August, 2004 — Tech News and Analysis

Archive for August 2004

08/18/2004 Randomly Speaking

Pete Rojas’ favorite IPOD headphones Engadget’s guide to Olympics for digitally enabled Bubble Generation and others have promoted this idea which at first blush sounds like infomercials to me, except in reverse. Still will wait and see how it turns out. SBC is tussling with … Read More »

Sidekicked?

T-Mobile Sidekick II Review: Best Phone I’ll Never Buy proclaims Gizmodo-zilla Joel Johnson “I think it’s probably one of the best mobile devices I’ve ever used. And I can say, with total conviction, that I will never, ever purchase one and neither should you. In … Read More »

 
 

If there was one thing I often yearned for was a way to make BlackBerry work with a Mac. That was the only reason I envied people who had Windows PC machines. No longer, for one email from Tim Googin made my day. Tim’s company, … Read More »

Portable audio from Turtle Beach

The folks at Turtle Beach have always had innovative audio products for the desktop and now they’ve released a USB audio solution for laptops. The Audio Advantage Micro runs for $30 and is a tiny USB audio card that provides simulated 3D audio … Read More »

Seven New Technologies That Change Everything

Forget about science-fiction fantasies. These innovations are already here, and they’re about to hatch some of tomorrow’s biggest business opportunities. Breakthroughs are disruptive for a reason,” says Alex Pang, research director at the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif. “They sneak up on … Read More »

SF, the new gossip town…or not

Sometimes, I just wish, San Francisco would stop trying. To be New York. Chris Nolan has a nice big blog post on the celebrity culture, the launch of SFist and well other so called gossip publications. Here is my observation: most of the gossip in … Read More »

India’s wireless culture

My recent trip to India opened my eyes to how Indians were using wireless technologies in various different spheres of life. I saw a wireless-enabled ATM machine on a ferry, and wireless-enabled delivery boys with credit card machines. Even arranged marriages have become mobile-enabled. Read More »

Fear of an ITunes Planet

PaidContent links to a report by Dario Betti, senior analyst at Ovum who has an interesting take on the whole issue of mobile music. “Operators run the risk of strategic paralysis – they are being pulled in two different … Read More »

Broadband Literary edition

Some random links, which I found interesting, but instead of trying to come-up with some clever taglines, here are very befitting classics that do a better job. I would love to get your response if you find this attempt funny, or unfunny. Like I care! To … Read More »

Meet the next FCC chairwoman

Becky Klein is getting all the money she needs to run for what is going to be a futile run for Congress, and most of it is coming from large phone and energy companies. Why is she getting all this money? Because according to The … Read More »

Broadband overtakes narrowband

Sixty-three million Web users connected to the Internet via broadband during July 2004 as compared to 61.3 million accessing the Internet through narrowband. Overall growth for broadband connections rose 47 percent year-over-year, while narrowband dropped 13 percent annually. “Despite a plateau in the growth of U.S. … Read More »

Sage of Omaha likes Comcast

One thing you know about rich people, they know how to get richer. For instance, when rest of the junta is finding little of value in cable stocks, the rich guys are buying them. You know the Cox family wants to do a buyout of … Read More »

More Must Reads

A little while ago, I did a cover story for Business 2.0, Do this Get Rich. One of the business ideas we proposed was a “broadband store.” Well no one has stepped up to the plate as yet, but looks like people are figuring out … Read More »

Venture Wire, normally a bastion of “oatmeal” tasting reports has a rather risque bulletin today. They write, “Looks like investors in Kleiner Perkins’ underperforming Fund IX – and Sequoia’s somewhat better performing Fund VIII – will have to wait a little bit longer to see the … Read More »

Port Blocking, while not something that is part of popular lexicon, is quickly becoming a VoIP nightmare. Earlier one had found that AT&T CallVantage users were having problems hooking-up with those using Adelphia and Frontier networks. Now there is word, that OOL, Telus are … Read More »

Business Week reports that finally Nortel might be coming clean with its investors, hopefully tomorrow. The magazine says it could be a day of reckoning for the company, as execs plan to bare all and tell about “limited preliminary unaudited results” for the first and … Read More »

Business 2.0: I did a long Q&A with Juniper Networks’ chief executive Scott Kriens about his company, his decision to buy NetScreen Technologies, and the future of broadband. Why Scott? Well you have read oodles of coverage about Cisco and its new router, CRS-1 … Read More »

Business 2.0: The slow demand for LCD televisions has turned into a boon for small screen devices like handheld computers and gaming devices. This is exact opposite of the situation a few months ago when Nintendo and Handspring, both complained loudly about why LCD shortages … Read More »

Umair points to an interesting list of Urban Games John Gruber defends Apple’s digital music strategy. As always he is right on the money. Opportunities at the bottom of the pyramind. You read this in my story, Rise of The Instant Company. Nice … Read More »

If you set the bar low enough, everything exceeds your expectations. For instance, I assume as a reporter most people would try to spin me. If they don’t, it makes me smile and turns my day into a great day. Same is the case with cellular … Read More »

Dan Gillmor is as knowledgable as anyone when it comes to the topic of technology in journalism. His first book, we the media, is a fascinating and clear-eyed look at how technology has changed the way journalism works. His book explores how … Read More »

My six questions for Sonos. Tom Cullen, vice president of marketing for Sonos (a Santa Barbara, California-based start-up working on a wireless digital music system which may or may not have derived some of its inspiration from Apple’s iPod). answered them. Read More »

Need to send a text message to someone but don’t know their phone’s email address, or even what carrier they’re using? Don’t fret- teleflip it.Teleflip is a free service that let’s you send text messages from your PC to anyone’s cell phone, even when all you … Read More »

Want to keep up with the Olympics in Athens but tired of all the fluff you have to wade through to get real information? Check out the coverage that Wikipedia has ongoing. It’s current, to the point, and very well organized, just … Read More »

Engadget points to a New York Times article about Real’s half-off sale. Given that record executives would pimp their mama out for dollars, it is clear that Real is eating all the costs. Wonder what it will do to Real’s bottomline next quarter. The … Read More »

You know a platform is getting popular when there are hacks and cracks, and of course trojans and viruses for that particular platform. Symbian is the latest. Mobiletracker is running a story onTrojan horse for the Series 60 phones.Sophos, an anti-virus maker, has warned of … Read More »

I have spent the entire day reporting for a story I am currently working on. But between calls I managed to get a handle on the latest attempt by Bells to part us from our hard earned dollars. It is happening in the guise of what … Read More »

The Perfect VC: Operator or Investor? asks Bill Burnham, a general partner at Softbank. I have known Bill for a long time, and this is something he has often wondered about along. In our conversations, he often wistfully questioned the conventional wisdom: “Conventional wisdom has … Read More »

Eric Lin writing in TheFeature says its 1999 all over again. “When PDAs and mobile phones were young, companies big and small made the mistake of assuming that users wanted the same things on their mobiles as on their desktops. This year the direction has … Read More »

I have been running the Sony U-70 long enough now that I am very comfortable with the software arsenal I am using on a regular basis. Every program displays well on the small screen of the Sony and interaction with the pen is very … Read More »

Google’s bumper IPO not withstanding, the recent hiccup in the stock markets is taking its toll on the IPO market. Most companies are canceling their IPOs. The latest one is Metro PCS, a small mobile operator based in Dallas. The company had earlier run … Read More »

Totaltele.com is running a poll on who are the most influential people in telecom. The interesting thing is that 5 of the top 10 are non-telecom figures. I am glad to see folks from China, India and Brazil represented in the list. Hey these guys … Read More »

TechCentralStation has an interesting essay on Google’s messy IPO process. It offers really good lessons for tech companies trying to do an IPO. Here are three points they are making: First of all, there’s never a “good time” to go public. Moreover, tech companies — regardless of … Read More »

Hey all of us were clammoring for 212-area code numbers, thinking how cool it would be that if we could all virtually live in Manhattan. Primus is going one step further, and now offering glocalized numbers. For ten bucks a month, you could be virtually … Read More »

Anyone remember Tut Systems? Raise your hand get ready to be spanked – why are you thinking about these aging dinosaurs. ANyway the company relocated, lost ton of money and fell out of the limelight. Looks like they might be making a comeback, thanks to … Read More »

IEEE is undertaking an effort to develop a standard for Broadband Power Lines. “Adding broadband capability to a local power distribution system is relatively straightforward. A computer-router combination and a coupler take the signal from an optical fiber cable as it enters a substation and … Read More »

Bunch of new VoIP handsets – the fixed variety – are coming to market. Chinese manufactures are churning out these suckers by the thousands, and someone is going to start reselling them here in US soon enough. QX001 is a VoIP phone that features … Read More »

Vonage founder Jeffrey Citron is making news again, this time in the pages of Time Magazine. (Internet Calling Google Count) “He’s been sort of a nuisance and a prod,” says Steve Koppman, a telecom analyst with Gartner. “He has proved out the concept in … Read More »

Claria’s cancelled IPO should be giving some chills to investors in rival, 180solutions, a Bellevue, Washington, provider of online advertising services. The company recently received a $40 million infusion from Spectrum Equity Partners, a $3 billion private equity fund. The two companies are … Read More »

Few devices in recent memory have generated the near fanaticism as have the devices that fit in the category of ultra-portable computers (UPCs). Devices like the OQO and Flipstart have whole websites dedicated to these specific machines and they are not even released yet. … Read More »

What’s cooler than this limo (seen here at the Olympics in Athens)? Try this car that belongs to my friend Dean. Now there’s three cool cars with the addition of my friend bk’s ’67 Firebird. Red, yeah! Read More »

Innovative mobile devices are released all the time and there’s a typical type of power user that becomes the early adopter. The drive to have the “latest and greatest” is the driving force that pushes this type of user to try and incorporate … Read More »

Looks like Packet8 is finally getting its marketing sales act together and is beginning to sell its service through mainstream outlets such as CompUSA. Keith sent me this link. $69 for the broadband phone adapter is not such a bad deal. Of course you could … Read More »

Steve Hall points out that Plaxo is drawing the ire of IT/Sysadmins who believe that the company is the culprit behind some Exchange message corruption and instability occuring on their end. It may or may not be true, but seems like this is … Read More »

Yo AOL, here is an answer to all your prayers – this tiny company which will quickly turn your dial-up into “faster than broadband” and for free. This company which calls itself Juice, well is a software download. I am not certain about who these … Read More »

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