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Acer to
release PDAs with "snap-on" cell phones Acer to release PDAs with "snap-on" cell phones Palm's successful PDA formula may be closer to being "commoditized"
as major Taiwan manufacturer announces entering the market. In August,
Acer will release its Slim Mate PDA, a Palm III look-alike that will let
customers snap on peripherals such as a digital camera or a global positioning
system unit. The
peripherals will follow in October. By next year, the company will debut a
cell phone unit that attaches to the back panel of the PDA.
Bell ExpressVu said on June 12th that just about any Canadian who can dial a local Internet service provider can now have high-speed Internet with its launch today of its satellite-based DirectPC service. Served up through ExpressVu, the direct-broadcast television arm of BCE Inc., the DirecPC Satellite Edition is Bell's own implementation of similar technology offered in the US under the same name by Hughes Network Systems. The system allows its users to route outbound data such as requests for Web pages or e-mail dispatches through an ordinary modem via dial-up line, while the returning content is beamed to their location via satellite at rates of up to 400 kilobits per second. R.J. Juneau, general manager of data services for ExpressVu, told Newsbytes that Bell's DirecPC differs from its US counterpart in a number of ways, but most important is the fact that the Internet content is sent to Earth via the same satellite currently providing the television signals. He said that means existing ExpressVu customers won't have to buy a second dish - or an expanded dish - to capture the Internet content. Juneau said customers can choose their own ISP for the dial-up leg of the link, meaning they don't have to use the Sympatico ISP operated by Bell Canada, ExpressVu's Ontario and Quebec based sister company, and which is also available through other phone companies across the country. The service has been consumer-tested in Kamloops, B.C., and in Timmins, Ontario, and Juneau said the top-end speed of 400 Kbps was regularly achieved by users. Bell ExpressVu currently boasts of some 500,000 subscribers for the direct-broadcast television service.
Telus
trialing voice over DSL Telus and GTE are conducting customer trials of a technology that provides high-speed Internet access and up to 16 separate voice telephone "lines" over a single copper wire (twisted pair) using ADSL.
ECI2
launches new content management solution opDNA's value-added content, to be updated on a regular basis, will include enhanced product descriptions, product attributes, images, common identifiers and cross-reference files. It gives manufacturers more control over how their products are presented online and introduces, for the first time, e-commerce-based cross sell and upsell opportunities. Additionally, the opDNA process will encompass an ongoing quality assurance practice to include the tracking of anomalies, discontinued items and product updates. ECI2 will manage the opDNA process from beginning to end and will house the largest repository of office products content available today. AT&T to invest in speech-recognition company Source: CNet AT&T announced on June 13th that it has invested in the voice-recognition company SpeechWorks International, in a move to improve its customer service and tie its business more closely to the Internet. The company said it purchased a minority stake in Boston-based SpeechWorks, and granted SpeechWorks a license on a wide range or its own technologies with the goal of moving them out of the lab and turning them into products that will transform the customer experience. AT&T said it expects new speech recognition technologies could make it easier for people to reach one another, perhaps by simply stating a name rather than dialing a number, and could help them browse the Web using spoken commands. However, it said some of its immediate goals will be augmenting its "How May I Help You" service, which uses voice recognition in more than two billion calls a year. The vision is to build on the service that currently asks a customer to "press or say one," so, for example, it can handle more complicated tasks and process regular language requests. It uses the example of a customer who calls a service center and says, "I was calling my sister, but I guess I dialed a wrong number," and is automatically given a credit for the misplaced call. AT&T said it will also explore ways to incorporate its technologies into an Internet "voice portal" that delivers online content in voice rather than text. Several start-up companies such as TellMe and BeVocal have recently launched such voice portals to capture a piece of the Internet market as it shifts from the PC to wireless devices like cellular telephones.
Qualcomm handed $125 million for wireless shopping spree The voucher will allow Qualcomm to go on a kind of wireless shopping spree in any of several spectrum auctions set for the next three years. The FCC is in the process of offering licenses to huge slices of the airwaves to whichever mobile phone company or other service provider bids highest. But even $125 million won't buy much. Much of the most valuable spectrum in past auctions has gone for up to several billion dollars. Qualcomm has joined coalitions of firms elsewhere in the world, including in Chile, Mexico and Brazil, to buy wireless spectrum. It hasn't yet pursued this strategy in the United States, but the voucher could lead it in that direction.
Canoga
Perkins extends DWDM spectrum through new 1400NM window FCC seeks more information on AOL-Time Warner deal Source: Digitalmass Federal regulators have demanded more information about several key issues in evaluating competitive factors surrounding the proposed $124 billion merger of America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc. The FCC asked that AOL provide data about its instant messaging software and its ownership interest in Hughes Electronics Corp. while requesting Time Warner's plans to deploy high-speed Internet, local telephone and digital cable services. Specifically, the FCC asked AOL whether it is working with other Internet companies on drawing up standards to allow customers using various instant messaging programs to interact and, if not, what benefits that provides to AOL customers. Instant messaging, a feature that allows users to use the Internet to chat back and forth instantly, is one of the most popular functions on AOL. If various Internet companies are working together to establish standards, the FCC asked whether other instant message providers are required to sign licensing agreements that includes payments to AOL for access to its customers and vice-versa. Competitors to AOL's instant messaging software include Microsoft Corp.'s Instant Messaging, Yahoo! Inc.'s Yahoo IM and CMGI Inc.'s Tribal Voice. The request follows planned petition drives by CMGI and others to force AOL to make its instant messaging software interoperable with other messaging software. At the same time, the regulators demanded information about Time Warner's past, present and future roll-out plans for digital cable, local telephone and high-speed Internet services, including how much it plans to invest and the number of homes and subscribers it now serves and plans to serve.
IBM to unveil notebook PC that runs on Linux With the move, IBM takes another step away from using Microsoft software and Intel Corp. chips exclusively in its laptop PCs. IBM said it may introduce a notebook computer powered by a Transmeta Corp. chip.
Online superintendent claims international
tenants have refused payment of "rent" A group representing 30 nations is telling its members not to pay the fees, which range from $500 to $500 000. While several European countries are meeting in Norway to discuss the fees, a spokesman for the South African government says the country is not likely to pay what it was billed. In an e-mail to Michael Roberts, Icann's chief executive, Mike Lawrie, a programmer who helps run South Africa's domain said the country cannot afford to pay the fee because it does not charge users for registering Web addresses. For Icann's part, Roberts has said that it has
offered to waive fees for countries that have financial difficulties as long as
the total paid is still $1.5 million. Some Asian nations have considered paying
the Internet fees for their neighbors, but many remain defiant, characterizing
the charges as an arbitrary tax. For now Icann has to use persuasion to collect
the fees since the U.S. government would likely prevent it from cutting access
to a country's domain for nonpayment. Roberts added that continued failure to
pay for the national domains could encourage the U.S. government to maintain its
control of the Internet despite global calls for privatizing it.
Big players bite into Bluetooth Ericsson which initiated the Bluetooth effort, as well as Conexant Systems, Lucent Technologies and Motorola, are all vying
for an early share of what’s expected to rapidly become an enormous business:
Bluetooth chip sales alone will top nearly $1 billion in 2001, according to
Cahners In-Stat Group. What’s the big deal? Bluetooth promises
to let all kinds of electronic devices effortlessly connect to each other. A
Bluetooth cell phone, for example, could wirelessly allow a Bluetooth-equipped
laptop PC to dial out to the Internet. Analysts said the crowded field is only now
beginning to shape up. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the consortium that
maintains the specification, has signed up nearly 1,900 member companies. Also this week, Cambridge Silicon Radio, a small U.K. company that has been an early leader in Bluetooth chips, will announce a design win with Japanese manufacturing consortium Tochigi Mitsumi, which plans to make a small general-purpose Bluetooth module for mobile phones and other devices. Texas Instruments and start-up Innovent Systems, which touts a low-cost, single-chip product, are also expected to demonstrate their first Bluetooth technologies.
Ethernet
finds a new level
Comparing the
benefits of IrDA and
Bluetooth
Chinese wireless carrier selects iBasis China Mobile, a wireless carrier in China, has chosen iBasis to route international voice and fax traffic of its 46m customers. China Mobile's reach extends across all China's cities and 96 of its counties with roaming services offered to a total of 56 countries and 95 cellular operators. A state-owned company, it had annual revenues of $6.2 billion last financial year. The provider offers value-added services such as fax and data, voicemail, pre-paid cards, mobile phone banking, mobile Internet etc. China Mobile has subsidiaries in 25 provinces (China Telecom (Hong Kong) is China Mobile's holding company and is valued at $100 billion US).
New entrant integrates ISDN over IP with VoIP Gateways The Swiss Company, Inalp Networks and the new entrant com.MATCH of Israel, a Telrad spin-off company, has signed a license agreement for the integration of Inalp's ISDN over IP (ISoIP) technology into the com.MATCH's Duet VoIP family of Gateways. com.MATCH will offer Duet customers ISoIP functionality in addition to the H.323 IP protocol . Both companies agreed to ensure full interoperability between Inalp's integrated access devices in the SmartNode Series and com.MATCH's field proven VoIP Gateways. com.MATCH plans to offer ISoIP services as soon as August 2000. com.MATCH provides connectivity and interoperability solutions for Access and Public networks. The company manufactures integrated voice gateways and protocol converters in IP, ATM and TDM technologies. Inalp Networks designs, develops and markets advanced IP based multiservice platforms which allow the parallel offering of voice, video and data services over the same network.
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