The force at the center of the handset business, the maw poised to suck in a good portion of the industry, is convergence — the very phenomenon that has enabled incredible advances in system-on-chip integration, abetted by consumers’ taste for all-in-one gadgets.

The handset is rapidly consuming every other aspect of mobile consumer electronics: PDAs, cameras, GPS receivers, MP3 players, DVD players and game consoles. In the process, the SoC companies and intellectual-property (IP) providers that had planned to make a living in each of those areas will be drawn in — for the most part, to their doom.

[Via: David]

+ Oops, and I forgot to post a great little heads up from Monica. It’s a cool mixer program called AtomixMP3 v2.3.

AtomixMP3 is an MP3-mixing tool that lets you mix on a computer as you would with DJ turntables. With drag-and-drop functionality, the simulated turntables feature pitch control, crossfading, playlist functionality, and visual beat representation. AtomixMP3 also features a real-time, BPM-matching algorithm, and can perform automatic beat-matching in just one click. AtomixMP3 can be used live at a party or at home to record your own mixed CDs or broadcast your own Internet radio. It also features one-click, automatic, seamless loops, real scratch capability, audio CD and WMA compatibility, a completely skinnable interface, and many effects plug-ins.

A free trial is available for download at C|Net. - the multi soundcard feature is disabled for the trial.

+ Sara Mameni. I saw her work in the Vancouver Art Gallery show DRAWING THE WORLD: MASTERS TO HIPSTERS about this time last year. I thought who is this person to hand draw all these receipts, and what motivated her. Now she’s got a show at ARTSPEAK, the opening for which I missed, and so missed the chance to chat a bit and see what makes her tic. This time around she’s hand drawn a wall of more than 30 gig posters, including an Overproof one, and I notice a couple of OBEY stickers. - I’m certain I’ve seen her around, perhaps I’ll get a chance to chat some other time.

+The US military researches many non-lethal weapons for battle and crowd control. Some are being used in Iraq with good results. The Quest for the Nonkiller App. By Stephen Mihm [NY Times].

+ Very funny account of a clever group of volunteer “scambaiters” at 419eater.com turning the tables 360 degrees on the 419 e-mail scammers. [BBC News]

+ Interesting article by Sexologist Ian Kerner suggesting that Viagra has indeed created a lot of hard cocks out of softies, but there are concerns that society is too obssessed with overcoming a mechanical issue than on learning how to create and enjoy deep passion. - he’s the author of recently published ‘She Comes First’.

+ And Laurie sent me Walid Shoebat, a ‘terrorist’ from Palestine who converted to Christianity and is now preaching love and exposing some of the rarely talked about reasons why terrrorists are hatched in Palestine. - his site seems more about selling his video than making any informative statements, but he supplied these News links which I read Sunday Telegraph, Calgary Sun, FrontPage Magazine. I didn’t google anything else. Perhaps I should have, but other things are on my mind. - some more anti-Islamic terrorists posts at Jihad Watch and at the same site Dhimmi Watch.

Join a growing number of Canadians that want to help prevent George W Bush from being re-elected. Sign the petition ‘Canadians Against The Re-election of George W Bush’. The goal is to gain 1,000,000 signatures by November 2, 2004. [via Metafilter]

Rat in my computer. - you were warned! [via: David]

+Wayne sent the grafitti site VisualOrgasm. Who’s Wayne? Wayne is dudeguy. A very talented 3D designer friend of mine, who’s recently been added to the EA Sports crew.

+David sent JibJab. A super funny flash animation staring Kerry and Bush.

+Hung out with Kim at Wreck Beach the other day. Asked her to send Dave Briker’s Some Product Design link . Hey Briker’s doing well with his cool clothing. I particularly like the white label 2003-2004 line.

+ Don’t squash mosquitoes against your body. Flick em. Apparently a woman died from a fungus carried in the torso of a mosquito. It’s thought that she smeared some of the mosquitoe’s body parts into the bite.

+The rocket Ariane 5 successfully launched with it’s Canadian satellite Anik F2 payload this weekend. That is very, very exciting news. It’s the beginning stage of satellite broadband. Which means that eventually all remote areas in Canada will have broadband internet access. And that means more lifestyle options for the geekset, and everyone else who’s plugged in. - think VoIP…

Spiderbush. [via: Alex]

Finally Libranet 2.8.1 is available for download. Libranet is a Canadian based Linux distrobution, developed here in Vancouver by Libra Computer Systems Ltd. I’ve been wanting to try this for a while. - bittorrent link.