News broke Monday that the FCC has finally given its seal of approval to the HTC Dream handset , which is purported to be the first cell phone to carry Android, Google's open platform for mobile handsets.
Nth Air, Inc., a provider of next-generation wireless communication services announced today the launch of the Nth Air wireless broadband solution across Denver for delivery of high-capacity video, voice and ...
A glimpse of the new Palm Treo Pro was uploaded -- and quickly removed from -- Palm's Web site.
Research firm Gartner has projected mobile advertising spending will reach $2.7 billion globally this year, jumping a full $1 billion above 2007 levels.
By the end of 2011, Gartner expects that market to grow to $12.8 billion. Furthermore, that impact could be disproportionately higher in the U.S., due to its higher levels of mobile Internet usage.
Driven in part by the greater availability of 3G, but mainly attributable to the ready availability of cheap unlimited data packages, 40 million mobile subscribers are active users of the mobile Internet—roughly 15.6% of all U.S. subscribers. Compared to the U.K. at 12.9% and Italy at 11.9%, a far greater percentage of U.S. mobile users are surfing the mobile Web and exposing them to the advertising embedded within.
As more advertising and marketing dollars make their way to the mobile Web, measuring their impact becomes more important, says Telephony Magazine
Many of the mobile analytics companies use “Web beacons” or “bugs”, a tiny image the size of a pixel embedded in the browser that uniquely identifies a device. But not every device accepts such beacons.
Bango, a third-party mobile content distributor, developed a mobile analytics tool that reads unique identifiers, such as unique parameters offered by different phones, and can peg 99% of the devices traversing its customers’ sites as unique users. Once those identifiers are in place, Bango can use them to develop specific customer profiles.
Omniture uses DotMobi’s DeviceAtlas index to identify the make and model of the phone. DeviceAtlas contains attribute information for more than 5,500 devices around the world, including devices like the Apple iPhone, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, Nintendo DS Lite and Amazon Kindle. The database includes anything with a browser, including a Samsung refrigerator. Omniture then attempts to uniquely identify the owner of that phone.
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White spaces are the static between channels. According to Google on a new Web site promoting the Free the Airwaves initiative, more than three-quarters of those airwaves are not being used. Google cofounder Larry Page has described the potential as "Wi-Fi on steroids."
'A Revolution in Wireless Services'
"This vast public resource could offer a revolution in wireless services of all kinds, including universal wireless Internet," the Free the Airwaves site proclaims. It adds that the FCC will soon make a decision about whether this unused spectrum should be made available for public use, and asks visitors to sign its petition and "spread the word."
Supporters of using the white spaces contend that services not offered today, such as universal wireless online access, could be provided. Google's newest effort, like the one in favor of open networks, joins with other companies and with public-interest groups.
The Free the Airwaves consumer effort is now allied in the same cause as the White Space Coalition, an industry group whose members include Google, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, EarthLink, Samsung and others. The coalition has developed a device that, with "smart" reception that intelligently separates received signals, can utilize white spaces for such goals as 80Mbps download speeds to homes.
Such access could also dramatically affect broadband access in rural and smaller markets. Opponents, such as the TV industry's Association for Maximum Service Television, say that utilizing white spaces will interfere with transmissions by licensees of the channels.
'Clear Business Interest'
Google has had some success this year in lobbying the FCC. After efforts by an alliance led by Google, the FCC required that the auctioned C block of...
The Federal Communications Commission on Monday gave Taiwan-based HTC approval to operate the Android-based smartphone in the U.S. in head-to-head competition with Apple's popular iPhone and its App Store.
Few details about the phone have been made public because of a confidentiality request filed by HTC which asked the FCC to keep several details about the device confidential until Nov. 10. In a written request dated June 18, Dalton Chuang, a senior manager at HTC, asked the FCC to protect "system and equipment description" because public disclosure of the details might be harmful to the company and "would give unfair competitor advantage in the market."
What We Know
There are a few things, however, that have been leaked about the smartphone that will use the Google-backed Android operating system.
The Dream, according to published reports, will support T-Mobile's 3G network, will have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.O, and is three inches wide by five inches long. Additional specs include a large touchscreen with haptic (touch) feedback, a QWERTY keypad, and Internet navigation controls below the touchscreen.
IBB consulting analyst Moe Tanabian told BusinessWeek that T-Mobile will include an application store similar to Apple's App Store. Tanabian, who could not be reached for comment, also said the phone will come preinstalled with Google's ad software and customers who opt to receive ads from Google may be given discounted monthly fees or a discount on the purchase.
Calls to HTC's U.S. headquarters were not returned in time for publication.
John Jackson, a Yankee Group analyst, said the recent negative publicity about poor performance with Apple's iPhone 3G will not give HTC an edge. "That does not mean,...
It's all too easy these days for road warriors to pick up a notebook to shed a few extra pounds, Fiering noted. "It's only when they get on the road that they realize all the compromises they've had to make," she said.
"The ThinkPad X301 manages to follow the industry trend of thin and lighter for traveling workers who don't want to carry any extra weight, while at the same time be able to carry their full office environment anywhere around the world," Fiering added.
The Move to SSD
Housed in an inch-thick case, the X301 weighs less than three pounds. Though the machine has shed weight, Fiering noted, its 13.3-inch screen is a very workable size in comparison to the 12-inch screens on competing models.
The X301 does not employ conventional hard-disk technology. Instead, it features the user's choice of a 64GB or 128GB solid-state drive (SSD), which Fiering says is at the high end of what ultraportable notebook manufacturers now offer.
Though SSD technology adds to the overall cost, Fiering thinks it's worthwhile for certain classes of users. By eliminating the hard drive, "they've taken out a mechanical part that has a high failure rate," she explained.
Underneath the Hood
Featuring a 13.3-inch LED backlit display and ultrathin DVR, the ThinkPad X301 mates an Intel Core 2 Duo processor with DDR3 memory (512MB, 1GB or 2GB) -- a combo that achieves nearly a 20 percent improvement in performance over the ThinkPad X300, Lenovo...
Lorne Lutch: You look like a nice enough fella. What are you doing working for these assholes?
Nick Naylor: I’m good at it. Better at doing this than I ever was at doing anything else.
Lorne Lutch: Aw, hell, son. I was good at shooting VC. I didn’t make it my career.
– Thank You For Smoking
In today’s Wall Street Journal FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says, “Spectrum is very valuable and we want to make sure it’s being used as efficiently as possible. The idea of trying to utilize the ‘white spaces’ from a consumer perspective would be a good win for everyone.”
The Federal Communications Commission will have the final say in the battle between the broadcasters — which fear interference on the airwaves they’ll still be using — and the companies including Google Inc. and Motorola Inc. that want to share the television airwaves, using them for high-speed wireless service that could spur the development of new wireless gadgets.
In September, the FCC is expected to report its findings on tests of prototype “smart radios” that can pinpoint which local broadcast channels are being used and then avoid them.
White-spaces fans see a world in which empty TV channels could be used to deliver cheap, high-speed wireless Web access to consumers without forcing them to buy a latte. They envision installing a few antennas over a wide area to create a “mesh” network that delivers wireless Internet service. Previous efforts to do that with Wi-Fi antennas haven’t been that successful, because their signals are weak and as a result the networks required a large number of antennas.
Four devices designed to figure out which TV channels are in use have been submitted for FCC testing. So far, FCC engineers aren’t talking about their conclusions.
Today, Google is launching a new advocacy campaign, called FreeTheAirwaves.com, an effort by the company to get some traction around white spaces, notes Om Malik.
In March, in an ex parte filing with the FCC (PDF), Google’s Washington-based counsel Richard Whitt advised commissioners that the abundance of unused airspace could provide “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband access to all Americans.”
The broadcasting industry is opposed to white spaces, insisting that the use of spectrum will lead to harmful interference. But the engineering and ethics behind the National Association of Broadcasters — which use our airwaves free — seem dubious. Broadcasters have a website called “Interference Zones” that borders on the moronic.
Chief apologist for the NAB, Dennis Wharton, hopes the U.S. digital television standard, ATSC, will work. But converter boxes hooked to rabbit ears may go black. That’s because the ATSC’s gang of four locked out the COFDM broadcast standard which is currently used in almost all the world. COFDM handles ghosts better than ATSC.
That’s why the UK’s FreeView (and WiFi) use COFDM — not 8 VSB-based ATSC. It works with rabbit ears. And 75% or more of over-the-air households in the United States have only set-top antennas.
Verizon Communications executive vice president and former congressman Tom Tauke sided with Broadcasters. He said Thursday that its principal concern was over potential interference to its own customers. Verizon doesn’t offer any services in the television band, however.
In other news, The HTC Dream, the first device to come out of the Open Handset Alliance, was approved Monday by the Federal Communications Commission.
According to documents posted by the FCC on Monday, the HTC Dream has received approval, granting permission for wireless devices to be used in the U.S. (in licensed cellular space).
The documents hosted on the federal commission’s Web site indicate that the HTC dream will operate on the 1700/2100 AWS band, which is T-Mobile’s 3G network. It will also support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0. The Dream will feature a GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/1900 radio. The device will also sport a “jog ball,” which is likely similar to the navigation track ball featured on certain BlackBerry models like the Pearl and the Curve.
Related White Space articles on Dailywireless include; Motorola on Whites Spaces: We’re Good, White Space Field Testing, Google Pitches White Spaces, White Spaces: Now It’s GE, CTIA: Unlicensed White Spaces Bad, 700 MHz Resurrected in White Space, White Space War Continues, White Spaces Prototype: Dead Again, Sprint and T-Mobile Support “White Space” Use and White Space Gets Hot
Want to get every computer in your home on the Internet? Would you like to share music, photo or video files stored on the computers? How about stream movies from a computer to the television? Well, you can do ...
While most of us were were watching the Olympics last week, Yahoo slipped in new location-based technology – dubbed FireEagle (http://fireeagle.yahoo.net). It lets users enter and control information about their location for use by other applications.
FireEagle is an “open platform” for storing and managing information about your location on line. The protocols and methods for allowing developers to access the information in order to build location-awareness into their own applications are “open”. Yahoo has set up a developer program for FireEagle at http://fireeagle.yahoo.net/developer. Telephony Magazine reviews some of its features.
More than fifty software developers have built Fire Eagle functionality into their applications, including – including social networks Brightkite and Loki; GPS and location services Dash and Navizon; blogging platform Movable Type; and Web applications including Dipity, Dopplr, Lightpole and Pownce said they have added location-based features enabled by Yahoo’s FireEagle service.
FireEagle takes the location-awareness of technologies like GPS or cell-tower triangulation and adds a “user-generated” element to it. It also provides user with a greater measure of control over how their location is delivered and shared with others while allowing individuals to add context to their location broadcasts – essentially sharing not only where they are but what they are doing in that moment.
The Fire Eagle mobile site, which you can find at m.fireeagle.com, has been optimized for updating your location through your mobile phone. It brings Fire Eagle’s “Hide me” functionality right where you need it.
FireEagle lets users update location automatically or manually. Users can also decide how much information to share with others – including people and applications.
For developers and service-creators, FireEagle provides a potentially large source of location- and geo-based information about individual users, explains Telephony. It becomes more valuable the more people use it. With popular Yahoo portals and services like Flickr photo sharing, Yahoo Mail and Instant Messaging, it’s already got a head start.
One thing that’s still absent from Apple’s online App Store is a navigation program with voice-based, turn-by-turn directions that utilizes the iPhone 3G’s new GPS receiver. But several of the “bigs” in the business — TomTom, Garmin and Magellan — are interested, says MSNBC. Tom Tom recently completed the purchase of digital mapmaker Tele Atlas, which supplies Google Maps while Nokia recently purchased the other large map maker, Navteq.
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