December 31, 2004
Philips Announces 19 inch 190P6 LCD Monitor with 8 ms Fast Response Time
Philips has announced a new 19 inch LCD monitor with a wicked fast response time of 8 ms for games and movies. Release date is March 2005. Features include:
-Light Frame Digital Reality display enhancements for clearer text legibility
-Dynamic automatic adjustment of brightness under all lighting conditions
-USB 2.0 hub
-1280x1024 resolution
We'll see how this monitor compares to Dell's 2001FP and 2005FPW. The lower resolution is probably the only drawback.
December 30, 2004
Samsung SCH-A890 EV-DO Coming to Verizon Wireless
Samsung Electronics announced today it will export the SCH-A890 EV-DO phone to Verizon Wireless starting with an initial shipment of 20,000. The SCH-A890 is a clamshell phone with rotating 1.3 megapixel camera. It's 8.9 cm in length and has voice recognition/dial features.
December 29, 2004
Incredible Indian Ocean Tsunami Videos
The Tsunami disaster video clips hosted on this thread are absolutely insane. Incredible. It is like watching something out of a Ten Commandments movie.MP3 Cellphones Hot in 2005
Camera phones drove handset sales to an unbelievable 20% growth in 2004, so everyone is looking for the next big thing. TheStreet.com reports that 2005 will be all about MP3 playback and ringtones on cellphones."MP3 phones are going to be much bigger than camera phones," says Charter Research analyst Ed Snyder..Sanford Bernstein analyst Paul Sagawa sees the MP3 phone trend not as an overnight success, but growing over the coming years as 3G takes hold and hard disk storage becomes available in phones. He expects total phone sales will grow somewhere between 10% and 12% next year. "Long term," says Sagawa, "I expect most phones above entry level will have both camera and MP3 by 2006."
Apple as always is right on top of this wave with an iTunes enabled Motorola phone slated for early 2005. LG, Nokia, and Samsung are also coming out with Mp3 phones in the coming months.
I'm a bit of skeptic as the storage capacity still won't rival the 4-20 gigabytes found on a typical iPod. I hardly ever use the MP3 player cabability on my Treo 600, even though its with me all the time. But what do I know, when the first camera phones came out, I was like who would bother with this crappy VGA picture quality?
Victory for Vonage, Federal Appeals Court Bars State Regulation for VOIP
Vonage, the leader in VOIP internet phone services, won another victory as a federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower-court ruling that states may not regulate VOIP phone service as they do traditional wired line service.The Tuesday order by the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upholds a lower-court ruling and is a victory for companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. of Edison, N.J., which provides voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP. - Associated Press
Detractors say states should have authority to tax and regulate VOIP to ensure the reliablity of 911 calls and service to rural areas. I'm sure higher taxes to pay for their porkbarrel projects has nothing to do with it.
Time Warner Cable and Sprint Partnership?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting [subscription required] Time Warner Cable is in deep discussions with Sprint to offer cellular service on a trial basis early in 2005. As the second largest cable company with 11 million subscribers, Time Warner will start new service in Kansas City, Mo and if it goes well, it could lead to a nation wide roll-out. If the deal goes through, the company will be the first to offer TV, high speed internet, wire line through VOIP, and wireless phone service all on one bill.Cingular LG F9100 Approved
The FCC approved the LG F9100 today. This GSM phone has a slide-out keyboard, which is perfect for instant messaging and text SMS messages. Specs include world roaming, internal antenna, and color display. However there is no bluetooth or camera builtin. [Via Phonescoop]
Headless sub-$500 iMac Rumor
Highly reliable sources have told ThinkSecret, Apple will announce a headless sub-$500 iMac at MacWorld Expo on January 11th. The new computer will go for $499 and come with a G4 1.25ghz processor in a tiny package similar to the 1.73 inch high Xserve server PC.The computer will come with DVI or VGA ports, 256MB of RAM (paltry!), USB 2.0, FireWire 400, 10/100 Ethernet, 56k modem, and 40-80GB hard drive. Software will include iLife and Appleworks. Apple is going after the PC iPod owner, who now wants to dabble on the Mac side.
December 28, 2004
Tsunami Survivor Emails
Our prayers and our hearts go out to the 80,000+ that perished and their families. CNN compiled many survivor story emails about the worst natural disaster of our time. I recommend donating to World Vision to help the victims. They are totally legit and are among the highest in giving aid per dollar with the lowest administrative overhead.I was sunbathing with my girlfriend on the beach in Phuket when suddenly I heard an unbelievably loud roar, it sounded like I was standing next to an airplane as it took off. I looked up and found a 20-foot high wall of water coming at me -- it looked like a scene from the Ten Commandments. My girlfriend and I just got up and started running for our lives. The water caught up to us and briefly pulled us under before we surfaced and somehow managed to hold onto a utility pole. Finally the water subsided and we were able to make it uphill to safety. We saw at least 25 bodies float by. Next year I am going to Florida. - Vijay Patel, Phuket, Thailand
Motorola V635 Specs from FCC
Thanks to the FCC, the first initial specs of the Motorola V635 are out. The phone will add an exernal color display, Transflash memory card slot, quad-band GSM network, bluetooth, video capture, a megapixel camera with LED flash, and EDGE high-speed data capability. [Via Phonescoop]
Olevia 50" LCos HDTV Review
Extremetech reviewed the Olevia 50 inch LCos HDTV. Olevia is a low end brand of HDTVs. This model goes for an amazing price of $2100 especially for all the features. All in all the performance was a mixed bag with good color response, but poor light-scatter which is prevalent in rear projection TVs. The value is decent, but they recommend spending $500 more for the Samsung.Craigslist Killing Newspapers
According to InternetWeek, Craigslist.org is killing traditional newspapers by taking away ad and classified revenue. A consulting firm estimates the site cost San Francisco area newspapers $50 to $65 million in help wanted ad revenue since it launched in the mid 1990s. The site now is 25% owned by eBay and gets 1 billion pageviews a month.Motorola MS400 EV-DO Launches in Korea
Motorola launched the MS400 EV-DO 3G CDMA phone for the Korean market. Along with a sexy form factor, the phone includes a hefty internal memory capacity of 87 megabytes, VGA camera, and support for the GIGA 3d graphics gaming engine. No telling when this phone will be available in the U.S. The specs include:
-CDMA 800mhz EV-DO network
-90mm x 32.4mm x 21.2mm
-99 grams of weight
-230 hours of standby time, 150 minutes of talk time
-262k color TFT, 128x160 resolution
-TransFlash memory card slot [Via Mobileburn]
Satellite Radio Companies Hit their Targets
Both satellite radio companies have announced they have hit their year-end targets for subscriber growth. Sirius hit their goal of 1 million and XM Radio hit their goal of 3.1 million subscribers. XM also said GM has signed their 1 millionth XM customer. Toyota recently announced they will install both XM and Sirius as options for their cars in 2005.December 27, 2004
AOL Spam Down 75%
AOL announced today spam email to its users is down 75% vs. a year ago. In November the company received 2.2 million complaints daily for spam, which is better than 11 million the year before. Spam uses up 83% of all internet traffic and wastes up to $500 million in bandwidth costs. AOL spam filters blocked 1.2 billion spam emails every day vs. 2.5 billion a year ago. I'm sorry AOL, but 2.2 million spam complaints every day is still a problem in my book.Samsung i730 EV-DO Details
Thanks to the FCC we now know Samsung's SCH-i730 smartphone will have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and EV-DO. The phone uses a Windows Mobile 2nd edition operating system and have a slide-out keyboard. Moreover it includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, 64MB of RAM, a 2.8 inch 65k QVGA color display, stereo speakers, and SD memory card slot. Release date is unknown. [Via Phonescoop]
Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z55 Review
PC Magazine reviews the Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z55 with a 3.5 out of 5 rating. They like the sharp, well exposed images, good battery life, and form factor. However the LCD frame doesn't show the whole image and flash photography is lacking. The specs are:
-5 megapixels
-9.3 megabytes of internal memory
-SD Card memory slot
-2.5 inch color LCD
-Lithium Ion battery
-2560x1920 maximum resolution
Broadband Lines up 38% in Past Year
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has released their semi-annual statistics report for the year June 30th, 2004. The report says there are 32.5 million broadband lines in the United States, a growth of 38% from the year before. DSL was up 49% to 11.4 million. Cable however still dominated with 18.6 million lines growing at 36%. However even with this impressive growth, the United States only ranks 13th in the world in broadband penetration. The FCC rationalizes that many Americans have broadband at work, so therefore don't need it at home.Toys R Us Losing the Battle
The New York Times reports that Toys R Us may shut down its toy division or sell it off to focus on its Babies R Us stores. Toys R Us used to be the dominant toys category killer in the 1990s with a peak market share of 20%. Now Walmart is at 20%, Target is at 18%, and Toys R Us is rapidly declining at 17%. Analyst are expecting the company to close down hundreds of stores in early in 2005.December 26, 2004
Xbox 2 and Halo 2.5 Rumors
Team Xbox is reporting an insider source has revealed Halo 2.5 will come pre-loaded on Xbox 2 hard-drive SKU to drive sales next year. Halo 2.5 will have new and improved textures and graphic effects and HDTV resolution capability. It will also include a ton of extra stuff Bungie wasn't able to fit into the current version of the game in time.PalmOne Sells 15 Million Tungsten E Handhelds
PalmOne announced it has sold 1.5 million Tungsten E handhelds world-wide in just 14 months. Business users and consumers alike have both gravitated to this mid-range PDA which costs about $200. A lot of companies like the basic PDA functionality, nice screen, 32MB of RAM, and multi-media capabilities like MP3 listening, photo viewing, and video.December 24, 2004
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas
I want to wish all our readers the happiest of holidays. Please travel safely. Grab a cup of hot chocolate and hang out with us on our discussion forum. We are talking about our Christmas Wish List, what you got and what you wanted even if you didn't get it.December 23, 2004
Netflix Says NO to more Price Cuts
The CEO of Netflix has said they will not match Blockbuster's new price cut to $14.99 a month for 3 at a time unlimited online rentals. The company tried to lower prices once and Blockbuster with its business life at stake seems to only be willing to go lower. In a valiant attempt to bash his competition, the CEO of Netlfix said all Blockbuster is doing is accelerating the move online.“In my view, Blockbuster just killed the video store by offering $15 pricing for online, but maintaining $25 a month for store-based subscriptions,” Hastings said. “They are telling their customers to go online.”
Since this new price is only guaranteed till January 2006, it's pretty obvious this is just a marketing ploy by Blockbuster to drive up its user base and then raise prices later.
Nintendo DS Sells 2 Million Units
Nintendo announced today that the Nintendo DS sold 2 million units. 1 million each in the USA and Japan. The company expects to ship more than 2.8 million by the end of the year. European launch is set for early 2005. Sony however sold 200 thousand units of the PSP on its first day of release in Japan and plans on selling 500 thousand by the end of the year.December 22, 2004
European Court Tells Microsoft to Unbundle Media Player
A European court told Microsoft to offer a version of its Windows operating system without the bundled media player. Microsoft has two month to appeal this decision or comply. Just in case, the company is working on a special version of Windows without the media player for the European market. It could be available as early as February at the same price as current versions of Windows. The whole exercise is laughable as consumers will not buy an operating system at the same price with less software and features.AOL Free Web Email Coming Soon
AOL is beta-testing a free web-based email service with its members. The company plans on offering the Yahoo Mail and Gmail competitor to the general public sometime in 2005. All the basic features are included like address book, contacts, and decent storage space of 100 megabytes. AOL is trying to develop new revenue opportunities by copying MSN and Yahoo portal business models. The company lost 4 million subscribers to their ISP service in the past 2 years. Currently they have 22.4 million members.December 21, 2004
C64 All-in-One Game Joystick Story
New York Times has a good article on how a 30 year old high school dropout designed the 30 games in one Commodore 64 joystick and her life-long journey following her passion.Her efforts in reverse-engineering old computers and giving them new life inside modern custom chips has already earned her a cult following among small groups of "retro" personal computer enthusiasts, as well as broad respect among the insular world of the original computer hackers who created the first personal computers three decades ago.
Chinese Prisoners Counterfeiting Playstation 2
Sony's investigation into Chinese piracy uncovered 10 sub-contractors who used Chinese prisoners to make counterfeit Playstation 2 consoles, controllers, and mod chips. These pirates had capacity of 50,000 units a day and sold their wares world-wide. This kind of makes you worry about buying any PS2 hardware from sites like eBay, especially if the seller is from Hong Kong.December 20, 2004
Cellphone Radiation Harms DNA
A four year research study in Germany concluded that after being exposed to electromagnetic fields human and animal DNA had a significant increase in single and double strand DNA breaks. The damage was sometimes unrepairable by the cell. Mutated cells are one of the possible causes of cancer. The project leader recommends using a fixed line or headset vs. bringing cellphones to your ear.Walmart Sells Linux Laptop for $498
Walmart today started pre-selling what it says is the cheapest laptop available with an operating system and office suite. The Balance Linux Notebook computer comes with:-Via C3 1 ghz processor
-14" LCD panel display
-Lindows/Linspire version 4.5 operating system
-128MB of memory
-30GB hard-drive
-CD-ROM drive
-4 USB 2.0 ports
-3 month FREE CNR service for automatic software updates
-OpenOffice.org office suite
Retail Sales and Traffic are Weak
Retailers are starting to get nervous as the AP reports store traffic has been weak. The Chief economist of the International Council of Shopping Centers said, "We are not getting the kind of lift we need. Traffic and sales were below expectations." This firm tracks the sales figures for 30,000 retail stores. Total sales on Saturday was down 7 percent vs. the same day last year. Luxury stores have out-performed the middle and working class stores this Christmas as discount shoppers got hit with higher oil and heating costs. Moreover there hasn't been a "must have" item this Christmas, especially since there is a Playstation 2 hardware shortage.EA Buys 20% Stake in Ubisoft
Electronic Arts continued its money spending ways by buying a 19.9 percent stake in French vidoegame developer Ubisoft. Ubisoft's games include the successful Tom Clancy Splinter Cell franchise and Prince of Persia. Reuters industry sources said EA paid $85-100 million for the stake. Ubisoft has now said they cousider EA's stake-building a "hostile operation."Cingular Sells OGO for Cheap
Cingular is selling the OGO device for $49.99 after a $60.00 instant rebate on their website. OGO is a dedicated IM, email, and text messaging device with unlimited messaging fees $17.99 a month. It can access AOL, MSN, and Yahoo accounts. OGO specs are:
-Full QWERTY keyboard
-8 way navigation control
-Color screen with 16-bit graphics
-5.7 ounce weight
-4.5 x 2.95 x 0.98 dimensions
-up to 2.5 hours of usage
-standby up to 120 hours
-dual band GSM/GPRS networks
CEO of eBay Company in India Arrested
The CEO of an eBay subsidiary in India was arrested because someone tried to sell child porn on the firm's site. Baazee.com took down the posting as soon as it was discovered. However it didn't matter to Indian officials because when the CEO voluntarily traveled to India to cooperate with police officials, he was arrested. eBay and the U.S. Embassy is following the case closely and obviously are very upset.Bajaj's arrest has "many ramifications," especially at a time when Internet usage in the country is rapidly growing and foreign investors are increasingly looking to India for e-commerce opportunities, said Amit Mitra, the chief executive at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
Silk Screen Labels for your CD-Rs
Lightscribe technology lets you silkscreen professional quality labels right onto your burned CDs and DVDs inside an optical drive. The technology requires a special Lightscribe enabled CD or DVD drive and proprietary CD-R or DVD-R media. The company is aiming for a launch date of January 2005. Pricing will be a few pennies for each disc and few dollars for each drive.Hotmail Dumps McAfee Anti-Virus
Starting today Microsoft is going to use Trend Micro instead of McAfee for anti-virus on Hotmail. The reason for the change is unclear although an Austrialian Microsoft executive said Trend Micro's products offer "deeper virus protection." Hotmail has 187 million web mail accounts. Notice I said accounts not individual customers. I hate when companies fantasize that all their accounts are individual users.December 19, 2004
Motorola i605 Bluetooth Phone for Nextel
FCC and industry websites have posted details on a new Motorola phone for Nextel. The i605 will be Motorola's first Bluetooth iDen phone and will feature a large color display, speakerphone, voice dialing, GPS, and Java. Unfortunately the phone looks pretty ugly. [Via Phonescoop]
eBay Buys Rent.com for $415 Million
eBay announced on Friday, it is buying Rent.com for $415 million in stock and cash. Rent.com was launched in 2001 and matched landlords with prospective renters. The site received a commission for each lease signing that was result of the free property listings. The company expects 2004 revenue of $40 million and is profitable.It sure makes me wonder why I didn't load up on Rent.com, Car.com, Business.com, and Sex.com, when I could of bought those domain names back in the 1990s and made a fortune. I still remember playing around with the first version of Netscape and thinking this "internet thing" is going to be big.
T-Mobile May Bid for Nextel
Every reporter at every magazine and newspaper is trying to out-scoop one another on the Sprint-Nextel merger story. Now Forbes is out there saying T-Mobile may put a bid for Sprint. Citing a report from Bank of America, the article suggest T-Mobile needs to get big fast or lose market-share. Nextel is attractive because of its high profit margins and dominance of the Business and Government vertical.Yahoo Video Search
Search video files on the internet with Yahoo's new video search site. It's pretty neat, however I think site owners will be more hesitant to post large video files now as this site will drive traffic and cost them more in bandwidth costs.More Details on the Apple Motorola Cellphone
Forbes got more details from a VP at Apple about the Motorola iTunes cellphone. According to Eddie Cue, VP of Applications at Apple, the phone will a mass-market device not $500 high-end. Moreover the release date is sometime in the first half of 2005. Many people expect Steve Jobs to show off the phone at his annual keynote speech at MacWorld Expo on January 11, 2005.T-Mobile Launches Samsung p735
T-Mobile launched the Samsung p735 camera-phone this week for $499 with a new contract. The features include:
-Tri-band GSM/GPRS networks
-3.6" x 1.73" x 0.95" dimensions
-4.5 oz. of weight
-5-8 days of standby time
-4 hours of talk time
-262k color LCD with 178x220 resolution
-0.9 megapixel camera
-64MB of internal memory
-RS-MMC memory card slot. Comes with 32MB card
-MP3 Player, voice recorder
-Hands-free headset
-Infrared (IR) transmission
-Picture Caller ID
The phone seems a bit pricey for what it offers. You can get a full fledged smartphone or a thin RAZR V3 in this ball park range, but some I guess have to use T-Mobile as their carrier.
iPod Mini Still Rules
The New York Time writes about the success of the iPod Mini and why even with a ton of new copy-cat competitors, the Mini still rules. It's about fashion, intangibles, status, and the little design interfaces that make all the difference in the world. From the scroll wheel that lets you pick songs quickly to the ease-of-use of iTunes, the competition still has a long way to go.December 17, 2004
Verizon Wireless Launches Audiovox XV6600
Verizon Wireless has launched the Audiovox XV6600 at a price of $549.99 with a 2 year contract. It will be available in Verizon stores in January 2005. Features include:
-integrated slide out QWERTY keyboard
-SDIO expansion slot
-EV-DO network for 300-500k/sec download speeds
-Backwards compatible to seemlessly switch to 1xRTT networks
-Bluetooth
-Microsoft Pocket PC 2003 Phone Edition OS
-64MB ROM and 128MB RAM
-3.5 inch QVGA 65k color screen
Walter Mossberg gave this Pocket PC phone a lukewarm endorsement. Although it's great for downloading emails and attachments quickly, it doesn't have the all-in-one integrated smartphone design of the Treo 650. Fortunately for Audiovox, the Treo 650 probably won't be EV-DO capable anytime soon.
Nvidia Media Processors on New 3G Cellphones
Nvidia announced that the GoForce 4000 media processor has been chosen to be featured in the Motorola E1000, V980, and C980 3G cellphones. Key features include hi-resolution graphics, videos, and games. The chipset supports up to 3 megapixel real-time camera capture with 8x digital zoom. It can also simultaneously encode and decode video conference streams and play a digital file. I'm looking forward to playing some multiplayer games with 3d accelerated graphics on the next generation of smartphones.ICANN Tax You Without You Knowing
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international organization that oversees domain names, is trying to levy an additional 75 cent annual fee on .net domains. Moreover ICANN plans to raise the fee to other domain suffixes like .com and .biz. They want to use the extra money for: 1/3 develop country stakeholders, 1/3 security and stability, and 1/3 anything they want. Critics complain ICANN has no oversight from any government or entity and can use this stealth tax for wasteful projects. Verisign is fully supporting this fee increase, as the company maybe wants to win the favor of ICANN so it can renew its contract.December 16, 2004
Mossberg Reviews Verizon EV-DO, AudioVox XV6600, and LG VX8000
Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal was able to review a couple of devices using Verizon's new EV-DO wireless data network. Currently EV-DO is available in 18 cities and lets you download data at speeds of 300-500k per second. Verizon says most cities will be hooked up by end of 2005. Sprint also plans to roll out the service next year.First up is the AudioVox XV6600 which uses Microsoft's PocketPC OS and also is a phone. The one redeeming feature is the slide-out keyboard as it costs $549 with a 2 year contract and only has 2.5 hours of talk-time. Plus you have to pay an additional $45 a month on top of your voice package for unlimited data. However because of EV-DO it provides "PC connected to broadband" experience in terms of email downloading and web surfing.
Mossberg bashes the LGVX8000 EV-DO phone which will come out in the first quarter of 2005 for under $300. Although the monthly charge will be $25 a month for data, he sees little point in the phone. The email program is weak and the EV-DO speed is wasted on downloading short videos and ring-tones.
How to get your free 128MB SD Card if you own a Treo 650
To order your free memory card as a stop gap measure for the memory allocation problem, go to this PalmOne site and type in your serial and ID number. The memory shortage issue comes from the different way the Treo 650 stores data. Instead of 14 byte long chunks, the Treo 650 need 512 bytes to store any piece of data. This leads to an estimated 30% less usable space vs. the previous Treo.Interview with Tim Sweeney, Founder of Epic Games
GamingGroove has a good interview with Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games. He talks about the current state of graphics technology, video capture technology, programming languages, and gaming company startups. Worth the read as this guy is a pioneer and knows his stuff.The great thing about game development is that there are a broad spectrum of opportunities available for developers, from 1-3 person teams creating Nintendo GBA games, 5-10 person teams developing budget PC games, 10-20 person teams creating smaller PC and console games, and then the big leagues of 25-60 person teams creating triple-A games for PC and console. Arguably, the massive multiplayer games are a step above that. In addition, there are mod teams aspiring to "go commercial", and numerous startups looking for initial opportunities like add-on packs and contract development while building their teams.
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Release Date for Xbox and PC
Take-Two announced the release date for Grand Theft Auto San Andreas today. The game will launch on both PC and Xbox on June 7th, 2005 in the US and June 10th, 2005 in Europe.MP3 Player Purchasing Survey
MacWorld reports Sigmatel, the company rumored to supply Apple with flash memory next year for a new smaller iPod, did an interesting survey of MP3 purchasing behavior. In a population of 656 people between the ages of 18-35:-59% plan on buying a new MP3 player to give as gifts
-39% would pay up to $100, 24% up to $150
-31% of current MP3 owners would pay between $149-$249
It looks like they are trying to figure out a good price point for a flash memory iPod.
December 15, 2004
Casio Announces 6 Megapixel QV-R62
Casio announced their latest digital camera, the 6 megapixel QV-R62. The camera is set for release in January 2005. The features include:
-6 megapixel, 3x optical zoom
-Direct On and 0.01 second shutter release technology for action shots
-2" TFT color screen
-88.3 mm x 60.4 mm x 33.4 mm dimensions
-SD/MMC slot
-9.7 megabytes of internal memory
-Runs on regular AA batteries
IDC Predicts Cellphone Slow Down in 2005
IDC is predicting a slow down in the growth rate of cellphone sold in 2005. The reason being there aren't any incremental drivers like the integration of digital cameras and color screens in 2004. The research firm says it will take new 3G services and content to drive another wave of significant growth. They expect 3G phones to be 25% of the market by 2007.Time Warner Cable Road Runner Speed Increase
Time Warner Cable Road Runner cable internet customers will see an increase of their download speeds of up to 67% next month. Basic subscribers that pay $45 will see an increase of 3 to 5 mbps. Premium subscribers that pay $85 will see an increase of 6 to 8 mpbs.Cable companies are deciding to offer better service to fight off the price competition of DSL, which can cost as low as $26 a month vs. cable's $45 a month.
Sprint to Buy Nextel for $35.17 Billion
It's finally official as Sprint agreed to buy Nextel for $35.17 billion. The combined company of the number 3 and 5 wireless carriers will have 40 million customers. Sprint plans to spin-off the local phone business to focus on the wireless. The merged name will be Sprint Nextel.Cost synergies are expected to be $12 billion. Each Nextel share will get 1.28 shares of Sprint Nextel and 50c in cash. The Sprint CEO, Gary Forsee, will become the CEO of Sprint Nextel. And the Nextel CEO, Timothy Donahue, will become the chairman.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval, but analysts widely expect no problems. The target date for close is the second half of 2005. Sprint Nextel plans to switch Nextel's network to CDMA in the coming years.
Sony Ericsson S710a Approved by FCC for Cingular
The Sony Ericsson S710a was approved by the FCC. This phone is another Cingular exclusive as the carrier flexes its market power with the cellphone suppliers after the acquisition of AT&T Wireless. The phone should be available very soon for $399. As an update to the S700, the S710a features:
-1.3 megapixel digital camera with 8X digital zoom
-2.3 inch 240x320 pixel 262k TFT color screen
-EDGE 3G acces for downloading speeds up to 240kps
-Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE network compatibility
-Bluetooth and Memory Stick Duo slot
-up to 7 hours of talk-time and 300 hours of standby [Via MobileTracker]
Samsung VP-D907i 2.11 Megapixel Camcorder
Samsung unveiled their latest line of digital camcorders including the first ever 2.11 megapixel CDD digital camcorder VP-D907i. The new features include enhanced image quality, 10x optical zoom, 2.5" color 211k LCD, 1600x1200 still image capture, Sony Memory stick slot, and 900x digital zoom. [Via Engadget]
MPAA Sues BitTorrent Servers
MPAA decided to continue their "sue until they drop" strategy by going after BitTorrent servers all around the world from France, Netherlands, Finland, United States, and England. A spokesman said they have taking legal and criminal action against 100 servers on four continents. eDonkey and DirectConnect networks are also among the P2P technologies under the MPAA's watchful eye. On a humorous note, the MPAA Director of World-wide Anti-Piracy feels the need to whine in the press release that these BitTorrent sites forbid pornagraphy, but allow downloading of copyrighted movies and TV shows. How dare they!December 14, 2004
DICE Shareholders Say No to EA
According to a Swedish newspaper and Shacknews.com translation, two factions that control 16% and 12% of Digital Illusions (the creator of the Battlefield series) are rejecting Electronic Art's offer to buy the company. Both shareholders believe next year will be the biggest year yet for DICE and think the valuation of their company is likely to go higher. Unfortunately for EA, the company needs 90% of the shareholder count to approve the merger.Apple Fights Real - Don't Touch my iPod
Apple has quietly updated the firmware of iPods, so the players will not play songs purchased on Real's music store. The company has criticized Real for using hacker-like tactics to break open the iPod proprietary Mp3 player market. Apple does not want competition for iTunes, especially since they charge 99c vs. Real's 79c per song.Oh Geekmas Tree, Oh Geekmas Tree
Tech-Report forum member, JavaDog, hit a new high water mark on computer geekdom by putting together a small Christmas tree with RAM ornaments, USB lights, and an AMD CPU as the tree-top star. I want one!
"I got the ram from ebay. 65 sticks for $1 (plus $3 shipping).
Tree is from Target - $7.99.
Total Cost = CHEAP.
Total Awesomeness = 150%" - JavaDog
Cingular Launches Motorola MPx220 Smartphone Online
Although it has been out in the retail channel for a few months, Cingular just started selling the Motorola MPx220 on its online store. The price is $300 with a 2-year contract. The features are:
-Digital Talk Time of 5 hours
-Standby Time of 8.3 days
-Quad-band world phone on GPRS and GSM networks
-Syncs with Microsoft Outlook, Calendar and contacts
-Windows Mobile Smartphone OS
-Pocket Internet Explorer
-176x220 pixel color screen
-3.9 ounces
-1.2 megapixel digital camera
-Bluetooth capable for headsets
-200mhz TI OMAP 1611 CPU
This is the second generation Motorola smartphone that replaces the MPx200. Improvements include faster CPU speed (200mhz vs. 132mzh), better digital camera, and multimedia playback.
Sirius Add Traffic Reports
Although XM Radio had local traffic reports for a while, Sirius announced today it will add 30 local metro city traffic reports and hook up with in-car GPS navigation systems to navigate the best direct route. Sirius is using Navteq as their service provider.Blockbuster Getting Rid of Late Fees
In an effort to stem the tide to online video rentals, Blockbuster has decided to kill one of the largest complaints against them. Starting January 1st, the company will drop late fees and give customers a 1 week grace period. After one week, Blockbuster will charge the full price of the DVD, VHS tape, or videogame on the credit card. The customer has 30 days to return the product less a restocking fee. It is reported Blockbuster made $250 to $300 million a year from late fees alone.Sources Say Verizon Not Interested in Sprint
It's a tough week to be a reporter on wireless companies. Now sources close to Verizon and Vodafone are telling Reuters Verizon isn't interested in bidding for Sprint. Vodafone said they are not in discussions with Verizon or Sprint. The main impediments are regulatory hurdles, overlapping assets, and the unattractive Sprint land-line business. The theory is the FCC would be more against a Verizon take-over due to the hefty power Verizon already has as a Baby Bell.Verizon Got Approval to Bid for Sprint
Wall Street Journal and Reuters are reporting that Verizon got approval from its partner Vodafone to make a bid for Sprint. This may throw a wrench into Sprint's impending $35 billion merger with Nextel. Vodafone however wants to keep their stake at 45% in any future combined entity. So Vodafone will also have to pony up tens of billions of dollars to stay at the table.Technically it would be a much cleaner combination as both Sprint and Verizon use CDMA as their platform. The bid however may be weeks away as Verizon needs to decide how much to bid and what to do with Sprint's land-line business. Moreover there are anti-trust concerns, as the combined company would have 1/3 of the U.S. market.
As a Sprint subscriber who is quite happy with their low prices, I'm not looking forward to paying Verizon rates any time soon.
Google to Add Major Library Volumes to its Database
According to the New York Times, Google plans to announce an agreement with some of the world's best research libraries to convert their volumes into digital files freely searchable on the Internet. The libraries include Harvard, Oxford, University of Michigan, Stanford, and the New York Public library. A rough cost estimate to digitize all those books is about $10 each for 15 million volumes. Librarians say it will take about a decade to complete the job. The Library of Congress will also put 1 million books online. The focus will mainly be on works no longer under copyright. The copyrighted material will only turn up short excerpts.Seagate Hard Drive Warranty Explanation
The Tech-Report has the scoop on Seagate hard-drive warranties. Basically consumers get a five year warranty from the date Seagate ships the drive from their factory and maybe a few additional months to allow the it to work itself through the channel. Hard-drives sold inside a computer are the responsibility of the computer system manufacturer. OEM hard-drives resold individually do not have warranties as they are considered "grey market" products.December 13, 2004
Great Deal: Sony Ericsson T637 Cellphone for -$225
Amazon is offering the Sony Ericsson T637 Cellphone for -$225 with free shipping ($94.99 minus a $320 rebate and contract). Yes you read that right, you get PAID for buying this cellphone, although you have to sign up for a long term agreement. Act fast as the crazy rebate expires on 12/15/04. I like it when companies pay me to buy their products, more should do that.The Sony Ericsson T637 has:
-Bluetooth, Infrared support
-Digital camera
-AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ Instant Messaging client
-Weighs 3.35 ounces
-Size is 1.73 X 4.02 X 0.75
-315 hours of standby time and 14 hours of talk time
-5 way joystick for navigating menus and games
-internal memory of 2 megabytes
The phone has been out for a few months and doesn't have a lot of memory, but at these prices who can complain.
Electronic Arts Signs Exclusive with NFL and Players
EA announced an exclusive 5 year deal with the National Football League and Players Inc. to develop, publish, and distribute interactive football games. The company negotiated each deal separately to get the rights for NFL teams, stadiums, and players. Moreover EA gets the rights to use all the trademarks for online console gameplay. Financial terms were not disclosed.Both agreements are exclusive for action simulation, arcade-style and manager games on the PC, handheld game devices and consoles -- including console online features. The agreements do not include exclusive rights to other types of games or games accessible from the Internet or wireless devices, including cellular phones.
This is the ultimate strike back blow to Take-Two and EPSN franchises. As the ESPN line took major share vs. Madden this year due to great reviews and the $19.99 price point.
Update: Take-Two responds, "We believe that the decisions of the National Football League and Players Inc. to grant an exclusive license for video games do a tremendous disservice to the consumers and sports fans, whose funds ultimately support the NFL, by limiting their choices, curbing creativity and almost certainly leading to higher game prices."
Update 2: Although financial terms were not disclosed. Gamespot published a rumor on 5/18/04 that speculated an Electronic Arts exclusive deal with the NFL Players Association.
Cingular Motorola RAZR V3 for $370
The hottest cellphone this Christmas is the Motorola RAZR V3 available from Cingular. A buddy of mine already has it and I'll admit it's the sexiest phone I've ever seen. Motorola hit a home-run in the design department with this baby. If you want to turn a lot heads at clubs and bars, this is the phone to get. It is razor-thin hence the name and as wide as a credit card. The cheapest deal I've found is on Amazon where it goes for $369.99 after rebate. The phone features:
-Razor-thin Aircraft aluminum case
-176 X 220 pixel 2.2" 64k color display and 3D graphics engine
-MPEG 4 video
-Picture Caller ID
-22khz speaker with MP3 ringer support
-Nickel plated copper-alloy chemically-etched keypad
-Blue-tooth wireless technology
-Builtin speakerphone
-Digital camera with 4X digital zoom
-3.26 ounces
-1.75 X 3.43 X 0.91 size. It has the width of a credit card
-Quad-band GSM network compatibility for international roaming
The phone is reported to allow .GIF wallpapers, have good battery life and reception. Talk times are about 3 hours and standby time is up to 200 hours.
Motorola Reorganizes Business Divisions
Motorola announced a reorganization of the company's businesses and functions today into four groups. They are personal devices, networks, government and enterprise, and connected home.Personal Devices will focus on multi-band, multi-mode personal communications devices (duh). The company will try to leverage economies of scale and "consistent experience design."
Networks constitutes existing cellular radio access networks, IP and next-generation IMS/softswitch technologies (VOIP stuff), iDEN infrastructure (Nextel is going away though, no?), telco wireline services (old Baby Bell phone service), and new 802.xx mobile broadband infrastructure.
Government and Enterprise will focus on market and solutions oriented businesses for Fortune 500 and the government for voice and data-delivery services.
Connected Home will serve existing and new cable and satellite customers for the broadband networked home. Sounds like cable set-top and networking solutions.
The changes are set to take effect January 1st and there will be no change in reporting relationships. Supply chain operations will also be a new organization. The company is conducting an internal and external search to fill the leader of this position. I bet the guy in charge of the Nextel relationship is a bit worried.
Cingular Launches Sony Ericsson Z500a Camera Phone
Cingular is now selling the Sony Ericsson Z500a Camera phone on their website for $99.99 with a 2 year contract. It's good to see reasonably priced multi-media phones with good feature sets out there as everyone can't afford the $500 Motorola RAZR V3. For a limited time Cingular is offering a free faceplate with a mail-in rebate. The phone has the following features:-Size of 3.6 x 1.9 x 0.9 inches
-Weight of 3.9 ounces
-Digital Talk Time of 5 hours
-Digital Standby Time of 10 days
-Integrated VGA Camera with zoom and brightness control
-Video and picture messaging
-AOL instant messenger
-128x160 65k internal display and 4k external color display
-POP3/IMAP email
-MP3 player
-Wireless modem capable with optional USB cable
-510 contacts phone book
-Tri-band world phone using GSM and GPRS networks