Five technologies that may become a big hit in 2008

LONDON: Technology enthusiasts may get to see five major developments this year, according to a forecast made on the BBC News website.

The website says that 2008 will see the emergence of more tools like Google Gears, Adobe Air, and Microsoft Silverlight that have the ability to take rich web content, and make some of it available offline.

Another big development, according to the forecast, will be the rise in the popularity of sub-notebook-sized Ultra Mobile PCs. Though the first devices were launched in 2006, they have not gone mass market as yet, partly because of a combination of high prices and poor battery life.

Taiwanese manufacturer Asus has now predicted that it will sell five million of the tiny machines in 2008.

Apple is also rumoured to be launching ultra-thin Macbooks using flash in 2008.

Next in list of possible major developments is the rise in internet protocol television (IPTV) services.

Though BT vision and Virgin Media are already providing such services in the UK, more operators are expected to emerge this year.

WIMAX, a wireless technology that can deliver high speed broadband over long distances, also has a mention on the list.

Mike Roberts of research firm Informa Media and Telecoms believes that the technology, which is already a big hit in the US, may make way to the yet-untouched Europe.

Wrapping up the list is Mobile VoIP, a technology that allows users to make cheap phone calls over the internet.

It is believed that this technology may huge rise in 2008.

Five technologies that may become big in 2008:

1. The web to go
2. Ultra mobile PCs
3. IPTV
4. Wimax
5. Mobile VoIP

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Internet upgrade with local technology

NEW Australian technology will be used to improve the speed and reliability of the high-speed optical networks that carry internet traffic across cities, countries and oceans.

Australia's national technology research centre, NICTA, has signed a commercial licence agreement with Pennsylvania-based Optium, which will sell the technology, and is about to spin off its research into a stand-alone company with several million dollars of venture capital funding.

It will license to Optium new optical signal-to-noise ratio monitoring technology developed over the past few years at NICTA's Victoria Research Laboratory.

Noise is the natural enemy of data transmission: the further a signal goes the more noisy it gets, until the receiver cannot understand what it has been sent.

Putting amplifiers en route adds expense and complexity. So better knowledge about the noise in the system can save money and improve the accuracy and speed of data transfer.

Noise is also the main indication of a fault in a network, so knowing the level of noise helps diagnose breaks or degraded equipment.

Recent improvements in optical network technology made the old methods of measuring noise too expensive or unreliable. NICTA's research solves the problem.

NICTA entrepreneur-in-residence David Wright has been working to commercialise the research and will be a founder and chief executive of the new company, Monitoring Division, when it launches in the next two months.

He says it is one of a suite of network products that NICTA hopes to commercialise over the next year, with Optium's Australian arm.

"We are very excited about this," he said. "It is an example of how Australian companies can work together to release something to market on a global scale."

He is also in the final stages of closing "multimillion-dollar" venture capital funding.

Details, including financial details, of the Optium deal are confidential, but it involves an investment by Optium in bringing the technology to market. The NICTA spin-off will then get income from the licence as a proportion of sales. The licence covers several years.

Optium hopes to use the technology in telecommunications and cable TV networks around the world, in products that will hit the market next year.

Optium Australia's vice-president and general manager, Simon Poole, said NICTA's advanced technology would help customers get a true measure of the noise within a data transmission.

Project leader Trevor Anderson said: "This technology (provides) live information on actual performance and is faster and less complex than similar devices. These advantages enable network-wide awareness and significantly improves an operator's ability to manage high-speed optical networks."

NICTA, an alliance of university and government researchers with a focus on developing commercial spin-offs, was established in 2002 with $380 million in federal funding over 10 years. A five-year, $250 million deal was signed last May.
Source: theage.com.au

Google on new cellphone technology

Nokia says it was far ahead of Google on new cellphone technology

ESPOO, Finland: When Google announced its plans in October to revolutionize the software of cellular phones, few were more eager to hear the details than the industry titans at Nokia. They still are.

"We've seen an announcement," Nokia's chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, said with a spoonful of sarcasm. "Conceptually, we could have made that announcement a long time ago."

For a decade, Kallasvuo noted during a recent interview here, Nokia has had its own army of software developers, writing applications for the next generation of mobile telephone services. On the face of it, that is little different from what Google plans to do with Android, an open-source platform for software that aims to transform the mobile phone into a pocket PC.

Of course, Google is - well, Google - just as Apple was not just another cellphone maker when it introduced the iPhone. By virtue of their brains and brawn, and in Apple's case, a cool phone, these interlopers have shaken up an industry long dominated by the quiet giant from Finland.

Nokia's chief said he regarded Apple as the first credible new entrant into this market in years. As for Google, he said he would wait for more details before deciding whether it was a threat or an opportunity. But Google did not invite Nokia to join its Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of 34 companies that includes Motorola, Samsung, and other phone makers.
Source: iht.com

VoIP Applications for Social Networking?

There are a few major reasons that businesses use Facebook instead of many of the other online social networking sites that are out there.

One is that there are such a vast number of people on Facebook that it is an excellent platform for social networking. Another is that Facebook has gained some credibility over the years for professional use as opposed to many of the other social networking sites which remain more for kids than adults. But one of the biggest reasons that business professionals use Facebook as their primary social networking tool is that it offers users so many different applications to improve their business practices. (Read "A dummy's guide to social networking" to find out why you should be using this tool in your business.)

Unfortunately, VoIP is not yet one of those applications.

Well, that's not entirely true. There are applications available for Facebook which include some aspects of VoIP technology. However, as was recently pointed out in an overview of those applications by VoIP News, there is no official VoIP application for Facebook professionals to utilize.

Why would you want to integrate social networking and VoIP? One of the main purposes of VoIP is to streamline your business in order to increase efficiency and productivity. Social networking should be a major part of your business life and since you should be doing a lot of online networking, you should do what you can to streamline your efforts.

Let's use an example of why VoIP would be great for use on a social networking site like Facebook. Imagine that you have developed a strong network of Facebook connections but they aren't people with whom you regularly do business. You write an article for your site that points to a new product you have just begun to offer. Using Facebook, you make an announcement about the article to every one of those connections. If a VoIP application were available, people in your network with an interest in the product could easily place a call to you to get their questions about it answered. This would clearly facilitate sales of the product.

As multiple services are integrated, this will become even more important. An article at Disruptive Technology last month discussed applications which allow for increased use of social networking sites on Blackberry phones. Additional phone advancements are making it more possible than ever before to do your social networking on your cell phone while you're waiting in lines or traffic. As phones add VoIP capabilities, your social networking and other aspects of business will begin to get even more streamlined.

Of course, Facebook isn't the only social networking site out there which is being used by business professionals. It's just the one that is most likely to see VoIP developments because of the fact that it allows use of so many different applications. As the trend grows, it would be nice to see streamlining of VoIP technology for use with other business networking sites as well.

Would you be more likely to contact a Facebook friend if VoIP services made it cheap and easy?
Source: pcworld.ca

VoIP: How Free Can It Be

VoIP initially promised free calls everywhere, but somebody has to write the software, run the servers and pay the telcos to complete calls to landlines and mobiles, while users need to pay for a phone or a laptop and broadband.

Still, there are many providers of free PC-to-PC calls — Skype, obviously, is the best-known — and they keep coming up with new ways to get users closer to that holy grail of VoIP: free calling. There are enough services that allow free calling at least some of the time — whether via laptop, landline or mobile — that an energetic user should be able to duck paying for a phone call for months by switching services as those services’ restrictions dictate.

Ccube Inc. allows you to make and receive calls without anyone knowing your number. Post a Ccube widget or username on your Facebook, LinkedIn or other social-networking page, viewers click it, your phone rings, their phone rings and you’re connected — all without the caller knowing your phone number or whereabouts, since their Caller ID shows you only as a Ccube number. Ccube also promises 60 minutes of free nationwide (U.S. and Canada) calls per month and an additional 30 minutes for each person you refer to Ccube. This referral business is important to Ccube, which is primarily in the social-networking business. The service matches you with other people based on your (and their) stated preferences, and allows you to meet one another via VoIP. This also means that Ccube lets you block callers and edit feedback that others post about you, to prevent abuses.

Interestingly, Ccube also features voiceKey, a word you speak to authenticate yourself to the Ccube system. (This is not, apparently, voice recognition so much as word recognition.)

SMS software is also handy for making free cell calls, since the same protocols that allow instant text messaging can also carry voice traffic. Click4Me performs this trick nicely. You and whoever you want to call sign up with Click4Me and get Click4Me IDs; then you text Click4Me with “CALL” plus the recipient’s Click4Me ID, and the call connects. Click4Me also allows blocking of certain numbers or IDs and lets users get email or SMS messages showing missed calls.

ComBOTS AG connects your PC or landline phone with others around the world for free, or at least for nothing extra on top of your current broadband charge. ComBOTS’ Web site is unclear about whether you can originate calls using your mobile, but you can certainly use it to call mobile numbers from your PC or landline. Additional communication options from your mobile include file transfer, chat, text messaging and emoticons.

Damaka Inc. turns your Windows Mobile 1.0 smartphone or Pocket PC into a wifi-enabled phone, allowing you to make free peer-to-peer calls or call PSTN (public switched telephone network) or mobile numbers for cheap. Damaka Mobile also enables users to share video and text messages, transfer files with virus scanning, listen to voice mail and view call logs. Damaka also makes an enterprise version of its product that adds recording, videoconferencing and enhanced security and Quality of Service.

Gizmo Project is the best-known open-standards softphone project. It enables free or cheap calls worldwide — and its spinoff, SIPphone Inc., offers more complex, business-oriented tools using Gizmo’s protocols, including PSTN gateways, voice mail and SIP/PSTN network peering. Gizmo features Call In and Call Out (similar to SkypeIn and SkypeOut) typically for 1.9 cents per minute, plus IM, conversation recording and mapping of caller and receiver locations.

Google Talk comes in two flavors: a gadget to use from a Google site (with Flash 8.0) and a 1.5MB download. It integrates directly with a user’s Google Personalized Homepage, and the Google Talk application speeds setup by automatically loading contacts from your Gmail account. Unfortunately, the Google Talk client currently only works with Windows and with BlackBerry devices, although Mountain View promises Linux and Mac OS X versions in the future. Note that Google Talk does not connect with landline phones or mobiles.

If you’re on a Mac, iChat shares many of Skype’s features without using so much bandwidth, has excellent voice quality and integrates automatically with iSight video cameras. The new version for Mac OS X 10.5 adds more bells and whistles, which you can see in a demo here.

Jajah lets users make free PC-to-PC VoIP calls and a limited number of free calls to and from landline phones. You visit Jajah’s Web site, enter your phone number and the number you want to call. Your phone rings and you answer, after which the phone of the person you're calling rings to complete the call.

Jajah operates on an honor system that allows you about 1,000 minutes per month of free calls, thanks to other Jajah users paying for premium services (business accounts, calls to non-Jajah users, some foreign calls). Exceed that limit and Jajah will ask you to buy some premium services; if you don’t, you may be cut off. (Think you can just sign up again? Wrong: They have your phone number.) Works on Macs and with Microsoft Outlook.

Other companies are building applications that ride on top of Skype technology, including Mobivox. Register your Skype account with Mobivox and the company will list your Skype contacts as people you can call. You can then use local-access numbers to call them for free from your mobile (presumably connecting with them at their laptops). That said, if you and your callee are both in the Mobivox network, mobile-to-mobile calls are not only possible, but free up to 250 minutes per week. As with Jajah, it appears that those 250 minutes are underwritten by others’ purchase of premium Mobivox services, in this case international calling minutes. However, Mobivox’s operator app, VoxGirl, actually tells you whether a call is free before you’re connected.

PhoneGnome is similar to Jajah, in that Web-initiated mobile or landline calls to other PhoneGnome members are free within the U.S. and Canada. Calls are free regardless when both caller and receiver have a $60 PhoneGnome box, a wallet-size switching gizmo that automatically finds the cheapest way to route a given call (landline, VoIP, Skype or others). So if calls to non-PhoneGnome users aren’t actually free, it’s a good bet they’re traveling the lowest-cost route available at a given moment.

If you do a lot of international calling, you can use RocketVoIP for unlimited dialing to other RocketVoIP members for $19.95 per month (up from $10 per month not so long ago). This is the plan for heavy users, since the more calls you make, the cheaper they become per minute.

In addition, since it will usually be evening or the weekend on either the caller’s or the receiver’s continent (think U.S.-Asia, U.S.-Europe, Asia-Europe), wait until you’re on your mobile plan’s free night-and-weekend minutes, dial the RocketVoIP access number, dial the overseas number you want, and presto: free international calling from your cell with no charge against your mobile plan’s monthly total.

SightSpeed Inc. touts free PC-to-PC voice calling and videoconferencing, while a $4.95 per month Pro service adds video-mail recording and multiparty videoconferencing. It’s available for Windows and Mac, and its MySightSpeed feature allows browser-based voice and videoconferencing with non-SightSpeed members (note that both parties will need at least Internet Explorer 6; see demo here).

Ontario-based Softroute Corp.’s Vbuzzer allows free PC-to-PC VoIP-based calling, faxing and videoconferencing with low rates to complete calls to landlines and mobiles (typically 1.5 cents per minute to the U.S., Canada and China; 1.7 cents per minute to other countries). Unfortunately, Vbuzzer currently works only with Microsoft’s outdated Windows 2000 and XP operating systems.

Know of a free or inexpensive VOIP option not mentioned here? Leave it below in the comments.
Source: voip-news.com

Privacy groups seek Internet 'Do Not Track' list

Washington Post
WASHINGTON – Privacy, consumer and technology groups Wednesday proposed the creation of a "Do Not Track" list similar to the "Do Not Call" phone list so people can prevent companies from tracking which Web sites they visit.
This proposal comes as Internet giants are looking to step up the tracking of users' online behavior to tailor ads to their interests. Nine groups, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Consumer Federation of America and the World Privacy Forum, submitted the proposal to the Federal Trade Commission ahead of a two-day conference on behavioral advertising.
The Do Not Track list is modeled after the popular Do Not Call registry maintained by the FTC. Since 2003, telemarketers have been barred from calling numbers submitted to the list, which has about 145 million numbers.
"Consumers obviously know the Do Not Call list and have reacted well to it," said Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America. "As an analogy, it helps socialize an important concern and idea."
The FTC does not regulate ad networks' privacy policies, but a group called the Network Advertising Initiative, comprising 11 advertiser members, said the industry polices itself. People can opt out of advertising by downloading a small piece of data known as a cookie.
Privacy advocates say self-regulation has not been sufficient for several reasons. First, not all behavioral advertising firms join the advertising initiative. Pam Dixon, executive director at the World Privacy Forum, said only about 25 percent of advertising networks are members. Second, the opt-out process is technical and requires a separate download for each ad network, so few customers use it.
Finally, Web-tracking technology has advanced since the initiative was created, so its members have developed new ways of tracking behavior even if a user has downloaded the cookie. Wednesday, America Online, announced an improvement on this system, but it still drew criticism from privacy groups who say the program relies on technology that allows loopholes.
AOL defended the technology and its improvement on it.
"Most of this behavioral advertising business model is built around cookie information. I don't know of anybody who's using a get-around technology, and if they are, they really ought to be called out," said Jules Polonetsky, AOL chief privacy officer.
The advertising initiative, for its part, argues that a Do Not Track registry isn't necessary, the voluntary program is user-friendly and most unwanted ads can be avoided using the cookie technology.
"We think this [CDT] proposal is redundant and overwrought," said J. Trevor Hughes, NAI executive director.
Making Do Not Track technology work would involve substantial technical challenges, according to Richard Smith, a Boston-based Internet consultant and privacy advocate.
"It would require either a change to Web browsers or an add-on to a browser to make it all work," Mr. Smith said. Companies such as Microsoft and Mozilla that offer Internet browsers are unlikely to cooperate because they rely on online advertising revenue, either directly or indirectly, he said.
Privacy advocates want the FTC to maintain a list of all advertising networks. Consumers could then essentially opt out of each network.
"You still receive ads," said Ari Schwartz, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology Deputy, who helped craft the proposal. "Companies just won't be able to track what sites you visit."
The FTC has considered extending the concept of the Do Not Call list to the Internet before, FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz said.
"It's a really promising idea that would empower consumers to choose their own level of privacy protections," he said. "We still need to learn a little more about it. For example, would there be a problem with malefactors getting folks' e-mail addresses? We looked at the notion of doing a Do Not Spam registry, and we decided against it because we were afraid the list of people opting out could get into the wrong hands."
Mr. Leibowitz also said that the FTC would probably need legislators' approval and increased appropriations before it could implement a Do Not Track registry, just as it did for the Do Not Call registry.

Growing Pains: Can Web 2.0 Evolve Into An Enterprise Technology?

Forget outsourcing. the real threat to IT pros could be Web 2.0. While there's a lot of hype and hubris surrounding wikis, mashups, and social networking, there's also a lot of real innovation--much of it coming from increasingly tech-savvy business users, not the IT department.
"We've cut IT staff by 20%, and we're providing a whole lot more in terms of IT services," says Ken Harris, CIO at nutritional products manufacturer Shaklee. Harris started with a mashup platform from StrikeIron; he found mashups such an effective way to integrate multiple Web services that he turned to Web-based service providers to replace in-house functions. Now, Shaklee gets its ERP from Workday and search from Visual Sciences, and it's looking at other IT functions that software as a service can replace.
And Web 2.0 means more than just SaaS. Though the term is often abused, all the various technologies, products, and sites grouped together as "Web 2.0" do have one thing in common: interactivity. Web 2.0 is designed for two-way communication. At the technical level, it replaces static HTML with (usually) JavaScript apps that continually send and receive small chunks of XML or text. At the social level, it means Web sites that let people communicate, not just read or shop. Instead of passive consumers, Web surfers can become active creators.
All that interactivity ought to make Web 2.0 ideally suited for business use. Most workplaces are about production, not consumption. However, enterprises lag far behind consumers in adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. What's more, our online poll shows that interest in technologies such as blogs, wikis, and mashups has gone down during 2007, despite explosive growth outside the firewall.
Part of the reason is that business users already have access to more sophisticated versions of the same technologies. Blogging is publishing, a wiki is a CMS (content management system), and Ajax is a more standardized way of achieving what many internal enterprise apps already do with ActiveX or Java. Now, that doesn't mean new technologies can be ignored--their lower costs and simpler administration mean they will quickly overtake legacy platforms, and already have done so in some areas. But it does mean they need to fit in with their predecessors.

Facebook's Business Technology Future

Doubtful that Facebook execs will lose too much sleep over what business IT teams want and need from social networking. But that's where last week's big Facebook hook-ups just might get interesting. Its new partners, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Research In Motion (NSDQ: RIMM), have a deep understanding of how business IT works.
Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.6% sliver of Facebook, in a deal focused on online ad sales. RIM, meanwhile, is offering a version of Facebook customized for BlackBerry devices that will use the device's push e-mail to let users receive Facebook messages and updates automatically, so people can feed two online addictions at once.
Both these two companies are looking to tap Facebook's runaway consumer vibe, but wouldn't it be great if some of it rubs off the other way, and Microsoft and RIM help Facebook be more useful to businesses? A growing segment of businesspeople already use social networking sites to nurture connections inside and outside their companies. And IT departments desperately want in on the act -- they're feeling the pressure to provide tools that let people know what projects their colleagues are working on, what skills the company has in-house. At the InformationWeek 500 Conference this fall, two dozen IT execs met in an informal discussion of their wants and worries about Web 2.0 collaboration, and Facebook capabilities kept coming up. But with consumer tools, they worry about security, regulatory compliance, and just plain time wasting.
As Facebook tries to keep up with consumer demands, hopefully its partners can help it figure out the best way to tap the business IT opportunity. (See J. Nicholas Hoover's "What Microsoft Could Do With Facebook.") Any thoughts? Could your company use Facebook-like tools, or are the IT execs I've heard from just chasing a fad?

Making the world a giant Internet hotspot

Despite the potential of this new technology, many carriers are staying on the sidelines
Technology has so far managed to take the Internet into the wireless world, but if consumers really want to take advantage of it away from their home or office they are stuck seeking out hot spots. WiMAX could change all that, delivering a new technology that promises to do what the cellphone did for phone calls.
Anyone frustrated with having to wait minutes to load a web page or navigate a website on a mobile device such as a BlackBerry or cellphone will be quick to recognize the potential of the new technology.
Unfortunately, to date Canada's major telecom carriers have been slow to get on the WiMAX bandwagon. But elsewhere, the technology is starting to get some prominent endorsements.
Yesterday, Cisco Systems Inc. said it is snapping up privately held WiMAX equipment maker Navini Networks Inc. for $330-million (U.S.), a move analysts said provided the latest validation for the new wireless network technology
Companies betting on WiMAX, including Canadian telecom equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp., insist there is pent-up demand for a speedy wireless Internet service.
They point to the popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace and YouTube and their limitations on cellphones today. YouTube, for example, may only offer 50 instead of thousands of clips for viewing.
"I believe this really is the promise of bringing mobility to broadband," Richard Lowe, Nortel's president of carrier networks, said in an interview.
With their cameras and video players, cellphones are advanced consumer electronic devices. Yet the networks they run on haven't kept pace with the speed, bandwidth and low prices available on land line Internet connections.
The fastest cellular networks offer speeds of around one megabit per second (Mbps). WiMAX promises to be up to five times faster, comparable to connections at home.
Soon, consumers could be constantly connected to the Web whether at home or out with friends, just as they don't hesitate to reach for their cellphones to make calls today.
WiMAX "will make the Web truly a part of our everyday life, like electricity," said Michael Rogers, the Futurist-in-Residence for The New York Times.
But the technology hit a roadblock recently when the chief executive of its most prominent promoter, Sprint Nextel Corp., left amid concerns that his vision for mobile services was flawed. Some have speculated that could delay or deal a serious blow to WiMAX before it takes off, though Sprint says it remains committed to rolling out the network in the second quarter of 2008.
Source: theglobeandmail.com

Business Online Connection Options Expand with WiMax Technology

The world, especially the business world, is rapidly embracing a new connectivity technology called Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, or WiMax, to satisfy their data access needs. This is because many businesses have been looking for high-speed data research as they are mobile by way of wireless phones and other WiMax-enabled devices.The key difference between the WiMax technology and the Wi-Fi wireless technology is that WiMax can cover several miles or more, whereas Wi-Fi is limited to small hot spots. Advocates for the WiMax technology, such as Sprint and Motorola, assert that this new breakthrough could turn the entire country into one large hot spot.The primary reason for all this excitement surrounding this new technology is the ever growing demand among consumers for broadband, no matter where they are. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission is pushing businesses to implement the WiMax technology to broaden mobile broadband options for consumers.Originally, this new technology was developed for mobile data transmission, but it was soon discovered that is was a perfect fit for Internet phone service. This is why most analysts believe that WiMax will compete and actually threaten the traditional wireless carriers. This is one of the big reasons why Sprint is working hard with WiMax companies to build a national WiMax network.Certainly the WiMax technology will have huge market implications. By enabling consumers to surf the Internet anytime, any location, on virtually any device will create a whole new ballgame in a variety of markets. One thing to keep in mind as this evolves is that Wi-Fi is unlicensed whereas the more robust WiMax utilizes airwaves that require a government license, which is the same as cellphone service.
WiMax can support lots of high-bandwidth customers with ease, which means faster broadband at cheaper prices. This means that consumers will more than likely be big winners as WiMax’s efficiency will generate much better prices than currently being offered with today’s cell-based wireless broadband. Experts project that down the road WiMax will deliver Internet speeds up to 100 megabits per second on the down-link path and 10 megabits on the uplink.
In the meantime, companies like Sprint and Clearwire are combining to create a real network with bona fide customers. The first goal is to install mobile WiMax equipment at more than 60,000 cellphone sites across the United States. Sprint alone will be investing about 5 billion into the effort. The first markets will be Chicago and Washington D.C. and it is anticipated they will be going online in the spring of 2008.The new WiMax-based rollout will provide their customers with the capability to use virtually any WiMax device or software. This represents a huge leap from typical cell-phone businesses, which burden their customers with strict limitations on devices and software. Look for big changes to come shortly for the WiMax technology as other companies like Alvarion, which supplies service providers with the WiMax standard, start to get involved as well.
Jeff Neal Senior Writer, Options Strategist & Profit Strategies Radio Show Market CorrespondentVisit Jeff’s Forum