The new blockbuster The Hobbit is subtitled “An Expected Journey.” That can just about sums up director Peter Jackson’s experience.

Good deeds never pay. Filmmaker Peter Jackson’s who won 17 Academy Awards with the trilogy The Lord of the Rings decided to solve film’s biggest flaws—the flickering effect from a film speed set at least 90 years ago.

For every second of a movie, 24 images flash rapidly on the screen to create the illusion of motion. That 24 frames per second pace was picked not for visual quality

A dark horse emerges in the race to acquire Motorola Home Business-- US-based networking equipment maker Arris beats Pace and buys the Google cable TV technology division for $2.35 billion in cash and stock.

"This transformational combination of two complementary businesses will create a leading end-to-end provider of today's video, data, and voice products and tomorrow's next-generation IP-based broadband products," Arris CEO Bob Stanzione says.  "Ever-expanding consumer demand for bandwidth will continue to drive growth across cloud and network technologies we provide that enable innovative home entertainment products and services."

Motorola Mobility CEO Denis Woodside comments "the industry faces its biggest technology transformation, and together ARRIS and Motorola will be able to accelerate related innovations such as the introduction of the IP Connected Home environments that service providers need and that their consumers crave."

Through the acquisition Arris gets a heft patent portfolio, together with licenses to a range of Motorola Mobility patents-- and a potential patent lawsuit (filed October 2012) from DVR maker TiVo against both Motorola Home and Google.

Formerly known as General Instrument, Motorola Home was bought by Motorola for $17bn in stock back in 2000. It was later combined with the Motorola Mobility business, which spun off as a standalone company acquired by Google for $12.5bn on May 2012.

Go Arris to Acquire Motorola Home Business

Go Pace, Arris Bid for Google STBs

Globally renowned cyber-illusionist Marco Tempest will present the Keynote Address on the eve of ISE 2013.

From standing ovations at TED Global to top level corporate gigs at Cisco, Symantec, Qualcomm and others, his talent has been recognized with a number of prestigious international awards including the prestigious New York World Cup of Magic.

Marco Tempest has been featured in his own theatrical shows and as part of numerous TV specials enjoying well in excess of 500 million cumulative viewings across the world. Marco’s award winning television series The Virtual Magician is currently airing in 48+ countries.

Titled Inventing The Impossible, Tempest’s presentation at ISE 2013 will address the use of illusion as a creative tool and how it can be used to bring seemingly impossible scenarios to life. Using examples of the magical illusion work Tempest has designed in collaboration with engineers, animators and programmers, the Keynote will focus on the envisaging of future technologies, the value of open-source projects and how illusion can provide an inviting gateway to social-media interactivity.

“Marco Tempest has a worldwide reputation as an inspirational speaker whose use of computer-based imagery, augmented reality and other visual technologies is as original as it is breathtaking,” comments Mike Blackman, Managing Director, Integrated Systems Events.

According to Bloomberg both Pace and Arris are bidding for a slice of Google business-- Motorola Home Business, the company segment making STBs and equipment for cable TV providers.

Pace confirms the report, saying "discussions with Google are currently at a preliminary stage and there is no certainty as to whether any agreement regarding any transaction will be reached." Due to the size of Motorola Home Business relative to Pace, the deal would bring about a "reverse takeover."

The British STB maker would find a deal with Google useful-- it still needs to recover from 2011 profit warnings following supply chain damage caused by the Thailand floodings and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Motorola Home Business came to Google as part the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility. The search giant seeks to sell the STB maker since it prefers to concentrate resources on the high-end smartphone business. Back in August 2012 it cut 4000 Motorola workers and closed around 30% of its 90 facilities.

Bloomberg sources say Google might get around $2bn for the unit, even if it comes with complications-- ongoing patent-infringement litigation with TiVo.

Go Google Said to Get Best Bids for Unit from Pace, Arris (Bloomberg)

Barco, one of the leading contributors to the JEDI project, announces the project has won a Gold ITEA Achievement Award.

JEDI (Just Explore Dimensions), a part of the ITEA2 (Information Technology for European Advancement) platform, is supported by the Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) and focuses on an end-to-end High Definition 3DTV chain (stereoscopic HD TV broadcasts with Blu-ray quality). This includes methods of capturing, production, distribution and displaying of stereoscopic HD video.

ITEA 2 is the premier cooperative R&D program for software intensive systems and services in Europe (pre-competitive research), and a cluster of EUREKA, a leading pan-European platform for R&D-performing entrepreneurs. “The objective of the JEDI project was to give European companies a competitive edge in the development of 3DTV solutions,” says Andy De Mets, Coordinator External R&D and Innovation Programs for Barco.

Apple claims it just invented wireless charging as it files the patent for a system powering devices over the air at up to 1m of distance. But is such a system as revolutionary as the iPhone maker says?

The patent, titled "Wireless Power Utilisation in a Local Computing Environment," makes use of near-field magnetic resonance (NFMR) to juice multiple devices equipped with an NFMR resonator circuit. All without the need of putting the device(s) in question on top of a wired charging base (like to one the Nokia Lumia 920 requires).

However such systems are not new-- the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) released a "flexible" wireless power specification back in October 2012. A4WP members include Qualcomm and Samsung, and its design supposedly even "extends wireless power applications beyond the accessory or add-on market."

Wireless power startup WiPower also owns a patent on wireless charging, called "System and method for inductive charging of portable devices." Apple filed its patent on November 2010, while WiPower did so on May 2008.

What does this mean? Possibly another twist on the already convoluted patent wars Apple is involved in, at least once wireless charging gain in popular. In the least, we are sure A4WP will take a very close look at the technology it owns...

Go Wireless Power Utilisation in a Local Computing Environment

Go System and Method for Inductive Charging in Portable Devices

Go Alliance for Wireless Power Rolls Out Flexible Wireless Power Specification