get the beautifully-designed Razr in pink from T-Mobile, but if you're stuck with Verizon, gals, now you can have the ultra-slim pink Razor for $50 more than Verizon's gray-and-silver Razr, but with the same feature set. It's a slightly lighter pastel shade of pink than the original one from T-Mobile, and it's $250 with a two-year contract. I've used the Razr, it's beautiful and great-sounding, but its user interface could use some improvement.

Soldius Solar-Powered Golf Bag
if you're one of those corporate executive types who enjoys a round of golf but hates being away from the office, then you might want to check out the Soldius Solar-Powered Golf Bag. It has solar panels that allow you to recharge your cell phone for a double round of 18 holes. The charging points are compatible with over 250 devices. No price has been set but you can find out more on the company's web site.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 Camcorder
Here’s a high-definition camcorder w/10x optical zoom that costs just $800. It's 5 inches tall, and records 720p high-definition digital video, and also takes 5.1 megapixel digital still images at the same time. It has a 2.2-inch viewfinder display, and here's the kicker: it records all this video on secure digital (SD) flash memory cards. Not sure how hard it will be to edit this footage -- it is recording MPEG-4 -- but this looks like a breakthrough. Don't pre-order one yet, though, this might not be all it's cracked up to be -- sounds too good to be true. Available in the middle of March for $800.

Beer-Pouring Robot
The Japanese love their beer and they love their robots even more. So why not take two great tastes that taste great together and come up with a beer-pouring robot? That's what beermaker Asahi has done. It keeps up to six cans cool at once and when you're ready, it pours you a beer with a perfect head of foam each and every time. You probably won't see it coming to the US any time soon, but it's certainly a cool product. Now if they could only combine that with the recently-canceled Sony QRIO, my robot butler army would be complete.

Sony CyberShot 10.3-Megapixel Camera
The DSCR1 digital camera gives you high resolution and a 5x optical zoom in an easy-to-hold form factor. It has a Carl Zeiss 24-to-120 mm zoom lens, and a - inch LCD viewfinder. Uses either compact flash media or Sony's stupid Memory Stick Pro, you can get a live preview through the lens with this 10.3 megapixel monster. Here's a single lens reflex camera that has it all.

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"Stephen Schleicher is very knowledgable about his technology and I can only assume he would surround himself with like company. Which is why I think Stephen and Charlie definitely know what they are talking about in the venue of tech tips and reviews. They rock my face off!"

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