Archive for September 3rd, 2008
Where to Get the Cheapest Mobile Data Plans
We’ve talked about how popular wireless broadband is for a growing spectrum of the population. I personally would give up my iPod before my 3G USB modem. But how much bandwidth can you really get? DSL Reports recently noted that Canadian wireless provider Telus is backtracking on its original unlimited wireless broadband plan and capping users at 1GB for $65. That has some rural users in a tizzy since they use it for their home network. I’d be in a tizzy too, since I use my modem w...
Media Summary - August
August is a pretty slow month all around, so I didn’t engage that much with the media. That said, I did manage to turn up in a few places, as well as publish my bi-monthly column, Service Provider Views for TMCnet. - Chicago Sun-Times - Ifbyphone profile story - IT World Canada - Q9 Networks privatization - Ottawa Business Journal - Espial outlook in IPTV market - Service Provider Views - “Ribbit - Why BT’s $105 Million Was Well Spent” - Service Provider Views - “Pl...
Chrome - Getting Microsoft???s Goat
Historically there has been nothing which gets Microsoft’s attention as fast as a platform for applications which threatens Windows dominance. Google’s Chrome is obviously such a platform; Google can afford to challenge Microsoft; it’s healthy for innovation that it does. Can Microsoft still rise to the challenge? Way back when I was at Microsoft ??? 1991 to 1994, Lotus Notes was the threat du jour. Developers WERE developing Notes apps instead of Windows apps; analysts and Lo...
If You Want To VoIP, Wait Before You Buy Nokia N96
Nokia has released its new N-Series phone, the N96, in Europe. It’s like the Swiss army knife of phones — a very expensive Swiss army knife — in that it does a lot of things, except one: It won’t allow you to make VoIP calls. Apparently some of the more well-known VoIP services, such as Fring and Truphone, will eventually work on this device that costs nearly $1,000 (550 euros + tax), but for now they don’t. Asterisk users who might be looking to hook up their phon...
rPath Burns EC2 Appliances in a Web Portal
Back in July, we looked at how cloud computing may force appliance vendors to change the way they build products. Now rPath, which makes release management tools for virtual appliances, is announcing support for EC2 on its rBuilder portal, a web site that lets users turn software into virtual appliances and publish them to clouds and virtual environments with a few clicks. It’s an impressive step in web-based release management for virtual environments, but rPath’s road may be bumpy...
rPath Burns EC2 Appliances in a Web Portal
Back in July, we looked at how cloud computing may force appliance vendors to change the way they build products. Now rPath, which makes release management tools for virtual appliances, is announcing support for EC2 on its rBuilder portal, a web site that lets users turn software into virtual appliances and publish them to clouds and virtual environments with a few clicks. It’s an impressive step in web-based release management for virtual environments, but rPath’s road may be bumpy...
Hulu Bad For the Net, Video Still Not Clogging It
Hulu is a problem. So argues a paper by University of Minnesota Professor Dr. Andrew Odlyzko, who says that video isn’t actually clogging the Net right now, but that streaming video content is such an inefficient way of getting video from one place to another that sites should find better options, such as faster-than-real-time streaming and buffering. The goal of the paper is to counter carrier assurances that they will protect video even without any mandated Network Neutrality. Odlyzko a...
Fonolo Gets Some Airtime
For regular readers of my blog, you probably know I’m a fan of Fonolo. I’ll be upfront and say I’m an Advisor, but that aside, you have to admit they’ve got a pretty cool application. I don’t do their PR, but feel obliged to share some great mainstream exposure the company got yesterday. As you may know, Fonolo is based here in Toronto, and CBC is our major national broadcaster. They do great work and have a wonderful radio program called Spark. It’s got a sol...
When Raising Money…
When raising money for your startup, there will be times when the person you pitch for an investment will end up giving you advice. Sometimes great advice. And there are times when the person you go to for advice will end up becoming an investor in your company. Ive experienced both. Knowing this, when raising money for your startup, you may want to identity specific potential investors and go to them first for their advice and their coaching on the best way to pitch your startup to other inve...
How Badly Will Chrome Hurt Firefox?
If you listen to the fine folks at Google, they universally love Firefox. In fact, many of them agonized over Google’s decision to create its own browser because they didn’t want to damage the scrappy open-source rival that has given IE fits. (Wired has the inside story of Chrome’s creation.) Nevertheless, Google decided it had no choice but to develop Chrome. Now the question is how badly will Chrome damage Firefox. Will Firefox users abandon ship because Chrome is simply shin...
How Badly Will Chrome Hurt Firefox?
If you listen to the fine folks at Google, they universally love Firefox. In fact, many of them agonized over Google’s decision to create its own browser because they didn’t want to damage the scrappy open-source rival that has given IE fits. (Wired has the inside story of Chrome’s creation.) Nevertheless, Google decided it had no choice but to develop Chrome. Now the question is how badly will Chrome damage Firefox. Will Firefox users abandon ship because Chrome is simply shin...
The Telecoms Cool Wall
Is your telco sub-zero? Read More… ...
Google Open Sources Skia Graphics Engine
I know I know… by now the world doesn’t need yet another Google Browser blog post, with yet another news item or a hands on review. How about something different, even though it was buried deep inside the Google Chrome announcement? As part of the Chrome release, Google open sourced a big portion of Android’s graphic engine code. This code comes from the Skia Graphics Engine that was developed by Skia Inc., a company Google acquired in 2005. It was based in Chapel Hill, North...
Skype account hijackings?
"We’re still trying to understand how the attackers are commandeering the accounts. There are no reports of phishing emails or other attempts at social engineering. And the Skype client encrypts usernames and passwords during the login process, making a man-in-the-middle attack unlikely." Skype ignores PayPal siphoning hijack scheme Dan Goodin of The Register Skype forum threads on this go back to late July 2008: Password changed while NOT on Skype; Skype account hacked...
Digital TV Transition about To Begin; Fish Tanks on Tap
Next Monday, a group of public officials and broadcasters will gather in Wilmington, N.C., with little more to do than wait for the phones to ring. At noon that day, Wilmington stations will shut off their old television signals and broadcast only in digital, potentially leaving thousands of older televisions unusable. Wilmington is the first U.S. city to switch to digital-only television broadcasts and is doing it five months early as a test of the strategy the government and broadcasters have...
Ultrasound Makes Virtual Objects Real
The power of ultrasonic waves has been harnessed to produce “virtual” objects in mid-air. The field of haptics — integrating computing and the sense of touch — has been around for some time, but has required gloves or mechanical devices to impart a sense of feeling. Now, a team of Japanese researchers has developed a system that uses focused ultrasound to do the job, and its inventors may soon commercialize the approach. With the expansion in multimedia on the web, o...
NebuAd Loses CEO, Won’t Admit Defeat
After layoffs last month and an Associated Press article today pointed out that NebuAd has little or no future based on its business model of using deep packet inspection technology to insert advertising into a consumer’s web site based on their surfing habits, the company lost CEO Bob Dykes. Dykes joined VeriFone as its chief financial officer. It’s a shame Dykes left because unlike the CEO of Phorm, a U.K firm touting a similar business model, Dykes actually struck me as a legitim...
We Have a New CEO!
Just like that, the summer of 2008 has come to an end here in the U.S. (though gratefully, San Francisco is only going to get warmer over the next 60 days.) Summer is the one time when the business community, that of Silicon Valley in particular, pauses a bit to refresh and recharge. No such break for us – we have been toiling away, working hard to put together Mobilize, our next-generation mobile conference. (Get your tickets here.) One person that’s been in the trenches throughout is ...
Apple Looks to Rock with New Prods Next Week
Apple has sent out invitations for a music-related event next week, and the smart money is on new iPods. The invitation, titled “Let’s Rock,” went out this morning inviting media to the Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts in San Francisco next Tuesday at 10 a.m. PDT. Rumors have been building for weeks that Apple is set to introduce new iPods at what will be its fourth September iPod event in as many years. Many have been expecting Apple to hold a September iPod-relat...
Embotics Releases Free Tool to Fight VM Sprawl
Virtualization promises the effortless creation of new servers. Unfortunately, that’s also its downfall: Make enough virtual machines, and you’re bound to lose some. Ottawa, Canada-based VM management startup Embotics wants to help system administrators manage all those servers with a free tool called VScout, released today, that tags, tracks and predicts virtual machine sprawl. Sprawl happens because, unlike their physical cousins, virtual machines aren’t unique. Physical mac...
Why Did Google Abandon Firefox?
Today Google unveiled Chrome, an open-source web browser built for web apps. The release begs the question: What happened to its relationship with Mozilla, its Mountain View, Calif.-based neighbor and formerly close collaborator on Firefox, the open-source upstart trying (and to some extent succeeding) to take a piece out of Internet Explorer? In addition to providing the majority of the non-profit Mozilla’s revenue through a deal to be the default search engine for the Firefox browser, G...
What Are Web Surfers Hiding?
By now, Google Chrome’s features are being closely dissected but one thing that struck me about the press conference earlier today was the focus on a feature called InCognito, which lets computer users have private surfing sessions that leave no tracks of where they’ve been and what they’ve done. InCognito comes hot on the heels of a feature within IE8 Beta called InPrivate that lets you do the exact same thing. It’s anonymous surfing. What I want to know is what people a...
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News, opinions and announcements about fast changing communication tools and technologies, from various blogs and ezine.