Archive for October 7th, 2008
1 Billion Wi-Fi Gadgets by 2012?!
The number of electronic gadgets equipped with Wi-Fi chips could more than triple from the 294 million in the market in 2007 to — get this! – 1 billion by 2012, according to a report from the research firm In-Stat. The fastest growing gadget group? Mobile handsets. In-Stat said lower prices on Wi-Fi-equipped devices and more robust batteries had been the key ingredients in the technology’s growth. Digital TVs also are expected to use Wi-Fi in the future, the report...
Sarah Palin Eyeglasses Best Sellers?
I was in Pearle Vision today looking to buy some new glasses with my new prescription, when I overheard two female customers asking about Sarah Palin’s trendy eyewear. The lightweight, titanium, rimless rectangular frames were made for her by Home Optics, a retailer in Chugiak, Alaska. Sarah Palin’s eyeglasses are custom made, but based on the Kawasaki 704 series and the color is 34 gray, if you’re interested in owning your own pair. I asked the Pearle Vision employee if they ...
Why Digg Should Buy StumbleUpon
From left: StumbleUpon Backers Brad O Over the past few weeks, speculation has surfaced that StumbleUpon, a social media utility that was acquired by eBay in April 2007 for around $75 million, was back on the market. But as TechCrunch, which first reported the story citing an unnamed source “with knowledge of the sale process,” noted late last week, eBay isn’t willing to lose money on its purchase of the toolbar maker that enables the collaborative discovery and recommendati...
BlackBerry Mac Media Sync on its Way
Am sure you know the feeling … Feelin’ left in the dust while all your Outlook-loving PC friends get all the cool BlackBerry stuff? Well, RIM has been hard at work on the Mac side of things, and here’s a chance to see what’s on the way — the first look at BlackBerry Media Sync for Mac. This isn’t a final version so don’t get too depressed that the options are pretty limited at this time, but it least gives you an idea of what’s happening. Gre...
Jeff Pulver: Live at the Acropolis
On Saturday afternoon, after Stream 08, together with Dror Gill, I caught up with George Tziralis (@gtzi) and his friend, @KCorax) from Open Coffee for a personal tour of the Acropolis. Special thanks to Dror for filming and posting this video. (George Tziralis (@gtzi), Jeff Pulver, @kccorax and Dror Gill) Tags: Athens, Acropolis, Stream08, Dror Gill, George Tziralis, Jeff Pulver ...
The MMO Post-Launch Period: Do’s and Don’ts
The massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) business is a lucrative one, as consumers typically first pay for the game, then are charged a monthly fee of $10-$15 to keep playing it. At least that’s the case for huge productions like industry leader World of Warcraft, and despite what some people say, it’s a model that still works. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to build a sustainable business; many MMOs fail during the crucial 1-2 months following their launch. However, ...
Kineto Gets $15.5M for Femtocell Push
Kineto Wireless is like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps going and going. Today the Milpitas, Calif.-based startup said it has raised $15.5 million in additional capital. The round, which included funding from Motorola as part of a broader commercial relationship with the handset maker’s home and networks mobility business, also involved Kineto’s existing investors Oak Investment Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Venrock, Seapoint Ventures and InterDigital. An earlier investment fro...
What Ever Happened to Evite?
During the dot-com boom, Evite was “it” when it came to online invitations. Everyone seemed to use it to the point where Evite was synonymous with organizing events on the Web. Then, Evite was acquired by IAC/Ticketmaster in early 2001, and subsequently disappeared into the bowels of Barry Diller’s online empire. I hadn’t thought about Evite - or, for that matter, used it - until getting an e-mail today from MyPunchBowl.com, a relatively new online invitation service try...
Verizon Loses VoIP Patent case to Cox Communications
Rich Tehrani writes a great story with some historical context on how Verizon lost a VoIP patent case (on all 6 patent counts) to Cox Communications. Unfortunately, a bit too late for Vonage which paid millions to settle their patent case with Verizon. Really though the large telcos are the winners here and consumers are the losers. The US patent system continues to be a barrier to true innovation and consumers are being hurt — severely so in some cases — by large companies who use ...
September Media Roundup
After a pretty quiet summer work-wise, new projects kept me busy last month, and will keep things going for a while yet. Project work aside, I managed to remain visible with the media, and turned up in a handful of stories. Iristel’s IP Mobility offering Mitel/InterTel deal revisited “Bell’s Customers Left Wanting For Information” VoIP market outlook Note - soft copies available where online versions not accessible. With conferences gearing up again, that means press re...
snom m3 review
The snom m3 SIP wireless (DECT) phone is one of my favorite VoIP phones. I’ve been testing and reviewing it for a few months but haven’t had time to write up the review until now. First, let me point out that the problem with IP-PBXs is they typically give you a desk phone or a softphone with no real mobility options to walk around, which is critical in some vertical markets, such as retail and manufacturing. Even sales professionals want the flexibility to take calls while roaming...
Wholesale Internet Bandwidth Prices Keep Falling
Sure it is not like the early 2000s when those crooks from Enron were driving the prices of bandwidth down into the ground, but even today prices on Internet Bandwidth continue to fall. If you are a consumer, there is a good chance you are wondering what is Om talking about: after all broadband service providers like Comcast and Time Warner are talking about putting the meter on bandwidth they serve up to residential subscribers. What I am talking about is wholesale Internet bandwidth that is s...
A Look Back at Stream 08 in Athens
Stream is WPP’s invitation-only, free-form, camp-like, super-democratised, extreme (non-virtual) social networking, anti-conference. (from the Stream website) — I was one of the guests at Stream 08, a very special un-conference co-hosted by my friend Yossi Vardi and his friend, Sir Martin Sorrell that took place October 2-4 in Athens which brought together some pretty amazing people from the creative, media and technology industries around the world. The format of Stream embrace...
AMD Ditches Fabs to Stay Alive
It’s been a long time coming, but AMD said this morning that it has entered into a transaction with the Advanced Technology Investment Company of Abu Dhabi to create an independent semiconductor manufacturing foundry called The Foundry Company. As part of the spin out of AMD’s fabrication plants into this separate entity, AMD raised $1 billion in capital and got rid of about $1.3 billion in debt. The move has been anticipated for over a year as AMD has struggled to stay afloat amid ...
BroadSoft Connections 2008 - Day 1
This is my third BroadSoft Connections event, from what Ive seen during Day 1, it gets better every year. BroadSoft is ten years old, and this is their sixth Connections event (my third, including last year). The events keep getting larger, not just because their customer base keeps growing (and with that, their partner network), but they also have a growing sense of confidence as a market leader. Ten years is a long time for companies in the IP communications world, and BroadSoft is, of cour...
Five Questions with….Social Mention
A week or so ago, I wrote a post about Social Mention, a start-up out of Ottawa that does social media search - blogs, micro-blogs, comments, news, video, etc. To learn more about the company, I fired off some questions to founder Jon Cianciullo. Q: Can you tell me about Social Mention’s roots? Who’s behind it and what was the inspiration to create it? A: The idea for Social Mention isn’t wholly original. The web has a lot of search engines, but the problem is most of them sea...
Here’s a Tweet
Congress joins the Web 2.0 world thanks to a bill pushed by some grass roots groups like this one and that one. There are Congressmen already using Twitter. They are listed here. You can watch them with this widget: Now there is an open source microblogging service like Twitter called Identica. CNET has the interview with Identica. A further explanation about Identica and Laconia are here. With all the buzz about Twitter, businesses have a platform for creating an internal app. I think people p...
Cellular Numbers
Broadband Reports discusses NPD Group data about iPhone conversion. “Nearly half of new AT&T iPhone customers switched from Verizon Wireless, another 24 percent switched from T-Mobile, and 19 percent switched from Sprint. iPhone smartphone share jumped from 11% to 17% of the market with the 3G’s launch.” T-Mobile can probably keep some folks from switching with their sold out Android G-phone, but what has Sprint got? Actually, they have the Blackbeery Bold, Curve and Palm ...
Interviews Coming Soon
I realize that I have several interviews in the backlog. I apologize for that but between travel and consulting, I just cannot find the 2 or 3 hours per interview it takes to write an adequate post. I will get to them hopefully next week when I am in CT. Tags: apologize, interview Related Entries TrackBacks | Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | On Rad’s Radar? Home | Permalink: Interviews Coming Soon Tags: apologize Copyright On Rad’s Radar? ...
Do We Need a Digital Bill of Rights?
TechCrunch, much like the Digital Freedom Campaign, believes we need a Digital Bill of Rights to serve as “a consistent policy governing everything from Internet Protocol regulations to intellectual property on the Web.” The Digital Freedom Campaign focuses on the first three issues laid out in the TechCrunch piece – “The Right to Use and Reuse Content,” “The Right to Control Digital Property On Your Own Device” and “The Right to the Free Flow of...
Is Home Automation Market Set To Go Boom?
The number of home automation systems — both professionally installed and DIY — will reach more than 4 million in 2013, says ABI Research. The Home Automation and Security Report says the market will grow more than 50 times its current size in five years. There were 237,000 systems that shipped in 2007. The study attributes the growth to new approaches: “Mainstream” systems based on standardized technologies and packaged components Home automation as a ...
Cross-Platform Social Gaming Now On the iPhone
Social Line Connect is a simple iPhone game with a cross-platform backbone. The free app, which looks similar to Connect Four, was added to the App Store over the weekend. The real point of the no-frills game is playing it with friends — even if they don’t own an iPhone. To that end, it’s a also proof-of-concept title for SocialDeck, a new middleware startup that’s created a server architecture for people to play games across several platforms. Based on the premise that ...
Is It Time for 3D TV?
With such television makers as Samsung and Panasonic unveiling flat-screen sets that are capable of displaying 3-D content, the format is widely considered the next leap forward in TV technology. So far, 3-D programming has been about stunts and gimmicks rather than an earnest play to engage viewers on a deeper level. With growing competition from other media, however, it may be time for the television industry to push forward with 3-D. The technological advances are the necessary f...
Bailout Blues
Last Week “We’ll surely fail If you don’t bail,” Said Wall Street to the gov. “The Dow’ll crash, Without your cash. Send a trill our way.” The gov, it caved, And quickly gave, The bankers all they craved. This Week “We gave you cash, But the Dow did crash, Oh Wall Street,” cried the gov. “We never said, Oh friendly Fed, What would happen if you gave.” var OutbrainPermaLink=’http:...
Will Amazon Ditch Bill Me Later After eBay Takes Over?
Today eBay said it would spend $945 million to buy online payment company Bill Me Later, but the folks over at Amazon.com aren’t likely to welcome eBay as Bill Me Later’s new corporate overlords. Amazon holds an equity stake in the payment processing company and is its top customer — with competitor eBay moving to buy it, Amazon has some thinking to do. Amazon doesn’t have a board seat at Bill Me Later, and as such was probably not involved in the acquisition talks. The...
RIP: Cheap Wireless Broadband From AT&T
A few weeks ago we wrote about ways to get cheap wireless broadband, including an ingenious tip from Pocketables on how to use AT&T’s prepaid GoPhone service to get unlimited access for $20 a month. Well, Phone News tells us that option will be cut off as of Nov. 12th, which is a damn shame. They offer up a few alternatives, but those appear to involve way more work. ...
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News, opinions and announcements about fast changing communication tools and technologies, from various blogs and ezine.