Way back in the fall of 2001, when BoomTown was but a less-aged version of myself, I attended a keynote speech at the now-defunct Comdex show in Las Vegas, where Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates continued to bang the drum for one of his long-running obsessions: The tablet computer.

“The tablet takes cutting-edge PC technology and makes it available whenever you want it, which is why I’m already using a tablet as my everyday computer,” Gates said at the time to the audience gathered at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. “It’s a PC that is virtually without limits and within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America.”

Well, that did not happen.

But Gates did keep his promise about using a tablet–he kept on doing so and also harping on the topic all the time, with Microsoft even releasing a giant tabletop Surface several years ago and supporting multitouch in the coming Windows 7.

I recall Gates talking about the idea of how important the tablet is on innumerable occasions, more than any single concept I can recall.

It is ironic, then, that all the hype has suddenly and firmly coalesced around the particulars of the tablet that Apple (AAPL) will be unveiling in the coming months.

And now that CEO Steve Jobs is back fine-tuning the whole shebang, the obsession has moved into overdrive, punctuated only by endless stories about every single new app for the iPhone and fights over some of those new apps for the iPhone.

It’s a complete aside, but how ironic is it that Apple has somehow managed to make Google (GOOG)–the Skynet of the Internet–seem like a victim over this Google Voice shrillathon?

Back to the Apple tablet, which is playbook hype for iconic computer giant.

Besides being a secret project everyone in Silicon Valley seems to know about, the coming device is enjoying full-on breathless reportage of every single possible button and every possible feature, with every single bit of functionality parsed, dissected, masticated and spat back out.

But let’s be honest–in the end, this Apple tablet is probably going to be some kind of giant, sleeker, more glorified and doubtlessly niftier version of the iPod touch, called the iTab or the iPad or the iAmSoCoolAren’tI?, at three times the price.

Now, as it turns out, Microsoft (MSFT) is also at work on a table device, this time called the Courier.

This development became known recently after a demo video of it in use was somehow “leaked”–three guesses about which software giant in Redmond, Wash., put that out, and the first two don’t count!–to Gizmodo.

It seems to be some kind of tablet mixed with a journal mixed with a day planner, with a hinged two-page look. Digital writing and a stylus are involved, but also lots of touchscreen action.

Well, I say, good for Microsoft, and perhaps for Gates, who has now mostly disengaged himself from the day-to-day particulars of the behemoth he built, including the Courier.

Nonetheless, in all likelihood, Apple will still garner the most buzz in this tablet faceoff and will, more than likely, sell more.

A delicious irony, given that in their fascinating and long-running rivalry, it has usually been Jobs playing the hopeless dreamer and Gates the one who makes bank from the dreams of others.

No longer, which should make this round between Microsoft and Apple the most interesting of all.

Speaking of dreaming of dreams, it is always a good time to post the video of Susan Boyle singing “I Dreamed a Dream”:

Memo to all Cyborg Geeks:

“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology….We can make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.”

Wait, that’s “The Six Million Dollar Man” motto!

But it might as well apply to the entertainment outfit that owns the “Terminator” movie franchise.

Today, according to blogger Nikke Finke of Deadline Hollywood, the Halcyon Holding Group, after recently filing for Chapter 11 protection, has hired FTI Capital Advisors “to evaluate strategic alternatives for the company.”

In other words: Selling off Skynet!

Halcyon, which made the most recent “Terminator Salvation” film and “owns the first-look rights to the works of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick,” has been fighting with a hedge fund that gave it money to buy the famous series that takes a very bleak view of the future.

Almost as bleak as that of Halcyon if it doesn’t come up with a plan to bring me my annual dose of cybernetic organisms, which is–of course!–living tissue over a metal endoskeleton.

It better be back.

Here’s the original trailer for the very first “Terminator” movie, which pretty much rocks:

Many would-be augurs have been trying to pinpoint the moment the artificial intelligence overlord known as Skynet gets it start: Some may one day point to the launch of Siri. Siri is a virtual personal assistant for your iPhone or computer, with a pedigree: It originated at the Stanford Research Institute and was spun out as an AI project financed by DARPA. Now, as an alternative to search, Siri is supposed to carry out tasks like finding your next flight out or ordering a pizza by crawling the Web and conversing with the user, processing requests, responding and learning from the interaction. It will do this via a combination of technologies, including speech recognition, natural language processing and semantic Web search.

Demo Highlights

Live Blog

• Siri CEO Dag Kittlaus comes out. He introduces himself and the product. It’s been many years of work in the making, he says.
• Siri is about making interactions between the Web and user much simpler. It is focusing on mobile first. He shows the interface on an iPhone with both a Google screen and Siri screen side by side. Dag types in a flight query to both.
• Siri figures out what you mean. Dag asks it a question, compares the results between Siri and Google (GOOG). Walt: Google is terrible! Dag: It gets really interesting when you ask it do a service. Walt: Can’t Bing do this?
• It can take actions on your behalf too. For instance, “Il Forniao [Italian restaurant] reservations tonight for 3 at 5pm.” Siri takes your information and pulls up the reservation function for the restaurant.
• Siri is sort of a giant mashup of services, Dag says.
• It’s “Carol Bartz,” not “Sheryl Bartz,” Dag. Now let’s try asking for a movie. Siri returns the closest location and time for “Angels and Demons.” Siri has an API.
• “Get red sox yankees tickets in boston”–this is one for Walt, says Dag. $1,649–the price is wrong? But Siri delivers. Shows a map of the stadium and seats/tickets.
• Walt: so Google is constantly stupid, we see that now. But is it only good for certain services? How about ballet? Dag: It learns, we break it out into various areas of expertise. Right now, for instance, it doesn’t do TV listings. Siri has a Q&A function. Dag asks a question to the True Knowledge Web service. Kara: Ask it “How old is Kara?” Siri’s answer: “Dag, it’s not polite to ask about women’s ages.” It’s arguably broken Asimov’s Second Law already. Someone get John Connor, just in case.
• Now Dag is demoing on the Apple (AAPL) iPhone, speaking into the phone. Voice recognition is pretty good. He tells it: “Find a plumber near my house.” Siri pulls up a list of nearby plumbers. Kara: Do you have to have a voice like yours for it to work? Dag: It gets pretty good, it learns. Kara: I like.
• Walt: Will it be in the App Store? Dag: This summer, and it will be a free app. Walt: Revenue stream? Dag: Tie-ins with the other platforms, i.e., OpenTable. We’ll start with mobile and then build it out.
• Walt and Kara: Thanks; that was really cool.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090528/d7-tech-demo-siri/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081218/online-video-the-terminator-salvation-trailer/ http://allthingsd.com/20081218/online-video-the-terminator-salvation-trailer/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:16:08 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=7845

BoomTown is a freakish fan of cybernetic organisms–living tissue over a metal endoskeleton, duh!–and thus feels compelled to include this, the latest trailer from the upcoming fourth movie in the “Terminator” series.

The franchise is everywhere, including a television series I am also obsessed with called “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” which is only doing so-so in ratings, despite the fact that Summer Glau’s cyborg is sublime.

But the big Skynet guns are trained on the “Terminator Salvation” blockbuster, which will be out next summer.

It’s directed by Helmer McG–eek, of the newest “Charlie’s Angels” fame–but I am still hopeful from the footage seen below. (Who am I kidding? I would watch any “Terminator,” even if it were directed by my mother.)

A fifth installment of a new trilogy of movies on the time-traveling robots is already in the works.

In other words, they’ll definitely be back.

Here’s the trailer, which came out recently:

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