Just caught this story at Gizmodo on Sony and how they are leaving the US market for at least the rest of this year… Pretty amazing considering they were/are an innovator in the Palm space. Gizmodo and BargainPDA both feel the move is most likely due to the pending launch of the PSP (though it’s almost a year away) and the renewed focus on the Sony Ericsson line.
Cringely disrupts the phone company
I have actually been thinking about replacing my Apple Airport (Gray, second one) and Linksys Router with a single device and the Linksys WRT54G seems like the way to go for 802.11G capabilities at a price much lower than Apple’s Extreme base station. I’d heard of hacking the thing, but had no idea that the firmware you could load was this sophisticated… whoa.
If you have a WRT54G, here’s what you can use it for after less than an hour’s work. You get all the original Linksys functions plus SSH, Wonder Shaper, L7 regexp iptables filtering, frottle, parprouted, the latest Busybox utilities, several custom modifications to DHCP and dnsmasq, a PPTP server, static DHCP address mapping, OSPF routing, external logging, as well as support for client, ad hoc, AP, and WDS wireless modes.
If that last paragraph meant nothing at all to you, look at it this way: the WRT54G with Sveasoft firmware is all you need to become your cul de sac’s wireless ISP. Going further, if a bunch of your friends in town had similarly configured WRT54Gs, they could seamlessly work together and put out of business your local telephone company.
That’s what I mean by a disruptive technology. [PBS | I, Cringely]
Even if he’s stretching, it’s a very cool box, for not so much money and let’s you really take advantage of your connection.
SyncAgain!
Thinking about a Blackberry, but were hesitant as a Mac user… worry no more! This changes everything! SyncAgain seems to be the first Mac based solution for Blackberry sync and installation — including wireless updates!
Epicad, a wireless application software developer and services provider, is pleased to announce the upcoming availability of SyncAgain, the first solution to enable Macintosh synchronization with the BlackBerry wireless platform from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq:RIMM; TSX:RIMM). SyncAgain operates wirelessly offering the synchronization of contacts, events and to-dos. SyncAgain also allows remote viewing and selection of Mac address books and calendar folders using the BlackBerry browser as well as installation of third-party applications on BlackBerry Wireless Handhelds. [O’Grady’s PowerPage]
Not much to report from CeBit or DMD
Sandro and I checked out the shows today with a free pass for CeBit and found the floor to be almost depressingly quiet. The main (actually only) highlight was a very quick hands on with the OQO 01. Sorry we talked about but honestly spaced pictures as we only had a minute or two to deal with it while the sole rep was packing up to leave.
It’s definitely slick! I was impressed with the feel, which is distinctly metal. The slider which reveals the keyboard has great tactile feedback and a satisfying click as it opens. It’s better than the feel of the slider on my T3.
Size is excellent and surprising. It’s only a bit larger than the Palm, but and while much heavier, it’s not really heavy, just solid. The screen is permanently exposed… so you’ll need to have a cover, screen protector or some way to shield it when it’s in a pocket or bag. The screen itself seemed quite nice. When the Windows XP system booted up, it was easy to read and very crisp. While we did not read much other than a clean windows desktop with some icons, it seems fair to say it would be a nice screen to read and work with frequently.
We really did not get to play much with it so I have nothing to say about the keyboard’s response other than it seems kind of flat like a Sony PDA, rather than a Treo or Blackberry. I guess people will have to get used to it like all things… There is a rubberized mousing device like the nipple on a ThinkPad, but flatter. There are two mouse buttons on the far left side which give you a left (top) and right (bottom) click.
Should be interesting to see how these sell when they are finally released this fall.. ahem. We were told OQO is trying to keep the price below $2,000 which is incredibly rich for a gadget, so I’d expect only those who need to have it to buy the early ones, outside of the mobile workers OQO has reported testing with now.
DMD was much more crowded and happening, but was not of much interest considering the sheer number of print and data vendors. I was kind of hoping for some more tech providers in the space…
Comcast: Telephony Everywhere
Comcast, the largest US cable operator with 21.5 million subscribers, said on Wednesday it will offer telephone service to more than 40 million households by 2006 (where it’s getting the other 18.5 million households is unclear). Comcast said it would begin an aggressive roll-out of VOIP, or Voice-over-Internet protocol using cable modems. [Daily Wireless]
palmOne Wi-Fi SD Card?
Actions speak louder than words…and rumors.
According to a tip sent to Brighthand, palmOne’s latest sales guide for spring 2004 includes an accessories chart that shows this wireless networking card.
Unfortunately, details on this are very sketchy. The price isn’t given, nor is there a release date. [Brighthand]
Wireless Broadband for NYC
Wireless broadband vendor TowerStream said Wednesday that has added an antenna to the Empire State Building in New York City and is nearing complete coverage for its service in that metropolitan area. [Mobile Pipeline]
Tim Bray Gets VoIP
Just reading ongoing and Tim Bray’s experience with Vonage…. sounds good even with a hiccup or two. I am still considering VOIP — keep thinking Vonage is the way to go and perhaps I won’t have the hook-up issue he had with DSL with my cable connection….
It occurs to me that when someone on a cellphone calls my AccessLine and it gets routed to the Vonage and we have a talk, there is a lot of technology sloshing around, and the proportion of it that I understand is soberingly small. It is just painfully obvious that this is the future. [ongoing]
Mark Cuban’s HDTV Solution
I do have a solution for the FCC for the transition to HD and getting back the TV broadcast spectrum that is cheaper, far simpler, and would accelerate the give back faster then anything so far proposed, and I’m sure no one has thought of it. [Blog Maverick]
Ripe Entertainment Seeks to Spoil TiVO viewing
RipeTV coming fourth quarter 2004 to broadband and VOD for 18-34 year old men….
Ripe Entertainment is introducing a free “on-demand” cable network, called RipeTV, which will have advertising embedded into its shows. It has seven different types of advertising that will not be able to be fast-forwarded through when recorded on a PVR. RipeTV’s CEO, Ryan Magnussen, calls it “TiVo-proof.”
New ads include a 3-D animated advertiser logo or graphic to open and close the show, an animated logo occupying the lower third of the screen, a “video skin” or graphic frame with the advertisers brand framed around the show, video billboards in the lower third, strategically placed spots and long-form commercials. The ads are more like magazine advertisements, in a video magazine setting.
Consumers might not like a “TiVo proof” TV network unless the content is truly fantastic. Much like Internet surfers can block pop under ads, TiVo users feel it is their right to skip commercials. [AudioRevolution]
The Why Cry Analyzer
Penn and Teller ran an episode of Bullshit dedicated to Baby’s and the products marketed to take advantage of new parents… looks like this certainly fits the bill.
‘Why Cry Analyzer’, which Gadget Madness very aptly describes as a ‘BowLingual for Babies.’ If it sounds like a scam product, don’t worry! According to their site, The Why Cry has been “clinically tested obtaining a success rate of up to 90%” [Gizmodo]
Chances are when your child is crying she needs attention, food, a change or is just tired. With time you learn what each cry (yes there are quite a few) means and how to best attend to their needs.
TiVo killed the rerun
PVRblog points to an article in the LA Times on how TiVO and DVRs are changing the way Networks have to think about programming. It seems a fair number of DVR users (among other watchers) are no longer interested in watching re-run after re-run and choosing other options like cable or even… no TV at all.
Without reruns, networks are trying out new shows in the same slot, or repeating the previous week’s episode in a new slot in case you missed it (long a staple of cable TV). Smaller networks like the WB and Fox are promising to change the schedules to new shows this Summer instead of waiting until the Fall season. There’s also the lucrative DVD market that is saturated with pretty much every show ever made, and reruns would cut into that business. [PVRblog]
Bill Gates: Microsoft CEO Summit 2004
Rather than even try to pull highlights from this talk, I’ll just point to it.
Amazing stuff… Be sure to keep the audience in mind — CEOs of major companies. They are not as focused on tech gadgetry and services as some of us, and Bill is able to distill things into simple bits for people to get very excited about. Windows fan or not, this is a must read!
Bill Gates’ Web Site – Speech Transcript: Microsoft CEO Summit 2004
Let me state clearly: these are not things that will happen in one or two years. These are things that over the rest of this decade, through the technical advances that have taken place this last year and will take place in the next couple of years, these things will move into the mainstream, and you’ll really see the impact there that we’re talking about. Very ambitious things, but if you think about it, over the course of the next six years we’ll spend over $40 billion in R&D, so that’s $10 billion per pillar. It seems like for $10 billion we ought to be able to achieve those things. At least that’s what I tell our programmers.
Comcast’s Media Center
Comcast is testing it all out it seems…
First Moxi, and now Microsoft. Guess we’ll see what works better in the trials and what people seem to want.
Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV operator, has agreed to use Microsoft’s set-top software for up to 5 million users, the companies said on Thursday. Philadelphia-based Comcast, with over 21 million subscribers, agreed to extend an existing licensing deal with Microsoft, although it did not say when it would roll out services. [Daily Wireless]
eHomeUpgrade has some good detail as well.
Cometa Shutting Down
WOW – While I knew that had a few issues thanks to Glenn’s reporting, I did not see this coming…
Cometa Networks has confirmed that they are ceasing operations: Wi-Fi Networking News was able to confirm through multiple independent and reliable sources this morning that Cometa Networks will start the process of running down its hotspot network operations tomorrow. Cometa vice president of marketing Kent Hellebust acknowledged the news in an interview early this afternoon. [Wi-Fi Networking News]
BlackBerry Connect for Palm OS
As cool as this is, I wonder how it will work. Since the Palm mail clients in OS 5 have to connect in order to get mail. vs the mail just arrives solution in RIM hardware. Perhaps a background service is coming in OS 6? If not perhaps this is more than you need (though secure behind the firewall), when you consider what’s coming in SnapperMail 2.0.
PalmSource and Research In Motion (RIM) have completed their distribution agreement to make BlackBerry Connect available to Palm OS licensees. Together, BlackBerry Connect and Palm OS will extend email and corporate data connectivity to Palm Powered smart mobile devices, facilitating workforce productivity while away from the office. [PalmInfocenter.com]
Carriers sold on shopping by cell phone
This just might get really annoying!
First, if you don’t have Verizon or any of the other carriers who might try this, you are going to see some annoying pop-ups on your TV program when they have no relevance to you since you can’t respond even if you wanted to… Universal Short Codes are the answer here, no carrier specific ones, like how they are used by Cingular on American Idol for voting. Even if this goes through, I’d like to see an option to turn this off – or at least push it to a corner on my screen, though off would be best. I guess the cable providers are going to have to build this onto their platforms as well to even show you the ads… much like the iTV experiments which seeem to continue on a smaller scale.
Verizon Wireless plans to announce on Monday that its subscribers will be able to bill any transaction made using their cell phone’s Net connection directly to their Verizon account instead of a credit card or bank account, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans. The new service uses a version of text messaging that’s beginning to become popular in the United States. [CNET News.com]
Denon Home Theater
Avi over at Home Theater Watch has an interesting article on Denon…
Some highlights –
They claim a #1 share of receivers greater than $600 and the number one seller, the 3800 AV Receiver, is actually just over $1,000, which Avi considers a sweet spot given that few consumers will spend more and those that do go for separate components in more high end brands — though apparently separates are on the way…
I was glad to see that Denon has decided to support both HDMI and DVI so you don’t have to choose or get locked out of the future if you pick wrong… Components are also going to become IP addressable to allow for software updates.
AT&T to partner with Sprint for cell service
I’m not even sure how this is possible given everything we’ve been told about the network incompatibilities of GSM and CDMA… but who am I to question this?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting today [subscription] that AT&T is expected to announce a partnership with Sprint to offer wireless service to AT&T customers. [MobileTracker]
UPDATE — Now I recall… ATT kept the brand even though they sold the customers and newtork to Cingular…so it’s a pure MVNO deal now.
Will Souping Up TiVo Save It?
Business Week has a piece on TiVO and what they’ve got cooking. They are trying to push things forward while also fighting off the Cable and Satellite competitors who are seem to no longer be interested in including their branded DVR software…
TiVO says they’ve got a much to be excited about, moving past just simple DVR functionality and looking to include things like satellite radio, digital photo editing, and the ability to surf the Web from TiVO boxes. Sounds to me like the Moxi box (without web), I’d like to own. Moxi is going in another direction enabling a very rich platform for the MSOs (View a Demo WMV Movie here) while TiVo is looking to enhance consumer electronics devices like DVD players to help get away from their revenue reliance on stand-alone set-tops, which in my opinion is going to be even tougher than competing simply on the DVR box.
We’ll just have to wait and see how TiVO plans to spend their estimated 50 Million in marketing. It’s a great technology, that’s been vastly under-marketed, relying too much on word of mouth and not expanding through educating the next tier of consumers…