Stories about: Dreamcast

Interviewee: Darren Nelson, chief technology officer

It's the battle for delivering new types of paid content to consumers. On one side of the ring: PCs, WebTV, inexpensive Web-surfing appliances and many companies trying to decide how and when television and the Internet will "converge." On the other side: Sony, and a machine ostensibly built to play games.

BOSTON (07/07/2000) - It should be a natural fit; cartridge games running on palmtop computers, however, to date, there haven't been many compelling games for handheld devices. The situation improved this week as software vendor Gambit Studios LLC released Liberty, its emulator for Nintendo of America Inc.'s GameBoy device.

German ISP (Internet service provider) Freenet.de AG, a subsidiary of MobilCom AG, has acquired a 45 percent stake in games portal provider 4Players GmbH.

Last year's JavaOne conference introduced the world to the potential of Java for consumer devices. The Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME) debuted, and a critical piece of its implementation for mobile devices -- the K Virtual Machine (KVM) -- made a big splash, with thousands of Palm V PDAs available at a significant discount to attendees.

In the electric-utility world, deregulation has forced business and technology managers to innovate and find ways to compete as they never have before, observers say. In this environment, information technology managers such as Brad Black at Duke Energy North America in Charlotte, North Carolina, are like kids with new toys in a sandbox.

A million units sold in a single weekend. Long lines. Government warnings about illegal exports. Sony Corp.'s hugely hyped PlayStation 2 launched in Japan in March and should arrive stateside this fall. It joins Sega Corp.'s Dreamcast in the vanguard of new Internet-ready game consoles powerful enough to perform traditional PC functions, including Web browsing. Microsoft Corp. plans to join the fray next fall.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) yesterday announced it is to investigate whether two Japanese companies have infringed patents held by U.S. chip design firm Rambus Inc.

Computer memory designer Rambus Inc. turned up the heat in a patent dispute with Hitachi Ltd. on Monday by filing suit against the company in Europe.

Next time someone says that your site stinks, the person might mean it literally. At least if your site is DigiScent-enabled. The system revolves around a computer peripheral called an iSmell Personal Scent Synthesizer. This device is packed with scent cartridges that are cracked open according to the commands sent from a Web site. So in the future you may be better off browsing 1-800 Flowers than hitting your local waste management site - if you know what I mean.

If you play with him online, Sega Corp.'s Sonic the Hedgehog might give it all away. Almost. In a landmark decision by a videogame console company, Sega plans to create a new company.