Archive for August 21st, 2008
Digital ID Wishlist: Skype name authentication service
You use your Skype name and password to login into Skype corporate web sites, like their forums, shops, and for account management. This means Skype operates an authentication service between those applications and their central login servers. For example, Skype has a MovableType plug-in (for internal use) called skypeid-comments that lets Skype’s blog commenters use their existing Skype name, without creating a new ID for the blogs. I’d like Skype to further strengthen the authent...
Digital ID Wishlist: Skype name authentication service
You use your Skype name and password to login into Skype corporate web sites, like their forums, shops, and for account management. This means Skype operates an authentication service between those applications and their central login servers. For example, Skype has a MovableType plug-in (for internal use) called skypeid-comments that lets Skype’s blog commenters use their existing Skype name, without creating a new ID for the blogs. I’d like Skype to further strengthen the authent...
In India, Either Buy iPhones or Get a Family Car
OK, now I know I have your attention! In India, the 3G iPhone goes on sales today and people are lining up to buy a device that is seriously, and I mean seriously, expensive. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone (India) are the two carriers who are selling the device in India. On the Bharti Airtel network, the device is going to cost between $730 and $830 dollars, depending on the device you buy. Furthermore, the device is locked to Bharti’s special network. So for a family of three (mom, dad and a...
Nortel Acquires DiamondWare
Got another acquisition story to tell you about, and one that I’m really glad to share on a few fronts. This morning, Nortel announced its acquisition of DiamondWare, one of those really cool, stealth-type companies most people have never heard about. Most - but not all. They were nice enough to cite me in the press release, and it probably helped that I’m one of those few people who have heard about DiamondWare. This story has been a long time in the making, and I’m pretty cer...
Can P4P Solve Bandwidth Bloat?
Researchers at The University of Washington and Yale University will present a paper today on a developing Internet protocol that could lessen bandwidth demands from video and other large files. The peer-4-peer protocol is being touted by Pando Networks and some ISPs as a way to solve some of the traffic problems caused by peer-to-peer file sharing services such as BitTorrent. Compressing or managing data more efficiently is becoming increasingly important as providers attempt to clamp down on ...
Why Amazon’s EBS Should Worry Data Centers
Amazon has announced Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), persistent storage offering that can be used in tandem with applications using the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). With this move, they are the heat on everyone from storage area network vendors, server companies and of course data center operators. Don’t be surprised if the company starts attracting corporations using its suite of web services. Amazon first started talking about this back in April, sharing some details ab...
Being YOU
Back when I was in high school, I remember sitting in class and listening to a teacher ask a question and not being the person who raised their hand to answer the question even when I thought I knew the answer. It was only after hearing others in my class get the question wrong when I would consider raising my hand and sharing what I believed was the right answer. If I was called on, I generally knew the answer but I rarely wanted be the one to volunteer it. All these years later I ask myself wh...
Not That There’s Anything Wrong…with a Mac
Can Jerry Seinfeld help Microsoft counter-attack against Apple’s hip, cool and successful marketing efforts? Microsoft clearly thinks the well-known comedian has the chops given it will reportedly pay him a cool $10-million to appear in a new advertising campaign along with other celebrities. According to the Wall St. Journal, Seinfeld will appear with Bill Gates in some of the ads. If anyone can make Gates comes across as funny, it’s Seinfeld. The question is whether Seinfeld will b...
Facebook Pokes Dell, Jilts Rackable?
For past few days we have been getting pinged by the press folks from Dell who want to attend a joint event next week with Facebook, to announce a new cloud-computing project. That Round Rock, Texas-based Dell and Facebook of Palo Alto, Calif. are getting cozier shouldn’t come as a surprise. Facebook is seriously “server hungry” and has been on a spending spree to beef up its infrastructure. Dell, on the otherhand, has been increasingly seriously about cloud computing and working with onl...
Skypephone 2 Out in the UK
Andy at VoIP Watch, who makes good use of the Skypephone when in the U.K., reports on the launch of the Skypephone 2 in the U.K. with some very interesting usage plans. And it was launched on the announced date. I’m off to the North American Blackberry Bold launch at Rogers tomorrow morning. Seems like RIM has sorted out the 3G network issues that delayed its launch. ...
Why Do I Click to Call? Let Me Count the Ways
How many ways can you use a click-to-call? UK-based mobile phone dealer Dial-a-Phone has given it some thought in a post with the deceptively dull title Click to Call VoIP And The Consequences For Mobile Phones. In addition to the usual suspect — advertising — author Kathryn looks at online dating and social media applications. ...
Tune in to the Mitel / Sun Webinar tomorrow (Aug 21) at 1pm EDT
If you are free tomorrow, Thursday, August 21st, at 1pm US Eastern time, I’d encourage you to listen in to a joint Mitel / Sun Microsystems webinar. Details are available on the Mitel web page. Why am I encouraging readers to tune into this webinar? Especially when I no longer work for Mitel and have really nothing to do with them any more? Two words: Terry Matthews. During the time that I worked for Mitel from June 2001 up until last October (2007), the telecom industry went through some ...
A moment in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Microsoft Debuts Its Surface 30″ Interactive Screen at Sheraton
Microsoft is putting its touchy-feely side to the test at the Sheraton Hotel. The software giant recently showed off its new Surface technology at five Sheraton hotels nationwide. The demonstration allowed the public to get a feel for Microsoft’s first fully touch-screen computer. The table-like Surface computer operates entirely through a 30-inch interactive screen, which works along the same lines as Apple’s iPhone. But the Surface also recognizes and interacts with objects su...
Internet Finally Takes Off into the Clouds
American Airlines began offering Internet access on long-haul domestic flights today, making American the first U.S. airline to offer full in-flight broadband, according to a Reuters report. The world’s largest airline said its passengers on Boeing 767-200 aircraft can pay $12.95 for Internet access on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami. Airlines have been racing to get reliable Internet access on their flights in ...
Oh No! Don’t Spoil Our Fun! Wii Gets Slapped with Patent Infringement
Hillcrest Labs has apparently filed a complaint for patent infringement with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, D.C., and a separate patent infringement suit in the U.S. District Court in Maryland, against Nintendo, related to the Wii video game system. At issue are Hillcrest’s U.S. Patent Nos. 7,158,118, 7,262,760, and 7,414,611, which relate to a hand-held 3-D pointing device, and U.S. Patent No. 7,139,983, which relates to a navigation interface display syst...
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News, opinions and announcements about fast changing communication tools and technologies, from various blogs and ezine.