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Produced and hosted by Jon Gordon, Future Tense brings you the latest technology topics in daily five-minute capsules. From electronic privacy and digital democracy to spam and computer worms, Future Tense keeps you up to date on the rapidly changing world of technology.
Future Tense is heard in the United States during broadcasts of the CBC's As It Happens.
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The Open Source Digital Voting Foundation is spearheading a project to build new voting machines to replace proprietary systems currently in place. The group is in the second year of a an eight-year plan to produce a publicly-owned, open source election system. OSDV has turned loose its first batch of software code for technical review.
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Verizon Wireless and Motorola are expected to unveil details of their new Android phone today.
Guest: Kent German, CNET
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The SenseCam is a specialized digital camera that's been percolating in the labs of Microsoft Research U.K for about five years now. It's designed to be worn around the neck on a lanyard. The device takes still images throughout the day, when motion is sensed or when people come into view, as often as every 30 seconds.
The camera can be used for everything from a scrapbooking tool to a medical device for patients with impaired memories. Microsoft has been able to produced only about 500 SenseCams, so it's decided to license its technology to ramp up production.
U.K. company Vicon will begin selling the cameras, under the name Vicon Revue, to researchers this year and to the general public in 2010.
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Consumers seem to like netbooks. Not Joe Wilcox. Netbooks are plague, Wilcox says.
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Will people buy tablet computers in meaningful numbers? It looks like Microsoft will unveil a new device next year. We might see an Apple tablet as well. And then there's Crunchpad.
Guest: Brad Linder, Liliputing.com
New iPods? Tablet computer? Steve Jobs?
Apple fans wait to see what they will get at an invitation-only event next week in San Francisco.
Guest: Donald Bell, CNET
Sony has unveiled a new electronic reading device designed to compete with the Amazon Kindle.
The Reader Daily Edition is the first Sony e-reader to sport a wireless connection for downloading books. It will go for about $400 when it hits the market in December.
Guest: John Falcone, CNET
Best Buy is selling a Compaq netbook computer for a dollar, when customers sign up for a two year subscription plan for mobile Internet service with Sprint. The tiny computer has a 160 GB hard drive, a gig of ram, and a 10.1 inch screen.
Over the life of the wireless contract consumers will spend at least $1,440.
Guest: Kevin Tofel, jkOnTheRun
A new Zune is on the way. It will feature high definition video and HD Radio, a multi-touch screen, plus Wifi and a Web browser.
Microsoft has not announced a price for the Zune HD, which is due this autumn.
Guest: Dwight Silverman
For the last year or so it's looked very much liked the inexpensive, small computers known as "netbooks" were poised to storm the marketplace. But according to Future Tense news analyst Dwight Silverman, netbooks have hit a roadblock.
A study conducted by computer forensics firm Kessler International found four in ten used hard drives for sale on eBay contain sensitive information.
Also mentioned on today's show:
Why More Megapixels Isn't Always Better (Gizmodo)
30+ Websites To Visit When You're Laid Off (Mashable)
Seven months after IBM delivered the world's fastest supercomputer, it's announced an even speedier one. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will use the IBM Sequoia to simulate nuclear weapons tests.
A group that represents authors is urging its members to be wary of the text-to-speech feature on Amazon's updated Kindle electronic reading gadget, saying it could violate copyrights.
The Author's Guild says the Kindle 2's "Read to Me" feature presents a significant challenge to the publishing industry because it could eventually undermine the market for audio books.
Guest: Nilay Patel, Engadget
Also mentioned on the air: Amish Hackers
Barack Obama says he's still clinging to his BlackBerry, but it looks like aides will pry the smart phone from the presidential hands in short order. The Secret Service and Obama's lawyers say the Verizon BlackBerry 8830 World Edition phone is too much of a security risk and legal liability.
Guest: Maggie Reardon, CNET News.com
Dwight Silverman is on the floor at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On today's show we discuss 3D glasses, a potential hit for down-and-out Palm, and convergence.
A few years ago doctors removed Rob Spence's right eye. He damaged it more than 20 years ago while shooting his grandfather's gun on a trip to Ireland.
Now the 36 year-old Canadian documentary film maker is working with a team of scientists to implant a camera in his prosthetic eye. Spence plans to use the eye-cam to shoot scenes for a new film, which will examine the perils of surveillance by camera.
Here is a longer version of my interview with Spence:
Mini-laptop computers, known as netbooks, appear to be selling well this holiday season. Computers like the two pound Asus Eee PC 900 are dominating the computers and PC hardware best seller list on Amazon.com.
Guest: Brad Linder, Liliputing.com
(See previous entry for a longer version of this interview)
