Andy has the scoop on the Streamcast vs. 'Skype' lawsuit. I'm a little late to the party to discuss the lawsuit and its implications since I was working on some other stuff. At first glance, it would appear that this is "sour grapes" on the part of Streamcast looking to cut into the $4 billion pie that Skype got as a result of the eBay deal. But it's much more than that and the Steamcast vs. Skype battle goes further back than this new lawsuit. What is most interesting about this story is that a blogger/PR guy not connected to either party broke the story. As more and more examples of bloggers "scooping" the mainstream media (MSM) occur, perhaps bloggers will finally shed the label of being "pajama journalists" or worse. It's no wonder newspaper subscribers are jumping off the sinking MSM ship and reading alternative news outlets. Nice job Andy!
March 2006 Archives
Hard to believe that Palm is 10 years old this year! The PCs and Macs were established as household objects, when the world was next introduced to Palm’s mobile and handheld technology in 1996.
From the company’s first product, the Palm Pilot handheld, to today’s Treo 650 and 700, the mobile manufacturer’s products have changed society’s ability to communicate and access knowledge.
According to the company, more than 34 million devices including 3 million smartphones have been sold since 1996.
Anybody remember US Robotics?
Some pretty cool news from USRobotics that lets you use Skype to directly call their Customer Support infrastructure. This saves USRobotics the cost of the toll-free number and it enables customers to get into the support queue much easier. Considering the "newness" factor of web call through, most call centers will assign a higher priority to inbound VoIP calls or IM sessions. So if you are impatient and want to skip lengthy on-hold times, using Skype could be the answer.
It will be interesting to see if/when a big boy like Microsoft offers web call through for their tech support. I was just on a 5 hour call with Microsoft technical support on Friday troubleshooting 'Microsoft Exchange Server 2003' and AUTD + ActiveSync for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. It wasn't looking too good for the Microsoft technician after 5 hours of no success, but we finally got it working. All this so Rich Tehrani can sync his Verizon VX6700 Windows Mobile 5.0 device while travelling. A whopping 5 hours on the phone with Microsoft tech support with no food, no water, and no pee break deserves a raise, don't you think?
It was an 800 number, but at say $0.01/minute, the call cost Microsoft $3. But they're still ahead since they charge $245/incident. Still, if they used VoIP, the call would have been free. Imagine the thousands of inbound tech support calls Microsoft gets. VoIP could save them millions.
Anyway, here's the news from USRobotics:
This allows USRobotics customers to call Customer Support via the popular Skype Internet communications software, instead of using their landline telephones.
"Support through Skype gives our customers one more way to get in touch with our technical support agents. Customer and technical support is now offered via the phone, through email, and now via Skype," says Mary Galbavy, Director of Customer Support. "We are constantly looking for ways to improve our customers' experience and this is another way we've found to do that within our support organization. The satisfaction of our customers is key to our service delivery choices."
The ability to place a Skype call to USRobotics technical support eliminates the charges typically associated with such a call in Europe. Placing a call to USRobotics technical support via the integrated Skype calling button on USRobotics' Support Web site is free and can be used by anyone using the Skype software. This method of access allows our customers to contact us directly via their computers while leaving their landline telephone available for use.
USRobotics' Call Centers now allow Skype calls to be directed into the call queue for handling by the first available agent. Users experience the same support from the same technicians they would receive using a standard telephone.
"Setting up the infrastructure to accept Skype calls has been easy for us," says Galbavy. "It not only allows us to talk to our customers via this growing method of communication, but it cuts down on the costs associated with incoming support calls, and increases our overall customer satisfaction."
Lycos Phone is launching on Monday the Internet's first-ever "virtually" free VoIP integrated communications platform, combining IM, video chat, real-time video on demand streaming content (including IPTV channels), and an MP3 player. That first sentence certainly sounded marketing-speak didn't it? And I said the magic word "free", but "free" is never "free" or at least never totally free. So what's free about the new Lycos VoIP client and is there a catch? (there usually is)
Well, get this, you can make calls from their softphone client to ANY U.S. based PSTN number for free. Yep, that's right, you read that correctly. This makes Lycos Phone the first VoIP client that I am aware of offering free PSTN calls to U.S. numbers (unless you go back to Dialpad's early days when they briefly offered free U.S. calls with advertisements). When I talked with Brian Kalinowski, COO for Lycos, I had to confirm, "This isn't just free PC-to-PC calling? You're talking free PC-to-PSTN here?" He confirmed that calls made anywhere in the world using their software to any U.S. number would be free. Wow! This makes Yahoo's announcement last week that I covered pale in comparison.
In fact, I did a cost-comparison of Skype vs. the new Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo was slightly cheaper. However, with Lycos it's free. You don't get any cheaper than free - unless they start paying you to use the service. The battle for VoIP is certainly heating up. Lycos is launching this product in partnership with Globe7.com, an India-based company which designed the software. Lycos has an exclusive 3-year deal with Globe7, so this application cannot appear on
any other portal like Google, AOL, MSN or Yahoo.
Ok, stop the presses. Let's backup here. I had the above written about Lycos offering free unlimited outbound PSTN dialing when Lycos emailed me days later to clarify, "It has come to our attention, that some of the journalists we've briefed have had some confusion over the pricing points for Lycos Phone. Just to clarify, regarding the pricing, with Lycos Phone, users can make free calls from PC to PC, free PC to video calls and receive unlimited free incoming calls from any landline or mobile phone from around the world. All users receive 100 free minutes of PC to landline and PC to mobile phone calls, and can earn additional free minutes through various promotional offers. Unlike Skype and Yahoo, Lycos Phone users also receive a free U.S. phone number. Additionally, unlike Skype and Yahoo, Lycos Phone offers free FAX and free voicemail to email."
The two key parts are bolded. While you do get unlimited free inbound calls you only get 100 free outbound minutes. So I will have to taper my enthusiasm a bit since it's not free unlimited outbound dialing. Still, 100 free minutes is pretty cool and the unlimited free inbound calls is unique to Lycos phone. I meant to ask Lycos if the 100 free minutes is a one-time offer or if it resets every month to give you 100 free outbound minutes each month or if you have to earn more credits. Their website states "Opt in to special offers and earn up to 2000 free minutes." So it appears they give you 100 minutes to start but you can add more credits by participating in offers. When I installed the Lycos Phone software I saw an offer from Earthlink High Speed Internet, Backcountry.com, and a few university offers. I don't even see my free 100 minutes come to think of it. Will have to ask Lycos about that.
Lyocs offers you a free "Lycos In" number, which is also quite unique for a software-baed VoiP solution.. Lycos will let you pick a U.S. number for free. So take that Yahoo Messenger ($2.49/month) and take that Skype In ($3.16/month)! Basically, all you have to do to get started is download their software and immediately be able to make 100 free Outbound minutes to U.S. numbers and receive unlimited free inbound calls as well. This is perfect for teenagers that want their own phone line in their room and their parents won't shell out the dough to pay for it. Of course, there are many other market segments that will find the "free" phone number and free unlmiited inbound calls useful. This is certainly a whole new benchmark for VoIP set by the Lycos guys. Free to the extreme! I asked Brian who they were using for termination for the U.S. and he said they had a relationship with Verizon.
"Ok, so Lycos is giving some limited free outbound dialing and unlimited free inbound dialing, so what's the catch?" I thought you'd never ask. Well, there is an ad that displays on.. <interrupts> "Ads? Forget it. I don't need no stinkin' adware." Actually, it's not adware. The client simply displays advertisements and offers at the bottom of the client, similar to what MSN Messenger and other clients do. Also, if you take any of these offers you earn additional credits to make both domestic and international calls. Ironically, I saw a Vonage ad display at the bottom of Lycos Phone while I was testing it.
The Lycos Phone client can pull dynamic content from Lycos such as sports scores, multimedia content, and more. Lycos' goal is to make the client a "portal" with plenty of "stickiness" to keep users within the application so they view the advertisements and offers. It leverages XML, so users can add their own XML feeds (blogs, favorite sites, etc.)
Testing Lycos Phone on 65" TV from my couch.
A few caveats - I don't believe it uses the Global IP Sound (GIPS) VoiceEngine, though Brian couldn't confirm this fact. I'm going to call Globe7 to find out. Although the GIPS codec isn't the "end all be all", so I won't discount the voice quality on the Lycos Phone until I try it. Second caveat is it uses it's own proprietary IM database so it doesn't currently federate with other IM clients.<sigh> Why can't everyone just agree on SIMPLE or Jabber or something? Sheesh! But I can't knock Lycos Phone too harshly since Skype, the current "top dog" doessn't federate either. Another vaceat is that Lycos Phone currently doesn't have a user search feature (i.e. search by hobbies, location, etc.), which is a nice "community building" feature built into Skype and some other clients.
In addition, unlike Skype and Yahoo VoIP services, Lycos claims to be the first to introduce a VoIP system that brings full multimedia support for music and video on demand for both professional and independent content IPTV. The Lycos Phone platform provides free video on demand access to more than 300 movie trailers, business news, world sports and more. I tried out some of the IPTV channels and the quality was pretty impressive. You're going to start to see more convergence and media integration in all future releases of softphones from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Skype. Or if they don't, they could be left in the dust. This could actually be Skype's achilles heel. Both Microsoft and Yahoo already have strong relationships with major media content providers, and certainly Google has enough clout & capital to build media content relationships, but I'm not so sure about Skype/eBay.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple launched a more powerful iChat program and leveraged iTunes and their other media content to have their own "killer VoIP/IM/MP3/video" client. This is the one case where "bloatware" won't be such a bad thing. In fact, if I can have a single client that can federate/connect to any other IM provider (i.e. GAIM) for a unified buddy list, supports SIP, MPEG2 video, IPTV support, call forwarding, CallerID, integration with my cellphone, MP3 streaming, and all the other usual suspects, I'd drop the 4 running IM/VoIP applications currently running on my PC in favor of one unified application.
In any event, getting back to Lycos Phone, unlike Skype and Yahoo, Lycos Phone also offers free fax and free voicemail to email. Users can also make free PC to PC video calls and again receive unlimited free incoming calls from any landline or mobile phone from around the world.
"This partnership with Globe7 allows Lycos to team with a best-of-breed global platform, leveraging Globe7's real-time communications infrastructure to provide other innovative services like Internet Protocol television," said Alfred Tolle, CEO of Lycos, Inc."We are in a very unique position to now provide this audio and video distribution platform to our millions of independent content creators throughout the Lycos Network."
"Globe7 was built from the ground up as a standards-based Voice-over-IP system with a wide array of voice call features such as voice mail, and integration with the existing U.S. and International telephone networks," Tolle added. "This, in combination with our upcoming Lycos HanMail system, based on Daum's highly successful HanMail product in Korea, will allow Lycos to leap-frog all existing communications offerings available today."
I'm sure Skype, Google, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and several other players might disagree with that statement. But kudos to Lycos for offering some "free" inbound calling and a free PSTN number unlike their competitors. Let's see who is the first to follow suit.
Currently, Lycos Phone (Globe7) supports Windows 2000 and XP. Future enhancements will support Linux, Mac OS, Palm OS and Pocket PC.
Top PC game players from around the world are in New York for the Global Gaming League’s Trans-Atlantic Showdown.
Despite a long flight overseas, European players didn’t lose any practice time.With services from Connexion by Boeing, many players were able to use the Internet to make phone calls and get in a few extra practice games before the start of the tourney.
That will all be coming to all of us very soon -- mobile phone calls and web access from planes; that will be time very well spent (as long as you don't have a chatterbox sitting next to you -- bad enough on the train! but image a six-hour flight; painful enough just to think about it.)
Really like that every week I get a chance to sample some new music free from iTunes. I've heard some really interesting and different music that I won't normally listen to or even know about on their "free download of the week." (Haven't sprung for any other of those artists' work, however.)
Reminds me of the days when you could find LPs in the cut-out bin for $1.99 and you'd bring a few home to listen to and maybe you'd find something interesting. (Does anyone remember LPs and cut-out bins?) CDs never seemed to have the same appeal ...
Has anyone gotten into any of the artists through the "free download"? The phone lines are open ...
I had no idea Fedora Core 5 was out. I downloaded Fedora Core 5 test2 like 3 weeks ago and played around with the beta. Was thinking about living dangerously and using the beta version for the migration of TMC's current MovableType installation (Windows). Well, lo and behold I'm happily surfing the web when I find this post from 4 days ago announcing Fedore Core 5 is out. Damn, and I just downloaded the 4 CDs just 3 weeks ago. Time for me to run to my nearest Fedora Core mirror (or maybe I'll Bittorrent it) before everyone else finds out and slows the download to a crawl. Or maybe I'm the last to know?
To quote Airplane! William Shatner, "Why the hell aren't I notified about these things?"
(Click to play the Shatner quote)
Here's the post announcing the news:
Hi, my name is Fedora Core "Bordeaux", and today I am 5. When I turned 4 last year, they got a funny salesman to talk about me like I was a toy. I like toys. But today Teacher said I am a big kid, and I should talk about myself. I can do lots of big kid stuff now, and everyone tells me that I play really well with all the other kids in class, even the ones who are mean like bullies. I always try and share, which is what Teacher says is the best thing.
Sharing is a really good thing to do. I like to share all my toys and books and stuff with all the other kids so that they can play with them and even learn things, too. I have a lot of neat stuff to share, so I made this cool list to tell you all about it. Teacher gave me some things to put in the list, but since I'm a big kid I think I should get to say what I want, too.
* GNOME 2.14
"Improved speed and usability, and new and better features for power management, file sharing, user help, system administration, teleconferencing, picture browsing, and networking." I think it's easy enough for even my little brother to use, but Mommy and Daddy like it a lot too.
* OpenOffice 2.0.2
"Enhanced productivity features, extensive compatibility with other popular office software, database connectivity functions, and improved use of system libraries for faster loading and better responsiveness overall." Mommy says she can make slide shows for work even easier than before, and Daddy uses it to organizes all our books, music, and movies in databases.
* KDE 3.5.1
"New and exciting features for users and developers, including stylish and attractive applets, educational and entertaining games, incredibly standards-compliant Internet tools, and enhanced multimedia and usability." Plus it looks REALLY cool, especially when my big sister fixes it just the way she likes.
* Mono
"Support for .NET means a new generation of dynamic and powerful cross-platform applications, with some already included, such as Tomboy for note-taking, F-Spot for photo management, and Beagle for content searching and indexing." See, I told you I'm really good at sharing! Plus, I don't ever have a problem remembering or finding things, like pictures, homework, or messages. Mommy says she's really proud of me.
* Yum-based Package Tools
"Installation and software management tools are all based on the flexible and powerful yum utility for easy selection and upgrade of new and existing software." And soon, I'll even be able to get my own special software at install time!
* Xen Virtualization
"The best framework yet for installation, management, migration, and monitoring of software-based virtual domains, allowing system owners to effectively leverage and force-multiply existing hardware for maximum efficiency, scalability, redundancy, and flexibility." Teacher says I get more work done faster than any other kid in our class, too.
* Apache HTTP Server 2.2
"Enhanced authentication, database support, proxy facilities, and content filtering, all built on the most stable and customizable platform for Web services."
* Enhanced Security
"Support for SELinux binary policy modules means that users and developers can now ship their own specialized policies with affected software. GCC's best of breed features, such as stack protection, NX, PIE, and compile-time buffer checks, pile on additional layers of assurance to effectively block illegal ingress." I know all my safety rules, and Mommy and Daddy say that it's really, REALLY hard for monsters to get in our house!
So at school, I got awards for "Best Attendance," "Teacher's Pet," "Honor Roll," and "Good Manners," plus Teacher lets me stay after to clean the erasers until Daddy comes to pick me up. He always tells me how good I am compared to the other kids he knows and that he's really proud of me. He says it's because I'm 100% free and open source, and because I always try to do the right thing just like he and Mommy taught me.
I told him I didn't just learn it from him, but from all the nice people at Red Hat and the Fedora community, who teach me new things all the time. They're all different kinds of people -- users, developers, writers, translators, testers, editors, and so many other things I can't even write it all. They're the people who make it possible to build a complete Linux platform from open source software.
But they say we're not done yet, and we can ALWAYS use more friends to help, so if you think this sounds neat, you should definitely visit:
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/HelpWanted
All right, I have to go now. There's always more things to learn and do and I am a very, extremely busy kid. 'Bye! - - -
Fedora is a set of projects sponsored by Red Hat and guided by the contributors. These projects are developed by a large community of people who strive to provide and maintain the very best in free, open source software and standards. Fedora Core, the central Fedora project, is an operating system and platform, based on Linux, that is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute, now and forever.
Fedora Core 5 is available at absolutely no cost. To download it:
VIA BITTORRENT (RECOMMENDED):
* torrent.fedoraproject.org/bordeaux-binary-i386.torrent
* torrent.fedoraproject.org/bordeaux-binary-x86_64.torrent
* torrent.fedoraproject.org/bordeaux-binary-ppc.torrent
For DVD and other formats, refer to http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/
If you run an earlier version of Fedora Core, you can get BitTorrent from Fedora Extras. If you are using another platform, you can get BitTorrent at:
* http://www.bittorrent.com/
VIA WEB:
Visit the main Fedora download site listed below. You will be automatically redirected to a mirror of Fedora Core 5. There may be delays due to site congestion, especially in the days immediately following the release, so BitTorrent is recommended instead.
* http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/5
VIA CD/DVD:
Visit the following site for a list of vendors of Fedora Core CD/DVD
media:
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Distribution/OnlineVendors
I really didn't know that today's Wall Street Journal would have a story about how the Treo 650 is the only real contender against the Blackberry -- really I didn't!
(Maybe they liked yesterday's blog ...)
Just like very bit of technology that starts out high-end (expensive) and then gradually comes down in price to reach mass market acceptance (Crossing the Chasm, anyone?), networked storage is no different.
Once only the technology for large enterprises and now much more prevalent in the SMB market (that's most businesses, folks), networked-attached storage (NAS -- in the lingo) is soon to be coming consumers' way.
We're all very used to saving files on internal drives or USB-connected devices, but now we will soon be able to store our files on standalone NAS units that are accessed via our home network.
Look for companies like Seagate, Iomega, Western Digital (storage biggies) as well as other companies like Intel with drives that can store more than a terabyte of data (believe me, that is a lot!).
It's a long way from Fibre Channel and other EMC, HP, Hitachi, etc., technologies, but who wants the complexity, cost and maintenance of those systems? Let's see how this moves forward during the year ...
According to Consumer Affairs, a Minnesota homeowner claims that Vonage put him on hold when he called 911 to report his house was on fire. Of course, it isn't really Vonage that put him on hold, but the infrastructure than handles the routing of 911 calls made via a VoIP provider is different than 911 calls from traditional PSTN lines. I'm sure the traditional carriers will be all over this one. "Stay with us and get REAL 911." or "Stay with us and choose our inexpensive $39.99/month unlimited VoIP plan and you can be guaranteed true 911 service". $40 inexpensive? My ass... Guess you get what you pay for. Still, I'd rather have my cheapo VoIP service and take my chances on 911 since I hate being raped by the telcos. Though maybe in a month when my first baby is born I'll feel differently. Wish they'd resolve the 911 issue once and for all!
Much hubbub late yesterday and today about Microsoft delaying its upcoming Vista OS, called "perhaps the biggest technology transition since the Windows operating system arrived more than 10 years ago" in today's Wall Street Journal.
Seems it won't be here until after the New Year (so far away ...), so PC makers are disappointed they won't be able to include it as part of their holiday hardware offerings -- lot easier to sell a new system if it's got a new OS that everyone's excited about!
This may mean some drastic pricing actions (meaning deals for consumers) at holiday time 2006 so that HP, Dell, etc., can clear out the old (OS) to make way for the new.
Wonder what Apple makes of all of this? Should be a good story to follow ...
Now that RIM's Blackberry is back from the dead (no more lawsuit), it will take a true competitor to kill it off, not a patent infringement case.
We have lots of fun with market leaders and wait and see what happens as new products are introduced that challenge their leadership or new trends and technologies steer the market into new and unexpected directions -- directions that these leaders may not have foreseen.
The Blackberry falls into that market leader spot for wireless email devices/cell phones. Some of the products that compete with it on a feature set basis include the Palm Treo 650, Samsung SGH-d307, Nokia 9300 and the Motorola Q.
Anybody care to give some user feedback on these products?
Anybody care to add to the list?
Shaw Communications, which found itself in hot water with Vonage Canada after "hinting" to its subscribers that they must pay $10/month to "guarantee" VoIP QoS - is at it again! This time Zingotel is suing Shaw Communications claiming the cable company refused to air a TV commercial promoting Zingotel's VoIP services. Yet again, one of TMC's own esteemed reporters, Johanne Torres has the scoop! Not to toot TMC's horn, but between Rich Tehrani, Greg Galitzine, myself, and several other TMC journalists, TMC covers VoIP better than anyone else - blogs, TMCnet.com portal, tradeshows, etc. I've now been with TMC for 12 proud years and TMC just seems to get better and better along with hiring better talent.
Ok, enough of patting myself, my co-workers, and my company on the back. Let me give you a "teaser" from Johanne's article:
"It seems like Shaw Communications shady consumer acquisition practices keep getting the company in serious trouble. The company was just slammed with a $1.2 million lawsuit from U.S.-based VoIP provider ZingoTel claims that the Canadian cable operator refused to air a ZingoTel television ad because it promoted a competing VoIP-based calling service."
Check out the excellent article written by Johanne.
Nerd Vittles has a nice "dummy proof" tutorial explaining how to use Asterisk@Home in along with Sprint's plan to get unlimited wireless and unlimited wireline (using broadband VoIP) all for around $68/month. His recipe utilizes Asterisk@Home in combination with Sprints PCS unlimited FREE calls between your Sprint cellphone (or multiple PCS phones if you’re on a shared plan) and your residential phone number regardless of the wireline carrier for an additional $5/month. According to Nerd Vittles, "Here’s the math. A basic Sprint cellphone plan: $35. Sprint to Home service: $5. TelaSIP’s unlimited US48 VoIP calls: $15 a month. Home phone number transferred to BYOD plan at BroadVoice (here’s how) or AxVoice (here’s how) for unlimited incoming calls: $9. Unlimited nationwide Sprint cellphone calls: Priceless ... and FREE. Total cost for residential home and cellphone service with unlimited nationwide calling: $64 a month plus about $4 in Sprint add-on fees. Remember this gets you unlimited nationwide calling BOTH from your cellphone and your home phones."
$68/month for unlimited landline and wireless services? WOW! I always knew it was possible to do with an Asterisk system and thought about setting up a home Asterisk box to do this exact thing, but Mr. Vittles beat me to it. Nicely done Mr. Vittles, nicely done!
Nerd Vittles sent me a nice summary of his recipe via email:
The Nerd Vittles Recipe:
- Cheapest Sprint Cell Phone Plan - $35
- PCS to Home Add-On Service - $5
- Asterisk@Home Server for Linux or Windows – FREE!
- Home Phone Service Switched to BroadVoice or AxVoice BYOD Plan - $9 TelaSIP VoIP Unlimited Residential U.S. Calling Plan - $15 Nerd Vittles DISA Script – FREE!
- Unlimited Monthly Calls from Home OR your Sprint Cellphone – PRICELESS!
He even explains how to edit the extensions_custom in Asterisk to detect the CallerID of an incoming call to automatically detect your cell phone. When you dial from your cellphone to the Asterisk@Home number you immediately get 2nd dialtone (DISA) so you can then dial out using an unlimited VoIP plan. Of course with CallerID spoofing, you may want to add a password authentication so people can't call your Asterisk box and start making outbound calls. Vittles explains how to easily add the authentication method to the extensions_custom file. But really, the odds of someone discovering your cellphone number and your Asterisk@Home's phone number are astronomical. As Vittles said, just don't advertise the fact.
Of course, now that Nerd Vittles has made these easy tut that anybody can follow, I wonder how long it will be before the carriers add some disclaimer to their Terms of Service (TOS) saying they'll cancel your service for using such a workaround. Then again, I doubt the average person such as my dad or even my grandma is going to install Asterisk@Home even if it is easy to install. So this "unlimited" wireless minutes recipe is more for geeks and hackers or those people just technical enough to be dangerous.
Check out the recipe.
If you're serious about video games, I mean really serious, like making a career of it serious (creating, not playing), then you don't want to miss Game Developers Conference 2006, which opens tomorrow at the San Jose (CA) Convention Center.
Exhibits are open tomorrow through March 24 (as is the career pavilion). Thursday night is Suite Night, where you can mingle with professionals from leading game industry companies and hear about the newest technologies and games. Some 12,000 pros are expected to attend the show -- if you go, let me know ...