Dear Members of the Bentley Community–

We are sure that many of you read the news in yesterday’s Vanguard regarding our student Ryan Vermette, who was involved in a serious car accident during his semester abroad at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.  Bentley’s Office of International Education, in cooperation with the University of Cape Town’s International Academic Programmes Office, has been assisting Ryan and his family since the accident occurred on April 4th.  Our many colleagues in Cape Town have provided tremendous support, visiting Ryan often and providing frequent support to his family, while we and Gloria have been communicating with Ryan’s parents by phone.  We are happy to report that Ryan is making steady progress and his doctor will likely approve his return flight to the United States next week to continue his recovery.

We want to assure you that all Bentley students, faculty and staff who travel on Bentley sponsored academic programs are enrolled in international insurance plans that provide 24-7 emergency assistance services, worldwide coverage for medical expenses, and medical evacuation transport, among other benefits.    It is important for all of you, especially those who travel abroad, to know that Bentley provides every support possible to its community members anywhere in the world.

However, Ryan’s recovery will continue to take time.  There will be many expenses for a family in a situation like this, so we do hope you will consider making a contribution to support Ryan and his family.  We are very pleased that this year the proceeds from Breakfast by Moonlight will be donated to this worthy cause.

Thank you for keeping Ryan in your thoughts and prayers.

Andrew Shepardson                   Natalie Schlegel

Dean of Students                        Director International Education

Miss high school sports and want to make a great new group of friends? Join Bentley Women’s Rugby! There is no experience necessary; we will teach you everything you need to know to play! If you’re interested, come down to the football field this Tuesday night , March 20, at 6 p.m. for practice!  If you can’t make it but are still interested email haswell_moll@bentley.edu and let her know. We practice on Tuesday and Thursday nights and have one game on weekends. See you Tuesday!

Written by: Ian Markowitz

Cirque du Soleil’s KÀ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is certainly a spectacle worth a stop when in Las Vegas, but the true story with the show is the sheer investment in the technology and the performance space by Cirque du Soleil for the show. I envision when Cirque du Soleil was designing the show they sat around a table and tried to list as many unbelievable aspects that they could incorporate into a show, and then jokingly said to do it, but someone took them seriously and built it, and the result is KÀ.

Cirque du Soleil pulled out all the stops for this show and even redefined the traditional stage by extending the “stage” all the way out into the audience for full interaction between the actors and the audience (which creeped out the young kid sitting next to me). The show starts as the audience walks into the theater with the central “pit” filled with fog and fire balls intermittently launched into the air. However, this even the fog isn’t what you might expect at a theatrical performance, its not the homegrown fog that fills fog machines on Halloween, Cirque decided that they liked the look of liquid nitrogen mixed with hot water better, so they have a 13,000 gallon storage tank for their liquid nitrogen.

On top of that, they wanted to create an experience for the audience that no home theater is capable of recreating, so they created a theater with over 500,000 total watts powering over 4,500 drivers (thats a lot fyi). On top of that, each seat in the theater has two speakers in the back of the headrest so that every audience member gets fully immersed in the sound of the show.

Battle Scene from KA (Photo provided by Cirque du Soleil)

Now, I mentioned before that Cirque’s stage was far from ordinary, and it truly is. The stage is capable of being hoisted or lowered into the air, rotated vertically up to 110 degrees and rotated horizontally 360 degrees. In one of the scenes, the actors climb up the stage positioned vertically (perpendicular to the ground) as in the picture above, and a computer recognizes their motion and creates ripple effects projected onto the stage. On top of that, built into each actors costume is a wireless remote for the actor to control their motion as they move around the stage.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing KÀ and although it wasn’t my favorite Cirque show, the technology which was incorporated into the show is truly astounding and would take me a couple thousand words to fully describe every technical aspect of the show.

For die hard Cirque fans, you may end up leaving disappointed as this show focuses more on the story and the beauty of the technology included in the show, and less on the mind numbing feats and contortional skill of the acrobats. Thats not to say that this Cirque show is without, because it certainly is not. Fans of Kooza (which came to Boston last year) will remember the Wheel of Death, which is reincorporated into KÀ in a new way as well. Additionally, there is no shortage of high falls into the pit of the stage which still seems awesome, however I think the sheer size of the theater in which KÀ performs is its greatest downfall.

The KÀ Theater seats just under 2,000 people in a standard theater arrangement instead of the circular arrangement of Cirque’s big-top performances. I think the separation from the audience removes some of the magic of KÀ, that isn’t to say they didn’t try to reconnect the audience with the action.  By bringing flying birds and actors into the audience they try to remove the traditional boundaries of the stage, but too much happens on the deep stage and as a result the connection between the audience is not as powerful as it typically is, especially in its big-top performances.

Personal Rant: My last comment is completely unrelated to the show itself and out of Cirque du Soleil’s control, but instead is related to the audience at the show I was at. I have never been to a theatrical performance where the audience was as disrespectful of the actors on stage as they were at this performance. I witnessed more people get up to leave in the middle of the performance than any other show I have seen. Now this isn’t people in the back row quietly getting up to go to the bathroom, this was people in the first three rows, front and center, with the actors no more than 20 feet in front of them getting up and leaving right in the middle of the performance. While there is no intermission at KÀ, I was shocked at how many people ignored pure theatrical respect and went to the bathroom. Additionally, there were only about 30 people or so in a mostly full theater which seats just under 2,000 mind you who gave the actors a standing ovation. Shocking.

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu

Written by: Ian Markowitz

I have very little faith in ebook readers because I just don’t think they will be as successful as everyone thinks they will be. e-Ink was a big step forward for the ebook readers and aside from 3D HDTVs ebook readers are the major trendy product at CES this year. The problem with ebook readers is that they are far too similar to the pasta maker sitting in your cabinet collecting dust, they mostly serve one purpose and while they do an excellent job at that one task, they are far too expensive to do that single task. Not to mention multifunction tools (netbooks and tablets for example) are around a similar price point, have more features and can also serve as an ereader which is why it caught my eye when I saw enTourage’s eDGe dualbook (I assure you that isn’t a typo, that’s how they spell the company name and the product name unfortunately).

Retailing for just under $500, the dualbook has two screens on it, one is an e-Ink touch screen and the other is a fairly standard LCD touch screen. The main netbook runs Google’s android operating system so any of the android apps already on the market will work with the eDGe. As is fairly standard in a netbook, the computer has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and they expect to have support for data cards from cell phone companies available in a later model. The device should be available in the next few months.

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu

Written by: Ian Markowitz

The way CES is set up, it is sprawled across 4 floors of the Las Vegas Convention Center as well as a significant portion of the conference rooms at the Venitian, but what many people, myself included, often overlook is the Central Plaza at CES. There isn’t much to be found there as this year it was mostly Sprint promoting their new 4G coverage and Best Buy promoting their products and the useless Geek Squad. However, had I skipped over the Central Plaza, I wouldn’t have seen Parrot’s new AR.Drone.

Parrot AR.Drone (Photo provided by Parrot)

You may think you’ve seen this at Brookstone or Sharper Image during the holidays, but let me assure you, you haven’t seen this. The AR.Drone is piloted using an iPhone or iPod Touch and by moving the iPhone/iPod Touch similar to a joystick you control the aircraft’s movement. On top of that, the AR.Drone has two cameras built into it, one mounted on the front and one mounted underneath to assist with landings.

The front mounted camera streams its video feed to the iPhone or iPod touch controlling it at a frame rate of 15 frames per second. This device just rekindles the kid in me and although they weren’t letting the average laypeople play with the drone or discussing pricing as the device is still a prototype, I can see the drone being a lot of fun to play with as it essentially gives you your own UAV(unmanned aerial vehicle) to play with.

Parrot AR.Drone (Photo provided by Parrot)

Unfortunately the drone is only capable of 15 minutes of play time at present, but would still be more than enough time to have fun with. Another downside is right now the drone is controlled over Wi-Fi so the range of the drone is limited to the range of the Wi-Fi communication.

Where the device truly shines though is its implementation of augmented reality technology to make the drone as much of a toy as it is a video game. Using the drone’s on-board camera and processor, you can set up a video game where the drone can fire virtual ammunition at a real life target (your econ professor for example) and the drone can interact with its environment. Additionally, Parrot is making the drone open source and releasing a SDK so that developers can create their own augmented reality games for the device.

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu

FULL DISCLOSURE: Parrot lists on their website that STMicroelectronics is one of  component suppliers. The authors father is employed by STMicroelectronics and while it is unknown whether STMicroelectronics components are part of the droid, this was mentioned in the interest of full disclosure.

Written by: Ian Markowitz

The greatest technological invention at CES was not the introduction of 3D HDTVs, but could actually be found at the Intel booth in the Central Hall of the convention center here. Intel had an Alioscopy television on display right above a standard 3D HDTV, but what sets the Alioscopy tv apart from the other 3D tv was that the Alioscopy tv required no glasses to see its 3D display.  The best part of all, is that Alioscopy’s software can render virtually all 3D content utilizing nearly any hardware configuration to render 3D images ready for display on the Alioscopy 3D HDTVs.

While my understanding is fuzzy because the Alioscopy rep wasn’t at the booth when I stopped by, from what I understand Alioscopy creates HD LCD TVs (I know thats a lot of acronyms)which allow them to display 3D HDTV content generated by their algorithm though a special lens which allows the image to appear 3D. Unfortunately, the technology can only display 3D movies which are rendered using their software so it can’t display 3D live TV, but it can display live 2D TV. The picture they had on the display was incredibly realistic and far more enjoyable to watch then sitting and watching a movie wearing 3D glasses. The content can be generated in a variety of 3D software programs and then utilize the Alioscopy script to create content for the Alioscopy TVs.  The technology is available now, presently aimed at digital signs including hotels, casinos, medical and other signage industries although no word on pricing.

On a completely unrelated note, I found out today that virtually all video games which are out on the market have the information encoded into them to allow for 3D gameplay. Mitsubishi was demoing Left 4 Dead 2 in 3D and although I’m not sure whether it was being played on an Xbox or a PC (they were using an XBOX controller) it certainly made the game at least a little more interesting, although certainly not something to justify a rampant spending spree to indulge yourself in. Alioscopy also let me know that they offer a “real-time game engine” called Ignition so it is completely possible to hook an Xbox up to their game engine and their TV and play a 3D game without the need for 3D glasses.

More information can be found at: http://www.alioscopyusa.com

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu

UPDATE: Alioscopy has contacted us with some factual inaccuracies in the article. Those changes have been made and are reflected in the article above.

Written by: Ian Markowitz

For a company which launched its product just 3 months ago, Powermat is already doing pretty well for themselves. Their product is already in 3 different stores (Amazon.com, Best Buy, and Target) and they have already sold over three quarters of a million of their $100 Powermat. I stopped by their booth at CES to take a look at what they have in store for 2010 and learned about how they are taking their innovative technology and marketing it to the masses.

First, let me explain the technology which Powermat specializes in. Powermat creates wireless chargers for cell phones, iPods, netbooks, and other electronics. When a gadget or gizmo has either the Powermat case or a compatible Powermat battery, they simply rest their device on the Powermat mat, a magnet helps align the gadget properly and the mat charges the device wirelessly. It’s an excellent solution for families with multiple devices or even anyone who has a cell phone, an ipod, and any other device which they charge regularly and take with them on the go.

Over the coming months, Powermat will begin extending their technology to as many new devices as possible by manufacturing batteries called Powerpaks with the Powermat technology already built in so that users aren’t required to buy additional bulky cases. They have already planned on building Powerpaks for the major brands including HTC, Nokia, LG, Blackberry, Motorola, among others, and the Powerpaks are expected to be released in June of this year and retail for around $40.

Another cool addition to the Powermat line of products will be its entrance into the car charging market. Due to be released in Q3 of this year, the Powermat Car Charger  will plug into a cars cigarette lighter and will allow for any Powermat enabled device to be dropped onto the charger to charge the device. It is expected to retail for $60.

The last major addition to the Powermat product line was the introduction of the Powermat Portable. The Powermat portable will have its own internal rechargable battery which is charged up (fully charged in two hours according to Powermat) when you’re home, and then when you hit the road, its ready to charge up your devices. Supposedly, it can fully charge up devices up to four times so your iPhone can be fully charged four times over.

More importantly for consumers though is Powermats discussions with OEM manufacturers to include the Powermat technology in off the shelf consumer electronics so that your next cell phone will already have the technology in it to work with the Powermat charging station. When this happens, I think sales of Powermats will truly take off beyond anything Powermat has seen yet.

The Powermat 3X (Photo provided by Powermat)

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu

Written by: Ian Markowitz

Lexar this week unveiled a whole slew of new memory devices two of which are easily geared towards the student mindset. At CES this week, they announced the Echo SE and the Echo ZE, both of which are USB flash drives aimed at the student on the go.

Both flash drives were specifically designed with netbooks and notebooks in mind, and come with automated backup software to automatically back up certain files or folders on the user’s computer. If you wanted to for example, you could have your computer automatically backup all your pictures and school documents as changes are made.

On top of that, the flash drive will keep as many copies of the file as you choose, allowing you to set up the flash drive so that the 10 (or as many as you choose) most recent versions of your GB301 presentation are kept. That way, should you make a mistake in your presentation, but the version from 5 saves ago was the right one, you could access the drive and grab the older version of the file.

Also, both flash drives boast 128-bit encryption, should you choose to carry national secrets in your pocket. Additionally, the drives are cross-platform (Mac and Windows only, sorry Linux users) and allow you to back up your data from a Windows PC and then restore the files to a Mac at home or vis a versa.

Now the two drives are virtually identical except in appearance and speed. The Echo SE is a faster USB drive, with read speeds of 28 MB/s and write speeds of 10 MB/s and also has a retractable USB connection which retracts into the body of the thumb drive. On the other hand, the Echo ZE is what is called a nail drive and really isn’t much bigger than the USB connector that it’s attached to as the picture below shows. The benefit to the ZE is that it’s a “set it and forget it” type drive. It’s designed to be left in the laptop and forgotten about so that it can continually backup the data.

Bentley students take note, the ZE is certainly a device you want to invest in, especially if you tend to abuse your laptop like many of you do and your hard drive keeps crashing. The SE comes in sizes up to 64GB and the ZE in sizes up to 32GB. The 64GB SE is expected to retail for around $250 and the 32GB ZE is expected to retail for around $140, both will be released in February of this year.

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) Bentley.edu

Lexar's Echo ZE in a laptop (Photo provided by Lexar)

Written by: Ian Markowitz

With only one day down, I have already easily found the worst product idea of CES 2010. Taser at CES unveiled its new software/hardware combination with an application they call “Protector.” What is Protector you might ask, and why does it deserve its own post? Well, let me let Taser explain:

PROTECTOR by TASER is a groundbreaking toolset that gives parents the ability to supervise how their children interact in a mobile world. As technology advances and your children grow, so will their access to people, places, and information. PROTECTOR by TASER can help your family navigate the changing landscape, together establishing good judgment and safe habits on the phone and in the car.

Translation: Protector gives parents the ability to hover over their childrens cell phone giving them unrestricted control over everything their child does on their phones.

Protector can  be installed on any smartphone including the iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile, and it allows parents to screen calls, screen text messages, and even allows them to (with a hardware addition to their car) prevent their kids from texting or calling while the car is in motion.

When a call or a text message comes in, it will be sent to the parents phone first, where the parent can approve, deny, or permanently block the user and then it will either be connected to the childs device or not depending on the parents selection. On top of that, if a child is on the phone and ignoring the parents call, Protector will allow the parent to jump in on the call and speak directly to their child, and put the other party on hold. Taser has been billing this as a “transparent teaching tool” but in all honesty, it will just make children’s lives miserable and wins my prize for the worst product unveiled at CES. Pricing for the software hasn’t been finalized but is supposed to be around $20 a month for one license, and then pricing will decrease based on overall number of users.

Screenshot provided by Taser

Screenshot provided by Taser

I

Screenshot provided by Taser

an can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu

Written by: Ian Markowitz

Day one of CES has proved to be quite an exhausting one as I tried to cover as much ground as possible and still haven’t seen many of the big players at the show such as Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, IBM, Intel, and others. My aim is to do separate pieces on the noteworthy products that I’ve run into at CES, regardless of how brief their posts are. I spent a majority of today focusing on the audio arena and listened in to some of the new offering several new companies are bringing into the field, and then dabbing in and out of other technology areas at CES.

My first stop of the day was with the company Victorinox, the maker of the world famous swiss-army knives. They had a few new lines of products, but the most useful to students and those in the business is their new/improved line of Presentation Master USB Flash Drive/Swiss Army Knive combos. The drives come in sizes up to 32GB and the USB drives detach from the “swiss army frame” which has a bluetooth remote for controlling Powerpoint Presentations. On top of that the USB flash drives feature a biometric fingerprint reader to secure the data on the flash drive as well as a laser pointer as the true multi-purpose presentation tool.

I also stopped by the DTS booth, which is a digital technology company which focuses on high-tech audio entertainment. They were demoing their codec for 7.1 sound on a Blu-ray setup by showing clips from Chronicles of Narnia and a music video from country group Gloriana, both were quite impressive, with crisp sound and different sounds directed out of certain speakers, but that was the aim of the booth. However, I will say the experience of listening to music through 7 speakers was quite impressive and the quality was pristine. The problem is that very few people tend to listen to music anywhere out of 7 channels.

Taser had an interesting booth where they unveiled a new service entitled “Protector” which will have almost every child and teenager on edge with paranoia, but I’ll be sure to give that service its own dedicated post later. They were also offering demos of their Law Enforcement X3 Taser, which will allow officers to taser 3 different suspects simultaneously, as well as their consumer model the C2. Both models were relatively effortless (and kind of fun) to fire, but neither are models I have any desire to be on the receiving end of.

A new company which I ran into at CES was a company called Quirky.com. What quirky does, is it allows inventors with ideas to give their products a shot at the marketplace. Inventors come to the website, pay $99 and have their idea pitched to the website community. If their ideas is picked as the best product of the available choices, then they get to see their product get patented and be manufactured. Otherwise, they receive analytics about who liked the product and who didn’t so if they want to go it on their own, they have analytics on who the product should be marketed to.

Visual Land is a company I hadn’t heard of before, but they manufacture MP3 players, netbooks, and other electronics. What caught my eye though was their netbook called the V-net. While barebones might be an understatement, at a price point of $150, I was pretty impressed. It runs on 64MB internal RAM and 4GB of flash storage, and runs Windows CE, which is not impressive by any stretch but its size and price caught my eye. They have a newer model coming out in the next few months running the android OS at around the same price point.

My reigning favorite headphone company Sennheiser announced a whole bunch of new products at CES this year, as well as a partnership with Adidas. Sennheiser and Adidas teamed up to create a new line of sports headphones which were designed with athletes in mind, including the CX680 earbuds which has “earfins” which aim to keep the headphones in your ear while running. They were kind enough to provide me with a demo pair so I’ll be sure to put them through the paces and update here soon. They also announced a new line of maroonish/red headphones specifically designed for women with a smaller ear-canal in mind as well as a unique paint job on every pair headphones so that no two headphones are alike.

Audio-technica unveiled a few new headphones which they added to their line, but most of them focused on active noise cancelling headphones. For reference, active noise cancelling is usually battery powered headphones which filter out outside background noise. One of them was the ANC7b which won the CES Design and Engineering award. The other major announcement was the unveiling of the ANC25 headphones which are the least expensive noise cancelling headphones which Audio-technica offers, retailing at $99.95.

Skullcandy pulled out all the stops for their booth, having a racecar with a racing game projected on the windshield as well as slot car races for the attendees. But more importantly were the two different headphones they were showing off at CES. One was the kick-off of a new direction for design inspiration for Skullcandy which was the unveiling of the Aviator headphones. Modeled after the Aviator sunglasses they have polycarbonate ends, shiny metalic finish, as well as headphones shaped similar to the lenses of Aviator sunglasses. Supposedly, this is a new direction for Skullcandy as they plan to model a new line of headphones after different types of optics, they will be released in the Spring and have an MSRP of $150. The other major product they unveiled were new headphones designed after a collaboration with Beastie Boys DJ Mix Master Mike. While these are geared to DJs, one of the coolest features is that when a DJ is listening to a single ear cup, a switch is flipped in the headphones to switch from stereo playback to mono playback so that if certain parts of a song are only played on one channel, the DJ can hear both when he’s trying to cue up the song. They’ll also be available in the Spring for around $250.

Lastly, there was a guy hanging out by the press room wearing what he called a video name tag. It uses an OLED screen to show movies on a magnet video screen which you can wear anywhere. As the picture below shows the colors are vivid and you can upload any video of your choice to the device, it retails for just under $200.

Video Name Tag

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu

Written by: Ian Markowitz

Here’s a brief recap of todays CES events. 3D seems to be the big thing at CES this year, with all the major technology companies unveiling their 3D offerings. While I only was in attendance at three press conferences today, it seems that 3D is the technology that Panasonic, Sony, and others are all anticipating will be the next major trend in home technology. Nothing incredibly groundbreaking from any of the companies that I visited, although Panasonic seemed to have the biggest announcement with a partnership with DirecTV to bring 3D into their customers’ homes by June of this year. I’ll be sure to check out the 3D quality when I’m on the show floor this week.

I was also impressed with Casio’s announcement of a consumer camera which is capable of burst shooting and high frame rate video recording, however their digital photo frame wasn’t very impressive for me at least. Digital photo frames seems to be one of those technologies which never really took off because no one wants to have to remember to turn something like that on and off all the time, among other concerns, but we’ll see if it ever eventually takes off.

Thats it in terms of a brief recap from me, tomorrow is the first day of the show, and I aim to hit the ground running and hit as many of the booths that I possibly can and bring you a summary of major product announcements if/when I can. Feel free to email me any questions, and definitely check out the liveblog archives on our website.

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu

Written By: Ian Markowitz

Pioneer today unveiled a whole selection of in-vehicle entertainment systems. While none of them were truly “ground breaking,” Pioneer did unveil several overall technologies which will likely improve the in-vehicle experience, and if Pioneer has their way, will truly bridge the gap between the computer and the vehicle. While they didn’t unveil any drastically different products, they did  unveil some new technologies which will be integrated into their products which could make any car ride more enjoyable. Pioneer stressed the importance of bridging the gap between the computer and the car during the entire press conference. It was interesting though that the only way that Pioneer seems to be able to bridge that gap at the current time is through an iPhone.

One of the new technologies which Pioneer was promoting this year was a new touch screen interface for their in-car navigation multimedia units. Unfortunately, it seemed as if Pioneer was trying to replicate the interface of the iPhone/iPod Touch, but in the video demo of the interface, it seemed that the interface was a bit slow and not nearly as smooth as an iPhone. Another new introduction from Pioneer was something similar to the feature in iTunes of the Genius Mixes which Pioneer is calling musicsphere which will be an iTunes plugin which will create up to 40 different playlists for you based on different musical qualities which you can then select from on the unit.

The last announcement was for an ecological interface so the user can understand how ecologically they are driving. Major selling point? Doubtful.

A view of the Ecological Interface

A view of the MusicSphere interface

Written by: Ian Markowitz

While no one would deny that WiFi will give you faster speeds than a cellular network, with the Verizon Wireless USB727 modem in hand, I decided to find out just how much faster it would be. Thanks to Google, Logan and several other airports across the country have free WiFi through mid-January, so while sitting at gate A17 waiting for my flight, I figured I would test both the free WiFi and the Verizon network to see who gave me the better connection.

First up was the Boingo WiFi (sponsored by Google for the holidays). The speeds which I was received were 0.90 Mb/s download and 1.20 Mb/s upload. Pretty pitiful for a land based WiFi connection, while faster than dial-up, it likely wouldn’t even come close to the DSL or cable internet speeds you receive at home. More surprisingly however was the performance i received from the Verizon modem. Using the same method for testing, I received 2.73 Mb/s download speeds and 2.45 Mb/s upload. I was quite surprised as I had expected for sure that the WiFi would have at least been marginally faster than the Verizon network but apparently I was wrong.

Couple notes on coverage for this week. I’ve been invited to some product demos and been told about some products being unveiled this week that I can’t discuss quite yet, but I will be sure to publish updates here when I can. Keep the emails and requests coming!

Note: The testing was conducted using speedtest.net using the server in Burlington, VT for both connections. For some reason, the Verizon network card couldn’t perform the tests using the Boston, MA server because the latency file wouldn’t download correctly. It is worth mentioning that because the WiFi is currently free, the network was experiencing much heavier usage than normal. Additionally, at other areas of the terminal (the food court for example), I received network speeds around 1.75 Mb/s download and 2.25 Mb/s upload, however since we’re comparing Apples to Apples, I had to compare network speeds from the same location.

Ian can be reached at markowi_ian (AT) bentley.edu

Written by: Ian Markowitz

As my preparations for CES continue, I’ve been paying attention to the major technology blogs which cover CES namely Gizmodo and Engadget. Unfortunately due to the limited circulation that The Vanguard receives, we don’t get a lot of the pre-CES hype that the other major blogs receive, but it seems one of the new trends for the coming decade will be the addition of payments on the go. There are at least two companies which will be unveiling add-ons for iPhones and iPod Touches which would allow them to collect credit card payments remotely. One is Mophie which is rumored to be unveiling details about their device at CES next week and another is called Square which was founded by one of the co-founders of Twitter.

While Apple has had this technology running in their Apple Stores for the last few months, Apple doesn’t seem to be planning to release their proprietary software and hardware for general consumption anytime soon. I think that the upcoming decade will have plenty in store in terms of doing more on the go and having cell phones become multi-functional devices. I think that we will see the ability for more payments to be made from cell phones, more payments collected from cell phones (such as what Square and Mophie are aiming to do), and even more people ordering food from their phones (think about ordering from Panera Bread or McDonalds using a cell phone).

In completely unrelated news, I’ve started preparing for my trip by stocking up on episodes of Dexter and Burn Notice for my trip as well as planning my days at the show. I received an email today inviting me to see Ka, Cirque du Soleil’s resident show at the MGM Grand, which I am very excited about, it’s one of the few Cirque du Soleil shows which I have yet to see and has one of the most astounding stages of any theatrical production. After I see the show, I will certainly let you know how it is, but I am also hoping to hear from “O” and Love as they are the two other shows in Las Vegas I hope to see before I leave. A promotional video and picture from Ka are below. Enjoy!

Want to follow The Vanguard’s own Ian Markowitz and all of his CES experiences from the comfort of your own home or office? Well, the best and easiest way to do that is by subscribing to our CES-specific email edition! If you’re interested, simply fill out the form below:

Written by: Ian Markowitz

With only one week remaining until I head off to CES 2010 I have to say I’m incredibly excited to be heading to the largest trade show in North America. My aim is to cover as much of the show as possible although the show stretches from the Las Vegas Convention Center to the Venetian with some events also taking place at the Las Vegas Hilton, so there will be a lot of ground for me to cover.

My aim is to cover both the Keynote by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as well as the Keynote by Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally, however both seem to be prime events with limited seating so I’m unsure how much of the keynotes I will be able to catch.

CES this year will have separate TechZones showcasing different areas of consumer technology, but one of my main focuses for the show will be to cover the “HigherEd TechZone” which will offer different products which will be released in 2010 and beyond specifically geared towards college students and colleges and universities overall.

There is a possibility that I may be raffling off giveaways from CES during the week of the show, so definitely stay tuned to the blog here for any updates and possible giveaways. Verizon Wireless has been kind enough to provide me with a wireless modem so that I can stay connected from the show, and if you have any questions or suggestions definitely feel free to email me via the email address below.

CES is looking to keep the title of largest trade show in North America and hopefully it will provide the Vanguard with a much improved and diversified Arts and Entertainment section covering the latest trends, especially in consumer technology.

Ian Markowitz can be reached at markowi_ian (at) bentley.edu.

Created by Jon McColgan

Answers will be posted on Sunday (December 6th)!

ANSWERS:

The Answers to this week’s Big Quiz:

Music:

1. Who was the original drummer for the Beatles?

A. Pete Best

2. What recent rap “song” suggests using 2 condoms & Miller Lite?

A. “I Love College”

3. Which Dipset rapper recently resurfaced after going AWOL for most of the last 2 years?

A. Cam’ron

4. What pop star recently announced a 50-show tour, selling out hours after the tickets (more than a million in all) became available?

A. Michael Jackson

5. This rapper, a past Spring Day performer, recently went to jail for a year and a day.

A. T.I.

6. Called the “Asian Britney Spears,” this singer has sold 52 million albums and is hoping to be an American hit.

A. Utada

Movies:

1. __________, wife of Liam Neeson, who recently passed away due to a skiing accident.

A. Natasha Richardson

2. This actor, who had roles recently in Troy and Ratatouille, has been nominated for 8 Oscars but never won (a record).

A. Peter O’Toole

3. The characters of Rorschach, The Comedian, Nite Owl and Dr. Manhattan from Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” were originally based on which four classic DC comics heroes?

A. The Question, Peacemaker, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom (respectively)

4. Relatively unknown, this actor will be taking up Shatner’s old role and chair on the bridge.

A. Chris Pine

5. The rising star actress who recently announced she would not make a sequel in the role that lead her to the top.

A. Miley Cyrus.

6. Famous Movie Quote (Name the movie & character): “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

A. The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne, & Tim Robbins.

TV:

1. Music star __________ recently guest starred on an episode of CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

A. Taylor Swift.

2. This week, NBC says goodbye to this Thursday night staple after 15 celebrated seasons.

A. ER.

3. After winning 8 Emmys over 14 seasons, this reality TV show is still going strong.

A. The Amazing Race.

4. This star of CW hit Gossip Girl announced he/she will tryout for a role in the remake of 80’s hit Footloose.

A. Chace Crawford.

5. What government unit/agency does Jack Bauer work for during most 24 episodes?

A. The Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU).

6. Fox News’ newest star, whose highly emotional and partisan style brings in 2.3 million viewers a night.

A. Glenn Beck.

Potpourri:

1. The former fiancé of Bristol Palin, who believes he is not yet mature enough for marriage.

A. Levi Johnston.

2. Which major newspaper staff won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism, though still faces bankruptcy?

A. The Staff of The Chicago Tribune.

3. Head coach ________ just became the highest paid college basketball coach thanks to the University of _________, one of the poorest states in the Union.

A. Jim Calipari, Kentucky.

4. This newlywed celebrity called the example of Tom Brady’s “lovechild” a “wake-up call.”

A. Gisele Bündchen.

5. The comedian who was the original host of the Late Night franchise on NBC.

A. David Letterman

6. Now a famous on-again-off-again couple, these two once again split….apparently, they said what they needed to say.

A. John Mayer & Jennifer Aniston.