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dd:Microsoft ships new Windows for mobiles
By SIMON AVERY
Thursday, May 26, 2005 Updated at 8:59 AM EDT
TECHNOLOGY REPORTER
Microsoft Corp. has begun shipping a new operating system that it hopes will vault the Windows standard beyond the desktop to the majority of mobile smart devices, displacing both Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry and Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod as consumers' favourite tech gadgets.
While the software giant has struggled for years to get a beachhead in the rapidly growing mobile market, it claims that its latest offering is more flexible and contains improved features that will give the company a leadership position.
Microsoft has already sent its Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system for handhelds and cellphones to hardware manufacturers, and says consumers should see the new Windows-powered devices on store shelves early this summer. Previously, the Redmond, Wash.-based company sold separate software for PDAs and smart phones. Windows Mobile 5.0 combines Microsoft's strategy into one product.
Scott Horn, senior director of the mobile and embedded devices group at Microsoft, says the software will give phone companies the ability to customize their offerings, allowing them, for example, to change screen colours or add options such as push-to-talk.
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Mobile 5.0 also includes new mobile applications, such as the ability to create and view PowerPoint presentations. In addition, by incorporating its Windows Media Player 10 multimedia viewing program, which includes Microsoft's digital rights management software, the company says users will be able to access subscription music download services, such as Napster.
In the past, many handheld equipment makers were leery about partnering with the software giant after seeing it control its relationships with PC makers. But that could be changing today. Microsoft is hoping that by giving phone companies, hardware manufacturers and users a more flexible operating system, it will see widespread adoption of its software.
Mr. Horn says the company has partnered with 40 device manufacturers and 68 phone carriers in 48 countries.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050526.gtwmicrosoft26/BNStory/Technology/
dd:Disney sees challenge in tech-savvy kids
By Richard Verrier
Sentinel Staff Writer
May 2, 2005
Walt Disney Co. these days has more than one mouse on its mind.
As it ramps up a worldwide celebration this week marking the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, the company knows it can no longer rely solely on Mickey and his friends to lure sophisticated young consumers into its theme parks.
Increasingly aware that children today are "born with a mouse in their hands," as one expert puts it, Disney scientists and designers are working overtime to appeal to tech-savvy youngsters raised on computer games, digital effects and iPods.
The goal: to keep the next half-century of Disney parks as profitable as the last.
"It's all about trying to keep our entertainment relevant to the way kids are growing up today," said Marty Sklar, principal creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, the company's in-house think tank.
"We don't want to get left behind," said Sklar, whose imprint is on hundreds of attractions, from It's a Small World to Mission: Space.
With the 'Gravity Wheel' spinning in the background, visitors to Epcot wait in line for the Mission: Space ride.[b} Disney is trying hard to keep sophisticated audiences intrigued.
To visit the California warehouse that doubles as the Imagineers' research-and-development headquarters is to be deluged by new ideas. Under one scenario being considered, for example, visitors to Epcot would receive messages over their cell phones from Disney Channel character Kim Possible. Kim might tell them where to find her archnemesis Dr. Drakken, or how to unlock secret codes around the park. Each player could adjust the experience according to skill level.
"Suddenly, it's really incredible what we can do," said Bruce Vaughn, the Imagineering vice president of research and development. "We've been waiting for this audience, which wants and desires and expects great involvement."
That audience will soon get to meet Lucky, a 12-foot audio-animatronic dinosaur, who beginning this month will stroll through Animal Kingdom, smiling, grunting and belching. Guided by a puppeteer and robotic controls, Lucky is the first of what the Imagineers hope will be several robotic "living characters" to interact with park guests all over the world.
This summer, meanwhile, the Virtual Magic Kingdom home computer game will let users create their own characters, or "avatars," and navigate through a theme park modeled on the Magic Kingdom in Orlando and Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.
Contestants will perform a series of tasks -- a multilevel ship-to-ship battle in Pirates of the Caribbean, say. But to collect any prizes they win, they'll have to go to a special kiosk inside Disney World or Disneyland.
For Disneyland, the company's founding park, Imagineers have more in mind, from a computer-animated clown fish (the star of the film Finding Nemo) that swims around a submarine ride filled with park visitors to a Toy Story-inspired ride that spans two worlds.
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters will bridge the online realm with the physical world in what Disney designers describe as an industry first. Beginning in June, Disney fans sitting in front of their home computers will be able to team up with park visitors to fight the evil Emperor Zurg, shooting at targets and accumulating points.
Project design manager John Leloudis adjusts lighting at Epcot's Soarin' attraction, a high-tech flight simulator that officially opens this week.
Imagineers designed software to link the ride systems to the Internet. When players at home hit an alien target, it sets off a light in the ride at Disneyland, giving players in the park the chance to score extra points.
The game may eventually connect with similar games at other Disney parks, including the Magic Kingdom, where a Buzz Lightyear ride opened in 1998.
Such experimental, experiential attractions, Sklar said, reflect the same ideas Disneyland was built upon.
"Walt," he said, "would love this."
Disney needs such innovations to stay competitive, industry analysts say.
Four years ago, when Disney opened California Adventure, which sits like a barnacle affixed to Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., critics panned its abundance of off-the-shelf rides and lack of innovation. While the park has since upgraded -- including last year's $60 million thrill ride, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror imported from Disney-MGM Studios -- its attendance continues to fall short of projections.
Moreover, Disney's biggest competition these days isn't from traditional rivals such as Universal, but from video-gaming companies and others that vie for the short attention spans and entertainment dollars of youngsters.
According to a recent survey by Nielsen Media Research, 13- to-17-year-old gamers now spend an average of $39 a month on video and computer games -- nearly as much as the price of a single theme-park admission. The $24 billion gaming industry has become the fastest-growing sector in the entertainment business.
"Many kids are saying, 'Why should I go to Disneyland? I'd rather play my video game at home,'" said Martin Lindstrom, a branding expert who has consulted for Disney. "We never heard that before."
As Lindstrom sees it, there is a growing divide between youngsters weaned on computers and their parents, whom he dubs "the monologue generation."
Raised on more "passive" media such as TV, newspapers, radio and billboards, adults are content with linear entertainment experiences that unfold in a traditional, storylike way.
Children, by contrast, yearn for entertainment that is frenetic, multisensory and interactive. Used to video games that have different levels of play, they want to experience something new every time.
Figuring out what will work for today's kids poses a special challenge for theme-park operators, whose industry has been rocked by its own roller-coaster ride.
While parks recently have seen a rise in traffic, they have yet to recover fully from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that decimated the travel industry. Since then, the industry has been buffeted by everything from recession to high gasoline prices.
Disney's competitors have been struggling. Under their new owners, General Electric Co., Universal last year canceled plans for a theme park in China, sold its stake in a park resort in Spain and laid off most of its design team. And Six Flags Inc., one of the nation's largest park operators, is juggling heavy debts incurred during years of expansion.
But no one has more to lose than Disney, the industry's biggest player. At stake is not only the estimated $8 billion in revenue that the parks bring in annually, but also the future of the Disney brand. More than perhaps any other company, Disney's entire range of businesses, from merchandise to movies to television, depends in large part on luring customers at a young age and keeping them for life.
In the past, at least, that's something at which the stalwart U.S.-based parks -- the company's biggest resort, Walt Disney World, and the original Disneyland -- have excelled.
The parks were Disney's cash cow for much of the 1990s, helping to deliver record profits year after year. But business was sluggish even before the terrorist attacks of nearly four years ago.
While overall attendance is growing steadily at both Disney World and Disneyland, fewer international visitors are coming, despite the weak dollar. And Disney was recently forced to bail out its Euro Disney resort after the company's steep financial losses.
Undaunted, Disney is opening its newest theme park this fall, in Hong Kong. But especially as Robert Iger takes the reins, the folks at Walt Disney Imagineering who are responsible for research and development say there is new emphasis on re-examining the existing parks, as well.
After a recent vacation at Disney World, for example, Iger raved about Turtle Talk With Crush, in which a digitally animated character from Finding Nemo converses "live" with guests at Epcot's Living Seas pavilion. Although Iger does not officially succeed retiring Disney CEO Michael Eisner until Oct. 1, he has already made it clear he wants to wow park visitors with high-tech attractions developed within Disney.
"Bob is challenging us to continue that tradition that Walt really started," said Tom Fitzgerald, Imagineering executive vice president.
As the Imagineers see it, Walt Disney was the original gamer. When he created Disneyland in 1955, he wanted it to transcend the carnival-type rides already familiar to consumers. Instead, he sought to marry technology and storytelling to take children and their parents, too, into virtual worlds.
Science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury once wrote that he would forever be indebted to Disney for "his ability to let me fly over midnight London looking down on that fabulous city" in the Peter Pan's Flight attraction at Disneyland.
But some critics say that grand tradition has faltered in recent years, citing especially the struggles of two of Disney's newest parks, California Adventure and Walt Disney Studios near Paris.
Roy Disney, Walt Disney's nephew, has blasted Disney management for building those parks "on the cheap," in part by outsourcing the rides.
Disney executives declined to discuss how much money they are spending now on interactive attractions, but they say these new ventures are far less expensive than traditional "iron rides" that cost up to $100 million or more. They are also more adaptive, meaning they can be easily -- and relatively cheaply -- updated, to keep them fresh.
"We're in the business right now of really inventing a new genre of entertainment," said Vaughn, the Imagineering executive.
Richard Verrier can be reached at richard.verrier@latimes.com or 1-800-528-4637, Ext. 77936.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/orl-asecdisneytech02050205may02,0,5612121.story?coll=sfla...
From Orlando Sentinel
dd: Monday, December 20, 2004 The Next Google?...No, Much Much Bigger...
I know it sounds like a cliché, “the next Microsoft” now “the next Google”, but I think when you combine the mobile PC (cell phone), with commerce and advertising, the “next Google” will come out of this combo, and it will be much, much bigger.
Go back 15 years and try to explain what the World Wide Web is and what it would encompass to an average Joe. In trying to explain this, envision trying to explain what the World Wide Web is or would be in15 yrs. Huh? Computers connected through the phone line to look at digital images (websites)? What am I going to do w/ that?
The pattern that emerged, porn, chatting , email and then commerce.
The WWW seemed so foreign back then and now we can’t imagine how we would ever live without it.
Take the TV remote control. Years ago, we had to get up every time we wanted to change the channel. TV advertisers hated the remote, because we were no longer a captive audience to the 30 second ad.
Think about the cell phone, NOBODY can imagine living without the cell phone now.
With each one of these inventions it seems that information retrieval keeps getting faster and faster… and,now its going mobile.
Here’s the big opportunity.
How do you retrieve information when you’re not at your desk using Google? How will you buy items on Amazon when you aren’t at your desk?
Find the protocol that makes the cell phone as functional, if not more than the PC.
Find the platform that allows mobile purchasing and interactivity with the physical world.
There’s your next Google.
The next Google will be “that” platform that allows me to do the same things as my PC, only with my mobile phone.
What makes Ebay, Amazon, Yahoo and Google so successful? They are all portals catering to specific task on the web. What makes Google so successful? They are the best at enabling a user to search for anything and advertisers know that this is where the traffic is going. There are millions of different search queries performed everyday. This means there are millions of different websites advertisers can use.
Google is a portal that leads to endless sites for endless advertising. Every search request is different, and contains different keywords, which allows all advertisers to be able to advertise.
Advertisers can advertise w/ any of the smaller SE, but they choose to advertise where the traffic is. With TV it was an organized model. It’s a 30 second ad that’s placed in a slot of the half hour show. But now with millions of TV channels (the Internet), the model where to place advertising has become quite complex.
I bet the concept of advertising on a 13” screen when the previous norm was 30” plus for years would seemed far-fetched too. And now you want to take it down to 4 square inches?
With the Net, the eyes are on the Google channel now. There are two components to search . First, the user wants to find something. Second, the advertiser wants to get the users attention and direct traffic to their site. Search engines have tried to “match” the users info search with relevant ads that pertain to that query.
The search engine is the equivalent to the TV channel and search queries are the requested shows. That is how Internet advertising can be summed up now.
What I find baffling is that more attention is paid to building the website than how to get traffic to it. This is a fundamental flaw with Internet advertising. The model should be reversed.
It’s all about traffic. Brands get more traffic everyday than ANY search engine could ever produce. Think next time you go to Circuit City, or any supermarket. Every DVD, TV , can of soup or box of Tide is a website. Every product in every store is a website. Everyday people walk past your site and you’ve never been able to grab their eyes, until now. The traffic is there everyday, the difference is converting physical traffic to website traffic. The brands have presence in both the electronic and physical worlds.
Ask your self.
What is the one CHANNEL you turn on EVERYDAY?
A day doesn’t go by that you look at it several times? FOX News? CNN? Yahoo? Google?….Naaah, it’s your service provider channel.
Every time you look at your cell phone, you’re basically watching the Sprint, Verizon, Vodafone etc channel.
Think about that.
It doesn’t matter if you’re surfing, texting, chatting, you’re on the Sprint channel. Your 2x2 inch screen is always on, always with you and ALWAYS gets your attention when it lights up. THERE’S THE NEXT SPACE ADVERTISING WILL TAP. IT IS WAY TOO VALUABLE NOT TO.
But advertising on the cell phone will be much different than the PC. The PC is viewed at work and at home in 2 different environments. The cell is with us in the car, at lunch, at the ballgame. Advertisers have a captive audience. They only need to get “permission” and give us a reason.
It will have to be “permissioned”. You will not want spam when you’re chatting, surfing, or texting. You also won’t allow endless spam to eat into your minutes and battery life.
Yes, mobile advertising will be very different.
Take an object , the cell phone, that everybody has with them at all times, and make it truly functional. The platform/OS will make a smartphone really smart. In 5-10 yrs we will be saying, do you remember when all we did was talk and text on these?
Revenues from voice are being commoditized and Service Providers are seeing their ARPU (avg revenue per user) decline. How do Service Providers increase their ARPU?
How about making the device they service interactive.
Maybe the Sprints should wake up and turn the phone into an interactive device. An interactive device extracts data, and allows the purchase of goods. How will Service Providers make their phones interactive?
I betcha never thought a camera would be put on a cell phone 5 yrs ago. That cute app is a huge revenue opportunity for the SP but they don’t see it yet. The huge revenue opportunity is not taking fuzzy pictures and sending to your friends. The camera is an appliance that “turns on” any machine readable identifier. The camera along with a physical world hyperlink will allow a direct connection to any website with any physical item in the world.
The physical world hyperlink allows any cell phone to do a one click purchase, one click coupon, one click download, one click customer service. The PWH (physical world hyperlink) gives a website physical presence. A PWH is a barcode, a 2-dimension created code, a registered Word, a fingerprint. Don’t think of a barcode as a barcode, imagine it’s a web address and your cell phone’s browser works just by clicking on it. No need to type the web address in, just click on it.
And the reverse is true. Any website can create a 2-d code/word and be applied to anything in the physical world to direct the user to his site.
Brands have the opportunity with millions/billions of physical items to get people to their website. With a PWH, every physical item in the world can be linked to a website. A barcode and 2-d code are as foreign looking as a web address. The value lies in deciphering it with a browser. Access to a website can now be anywhere in the physical world that a code can be applied.
Think of it this way, the cell phone is the mouse of the physical world. By clicking on items (with a PWH) the phone will take you somewhere or do something. A cell phone is a portable mouse and barcodes/2d codes are web addresses . The “next Google” is the browser that connects these.
This platform/ browser will truly make the phone smart.
The mouse enabled us to eliminate a lot of the keyword work associated with the PC. Will the camera and speech recognition do the same for the cell phone? The mouse simplified the functions on the PC. Instead of typing commands, you will now click on those physical world links.
Now carry this over to the cell phone. Will you be typing long confusing web addresses into the browser bar? I don’t think so. Or will the camera function as the mouse for the cell phone in the physical world?
It won’t matter if you have a Nokia, Samsung, or Treo. It won’t make a difference if you’re a Sprint or a Cingular subscriber. This protocol will be universal. You wont need to go to a website to use it. It will be a platform, built into the cell phone, an operating system for your mobile phone.
You, through your cell phone, will be directly communicating with the website owner through the PWH. Instead of leaving a cookie with your browser on your PC, the cell phone will give the cell phone number (cookie) and allow SMS (text messaging). This is much more personal interaction than an email address and its REAL TIME.
This is like getting customer feedback cards everyday. It’s the equivalent to telemarketers getting call-in business. It’s being able to interact with EVERY person that walks into your store.
People no longer wait for email, they text/instant message. Same thing will be applied with advertising. Because it’s instant an SMS is faster than email, more personal and MUST BE “PERMISSIONED”.
A company sending an SMS is “permission marketing” or a “very qualified” lead.
The cell phone and the physical world hyperlink will be the permission interactive advertising model of the future.
This will be a highly sought after application that Service Providers, brands and cell phone users are all going to want. Each party will gain something from the PWH (physical world hyperlink). The Service Provider gets increased ARPU. The brand gets millions of qualified leads and direct interaction. The cell phone user can click on a Elton John CD and download one song or buy tickets to his next concert.
Yes this will be “the next Google”, but much, much bigger.
ot: X-Net
When I first stumbled upon that Korean Newspaper site last night and read the X-Internet comments by Forester guru, so many bells went off in the head.....but basically I am so proud to be an owner in this gem and moreso to read the facinating DD and commnets from all aboard here and even more impressed wiht the chess game that Fritz and company have been playing these past bunch of years to checkmate a piece of the "mobile phenom" ie with thier host of technologies, patents and key enablers like Paperclick....just wish I havd more time to focus here and not just not assimilate DD and send rapid machine giun style "raw thoughts"..lol...but if I didn't I guess I wouldn't be me...something like that......
....I was talking last night/early morning, lol (yawn) to a fellow friend/Investor in neom and we both were sharing war stories of other stockes/companies/life challenges, etc, etc in the past including the bubble of '90ish and post '90 and that we tried to take a shot with becoming financially independent then but for any number of reasons we either failed or stagnated as we speak with some of the investments......I said to him, I sure hope we are right this time around and all indicators are that we will be and will be with Neom and can so many people be wrong about this paradigm shift and more specifially Neom becoming a major or significant part of this Shift and Phenom?????...I don't know, I am just so happy to be here I suppose and even more happier to live in a free and open society tht allows me to do this in hopes to see our gem approach the $5.00 range by year end or sooner.....jmho....and thnaks for all their service Globally that help protect my freedom to do so as we approach Memorial Day Holiday Weekend here in the USA....
ok, but basically this X-Net piece combined with the recent sophisticated and unbelieveably astute posting here, continues to validate what I believe to be something I am dreaming of, a company that I stumbled upon and incrementally took a position in in the low .30 range before it grows imho exponentially and weho I get to visit with the shareholders in Vegas someday and maybe even visit Joedimmaggio6 on his carribean island someday, lol....
....well, I just want to say thanks as I am going thru a challenging period here fwiw so my DD is done I think to "ward off" my concern of whether or not my family and I made the correct decision with the limited and stretched finances of ours at the moment...and still can not believe my wife is fine with me staying long here given our short term challenge...so, while I cringe at times when I see others or TS tout taking profits at ceretain points, I think that is all good cuz it breathes excitement and interest and life into this gem....so, what more can I say than hats off to all who have endured here longer than I have (started in feb with taking my position fwiw)and those with a bazillion shares who took a risk like I did just at a different level, I hope you get filthy rich, lol, cuz if you do, I know I will be well on my way to having a house mortgage burning party and attending our Neom yearly investment conferences in Vegas, napa valley, Maui, St. Marteen, Cozumel, etc etc to learn how to become more financially independent by investing with the great talented individuals here...something like that....
Have a great day,
SOG
dd:, ps, This is all making sense in connecting the dots, sorry to pollute the integrity of the boards occassionally (nned spellcheck, lol)but it is raw data thoughts I am thinking and Networks hope remote-control shopping clicks
By Lorrie Grant, USA TODAY
Talk about impulse buying. You're watching your favorite cable channel and admire a product on the show. With a few clicks on your TV remote, it's yours.
The TV remote control may be the next big thing for retailing. A handful of cable networks — and not just the shopping channels — are testing technology that will let TV watchers buy without leaving their sofas. So-called t-commerce is expected to be available to some cable and satellite customers within the next year.
Though it has been some 20 years since direct selling on TV took off, most shoppers still have to jot down the information about an item and phone or go to a Web site to buy it. If t-commerce takes off, it could give consumers a new buying alternative.
"This is a new frontier for retail, and it will be a growing area," says Madison Riley, a retail strategist at consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates. "Our behaviors are changing, and for those who already like to shop at home through the Internet and catalogs, this will be another way of getting the product."
Various t-commerce technologies are being tested. All generally work like ordering a cable pay-per-view or video-on-demand (VOD) movie. Shoppers press a button on the remote to select an item and toggle through such choices as size, shipping address and payment. In most cases, shoppers must register in advance such information as addresses and payment preferences. T-commerce technology requires satellite TV or digital cable service.
Shopping network QVC has been testing t-commerce in a few markets for a year and is working out glitches. HSN (formerly the Home Shopping Network) is near a trial run. The Shop At Home network is exploring it.
The shopping networks are best positioned to be first to use t-commerce because they have sales and distribution operations in place. They won't have to alter business models or add infrastructure.
Other cable channels also see gold in t-commerce, however.
Discovery Communications, operator of 33 channels best known for a range of science and nature programming, plans to pitch fitness products and travel gear from its FitTV channel and Travel Channel programming, respectively.
"Those are the most natural for relating content and purchasing," says Patrick Gates, an executive vice president at Discovery.
Discovery also plans to let viewers choose when to watch as well as when to buy. It will combine t-commerce with VOD offerings of the two channels' programming. T-commerce offers Discovery another revenue stream from programming beyond ad sales and fees cable operators pay. "We are working with our affiliates and deploying video-on-demand content so that at any point you choose you can use the remote and view content," Gates adds.
See it, want it, buy it
In time, mainstream retailers and entertainment programmers may want in on this action, perhaps through tie-ins. Imagine American Idol contestants wearing Gap outfits that viewers can buy while they watch. Or Chico's mature-chic attire on Desperate Housewives and available at the press of a button.
"It puts a requirement on the branded retailer to get their product placed in television as content," Riley says. "It changes the landscape and potentially how people partner with one another."
Discovery is well positioned because it already has a strong retail unit. It operates a chain of 120 Discovery stores and offers catalog and Internet sales.
Cable and satellite operators' participation is needed to deploy the interactive t-commerce technology; their fees for facilitating the transactions have yet to be negotiated. Some have expressed interest in t-commerce themselves but are letting the networks take the lead while they concentrate on higher-priority interactive features.
"The technology is coming into place to make (t-commerce) possible," says Bobby Amirshahi of Cox Communications. But, "Our first priority was to create and introduce other interactive features that consumers more broadly are interested in, such as viewing their Cox.net e-mail on the TV screen with a remote."
T-commerce has doubters
Experts differ on how fast — or whether — t-commerce will catch on in a big way.
The potential market currently is limited to about 50 million households, because the technology requires satellite TV or digital cable. About 25 million U.S. cable subscribers pay an average of $10 a month for digital service, and about an equal number subscribe to satellite, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
T-commerce skeptics also point out that the technologies have no common standard. Initially, it is likely to vary by network and by cable or satellite service.
"Everyone can go to Amazon.com no matter the PC or software," says Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff. "But this technology is dependent on the cable and satellite operators supporting it, and it will not be the same at DirecTV as it is at Comcast or Time Warner Cable, for example."
T-commerce retailers also will have to ensure the privacy and security of the transactions.
"Users need to be comfortable with purchasing things by pressing a button," says Jason Bigue, director of engineering for the streaming media division at Keynote Systems.
An even bigger hurdle may be the remotes themselves. They have become increasingly complicated.
"Akin to the joke that U.S. consumers can't program their VCRs, consider that most consumers still can't figure out which remote control to use. I have four," says Kelly Mooney, president of marketing and technology firm Resource Interactive. "And they especially don't know what the majority of the buttons are intended to do."
Making it easy to spend
Those pursuing t-commerce, however, point out that many consumers already point-and-click to check out of hotels or order movies. They also say they know success will depend on making buying easy.
"On TV, you need to make this supersimple so everyone understands how to do it," says Scott Newnam, CEO of Los Angeles-based software provider GoldPocket Interactive. It is working with HSN on its t-commerce system.
From-the-sofa-shopping convenience also may prove irresistible.
Alexis Roberts of Orlando is a devoted TV shopper via the QVC network. She attributes her enthusiasm to the shop-at-home convenience and such features as the fast payment processing of her phone orders thanks to stored payment data on her "Q" card, the company's credit card. She's eager to try shopping by remote control: "There's the added attraction of not having to dial the phone or get up from the sofa."
T-commerce efforts in the works:
•Discovery Channel. The division of Silver Spring, Md.-based Discovery Communications, a $2.4 billion-a-year company, is working with cable systems to get them to upgrade digital cable boxes to accept and hand off t-commerce transactions to Discovery. The majority of the cable companies will build the capability into their boxes, Gates says.
"Cable affiliates, by and large, already have the capability for consumers to purchase using the remote, such as video on demand," he says. "What's missing is the software that bridges that capability to the retailers' capability to accept and fulfill the transaction when consumers want to buy merchandise."
•QVC. The West Chester, Pa.-based retailing operation is testing interactive TV ordering in a few markets here and in the United Kingdom.
"It's immediate and easy for our customers, and we expect it to be a sales contributor for our company," says Rob Cochran, chief information officer at QVC.
QVC, a $5 billion-a-year company, is owned by John Malone's Englewood, Colo.-based Liberty Media, an $8 billion company that has a 50% stake in Discovery. QVC's t-commerce services are powered by technology from OpenTV, another Liberty company.
•Shop At Home. The unit of Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps is waiting for TV technology to improve while it sells online. For example, items used by Paula Deen, a chef whose Southern cuisine is featured on the company's Food Network, can be bought online.
"But there's no reason why that can't change to click your remote and buy it," says Adam Rockmore, head of marketing at Shop At Home, a $2 billion company. "People shop many different ways, and you want to give them every way."
•ShopNBC. The former ValueVision shopping network now offers select items for sale via the remote on some systems. When hosts are chatting, there will be featured products listed on the screen that you can click on to order, says Marc McCarthy, spokesman at OpenTV. The company's software also drives ShopNBC's t-commerce service.
•HSN. The $6 billion company based in St. Petersburg, Fla., is the furthest along in t-commerce and is preparing to test its system in up to 2 million homes this year.
HSN is working with GoldPocket on software that works in existing digital set-top boxes so it can be deployed quickly by any cable system or satellite service with which HSN has an interactive TV agreement.
How the software works: When prompted by an on-screen graphic, HSN buyers press "select" on their remote. That brings up an HSN interactive screen where they make the purchase. They continue to hear the HSN broadcast as they place the order. When they finish, the HSN video returns. Behind the scenes, the set-top box actually is switching to a parallel channel devoted to the interactive application.
HSN executives vow not to complicate the process with too much technology or too many options.
"Our goal is to let our customers tell us how much more functionality they want," says Marty Nealon, president of the U.S. unit of HSN.
Adds John McDevitt, vice president of finance: "Customers have repeatedly asked for as simple a process as possible."
Emmbedded ot and dd, lol: I think I may write a book...The Ubiquitous Digital Road Ahead...I cant dd anymore, everywhere I turn, cell camera phone this and that and on and on....Full Paradigm Shift Underway here imo in case you haven't guessed)
Ben Rand
Staff writer
A senior executive who led Intel Corp.'s push into the era of electronic business is taking over one of Eastman Kodak Co.'s most important initiatives in digital imaging.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050524/BUSINESS/505240304&templ...
Sandra Morris, 50, former co-chief information officer at Intel, started Monday as general manager of Kodak's digital imaging services group. In her new role, she'll be responsible for Internet and wireless technologies that help digital photographers store, view, e-mail and print pictures.
Morris most recently was general manager of Intel's mobility group, a unit that develops chips and other products for wireless computing. Over the course of her career, she has played a key role in developing standards for PC-based video conferencing, telephony products and Internet communications applications. Morris also has held positions in marketing and with Intel.com.
She is widely credited with helping Intel convert all its business processes to a paperless operation.
"Sandra has a true passion for how technology works, and more importantly, how it can be used to improve the way people live, communicate, work and play worldwide," said Bernard Masson, president of Kodak's digital and film imaging systems unit.
The appointment continues Kodak's push to diversify management with people experienced in the digital economy, said Ulysses Yannas, broker with Buckman, Buckman and Reid in New York.
A native of Harrisburg, Pa., Morris holds a master's degree in human resources and life span development, and a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Delaware. She currently lives with her family in Portland, Ore., and will relocate to the San Francisco area.
Morris's job will give her oversight of Kodak EasyShare Gallery, Kodak's online site for uploading and processing photos over the Internet; and the Kodak Mobile Service, for users of camera cell phones. EasyShare Gallery has an estimated 20 million members. Morris replaces Lisa Gansky, one of the original founders of the EasyShare Gallery service. Gansky stepped down to spend more time working on an environmental nonprofit organization she co-founded in Chile.
"Kodak is a powerful international brand, and the company has both the vision and the resources to make technology accessible to consumers worldwide," Morris said in a statement.
way ot and raw: Virgin, imagine then "wrapping" it witht their own Mktg...but then again, This is the "private label" Proprietary technology imho that can be liscensed out to bundle whatever and withwhatever device (starting with cell phones imho).... and put on whatever processer chips and help make each and every companies gadgets garnish a piece/Part/Whatever is to be the X-Net or of whatever device is created across various platforms of THE REMOTE CONTROL of the physical to the TO THE digital WORLD....
well, I will ponder the above to come up with more investment opps for myself intellectually....so many, 1 billion gadgets to 20 billion all in a decade.....I want my own wavelength....
DD OT and GOOD Read: Relax, imo the best Is yet to come and all will be happy, there, hows that for TA)whether you have a bazillion shares or a paultry 80,000 like me or even paultrier 8 thousand or just one....all will learn from this neomedia and the dd spawned here on the value added benefit of being a I-Hubber because of this s.....jmho and nite nite....GLTA!
SOG
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200505/kt2005051919290411790.htm
X-Internet Will Dominate Next Decade: Colony
By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
A market researcher yesterday projected the extended Internet, or X-Internet, will be the buzzword of the next decade in the high-tech world.
George Colony, chairman of the U.S.-based consultancy Forest Researcher, yesterday made the prediction on the sidelines of the Seoul Digital Forum 2005 and World ICT Summit.
``From 1995 to 2005, connection was made by every company and every customer via the Web. From 2005 to 2015, connection will be made between every company and every product,¡¯¡¯ Colony said.
He said the ubiquitous linkage between firms and products can be called the X-Internet, connecting the physical world of things to the digital world of information.
``As the X-Internet catches on afterwards, there will be 14 billion devices hooked up to the Internet by 2020 from the current 1 billion,¡¯¡¯ Colony predicted.
He added the radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, the small integrated circuit chips that are replacing current barcodes, are the first wave of the X-world.
``Companies have started putting radio tags into tires, jet engines and heavy machines. All these connect those physical devices to the Internet,¡¯¡¯ he said.
Disputes on Future of Cell Phone
Colony opposed the widespread belief that mobile handsets will become the most significant device by contending that the digital home is much more important.
``Qualcomm believes everything will happen on cell phones. But we think up to 12 industries will compete for the digital home (the most promising business) and the handset is not one of them,¡¯¡¯ Colony said.
Instead, he projected the personal computer will have the best shot at becoming the tool of controlling digital home and three industries _ cable companies, PC companies and gaming companies _ will compete to preempt the digital home rivalry.
Under such a negative evaluation on the cell phone¡¯s future, he said the outlooks of the mushrooming video-on-the-go services like the digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) are not rosy.
``DMB will have some changes but it will have limited applications because a cell phone is not a good place to watch a movie (due to its tiny monitor),¡¯¡¯ Colony foretold.
Korea started satellite-based DMB services, which allow people on the move to enjoy seamless video, theater-quality radio and data through cell phones, commercially early this year.
Irwin Jacobs, chairman of the U.S. mobile chipmaker Qualcomm, disagreed with Colony in a separate press conference.
``The cell phone is gaining an ever-increasing capability and that will continue. The size of the screen, network and functionality are now issues but cell phones will be providing more computing power in the future,¡¯¡¯ Jacobs said.
The Seoul Digital Forum, the annual industry conference, and the World ICT Summit, the gathering of global IT ministers, yesterday opened its curtain at the Shilla Hotel in central Seoul.
Hundreds of government officials, IT experts and businesspeople from across the world participated the opening ceremony, attended also by president Roh Moo-hyun.
dd, bonus dd and ot:http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=6457666
4:15PM Mobile Marketing Forecast: 2006 and beyond
What is the outlook for the mobile marketing industry in 2006? Find out how the wireless industry is fueling new opportunities for advertisers, media companies and content providers. This session will address how fast the market is moving and the potential over the next few years.
Moderator: ANIETIE EKANEM, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Messaging Solutions, Openwave
Interactive Panel Session
LINDA BARRABEE, Senior Analyst, Yankee Group
MARK GRINDELAND, fetch
CHAS FRITZ, Chairman, NeoMedia Technologies, Inc.
PHILIPPE POUTONNET, Strategic Marketing Analyst, QPASS
JEAN BERBERICH, Procter & Gamble >>>>>>>Bonus DD:www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3484971
Mobile Marketing Guidelines in the Works
By Zachary Rodgers
February 23, 2005
The Mobile Marketing Association has set up committees to tackle best practices and ROI metrics for the nascent wireless medium.
"As mobile marketing moves from a hypothetical market to a real market, along with it comes more members and competing agendas," said Mike Baker, who heads the best practices group. Baker is president and CEO of mobile marketing firm Enpocket.
By year's end, the best practices group plans to recommend guidelines for campaigns that use SMS, MMS and the wireless Web, as well as PDA-based programs. Also on the committee are executives from Third Screen Media, AvantGo, and OgilvyInteractive Worldwide.
The metrics committee will fix parameters for the accurate measurement of cross-media ROI. Chaired by Procter & Gamble systems manager Jean Berberich, other members include Carat Interactive, Sprint, Cingular, and Visa U.S.A.
The MMA has tried to guide the best practices conversation in the past. Just over a year ago, the group released a code of conduct for mobile marketers. Baker said one of his committee's orders of business would be to examine and reconsider that document. In general, the MMA has not been highly visible in the U.S.
"The idea behind the best practices committee is to continue some of the early work that's [been done] in the U.S. and come together as an industry," Baker said. "Not only to define best practices, but talk about where the future of the medium is going as far as code of practices, regulation and legal issues."
Both committees will hold their first meetings in March.
ot JP, ps
Please add this to the Vegas discussion when all are out there and when appropraite as one of the suggested destination "locations" for Club Neom to possibly have a once a year investment conference mixer/dinner, as an excuse like Warren Buffet and posse have to get away for a gathering and discuss investment strategies...in due course;)
SOG
ot: TIA and as I "take the edge off my day here"....I caught two key words in this update...NAPPAVALLEY and Silverado trail, lol and if you ever get the chance to kick back there, so many neet places that would be hard to go wrong as many understand these days, but this is a neet place to do so for a nice event imo: http://www.cuvaison.com/ and Tra Vigne is another neet place http://www.travignerestaurant.com/
Ok, back to reality, have a good evening and hold em long and tight to the vest!
SOG
opt: I can't catch up on the days posts and need an adult beverage to take the edge off my day....but am thinking fwiw.....I never had it all wrong, neither did any of us currently here or whom were led here in the past for any number of reasons and God Bless those with the financial capacity and or dumb luck to have whatever they have understanding luck is indeed where preparation meets opportunity(and that aren't the typical "day traders", not that ther'es anything wrong with that)).....I WANT MY OWN WAVELENGTH ...used to be my mantra thinking the optical buildout a few years back or this or that, and lil did we realize much like CF said in that video(wow, there it was, cameras and cellphones, the remote control to the world....for the net...in not so many words and in my free associative raw thoughts here)(gasping for air again)This truly imo will be bigger than anyone ever imagined.....jmho
2005 is projected to be a breakout year for mobile marketing, with spending spiking from "virtually nothing to millions in pilot investments." Though that sounds suspiciously like the online advertising hype of the 1990s, remember, the Internet is now key to the marketing and sales strategies for most companies.2005 is projected to be a breakout year for mobile marketing, with spending spiking from "virtually nothing to millions in pilot investments." Though that sounds suspiciously like the online advertising hype of the 1990s, remember, the Internet is now key to the marketing and sales strategies for most companies.2005 is projected to be a breakout year for mobile marketing, with spending spiking from "virtually nothing to millions in pilot investments." Though that sounds suspiciously like the online advertising hype of the 1990s, remember, the Internet is now key to the marketing and sales strategies for most companies.2005 is projected to be a breakout year for mobile marketing, with spending spiking from "virtually nothing to millions in pilot investments." Though that sounds suspiciously like the online advertising hype of the 1990s, remember, the Internet is now key to the marketing and sales strategies for most companies.2005 is projected to be a breakout year for mobile marketing, with spending spiking from "virtually nothing to millions in pilot investments." Though that sounds suspiciously like the online advertising hype of the 1990s, remember, the Internet is now key to the marketing and sales strategies for most companies.
ot Coffee Break Comment: Ok, this "patent and business plan strategic positioning" imo sounds at times like a world class Pool Tournament neomedia is in, carefully "positioning" for the next shot;)....
Position: Once you have mastered your shots, there is nothing quite like the feeling of being able to control the cue ball. Leaving it wherever it gives you the best advantage on the next shot, or even leaving it where your opponent cannot make their next shot. Position play is power and it is the key to beating almost all of the opponents you will face. In this section we cover every aspect of position.
ot: Bonus comment of the day and well said imo: "...CF thinks with a web mentality and it shows. He is pervasive and global minded. He knows what he owns and he is looking to extend his reach globally. And IMO, he would rather delay launch of PC and the Go to Market suite of products just to have legal recourse over the Euro & NAFTA market places as well...."
- borrowed from the 16th street jetty meister)
Anyway, nothing fundamentally has changed and I always remind myself of that and kept reminding myself of that at the close yesteday and also kept thinkinng of Lenshawns SWAG analysis, lol, of CF's few sales these past several months (miniscule as many have already commented)and the news that followed...ok, have a good week, and YellowJacket, no offense but would you mind leaving us alone for a few days by going on a a business trip or head out of town or something)
SOG
ot: Some are wound tight still from yesterday....give it a few more hours and everyone will be loose...EOT
dd: GlassHouse Technologies to Enable Business and Network Growth for Virgin Mobile
OT SOG Comment: Nice to see Virgin Planning for future growth jmho)
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- GlassHouse Technologies, Inc.,
the global leader in vendor-independent storage services, announced that
Virgin Mobile, the UK's leading mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), has
selected GlassHouse to radically overhaul its storage infrastructure. The deal
will see GlassHouse deliver a complete storage management framework solution
that will centralize and manage its growing storage needs.
With over five million customers since it launched in 1999, Virgin Mobile
needs to implement a storage strategy that will allow it to enable growth for
both future customers and new applications. To maintain its market position
and customer base, Virgin Mobile is putting plans in place to ensure it can
offer its subscribers access to the next generation of applications and
content.
Following an internal review of its storage infrastructure, Virgin Mobile
approached GlassHouse to provide an independent, full-scale audit and outline
key recommendations to help centralize and control its current and future
storage needs.
GlassHouse will conduct a full-scale audit of Virgin Mobile's IT storage
infrastructure and map out a consolidation and growth plan, using the
GlassHouse Storage Management Lifecycle(SM) (SML) framework. The second phase
of the plan will entail a full-scale redesign and implementation to ensure
that Virgin Mobile is compliant with all pertinent compliance regulations.
"We want to ensure that Virgin Mobile's strategic direction is supported
by our infrastructure development," said Keith Bennett, lead infrastructure
architect at Virgin Mobile. "When we approached the big vendors, we were
frustrated as they pushed products dressed up as solutions. GlassHouse's
vendor independence meant they would look at the big picture and enable us to
deliver measurable business benefits. Their SML has provided us with a
framework to develop policies and procedures with the appropriate target
thresholds and management metrics we need as well as reduce risk, and improve
the overall manageability of our storage environment."
"Virgin Mobile is one of the most innovative and recognizable brands in
the UK," said Jason Rabbetts, managing director, GlassHouse Technologies, Inc.
"The fact they selected us is a vindication of our vision and our role as an
intermediary in what can be a confusing and perplexing market. This is a trend
that is growing as customers seek assistance to both visualize and implement
critical storage solutions."
About Virgin Mobile:
Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) plc, the UK's largest mobile virtual network
operator, is majority owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and uses
T-Mobile's network. Since its launch in November 1999, Virgin Mobile has
attracted more than 5 million customers. In the UK, Virgin Mobile phones are
available direct on 0845 6000 600; on the web at http://www.virginmobile.com
or on the High Street at approximately 5,000 outlets including Virgin Mobile
Stores within Virgin Megastores. Virgin Mobile employs approximately 1,400
staff at three sites, Trowbridge, London and Daventry, and has an outsourced
customer service centre operated by approximately 200 staff in Middlesbrough.
Virgin Mobile is in 'The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For' 2005
list and is part of the FTSE4Good Index.
About GlassHouse Technologies, Inc:
GlassHouse is the leading provider of services that help organizations
solve the business problems of enterprise storage. From strategy through
implementation, operations and customer support, GlassHouse partners with
clients to achieve predictability and manageability in storage operations,
enabling cost control, risk mitigation and increased service levels.
GlassHouse clients include Biogen Idec, Inc., Hartz Mountain Industries, Inc.,
Pitney-Bowes, Inc. and The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. More
information about GlassHouse is available at http://www.glasshouse.com .
SOURCE GlassHouse Technologies, Inc.
Web Site: http://www.glasshouse.com http://www.virginmobile.com
dd:Announcing ...
The 9th Annual Gilder/Forbes Telecosm Conference:
TELECOSM 2005
September 27 - September 28, 2005
The Resort at Squaw Creek, Lake Tahoe
http://www.gildertech.com/public/conferences.html
ot: ATTENTION US MILITARY/Rumsfeld:Cellphones becoming ‘laptop in your pocket'
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050517.wfonez0517/BNStory/Technology/
dd: Wireless World: Mobile-phone ads growing
By Gene J. Koprowski
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published April 8, 2005
CHICAGO -- Advertising to mobile phone users may be a brand new marketing medium, but it already represents a significant threat to commercial television, industry experts told UPI's Wireless World.
Results of a survey released this week in London by the global advertising agency BBDO, a division of Omnicom, indicated that consumers today are more willing to forgo their televisions than their wireless phones. That means before the decade is over, advertising to mobile phone customers eventually may surpass TV as the most potent media for marketers.
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050408-010919-8516r
Audio dd: and Comment:
I need a vacation, lol...anyway, interesting listen.....and may Bills magic be bestowed on us common peasants....
Here's to looking at Virgin Settlement also, so much to look forward to and look forward to getting "bqack on track" with news soon...
SOG
Business
Microsoft, Five Years after the Anti-Trust Case
Weekend Edition - Saturday, May 21, 2005 · New York Times columnist Joe Nocera notes how Microsoft has changed five years after settling an antitrust case brought by the U.S. government.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4661494
dd and comment: Yes, Sure Sounds Like A no Brainer At times, MSFT and NEOM, So much written about that MSFT needs as many or a "killer app" as possible.... but at the end of the day, who knows, so much to speculate about and I don't mind waiting on the edge of my seat wishing I could buy a few more but can't...and will continue to hold the ones I have tight to the vest...but wish we had some NEWS, lol...time will tell....and so what if CF sold a few more, jeez louise, I'd probably do so if in his shoes and he desrves it as others mentioned and smart the programmed manner in which he has done so imo like a few have mentioned..there my 2 bonus cents fwiw...
Have a good day..
SOG
Five years after trial, can Microsoft stand up to Google?
http://www.etaiwannews.com/World/2005/05/22/1116733872.htm
2005-05-22 / New York Times / By Joseph Nocera
What I remember most about the Microsoft antitrust trial that I covered for Fortune magazine was how momentous it felt - surely, the antitrust trial of the century. The rest of Washington was obsessed with Monica Lewinsky. Not us. We pored through e-mail messages suggesting that Microsoft had wanted to "cut off Netscape's air supply"- Microsoft's efforts to crush Netscape was at the heart of the case - and wondered if U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson would have the nerve to break the giant in half.
As it turns out, he did have the nerve. But he made several fatal mistakes - including talking secretly to the news media - and the District of Columbia Circuit, while upholding his finding that Microsoft had abused its monopoly power, took the case out of his hands and sent it to another judge. Once the Bush administration took power, the new Justice Department quickly settled on terms largely favorable to the company.
Here we are five years later, and the technology landscape is drastically transformed. Google, founded just as the trial was getting under way, is now widely (and correctly) viewed as the most serious threat to Microsoft's desktop hegemony since Netscape. And Linux, the open-source operating system, has made real inroads in the server market that Microsoft had counted on for growth.
Among competitors, Microsoft is still respected but not feared the way it used to be. It has become a sluggish, bureaucratic company that, for instance, is going to be at least a year late with a new operating system, called Longhorn, that the world needs to make computing more secure. Its stock has not moved in years.
On the other hand, Microsoft still has the same two powerful desktop monopolies it had before the antitrust trial: the Windows operating system and the Office suite of applications.
That now makes me wonder: When you come right down to it, did the antitrust trial of the century make a whit of difference?
On the margins, at least, the trial certainly did bring about change - though not always for the better. Why is Microsoft so bureaucratic? Partly, that is the natural course any big company takes as it gets bigger. But it does not help matters that, as the Microsoft general counsel Bradford L. Smith puts it, "Every single decision the company makes with respect to Windows is made with a level of antitrust legal advice."
Gee - do you think that might gum up the works a little?
The aftereffects of the trial also help explain why Microsoft is not as feared as it once was. Under the terms of the settlement, Microsoft can no longer give better terms to computer manufacturers it considers "friends." Manufacturers can cut deals to pre-install RealNetworks' media player, or Google's toolbar, without fear of retribution from its most important vendor.
The trial also woke Microsoft up to the fact that it was truly hated in Silicon Valley, and it has been trying to make nice ever since. It has settled a series of private antitrust suits - for some US$3.5 billion - brought by rivals like Sun Microsystems. And it has worked assiduously to turn former enemies into allies.
At Microsoft, there is a lot less "my way or the highway" than there used to be.
This is not an insignificant change - but it is not what the antitrust trial was really about. The central issue was whether the company had an inalienable right to bundle new software products - a browser, a media player, antivirus software, a "ham sandwich," as Microsoft once put it - into its operating system.
Here is something that might surprise you: The Microsoft trial did not settle this critical question. The D.C. Circuit did not overturn Jackson's ruling that Microsoft had illegally tied its browser, Internet Explorer, to Windows. Instead, it sent that part of the case back to the lower courts for further review. When the Justice Department settled with Microsoft, the issue was left hanging.
Which brings us back to Google. The Google threat is not so much that it has the bulk of the Internet search market. Rather, Google is a serious and creative software company that has the potential to roll out new Web-based applications that will allow consumers to do on the Web things they now do in Windows.
In the old days, said Tod Nielsen, a former Microsoft executive, the company would have raced to add some kind of quick-fix Internet search "functionality" to Windows. "And we would have found a way to attack their business model, too" he added. That this has not happened is, to my mind, the most powerful evidence that the company's behavior has been tempered by the antitrust trial.
So can the kinder, gentler, tempered-by-the-trial Microsoft do to Google what it did to Netscape many years ago? Google has serious profits, a ton of talented engineers, a great brand name, and a chief executive, Eric Schmidt, who has gone up against Microsoft twice before, at Sun and Novell.
Microsoft has Windows. That is the main thing that has not changed in the wake of the antitrust trial. That used to be enough. We are going to find out if it still is.
******************
BONUS DD:
1.) 70-20-10: vital statistics that helped
Yahoo! and Microsoft want a piece of the action, but Google will always outsmart them, its boss tells Stephen Pritchard
22 May 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/story.jsp?story=640299
2.) Good Financial Revenue Stream Source Numbers from Google in this piece (ie adsense): http://www.news.coolavenues.com/0505231.php3
3.)
ot: NEVER underestimate the power of the Neomforce)
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=1824
amazing, and nite nite.....
http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/starmoney_1.html
ot: ahh yes grashopper:choosing a reception method http://www.wifimetro.com/
http://www.wireless-location.com/ http://www.wifimetro.com/ http://www.wifimetro.com/
ot dd:Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and chairman, is planning to write another book on how new technology will affect people and companies. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,67590,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_8
ot : PS Welcome back JP) eom
ot lesnshawn, check it out
http://www.ambientcorp.com/index.phtml
reminds me of the past but interesting????
ot: grace wins
Yes indeed, dejaveu all over again...
this stuff really facinates me fwiw....remember it from a few years back during the optical switching phenome....
ps,
way ot okeydokey dd: Stasr Wars and Spacehttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/business/18space.html?ei=5065&en=60787fcf0b0f012c&ex=11169...
btw, I think we are on to something, let neom management continue what they are doing best......executing the stinking bisness paln)
Furthermore, I suppose time will tell and glta;)
SOG
dd: Paradigmn Shift 101 For Dummies http://www.taketheleap.com/define.html
way ot: Imagine all the people JLennon and rfids;):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,14493,1345460,00.html
otps: Love our fellow Canadians;):http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=b4191447-41d9-4c69-b941-02441...
ot SOG
ps, GOD BLESS ALL THAT FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO INVEST HERE....AND this is for the aussies...LONG LIVE THE QUEEN...lol
GO GO Lance Go GO Godzilla
ot: I LOVE THE SMELL OF NAPALM INNTHE MORNING...GOOD MORNING VIETNEOM
...wow....next few months should prove intereting indeed..jmho
sorry, I actually sat in the new WW2 mwmorial a few weeks ago and it was very strange and beautiful, like staring at Lincoln after climbing all the steps...then I think about the imo jimo memorial and then the vietnam wall and then whatever wall will come out of this mess we are in but need to irradicate terrorim and let me divert from this to say, Neomedia and rfid, PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEErfect togehter)
Go Lance Go Neom (lol, whatever that means)
eot
ot: SOG RAW POWER-LUNCH WI-FI Blog, lol...Thx, I just realized that this is my last post for the day I have left, lol...a good thing cuz I need to focus on work the next 10 hours anyway to get a project done....and also wish I was financially independent a bit more or had the financial freedom to work only part time so I could take the time necessary to review, edit and compose a cleaner formatted message, but I at least can give my "raw thoughts" on this matter ....and yes, this Wi-Max thing has me very curious and should be interesting to watch it unfold. Main thing I see is it is here to stay as it has already has been accepted apparently and has incredible leverage behind of companies determining the "standards" for the com equipment that will ultimately be used as part of the infrastructure 9much like IP I suppose), iow, from some of the 900 pound gorillas like AT&T, Cisco Systems, Intel, Lucent, Motorola, Nokia, Time-Warner etc, etc…and on and on.... I still see Wi-Max speculation as "wide open" and would entertain looking to pool some of our resident and soon to be multi millionaires seed money here, lol, into, should they wish to become venture capitalists for say "SOG TOKYO Radio and Communications, LLC" and look into starting our own company to capitalize on wherever it is this tech ends up, lol.... OK, back to reality, sorry, too much coffee this am....
I do see WI-MAX as being in some cases "complementary" to existing infrastructures already out there like that one article I posted about the hypothesis that some carriers like Sprint or Nextel for instance using it to supplement their already built out infrastructure iow, say they use Wi-Max to carry Data and lessen the burden of bandwidth/whatever of their and original build out last 10 years as lanes to carry voice type stuff (gasping for breath).......and then I also see it as "one stop shopping" for countries like China or India or any number of 3rd world countries that possibly "build from scratch" this new Wi-Fi network and due to lack of any previous development of an infrastructure...and I can even see it spawning what you said "competitors" to SAT Radio Companies like XM and Sirrus and heck, maybe XM and Sirrus will use wi-max to complement their sat capabilities, I don't know, all I know is if I could raise the capital, I would like to manage one aspect of a company and try to get a piece of this "new incremental" and Highly Profitable WI-MAX pie when it becomes more mature....imo, I equate the current "wi-max" story as THE "Mother Wi-MAx" Ship just gave birth and the lil itty bitty baby still has to learn how to crawl (ie determining actual standards now that it has been accepted)so by time it begins to walk (gets commercialized beyond a few test pilots...ie INTL next year, etc), A clearer picture of how capable its performance and applications may be....
So yes, I see it as many things I suppose at this early stage (and If I win the 155 MM Powerball lottery tomorrow night, I will rededicate my life to learning how to capitalize on technologies like WI-FI and Refocus more time on DDing Neom for which I barely have enough time to DD now having only 24 hours in a day... and never enough time to focus here the way I wish I could so that is why I am taking a risk with Neom in the first place so I can be more financially independent to really spend more time doing that which I love to do (gasping for breath again) as I have to work for a living along with all the nice family demands that consume time in a great way....
In summary and direct answer to your question, 4 score and seven years ago, wait wait, wrong speech, lol....I see Wi-MAx as both a "threat" to existing paradigms across many industries and existing standards, and I also see it as a "lifesaver" for many that may be able to re-invent themselves....and still as a possible "incubator platform" for entrepreneurs to springboard from like like "wanna be" entrepreneurs like myself whom hope they have some cash from gems like this NEOM if our hunches are right, lol, so that they can take a stab at a business that could garner a small piece of this "Wi-Fi" pie..but at the end of the day, I like whatever it is that is coming because it is more validation that convergence is evolving and the evolution of communications form the abacus to the transistor to the calculator to the mainframe to the PC to the internet to the cell phone to the whatever, continues!!!!!
…and ps, I am dd’out for a while and am salivating for some NEOM MEAT (news)…I am having NEOM News Withdrawals and am just venting here…so best of luck to us all and here’s to a fun and profitable year ahead for us Neom Longs!!!!
Have a great weekend…
sonofgodzilla
Original DD: WiMax Could Be “The New Radio”
Will WiMax Be “The New Radio?”
By Rick Dearborn (Radio Ink, 5/9/05)
http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=128818&pt=todaysnews
Ot dd: WiMax Could Be “The New Radio”
Will WiMax Be “The New Radio?” http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=128818&pt=todaysnews
By Rick Dearborn (Radio Ink, 5/9/05)
The arrival of a new technology could have a broad impact on the radio industry. There is every indication that it will influence the way radio delivers programming and the way it tracks audiences. Surprisingly, there has been little if any discussion about it within the industry, as it is a broadcast technology that broadcasters did not develop.
Enter WiMax
The new technology is being called WiMax. No doubt many readers are already aware of Wi-Fi, a popular form of wireless technology intended to free computer users from their electronic tethers by creating wire-free local area networks or “hotspots” with a workable range of 300 feet. As long as you stay put, the system works great. But, when you move between hotspots, you must reconnect, often to another service provider. That limits Wi-Fi’s ability to be a truly mobile technology.
Great as it is, Wi-Fi is only a taste of what’s on the way. Last year, a consortium of more than 200 member corporations — rather like a who’s who of the communications industry (AT&T, Cisco Systems, Intel, Lucent, Motorola, Nokia, Time-Warner etc.) — approved the new WiMax wireless standard. Equipment is scheduled for standards certification this summer.
WiMax has been designed to have a range of 30 miles from a single, well-located transmitter; within that range, data transfer rates are anticipated to be 70 Mbps. To put that in perspective, most radio stations use ISDN connections to retrieve high-quality audio from remote broadcasts. A single WiMax connection has the equivalent capacity of more than 500 ISDN lines. As a further comparison, many radio stations have T-1 connections to the Internet for their computer networks. A single WiMax connection would offer the equivalent of 60 T-1 lines, or seven DVD-quality video signals to each individual wireless user.
At least initially, WiMax is likely to have many of the same connecting challenges as Wi-Fi. In other words, you need to stay within the hotspot to be connected. But, clearly, a metropolitan-area hotspot has a lot more going for it than one that covers only a portion of an office building.
Already on the fast-track is an enhanced version of WiMax, scheduled for approval this summer. With field trials projected for 2006, enhanced WiMax will be for use in moving vehicles. Not only is it proposed to work at highway speeds, but it also is being designed to re-connect easily as you move from hotspot to hotspot, in a manner similar to cellular telephones.
With the network of established cell towers already in place, some analysts are predicting that, as early as 2008, you might be able to get a high-speed mobile wireless Internet connection nearly anywhere in the United States. Imagine having a browser in the dashboard of your car, with preset buttons for “favorites” that could include Internet radio stations around the world, weather maps, music, movies, television, your security cameras at home, and even a picture phone.
Impact On Radio
Clearly, a new medium that can deliver audio and video into moving vehicles coast-to-coast is a broadcast medium. Industry people working with AM, FM, HD or satellite should sit up and take notice — and with this new standard being tested next year, radio should do it quickly. (For information on WiMax, visit the WiMax Forum website at www.wimaxforum.org).
Consider the mass media of today: radio, television, film, recordings, newspapers, magazines, books, etc. Each has developed in sync with advances in the varying delivery technologies. But today, a website can deliver audio, video and text on the same page at the same time — truly multi-media. As bandwidth capabilities have increased, the technical quality of web-based delivery has followed suit. Add wireless delivery, and you have a broadcast medium that is capable of a seamless integration of print, audio and video material.
WiMax actually is only a small part of what is coming, as several other technologies are being rolled out. UWB (Ultra Wide Band) promises ultra-high-speed connections between devices at short range. Already demonstrated is home-entertainment equipment that will allow the user to distribute high-quality media signals between rooms without wires. A next step may be transformation of how radio routes audio signals around a facility and produces content, potentially without wires. However, unlike WiMax, UWB proponents are currently locked in a standards battle that is restraining implementation.
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is beginning to replace bar codes for product identification. Already in use at Wal-Mart, it allows wireless tracking and cataloging of physical objects. Soon, wireless RFID may allow you, while shopping in the grocery store, to access your refrigerator at home to see what tagged items you have on hand. At check-out, all you will need to do is push your loaded shopping cart of tagged items through the checkout lane, without removing them from the cart.
RFID technology has the potential of revolutionizing audience ratings. Imagine having RFID tags in audience radios, enabling stations to know not only what audiences are listening to, but exactly when and where, with instant and continuous real-time feedback.
It is hard to think of an area of daily life that wireless technology won’t impact. Imagine driving back from a ski vacation and being able to turn up the heat at home. A sales rep may be able to directly schedule spots with a handheld device during a client meeting in a restaurant.
Threat Or Opportunity?
All technical innovations can be considered a threat or an opportunity. With the advent of new wireless technologies and others certain to follow, the radio industry, while appearing mature, may actually be in its infancy. One way or another, all appearances are that radio could be entering the dawn of a new era.
As listeners become increasingly connected to devices that transform their lives, they will no longer have to decide which one to turn on to receive programming. Whatever device they use — PDA, cell phone or something we can’t yet envision — will already be media capable. The increasing challenge will be to snag audience attention in an environment that is far more distracting than anything we can comprehend.
It is logical to believe that there will be a continuing thirst for valuable information and entertainment. Following the pattern being set by the cable industry, successful media probably will become more specialized than ever. For example, imagine a person who likes golf. Would that person listen to radio programming customized for golfers: music, commercials for golfing products, golf tips, and stories from other golfers about their experiences? It seems likely. How about backpacking, antique cars, home projects, or any other activity? It is hard to imagine hobbyists who would not want to tune into customized radio programming directed at them.
Certainly, WiMax, and other related technologies will have growing pains. Delays from unforeseen technical problems and the usual standards issues are anticipated. However, as we observe what has been learned from technologies such as Wi-Fi and cellular, as well as the level of industry-wide support for WiMax as a universal standard, there is every indication that this technology will succeed.
For what may be the first time, a new form of broadcasting is coming, one that broadcasters have not had a stake in developing. It has come from outside the radio industry, and it appears to be right at the doorstep.
Radio is in the audio-content business, and content will remain king. To address this challenge and seize an opportunity before it blindsides the industry, however, radio must remain alert, work together and think outside the box. If broadcasters can succeed at that, this may indeed be the sunrise of a new radio era.
Rick Dearborn is a media technology consultant and has taught college-level mass communication courses. Visit www.rickdearborn.com.
dd:Wave and Pay With a Wireless Credit Card
Plus: Apple's Tiger Software
May. 13, 2005 - In this week's "Cybershake," we take a look at a new credit card system that lets customers pay for things with a simple wave. Plus, we track how Tiger, Apple's new operating system software, is doing in the wild world of Mac users.
Blink and Your Money's Spent
What do you pull out of your wallet when you reach the sales register at a retail store? Using cash can be quick -- if you have enough bills for pricey purchases. Credit cards can be convenient, but slow since you have to wait for the bank's authorization. And you'll have to keep track of all those charge slips to prevent identity theft.
But on Thursday, Chase Bank announced a new payment system called "blink" that the company believes could offer the speed of paper with the convenience of plastic.
The new technology is essentially a credit card embedded with a radio-frequency ID (RFID) microchip that contains encoded data. To pay for a purchase, consumers merely wave the card at the store's register and an RFID terminal wirelessly reads the card's data to process the payment.
Thomas O'Donnell, senior vice president of Chase card services, says that since consumers don't have to hand over their cards to store employees, "We think we have found a way, with blink, to make that checkout faster."
On average, O'Donnell says the wireless blink technology will reduce the amount of time consumers spend at the sales register by up to 30 percent to 40 percent. Another plus: Unlike traditional credit card sales, blink transactions won't require a customer's signature to complete the purchase.
Detractors worry that the wireless system could lead to new instances of high-tech fraud or identity theft. But O'Donnell says the blink cards -- which can also be used like traditional credit cards through "swipe" readers -- is hardened against electronic attacks.
"The card itself is safe and secure. It uses the highest level of data encryption available," says O'Donnell. And since the card never leaves the customer's hand, there's less chance the card will be misplaced or even misused by an unscrupulous store clerk. What's more, blink users won't be liable for any fraudulent charges -- just like traditional credit card customers.
Such wireless payment systems aren't new. ExxonMobil has a similar system called SpeedPass which can be used at the fuel pumps and snack stores in more than 8,600 Exxon and Mobil fuel stations. And since its introduction in 1997, only 6 million customers have signed up to use the wave-and-pay system.
But Chase is confident that consumers -- and merchants -- will flock to the speed and convenience of blink. It has already signed up convenience store chain, 7-Eleven to test the system in 170 of its 5,800 stores in the U.S. Drugstore chain CVS and movie theater operator Regal Entertainment Group have also agreed to use the new blink card technology.
"Our cards members, we believe, already have a good view of where and how they should use their credit cards," says O'Donnell. "We're just making it easier for our customers to get in and out of those places, get through the line more quickly. "
Chase Bank, a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co., says it will begin rolling out the blink cards and terminals to consumers and merchants in two undisclosed U.S. cities next month. But JPMorgan officials say all of its current 98 million credit card holders will receive blink cards and service will be available nationwide by the end of the year.
-- Jim Hickey, ABC News
On the Prowl With Tiger
Last month, Apple released the latest operating system for its computers called Mac OS X 10.4. Better known as "Tiger," the software has already made quite a roar among Apple fans.
"It's been a very successful launch for us thus far," said Frank Casanova, a senior director of marketing at Apple. The main attractions, he said, are the software's new features that give Mac computers even more powerful capabilities.
"We built into Tiger, right at the core of the operating system, a search technology that we call Spotlight," said Casanova.
It's a lot like Google's desktop search tool. On demand, Spotlight can find files and applications that match whatever words a Mac user types into the search box. Casanova says because Spotlight is integrated into the heart of Tiger, it means one thing: "It's fast."
Tiger also introduces new terms: "Dashboard" and "widgets." Casanova calls them "cool little programs" that can do all kinds of things. One widget, for example, might be programmed to look for Wi-Fi "hotspots" which would allow Tiger-equipped Mac notebooks to wirelessly connect to the Internet. The widgets, which can be created by almost anyone, can sit on the Mac computer's desktop creating a car-like "dashboard." Casanova said Apple released a "patch" -- Mac OS X 10.4.1 -- on Monday which should fix many of the early problems and reestablish Tiger as the cat's meow among Mac fans.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Cybershake/story?id=771889&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
-- Jim Hickey, ABC News
Cybershake is produced for ABC News Radio by Andrea J. Smith.