Thinking Outside the Box - the "Netbook"

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What could you do with a new device that was designed from the ground up to connect to the Internet while mobile? What if your immediate environment was swimming with radio waves that provided low-cost broadband connectivity? What would that be like?

That's the whole idea behind the "netbook" - a new class of low-cost, low-weight, high-performance long-lasting-battery-equipped mobile PCs that start off with a different premise than the notebook PC, or laptop, which was a essentially a slimmed down version of the desktop PC when it came out (back when the Internet was mostly an idea), limited by technology to short battery life and a heavy package.

The premise back when the notebook was first introduced was that business travelers, needed to take the desktop along when mobile, so the laptop sacrificed some speed and storage, but gave the user the essential - portability. Then connectivity was added as a feature, first with dial up, then with wireless broadband.

Now, we've come full circle. The NEW PREMISE is that internet connectivity, not portability, is primary. Portability is expected, but is no longer the primary feature. Desktop applications are expected as well, but secondary. Consumer twists like an embedded camera and pre-loaded Skype, which turns the device into a telephone, are added bonuses. The netbook can do so much more, and costs so much less. This should be a huge trend, but adoption will take time.

The term Netbook was introduced by Intel in February 2008 to describe a category of low-cost and scaled-down subnotebooks used primarily for surfing the Internet and performing other basic functions like word processing. These may be carried out using applications installed on a solid state drive or by the use of cloud computing services. More than 50 million Netbooks are expected to be in circulation by 2011. The first Netbooks should be available by June 2008. Devices such as the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, ASUS Eee PC, CloudBook, Classmate PC or MSI Wind PC may fall in the category of Netbooks. Wikipedia Netbook entry

(See also my post on the Eee PC from January 14, four months ago.)

I can remember the videos of the Apple Newton that came with the product (on VHS) when I got one in 1994 - 14 years ago. I was captain of a graduate student team on an internship at the Apple Customer Service Center here in Austin, in my last semester in Graduate School of Business at UT. Each member of the student team got a Newton (the smart ones sold theirs right away). I kept mine, so now its a museum piece.

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Apple had the vision, but didn't have the technology at the time to back it up. They were a full decade and a half ahead of their time. That time has come now, and the new product is the netbook. The vision of the Newton for always on, anywhere connectivity and computing is realized when the netbook is used in a metropolitan broadband environment.

Posted on May 14, 2008 at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)

Fair and Balanced

Here's what real "fair and balanced" reporting looks like - as opposed to the other kind.

This OpEd in Just What I Need? in today's New York Times challenges some of the gee whiz reporting coming out of CES with this essay, questioning what it all means.

OK, you could accuse me of some of the "gee whiz" hype in my last two posts (here and here). But rather than breathless reporting on how cool it all is, I'm trying to drive home the point of the ascent of mobility as a key component of consumer electronics.

Back to Eduardo Porter's OpEd.

Browsing on the Web through the list of gadgets on display, I saw a future that looked more like a necropolis: a mountain of once-promising appliances exiled to call-now commercials or an in-flight magazine.

To mangle a phrase (one of my favorite pastimes)...

One man's treasure is another man's trash.

Next up - more on consumerism...and recession.

Don't you just hate fair and balanced, also known as buzz kill.

Posted on January 14, 2008 at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)

Broadband Access Needs to Be Ubiquitous ... Uh, Yeah ...

Here's a good link to see what Intel had to say about mobility and the Internet at CES last week: Intel's Paul Otellini keynote at CES, videos and all

Here's CNet's coverage of Otellini's address (two excerpts below).

However, such change will not happen unless four obstacles are overcome, Otellini cautioned. Silicon needs to become more powerful and energy efficient; broadband access needs to be ubiquitous; the Internet needs to be infused with a sense of context; and user interfaces need to be more natural. He exhorted the audience members to take on the challenge of overcoming those hurdles.

And here's the money quote, IMHO.

"We're now in the midst of the largest opportunity to redefine consumer electronics and entertainment since the introduction of the television," Otellini said. "Increasingly, computing and communications are coming together, bringing a new level of capabilities and intelligence to the Internet experience. The personal Internet of tomorrow will serve you - delivering the information you want, when you want it, how you want, wherever you are."

See also the Google perspective today - icing on the cake, so to speak.

Posted on January 14, 2008 at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)

New Year Brings Renewed Emphasis on Mobility

There's some good stuff out in the news on mobility and wireless this past week, as the International Consumer Electronics Show 2008 (CES) winds up in Las Vegas and the world gets ready for Apple's annual MacWorld Conference - see this good article today in InfoWorld.

Or if you just want to listen, check out NPR's Morning Edition today, which has a MacWorld Update.

A common thread running through all this commentary is mobility.

The mobile Web, Yahoo co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang said, "is the next phase of the Internet."

Intel Corp. CEO Paul Otellini said he thinks it will be even bigger than that.

"We're now in the midst of the largest opportunity to redefine consumer electronics and entertainment since the introduction of the television," Otellini predicted in prepared remarks for a keynote speech late Monday.

Intel announced that it is on track to deliver its latest chips for so-called "mobile Internet devices" - part computer, part phone, part Web browser - in several months. It is launching a major initiative, not unlike its Centrino wireless PC push, aimed at putting the Internet in your pocket.

Otellini showed off prototype devices based on Intel chips, including a Web-based gadget that travelers can use to audibly and visually translate building signs, restaurant menus and conversations in real time. With built-in Global Positioning System technology, the pocket-sized device also could be used to get directions and identify and give background on local landmarks, via the Web.

Tech and mobile phone companies, of course, have for years been promising better Internet service on phones and hand-held gadgets. The market potential is huge: Forecasters predict that there will be more than 4 billion cell phones worldwide by 2010, dwarfing the number of personal computers.

Apple's introduction of the all-in-one iPhone last year jump-started the latest industry push toward improving mobile Internet. Push is on to make Web more accessible on mobile phones and portable gadgets

Just how mobile can Internet go? in today's paper talks about some limits. Price, first of all, will limit adoption of these new mini-laptops. Cultural lag as well will slow things down. We just need time to get adjusted to this change, it seems.

But then again ...I just read this little snippet of a product review and I find myself thinking, "I've got $400 for that, and it would work in a city network as a substitute for a cellphone, video camera phone, email reader, web portal, and emergency laptop. Put it together with the cheap 8Gb flash memory stick I just bought at Fry's for $29 - after rebate - and I'm good to go under a city Wi Fi cloud ... without a monthly cell phone bill." ...

In Review: Asus' $400 Eee PC Wins by Breaking Rules we see some innovative behavior coming from a manufacturer in Taiwan. Asus, a Taiwanese computer parts maker (world's leading manufacturer of motherboards), got the price down on this ultra-mobile PC by breaking the rules.

1. Size - don't need a big screen or keyboard, make it small and very portable
2. Power Demand and Product Cost - don't need a hard drive, rely instead on solid state drive and flash memory
3. Operating System - don't need Microsoft Windows - use Linux
4. Connectivity, Software, etc - don't need Microsoft Office - bundle Wi Fi, Skype, USB ports, Firefox, Acrobat Reader, OpenOffice, Yahoo Mail, Google Docs

When you trash your assumptions and start with a clean slate and a motivation to get a high-utility product out there for the cheapest price, a tremendous number of cheap tools and parts can be brought together to create something very intriguing, and I'm betting, cheap will win a large number of converts as the bugs get worked out in this product over the coming year.

Unencumbered by Windows, the Eee PC boots up so quickly I didn't bother counting the seconds.

Its Wi-Fi chip links with the Web in a flash, and its Webcam - a feature missing from many laptops triple the price - turns it into a video messaging device with the help of eBay Inc.'s Skype, which comes pre-loaded.

There are USB ports for peripherals, a port to connect to a monitor, and - most essentially - a flash-memory slot to expand its meager storage. Battery life is advertised at 3.5 hours.

The Eee PC's custom version of the Linux operating system has a simple user interface that takes some getting used to.

It organizes the software by tabs - Internet, Work, Learn and Play - but many users on the Eee PC forum dislike its look.

An upgrade to a more familiar, Windows-like interface is available in "advanced" mode, which can be activated with a few minutes of careful programming.

(But you'll do that at your peril. On my second day, a badly written command crashed my system. I had to reinstall the original software.)

The Firefox Web browser, Adobe Acrobat Reader and OpenOffice - the open-source equivalent to Microsoft Corp.'s Office - come pre-installed, as do a music player, a video recorder and some addictive games.

Google Docs - an online document suite for storing files remotely and sharing them - is also configured.

Links to Yahoo Mail, Gmail and other e-mail programs are already on the desktop. A messaging program called Pidgin worked with AOL Instant Messenger and Google Talk.

Skype, the voice- and video-calling program, also worked well when I called home from the international airport in Hong Kong.

Users willing to learn a few Linux commands can add the Picasa photo sharing program, Google Earth and Audacity, a free audio editing program beloved by bloggers.

The Eee PC runs quickly, despite a low-power processor. A disk drive made of memory chips is fully functional, but the four gigabytes installed on my model was insufficient for my needs. A memory card I purchased separately for around $30 doubled the space.

The Eee PC's software package leverages recent advancements in open source and online software. It may be hard to believe, but you won't miss Microsoft Word, or Windows, for long.

To dig a little deeper, check out Wikipedia's article on the Eee here.

What we see here, then, is laptop/cell phone convergence, coming at things from the laptop side. Of course, there is considerable energy being invested from the other direction, making the cell phones more and more like a laptop. For a compelling story of how Apple is moving innovation into the wireless cellphone industry, see The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry.

Be sure to track the Keynote in tomorrow's MacWorld debut. It's sure to have some intriguing new news. They like to use this forum to make a stir, and I'm sure it won't disappoint.

Of course, the bottom line for cities looking at networks is

The cheaper these devices get, the more they penetrate the marketplace and the more valuable the network investment becomes, because we need a broadband network to make these devices come to life.

Skeptical? Well, don't just take this on faith from me. But I wouldn't be caught betting against Intel, Apple, Yahoo, Google, eBay, Adobe, and a host of other wildly successful, innovative companies, all intent on putting the Internet in your pocket, either.

This will happen - soon - because these guys will develop the guts, and then get it made cheaply in East Asia and count on mass production to get the cost down. We are seeing the Internet and the PC evolve, right before our eyes.

They need to make something exciting happen to keep us buying their products. And this one has lots of legs.

Posted on January 14, 2008 at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

Technology Forecast: A "Cloudy" Future Ahead

"There's no doubt that Apple understands that more and more ... services are going to be cloud-based and they need different devices to be able to access them," says Gartenberg. "Maybe that's what we're seeing (with) the beginning of in the iPhone. But I don't think that in five years there will be no Macintosh." Wired News: IPhone: Calling the Future

This excellent article from Wired magazine makes a critical point and raises more strategic issues surrounding the announcement by Apple of its iPhone: a new mobile platform that is at once a video iPod, cellular phone, and Wi Fi enabled PDA.

The bottom line: as computing capacity grows and size shrinks, we will be carrying more and more power in our pockets, and those devices will be connected to WAN and LAN environments.

As you might expect, I read such articles as this through a metropolitan broadband lense and I enjoy the future they predict. Clouds are such an apt metaphor for the capabilities that wireless networks bring. But in this case, clouds are a positive, not a negative.

I actually took a Meteorology course way back when in Undergrad (back in the 1970s!), and I can remember the nomenclature of clouds and what they can tell us about weather. Now we have a new set of clouds gathering on the horizon, coming our way: WANs, WLANs, MANs, PANs. Hot Spots are clouds, hovering over your corner coffee shop. Home wireless LANs are clouds, inside my house, over my couch. And metropolitan broadband networks are clouds, sitting over a city, like the cloud of fog that creeps up from Lake Austin on a cold morning like today, shrouding the highway only to dissipate with the rising sun.

So when this forecast has clouds in store, think puffy Cumulus clouds that you watch while laying on your back on a picnic blanket with your loved one. Think of those soft clouds you fly through on your way to a vacation in the Bahamas. A cloudy future generally means a future that is uncertain, full of risks and unknowns. We can't see because the clouds block the way. The vision is of storm clouds, bringing danger, destruction, death. Picture Hurricane Katrina churning in the Gulf of Mexico, about to wreak havoc on New Orleans.

But for once, the more pleasant alternative is operative in this case. From a consumer perspective, our particular "cloudy" future with regard to wireless applications is rosy, with picnics ahead, not storms.

Posted on February 16, 2007 at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

I'l have the Combo, please

StarSight combines a street light -- something which can bring down crime rates dramatically -- with solar panel, wireless network (WiFi or WiMax), remote management, local network access, and (optionally) hookups for charging small devices.

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: StarSight There's nothing like an awesome bundle to make one appreciate the heart of a good marketer. And this is an awesome bundle. This is really one of those cases where a picture is worth a thousand words, so click on the link to see a picture of this contraption. Whether for infrastructure in the Third World, or as an overlay in the Developed World, this approach has a lot of merit: a self-contained bundle of new technologies that elegantly addresses a number of society's needs with an integrated solution. I hope the price point is right and that they are successful at marketing this - it would be good to see this in production.

Posted on December 01, 2005 at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)

Proof positive that Wi Fi mesh is here to stay

American Biophysics, a small private company based in North Kingstown, R.I., runs a healthy business selling the "Mosquito Magnet," a system to rid American backyards of biting insects ...Simply described, the magnet emits a humanlike scent that includes carbon dioxide and moisture to attract bloodsucking insects. When the bugs flutter past, they're sucked into and suffocated by a vacuumlike device. Wi-Fi mosquito killer coming to a porch near you

OK, so what do mosquitoes have to do with muncipal broadband? At least, that's what I asked when I saw this. This article describes how innovative types are networking these devices with wireless mesh to help them contain mosquitoes in a large outdoor area - think golf course or refugee camp. Your nuisance at a picnic becomes someone else's life-or-death hassle - mosquitoes carry death-dealing viruses in the Third World and they are, in my opinion, one of the banes of outdoor living. Move over Citronella candles, here come Wi Fi mosquito magnets.

When I was a kid, I lived in Labrador, in remote northeastern Canada and the bugs were horrendous in the summertime. I can remember airplanes that came in the summer evenings to spray DDT over our neighborhood - no doubt those summers will shorten my life at some point - but that fog we breathed in as we rode around on our bikes kept the black flies and mosquitoes at bay. If this high tech solution that incorporates Wi Fi will help mankind in its war against mosquitoes, we should expect Wi Fi mesh to gain even more new supporters.

This is fun - I'm sure there will be more wierd applications using Wi Fi, but this one is the winner in my book so far!

Posted on November 21, 2005 at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)

Wireless a go-go

Researchers at the University of New South Wales are developing an intelligent wireless protocol for public transport networks, which will give passengers cheaper online access and lower power consumption. Called OCEAN (On-board Communication Entertainment and Information), the protocol can be embedded in chips and placed on board buses and trains, allowing the vehicles to create a communication network. Wireless on the railways

The relentless march to put systems in place to provide mobile applications continues, with a "mesh" approach moving to the fleets of vehicles out there in our public transportation systems. Soon we will be seeing mobile laptops, PDAs, and wireless Game Boys opened on laps in lieu of the newspapers, magazines, and books that have been so commonplace for commuters since the Age of Commuting began.

And it's not just for our public transportaton. Consider this item from the Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas last month.

Ford Motor Co. says it will soon offer wireless mobile offices in its F-series pickups, an option aimed at building contractors and others who do business on the road. Ford's Office in a Pickup

For those road warriors who seem to live in their vehicles, this is good news - having moved from radios, to in-dash 8-tracks and casette players, to in dash or in trunk CD players, we've moved on to DVD players and back-seat entertainment systems (no, not that kind of entertainment). As we see such conveniences become more and more common inside cars, it's apparent there's no end in sight. Cup holders proliferate, plug-in car refrigerators/food heaters at Sam's Club, i've heard of microwave ovens in the glove compartment, integrated cell phone systems keep our hands on the wheel, On-Star satellite service and in-dash map systems using GPS bring help from above, the "cigarette lighter' has morphed into the "power source," and AC/DC power inverters let us plug in whatever we want. I guess this move to an integrated mobile office is more or less to be expected as car makers find new reasons for us to buy new vehicles.

Just imagine when the vehicle's on-board systems become integrated with the municipal wireless broadband network. That will complete the network system and we will have the world of the Internet and a local LAN accessible behind the wheel.

Let's hope there's some attention left over for driving in traffic...Oh, not to worry, wireless technologies also have a solution for that. Well, one of these days, but at least it's on the drawing board.

General Motors demonstrated a vehicle-to-vehicle, or V2V, wireless communication system that alerts you when a collision is imminent. The automaker equipped regular Cadillac STS sedans with wireless and Global Positioning System antennae and computer chips that allow the cars to communicate with other vehicles with similar equipment. Wireless: The new backseat driver?

CNET News.com does a good job of describing the potential of such new technology to better manage traffic flow and prevent accidents. But it cautions that we are a long way away from such a system: because the system would need all the vehicles (or a signficant majority) to be so equipped for the full benefits to be manifest. For instance, automobile insurance, in place for decades, generally works for our protection, but there is always that uninsured driver out there to be wary of. But as traffic snarls continue to impact worker productivity and pollute the air, we can expect more and more attention paid to keeping the traffic flowing and preventing car crashes, which can be seen as a failure of a traffic management system.

Stay tuned, we love our cars and our mobility, we love to stay connected, and we love to stay busy (well, some of us). Look for rapid progress in this area.

Posted on November 19, 2005 at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

This is Just a Test. In the Event of a Real Emergency, Well, You're on Your Own

USATODAY.com - Wireless text for emergencies While I think that the cellular phone networks are more vulnerable to disruption than new mesh networks, I think that this article reflects the discussion on these pages concerning the need for better more integrated communications options for first responders. This article extends the need to communicate to the multitudes affected by disasters. We should be looking at all the different technologies that are available and putting a highly redundant system in place, so that no matter what happens, we will have layers of communications at our disposal - our society has become too complex and vulnerable to disruption to not throw the kitchen sink at this problem.

Posted on October 06, 2005 at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

Ad Hoc means Flexible and Fast

As the discussion grows about communications alternatives for first responders, I would suggest that these ad hoc solutions that provide broadband data capabilties be given strong consideration. Most of our discussion on new technologies begins with the assumption that there is a source of power and a backhaul capability. In a disaster, you may well have neither, so these solutions bring that capability with them.

As we rebuild our networks, and as we prepare for the next disasters, we should not settle for solutions that provide narrowband or voice only capabilities, or proprietary solutions that limit communications to one provider's equipment. I first highlighted the potential of ad hoc networks while the Katrina disaster was still unfolding in Wireless Disaster Recovery a month ago.

I've learned of more ad hoc solutions since then. For instance, construction firm Hoss Equipment Company located here in Texas (with a name like that, it figures that it's in Texas, doesn't it?). Hoss developed a trailer for their clients and saw fit to create a new division to market it - Hoss Onsite Solutions. Learn more about this product at this link Hoss On Site Solutions - Video Surveillance.

Put some satelite gear on that trailer and complement it with some mobile access points like the Tropos Networks 4210 nodes in the trunks of first responder vehicles and you can have a broadband network capable of sending video in a matter of hours. It's incredible.

Posted on September 30, 2005 at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

Internet Disaster Recovery

From the Advanced IP Pipeline e-Newsletter I received today, Editor Paul Kapustka highlights the fact that in a very real sense, we as Americans are all part of a single community. Disasters have a way of bringing us closer, as evidenced by the outpouring of support after 9/11 and now, for displaced New Orleans flood victims on sites like Craig's List, where people around the nation are offering to open their homes to provide shelter for those now homeless for the indeterminate future. How will the Internet work to help bring our national community together in the face of this monumental disaster? Paul has an interesting perspective.


Editor's Note: Katrina Help Needs Communications Help

If you need a story to warm your heart a bit after watching the now-redundant cable-news clips of looters in New Orleans, check out the number of Americans willing to open their homes to Katrina victims via the online community Craigslist. Now all that's needed is a way to connect these online Samaritans with the refugees, whose immediate needs for food and clean water may take priority over Internet access.

But what's clear from watching today's news coverage of the storm's aftermath is that this country is going to have to absorb a large number of displaced New Orleans-area residents, for a time yet to be determined. After basic needs (food, water, medicine) are taken care of, there are going to be a whole lot of people who will want somewhere more permanent to stay than Houston's Astrodome.

Let's hope some of the nation's biggest companies -- especially those getting rich off telecommunications -- move quickly to help pair victims with potential donors of living space, food, jobs and other aid. As many San Francisco residents know, the community of Craigslist uses the connecting power of the Internet to link real people for real transactions in the human world. With a little bit of connectivity help, maybe more Americans can participate in the massive rebuilding and relocation effort required to overcome Katrina's destruction.

Already, Cisco Systems is stepping to the plate with not just cash, but solutions that include voice mail for people without phones, and "mobile communication kits" that the company says can quickly provide IP-based telephone access in areas where traditional telephone infrastructure has collapsed.

That's a great start. If your company has unique skills or communications savvy that it is ready to donate, let me know and I'll pass it along in this forum.


Paul Kapustka
Editor, Advanced IP Pipeline
paul@kapustka.com
www.AdvancedIPPipeline.com

Posted on September 01, 2005 at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)

Wireless Disaster Recovery

Katrina Telecom Status Sam Churchill has a good post on the Hurricane Katrina disaster and wireless technologies on his website this morning. Like you all, I've been transfixed by the scope of the tragedy unfolding in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. It just seems to get worse each day, as news of deaths, property loss, misery, and destruction unfold. Compounding the general chaos that comes after a hurricane, with the loss of power and wired and wireless telecommunications, New Orleans is faced with a flood of biblical proportions that makes physical movement nearly impossible. What do first responders do when the infrastructures they depend upon have all but disappeared? They race to do what they can, which is what we are watching, but it inevitably seems to be too little too late in the face of such a massive disaster and tragedy.

The news coverage has highlighted the lack of communication options on the scene for first responders. To implement any plan and coordinate any recovery, teams need to communicate with each other. Voice radio is the traditional response tool, but like any narrowband technology, it has its limiations, whcih were well documented in the aftermath of 9/11.

I had an interesting conversation this morning with Tony Alardin at SiteWatch Systems, which is a professional systems integrator of IP-based access control and wireless systems. They offer an all-in-one system for setting up ad hoc broadband communication local area networks. This trailer comes with an extendable mast with preattached communication systems, and its own power source - generators, solar, and/or batteries.

SiteWatch Systems integrates metro-scale mesh systems and intelligent radios, with long-range telecom technology, and powers it with its own power source, providing a first responder organization the capability to set up an ad-hoc network anywhere very rapidly. SiteWatch units use two radios - one to bring in the signal, and another to create an instant Hot Spot. Such a fixed network is complemented with mobile Wi Fi nodes placed into the first responder vehicles, be they police cars, ambulances, power utility vehicles, etc. Because this system is broadband, it has the capability to use video cameras to provide live video feeds over the wireless networks.

This type solution is available and affordable for government agencies to take advantage of. If you know of other systems of this type, please let me know. Also, if you have connections within disaster recovery organizations, please make them aware that this solution is waiting in the wings.

Posted on September 01, 2005 at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)

Location Based Services

Daily Wireless Check out this posting on Daily Wireless, under the title Meetro Location Net, posted on Friday, August 5. Sam Churchill provides a good overview of new location-based services that will benefit and take advantage of Wi Fi municipal networks.

Meetro, a new location-based community building software available for free download at this site, uses WiFi signals to discover the general location of a user without GPS. Using this service, city residents are visually shown exactly who's in their vicinity and the general interests they share. This almost feels like magic to me. If you've seen the magic map Harry Potter used in The Prisoner of Azkaban you will note the similarities.

Skyhook Wireless is on the same track - this terrestial substitute for GPS takes advantage of a database of over 1.5 million land-based access points to pinpoint a Wi Fi device to within 20-40 meters. The Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) initially is being rolled out in 25 metropolitan areas.

In a similar approach, Herecast is a Wi Fi Location-Based Positioning System that is under development. Herecast software is in testing, and some of the earliest users are already contributing information. The company is mainly interested in attracting "early adopters" and developers who want to create the first location-based services.

The Daily Wireless article lists a variety of other location-based services for you to check out. This is a good way to wade into this fascinating new service that will take advantage of wireless broadband networks.

Posted on August 06, 2005 at 09:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mobile TV Anyone?

Poll: Mobile TV Gets Zapped If they build it, will they really come? This article describes a poll run by Unstrung, the wireless daily mailer. The poll found that few are willing to pay big money to get video service over their cellular phone. Does this mean that it is just too soon, and has not been adopted by the culture? Or that the content selection is too thin? Or the price too high?

Posted on August 02, 2005 at 04:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Podcasting 101: go to school on this new application

Apple Plants a Seed to Help Raise Podcasting OK, so you've read the definition in the UnwireMyCity Glossary of Podcasting, but it still sounds like some type of science fiction term having to do with invasions and aliens? Need to understand more? Check out this article by Rob Pegoraro in WashingtonPost.com yesterday for a full run down on all the ins and outs of Podcasting. Everything you always wanted to know.

Posted on July 25, 2005 at 11:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Nevada: Wireless Gambling in Las Vegas

Even Poolside, Casinos Entice by Hand-Held - New York Times This has a sense of inevitablity to it. Internet gambling is moving to the handheld unit. While some will no doubt view this as evidence of our progress towards ever more personal freedom, and others will see one more slip down the slippery slope of moral decline, I prefer to note it as part of the inevitable march towards making more content available on the Internet and making more content available over mobile platforms. While this article talks about mobile applications inside the casino Hot Spot, it is evidence of a compelling application moving to a smaller and more mobile platform.

Posted on July 02, 2005 at 08:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

All the town's a stage?

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely Players;
They have their Exits and their Entrances,
And one man in his time playes many parts.
-- Shakespeare, As You Like It

BBC NEWS | Technology | Bard's home town goes wireless Visitor's to Stratford-Upon-Avon can now lease PDAs to access information at Hot Spots throughout the town. While not a metropolitan network per se, this approach demonstrates a creative use of wireless technology to fill an unmet need in a town. I've seen this approach used at museums...if all the world's a stage, as Shakespeare once wrote, then it seems that now, all his hometown's a wireless museum.

The wireless hotspots, provided by BT, will be installed in hotels, shops and local tourist attractions, giving complete connectivity throughout the town.

"Now all the world's a wi-fi stage as far as this town is concerned. We are sure that the many tourists who like to visit Stratford from across the globe will appreciate how much easier it will be to hit the literary hotspots using the latest technology as your guide," said Chris Clark, chief executive of BT Wireless Broadband.

Posted on June 30, 2005 at 08:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

California: Broadband Broadcasting, Podcasting in Newport, CA

I was fortunate to accompany a group on a boat tour of Newport Harbor last Tuesday night (6/21), as a guest of the folks at Laguna Broadcasting Network, a new kind of community network that is springing up around the US to take advantage of metropolitan mesh network infrastructure.

It was a delightful evening. The natural beauty of the sunset harbor cruise was accompanied by interesting demonstrations of Wi Fi Mesh technology by Tropos Networks, with a mesh node mounted to the mast of the yacht, enabling Voice over Wi Fi telephony and video transmission on large screens on the lower deck. We enjoyed unique video presentations by local artists: in cooperation with the local community college, LBN is producing orignal local content for broadcast to the local community.

Wireless computer networks that serve and support the particular needs and concerns of local citizens and businesses are popping up as a new kind of broadcasting, unlike what we grew up with watching TV in the 60s, or even cable in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Whereas ABC, CBS, and NBC worked with local affiliates to present a mix of content (national network, syndicated, and local news, weather, and sports), these new networks showcase local talent and events, and offer such interactive features as podcasting (content for download) and live coverage of events that would only interest the local community.

Subscriptions to LB Net go beyond the standard High Speed Internet Access (which they make available with prepaid cards at four cents/minute). Besides live webcasts of community events and scheduled programs of community interest, there are news headlines and reporting, on-demand audio and video archives, community personalities, political coverage, and local business advertising on an interactive downtown map.

In Laguna Beach, small is beautiful.

Posted on June 25, 2005 at 04:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Using Wi Fi for Location-Based Services

Software company Skyhook Wireless announced the commercial launch yesterday (June 20) of their location-based software product. Through triangulation, its software can pinpoint the location of a WiFi-enabled device by its proximity to different WiFi access points that the device picks up through its WiFi radio chip. Skyhook says it is accurate within 20-40 metres. See the press release for the official word. Another good site to check out (as usual) is Daily Wireless, which has a good write-up with comparison topical references.

Posted on June 21, 2005 at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Motorola and Mesh Networks

Radio-Hopping Leaps Ahead Interview with Motorola executive describes routing protocol and innovative uses for a mesh network, such as this: Portsmouth, England, deployed the technology across its public transportation system, wirelessly connecting its 308 buses to 35 intelligent bus stops, where passengers can see where buses are on the router, whether they're running on time, receive service messages and pay fares electronically in advance of the bus's arrival.

Posted on June 18, 2005 at 09:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Report processing goes from 10 days down to 2

Cleveland to Unwire Building Inspectors Whoa. Listen to this..."By minimizing their time returning to the office to perform these functions," said Blackman, "they shrink the processing time involved in issuing permits from 10 days to approximately two days. That's a demonstrable ROI. The ramifications of basically moving all the processes out in the field and giving them all the information they request at their fingertips is an enormous value-add." And, what's more, Cleveland is looking at these kind of results by using Hot Spots - they don't have a digital cities project yet....you go, Cleveland!

Posted on June 18, 2005 at 09:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fingerprints over the air

BIO-key Announces IdentityMatch(TM) - The Industry's First Patented Wireless, Web-Based Fingerprint ID System High Tech crime fighting takes another big leap forward with this anouncement. Fingerprint identification can be performed in the field using BIO-key's PocketPC with a wireless connection, from a police cruiser using a laptop or from a stationary office location using a desktop PC. The real power of IdentityMatch is it enables almost immediate suspect identification directly from the scene of a crime.

Posted on June 17, 2005 at 06:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

From Telegraph Lines to Wireless in a Single Bound: Super!

TownOnline.com - Beverly Citizen - Local News Sensor applications like the one discussed in this article are the wave of the future. This town was faced with an upgrade to an old (very old) wireline system, which supported their fire alarm system, at a cost of $750,000. By working with a generous private sector partner, the town was able to install a wireless system at a cost of $100,000. I like this story for several reasons (public private partnership, great cost savings of wireless solution over a wireline solution, and focus on future-looking technology to replace older, backward looking technology).

Posted on June 17, 2005 at 06:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack