First Look: IRL Connect Puts Facebook, Twitter on the MapTuesday, March 10, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media When Google’s Latitude location service launched, one of the main problems users experienced was that the service only located users’ Google contacts — it didn’t include access to the most popular social networks, through which many users connect with friends. Therefore, it was only natural that someone would use Google’s Maps API and build a [...] Read more |
Broadband Policy Plans Kicked Off in D.C.Tuesday, March 10, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Today, the three agencies responsible for allocating the $7.2 billion in stimulus funds for broadband met in Washington, D.C. The bottom line appeared to be a lot of hot air, including FCC promises of an open process to deliver a national broadband strategy within one year, and a lot of unanswered questions, such as how [...] Read more |
In the Race to LTE, Kineto Talks up VoiceTuesday, March 10, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media As carriers evaluate their Long Term Evolution 4G network deployments, voice has becoming a sticking point. LTE is an all-Internet-Protocol data network that offers speed, capacity and a lower cost per bit, but what is doesn’t offer is the same circuit-switched voice technology of current cellular networks. This is where Kineto Wireless, the company behind [...] Read more |
Jeff Bezos on The State of KindleTuesday, March 10, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media For someone who likes books, especially the old fashioned kind (you know, the ones printed on paper), I was predisposed to disliking (and dismissing) Kindle, the e-reader developed by Amazon. So when Amazon sent me a review unit of the new Kindle 2.0, they were taking a big risk, since I have been vocal about [...] Read more |
Wireless Broadband Races to 12.5 GBps With MicrowavesTuesday, March 10, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Wow, we’re not even deploying 4G wireless broadband networks yet and ICT Results, an organization that aims to publicize European research, is already pushing the next wireless leap with research promoting millimeter wave technology, also known as microwave photonics. It’s not as foreign as it sounds. Readers of this blog are familiar with a variation on this [...] Read more |
MetroPCS Gets BlackBerry CurveTuesday, March 10, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media MetroPCS said today it will launch the BlackBerry Curve 8330 (not Om’s latest handset crush) in several markets, including Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, with advance pay plans that range from $30 to $60 a month. The BlackBerry is the carrier’s first smart phone. Last week, MetroPCS COO Tom Keys told us [...] Read more |
Should Google Be Added to the Dow?Tuesday, March 10, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media A provocative story from Reuters Monday ruminated on which companies are likely to replace Citigroup and General Motors in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Its conclusion: Google and Cisco are the most likely contenders, with Apple and Visa as less likely candidates. It’s a safe bet that those two troubled companies -- trading below $2 a share -- will get the boot, but does Google belong in the Dow? I think it does for a few reasons. Read more |
Twofish Elements Helps Developers Price Virtual Goods for Fun and ProfitTuesday, March 10, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Happening upon virtual items for sale in the games you play is now as common as a dentist handing you a new toothbrush after each visit. It is expected that online games will hawk some form of virtual wares to players. But most social and casual game makers are carelessly tossing virtual swords and daggers into [...] Read more |
Appistry Opens the Cloud to (Almost) All AppsMonday, March 9, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Enterprise adoption is the Holy Grail for cloud computing software vendors, and Appistry is prepping to play the role of Sir Galahad. The St. Louis-based company today released its new CloudIQ Manager product,which offers the ability to port nearly any enterprise application to the cloud, and makes it easy to move applications between both in-house [...] Read more |
Why I Think Apple’s Touchscreen Netbook Is RealMonday, March 9, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Some Asian news outlets are reporting rumors that suggest Apple is working on a touchscreen netbook-like device. Such a device has been rumored for a while, and just as it redefined the MP3 player experience and reinvented the iPhone, Apple is going to pursue the netbook opportunity. But it won’t be with anything like the cheap, anorexic laptops being sold as netbooks today. Read more |
Clearwire Names Turnaround Guru As New CEOMonday, March 9, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media William Morrow Clearwire today named William Morrow, a former executive at Vodafone and Pacific Gas & Electric, to the CEO position — replacing co-founder and current CEO Ben Wolff. Wolff will become a co-chairman at the WiMAX operator, alongside curent chairman Craig McCaw. Morrow was recently president and CEO of PG&E in San Francisco, and he served [...] Read more |
Sprint Evaluating LTE EquipmentMonday, March 9, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Sources in the telecommunications world have been telling me that Sprint is testing Long Term Evolution, or LTE, equipment, which seems a bit odd given Sprint’s cheerleading for WiMAX and 51 percent stake in Clearwire, which is building out a nationwide WiMAX network. I asked Sprint if it was evaluating LTE equipment, and spokesman John [...] Read more |
Verizon Data-Sharing Hysteria Points to Larger Privacy IssuesMonday, March 9, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media It emerged over the weekend that Verizon Wireless was trying to share your cell phone data with “affiliates, agents and parent companies.” David Weinberger read the fine print on a recent 45-page Verizon mailing to discover that tidbit, and posted a really clear set of instructions to opt out. His worries and the subsequent media hysteria [...] Read more |
SynapSense Raises $7M for Data Center Energy EfficiencyMonday, March 9, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Startup SynapSense said today that it has pulled in $7 million in financing for its wireless energy-efficiency systems, designed to cut down the carbon footprint of energy-hungry data centers. The Folsom, Calif.-based startup offers a wireless monitoring system that tracks real-time thermal, pressure, and humidity readings to help data center operators spot ways to cut [...] Read more |
Clearwire Shouldn’t Count on StimulusMonday, March 9, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Clearwire announced a slightly scaled back rollout of its WiMAX network last Thursday, but analysts still believe the wireless operator will have to stretch itself to pay for its nationwide network. Chris King, a analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, thinks Clearwire will need $2 billion to $4 billion more than it has disclosed to build out [...] Read more |
Cloud Computing’s Three-Horse RaceSunday, March 8, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Cloud Computing has hit the main stage, solidly capturing the minds of both the technology and business communities. But while three distinct deployment models have emerged, it’s far from certain which of them will go on to prosper. The three models are: 1. Renting raw hardware: compute processing, data storage and networking bandwidth. 2. Leveraging an integrated [...] Read more |
Is Rupert Losing His Magic Touch?Saturday, March 7, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Two years ago, Rupert Murdoch bestrode the media world like a colossus. News Corp.’s stock simmered above $25 a share as properties from MySpace to American Idol to Fox Sports stood tall. A business news channel was in the works, and Murdoch was gunning for Dow Jones as the jewel in his media crown. Today, if [...] Read more |
Is Rupert Murdoch Losing His Magic Touch?Saturday, March 7, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Two years ago, Rupert Murdoch bestrode the media world like a colossus. News Corp.’s stock simmered above $25 a share as properties from MySpace to American Idol to Fox Sports stood tall. A business news channel was in the works, and Murdoch was gunning for Dow Jones as the jewel in his media crown. Today, if [...] Read more |
Big Computer Brains Need Big Memory BandwidthFriday, March 6, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media As semiconductors try to get faster without breaking the laws of physics (not that researchers aren’t trying that, too) multicore processors have become all the rage. Quad-core chips are commonplace in servers nowadays, and six-core chips have been launched this year. But after a certain point adding more processor cores doesn’t improve performance for certain [...] Read more |
In Europe, VoIP Grows GrowsFriday, March 6, 2009Source: GigaOM | Category: Media Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, once famously said that voice was going to be free. She was wrong in ponying up billions of dollars for Skype, but she was right in her assertion about voice. Thanks to European broadband service providers treating voice as a loss leader to attract triple-play customers, local voice has [...] Read more |
