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Microsoft will be offering its Xbox customers an early holiday treat starting November 19th. The Xbox 360 owners will have the opportunity to upgrade their dashboard with a conversion called the New Xbox Experience(NXE). This upgrade is what the company calls  “ultimate social-entertainment experience” with “something for everyone.”

NXE offers many new features for Xbox users, such as creation of avatars and the ability to select from 10,000 movies and TV shows streamed from Netflix. Some movies will be available in high definition.

The avatars may take up to 10 minutes to create depending on how many features are added and once created they can be used throught any Xbox 360 games.

Microsoft said that the download size should be large, but didn’t specify the size. Since having a hard drive is recommended, the company is willing to sell a compatible device for less than $100.

Microsoft will use its NXE Developer Diary to release screenshot of the NXE’s interface. What is known already is that users will be able to see every game they have played previously on Xbox 360, for those who like reminiscing.

Also, themes will take over more than just the dashboard background with NXE. Each graphic will additionally be related to the theme and will change if the option is selected.

Once NXE launches, consumers will be able to go to a game store to view game screenshots, watch trailers, and read the back-of-the-box descriptions.

Fleet management is able to utilize GPS tracking technology to monitor a large number of an organization’s vehicles. This innovation can also be used to decrease vehicle and cargo theft , thus lowering insurance costs and decreasing capital expenses. In combination with GPS tracking, It is also useful for the dispatcher and the driver to have a direct communication with each other in order to make sure the vehicles are taking the correct route, as well as schedule additional stops and be alerted to possible emergency situations and unpredictable events such as traffic jams.

The benefits of using Fleet GPS Tracking are the following:

• Raising fleet efficiency.
• Reducing the time drivers are spending at unauthorized locations.
• Monitoring the activities of mobile staff and reducing car and truck operating costs. 
• Reducing or eliminating overtime.
• Lowering insurance rates.
• Re-creation of routes.
• Having a user configurable interface.

GPS fleet tracking clearly makes a manager’s life easier by displaying all the relevant information on a computer screen.

Although this technology is good for employers, the employees might feel like “big brother” is watching their every move. This could cause some resentment among the employees, therefore it’s important for management to be open about this innovation and what’s expected of the personnel.

A good selection and overview of Fleet Tracking technology can be found at brickhousesecurity.com.

A former Intel engineer has been charged with theft of trade secrets valued at $1 billion from the company while working for its competitor AMD.

Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts alleged that Biswamohan Pani, 33, had illegally downloaded more than a dozen proprietary documents from Intel’s  California offices during 4 days in June. At the time, Pani had already resigned from Intel but remained on the payroll and was still able to access the company’s computers while using up his remaining vacation days.

What his bosses didn’t know is that although he told them that he was looking into a hedge fund job, he actually accepted a position at AMD and worked for both companies at the same time for a brief period.

Apparently AMD had no knowledge of Pani’s actions and didn’t benefit. However, according to Intel, the downloaded information was worth more than $1 billion in R&D costs and included information about microprocessor design.

Pani told Intel he had no intention of harming Intel and that he intended to give the information to his wife who is also an Intel employee. AMD has announced that Pani is no longer an employee.

Pani faces 10 years of prison if convicted for theft of trade secrets and up to maximum of 20 years on each wire fraud charge.

Microsoft’s Beijing research center is expected by the company to produce major leading innovative software. The company is one of many that are seeing their Chinese operations as having great potential with the huge talent pool of scientists and engineers.

Microsoft said that its Chinese office had already produced 260 innovations that were implemented in products available worldwide. The center is the company’s largest outside of the US, employing 350 researchers and has been awarded 1000 patents in China and beyond.

The center is expected to take a lead role in the development of business-focused products for developing countries and potentially health care-related applications. Currently, the Chinese center is known for its role in the development of an electronic tablet that can recognize handwriting. It also worked on speech recognition and advanced video game graphics.

In Beijing, originally Microsoft was relying on Western-trained Chinese researchers but the country’s own universities are now producing highly adept workers. Microsoft has invested in China, despite the country’s negative record in software piracy. The company isn’t concerned to a large extent about theft during research since its software is made up of many small elements.

For the longer term future, Microsoft intend to place a global emphasis on such developments as ‘natural user interface’ which would allow users to control computers with speech or gestures, as opposed to keyboard or mouse.

As you may know from other posts on this blog, I am an aviation enthusiast. There’s something special about how a man made technology has given us the ability to fly I realize this every time I am up in the clouds, heading toward a destination. Machinery, up in the sky, taking ordinary people on a comfortable trip to wherever they should wish to go. It’s quite remarkable when you actually take the time to think about it.

Anyhow, I wanted to let you all know of a great company called New Flight Charters, which offers a variety of charter aircraft services. If you’re looking for a private jet charter, business air charter, or even a private group charter flight of up to sixty passengers, you’ll want to check out the New Flight Charters website. I was also happy to find out that they have a perfect safety record, and can provide flights without a lot of notice, even as short as three hours in many cases.

New Flight Charters is a well established and trusted company. In fact, their testimonials section even features a thank you from a former travel aide to President Clinton - pretty amazing. So, if you’d like to travel in true presidential style, make sure to check out their website.

As a Canadian, I have found the system access fee annoying for quite some time. Firstly, because I have worked closely with wireless companies, and know first hand that they try to pass it off as a government required fee - which it isn’t. Secondly, because we are the only country in the world which pays the fee on top of our regular, monthly charges. Thirdly, because it adds, in my case, approximately ten percent to my wireless bill every single month.

Well, I, and many other Canadians who oppose the fee, may soon have one less thing to complain about (which is always a good thing, right?). This speculation comes as, for the first time, a major established wireless company is removing the fee - this company is: Fido. Of course, don’t get too excited, as Fido is a subsidary of Rogers Wireless, who as of yet has not released plans to remove the fee from their services.

It is a step in the right direction, and one that may force other wireless operators to follow suite, if they want to remain competitive, that is. In the last couple of years, there have been a few smaller providers that refrained from charging the system access fee - Telus’ brand aimed at teens, Koodoo, comes to mind. However, Fido will be the first established big boy to make the move, which has many hoping that this will become an industry wide movement, and the death of the system access fee.

…and it comes with a big price tag! I’ll let you decide if the onslaught of features being released with Nokia’s N96 is worth the $895.00 price tag, but I will tell you this: she sure is pretty.

Nokia has gone the extra mile to make an all inclusive device that includes every option a wireless enthusiast could ask for. The Nokia N96’s wrap sheet includes: the ability to hold over 20,000 images and 18,000 songs, a 5 megapixel camera including video capability, 2.8 inch QVGA display, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and by the way of microSD - expandable memory. If I missed something, don’t worry, this device almost certainly has it. Really, its aim seems to be “one device to do it all.”

Where can you find it? Well the device had already been unleasehed in both India and the UK, as well as in limited quanities in the US. If you gotta have it, look to the Noka flagship stores in NY as well as Chicago — or of course, online.

It is common these days for online consumers to look for good deals when shopping for technology products. The website everythingoutlet.com offers a wide array of high tech products at discounted prices. The prices are discounted at 40-75% off of retail rates.

The site is divided into 5 sections: Software, Hardware, Downloads, DVD, and Video Games.

The software section lists many applications, such as best antivirus software as well as graphics, educational, business and Mac software.

The hardware section lists such products as laptop batteries, Firewire cables, iPod accessories and more.

The downloads section lists such applications as Spyware Doctor, ScanSoft PDF Converter, DVD Ripper Copy Pro and more.

The next tab lists both DVD movies and TV shows.

The last tab lists various video game titles for Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo.

The website also offers bargain sections for $1 and $5 deals. Additionally, there is a resource page which lists many relevant links to other software, hardware as well as hobby sites.

Also, shipping starts at a low price of $4.00 and is free for orders above $100, there are coupons you can receive for additional savings, and there is a 30-day money back guarantee with every product.

Notably, the site’s customer support is solid and even offers a live chat service.