DEMOletter Weekly Edition, June 27, 2005

DEMOletter Weekly Edition
June 27, 2005
Volume 10, Number 24

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INSIDE DEMOLETTER THIS WEEK
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U.K. FIRM DEVELOPS SMART FABRICS
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My travels in recent months have been a great opportunity to
observe technology adoption across countries and cultures. Not
surprisingly, mobile phones are nearly ubiquitous, even if their
modes of use are not. Europeans are more likely to use their
mobile with thumbs blazing, text messaging more than talking.
Americans, on the other hand, are primarily talkers.

Yet mobile phones remain, for the most part, an accessory. They
dangle from neck cords. Some sport cute bangles. Most are
stuffed in a pocket or handbag, if not worn on the hip like a
modern day six-shooter. Mobile phones are an essential tool, but
they are, somehow, still separate from their users.

By contrast, consider the iPod, the little device that saved
Apple Computer from its slippery slide. The iPod is intergral to
its owner, worn more like a garment than like so much bling. I
first noticed this difference in a Paris subway a couple of
months ago. I began counting the passengers sporting the tell-
tale white earbuds of the iPod headset when I noticed that a
teenage rider wore his iPod headset under his t-shirt. He had
donned his iPod before his clothing. Surely, this was an
anomaly, I thought, until I saw the habit again and again.

Indeed, the iPod has become more a fabric of fashion than an
accessory to it.

That's a trend that U.K. component developer Eleksen Ltd.
(http://www.eleksen.com) is counting on. Eleksen develops
interactive textiles for consumer electronics. The unique
conductive fabric knows where it is being touched and how hard
it is being pressed and can translate those actions into
instructions for electronic products. The company's core
product, ElekTex, is based on a patented conductive material
that is a flexible, wearable, washable fabric. The fabric can be
tailored to a variety of shapes and applications. The conductive
properties of the fabric are software defined, so a single
ElekTex fabric piece can be put to use in several ways.

Read more about this at
http://www.demo.com/demoletter/009345.html

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KEITH SHAW'S END NOTES: IT SPENDING GOES UP
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* IT Spending in VoIP, storage, security and wireless LANS see
big increase, according to Network World study.

* Gadget of the week: Buffalo Technology announces wireless LAN
range extender and speed booster.

* Robot vacuum Roomba gets software upgrade that lets users
decide when the robot should go to work.

Read all of this week's End Notes at
http://www.demo.com/demoletter/009346.html

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WEATHER REPORT
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* Route1 raises $4 million in new funding.

* Fractal:Edge gets job to design brokerage firm Web
application interface.

* Adomo named as a "Cool Vendor" by Gartner.

The complete Weather Report archive is located at
http://www.demo.com/demoletter/weather_report.html

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SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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DEMOletter Weekly Edition is written by Chris Shipley
<mailto:chris@cshipley.com and Keith Shaw
<mailto:keithshaw@nww.com>.

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Copyright 2005