Internet 2.0 – Damn the torpedoes and full steam ahead.
March 17, 2006
Well if you are still waiting in the sidelines not sure if this Internet 2.0 stuff is the next big thing or not, then check out this report on the Podcasting company PodTech raising US$5.5M in VC.
Podcasting’s a fad eh?
PictureCloud
March 17, 2006
3G video blogging tool on MSN Spaces or not?
March 17, 2006
This link to a Guardian article on 3UK and MSN.co.uk had me interested to see what I thought was a 3G video upload tool for 3G mobiles to MSN Spaces.
Then I read 3UK’s PR….. seems like this is a 3 month competition for 3UK SeeMeTV participants to get their 3G videos up on a 3UK branded MSN Spaces site only.
The service/campaign starts later this week, so hopefully it is cleared up to whether MSN Spaces users do get video upload capability which would be fantastic.
I’ve experimented with using a great video sharing site, www.youtube.com, to post up some of my Nokia N90 videos, but unfortunately it reduces the clarity of the images too much.
I’m still looking for a video sharing site to show off the great videos the Nokia N90 is capable of.
Microsoft joins Mobile DTV Alliance in US
March 14, 2006
This is a surprise. MocoNews has this link to the announcement from The Mobile DTV Alliance that Microsoft has joined their ranks. I would have thought they would have backed the DMB standard which is more alike to the IPTV technology their streaming media products are headed.
This is great news for the DVB-H standard and hoepfully the US will see this established as the mainstream MobileTV technology.
I’ve experienced both technologies, but I believe DVB-H has the wiinning combination of using a non-congesting seperate RF for delivery with superior image & audio.
When technology marketing goes wrong…
March 9, 2006
Behold the Top Global 3G bridge! It uses new technology terms to do old technology things.
Supposedly this puppy can enable the following
"Podcasters can now afford to podcast live from anywhere at anytime."
So, now you know what happened to webcasting.
Behold! A new oxymoron is born…….
Blog Shopping 2
March 6, 2006
David Koretz of Bluetie has Blogged about the new Gilette Fusion razor. As I know and trust David, his recommendation of a product is superior information to any old world media source.
Which brings about a whole new way to purchase via recommendations from trusted sources, which is "Blog Shopping". 
Blog Shopping
March 6, 2006
I’m vary wary of Blogs that use commission links to point to products they supposedly "recommend". I’ve been syndicated to Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools (a community Blog) for a couple of months now and I was very suspicious early on, but damn if these guys don’t show some very cool stuff!
Recently Kevin has had me drooling over some tools people have recommend on his Blog that I haven’t been able to track down locally and I’m green with envy over.
Like this guy! yeah you may think "WTF!?!?!" but I needed this bloody thing for a project at home on the weekend 🙂
I await riveted to my Bloglines feeds for the next new toy that I must smuggle past the financial controller.
Italian Telco buys Digital TV network
March 6, 2006
3 Italia has to be one of the most innovative 3G Telcos on the planet. They have been thought leaders in 3G for some time now and their latest foray into converging media is just as smart.
The Register has this piece on how 3 Italia has purchased a local TV network, Channel 7, that includes a digital TV license.
MobileTV will only be successful with the right application of technology and content. 3 Italia is heading in the right direction with taking up the Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld (DVB-H) standard.
DVB-H uses a separate radio frequency (RF) system to deliver the digital interactive content. This means that the primary 3G RF is not chocked up with this high bandwidth content.
Using this delivery system will entail a positive user experience which is paramount to depolying this type of mobile service.
Interactive Mobile TV will be one of the greatest services on mobile devices and for some Europeans it will be coming to their hot little hands this year.
1M 3G data cards in the world
March 2, 2006
According to a report that 3G.co.uk points to, there are currently 1 Million 3G data cards on the planet.
NB: This doesn’t include that the majority of 3G mobile phones are also 3G data modems. Therefore a sizeable portion could be utilised as data cards too.
Mobile phones that see.
March 2, 2006
When I was a wee Microserf around 10 years ago I attended one of the company events in the US. In the Bill Gates keynote he brought out on stage one of the research and development gurus to show people what cool technologies were being worked on then.
The guy introduced himself and stated that his work was focused on one goal that was, in the future when he said to his grandchildren that he remembers when computers couldn’t see and they respond "What’s a computer?"
The R&D guy then went and did an amazing demonstration of a PC that could recognise and track facial movements.
So, to see this press release from OKI in Japan that Vodafone Japan will be selling 3G devices that use facial recognition as a security feature on the devices is amazing progress.
The technology works like this,
….considered to be more convenient than password-protected phones, in which users need to input the data to release the lock. FSE can instantly verify the owner with the industry’s fastest authentication speed, as soon as the owner looks into the camera. Because Oki’s authentication method is less likely to be affected by brightness, verification can be done in various situations both indoors and outdoors. To facilitate its face recognition function, the FSE includes functions to detect facial characteristics including the location of the eyes, eyebrows and mouth, and a function to track facial characteristics that calculates the changes in locations, which occur due to changes in facial expressions.
Universal Convergence 