For the year and a half since the Sprint-Nextel merger, the companies have struggled to combine disparate systems and technologies.
Now, they've made a tangible step forward.
SprintNextel has just announced two phones that will function on both the Sprint and Nextel networks- Nextel's iDEN and Sprint's CDMA.
Both are Motorola PowerSource phones.
The clamshell Buzz ic502 weighs 4.1 [...]
Just got a note about improvements in the forthcoming SightSpeed 6.0, due in early February.
That'll be the newest rev of the Internet video and voice utility services and platform provider that is so much more robust a solution than some of those household names you or I could rattle off here.
The newest version, I'm [...]
Here in the U.S., we're entering a 2008 Presidential campaign season where we will find candidates of both major U.S. political parties practicing the same every platform-all the time craze that just 'bout drove me nuts at the Consumer Electronics Show last week.
One of the first manifestations of this is the announcement that Internet [...]
No, I am not talking about discrimination in employment. I am talking about what happens from time to time when someone with a high-pitched voice- presumably a woman- uses Vonage's service.
First learned about it on Dan Connor's daily Vonage Forum Digest, which highlights interesting Vonage Forum threads each business day.
One of the threads he highlighted [...]
Sprint’s WiMAX investment is one of the most exciting drivers behind the mobile Internet this year. But whether or not Sprint will embrace the open model of the Internet or the traditionally closed way of the phone companies when it comes to its first WiMAX devices is still up for debate within the company — or so said Atish Gude, Sprint’s senior VP of mobile broadband operations, at a wireless conference on Wednesday.
Gude said that while Sprint eventually wants to embrace the open Internet-centric model for devices that connect to its WiMAX network — browseable devices and open platforms — the company is still wrestling with whether it should lean toward a closed or open model when it launches. “Do you start with an open model, or start with a closed model and move to an open model,” he asked. (Don’t ask consumers, that would be too easy.)
For example, Gude wondered whether the open Internet and browsing is necessarily the best service for WiMAX-connected dedicated devices like a camera or a gaming device with no keyboards. Gude seemed to think it was in the consumer’s best interest to take baby steps with a closed model and then slowly open it up. Yuck.
While companies that make consumer electronics like Sony (PSP), and Microsoft (Zune) have been going over this connected devices debate for awhile, it’s funny that U.S. phone companies are just starting to hash out these issues. I guess the carrier’s answer has been so obvious when it comes to mobile devices and the Internet, that it takes WiMAX to start up the conversation again.
Gude said a few other interesting things like how the consumer might pay for its WiMAX service: “An individual customer can have a subscription for multiple devices. . . ‘X’ number of devices. . .say an Internet connection is $30 or $40, then we think there will be a mobility premium of $10 or $15. We’re still figuring it out.”
On the topic of VoIP, Gude says, “In the Internet world VoIP is an application. . . we will be deploying VoIP as a service of our WiMAX network, but a dedicated standalone device? — the point is not to go back to the [voice-only] cellular network.”
Meebo, a web based instant messaging service has raised $9 million in series B funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and existing investors Sequoia Capital. The company had previously raised $3.5 million in Series A funding, mostly from Sequoia Capital. The company released its final product in November 2006, perhaps with an eye on raising new capital.
Tim Draper is the DFJ partner who is leading the investment in the year-and-half old company started by three Standord students Elaine Wherry, Sandy Jen and Seth Sternberg. Sternberg declined to give out the terms of the financing. It is interesting to note that Sequoia Capital, typically very territorial about its investments is not leading this round of investment.
Meebo is one of the players in a hotly contested web-based IM aggregation business, competing with the likes of eBuddy. While the growth of the company has been impressive, the questions around profitability and revenues of their business are still unanswered. Those are issues, which are of little concern to DFJ or for that matter any other VC these days.
DFJ was attracted to the investment, according to sources close to the company because it mirrors the growth curve of two of their previous successful deals — Hotmail and Skype. Meebo is said to have more than a million “Meebo” users and is a favorite amongst the high school kids, who often have their IM access blocked during the school hours.
(Disclosure note: Blacksmith Capital, a precursor to True Ventures, a VC firm that has backed GigaOmniMedia is an investor in Meebo.)
Earlier today Jackson West, one of our writers was bemoaning the flakiness he was encountering today with his Google Mail (GMail) account. A few others said that they were having some problems, though I personally did not have any issues with the account. Nevertheless it is starting to look like an epidemic. Sarah in Tampa is reporting some problems as well. Here is a screen shot a good buddy of ours emailed us. Are you experiencing problems with GMail? There has been an increased incidence of downtimes at Google’s suite of web services.
Another day, another major online video announcement with BrightCove raising $59.5-milion of venture capital from a group of investors including the New York Times Co. It was only yesterday that the tech world was abuzz with the official launch of Joost (otherwise known as the Venice Project) and Netflix getting into the business of downloading movies and TV shows. Then, there’s the launch of Video.ca (well, in Canada, this is newsworthy).
Amid all this activity, it will be interesting to see how cable companies deal with the growth of video delivered and consumed on the Internet, particularly if the content owners get into the business of going direct to consumers. Does this mean the cablecos will have to aggressively enhance their video-on-demand and pay-per-view operations? Does it mean cablecos will try to squeeze more money out of their high-speed Internet access operations as consumers demand more bandwidth to download movies and TV shows?
It could be that cablecos will be squeezed by online video - much like newspapers, radio and the music industry are being squeezed by the Web. We’re in the midst of a huge shakeup in the media landscape that no one is able to avoid.
Ian McG says: hello phil wolff can you help me i need to have skpe in english i accidentaly pressed the wrong button and i dont know how to retun it to english
Dear Ian,
I'm assuming you are using Skype 3.0.
In the Skype main menu: File, View, Contacts, Tools, Call, Help. Pick Tools (or the fourth from the left).
The "Change Language >" menu command is second from the bottom. You should see a list of languages and English should be readable in English.
This is short notice but if you’re in downtown Toronto tonight, I’m speaking at the Third Tuesday public relations meet-up at The Pour House. Joe Thornley was kind enough to switch the evening to accommodate my Tuesday night hockey game…:). So what am I going to talk about? Well, a major theme is going to be how the PR industry is starting to reach out to bloggers, the tools/thinking that’s involved in this process, and it compares with how PR agencies communicate with “traditional journalists”. Naturally, Microsoft’s controversial Vista/laptop giveaway will be major point of conversation.
Nevertheless it is starting to look like an epidemic. Sarah in Tampa