For those not in the know, these things work by the mat sending an oscilating magnetic field when a device is placed nearby. Each device you want to charge has to have something attached to it that can convert this magnetic field back into electricity, and then shunt that power into the device. It's the same effect as any electric toothbrush where the base plugs into the wall.

This means that the manufacturer has to create a converter for each specifc device, because each device has a different shape and power connector. So an iphone needs a special converter different than a Nintendo DS, for example. So unless they make a converter for your device, you can't use this system. And of course, the converter has to somehow attach to the device, which makes your device bulkier.

If this takes off, the manufacturer would then try to work with device manufacturers and battery manufacturers to develop integrated batteries that have the converter built in. Then they'd be far less bulky and wouldn't require you to buy an additonal converter. But this is a long shot unless
a) this company "owns" the market for "wireless" charging, and everyone wants to jump on board with them alone, or
b) an international body agrees on a standard for wireless charging so that every battery and device manufacturer will be willing to invest in development.

In the meantime, if this stuff doesn't take off, then the manufacturer of this wireless charging system won't have sufficient money to invest in building further converters for other devices. The trick for them will be in deciding which devices would sell the most - thus they've got converters for iphones, DS, and a few others to start with.

I do cycling and jogging and was always bummed when the earbuds fell out of my ears when they got sweaty. I use Nike sports headphones now - they have a flexible bit that goes around your ear and keeps the speaker close to your earhole (or in it if you prefer). And they don't fall out.

I tuck the wire under my shirt.

Clearly you can't please everyone. If they hadn't come up with the ability to copy to hard drive, people would complain. If they made a direct 1:1 copy, people would complain about how they intentionally made it nearly impossible to use the facility because off the size.

This is the worst demo of a product I've ever seen done. Period. The announcer's voice is sleepy, slow, and uninteresting. The background noise is unprofessional and sounds like it's done with a webcam microphone. There's no demonstration of the watch being used in a pool. The script is being read with a tedious monotone.

Although I was interested in the watch, this demo has totally turned me off. I can't imagine what possessed the watch manufacturer to authorise such a low grade ad such as this.

A) Once this thing goes above around 5 or 10mph, it can't stop quickly or abruptly, or else the passengers will simply do a face plant. No amount of clever engineering is going to prevent it falling flat on it's face above a fairly low speed if it stops suddenly, such as if it hits a curb, bump, or anything below it's center of gravity.

On that basis alone, it would never be allowed to be released.

B) The only reason GM are announcing it right now is purely political - with so much focus on their organisation, it was critical to show the public something from their R&D facility. Word would have been issued from senior management to show something NOW. They simply looked through the myriad of R&D projects for something that would demonstrate innovation, breakthrough thinking, and alignment with what they think is public interest.

So they demonstrate this thing. It's never going to see the light of day; it's just a political move. You and everyone else will forget about it soon enough. The big mistake Detroit has been making is believing that they can keep doing this sort of thing and the public will keep buying their crap.

Finally, for those that seem to forget, Detroit >has< been making cars that Americans want. That's the problem. Clearly, most Americans have a low IQ and low self-esteem, or possibly inflated egos. How else can you explain the sort of vehicles they buy and drive?

Seriously. The rest of the world thinks the US car buying public is a joke, and has thought that way for decades. Seriously.

Anyone know if it's really multi-touch? The demo shows 2-finger scrolling, but that's not multi-touch. laptop pads have been able to do that for years.
Sexy thing, but once you get past the cool interface, I wonder how cool it will be in 6 months. Most apps that companies include are usually played with for a bit then never used again. HP doesn't update their software with new features, so the apps aren't going to evolve to compete against new entries. They'll simply come out with a next gen PC with version 2.0, forcing you to buy a new PC to get new bells and whistles.

"We're sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed from within the United States".

WHAT THE F??????

Goodbye, Engagdget. Take your American isolationistic ignorant attitude and shove it.

You're all missing it. This is a rip-off of the demo that Johnny Chung Lee did with the Wii controller. He's a uni student and was happy to just come up with the ideas hoping others would put them to use and make cool games for the Wii that he could play. Check out http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/ and watch the cool youtube videos. This "Microsoft" invention is Johnny's "Low-Cost Multi-point Interactive Whiteboards Using the Wiimote" demo.

Clearly someone at Microsoft saw it and they're turning it (or trying to turn it ) into something that they can patent, copyright, and sue everyone else with.

I'd feel sad for the uni guy but he must have been warned a zillion times already that his ideas were frikking brilliant and he needs to protect them.

What a joke - Foxtel have been selling less-than-SD pictures (pre-filtered and compressed to reduce bandwidth) for years and calling it "Digitial". I guess caveat emptor, but the masses seem to suck it up nonetheless. It's only in the last 2 years that people have been buying 42"+ screens have they noticed how bad the picture is - unwatchable compared to free-to-air in discerning viewer's eyes.
Now they're going to sell HD at an even higher cost to Joe Consumer, who will lap it up without complaint, who will be paying so much each month that it would fund a replacement 50" TV every 3 years.
And this from a company that has now intruduced commercials onto pay TV using the rationale that it would "...help to keep the costs down"!

Well done, Foxtel. More power to your business model that rakes in the dosh.
Australians, you're little better than sheep.

I had a 5 series for a few years and the entire car communicates on a serial bus. At the time (about 3 years back) there was lots of hacker activity on trying to connect a PC to the bus so that commands could be intercepted and sent. Theoretically, you can have a PC send commands to control the radio, windows, door locks etc. But you could also pretend you're another part of the car and send commands like "I'm the car speed sensor, and we're travelling at 0 kph". It fools things like the touch screen into thinking that it's ok to accept commands because the car's not moving. Pretty simple, really.