While he wasn’t inventor of Xerox copiers, Jacob Goldman, a physicist and visionary, made an even more important contribution to your life: he was the chief scientist of Xerox’s research center that invented the modern personal computer. So today, when you bitTorrent the Fast and Furious series or tweet about how long it’s taking you to move through the ordering line at Panera, take a moment to respectful observe the contribution of Dr. Goldman for he has passed. He was 90.

Xerox has been so successful in the realm of office copiers that its synonymous with any copying machine, not to mention that it’s now been verbified (“Peeeter, what’s happening? Hey, could you go Xerox 30 copies of this for me? Greeeaaaat, thanks.”). Foreseeing that the people of the future would want to copy things in a new way, a la “copy and paste,” Xerox entered the realm of computer manufacturing. Xerox brought in Dr. Goldman to helm the mission to shrink and personalize the computer (these were still the days of living room-sized computers you see in old sci-fi war rooms) and, voila, about 40 years later you probably couldn’t figure out how to turn on a faucet without your personal computer.

While Xerox fumbled their future with personal computers, you still have Dr. Goldman to thank for the fact that you can read this from your laptop, tablet, phone, whatever. Just think, we might not have had Saint Jobs had it not been for Dr. Goldman’s innovative, brilliant mind.

This year, they look at things like mind-reading, spam, and sustainable energy. Let’s take a look into the future, according to IBM.

1. People will power their houses with energy that they create themselves.  True renewable energy will become the norm, allowing people to power their homes and work places with simple movement – like the turning of the spokes on a bicycle or the running of water through pipes.
2. No more passwords.  Biometric tools like retina scanners and voice recognition will totally replace traditional passwords, and you’ll be able to use these login devices at places like the ATM machine.
3. Your devices will read your mind.  In the next 5 years, scientists will have discovered a way to link your mind to you devices so that you can just think about calling someone and it will happen.  Further down the road, people might just be able to simply think about what they want to say and have it typed out for them on their computers.
4. Mobile Technology will help close the digital divide.  They predict that within 5 years, 80% of the global population will own a mobile device.  communities all over the world will be able to use this technology to access mobile commerce programs and virtual health care.
5. Spam will become personal.  “Junk mail will become priority mail. In five years, unsolicited advertisements may feel so personalized and relevant it may seem spam is dead.”

Not all of the past IBM predictions have come to pass. For instance, we don’t quite have mind reading mobile phones yet (predicted back in 2006) and we haven’t been able to eradicate the “forgetting” part of aging (predicted in 2008). But some of the predictions have definitely come true.

Two of the first year’s predictions, for instance, have pretty much come true:

We will be able to access healthcare remotely from just about anywhere in the world. Today, through telemedicine, patients can connect with physicians or specialists from just about anywhere via inexpensive computers and broadband networks. Doctors can view x-rays and other diagnostic imagery from thousands of miles away.

Technologies the size of a few atoms will address areas of environmental importance. Nanotechnology is now used in countless fields and industries, including agriculture, biotechnology and sensor networks, enabling us to understand and interact with the natural environment like never before.

Plus, they predicted that users would soon talk to the web, and the web would talk back. Sounds a little bit like Siri and other voice assistants, no?

Which of IBM’s 2011 predictions do you see coming true in the next 5 years? Which ones seem just a little too ambitious? Let us know in the comments.

If you’re unfamiliar with the device, it’s the first quad-core Anroid tablet. It has a 8.3mm-thick body, a 1280×800 display, a Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, up to 12 hours of battery life, 1 GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, and a microSD slot. The entire device only weighs in at 1.29 pounds.

The updated Transformer Prime will run Android 3.2 when it ships. Owners will be able to upgrade to Android 4.0, a.k.a Ice Cream Sandwich, in the near future.

The base price for the device wis $499 for the 32GB version and $599 for the 64GB. You can also purchase an attachable keyboard, which will cost you $149. The updated Transformer Prime is expected to ship sometime in December of this year.

It might be a hard sell, espicially when you consider prices for Apple’s iPad are compraable. Which do you think consumers would be more likely to purchase?

But I do have a sense of the history of computers, and like the rest of the world I am amazed by the journey they’ve taken in the last 50 years.  We take for granted our computers we carry around in our pockets -  our 16 GB iPhones and our 160 GB iPods.  In 1980, 2GB of storage meant a system the size of a refrigerator.  Yeah, fit that into your skinny jeans.

This infographic made by onlinecomputersciencedegree.com is a nerdgasm, combining the history and possible future of computing with REM.  Based around their 1987 classic and Independence Day alien-signalling song “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), it charts the shrinking physical size and expanding capabilities of computers from 1958 to 2010 and beyond.

From Jack Kelby building the world’s first integrated circuit in 1958, to the first laptop Osbourne 1 being created in 1981, to current drives capable of holding 2TB in the size of a book – it charts the milestones.

It also begins to speculate about computing in the future – fiber-optic computers that run on light instead of electricity and DNA-based computing that could replicate biological entities in order to solve health problems.

Oh yeah, and of course they retool the lyrics of a great song to say things like  “more efficient software!”

Lenny Bruce Gordon Moore is not afraid. Check it out:

Via: OnlineComputerScienceDegree.com

It is a fact that many people’s jobs these days require them to spend a copious amount of time in front of a computer. Writers, Coders, Editors, Secretaries – the list goes on. According to reports that have been flooding in during the last year or so, the more hours you spend during the day sitting, the greater you risk of early death.

First, Men’s Health reported on a study that concluded this fact. Then the New York times reported on another study that found that people had a greater risk of obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes when they sat an extra 6-8 hours a day.

The posture of sitting itself probably isn’t worse than any other type of daytime physical inactivity, like lying on the couch watching “Wheel of Fortune.” But for most of us, when we’re awake and not moving, we’re sitting. This is your body on chairs: Electrical activity in the muscles drops — “the muscles go as silent as those of a dead horse,” Hamilton says — leading to a cascade of harmful metabolic effects. Your calorie-burning rate immediately plunges to about one per minute, a third of what it would be if you got up and walked. Insulin effectiveness drops within a single day, and the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes rises. So does the risk of being obese. The enzymes responsible for breaking down lipids and triglycerides — for “vacuuming up fat out of the bloodstream,” as Hamilton puts it — plunge, which in turn causes the levels of good (HDL) cholesterol to fall.

So all this bad stuff over a lifetime adds up, according to researchers.

Today comes this awesome new infographic courtesy of medicalbillingnacoding.org. Yes, the information provided is scary, especially for someone who likes to sit as much as I do. But the visuals are pretty top notch, especially the presentation of “sitting” as a jagged, hooded demon poised dramatically over the head of an unsuspecting office worker.

Many propose stand up desks as a way to solve this problem. Others suggest frequent breaks from sitting on the job to perform various quick exercises. As someone with terrible knees, standing desks make me cringe. Maybe I’ll rethink the whole jumping jacks idea.

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

FaceTime has become a popular selling point of Apple’s iPhone, and the iPad 2 is expected to accommodate it as well. 

"The new MacBook Pro brings next generation dual and quad Core processors, high performance graphics, Thunderbolt technology and FaceTime HD to the great design loved by our pro customers," said Apple SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller. "Thunderbolt is a revolutionary new I/O technology that delivers an amazing 10 gigabits per second and can support every important I/O standard which is ideal for the new MacBook Pro."

Apple says in its announcement, "MacBook Pro is the first computer on the market to include the groundbreaking Thunderbolt I/O technology. Developed by Intel with collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt enables expandability never before possible on a notebook computer. Featuring two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to an amazing 10Gbps each, Thunderbolt delivers PCI Express directly to external high performance peripherals such as RAID arrays, and can support FireWire and USB consumer devices and Gigabit Ethernet networks via adapters. Thunderbolt also supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays. Freely available for implementation on systems, cables and devices, Thunderbolt technology is expected to be widely adopted as a new standard for high performance I/O."

"With Apple’s innovative FaceTime video calling software, the new camera allows high definition video calls between all new MacBook Pro models and supports standard resolution calls with other Intel-based Macs, iPhone 4 and the current generation iPod touch," the company says. "FaceTime is included with all new MacBook Pro models and is available for other Intel-based Macs from the Mac App Store for 99 cents. The MacBook Pro lineup continues to feature its gorgeous aluminum unibody enclosure, glass Multi-Touch trackpad, LED-backlit widescreen display, illuminated full-size keyboard and 7-hour battery."

There is a 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro model, as well as a 15-inch and a 17-inch model. The 13-inch version is available in a 2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 and 320GB hard drive version for $1,199, as well as a 2.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 and 500GB hard drive version for $1,499. The 15-inch MacBook Pro is available in a 2.0 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6490M and 500GB hard drive version for $1,799 and a 2.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 750GB hard drive version for $2,199. The new 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro comes in just one version –  2.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 750GB hard drive, and is priced at $2,499.

Apple has an event scheduled for March 2nd, where it will almost certainly unveil the iPad 2. Stay tuned for that. Meanwhile, the iPad continues to dominate tablet shipments.

The HP TouchSmart tm2 builds on HP’s existing TouchSmart software, and updates the tx2. "With the convertible tm2, customers can choose the product configuration and input method that is most comfortable and natural, whether on a couch, in an airplane or while surfing the web," the company says. "As a traditional notebook, the tm2 offers a keyboard and touch-enabled display for input. Converted to a slate, the tm2 morphs into a sketchpad with digital pen, allowing artists to sketch on the go and students to take notes in class."

HP lists the following new touch applications that enhance the tm2 experience:

- BumpTop, a touch-enhanced 3-D interface for photos and documents that allows users to spatially organize and “toss” or share files and photos to social media sites or email.

- DigiFish Dolphin, an interactive 3-D screensaver that recreates an ocean environment to be experienced via touch or a mouse.

- Corel Paint it! Touch, which allows users to draw and paint or turn photos into paintings using fingertips.

More details about the TouchSmart tm2 can be found here.

The HP Mini 5102 is described as a "full-performance "netbook designed for mobile professionals and students. It comes in either a standard or touch-enabled version. The touchscreen option includes multitouch gestures, finger taps, and swipes across the screen for navigation. More can be read about this here.

Finally, unveiled the HP Mini 210 and HP Mini 2102, with optional 3G broadband connectivity and GPS in multiple color options. HP says new software enhances the HP Mini 210′s multimedia experience:

- HP CloudDrive powered by ZumoDrive allows users to access their synchronized content – documents, photos and music – from the cloud, without having to store it on a local drive.

- HP MediaStream allows users to stream multimedia content from one PC to another over the Internet, without requiring data to be downloaded.

- HP QuickSync software, also available on the HP Mini 2102, automatically synchronizes files created or edited on the road with a home or business PC over a wireless connection when connected to the same network.

- HP QuickWeb allows users to access the web without booting up the notebook by simply pushing a button. In seconds, users have a connection to the Internet and can access websites and other content that normally requires a standard browser, as well as photos, music and more.

More details about the Mini 210 and Mini 2102 can be found here.

The HP TouchSmart tm2 is expected to be available in the US on Jan. 17 in all colors with a starting price of $949. The HP Mini 5102 is expected to be available in the US this month with a starting price of $399. The HP Mini 210 is expected to be available in the US tomorrow with a starting price of $299 for Windows 7.The HP Mini 2102 is also expected to be available in the US tomorrow with a starting price of $329.

Watch for more WebProNews coverage of CES, with exclusive video interviews coming soon.

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“When my children’s homes are wired, a computer will have a record of what they buy and how much they spend. It will know whether they pay bills quickly, slowly, or not at all, and it will know where all their money comes from.

“It will know whether they watched the debates, or a football game, or a controversial movie. In other words, it will know more about them than anyone should.

“We can and should move at the outset of this information era to address the potential privacy problem so that it, in fact, does not become an actual one.”

Charles D. Ferris, Chairman of the FCC, “Official Warns on Privacy,” The New York Times, October 14, 1980

Terms of the deal were not released. CompUSA said it is in discussions to sell its technical services business, CompUSA TechPro, its online sales operation, CompUSA.com and stores in major markets.

The company’s 103 retail stores will stay open during the holiday season and offer discounts on computer and electronics before the stores are closed. "An orderly and expedited wind-down and asset sale process is the best option for CompUSA and its creditors at this juncture," said Bill Weinstein, a Gordon Brothers principal who will be running CompUSA as its interim president told Reuters.

Earlier, this year, CompUSA shut down more than half of its stores in an effort to streamline operations and increase profits at stores that were doing well. "We worked long and hard with Gordon Brothers Group to achieve a business solution that maximizes CompUSA’s assets," said Roman Ross, CompUSA’s current chief executive, who will continue to serve the company in an advisory capacity. 

CompUSA started as software retailer Soft Warehouse in 1984. It began selling computers and took the CompUSA name when it went public in 1991 and purchased the Tandy Computer chain. Carlos Slim began buying shares in 1999 and took the company private in 2000 with an $800 million buyout.

CompUSA has been hurt by decreasing margins on computers along with competition from electronics retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City.