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In Wednesday’s highly anticipated keynote address at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata offered a list of positive developments for the company’s fans.

The big news was the continued popularity of the Wii platform. In the three years since the Wii was introduced, Nintendo has sold more than 50 million of the innovative consoles.

“Almost no one expected them to reach the current level of mainstream acceptance,” Iwata said. “It’s even beyond what we possibly hoped for.”

He said the Nintendo DS portable has done even better, selling more than 100 million units in 51 months, making it the most popular portable gaming device in history. One of the more interesting questions right now is how long the Nintendo DS will continue to hold that title, given the enormous popularity of Apple’s iPhone.

More SD Storage and Faster Launch

From a practical perspective, the most important announcement was that Nintendo has vastly improved the Wii’s storage capacity. At the same time Iwata was speaking, Nintendo announced the release of a Wii System Update with support for high-capacity SD cards (up to 32 gigabytes) in the console’s SD slot. Purchasers can now download games directly to SD cards, rather than the Wii’s surprisingly small two-gigabyte internal drive.

SD cards will make the Wii experience even more enjoyable for consumers. Nintendo estimates Wii users will be able to store as many as 240 games on a single 32GB SD card. Since games can be launched directly from the SD card, they will also load faster, which will improve the user experience.

New Titles Announced

In addition to the improved storage, Iwata announced several new titles for the Wii and the DS. The well-known franchise Zelda will appear for the DS later this year in a game entitled The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Beginning in May,…

The invitations have been sent out (and posted to the Web), so it’s official: The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be from June 8 to June 12 at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco.

Speculation about possible announcements is already running rampant on the Web, with predictions concentrated on three themes: The release of a new version of Mac OS X, dubbed Snow Leopard; an announcement of features and a release date for a new version of the iPhone; and the future role of CEO Steve Jobs.

Focus on Development

Longtime Apple watcher Michael Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret, said that regardless of what Apple might have up its sleeve, the primary focus of the conference will be on software development.

“It’s a developers’ conference,” Gartenberg said, “so it’s going to likely be about things of primary interest to that audience. That means we’ll likely hear some more about the 3.0 iPhone release, and it would also be a good place for Apple to talk more about Snow Leopard and what it means for developers.”

That’s consistent with Apple’s own promotion for the conference. According to the splash page on the new WWDC site, the conference will “provide developers and IT professionals with in-depth technical information and hands-on learning about the powerful technologies in iPhone OS and Mac OS X from the Apple engineers who created them.”

Apple expects at least a thousand Mac OS developers to attend the conference and participate in “detailed technical sessions to teach you how to take full advantage of new foundation technologies to ensure your application is ready and completely optimized for Mac OS X Snow Leopard.”

Looking for Big Announcements

As enthusiastic as developers no doubt are about getting the inside scoop on OS features, attendees and the media will be eagerly watching to see if Apple…

Copyright infringement on the Internet has been an ongoing problem, and Internet service providers have had to police such content to comply with infringement laws while also keeping customers happy.

Reports that ISPs, specifically AT&T, Cox Communications, and Comcast, are working with the Recording Industry Association of America to send out warnings, then threatening to close subscriber accounts have surfaced — and some ISPs say they aren’t accurate.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, every ISP is required to send out notifications to customers when there is a question of copyright infringement. But last year the RIAA began a more proactive approach by flagging ISPs whenever there is a question of infringement. RIAA sends a letter to ISPs when an incident is discovered.

No ‘Three Strikes’ Policy

Comcast said it’s not working hand-in-hand with the RIAA and it’s not threatening customers who may be unintentionally or intentionally committing copyright infringement.

“Comcast, like other major ISPs, forwards notices of alleged infringement that we receive from music, movie, video-game and other content owners to our customers,” said Charlie Douglas, a Comcast spokesperson. “This is the same process we’ve had in place for years — nothing has changed.”

Douglas said the company follows the law by sending out messages to customers through an automated process, but doesn’t threaten its customers.

“We receive the request to notify an alleged infringement from the copyright holder,” Douglas said. “We then pass it along to our customer either in an e-mail or letter.”

“While we have always supported copyright holders in their efforts to reduce piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and continue to do so, we have no plans to test a so-called ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy,” he added.

Liz Kennedy, a spokesperson for RIAA, declined to comment.

Process Is Unchanged

Cox also said nothing has…

Call it Round Two of the news conference, with a big Internet twist. President Barack Obama took questions from the White House press corps on Tuesday in a prime-time, East Room session that represented the most formal and time-honored of president-and-reporter interactions. On Thursday, he is taking to that same room for another public grilling — this time by regular folks armed with questions submitted via the Internet and in person, as part of a political strategy to engage Americans directly.

“It’s a way for the president to do what he enjoys doing out on the road, but saves on gas,” press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday.

By 9 a.m. Thursday, the White House Web site had already logged more than 100,000 questions.

Obama used the Internet to build a grass-roots movement that delivered the presidency and raised unheard-of money. Now in power, he is employing the same online network and style to speak — unfiltered — with Americans.

The president already has taken that tactic on the road, spending two days on the West Coast last week at town hall-style meetings and appearing on Jay Leno’s late-night talk show. It offered easier questions and a chance to get his message to the widest possible audience.

“It’s not a whole lot different than were we in California doing the meeting,” Gibbs said. “It’s just we’ll have people hooked up from a lot of different places all over the country, but he’ll be able to do all that from the East Room.”

Already, the White House is connecting the old-school press conference with the new-media event. It will be an easy contrast between skeptical reporters and supporter-selected questions.

Political operatives say the White House’s strategy is a way to reach a demographic key to Obama’s election.

“In the new world of online media, formal press conferences are just…

Rochester, NY, March 24, 2009 –- Vuzix Corporation, the leader in video eyewear for the mainstream consumer, defense and low vision markets, will showcase a game-changing Augmented Reality Accessory Kit for the popular VR920 Virtual Reality Video Eyewear. Partnering with metaio, Inc., a world leader in augmented reality software solutions, Vuzix will demonstrate at the 2009 GDC how a simple printed page can be brought to life with 3-D animated characters that literally pop out of the book. Additionally, be prepared to experience the thrill of a fantasy tale coming to life with a fire-breathing dragon flying overhead.

Vuzix AR Accessory Kit consists of two main features:

• CamAR™, a clip-on USB camera that mounts onto a pair of Vuzix Video Eyewear. The CamAR™ not only allows the user to see through to the real world but is also designed to accurately track objects and the user’s position in 3-dimensional space.

• PhasAR™, a wireless augmented reality input controller is designed to be used in unison with the CamAR™. The PhasAR™ allows users to interact with virtual, mixed and augmented reality worlds with a revolutionary 6 degree of freedom tracking system that lets the computer know exactly where the user is touching in the virtual and real worlds. Depending on the application, the PhasAR™ can become anything from a powerful virtual magic wand to a 3-D virtual paint brush. The PhasAR™ enables powerful 2-D like mouse support in order to effortlessly control virtual objects in 3-D space.

Together, these new devices allow the user to perceive and interact with the real world in ways they have never dreamed of before.

“This capability, known as Augmented Reality (AR), will open up new applications in the gaming, education and business sectors,” said Vuzix CEO, Paul Travers. “The applications for gaming and education will…

Canon USA has taken the wraps off its new entry-level digital SLR camera, which integrates a 15.1-megapixel image sensor with high-definition video recording.

The EOS Rebel T1i offers users two different ways to capture high-definition video with a 16:9 aspect ratio: At 30 frames per second for 720p video clips, or 20 fps when recording video at full resolution 1080p (1920×1080 pixels). Additionally, users can elect to shoot standard-definition video with a 4:3 aspect ratio at 30 fps.

“We are witnessing the emergence of a new phase in digital imaging history, as high-resolution still images and HD video can now both be produced in a handheld device for under $1,000,” said Canon Vice President Yuichi Ishizuka.

15.1 Megapixels

Canon’s new camera can capture up to 4GB of MPEG-4 video per clip, which is roughly equivalent to 12 minutes of 1080p HD video, 18 minutes of 720p HD video, or 24 minutes of SD video. All clips are recorded in the .MOV video format and stored on 1GB to 2GB SD or 4GB SDHC memory cards, which are sold separately.

The EOS Rebel T1i comes with a three-inch VGA-quality LCD monitor. When recording video, the camera’s rear LCD screen is letter-boxed by a semitransparent border to match the aspect ratio selected for the clip being recorded.

Under the hood, the new camera integrates a 15.1-megapixel CMOS sensor and the DIGIC 4 imaging processor, which uses 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion to generate digital data with incredibly smooth tones. The new camera also has an HDMI output to make it easy for users to display their images on an HDTV screen.

The EOS Rebel T1i camera offers three Live View autofocus functions that can be applied to still images as well as video. Though the Quick and Live modes employ different AF detection methods,…