Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Future of Radio Is Downloadable. A new station in Berlin is attempting to redefine music broadcasting for the interconnected internet age. The key will be MP3s and cell phones, not the old-fashioned radio. By Jason Walsh. [Wired News] 9:35:44 AM

National Wireless ID Cards. CNet's Declan McCullagh breaks it down one time like they used to in 1984, when men were women, and the gradual erosion of anonymity was just an ironically distant rumbling. It seems Congress has endorsed a "standardized, electronically readable driver's license" initiative that would effectively end up being a Federal-level ID card. That's bad, I've been told, because such a technology will eventually have something to do with fiery demons taking our jobs as local grocery clerks or something like that. Honestly, as long as they wear flame-retardant aprons, I'm fine with it. It seems that new US Passports will be RFID capable soon already, so I'd imagine a national standard driver's license would be something similar. That's not something they can track you from space with, but that's why we have satellites. From high-tech driver's licenses to national ID cards? [CNet] [Gizmodo] 12:40:27 AM

My presentation @ NARUC today.... ...is available for download by clicking here. Feedback is always appreciated! (posted using EVDO while onboard Delta Shuttle flight 1964.) [The Jeff Pulver Blog] 12:38:12 AM

EuroTelcoblog on The Deals. EuroTelcoblog takes a spin on the Lucent XTEN collaboration, while linking Skype in the Motorola camp. I see the need for open source, open switchboard and open standards connectivity.Unless we work towards true interoperability we are facing a Balkanization of telephony... [VoIP Watch] 12:37:28 AM

Teleo Introduces Personal, Portable VoIP Service Pushing. Teleo Introduces Personal, Portable VoIP Service. In many ways, from what I can see, this is unified PC Centric calling and messaging all rolled into one. It's going to get coverage because it's at demo, a key hype event that... [VoIP Watch] 12:36:27 AM

Xten's new LiveEye XCAP server wins Product of the Year Award. Customer Inter@ction Solutions Magazine selects Xten for Product of the Year Award. Xten's new eyeBeam 1.1 SDK is now shipping with the LiveEye XCAP server source code and binaries for Linux and BSD operating systems. The new eyeBeam v1.1 SDK makes use of XCAP (XML Configuration Access Protocol) for storage of centralized buddy lists and remote configuration routines. The eyeBeam SDK also comes with a basic Presence Agent module for SER [SIP express Router by iptel.org]. XCAP servers and Presence Agents are necessary components for any carrier or enterprise looking to build an Instant Messaging infrastructure using Open Standards. One of the big selling points of XCAP is that it allows buddy lists to be stored centrally rather than on the local machine. WebDAV also performs this function and is another technology supported in the eyeBeam 1.1 SDK. We are delighted to see the LiveEye XCAP server winning these awards. This is one of the only XCAP servers available today, winning this award says a great deal about Xten's commitment to new open standards technology and the quality of our work. We felt it was important for Xten to ship a free XCAP server with eyeBeam 1.1, mainly for testing purposes. Alternative XCAP servers are few and far betwen and very costly. Xten will eventually contribute this server to the open source community and the company does not foresee supporting this product commercially. This is the second Product of the Year Award Xten has won for 2004. The first award was for the eyeBeam 1.1 Softphone and SDK presented by Internet Telephony Magazine, both are very well respected publications in the industry. [SIPthat.com] 12:34:17 AM

VoIP & WiFi. Hmm, you have to wonder if these stand alone VoWLAN phones will grow the legs required before 3G hits. If we are getting 200-400 Kbps on a mobile phone, PDA and alike who will want to cart around yet another device to get the same service? I have toted my fair share of devices around and I can safely say, unless it's small enough and does it all, I ain’t interested. Give me a Dual mode Pocket PC / GSM device with a SIP softphone anyday. [SIPthat.com] 12:32:37 AM

Google gets Voogle. Well I guess it was inevitable, Google has seemingly alluded to its plans to get into VoIP and IP communications. It would make perfect sense for the big G to build and IM client with VoIP, Video and Presence. Their massive appeal could amount to tens of millions of end points will little effort. Another competitor for Skype, let's hope they choose to go with open standards! more... [SIPthat.com] 12:31:44 AM

Xten Linux Softphone - Big Hit!. Wow! is all I can say. When I posted the news about the Xten Linux softphone beta here about a month ago I did not expect the avalanche of requests to join that beta program that soon followed and continue today. With this in mind the production version of the free SIP softphone "X-Lite" for Linux will be made available on or about Valentine's Day [Feb.14]. Until then, all of you early-early adopters can send your requests to linuxbeta at xten.com in order to get into the beta program, we could sure use your help kicking the bugs out. Early summer 2005 you will see the eyeBeam SDK for Linux [plus Mac OS X, Windows SDK available now]. We have lots in store for 2005, some VERY exciting projects that will have global impact, stay tuned for that. [SIPthat.com] 12:30:14 AM

DIY TV. The New York Times writes: "Homemade cable boxes. Episodes swiped off the Web. TV is becoming a do-it-yourself affair, and the industry is terrified." The members of the MythTV community, who now do not have to pay monthly fees to rent set-top boxes or digital video recorders, have plenty of more mischievous company in trying to outwit the television industry. Millions of viewers are now watching illegal copies of television programs - even full seasons copied from popular DVD's - that are flitting about the Internet, thanks to other new programs that allow users to upload and download the large files quickly. And entrepreneurial souls are busily concocting even newer applications, including one that searches the Internet for illegal copies of any television shows you may desire and automatically downloads them to your computer. These high-tech tricks address desires that have become standard in an age of instant media gratification: the desire to watch what you want, when and how you want it. And they're turning television - traditionally beamed into homes at the convenience of the broadcast and cable networks - into something more flexible, highly portable and commercial free. Not surprisingly, the repercussions - particularly the rapidly growing number of shows available for the plucking online - terrify industry executives, who remember only too well what Napster and other file-sharing programs did to the music industry. They fret that if unchecked, rampant trading of files will threaten the riches of the relatively new and surprisingly lucrative television DVD business. It could endanger sales of television shows to international markets and into syndication. And it could further endanger what for the past 50 years has been television's economic linchpin: the 30-second commercial. [E M E R G I C . o r g] 12:29:45 AM

Sony Ericsson Z800i, similar to Robin Hood, takes from Vodafone and gives to the world. A while back, Sony Ericsson announced the V800, a 3G clamshell that while totally awesome, is offered exclusively through Vodafone. Well through the clever act of using a different letter of the alphabet, this same great phone will get into more hands under the name Z800i. This bad mutha will be available in the second quarter, and it brings quite a bit to the party. Bluetooth, Infrared, or USB will give users synchronization capability with their PC. A 1.3 megapixel camera will rotate along the hinge of the handset, and the photos will be stored on Memory Stick PRO Duo cards, with support for up to 1GB. The music player inside the Z800i will support MP3/AAC/M4A formats and playback with stereo sound and Sony’s MegaBass technology. While it’s early in the first day of 3GSM, we think it’s safe to call the Z800i the RAZR V3 killer. [Engadget] 12:28:13 AM

Companies to Demo Wi-Fi, GSM Roaming. A group of companies that have banded together to work on mobile voice over IP will be demonstrating handoffs between GSM and Wi-Fi voice over IP networks at the 3GSM conference: BridgePort, IBM, PCTEL, and Verisign are some of the companies involved in a group called MobileIGNITE which is supporting this type of roaming. These companies are supporting Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a commonly used voice over IP interface, to deliver voice over Wi-Fi. It appears that these companies are mainly targeting enterprise or government users. So the end users might have a combined Wi-Fi/cellular phone and with this solution, they could use the handset to make and take voice calls over their corporate WLAN. This is different than the companies involved with UMA, which allows roaming between Wi-Fi and cellular networks but relies on existing components of the cellular network in order to allow for authentication and billing and other services. I've long thought that while the idea behind what MobileIGNITE is doing is good, the mobile operators will resist it. They would much rather support Wi-Fi/cellular roaming the UMA way, where they have the most possible control over the call from end to end. They want to charge for every voice minute, whether the voice call is handled over Wi-Fi or GSM. But from what I understand about Bridgeport's model, the MobileIGNITE companies want to offload voice traffic onto the enterprise WLAN because it's cheaper for the company to support those minutes than pay the GSM operator. Enterprises will have to work out the cellular/Wi-Fi roaming with their mobile operator in order for this to work and that negotiation is one that I think will be difficult.... [Wi-Fi Networking News] 12:25:02 AM

Municipalities: Chaska Succeeds, FCC Avoids, Journal Praises. Russell Shaw at Corante interviews Chaska's IS Manager: Chaska spent about $800,000 in initial capital outlay, and used a privately sourced $1,000,000 loan to cover early expenses. They'll repay that loan within a year--they launched in Nov. 2004--and expect to have a return on their investment within 18 months of launch. The service has about 2,000 of 18,000 residents subscribing across the town's 250 square miles, all of which offer coverage. The town stayed under the radar, avoiding major incumbent complaints. The town expects to grow to 35,000 residents within five years. The FCC's Wireless Broadband Task Force avoids any mention of the word municipal in their initial report. It's a good report, encouraging the growth of broadband wireless, but all of the projects they mention are private or public/private in which a city provides some resources or a contract to a private firm. There are no public-only efforts mentioned. The Wall Street Journal connects the dots between wires and muni network opposition: Lee Gomes mildly opines that opposition to municipal networks, particularly wireless ones, are entrenched in incumbents desire to keep making their wire base pay. Philadelphia's position has been misrepresented, the city says, because it plans to make municipal utility poles and other access available, but contract out the building, operation, and risk to private enterprise.... [Wi-Fi Networking News] 12:24:11 AM

Zend Studio 4.0 introduced. Zend Technologies Inc. on Monday introduced Zend Studio 4.0, a new version of their PHP integrated development environment (IDE). Zend Studio runs on multiple operating systems including Mac OS X. [MacCentral News] 12:22:44 AM

Motorola unveils first iTunes-capable cell phone. Motorola on Monday announced that its first iTunes-compatible 3G cell phone will be available in the fourth quarter. Dubbed E1060, the new model will feature a mobile version of iTunes music player capable of carrying a limited, but as yet undefined, number of songs. It will also include video download and playback capability, a color display, a 1.3-megapixel camera with 8x zoom, two-way video calling, an integrated speakerphone and dedicated Internet browser keys. Video plays at VGA (640 x 480) resolution. [MacCentral News] 12:21:44 AM