Category: trends
February 22nd, 2008
If you had to choose: high speed Internet via cable/telecom or wireless broadband?
On Slashdot bright and early this a.m., Soulskill puts up a post from mklickman that draws attention to a conundrum many laptop Internet users face:
Use a wireless router or subscribe to wireless broadband?
Here’s what mklickman had to say:
I’ve been hearing more and more about mobile broadband offered by the big wireless phone providers, and for the first time came to ask myself how it compares to using a wireless router. Since my wife and I both have laptops, and we’re out a lot, would it be wise and/or worth it to do away with the standard cable-modem-plus-router setup and switch over to mobile broadband with (for example) AT&T or Sprint?
I’m not really concerned about the cost of the PC cards themselves; they’re not much more expensive than a decent router. Also, the cost of the wireless service per month is only (roughly) ten dollars more than my current ISP is charging me. Is it a good idea?”
We’ve heard the debate between Wi-Fi and wireless broadband before. Even though this mklickman guy could have done a better job articulating the question, I do think he means to discuss the relative merits of getting your high-speed Internet from a cable or telecom broadband provider vs. doing the same via a wireless broadband service such as Sprint’s EV-DO.
Sounds like mklickman has made his choice.
Now let’s say it was up to you:
Loading ...February 20th, 2008
Skype call trend lines are changing: here's what this means
If you want to geek out on Skype user metrics, Jean Mercier is your guy.
Today, Jean posts some juicy Skype data on Skype Journal.
Turns out that on Sunday, February 18, at about 19:00 GMT (that’s 2 p.m. ET) Skype logged 12 million concurrent sessions for the first time ever.
There’s something to be said for the timing of this threshold. Took place on a Sunday. Since few business calls are made during that time, this points to Skype’s predominance as a consumer service. I mean, Skype like to talk of their small and medium business relevance, but I just don’t see it yet.
Jean also notes that:
In the past the peaks were somewhere between 16h and 17h GMT. Now it occurs about two hours later. This shows a recent growth in the Americas. Or, in other words, they are catching up with the usage rate of the Europeans.
On that, I agree.
Do you?
February 8th, 2008
Four reasons why new survey shows mobile market momentum shifting to iPhone, BlackBerry
According to a survey of 4,182 cell phone users, releasled today by ChangeWave Research, it seems that the march toward PDAs and related smartphones will quicken in the next six months.
This pace, which favors the Apple iPhone and newer models from BlackBerry, seems to be coming at the expense of older models, especially from Motorola.
What these stats tell me is that with the one-year anniversary if iPhone coming in less than four months, and BlackBerry’s advanced new features having been present for at least that long, consumers are eyeing the termination of their two-year contracts as an especially appropriate time to upgrade devices and perhaps to switch carriers as well.
Let’s look at three of the charts that ChangeWave released today:
iPhone market shares will increase just slightly- perhaps reflective of the “I’ve got mine already” factor- but BlackBerry market share will grow a bit more dramatically.
A lot of that slip is due in fact that Motorola has not been as dynamic in the smartphone space as rivals RIM (BlackBerry) and Apple (iPhone).
And finally:
This slide evokes two takeaways, for a total of four in this post:
Most of these manufacturers also offer, or will offer, smartphones. The fact that iPhone and BlackBerry are tracking as more likely buys over the next six months tells me at least in part that these other companies are not doing a great job at positioning new devices as functionality rivals to such models as the BlackBerry Curve and the iPhone.
Whoa. Palm, which makes the Treo smartphone, has some issues with user satisfaction. What are they, Treo-owning readers?
January 30th, 2008
YouTube view-Ron Paul voting result gap tells me some of his fans are people-phobic
The chart on the left of this canvass represents CNN’s just-about-final results of yesterday’s 2008 Republican Presidential primary results in Florida
On the right is the latest tally of YouTube views from various candidate sites, both Republicans and Democrats. This is from the website Tech President.
So what gives with Rep. Paul’s more thn 12 million YouTube views, but his failure to garner more than 3% or 4% of the cumulative primary vote in just about any state so far?
Some of this guy’s supporters may be complaining the gap is because the “corporate media” won’t cover him. But as a member of the media, I’ll tell you it’s far, far more about YouTube, its effectiveness, and its core audience.
Parsing these two sets of numbers, I have to believe that an echo chamber is in effect here. YT users who are Ron Paul fans are more involved with repeatedly watching these simpatico videos and are far less skilled at say, Sen. Obama is at spreading the word about their hero beyond the online world and to the great mass of actual, physical-world voters who go to the voting booth.
Just like it was postulated last Presidential cycle that Howard Dean’s acolytes were too countercultural looking to register with voters in the real as opposed to virtual world, it could be that Paul’s fans are hindered by some of the same obstacles.
I mean, I have known more than a few Libertarian-oriented techs who would rather code, play cool games in their den while reading Ayn Rand rather than be involved with actual pressing the flesh exercises at events not already full of Paul supporters to begin with.
OK, then, Ron Paul fans. Back to your gamer caves (but of course if your gamer cave is in a home facing foreclosure, Libertarians like Ron won’t help you then, now would they.
October 18th, 2007
Why Big Copyright's"User Generated Content Principles" is frontal attack on Internet freedom
I’m deeply troubled over the tone of a new agreement announced today by a cabal of Big Copyright owners.
Entitled User Generated Content Principles- Encourage Creativity-Respect Intellectual Property, the document has been ratified by Disney, CBS, NBC Universal, Fox Entertainment Group, Microsoft, Viacom and a couple of others.
Almost without an exception, Big Copyright.
Reading between the lines, the document calls for stringent technology and policy-based steps to block infringing video content under the aegis of these companies from ever, every seeing the light of day.
In a couple of places, the document refers to “fair use.”
But with fair use’s parameters still a matter of judicial and regulatory debate, it seems to me that the Copyright Cartel would probably take a very restrictive stance toward fair use.Why? It’s in their nature.
This putrid document shows this, I believe. “Fair use” is mentioned briefly, but without definition. It’s almost like the lawyers said, “yea, guess we should put something in there about ‘fair use.’
What Big Copyright also doesn’t understand is the viral and promotional value some infringing video content offers copyrighted content. Reading this document, I don’t see a clear understanding or even an acceptance of this proven principle.
Another thing that troubles me: sometimes video content is perishable. But let’s just say it is 1 a.m., and clips of the jackknifed truck on the interstate aired on the local 11 p.m. news. What would be so wrong about a viewer uploading a video clip of the coverage to YouTube or some other video sharing site?
Instead I see: this is our video content, and you better not use any of it without us- and our anal legal departments- telling you it is OK.
Loading ...August 12th, 2007
Sir Richard Branson: VoIP "might be possible" on Virgin flights
On the inaugural flight of Virgin America airlines, Engadget’s Paul Miller sat down with Virgin Group chair Sir Richard Branson.
After some pleasantries and various visioneering yada yada, Paul asked Sir Richard about the possibility of VoIP on Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America:
“So you think technologies like VoIP that would be enabled by the internet… it seems like somehow people are going to figure out a way to annoy their neighbor next to them by talk loudly on a plane, how do you feel about that?,” asked Paul.
Thus sprach Sir Richard:
“If somebody really wants to talk to somebody, we might well have a couple of rows at the back where people can go and make a call there. We wouldn’t really want to have people talking next to each other, but a place on the plane where people can make a call if they really wanted to, if we had VoIP, then that might be possible.”
Yea, would love VoIP on such flights, but in the back. That would be cool, Sir Richard.
Loading ...June 25th, 2007
Is poverty the cause of low broadband penetration?
In his DSL Prime newsletter, Dave Burstein takes a view that FCC Chair Kevin Martin’s focus on improving broadband penetration by focusing on rural areas is not necessarily the quickest way to get there.
“There are not enough unservable rural homes to be the major explanation,” Dave wisely writes. “Martin’s focus on low rural penetration pointed me to another characteristic of U.S. rural areas: poverty. Plenty of data to confirm that well off people almost all have broadband, the middle class is getting to a good take rate, and most of the homes that aren’t connected are folks who can’t afford it.”
Places like Central Appalachia, shown in this photo from the Habitat for Humanity website.
To prove his point, Dave writes that in his view, a country with more poor people would have more homes without broadband than a more egalitarian nations of similar ’average” income. Then, Dave consulted the CIA World Factbook for some sample Gini coefficients. I’m not going to go all math geek on you, but these are mathematical formulas that, when applied to trends in various nations, rise when income is less equal throughout that country.
Dave found the following “Ginis”:
Denmark
23
Sweden25
Finland26
France27
Germany28
Netherlands31
Spain33
Canada33
Korea35
Italy36
UK37
Japan38
US45
“Among the most equal, Denmark, Sweden and Finland have among the highest broadband rates, despite only moderate completion,” Dave correctly points out. “At the bottom, the U.S. problem is well known, and the Japanese take rate is little higher than the U.S. despite (lower) prices.
Dave closes by writing that he’d love to see a comprehensive analysis of broadband data when contrasted against income inequality.
“Maybe someone at a Bell can demonstrate the U.S. problem is not of their doing, and if the U.S. wants broadband for all we should renew the war on poverty.”
Hmm, a thought for a Monday.
June 20th, 2007
Moto's Zander talks up RAZR's forthcoming live video capture
Next up at NXTcomm is Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola.
Major takeaway from Zander’s address is the evolution in the way content is created and then distributed. “It is changing from tv channels to spontaneous generation,” he said.
Ed then explained Motorola’s belief that this spontaneous generation will be enabled in the RAZR2 via an embedded video camera, as well as the device’s two hours of video storage capacity.
“Content distribution (is changing) from broadcast to ‘Personacast,’ ” Zander added. (Now) “you are a tv station, you are a radio station, you are a distributor of content. “We need to enable this with big broadband networks.”
June 19th, 2007
Cisco's Chambers: collaboration via mobile devices will drive faster business processes
John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, is now onstage, keynoting at NXTComm.
Main takeaway: collaboration will speed up enterprise innovation initiatives that had been held back by “command and control” protocols.
Chambers said that a collaboration/teamwork approach, enabled by ubiquitous broadband, acquisitions (such as webex, which was specifically cited by Chambers) and video on any device has sped up “business process change” and collaboration initiative cycles from 45 days for Cisco’s Scientific-Atlanta acquisition in 2005 to eight days for webex.
Channels of enterprise collaboration cited by Chambers include internal wikis, podcasts and mash-ups.
Chambers said that this business process speed increase will be boosted by availability of any information to any device.
“The most important (thing) is any mode you want. It’s the way you communicate in life,” he added.
May 23rd, 2007
VoIP on way to UK Sony PSP
Some of the UK’s estimated 8 million Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) handhelds will soon support wireless Internet connection voice and video calls.
These calls will be facilitated by a soon-to-be released microphone and camera for these devices.
Initially at least, these calls will be limited to other PSP owners as well as some BT phones. BT says the first stage will include some 2,000 BT hot spots in UK fast food restaurants, train stations, hotels and airports.
The new PSP service takes advantage of BT’s VoIP-compatible 21 Century Network (21CN), technology.
No date is being given for official start-up.
May 22nd, 2007
Why ABC's time-shifting of Charlie Gibson Webcast is a seminal development
We learn from a report in Broadcasting & Cable magazine that ABC is moving its World News Webcast from 3 p.m. to 12:30 p.m Eastern Time.
Interesting backstory on the move. As B&C’s John Eggerton notes, the Charlie Gibson-anchored newscast was originally launched in January 2006 as a preview of that night’s tv newscast.
But an unanticipated thing happened. World News Webcast devoted a following of its own, with some exclusive content. And with that emergence, came some new metrics.
The move to 12:30, says ABC, is because the Web’s peak traffic is in the early afternoon.
The takeaway? This isn’t just an isolated example. I believe that more and more real-time Webcasts produced by “mainstream media” will be time-shifted to maximize metrics best practices for Web audiences.
Hey, look. Tv programmers have been using this principle for 60 years- testing, probing and shifting televisino programs to th right time slot. ABC doing this with the Gibson Webcast is a harbinger of similar practices for online media.
Full disclosure: I write occasionally for Broadcasting & Cable magazine.
May 16th, 2007
Massive Hollywood talent strike could be boon for digital content creators, sites
As explained in the Wall Street Journal today by prominent entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris, there could be a strike called for by the Screen Actors Guild, the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America.
Before I get to the point of this post, please don’t think most who would be affected will just sit idly in their mansions. Most don’t have mansions. We are, after all, talking about more than 100,000 actors, 13,000 directors and 15,000 writers.
Now with that established, we need to think about what these nearly 130,000 people will do with time on their hands.
Morris writes that with all this idle time, these “130,000 unemployed artists might find something to do when they are put on strike.
“And in so doing,” Morris continues, they may just start creating original content for the new media because it is easy and well, they’re not allowed to go to the set or the lot.”
Morris, who is founding and managing partner of L.A. based law firm Barnes, Morris, Klein, Mark, Yorn, Barnes & Levine then considers that once all this creative talent gets a taste of new media, they may not be so anxious to give it up once the presumed strike is settled.
The attorney envisions a scenario where an income stream is flowing to them via say, Joost and iTunes, as well as ad-supported sites.
Not only that, but once you give actors, directors and writers a dose of creative freedom, well, as Morris puts it, “they may enjoy the lack of interference from ’suits’ and become smitten with the ability to put their work out immediately and world-wide.”
Lack of interference from “suits.” I haven’t heard a phrase that liberating since, “free at last…”
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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