Research In Motion (RIM) has unveiled its newest smartphone, the BlackBerry 9000, called BlackBerry Bold in reference to its gorgeous display and its symbol of accomplishment and aspiration.

For customers seeking a smartphone that makes a bold statement, Research In Motion (RIM) introduced the admirable BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphone. Crafted from premium materials, inside and out, that radiate elegance with a dramatic presence, the BlackBerry Bold is designed to give business professionals and power users unprecedented functionality and performance in an intuitive BlackBerry® smartphone. It is the first BlackBerry smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world and comes with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi®, as well as a rich set of multimedia capabilities. From its lustrous black exterior, satin chrome finished frame and stylish leather-like backplate, to its stunning display, sophisticated user interface and newly designed full-QWERTY* keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is a symbol of accomplishment and aspiration. [RIM Press]

BlackBerry Bold Smartphone features:

• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
• 480 x 320 displaywith 65,000 colors
• 624MHz Intel PXA270/Marvell Tavor PXA930 mobile processor
• 128 MB Flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory, as well as a microSD/SDHC memory card slot
• Runs BlackBerry OS 4.6
• Applications include phone, email, messaging, organizer and browser and GPS
• DataViz® Documents to Go® suite preloaded to download Word, Excel or PowerPoint files and edit them directly on the handset.
• MP3, WMA, AAC, DivX4 and WMV3 codec support
• 2MP camera with flash
• 4.5 x 2.6 x 0.55-inches, 4.7 ounces
• Battery life: 5 hours of talk time, and 13 days on standby time

Price for the new BlackBerry Bold smartphone was not disclosed but it is scheduled to be available from wireless carriers around the world beginning this summer.

Research In Motion is still the smartphone market leader although it is facing increasing competition from Apple’s iPhone.

A Silicon Valley startup called Tesla Motors designs and manufactures high-performance, highly efficient electric sports cars. Tesla Motors cars not only produce zero-emission, they combine style, acceleration and advanced technologies that make them among the fastest and most energy-efficient cars on the road.

Tesla Motors, which unveiled its electric sports car Roadster in 2006 and went into production last month, said it has already pre-sold all the 600 Roadsters the company planned to produce in 2008. The company is now taking orders of the 1,500 cars it plans to produce for 2009.

The Roadster car was developed with more than $40 million of venture capital from investors such as Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The 2-seat car goes from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds and reaches a top speed of 125 mph. It ranges about 220 miles on one charge and can be fully recharged like a cell phone in about 3.5 hours. The 2009 Roadster base price is $109,000.

Tesla Motors recently opened its first store in Los Angeles and plans to open another one in Silicon Valley in the next 2 months. More stores will also be opened within the next year in Chicago and New York as well as Europe.

Mobile phone calls will be allowed on planes flying in European airspace under new rules established by the European Commission.

The decision took three years of hearings and negotiations, and pressure from business travelers, airlines and manufacturers of new in-flight mobile phone systems, but Europe now has a standardized code to match up technical and licensing requirements across borders.

However, at this time only 6 passengers on any given flight can get a signal at the same time, although there are plans to expand it to 12.

Airlines are currently thinking of ways to offer the new service. Among the ideas considered: mobile-free sections of the aircraft, or use at limited points in the flight.

Cell phones will have to be switched off during takeoff and landing, and will not operate over countries that prohibit passengers from using their cellphones in during flights.

To ensure that the phone calls don’t interfere with the airplane equipment, they will be linked to the ground through a mini cellular network stored in an overhead luggage compartment.

The network’s purpose is to create an area of coverage in the aircraft that connects, via a satellite, to mobile networks on the ground. Cell phone companies are expected to establish roaming rates as if they were international calls; depending on the provider, these could range from €2 to €3 per minute ($3.2 to $4.8).

Global cruise company Royal Caribbean International has unveiled the design of a Central Park-like area to be featured on its innovative Project Genesis ship.

Project Genesis’ Central Park will be a huge outdoor space the length of a football field located in the center of the ship.

An exquisite public gathering place featuring serene pathways, seasonal flower gardens and canopy trees, Central Park will provide cruisers with more choices in a unique outdoor space. One of the ship’s most ground-breaking spaces, this new concept is the first of seven neighborhoods to be unveiled on Project Genesis. Each neighborhood will provide vacationers with the opportunity to seek out relevant experiences in various locales based on their personal style, preference or mood.

Elegant and lively, Central Park’s central piazza will be the ship’s “town square” which evolves from a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere during the day to a gathering space for alfresco dining and entertainment in the evening, where guests will enjoy concerts and street performances. The neighborhood is lined with balcony staterooms rising six decks high with views of the Park below and the sky above. [Royal Caribbean Press]

The new Central Park will be surrounded by different types of bars and restaurants, ranging from elegant fine restaurants to causal bars, as well as stylish selection of upscale boutique shops.

When Project Genesis launches in late 2009 it will be the largest and most revolutionary cruise ship in the world. The 220,000-ton ship will span 16 decks, carry 5,400 guests, and feature 2,700 staterooms. The ship will sail from Fort Lauderdale, FL.

A neuro-technology company called Emotiv has unveiled a revolutionary personal interface for human computer interaction that makes it possible for video games to be controlled and influenced by the player’s mind.

Emotiv Systems, headquartered in San Francisco, California, was founded in 2003 by four award-winning scientists and executives: internationally recognized neuroscientist Professor Allan Snyder, chip-design pioneer Neil Weste, and technology entrepreneurs Tan Le and Nam Do. These founders all shared the same inspiring vision: to introduce the immediacy of thought to the human-machine dialogue. Together they have developed a technology that utterly transforms the way we interact with computers.

While Emotiv is currently focusing on the electronic gaming industry, the applications for the Emotiv EPOC™ technology and interface span an amazing variety of potential industries — interactive television, accessibility design, market research, medicine, even security. Plans for introducing Emotiv into these and other broad realms are already in the works. [Emotiv]

 

The neuroheadset prototype, called Emotiv EPOC, uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals produced naturally by the brain to perceive player thoughts, feelings and expressions. It connects via wireless with all gaming platforms, from PCs to consoles.

The device will be available later this year and will cost $299. It will be sold with a range of games designed by Emotiv, but users will be able to use it with existing PC games.

Apple is considering a new business model that would give costumers free unlimited access to its entire iTunes music library if they pay extra for the devices.

The company is seeking a deal with the big record labels to offer an “all you can listen” model similar to Nokia’s “comes with music” deal with Universal Music. If successful, Apple could either increase the price of its iPods and share the profit with the music companies, or set a monthly subscription fee for its iPhone users that would add up to their monthly bill.

The key is how much Apple would end up paying the record labels for the access or simply if it makes sense for the Music labels to go for the deal.

A company called Microvision specializes in the development of new generation display and imaging products for mobile applications.

Our products address the unmet need facing growing mobility markets. Namely, consumers want a far better viewing experience than they currently get from traditional small displays on their mobile devices. Microvision offers OEMs in the telecommunications, consumer electronics, automotive, and avionics markets customized design and development of our proprietary display engine, called PicoP™. PicoP enables an ultra-miniature video projector capable of producing color rich, high resolution, large images, but small and low-power enough to be embedded directly into mobile devices, such as cell phones.

Other potential display applications based on the PicoP are numerous and include tiny projectors embedded into or used as accessory displays for mobile devices such as personal media players, gaming devices, laptops, and DVD players.

We are also working to leverage the PicoP into vehicle displays, including automotive and aerospace head-up displays, as well as wearable full-color displays designed as fashionable eyewear. [Microvision]

PicoP is capable of producing full color, high-resolution images (848 by 480 pixels) for up to 2.5 hours. Mobile devices such as cell phones, digital cameras, portable media players or laptops can be enabled with pico projection capabilities turning photos, videos, and other content into big viewing experiences that can be shared with others.

PortoMedia, a startup based in Ireland, aspires to revolutionize the movie rental market. The company plans to set up kiosks that will allow consumers to download movies to a memory or portable hard drive.

PortoMedia has developed a high speed flash memory card (Movie Key) that enables a fully secure DVD quality movie to be downloaded from retail Movie Point in less than 15 seconds. Each Movie Point is loaded with between 500 and 5,000 titles and is refreshed regularly via satellite/DSL with the latest movie and TV content.

The consumer has the option to rent or purchase content. The content is protected by Windows DRM, guaranteeing both security and compatibility with a wide range of playback devices. We will offer a low cost reader/ set top box that attaches to a TV allowing the consumer to simply plug in the key and press play to view the movie on the big screen TV. [PortoMedia]

Users will plug in a USB memory device from PortoMedia, enter a PIN code, and download a movie. At home, customers simply slide the memory device into a dock connected to a PC or TV.

The key to the service is the proprietary USB interface that transfers data at a faster rate than standard USB devices. Movies can be loaded into a memory device in less than a minute, depending on the length, definition and chip speed.

The hardware will be sold in package with movies. The starting hardware set will be sold for around $60, and comes with a flash key, a dock, and six movies. A higher end pack will provide a handheld with a 1.8 inch hybrid hard drive with 240 GB of storage and 12 movies.

A day after Toshiba announced it made the decision to stop manufacturing HD DVDs, all six major Hollywood studios are now supporting Blu-ray as the next-generation High Definition technology standard.

Sony’s Blu-ray is currently supported by Paramount, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Warner Home Video, Panasonic, Dell and Philips. Toshiba’s HD DVD is still backed by Sanyo, NEC and Microsoft.

Both Blu-ray and HD are high-definition DVDs, the successor to the regular standard definition DVD. But Blu-ray and HD involve different hardware and are not compatible with each other, reason why consumers had to decide which system to choose.

Moving to a single high-definition format will allow studios to focus on generating awareness among consumers of the many benefits of high-definition media.

The 2008 Entrepreneurship Week will be taking place from February 22^nd to February 29^th at Stanford University, CA (USA). Events will be open to all students, alumni, members of the greater Stanford community, and the general public. All events will be free (with the exception of the Entrepreneurship Conference at the Graduate School of Business on February 27) and seating will be on a first come first served basis.

In 2007, the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN), a federation of organizations across campus, held its first Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford celebration. It was an enormous success, with standing room only at every event. Stanford University was also the site of the national launch of EntrepreneurshipWeek USA. Click here to see what happened last year.

Entrepreneurship is of enormous interest on campus, because the Stanford community recognizes that the 21st Century will belong to innovators who can turn ideas into action. This applies more than ever to today’s students, who need to be self-starters and possess an entrepreneurial mindset, regardless of what they go on to do in life.

For Entrepreneurship Week 2008, SEN has again planned a series of exciting events to engage students in various dimensions of entrepreneurship. Events include presentations by prestigious speakers; roundtable discussions; mixers; VC/student “speed dating” allowing students to pitch their ideas; and a start-up job fair. Stanford will also host the Innovation Tournament, an “Apprentice-style” competition that will be open to student teams around the world. The acclaimed documentary film, Imagine It!, will also be making its world premiere (view the trailer); it captures the dreams and excitement of last year’s Innovation Tournament and features numerous Stanford students. [eWeek]