For those wanting to know how invested Obama will be towards technology, you have an answer. According to BBC, Obama has called upon Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems to write a proposal on open source software.

$400 billion, that’s an estimate of how much the US spends in proprietary software in a given year. You can believe a huge chunk of that change is coming from our government. Now, don’t get me wrong that $400 billion goes to providing jobs for people, and is overall good for the public sector. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s what our government should be engaging in.

It always bring a smile to my face, when the government looks at ways to cut spending. Not to mention that doing could also greatly enhance the security of our infrastructure. Open Source is a wonderful place to start, and in the long run could easily save the government billions of dollars in spending.

So, I just wanted to send a kudos out to Obama for looking into the wonderful world of Open Source. Here’s hoping you take a gander at McNealy’s proposal and find a legitimate software investment for the government.

[via: BBC]

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At CES this past week many impressive technologies were demonstrated. If you’re into video gaming, then there’s one product you’ll be wanting to keep an eye on, TrueMotion.

Sixsense, the developers behind TrueMotion are taking the ideas behind the Nintendo Wii Remote to a whole new level.

Using an electromagnetic field, TrueMotion looks to capture motion controls a step better than the Wii Remote. Not only can TrueMotion detect movement it can capture where the remote is at in a certain location and reads at what angle it’s being held at. It can do all of this even if the device isn’t being pointed at the screen.

TrueMotion has some mighty obstacles to get around in order to be commercially successful. First, it needs to distinguish itself from the Nintendo Wii. This leads to the problem that it’s being presented as a PC peripheral. Most people have their computers in locations that wouldn’t have space for very much movement. Others don’t realize, or don’t care that most PC’s can be used by their televisions.

Sixsense needs to be seeking partners in order for their product to catch on. I believe that the ultimate goal would to somehow selling Sony, or Microsoft on the technology. With the Wii Remote MotionPlus coming out earlier this year, there’s going to be even greater competition.

TrueMotion is set to release later this year around Christmas. It will come bundled with one controller, the base station, and a bundled game for $100.

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This week at CES, Sony unveiled the world’s lightest notebook. The VAIO Lifestyle PC is a slim 1-inch thick, but sports an 8-inch screen. Sony is boasting that it’s the PC that can easily fit in your jacket pocket.

The VAIO P Series Lifestyle P definitely has portability, while acting as a regular sized notebook. It’s the first PC I’ve ever seen of its size to feature a full sized keyboard like you’d see on a desktop.

The VAIO Lifestyle PC is most impressive when showing off its connection options. It has built-in Bluetooth, GPS, and will connect to Verizon mobile broadband.

Here are a list of specs for the tablet PC:

- Intel (1.33GHz) processor
- 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
- 60GB HDD w/ an option to upgrade to 128GB
- 4 Hour battery life
- Windows Vista Basic w/ an option to upgrade to Home Premium

The pricing for the device starts at $899 for the 60GB model, but you’ll have to pay $1,500 for the 128GB. Sony is taking pre-orders for the PC now, and will be available the beginning of February.

Here’s an exclusive video from WebProNews showing off the slim PC:

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Ultraportable computers have really never found a huge niche in the computing world. They are definitely more portable then regular notebooks, but the price detracts more consumers. HP looks to be changing this trend when it unveils the HP Pavilion dv2 at CES.

The new HP Pavilion ultraportable is like many computers of its type. The main difference is that it’s priced affordable at $699. The ultraportable will hit retail shelves March of this year.

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