Salon: A coalition of big-name tech companies — Microsoft, Amazon, eBay and others — wants the feds to make sure that cable companies don’t ruin the broadband Internet [JD’s New Media Musings]
New cell phones aim to connect standards
Cell phone maker Kyocera unveiled its first handset Tuesday that uses Qualcomm’s GSM1x technology, which is used to bridge two cell phone standards that are not interoperable. [CNET News.com]
This is very cool… one phone to roam them all
Wi-Fi Trains in the US
As I noted yesterday, there is a wi-fi train test happening in Europe… Well looks like Caltrans is adding service now to the Silicon Valley.
This is great stuff and I really hope that these tests are successful. It’s hard when you travel via train to run a stumbler and nab a connection — at a stop! If you could connect while working, things could be extremely productive… or not depending on how you wanted to use your time.
Planes, Trains …Automobiles??
SMS addresses…
Here’s a nice listing of Carriers and the text address formats for their phones…Waste of a Good TypePad (thanks Anil!)
US Digital TV Households to Top 50 Million in 2004
eMarketer forecasts the number of US digital TV households to reach 56.5 million in 2005, up from 38.9 million at the end of 2002, according to the Digital Television report. This equates to a rise in digital TV penetration from 35.9% of households in 2002 to 50% in 2005. [eMarketer
Lawmakers to probe RFID technology
Lawmakers in California have scheduled a hearing for later this month to discuss privacy issues surrounding a controversial technology designed to wirelessly monitor everything from clothing to currency. [CNET News.com]
What Amtrak Needs…
Ever been on the train within the Eastern corridor? It’s a great way to travel… but without connectivity. Hopefully this works well enough for there to be interest here….
101 Uses for Apple IChat
People are finding many versatile uses for Apple’s iChat AV software, like sharing video across town or finding dates. Thing is, they’re not using it much for video conferencing, the task for which it was built. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Claim: RFID Will Stop Terrorists
Food companies and retailers love radio frequency identification tags: The tiny transmitters will save them big bucks. But privacy concerns are sidelining the technology, so the companies will portray RFID tags as antiterrorism tools to win over consumers. By Mark Baard. [Wired News]
ZigBee Standard Approved By IEEE
The IEEE standards body has officially endorsed the ZigBee wireless standard, paving the way for the PAN technology to move further ahead. [Technology News from eWEEK and Ziff Davis]
not so special…
Thanks for signing up to become part of the Nokia N-Gage Special Forces. Due to the incredible response, we currently have filled all of our interview timeslots.
Treo 600 info…
Phone Scoop does it again… this time on the Treo 600. The have bits on both the GSM and CDMA versions.
The N-Gage Special Forces
Nokia is looking for people to join the “N-Gage Special Forces.” Which doesn’t mean you’ll be going on secret missions to sabotage Microsoft’s offices. Rather, it’s a marketing street team to help to help drum up interest in their new gamephone. Basically they’re looking for people who won’t mind getting paid to play the N-Gage in public at their, “campus, local events, around town and all of the places you love to hang out.” [Gizmodo]
What the heck – I signed up! Come on Nokia… pick me!!
The Coming Wi-Fi World
Sky Dayton, the serial entrepreneur (who also founded the highly successful EarthLink) predicts where the Wi-Fi industry is going, and what the wireless world will look like [AlwaysOn Network]
Motorola’s pending phone line-up
Gotta love PhoneScoop… Some pretty slick looking new phones coming our way!
Sony’s new plasma TV adds home smarts
The consumer electronics maker unveils a plasma TV with built-in broadband networking that’s linked to a Web pad-like remote control by wireless LAN technology. [CNET News.com Personal Technology]
Verizon Wireless to offer branded WiFi through Wayport
Verizon Wireless today said it will offer a branded WiFi hotspot service through Wayport’s nationwide network. The service will be available for either $6.99 for a day pass or $34.99 per month for unlimited data use. Verizon Wireless said it is interested in expanding its WiFi coverage beyond the initial agreement with Wayport and said it will do so through additional roaming agreements. The carrier said it may also offer combined WiFi coverage through co-parent Verizon Communications’ payphone-based hotspot service in New York City but did not give any additional details. Verizon Wireless is the latest U.S. carrier to offer branded hotspot service though Wayport’s network. Both AT&T Wireless and Sprint PCS signed similar deals in recent months. [FierceWireless]
Note to self…
Michael over at Cruftbox has a great little peek at what his hacked Series 1 box looks like running TyStudio to extract movie files and convert to mpeg for storage or DVD backup. Although this is currently impossible to do on series 2 boxes, it’s nice to know that hacking scripts have grown into user-friendly packages on the older devices.
[PVRblog]
Now that my Series 1 box has taken a back seat to my cable box, I may just have to give this a try… I’d love to burn some DVD’s on my iMac!
Pioneer updates its digital turntables
We’re still partial to spinning actual records, but Pioneer has updated the CDJ-1000, its CD player for DJs that let’s you cut and scratch CDs sorta like how you would on a turntable with vinyl. The CDJ-1000MK2 has pretty much the same design as the CDJ-1000, just better sound quality and improved response time. [Gizmodo]
High-Res Photos of the P900/P810
Finally, some high-res images of the new replacement for the Sony Ericsson P800. The P900 – or P810, depending on who you talk to. Check out the photos. [Mobile Burn]