Blog articles from 09/2008

Google showed off its new brainchild yesterday: a smartphone design in collaboration with its Android partners, Taiwan’s handset maker HTC, and the wireless carrier T-Mobile USA. The phone specs are all over the place on the Internet. It looks quite attractive but perhaps because of Apple iPhone’s lasting impression, many tech pundits gave only a “pass” grade on its appearance. The biggest design difference between the iPhone and Google’s G1 (BTW, an unimpressive name that...

Anton and I had the chance to talk to Marty Roberts, thePlatform's VP of Marketing, about the selection of thePlatform by the Associated Press for its Online Video Network. As Marty put it, thePlatform feels that this is the most significant B2B syndication deal to date, as it involves distributing the video assets of the AP and its affiliates to more than 2,100 sites. Typically, Marty notes that its content partners are distributing content to perhaps a few dozen sites at most. The scale...

So I've been following the launch of Warhammer with great interest. It's heralded as the best MMORPG since WOW by gaming press. More than 1 million gamers played the Beta and EA shipped 1.5 million units to retailers. Judging by these numbers, the game has done quite well. Its Realm vs. Realm play appeals to many MMO fans. During launch, I got calls from several reporters covering the story. My key points were: 1. the game might be the most successful since WOW but nobody can really shake...

There's a good article in TWICE that discusses the WirelessHD (WiHD) Consortium's roadmap. According to John Marshall, the WirelessHD chair, we can expect supplier announcements at CES 2009. To date, we've seen demonstrations of WirelessHD by Toshiba and Panasonic, but nothing further. SiBEAM, the supplier of the 60 GHz solution for WirelessHD, has demonstrated a wireless module that is sized to fit into the front panels of flat-screen TVs, DVRs and audio products such as A/V...

Well ... it's about time. Alereon and Samsung Techwin today announced NaBee, a wireless connectivity solution for Samsung digital still cameras powered by Alereon's AL5000 Worldwide Wireless USB Chipset. According to the press release, "Samsung's NaBee allows for a simple, high-speed wireless communication between a digital still camera and PC. Plug the miniature dongle into the camera USB connector, and it's [sic] matching dongle into the PC and it connects just like a...

Netflix announced today that its Instant Queue service will now feature select content from both CBS and Disney-ABC. The CBS content will include C SI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, NCIS , and Numb3rs . The Disney-ABC content will include Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place , and Disney Channel's newest original series, The Suite Life on Deck . Netflix Instant Queue content is or will soon be available for direct view at the TV via the following devices: The Netflix...

A couple of weeks ago, I had written about the EMBARQ eGo™ , a screen phone that combines standard calling features (Caller ID, etc.) with widget-like information (customized news, weather, etc.), and local directory search with automated dialing. OpenPeak had developed a product for Verizon's ' Verizon One' Home Communications Center that was announced in January 2007. (I'm not clear as to whether Verizon still offers this - I have requests into both Verizon and OpenPeak to figure...

Two announcements came into my Inbox this morning that appear related: Abacast is acquiring Tukati Inc., formally merging the companies that had a partnership the last couple of years. Highwinds Network Group has partnered with Octoshape to create a Hybrid Peer-to-Peer Content Delivery Network (Hybrid P2P CDN) solution for streaming live events to millions of concurrent worldwide viewers.