Tag Archive for: technology

Your Portable Hot Spot: Wi-Fi hot spot in-a-box

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Now you can create your own wi-fi hot spot on the road, on the run and on the fly. The NYTimes’ David Pogue explains and reviews the top three models of a device that’s still in search of its own name. The device is referred to as a “portable hot spot” or as a “cellular gateway” or as a “mobile router.” Some people are even using them instead of their DSL or cable modem so that they can take their connectivity with them and share it with others almost anywhere.

In Case You Thought the Growth of the Web Was Slowing Down…

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Apple’s Web Site Among Fastest Growing. Amongst the big boys at least, the likes of Apple, Google, Amazon, Wikipedia and the social networking sites are still seeing robust double-digit growth year-over-year.

Tivo Makes a Convergence Connection with iPods and Sony PSP to Play Video

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The promise of digital video providing a convergence of all kinds of video sources has remained mostly that, a promise. But, finally, with Tivo’s announcement today that it will be providing customers with the ability to playback programs recorded on it’s devices on Apple iPod and Sony PSP portable video players, maybe we’re finally starting to see real video convergence… Stay tuned.

Free Wi-Fi Becoming Urban Utility?

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One minute Google is offering to provide free wireless Internet access (wi-fi) to the City of San Francisco, and then, faster than I can reboot my iBook, Philly announces that it’s building “the biggest municipal wireless Internet system in the nation.” Yeah man! That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout!

Why not treat Internet access the same way that you treat water or electricity, or maybe more accurately highway maintenance? Let the government pay for it and provide it as a public service. Now, that’s another trend worth getting behind. Right on.

Read all about it in the Washington Post

Google Grabs Sun for Open Source Alliance

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I expect to post more on this later, but I can’t wait to applaud the new alliance between Google and Sun (whose CEO’s are shown here). Yes, Virginia, there is an alternative to Microsoft Office, and it’s called OpenOffice.org; and, yes, it’s a viable alternative to the wickedness of Word.

There’s much more to this story… For now, for an overview, here’s Silicon.com’s coverage. And, for those of you are are more hard core techies, here’s ZDNet’s more in-depth analysis.

I’ll just say for now, IMHO, this deal is encouraging for the future of computing; and OpenOffice.org (not to mention the Google Toolbar) are worthy of your attention.

Technographics: Techonology “Optimists” Watch Less TV

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Forrester Research is reporting, in what may be one of the most comprehensive studies yet on the subject, that among those who feel good about technology (about 1/2 the market which they call “technology optimists”), there’s significantly less TV watching. They also say broadband will continue to grow rapidly (duh), more than doubling by 2010, etc. This is the first I’ve heard of this relatively intuitive distinction between the techno-optimists and pessimists. They also have a category called “tenured nomadic networkers.” Read the Hollywood Reporter summary of the study.

Geospatial Tech: An Important Next Frontier

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I first came to understand the vast impact that “geospatial technologies” will have on all of us (think GPS systems hard-wired into computers, chips on packages and mobile applications) when I read Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Apparently, leading edge publisher, O’Reilly also thinks this trend is important because they just had a conference called “Where 2.0”. If you want to catch or tune into this wave, I recommend this in-depth perspective about the current state and future potential of location technologies. It’s the transcript of an interview with Tim O’Reilly and Nathan Torkington.

Apple: the iPod Company (sales rock on)

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No longer the Mac company, Apple may now be “the iPod company.” They shipped 7 times as many iPods in the last quarter at the year before, almost 6.2 million units, and only 1.2 million Macs (even though Mac sales did well too and represented more gross revenue). Read the Bloomberg report

Understanding Apple’s Intel Announcement

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Apple’s announcement that they would begin producing Macs using Intel chips rather than IBM PowerPC chips is something of an earthquake, or a tectonic shift for the world of personal computing. It is perhaps best explained in simplistic terms as bringing the Mac software community into a more connected and less isolated place (of course, this will take place over time, over the next couple of years). The best analogy that I read (including some more dweeby analysis) was by ZDNet’s John Carroll who compared the change as being from the isolation of the Azores to the connectedness of Manhattan In other words, Apple will still be an island, but there will be lots more ways (bridges and tunnels) to make connections with other kinds of software and computers. This opens many doors for new possibilities in the future, including less expensive Macs. Right on.

Sony & Cingular Ready Next Gen Hi-Speed Wireless Net

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Wireless computing is poised to expand beyond the limitations of Wi-Fi hot spots with next generation Enhanced Data GSM networking built into Sony’s new VAIO T300 ultra portables. Verizon will be next with it’s implementation of 3G. Some folks say that the immergence of a true wireless network–think computers with the reach of cell phones–will have an even bigger impact than the advent of the Internet.

In fact, if you haven’t read it, Howard Rheingold’s book, “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution” makes quite an astounding case for the signifigance of ubiqitous wireless computing, from chips on cereal boxes to all kinds of GPS-empowered devices. The new wireless network is not something to be underestimated, in my not so humble estimation.

More info about the new VAIO and the various new wireless networks here.