AOL’s Sophie’s Choice Moment

Written by Skype Journal on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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In Germany Broadband Price Wars Breakout

Less than a month after European Union ordered German incumbent telecom operator, Deutsche Telekom to share its fiber/VDSL network with rivals, the company announced that it was slashing prices by 30% in what can easily be viewed as a bid to hang onto its market share.

The company is offering a quad play offering for about 81 Euros a month. Vodafone, and Telefonica are already planning cheaper packages. Telefonica for instance is offering a Mobile/DSL package that includes a 16 megabits per second connection and flat rate calls to domestic landlines and O2 mobile phones.

The price war will run its course, but DT’s price cuts show that quasi-monopolies that have feasted off consumer way too long need a swift kick in their pants and some competition to start treating their customers right. It happened before in Italy, France and United Kingdom - not exactly ideal practitioners of free market economics. Why we can’t some of that in the US. Never mind, it was a rhetorical question.

Written by Om Malik on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Broadband.

AOL’s Exit From VoIP - Good News or Bad News?

I've been out all day, and have seen a lot of buzz around AOL's decision to drop its Total Talk service later this year.

I really liked Andy Abramson's take on the news, and his post has a lot of insight as to why this is actually a positive step along the way for VoIP to mature from a Voice 1.0 to a Voice 2.0 application.

AOL came to market last April, but VoIP has come a long way since then, and it's an uphill battle trying to make money with traditional POTS replacement service - as the pureplays know all too well. As Andy notes, the more recent PhoneLine offering from AIM is more in line with the future of voice, and is probably a better vehicle for AOL to retain its subscriber base and hopefully return to growth.

Technorati tags: VoIP, Jon Arnold, Andy Abramson, AOL

Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Funding Innovation or Keeping the Lights On?

The recent flurry of venture capital announcements mask a flat market for telecom investment.

Written by VoIP Magazine Featured Stories on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Skype for Courtship (and, sometimes, Business)

Written by Skype Journal on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Universal’s Making Music Free (With a Catch …)

Looks like today's blogging is all about more and more.

Now we have Universal Music, home to artists such as U2, planning to make its catalog of recordings and music videos available for free on an ad-supported Web site that will launch later this year.

According to the buzz, SpiralFrog.com will split advertising revenue with the recording company.

Users can download an unlimited number of songs or music videos if they register at the site. Tracks cannot be burned to a CD, but users will be able to transfer music to portable media players equipped with Microsoft Windows digital rights management software.

However, the service will not work with Apple's Macintosh computers or its market-leading iPod music players. (Is that a good idea?)

Fine reporting from The Washington Post.

www.spiralfrog.com

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Tags: apple, ipod, macintosh, spiralfrog.com, the washington post, u2, universal music
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Another HD-DVD Format!

As if we didn't already have too many High Definition DVD formats!

Now, a third format has entered the HD DVD war to battle HD-DVD and Blu-ray for world domination -- New Medium Enterprises' High Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc (HD VMD).

(That VMD spelled out is brutal ...)

This format makes use of a red laser and multiple layers to maximize storage capacity.

Photo from Dealerscope, which has more on this perplexing development.

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Tags: blu-ray, dealerscope, hd vmd, hd-dvd, high definition versatile multilayer disc, new medium enterprises
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Google Talk Hearts Skype?

Google's Talkabout weblog, the official blog for the Google Talk IM client, has a posting about the announcement between Google and eBay (Skype's parent company). There's also a little blurb about exploring "interoperability between Google Talk and Skype". Yeah! Google Talk is based on an open standard, whereas Skype is not. This should get very interesting, with all these IM client pairings.

Russell Shaw at ZDNet, however, thinks Google's not interested in the full potential of Internet telephony for Google Talk. His reasoning, from reading between the lines of the deal, is that Google is saying that they have "relatively modest plans for Google Talk." I have to agree that Google has yet to make Talk a full-blown VoIP IM client. It can't even call out to regular phones without the help of software like Vozin Communication's Talqer. As for whether Russell's right, we'll have to see. Though I think that the higher ups at Google often use the "mystical warrior" philosophy to mislead us on their real intentions :)

Written by ewriter on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Google and Networks and Netmeeting.

VoIPcasting: Recording VoIP and Podcasting

If you're running Skype and want to record your conversations, VoIP-Sol lists 15 voip recording applications (10 for Windows, 5 for Mac) specifically for Skype. If you are using something other than Skype, there's our posts: Recording Your VoIP Calls and How To Record VoIP Calls - Reader Q+A.

What you do with your recordings is your business, but if you plan to podcast them online and have or plan to use Asterisk IP PBX, here's Nerd Vittles' lowdown for a podcast studio using your phone and a free podcast hosting service called Gabcast. Gabcast lets you record podcasts from a phone or using VoIP.

You can actually use Gabcast from any soft VoIP client that has pc2phone capabilities, so you don't really need a sophisticated setup to make a podcast. I used a cheap microphone and Skype. As long as you follow the rules for good VoIP quality, your VoIPcasts will be of reasonably good quality as well. If you're opting for a very professional production, there are all kinds of audio equipment you could look at, and which I might discuss in the future, if readers are interested.

Written by ewriter on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Networks and Services and Netmeeting.

Gabcast: Free Podcast Creation And Hosting

Gabcast is a new podcast hosting service which lets you create podcast episodes simply by calling one of their phone numbers, from either a telephone or via VoIP. There are three different monthly service plans, with the basic one being free. Setup is easy, and once you've created your podcast channels and epsiodes, you can embed their MP3 player into your website/ weblog with relative ease. (They also have VoIP conferencing, but I didn't look into that.)

They have a list of phone numbers you can use, with a toll-free number applicable to all of the United States, so calling in might be free as well, depending on where you are. You could also use Skype's free SkypeOut for anyone in Canada and the US (until Dec 31st), or Hullo, which seems to be free to anywhere right now.

The basic (free) plan gives you 200 Mb of disk space. Each episode that you record can only be up to 60 minutes in duration, regardless of plan. If you embed an MP3 player on your website, you can allow listeners to leave audio comments, or you can disable that. (See the Gabcast site for more details.)

I tried some of the features of the service, first creating a channel, then using Skype to call in. I recorded a couple of minutes, reading off of a blog post I'd written, reviewed it, then saved it. The same issues of VoIP call quality apply for podcasts made using VoIP, so keep that in my mind when you try this or similar services. Verdict: easy to use, for the most part, and fun - especially when you don't have to pay.

Written by ewriter on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Services and Netmeeting.

AOL TotalTalk is no more

Aswath noticed that it appearred AOL was cancelling their TotalTalk service. When you go to www.totaltalk.com you are greeted with this message: "We are very sorry to inform you AOL® Enhanced Services ("AOL ES") has decided to discontinue offering the TotalTalk™ service. For this reason, the TotalTalk service will be terminated on or about November 30, 2006."

Andy basically says TotalTalk was killed in favor of AOL's new PhoneLine service.
Andy says that TotalTalk was basically AOL VoIP 1.0 which helped give birth to PhoneLine resulting in AOL VoIP 2.0. Some interesting thoughts by Andy you should definitely check out.

The difference between TotalTalk and PhoneLine is that TotalTalk was more of a Vonage-like solution to replace your home phone line (hardware ATA), and PhoneLine is a 100% software-based (softphone) VoIP solution that supports both outbound and inbound (DID number) dialing. PhoneLine is an interesting product, but it has to battle the "me too" factor with the likes of Google Talk, Skype, Gizmo, and others. I should point out that AOL TotalTalk was riding on the Level3 network and really didn't add much value or features that you can't get from any of a dozen VoIP providers. AOL was simply lost in the shuffle of the plethora of VoIP providers out there - many of which also ride on Level3 and with the same exact rates.

Ask any of your techie friends if you knew AOL did VoIP. I bet most didn't know. I bet many average people know Vonage does VoIP but ask about AOL and they would probably say "AOL does VoIP?" Who would have thought that AOL with one of the most well-known brand names would get lost in the VoIP marketing wars?

If AOL wanted to compete with the likes of Vonage, perhaps they should have copied Vonage's marketing model by spending millions of dollars on TV commercials with a catchy tune. Or they could have entered a price war and offered $10/month unlimited VoIP service just to attract customers. Sure they'd probably eat millions of dollars in the first year, but they needed to do something drastic to stand about the "me too! me too!" VoIP service provider crowd.

Who am I kidding? In the end, even if AOL spent millions, the cable and phone companies are going to win the war against the single play VoIP providers

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Tags: aol, gizmo, google, phoneline, skype, totaltalk, voip
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Take Note! Asterisk Bootcamp Comes to the Big Nerd Ranch, November 6-10, 2006

Note: I have to say it.   "This one time in Asterisk Camp".  Anyways, grats to Jared and the Sokol crew for helping bring this together.  This is exactly what any emerging technology needs if it is to really take hold and go main stream.  Heck if I had an extra $3500.00 I would sign-up right now. 

Big Nerd Ranch, Inc. announced today the newest addition to its line-up of classes, Asterisk Bootcamp, November 6-10, 2006. Asterisk Bootcamp, taught by instructor Jared Smith and developed by Sokol & Associates, highlights one of the most talked about emerging technologies in the telephony and programming industries. Asterisk is the perfect solution for a spectrum of telephony needs from voice over IP (VoIP), teleconferencing and switchboard functionality.

 

As the global marketplace demands greater flexibility for meetings, conferencing, and sophisticated voice systems, Asterisk, the open source contender, provides a flexible, economical and scaleable design environment ideal for cutting-edge business, military and governmental powerhouses. This bootcamp is ideal for developers, Linux/Unix consultants, interconnect vendors and ITSP system administrators looking for an enhanced and more elegant PBX solution that rises above its more pedestrian competitors.

The innovative bootcamp highlights the instruction prowess of Asterisk guru and author, Jared Smith. Jared is the Senior Consultant and instructor for Sokol & Associates and the creator of the IAX2 trunking technique. He is featured as a co-author of the seminal Asterisk text, Asterisk: The Future of Telephony, and one of the co-creators of the Asterisk Docs project.

"When you're dealing with emerging technologies, finding the right instructor with the requisite experience and street credentials to teach a class can be challenging," said Aaron Hillegass, Big Nerd Ranch founder. "Having someone with the knowledge base, reputation, and vigor of Jared Smith is like winning the lottery. His finger has been at the pulse of Asterisk design almost since its inception, and his ability to translate his knowledge into practical instruction for students is an incredible asset."

The Asterisk Bootcamp is a five day course which covers in-depth the keys points of Asterisk installation, configuration and administration. The course begins with an in-depth review of Asterisk as an application, a project and a community. It goes on to teach the student to download, compile, install and tune Asterisk; to connect it with both end-user devices (phones) and the outside world. Students will learn to create dialplans, to implement applications, and to make use of the long list of features which are included with Asterisk. At the end of the course, students should be able to create a working Asterisk system from a standard Linux computer, configure the system to support end users connected via multiple technologies, and to handle all necessary adds, moves and changes. If you are wanting to learn how to implement a working Asterisk system, this class is for you.

The bootcamp assumes previous experience with programming; especially with Linux.

Read more about Asterisk Bootcamp (including the complete syllabus) or our instructor Jared Smith.

The Big Nerd Ranch incorporates intensive training classes for Unix and Mac OS X programmers in a retreat setting outside Atlanta, GA. Class price of $3500 includes lodging, all meals, original instruction materials, 24-hour lab access, and transportation to and from the Atlanta airport. Students are encouraged to bring independent projects to class, allowing for input from classmates and individual instructor attention. For more information, call 678-595-6773 or visit:

www.bignerdranch.com

Written by Dal on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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My [NYT] Times My Way

Among North American newspapers, the New York Times has been on the leading-edge when it comes to the Web. I was invited to try the new My Times service (it's in beta), which lets you personalize a news "portal" with NYT content, external news sources and blogs. My initial impression is it's "good, quite good" because it combines the NYT's first-rate content (news, politics, sports, technology, arts, science) with high-quality external content such as CNet, BusinessWeek, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. You can even search for other content, which - much to my surprise - let me add my blog to My Times. To be honest, I'm not a big portal person even though I have My Yahoo and Google configured as start pages. That said, My Times is impressive enough to make me change my ways. My Times is a good example of how newspapers need to be pro-active and forward-thinking if they want to remain viable and vital - even an "institution" such as the NYT is not immune. See my post from yesterday for more thoughts on how newspapers need to embrace/adopt the Web.
Update: Richard McManus has an extensive post on the soon-to-be launched Times Reader service that's a must-read for anyone interested in the service.

Written by Mark Evans on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Motorola to launch new WiMAX chipsets

Note: Dear Motorola,  Please release some cheap commerical WiMAX access points along with notebook PCIMA cards so I can setup a high BW node at my house.  Also please release Linux and OSX drivers for the card also.  Thank You.  I have been following the WiMAX movement lately.  I am lucky enough to be in range of the roll out of Craig McCaw's Clearwire coverage in Seattle.   Sooner I can cut the cord the better.

Motorola has announced a strategic initiative to develop mobile WiMAX chipsets for use in Motorola's next-generation WiMAX devices.  This investment in chipset design demonstrates Motorola's on-going commitment to WiMAX and expands the company's role as a leader in end-to-end WiMAX solutions beyond infrastructure and handsets to the core implementation of WiMAX in chipsets.

 

 

Ron Garriques, President of Motorola's Mobile Devices Business, said, "For some time now Motorola has been investing in the development and deployment of WiMAX -- from infrastructure to advanced silicon. In our vision of seamless mobility, WiMAX will help transform the mobile communications experience for everyone. Enhanced speed for data, as well as cost efficiencies and network optimization for wireless operators are just some of the benefits that are fueling excitement and accelerated adoption of WiMAX across the industry."

Motorola's initial chipset will focus on core 802.16e mobile WiMAX functionality supporting voice, video, and data for low power mobile applications in handsets and modules. These first chipsets are scheduled to support commercial Motorola WiMAX devices in 2008 for carriers in North America, Japan and around the world including Sprint and others. Motorola is working with its silicon vendors on the overall fabrication of the new chipsets.

Source: Motorola 

 

Written by Dal on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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IP telephony market continues growth (duh)

 

"It was a good quarter for carrier next-gen voice, with all segments showing gains except session border controllers (SBCs), which were down a bit for the quarter, but up significantly year-over-year," said Stephane Teral, principal analyst for service provider VoIP at Infonetics Research. "SBCs have become a strategic component of any next-gen voice equipment offering these days, and they are reshuffling the vendor ecosystem. Many vendors will likely shift from a standalone to an integrated SBC architecture, including Cisco, Juniper, and AudioCodes due to its acquisition of Nuera and Netrake."

Infonetics' Enterprise Telephony report shows Cisco had a record quarter in the worldwide PBX/KTS market, which grew 3% sequentially to $2.2 billion (10% higher than a year ago).

"Vendor results in the PBX/KTS market were very mixed this quarter, with a net result of a small sequential gain," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise telephony at Infonetics Research. "We expected Cisco to do well since it was the end of their fiscal year, but they blew right past our expectations, for the first time breaking 1 million lines per quarter. Nortel had a great quarter, too, while the other major players were more or less flat. As a consequence, worldwide market share positions were shuffled around this quarter, with Nortel shooting to the top for IP PBX line share (up from third last quarter), and Cisco jumping from fifth to second."

Click Here for more Statistics 

 

Written by Dal on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Biggest Commercial Bank in China Goes VoIP

Note: This will be a major undertaking.  Looks like there are going to a redundant failover solutions and goes to PSTN lines if it detect the IP network is down.  There solution also has "less cost" routing also so that it will direct either through there internal network to reduce long distance charges to zero.  This company must have there deployment together, according to the article they did the first 100+ branches in only 30 days.

The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), China's largest commercial bank, with revenues exceeding $250 billion, was looking to decrease its long-distance phone expenses between its more than 50,000 domestic and international branches and affiliate offices.

 

These locations were in all of China's major provinces, cities and counties. ABC's goal was to consolidate multiple regional call centers to one centralized call center through a Voice over IP (VoIP) network.

Of foremost concern to ABC among its many requirements to implementing VoIP was that it had to have minimum impact on the existing IP network and voice system performance. The bank did not want to have to upgrade the existing IP network, reprogram its PBX or purchase any PBX upgrades or interface cards.

Most importantly, it wanted assurances that there would be no degradation to voice quality compared to wire line calls.

The bank required that its voice network be compatible with international standards (i.e., H.323), and also needed to be scalable for nationwide deployment and growth, and interoperable with other vendors. ABC wanted to minimize the impact on its end-users so they did not have to change their dial plans or habits. Overall, ABC required high reliability, even under extreme and unusual circumstances.

Public Information Technology Co. (PiTech), a large Chinese distributor, recommended Quintum's Tenor VoIP multiPath switches. The switches had the technologies that ABC required, the diverse applications that ABC's environment necessitated and the customer support that put ABC at ease.

Click Here for the Full Article 

 

Written by Dal on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Paris Hilton hacks voicemail using Asterisk

Celebrities Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are in a well-known feud that now has entered one of my favorite realms, namely VoIP. According to an InfoWorld article, (which Asterisk VoIP News reminded me about), it is alleged that Paris Hilton used a fake Caller ID seller called SpoofCard.com to hack into voicemail accounts on an un-named mobile phone network. Spoofcard.com has suspended her account along with more than 50 others.

Apparently, many mobile phone companies, including Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile simply use Caller ID to identify voicemail users without requiring passwords. Have they not heard of CallerID spoofing? Sheesh, they can't even detect that their own customer's mobile phone is dialing into their network and are instead relying on unreliable CallerID info? How pathetic is that? So all you need is a celebrities' mobile phone number and a spoofing CallerID service and then you can access their voicemail.

Interestingly enough, SpoofCard.com leverages the open-source Asterisk IP-PBX to sell US$10, 60-minute calling cards that let users call a toll-free number and type in whatever Caller ID number they want their call to display. Amazing what sort of sexy applications you can do with an Asterisk box. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go check out Nerd Vittles site. He has some interesting Asterisk projects.

Last month the New York Post reported that someone had stolen the password to Lohan's BlackBerry and sent her friends "disgusting and very mean messages that everyone thought were coming from Lindsay." Lohan's representatives hinted that Paris Hilton may have been behind it. What's this world coming to when celebrity divas can hack into other people's phones or computers? Hackers used to be an elite group, now it appears anybody can be a hacker. Of course, the real hackers call people that use well-known exploits or use easy hacking tools "script kiddies" and other not-so-flattering nicknames.

Well Lindsay, if you're looking to get some revenge with Paris, you may be interested in attending Internet Telephony Conference & Expo just 2 months away. Asterisk, the CallerID spoofing enabler will be there, along with hundreds of other VoIP companies. Not to mention all the VoIP geeks and VoIP hackers that will be attending that I am sure will be more than willing to help you get even with Miss Hilton. I'm sure there will be someone there that can help you hack into Paris Hilton's Motorola Gold RAZR or any of her other communications devices.

Not that I'm advocating any sort of criminal behavior or anything. There's nothing wrong with a little tit-for-tat game between two famous Hollywood divas, right? Just some simple pranks. No harm no foul I always say. And if it escalates to an all out cat fight, well, I'm sure people would pay good money to see that on Pay-Per-View - or simply download it on YouTube.com.

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Tags: caller id, feud, hack, hacking, hollywood, lindsay lohan, paris hilton, spoofing, voicemail
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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YouTube Challenges Facebook

YouTube just flexed its social networking muscles by adding restricted college-specific video-sharing areas. The site has long had many of the features of a social network (personal profiles, friending, et cetera), but so much of its utility is in showing videos to everybody and anybody. Now, with the release of YouTube Colleges, the company has introduced what seem to be its first exclusive areas (correct us if we’re wrong), requiring a .edu address from a particular college to access a pool of that school’s videos.

This is definitely infringing on Facebook’s turf, but Facebook has yet to add video-sharing to its college-centered social network. Colleges, with their ample supplies of bandwidth and procrastinators, are the best source of early adopters you can get, and college student presence on YouTube is certainly huge. Though the company is shy about giving out demographic information, Lee Gomes reported yesterday 70 percent of YouTube’s registered users are American, with roughly half of them under 20 years old. Via Download Squad.

Written by Liz Gannes on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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MINO Wireless now runs on Symbian phones

MINO Wireless, announced its new mobile application for making inexpensive international calls designed for Symbian OS phones. Symbian OS supported mobile phone, such as Nokia, Sony Ericcson, and Motorola can call any phone worldwide at rates starting from 2.2 cents per minute using MINO.

Considering the popularity of these mobile phone brands and how expensive international calls are using your mobile phone, the ability to make inexpensive VoIP calls to PSTN numbers using your mobile phone has a huge convenience factor.

MINO began offering its service in early 2006 and has signed up over 90,000 users in more than 50 countries.

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Tags: mino wireless, mobile phone, voip
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP and Mobile Phones and mobile phone and mino wireless.

Limelight Looking For New CEO

Remember Limelight Networks, the content delivery network, which recently raised $130 million, and has made headlines for being the infrastructure provider to hot Web 2.0 start-ups such as You Tube? Well the company is looking for a new chief executive, according to some documents. The company has hired James & Co, a head hunting firm to find a new CEO to replace Bill Rinehart.

If the company has any ambitions to go public, and this search indicates that it does, it needs to replace Rinehart, who has had issues with the Securities & Exchange Commission in the past, when working for CriticalPath, a dot bomb. He was barred from holding an office in a publicly traded company for five years and had to pay a substantial fine. (Jeffrey Citron of Vonage had to bring in a new CEO Michael Snyder for similar (not identical) reasons.)

The company has been in a bit of a pickle, it has been sued by Akamai, as we reported previously. We have an update here as well. Akamai is asking for Temporary injunction and permanent post jury trial with exceptional consideration for damages. The trial is likely to occur in Boston, which is Akami’s backyard. We will keep you posted.

Written by Om Malik on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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AOL’s Shutting Down TotalTalk

AOL's foray into the VoIP market is coming to a close. According to Aswath, TotalTalk will be "terminated" on or about Nov. 30 in the U.S. In Canada, it could happen earlier due to a "pretty challenging and competitive market".

Written by Mark Evans on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VOIP Services, Competition.

Fall VON - If You’re Into Asterisk…

Just a very quick post - actually a re-direct to Alec Saunders's blog post this morning. The folks at Iotum have been driving a terrific effort to bring the Asterisk community together at Fall VON. Alec has the full story on his post, and if you're into Asterisk/Open Source telephony - and will be at the show - you'll be quite impressed at all the activity they've lined up.

This mash-up builds on the success of a similar initiative I helped put together at VON Canada back in April, where everyone was pleastantly surprised at the turnout. It's great to see the momentum continuing here, and it looks like this will be a must-do thing to be a part of if you're following the Asterisk community. Great going Iotum!

Technorati tags: Asterisk, Jon Arnold, Fall VON, Alec Saunders

Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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Wireless Camping Recap

Now that I've recovered from my recent camping "experience" at Sandbanks Provincial Park, here's wireless re-cap. For access, I used Bell Canada's Passport service (based on a Kyocera card), which was pretty good - certainly not blazing fast but it offered decent connectivity over Bell's 1xEV-DO network. I also blogged on a Blackberry 7250, which was fine although doing it by e-mail to Blogware didn't provide any way to use features such as hyperlinks or respond to comments. To be read blogs, I used Virtual Reach's Newsclip service, which is a sweet, little application. It's fast and easy to set up using a desktop interface. If you have a wireless device, and interested in reading blogs on the go, Newsclip is worth checking out.

Written by Mark Evans on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Uncategorized and Wireless and Main Page.

Another Journo Flies the Coop

The number of journalists spreading their wings to run their own Web start-ups continues to expand with news that SiliconBeat's Matt Marshall is leaving to start VentureBeat, which will focus on private companies and their investors. Matt joins journalists such as Om Malik, who have made the jump after enjoying considerable blogging success. Maybe this is another sign blogging can become a legitimate business opportunity for some people. Or perhaps it's a sign of renewed (ir)rational exurberance in Silicon Valley that has given folks the entrepreneurial bug again - a phenomena that popped up during the dot-com boom as well.

Written by Mark Evans on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Web 2.0 and Main Page.

Samsung says get ready for 4G

Samsung is showing off a new 4G wireless technology that allows people to connect to the Internet at 100 megabits per second in a vehicle moving at 37 miles per hour. With that you can get 32 channels of video, make video calls and oh, surf the Internet. It is also showing off a one gigabit per second fixed wireless technology, reports The Wall Street Journal.

While 4G is not likely to arrive till 2010, the race is on. NTT DoCoMo has shown off a 2.5 gigabit-per-second technology, while others are working on their own variations. By comparison, WiMAX looks painfully slow. Taking a longer term view, it seems that everyone from Samsung to Siemens is looking to escape from under Qualcomm’s yoke, and take better control of their destiny.

Exciting as these breakthroughs might seem, Samsung’s new technology and NTT DoCoMo offerings are unlikely to be commercially available any time soon. The 3G phones have only now started to ship in meaningful numbers, and the 3G networks are only getting lit in many parts of the world. Cingular, one of the largest wireless carriers in the world has only recently started turning on its 3G services.

Written by Om Malik on August 31st, 2006 with no comments.
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