February 2007 Archives

RockYou.com has a very cool site that lets you upload your favorite photos and then instantly add music, videos, themes, pins, movie posters, instant posting. I added a few of my own photos to test it. In just 5 minutes I created this slideshow with music. You have to pick their selection of music - probably so they don't run afoul of the RIAA complaining about copyrighted music.I didn't even have to register on their website, though the advantage of registering is that you can edit the photos you uploaded. This is pretty sweet! Check out my test photo slideshow with a country and rock song. Rock you, rock me, rock on!

(Note: There are 2 songs. If you don't like the 1st song, just Refresh your browser and the 2nd song should start.)

| View Show | Create Your Own | Playlist

Om has the news on SIPphone's Gizmo offering free VoIP calling to most of the major IM clients. While Yahoo! and Microsoft already offer instant messaging interoperability, as far as I know, you can't do VoIP between these two IM networks. The interoperability agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo is IM only. But with Gizmo, you CAN do voice over IP calling from Yahoo to Microsoft MSN Messenger. Obviously, Gizmo has figured out how to leverage the SIP protocol used by both Microsoft and Yahoo. The question of course, is will Microsoft and Yahoo allow this unabated. Yahoo is notorious for blocking outside software from accessing their IM network.

In fact, the just launched Gizmo Project 3.0 client can not only make free calls to users of Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live (MSN Messenger), it also supports Jabber, Google Talk and of course Gizmo Project.

To make a call, users simply type the username (often their email address) of the person they want to call. For example, username@yahoo.com or username@hotmail.com. Nice! No AOL AIM support and of course no Skype support due to their proprietary protocol. When will Skype offer interoperability? Sheesh!

Let's file this in the "it was only a matter of time" folder ...

Here's a report from the 'Beeb about how Japan's big mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo, is teaming up with McDonalds to offer electronic payments and special promotions for mobile phone users, such as paying for that Big Mac.

(Or maybe that should be a double cheesburger?)

Japanese mobile phone owners are leading the way in this area, paying for food and train tickets via their handsets.

(Aren't micro-payments beautiful? At least until the phone bill arrives ...)

And when will we catch up (no pun intended ) with the rest of the world?

Nice to have piles of money and go around looking for things to do with it.

How about Google updating its direct-competition to Microsoft's Office franchise?

How many of you out there have made the move to Google for your basic apps?

And what do you think?   or

Well it may be hard to believe, but the remote control turned 50 last year!

Fitting to honor this ubiquitous device at the time of the passing of Dr. Robert Adler earlier this month.

He received more than 180 U.S. patents, but his contribution to consumer electronics with the "Space Command" TV wireless remote control became his most visible legacy.

Along with another Zenith engineer, Eugene Polley, Adler perfected a remote control system based on the generation and reception of ultrasonic tones. Prior to the Adler/Polley invention, remote control was available on some television receivers, but the control was via a connected multiconductor cable.

He also contributed to the field of television engineering with work on gated-beam tubes, improvements in synchronizing circuitry and electromechanical filters. He suggested the use of SAW (surface acoustic wave) filters in television IF amplifiers, a technology that was ultimately adopted in all television receivers and later became an important part of cellular telephone technology.

For more details from Television Technology, click here, and for more details from the Zenith corporate site, click here.

Sure you've gotten over the short-lived excitement over the wraggling between Apple and Cisco over the iPhone trademark -- now that this spat has been settled.

But if you think about this some (if you really want to), you have to wonder what the deal was all about.  On the surface, it seems to reverse Apple's longstanding refusal to make its products interoperable with competing devices.

But is that really the case?

Obviously, we see how Apple benefits -- keeps the iPhone name, keeps the coolness, sells the phone (when it finally does appear), blah, blah, blah ...

But what about Cisco?

Hardly the coolest name in tech, Cisco is the Fortune 500 networking best bet -- but is hardly, hardly a CE name to be reckoned with. OK, Cisco's Linksys division has been using the iPhone trademark since last spring on a line of VoIP phones (see photo above), and Linksys is pretty well know for its home networking (an area in total that lacks cool) -- and they can still keep using the iPhone name.

But what about the big picture?

Anybody out there have a clue about how Apple and Cisco will "explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and (business) communications"?

Boy, Sony PS3 is really having a tough time! After the disastrous U.S. launch, PS3 users stealing and killing each other for the high-demand console, >$3000 prices on eBay at the U.S. launch, and the Wii and XBox 360 outselling the PS3 -- the PS3 continues its downward spiral. The grey market prices for PS3s has dropped dramatically and now Sony has caused a firestorm of controversy by announcing they are removing the Emotion Engine chip and using software emulation instead - to save $27 on each console. Sony is losing $241.35 for the 20GB model and $306.85 for the higher-end 60GB model.

By contrast, the XBox 360 loses about $75/console. So in an effort to save costs, Sony in a bone-head move has changed the hardware specs, giving more fuel for the XBox 360 and Wii fanboys, and all the other PS3-haters.

This brings me to this hilarious video clip hating on the Sony PS3 and loving on the XBox 360. Good stuff!

Today, BitTorrent has launched their licensed entertainment networl and an enhanced BitTorrent protocol that will allow it to offer copyrighted movies, TV shows, games, and other media. The BitTorrent Entertainment Network will launch starting with over 5,000 titles, including films from Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, and Warner Bros, as well as episodes of TV shows such as 24 and Prison Break.



According to the company, the service is aimed at young males who regularly use BitTorrent to download pirated versions of the same films and who prefer to watch these video programs on their PCs instead of a TV. BitTorrent is used by millions of users and in fact 1/3rd of all Internet traffic is consumed by BitTorrent traffic. The problem from naysayers is "converting" these pirates into legit-paying customers. Of course, the same naysayers were skeptical of Apple iTunes when it launched in the post-Napster age and iTunes is a runaway success.

The BitTorrent company claims that at least one-third of the 135 million people using BitTorrent software will be willing to pay for legitimate content. To entice the pirates, err, I mean potential law-abiding customers, they are featuring popular content at just $1.99 and targetting males between the ages of 15 and 35 years. Full-length movie takes about 30 minutes to download, while a TV episode should only take about 10 minutes. Movies will also be available for 24 hours at $3.99 for new and $2.99 for old titles. Sample movie content includes Superman Returns and Mission: Impossible III. The content will be protected by Windows Media DRM, and will only play back using Windows Media Player. Sorry Mac fans!

The library within the BitTorrent Entertainment Network is very extensive. It includes 3,000 movie and television titles as well as 1,000 games, and 1,000 music titles. Movie and record studios and associations have aggresively tried to shut down various BitTorrent tracker sites, including The Pirate Bay and isoHunt.com. Now that BitTorrent has gone legit, will the studios back off? Not a chance in hell.

Brian Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent has is working on some major enhancements to the BitTorrent client. While many other popular BitTorrent clients exist, such as Azureus, BitComet, etc., BitTorrent.com's client will most likely be the only one to support these DRM-protected downloads. I would venture to guess that both Azureus and BitComet are more popular than the official BitTorrent client, but things could quickly change. So it will be interesting to see if BitTorrent.com's client takes a larger market share and as such, if they start adding advertisements and/or adware to the client. The new version will support BitTorrent DNA Version 2. Unlike current versions of Bittorrent, the new version of Mainline will apparently NOT be released as an open-source client.

According to PC Magazine, the µTorrent client BitTorrent acquired in December will be used for portable apps. With DNA 2.0, users can start a BitTorrent swarm off of any Web object. The technology also recognizes when the user is Web surfing or using VoIP, by gracefully scaling down the network utilization to avoid interfering with the user's other Internet activities.

ZoiPPE, a Hong Kong-based VoIP service provider is offering their users a Chinese New Year gift  - UNLIMITED free calls to China landline and even mobile phones. Often times, calls to mobile phones are more expensive or not covered by any sort of "free" promotions.

Not sure how long the promotion will last, but if you have family/friends in China, then ZoiPPE certainly offers an inexpensive way to call. PC-to-PC calls are free. ZoiPPE claims to be the first with an innovative interface known as Magic Message Square (MMS) which allows users to switch from making PC-to-PC calls to sending instant messaging, SMS, emails or simply calling to a fixed or mobile line. I'm not sure I agree with that, since I've seen plenty of VoIP clients that do IM, PC-to-PC calling, SMS, and even email integration. They do have a slick, colorful, some might say "cartoonish" interface, as seen by this screenshot of ZoiPPE Out (PC-to-PSTN):

Encyclocentral is a new Wiki-like site run by my pal Dan Conner, who runs the uber-successful Vonage Forums (www.vonage-forum.com). While I'm sure Dan has no illusions of overtaking Wikipedia, he has put a lof of work into the site and all the articles on Encyclocentral are hand written. Some good content there - go check it out!

Hard to believe that Nokia sold 40 million "multimedia phones" last year and nearly 70 million music phones.

The company said the total multimedia phone market was 90 million units in 2006, and is expected to grow to 250 million units in 2008 -- that's a hefty growth rate!

 

According to Technology Review, it takes about six minutes for a firefighter with a full load of gear to reach the top of a 30-story building by running up the stairs. Of course, one the firefighter gets there, they are exhausted and are less capable of rescuing/carrying someone than if they took the elevator. Of course, they can't take the elevator since the fire could cut the power or the elevator cables leaving the firefighter trapped - or worse freefalling to the bottom.

Well, a group of MIT students have designed a rope-climbing device that can carry 250 pounds at a top speed of 10 feet per second. The U.S. Army has even expressed interest in these devices and they hope to make it available to rescue workers. Of course, my guess is these MIT students developed this fast rope-climbing device so they could more easily carry out their tradition of placing "unusual "devices on the MIT's Great Dome roof. Like, I don't know, say, a police car?



Or climb the roof and quickly turn the Great Dome into R2-D2 before the police arrive? That is, if the police's vehicle isn't already on the roof! (Images Courtesy MIT Hacks)



In any event, the MIT students founded a company called Atlas Devices to commercialize the device. According to Technology Review, "Nathan Ball, Atlas's chief technology officer, says that such a device has never been made before because the batteries and motors needed to generate enough power for rapid rope ascents have been bulky and heavy. Atlas's 20-pound machine uses a fast-charging, high-power-density lithium-ion battery made by A123 Systems."

To use the device you wrap the rope around its cylinder and clips it to a harness worn around the waist. The biggest design challenge in making the climber was a mechanical one. "We had to come up with a clever mechanism to grip the rope securely while not damaging it," he says. The device relies on the capstan effect: the more times a rope is wrapped around a cylinder, the stronger the device's grip on the rope. To take advantage of the effect, the MIT students had to make a device that could tightly grip a few turns of a rope while still rapidly advancing it.

The Atlas rope climber can be attached at any point along a rope--a rescue worker could get onto a line from a second-story window, for example. It takes about 10 seconds to wrap the rope three times around the capstan. The climbing device can't shoot a rope up to the top of a building, but Ball says the army already uses grappling hooks to set ropes that soldiers must then climb by hand. A first wave of firefighters or other emergency workers might climb up using the stairs and set a rope for others to follow, or a soldier might be dropped to the top of a building from a helicopter and set a rope.

Check out the video of this in action:

Yes, everyone has their favorite graphic design programs, but CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 is a comprehensive graphics suite that lets you tackle a wide variety of projects -- from logo creation and Web graphics to multi-page marketing brochures to or eye-catching signs.

(Is that the Geico gecko on the box?)

With the new bitmap-to-vector tracing in Corel PowerTRACE, new photo-editing features in PHOTO-PAINT, new suite-wide learning tools and enhancements in illustration and page layout, this suite combines design capabilities, ease-of-use, and affordability that' s a tough match-up for other graphics software.

X3 includes more than 40 new features and 400 enhancements. It's also now easier than ever to learn and work with:

• Hints provide dynamic, context-sensitive tips and tricks as you work, making the Suite easier to use and learn
• CorelDRAW Design Collection offers 100 creatively varied templates that are easily customized to suit specific needs
• CorelDRAW Handbook offers insights from experts and showcases practical, real-world examples of accomplished designs and best practices

MSRP: $379.00 Full Version; $169.00 Upgrade

www.corel.com

The Plantronics Discovery 665 is Plantronics' latest and greatest Bluetooth headset, which is essentially an update to the Plantronics 640, 645, and 655 headset line. The Plantronics Discovery 665 headset is essentially a 655 with "AudioIQ" added - an intelligent digital sound enhancement to improve the sound quality. Plantronics sent VoIP & Gadgets blog a 655 eval headset to review.

Raytheon of "Patriot missile" fame is set to launch a new SIP VoIP gateway called the ACU-2000 IP through their Ratheon JSP Communications subsidiary.

They claim that the ACU-2000 IP is the only solution that provides a true SIP-based gateway to digitally converge your existing radio systems with SIP telephones, networks, and devices. Using their system you can bring the advantages of the open-standards SIP protocol to your radio systems and add radio functionality to your network.

The question is will this SIP gateway be strictly focused on the government, military, and wireless carrier operations or will general enterprises find it useful as well? Just imagine Cisco going head-to-head with Raytheon - titan vs. a titan. Of course, Raytheon could just launch a Patriot missle through Cisco HQ. Ok, ok, I know, the Patriot missile is an air-to-air missile. Semantics... Besides, that's what the government would lead you to believe about the Patriot's capabilities. They still haven't come clean about those Men In Black (MIB) flying in unmarked black helicopters or those aliens they've been secretly negotiating with.

Actually, the ACU-2000 isn't targetting enterprise - but rather operations that rely on radio, such as search and rescue (SAR) outfits, police/fire, Homeland Security, and the government. Their ACU-1000 product does radio interoperability, so I'm assuming the ACU-2000 adds the voice over IP functionality to the existing radio functionality. Essentially, the ACU-2000 IP enables communications interoperability among radios, telephones, cellular, satellite and SIP phones. This can be crucial during disasters where some communications systems fail and require re-routing or if ad-hoc conferences need to be setup. Remote communications devices can be interfaced via an IP network to enable wide area interoperability. It features a GUI interface for simple setup and control, remote radio channel changing and a distributed network design for operation continuity.

Here's a product shot of the ACU-1000 (don't have a ACU-2000 photo). I assume the ACU-2000 is very similar and will update this post when I find out more: