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News that's changing the Wireless World!
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Thursday, February 19, 2004 |
Source: Computer World
FDA backs RFID tags to track prescription drugs
The Food and Drug Administration is backing RFID technology as the best way to track prescription drugs and anticipates widespread use of the wireless technology by the health care industry within three years.
Source Link
9:16:23 PM 
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
The Bill for Roaming
Two companies are entering a marketing deal to make it easier for those who roam across hotspots to get a single bill.
Source Link
2:13:14 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Wireless Technologies to Help the Disabled
The Georgia Institute of Technologies is working on developing an array of devices, many of them using wireless technologies, to help disabled people: One system uses GPS, a mobile PC, and headphones to help blind people get around. The user programs a destination into the computer then the computer generates sounds that the user perceives to come from a certain direction. The sounds lead the user to the destination. Another project will make switching on lights or changing channels on the TV easier for people with limited motor control. Users can make certain gestures in front of a panel that beams infrared light at a video camera. When the user breaks the light with a gesture, the movement is translated by a computer which comands a household appliance over a wireless network. The researchers are able to work on these projects due to a $5 million, five year federal grant form the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, which was awarded two years ago....
Source Link
10:22:24 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
PDAs Help Hotel Guests
CareDecision will install its ResidenceWare platform in as many as 65 hotels in the New York area: The deal will start with eight hotels in New York City, including a Days Inn, Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, and Super 8. The platform includes a PDA in each guest room that interacts with the hotel manager over a Wi-Fi network. The PDA can be embedded in the wall behind a screen to avoid damage. Guests can use it to order food from local restaurants, arrange for laundry to be cleaned, and buy tickets for tourist events. The first implementation will include 600 PDAs and ultimately CareDecision thinks the deal will include installation of 5,800 units....
Source Link
10:11:53 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
British Airways Lounges to Get Wi-Fi
BT Openzone will build hotspots in 80 British Airways executive lounges at airports worldwide: The deal will include airports in the U.K. as well as the U.S., Africa, India, and Europe. Some of the airports already have hotspots from BT Openzone, though in public areas....
Source Link
9:56:43 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Interesting Take on Voice Over WLAN
Radioframe is touting its indoor GSM system as better than voice over WLAN: Radioframe sells a platform that extends cellular coverage inside an office building and connects to the office PBX so companies can use their cell phones inside the building. When users are in the building, minutes are cheaper than outside on the wide area cell network. The company's CEO argues that even though usage of the WLAN in the building doesn't cost, the handsets are so much more expensive than cell phones that it makes more sense to use a system like Radioframe's. I did a story a while back on voice over WLAN and found that the handsets cost around the same as standard wired office phones. So the difference could come down to a decision about whether a cell phone offers the same features and functionalities that workers typically want on their phones in the office. Plus, the Radioframe CEO didn't discuss how the costs of deploying and maintaining its network compares to deploying and maintaining a standard WLAN....
Source Link
9:41:34 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
McDonald's Restaurants Down Under Unwire
Telstra said last year that it would build hotspots in McDonald's restaurants and now Wi-Fi is available in 44 restaurants in Australia: Telstra plans to build hotspots in as many as 500 McDonald's over the next 12 to 18 months. McDonald's has been really aggressive in building out Wi-Fi globally, but has yet to make a decision on a single provider in the United States as the company indicated it would....
Source Link
9:30:44 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Austin Works to Trump Starbucks
Partners in Free Wi-Fi, Austin Wireless, and Less Networks are offering free music to hotspots users in Austin: The groups have been working together to help local venues build free hotspots. The offering starts today and will extend through the end of SXSW 2004, the music festival. Hotspot users, who don't pay for access, will be able to listen to more than 500 songs for free. Users must have the iTunes player and the songs are available through Apple iTunes music share. Less Networks sees this as a one-up on an earlier Starbucks offering where visitors could listen to a CD for free. The groups have built 25 locations in Austin since September and have 3,600 registered users. Around 100 people log on to the networks every day. Workers don't charge venues for the help in setting up the networks or the software, which lets venues manage the hotspot....
Source Link
9:08:46 AM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
USA Today Quotes Etherlinx Founder as Everyman
In this well-written, by-the-numbers article explaining Wi-Fi to mainstream readers, John Furrier, one of the founders of Etherlinx, is presented as an average user: I've met and talked with John several times, before and after he left Etherlinx well over a year ago, and he's an experienced Wi-Fi guy. No lack of props to him (and his decision to leave a firm he helped start that became a non-starter), but the reporter should have identified him as a current or former industry member, not an average Joe (or John). John reads this site, so we may get more information on this yet. A few weeks ago, The New York Times covered home Wi-Fi and used as its lead subject Oren Michels, who is the president of WiFinder, identifying him in his full-time day job as the head of a human resources benefits outsourcing firm. Surely there are actual consumers out there....
Source Link
7:44:43 AM
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