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AOL Tries its Hand at Cash Cards

One of the newest features in the upcoming release of the 9.0 client is aimed at parents and kids and is seen as a way to hold down subscriber churn. [internetnews.com: Top News]

With no annual fees or charges, the AOL Cash Card is neither a debit card nor a credit card. Instead, it’s kind of an allowance, loaded on a plastic card, that kids can use both offline and online.

When the new card arrives, it will hit a market landscape that was once littered with failed e-cards aimed at teens. Start-ups such as eWallet and ICanBuy.com, which offered a similar service that let parents use their credit cards to fund prepaid spending accounts for their children, fell by the wayside during the dot-com shakeout. Others, like RocketCash, managed to survive but they allow users to purchase only from a select number of sites.

In AOL’s case, it has some marquee names helping to back the concept, including a partnership with Visa to develop the cash card program based in part on Visa’s BUXX program, a similar pre-paid card for parents of teenagers. BankOne, one of the largest issuers of Visa cards, is also issuing the cards.

This will certainly be one to watch…

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Buy.com launches digital music service

Hoping to reprise Apple’s early iTunes success, the company offers a catalog of more than 300,000 songs from major and independent labels–for computers using Windows. [CNET News.com Entertainment & Media]

Looks like an Apple rip-off service right down to the commercials on the bottom of the home page. You need Windows Media Player 9 which manages the rights through SMDI. It’s a combo package with download, transfers and burns. Seems to be more focused on the rights part than necessarily on the music part, but we all know who wants it that way…

Good for Buy, that as usual they win on price… though I wonder how much they paid Tommy Lee?

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House Panel Urges FCC Action

Five months after initial vote, agency still has not published final rules providing Bells with unbundling relief. [internetnews.com: Top News]

Although the FCC has not issued its final order in the matter, the agency ruled the regional Bells will no longer have to share their high-speed fiber lines with broadband competitors. The FCC’s ruling provides the Bells with substantial “unbundling” relief for lines utilizing fiber facilities, including no unbundling requirements for fiber-to-the-home loops or hybrid loops that utilize both fiber and cooper.

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Perceptions: When Ads Work Too Well

Teenagers who have drinking problems have stronger brain responses to images from alcohol advertisements than other teenagers do, a new study reports. [New York Times: Health]

The exact mechanism is unclear. The research could not determine whether people with drinking problems were predisposed to be more responsive to advertising or whether advertising encouraged problem drinking.

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Wheels of Zeus Appoints Management Team, Signs Customers

LOS GATOS, CALIF. — Wheels of Zeus, a startup formed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to develop a wireless radio system called Woznet, announnced its management team. The firm has also signed letters of intent with two prospective customers, Rich Rifredi, the new chief operating officer, told VentureWire.

Mr. Rifredi previously helped found Pixo, which developed applications for wireless phones, and was acquired by Sun Microsystems earlier this year. His career began at Apple, where he spent nine years and ended his tenure there as worldwide product manager for the company’s Powerbook products.

Frank Canova, the new vice president of engineering, previously served as vice president of worldwide product engineering at Palm. He had also worked at IBM, developing the company’s SmartPhone and managing PDA and portable computer projects.

Gina Clark joins the company as vice president of business development and marketing. She had been vice president of marketing at PalmSource. She also held the same position at LoopNet, an online service for the commercial real estate industry.

The company’s product, a cross between an RFID tag and a cell phone, is a wireless radio with one to two miles of range that provides location and status information. Mr. Rifredi said applications for the system include families keeping an eye on their pets and construction companies tracking whether their equipment has been turned off or on.

The devices have much longer range than RFID tags, which have a range of only a few feet, and do not require subscriptions like cell phones. The device will have a battery life measured in months.

Wheels of Zeus plans to sell its reference designs to manufacturers with distribution in consumer areas as well as in business and enterprise markets. Consumers won’t see a device in stores until the second half of next year, Mr. Rifredi said. The price would be left up to the manufacturers, but Mr. Rifredi says the bill of materials for the device will be $25.

The firm raised $6 million in a first round last year from Mobius Venture Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Palo Alto Investors, and plans to raise a second round later this year.

[Venturewire.com]

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Yahoo! Adds Site-Building Tool

The portal offers SiteBuilder as part of its Web hosting service, in a bid to appeal to small-and medium-sized businesses. [internetnews.com]

I check it out quickly and while this is only for Windows (yeah yeah) it seems like a very nice tool. I have previous experience with the WebSites from Verisign product and this looks easier to use. Hard to say if the template are better or worse… probably worse. They are keeping it simple though, making it very easy for the SMB to get going.

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Verizon to launch High Speed Wireless in D.C., San Diego

With virtual private network (VPN) connections, data customers in both cities will be able to access Verizon’s 1xEV-DO high-speed data network as an extension of their corporate local area network (LAN) or intranet. In order to receive the increased data speeds, 1xEV-DO devices are required, and the company says it plans to sell PCMCIA cards, office modem solutions and a number of other mobile devices.

Also in the third quarter, the company said it plans to offer complementary access between its own branded 802.11 service and its WAN. Recognizing the proliferation of Wi-Fi on corporate campuses and in travel related venues such as hotels and airports, Verizon Wireless is working with Wayport to offer Wi-Fi service in popular indoor locations. [Internetnews.com]

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Time Warner to Test Microsoft’s iTV Software

“Time Warner Cable is very aggressive and savvy as a technology adopter,” he added. So, if Microsoft’s trial proves out, the move could be a big opportunity to position itself in an interactive television screen. It could also bode well for finds the trial successful, cable technology platform company Scientific-Atlanta could also benefit, Brancheau said.

According to Gartner, as of mid-year 2003, 22 million U.S. households were upgraded to digital cable, out of a total base of 66 million cable households in the U.S. (The total household base in the U.S. is 106 million.)

So, the deal gives Microsoft some room to grow Internet News

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Sprint PCS to Launch WiFi Service

The Overland Park, Kansas-based company said it plans to initially roll out WiFi, or 802.11b services, in more than 800 public locations such as airports, convention centres and hotels through roaming agreements with closely held companies Airpath Wireless Inc and Wayport Inc.

It is currently in negotiations to build out its own WiFi infrastructure and plans to offer 2,100 locations, including roaming, by the end of the year. [REUTERS]

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The truth about XML

Systems powered by the Extensible Markup Language may prove to be the standard for sharing information between businesses, but experts at McKinsey explain why most CIOs won’t make the leap in the near future. [CNET News.com]

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VOIP–a Tower of Babel?

If successful, Pulver’s new push could for the first time connect the few hundred thousand U.S. VOIP subscribers with each other and, as a consequence, generate more VOIP calling. A spike in VOIP use, in turn, could help convince cable companies to go forward with their currently stalled plans to sell VOIP services. While there are about 2.2 million cable subscribers that can make telephone calls, they use a form of circuit-switched telephones, not VOIP.

CNET News.com

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Microsoft wins Homeland Security deal

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded a five-year, $90 million agreement to Microsoft to become the department’s primary technology provider. Under the contract announced Tuesday, Microsoft will supply desktop and server software to the newly created department, which has merged parts of 22 government agencies into one entity.

The agreement delivers licensing coverage for about 140,000 desktops and will help the department to establish a common computing environment, the Homeland Security Department said in a statement. Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Marketing was selected as the reseller, to provide the day-to-day management of the agreement, the department said. [CNET News.com]

I guess this is because Microsoft has a proven track record with reliability, security and limited exposure to viruses… I hope they use Passport as well to make things even easier for hackers to attack.

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MMS delivered as print postcards

MMS delivered as print postcards: Customers of T-Mobile Netherlands are now able to have their digital vacation pictures be delivered as printed personal vacation cards. On one side the photograph will be printed and on the other side there will be the address and the personal message of the sender. The MMS mail from the Netherlands or from 30 other countries will cost $1.70 per item until the end of August. via moco.news: mobile content news

This is a very cool idea and probably only the first of many to link the virtual aspects of the newer phones back to people not capable or just not with you at the time. I think that as long as ideas like this stay focused on simplicity for the near term that they will most likely work – pricing as well needs to be consistent and predictable.