Posts Tagged ‘telecom/news’

Hands on: Firefox 3.6 beta supports Personas, fullscreen video

// November 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Mozilla announced the availability of the first Firefox 3.6 beta last week. Firefox 3.6, codenamed Namoroka, is an incremental update that introduces a handful of new features, enhanced performance, and some noteworthy improvements to Web standards support. The final version of Firefox 3.6 could be released next year. We first looked at Firefox 3.6 in August when we tested the first alpha release. It has some excellent performance improvements under the hood that will boost JavaScript execution speed. Firefox 3.6 also brings some nice CSS enhancements, including support for some useful non-standard features like WebKit’s gradients.

European Union eyes "digital dividend" after DTV transition

// November 3rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

In the next three years, most of the European Union’s member nations will make the analog-to-digital television switch. Now the organization is looking to the future with new plans to develop the spectrum left available by the move. The EU’s PR department hasn’t quite decided which catchphrase to use to describe this windfall, toggling between “digital dividend” and “digital bonus” in various press releases and reports . But it’s clear that the Union wants to get the post-analog spectrum goodies show on the road, with visions of trans-European 4G mobile wireless dancing in everyone’s heads, and EU economists anticipating up to €50 billion in economic growth thanks to the boon. But, warned Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, “Europe will only make the most of the digital dividend if we work together on a common plan.” She called on EU members to “speed up the move to digital TV and to make it happen by 1 January 2012.”

Did Congress really give the FCC power to protect the ‘Net?

// November 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

With the release of the Federal Communications Commission’s new Internet nondiscrimination proposals  (that is, network neutrality), one vexing question continues to vex. Does the FCC have the legal authority to regulate access to the ‘Net? The issue came up again this week, and not just because of the net neutrality proceeding; Comcast, which is suing the FCC for its sanctions against the ISP for last year’s P2P throttling, told a federal court hearing the case that the answer is no. 

Google Voice: we’re not serving "high-cost destinations"

// October 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Google has told the Federal Communications Commission that its Google Voice feature maintains a small list of do-not-transfer numbers that lead to certain “high-cost destinations.” The explanation comes in response to an inquiry letter  that the FCC sent to Google on October 9, and that was widely perceived as a response to complaints about the service from AT&T.

Motorola Droid lands at Verizon next week, $199 post rebate

// October 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Motorola and Verizon announced today that the new Motorola Droid smartphone will be officially launching next week. It will be the first smartphone to feature Android 2.0, the latest version of Google’s Linux-based smartphone OS, as well as the new Google Maps Navigation software. The handset will also be the first of the new crop of smartphones on Verizon’s network that isn’t one of RIM’s Blackberry devices. The Droid made its TV debut with an  ad campaign that pokes fun at certain features that the iPhone lacks, like a removable battery and a more “open” development program. The device is also touted as the “thinnest full-QWERTY slider phones available.” In addition to the keyboard, the phone includes a large 3.7″, 854×480 touchscreen, 5MP autofocus camera with LED “flash” capable of “DVD-quality” video, GPS, WiFi, and voice control. Hardware-wise, Droid has the bases pretty well covered.

Widespread availability of online video means less P2P use

// October 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

P2P use is down this year, possibly thanks to the growing availability of online video. Network equipment provider Sandvine observed these two trends in its ” 2009 Global Broadband Phenomena ” report (via  Broadband Reports ), noting that there was a “dramatic increase” in realtime video consumption while users are moving away from bulk downloads that they can’t consume right now . While this doesn’t mean P2P is dead just yet, it reflects a shifting user focus as more content providers give people what they want the legal way. “Realtime entertainment traffic”—which includes video and audio streaming, Flash media, and other various webcasts—grew to more than 26 percent in 2009, according to Sandvine. This reflected a 12.6 percent growth, or a near doubling of the numbers from last year. YouTube, of course, remains a top destination for those looking for video entertainment, and North Americans consume the most videos (per subscriber) globally. Europeans, however, consume the most YouTube minutes out of any region.

Quantum gravity theories wiped out by a gamma ray burst

// October 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

One of the awkward aspects of modern physics is that its two most successful fields, relativity and quantum mechanics, are fundamentally incompatible, as things happen in the quantum world that relativity says should not be possible. That’s left physicists looking for a way to harmonize the two, with two primary contenders: string theories, and quantum gravity theories. Testing either of them has been a bit challenging, but researchers have now managed to use a single, intensely powerful photon detected by the Fermi Telescope to significantly limit the number of viable quantum gravity theories. The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has only been operational for about a year, but results from its observation have already been appearing in a number of significant publications. The observatory is designed to detect the highest energy radiation, which is only produced by the most energetic events in the universe, such as supernovae. In this case, the key observation was of a single photon produced by the gamma-ray burst GRB 090510, which came in at an extremely energetic 31GeV.

Could a "Schumer Box" help wireless/broadband consumers?

// October 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

The Federal Communications Commission wants to know if consumers are getting the advertising and billing information they need to make good choices about their broadband and/or mobile phone plans, and the answers are coming in from trade and reform groups. Not surprisingly, they read like alternate reality documents. To peruse CTIA - The Wireless Association’s 157-page response to the FCC, you might come away with the impression that mobile owners swoon with joy upon the arrival of their monthly statement. Meanwhile the comments of the Consumer Federation of America and five similar groups portray a dark, foggy ad landscape where Jane Q. Broadband-user stumbles about, at best only vaguely aware of how many ways her pocket is about to be picked.

Is AT&T targeting Google Voice to stop “traffic pumping”?

// October 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Google is not a happy camper about a recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC)  request for details about its Google Voice feature, sent to the company on Friday. But the search engine giant isn’t directing its ire at the FCC; it’s going after the telco that raised a ruckus about the voicemail application’s call restrictions.  “AT&T apparently now wants web applications—from Skype to Google Voice—to be treated the same way as traditional phone services,” Google attorney Richard Whitt wrote on his policy blog on Friday. “Their approach is what a former FCC chairman has called ‘regulatory capitalism ,’ the practice of using regulation to block or slow down innovation.”

FCC boss: mobile wireless in peril from spectrum shortage

// October 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News

Speaking at a mobile wireless conference on Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genachowski warned that the wireless industry needs more spectrum and needs it fast. “I believe that that the biggest threat to the future of mobile in America is the looming spectrum crisis,” he told the crowd at CTIA, the Wireless Association’s  I.T. & Entertainment conference  in San Diego. He predicted that total wireless consumption could grow from six petabytes a month last year to 400 by 2013—a petabyte being a thousand terrabytes. “So we must ask: what happens when every mobile user has an iPhone, a Palm Pre, a Blackberry Tour or whatever the next device is? What happens when we quadruple the number of subscribers with mobile broadband on their laptops or netbooks?”

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