Bluetooth 4.0 to reach devices in fourth quarter The Bluetooth 4.0 wireless specification could start to appear in devices such as headsets, smartphones and PCs by the fourth quarter, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group said on Wednesday. see more
IPv4 addresses: Less than 10pc still available The shortage of IPv4 addresses has reached a critical stage, according to the registries that allocate internet numbers around the world. see more
Scientists create world's first molecular transistor A group of scientists has succeeded in creating the first transistor made from a single molecule. The team, which includes researchers from Yale University and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, published their findings in the December 24 issue of the journal Nature. see more
Wi-Fi is now a must-have for mobile phones; User affinity to drive annual shipments to 300 million in 2011 Now that millions of people have experienced what Wi-Fi brings to mobile phones, they overwhelmingly report that Wi-Fi has become a required feature on those devices. A survey conducted by ABI Research found that 77 percent of users of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones are completely or very satisfied with their device - a higher rate of satisfaction than that reported by users of mobile phones without Wi-Fi. Seventy-four percent of people who have Wi-Fi on their mobile phone use it, and 77 percent say they will seek Wi-Fi in their next phone as well. see more
ASUS Eee Keyboard hands-on & specs As expected, ASUS brought along the latest version of their Eee Keyboard to CeBIT, and we had a quick catch-up with the innovative hardware. Packing a nettop PC inside a QWERTY ‘board, together with a 5-inch touchscreen, ASUS also confirmed the Eee Keyboard’s current hardware specs. see more
New global standard for fully networked home The first global standard offering an in-home, high-speed network capable of delivering room-to-room HDTV has been agreed by ITU.The standard, published under the G.hn banner, promises high quality multimedia over power, coaxial, phone and other home network wiring. It will give up to 20 times the throughput of existing wireless technologies and three times that of existing wired technologies. see more
Intel's My Wi-Fi makes my internet yours I love my hotel room in Las Vegas. Great view! Very fast internet access. However, the hotel controls and charges for access to the internet by IP address. This means I have to keep my iPhone from getting connected unless I want to pay for another connection plan, in addition to the one used for my laptop. see more
Intel Talks Up Wi-Fi Mini Nets Intel today released new software that let its Centrino 2 notebooks create personal area networks. The software lets notebooks create short range Wi-Fi networks of up to eight devices such as photo frames, cameras and printers in addition to its link to an access point. see more
Intel makes Wi-Fi personal at CES Intel Corp. released at the Consumer Electronics Show new software to let its Centrino 2 notebooks create a personal area network of connected Wi-Fi devices. The software lets notebooks create a short range Wi-Fi network of up to eight devices such as photo frames, cameras and printers in addition to its link to an access point. see more
Wi-fi aboard all TGV Est trains by 2010 French train operator SNCF is to roll out onboard wi-fi across its entire TGV Est fleet by the end of 2010, following a successful trial of the technology. SNCF said a paid-for wi-fi service for first and second class passengers will launch in autumn 2009 on a number of trains, with a full rollout on all TGV Est departures in France, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland by the end of 2010. see more
Coming Next Spring: A Cheaper Way to Watch HD Wirelessly I’ve written alot about watching HD video without wires, but most of the time it was in response to the latest company trying to push a whole-room wireless video network, either through Wi-Fi or through a newly developed standard called WHDI. In the last few months televisions and devices that allow you to wirelessly transmit video to those televisions have started hitting the market, which had me wondering what was happening with WirelessHD, the standard that uses 60 GHz spectrum to do point-to-point wireless HD video transfer. see more
The Network of Everything
Wireless experts believe that, by 2017, personal networks will have to cope with at least a thousand devices, like laptops, telephones, mp3 players, games, sensors and other technology. To link these devices will require a ‘Network of Everything’. It represents an astonishing challenge, but European researchers believe that they are moving towards the solution. see more
New wireless chip promises to kick Wi-Fi’s butt in data transmission If you’re waiting for the technology that will make Wi-Fi seem as quaint as a black-and-white TV, you’ll be excited by the news from National Taiwan University, where a team of researchers have developed a wireless chip that can transmit data at up to 100 times the rate that Wi-Fi devices. Just how fast is that? At its maximum rate—5GBps—the chip can download a 4GB video file in about 10 seconds, compared to the two hours it would take over Wi-Fi. see more
We're running out of IPv4 addresses. Time for IPv6. Really. A little over a year ago, I wrote an article about the IPv4 address consumption with the subtitle IPv4 Address Space: 2.46 Billion Down, 1.25 Billion to Go. A week ago, we reached the magic number of 2.7 billion IPv4 addresses used. With 3.7 billion possible addresses,¹ this means we now have less than a billion unused IPv4 addresses left. There are 39 blocks of 16.78 million addresses in the IANA global pool and another 339 million addresses that have been given out by IANA to the five Regional Internet Registries, but not yet delegated to ISPs or end-users. see more
The Future of the Web The semantic web can be quite a hard concept to grasp when discussed in an abstract way: the above video is a particularly useful, clear exposition of the enormous promise and power the future of knowledge sharing holds. Parallax, a novel browsing interface designed by David Huynh to manipulate Freebase, shows how contextual connections can be made with machine readable data to provide a much richer results set which in turn can spawn fascinating visual representations, and more. see more
ISP's confirm "2012: The Year The Internet Ends" Bell Canada and TELUS (formerly owned by Verizon) employees officially confirm that by 2012 ISP's all over the globe will reduce Internet access to a TV-like subscription model, only offering access to a small standard amount of commercial sites and require extra fees for every other site you visit. These 'other' sites would then lose all their exposure and eventually shut down, resulting in what could be seen as the end of the Internet. see more
Sony Ericsson wants to add mobile data functionality to the cameras Getting cameras into mobile phones these days have become so commonplace, that it’s actually harder to find a phone without the camera, then one with it. But what about doing things the other way around? Instead of trying to cram the camera functionality into a mobile phone, why not add the phone functionality, or at least mobile data part of it, to the digital still and video cameras. see more
The Mobile Linux War A recent report from ABI Research highlights the rise of mobile Linux, estimating that 23 percent of the world’s smartphones will have a Linux operating system by 2013. It appears that much of that growth will come at the expense of Nokia’s Symbian, and that LiMo and Android will be the main beneficiaries. What the report doesn’t note is that last year ABI predicted that 31 percent of smartphones will have Linux by 2012. see more
Synet Windy31 USB Wireless Router The Synet Windy31 USB Wireless Router is not your typical router. Instead of connecting it to your DSL or cable modem to share an Internet connection, you plug it into a USB port on your PC or laptop. Windy31 automatically configures itself to set up a wireless network that lets you share your Internet connection with as many as 31 other Wi-Fi enabled gadgets, including other computers, PDAs and smartphones, VoIP phones, and handheld gaming devices. It's very easy to set up and use, making for a convenient way to share an Internet connection when traveling or setting up a wireless LAN wherever you may be. The device can also be switched to work as a regular 802.11b/g Wi-Fi card. see more
WirelessHD 1.0 specification finalized and released The WirelessHD consortium released the specification for its WirelessHD 1.0 interface, making it the latest formal entry into a field already bulging with competition. The new specification uses the 60GHz spectrum to deliver up to 4GBps at a distance of up to 10 meters. That's enough bandwidth to deliver an HD stream without the need for additional compression, and an advantage that could appeal to consumers who aren't willing to compromise on video quality. see more
On the Net, 162M Web Sites and Counting A graph that shows the growth in the number of web sites over the years. see more
Mobile phones: A public health time bomb? Mobile phones could represent a public health time bomb akin to asbestos or smoking, according to a study by neurosurgeon Dr Vini G Khurana. It suggests there is growing evidence of a link between excessive long-term use of mobiles and certain types of brain tumours - reigniting a long-running debate about the safety of the technology. see more
Emirates rings up first in-flight mobile call Emirates airline has launched the world's first commercial in-flight mobile telephone service and will spend $27m to kit out its entire fleet with the technology. see more
The new two-laptop minimum Ten years ago, every frequent-flying, executive-platinum mobile professional required a desktop PC back at the office and a laptop for the road. "Ultra-portables" or extreme mini computers were an expensive and optional luxury for serious enthusiasts or big shots with expense accounts. But in the last year, all that has changed. see more
One, two, three, IPv4 switched off! It happened in San Jose, it happened in Taiwan and soon it will happen in Philadelphia! A nightmare? A conspiracy? No, no, it was just the IPv6 hour. One hour of pure IPv6 LAN for NANOG attendees with a NAT-PT as valve to the crowded teeming world of the IPv4 internet. IPv6 only on the inside, dual stack to the outside world. see more
Researchers Transmit Optical Data At 16.4 Tbps Carried out by researchers in Bell Labs in Villarceaux, France, the successful transmission of 16.4 Tbps of optical data over 2,550 km was assisted by Alcatel's Thales' III-V Lab and Kylia, an optical solution company. The researchers used 164 wavelength-division multiplexed channels modulated at 100 Gbps in the effort. see more
Digi Connect WAN 3G: yet another portable HSDPA / EV-DO router Digi unveiling its new Digi Connect WAN 3G, which is hailed as an upgradeable 3G WWAN router for "primary and backup connectivity to remote sites and devices." Besides supporting both EV-DO and HSDPA standards, it also aims to provide "a fast and easy Ethernet-to-3G wireless connection" and even includes a built-in VPN. see more
Free the Music As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website. see more
FireWire speeds set to quadruple The speed of FireWire is set to quadruple next year after the group behind it announced a new specification for the networking interface.
FireWire is the best-known brand name for the 1394 standard, which is also known as i.Link. The technology is used as a high-speed data interface for linking devices such as external hard drives and camcorders to PCs. see more
Bluetooth picks Wi-Fi as UWB drags along The Bluetooth community has decided to make a fast version of Bluetooth running over the Wi-Fi protocol, because handset makers and operators are increasingly frustrated by the wait for ultra-wideband to ... see more
P2P comes to mobile phones, promises free calls A Swedish company is testing a peer-to-peer technology that could allow mobile phone users to call one another directly without needing to bother with those pesky cell towers. TerraNet's technology uses cellular handsets modified to act as peers and nodes on a mesh network. see more
Researchers Explore Scrapping Internet to Better Address Security, Mobility Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with the federal government's blessing want to scrap all that and start over.
The idea may seem unthinkable, even absurd, but many believe a "clean slate" approach is the only way to truly address security, mobility and other challenges that have cropped up since UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock helped supervise the first exchange of meaningless test data between two machines on Sept. 2, 1969. see more
Leveraging ultrawideband for mobile applications In today's highly competitive and evolving wireless communications market, carriers face an ever-shifting mix of opportunities and challenges. The enormous number of subscribers carrying mobile phone handsets represents a huge unused asset base. Over the past few years, applications from the Internet world, such as e-mail, Web browsing and instant messaging, migrated into the current generation of mobile handsets. However, carriers have only scratched the surface of their potential revenue-generating possibilities. see more
New Tiny Silent Linux PC Linutop has Linux-based diskless computer. It offers has completely silent, low-power operation in year extremely small package. Its hand purpose is to surfing the Internet. see more
Satellite broadband to launch from Eutelsat Eutelsat, the European satellite operator, is to launch a satellite-based broadband service for consumers in June this year. The service will provide broadband connectivity to consumers living in regions of Europe underserved by fixed-line broadband. see more
Global warming: the final verdict Global warming is destined to have a far more destructive and earlier impact than previously estimated, the most authoritative report yet produced on climate change will warn next week. see more
Can Personal Cellular Sites boost cell service? Mobile operators are on the verge of asking you to help them solve one of their biggest problems – how to get more signal strength where you need or want it most. Their plan? Allow end users to buy personal devices that act like Wi-Fi routers, providing nearby cellular bandwidth in hard-to-reach places like offices and homes. see more
Nokia Bridges Wireless Gap With New Phones The Nokia 6131 boasts an ergonomic design with a spaced keypad on a black handset with chrome accents. Pressing a button automatically opens the phone, which features a high-resolution display that supports 16 million colors for rich multimedia viewing. see more
IBM Scientists Demonstrate Chipset to Boost Wireless Communications IBM scientists announced that they have created a small, low-cost chipset that could allow wireless electronic devices to transmit and receive ten times faster than today’s advanced WiFi networks. see more
Snow Jacket Boasts Bluetooth Snow bums and ski bunnies can chat up their friends while they catch air on the slopes, thanks to a new Bluetooth-enabled jacket launched on Friday by Motorola and Burton Snowboards.
In addition to a Bluetooth connection for phones, the jacket has wires to hook up an iPod, a control panel on the left sleeve, and speakers and a microphone in the hood. Burton’s hands-free Audex Jacket Series will be priced at $599.95 or higher, and is available at Burton’s specialty shops and web site. see more
Airlines trial technology to allow mobile calls at 30,000ft One of the last islands of tranquillity in working life is to be breached by the mobile phone. Two airlines are to introduce technology into their aeroplanes that allows passengers to make in-flight calls.
BMI and TAP Portugal are planning to trial the service on short-haul European routes next year, enabling business travellers to stay in touch at 30,000 feet.see more
Faster Handoff Between Wi-Fi Networks Promises Near-Seamless 802.11 Roaming Road warriors may no longer have to stay put in an airport lounge or Starbucks to access the high-speed Internet via an 802.11 Wi-Fi network. Thanks to software developed by two computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, the time it takes to hand off from one Wi-Fi wireless network to the next can be dramatically shortened -- overcoming a major obstacle in Wi-Fi roaming. see more
NETGEAR and Intellon Team Up to Showcase HomePlug(R) 1.0 With Turbo 85 Mbps Solutions for Faster Powerline Communications Intellon Corporation, the world leader in powerline communications, and NETGEAR(R), Inc. , a worldwide provider of technologically advanced, branded networking products, today announced that they are teaming to deliver among the first solutions based on Intellon's 85Mbps powerline networking chipset for high speed powerline networking. Intellon's INT5500CS chipset enables the 85 Mbps Wall-Plugged Ethernet Bridge to offer speeds exceeding that of 802.11g wireless. The companies will showcase the new technology at CeBIT 2005 in Intellon's stand, located in Hall 14, Stand H13. see more
NEW technology uses human body for broadband networking By sending data over the surface of the skin, it may soon be possible to trade music files by dancing cheek to cheek, or to swap phone numbers by kissing. see more
