tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-102586902024-03-06T22:40:19.405-08:00Effy's Blogeffy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-80669891428797752892009-09-11T04:58:00.000-07:002009-09-11T04:59:58.988-07:00What a super ideawatch this <a href="http://www.next.co.uk/tv/?utm_source=Weekly%2B&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=TVAD_110909">video</a>, its the TV ad for next, now carefully look on the bar on the right.<br /><br />simply brilliant!!!<br /><br />what are your thoughts?<br /><br />effyeffy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-68831690016675207982009-09-02T02:23:00.000-07:002009-09-02T02:32:49.773-07:00Skype it is a Hot Potato?<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE58016S20090901">http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE58016S20090901</a><br /><br />EBay to sell 65 percent of Skype for $1.9 billion<br />Tue Sep 1, 2009 3:22pm EDTBy Sinead Carew and Megan Davies<br />NEW YORK (Reuters) - Internet auction house EBay Inc plans to sell a majority stake in its online phone unit Skype for $1.9 billion to private investors including Silver Lake, a deal analysts said was worth more than expected but may curb eBay's growth potential.<br />The deal valued Skype at $2.75 billion but was well below the $3.1 billion eBay spent in acquiring Skype, and shares in eBay fell more than 2 percent after the news.<br />The company said the sale of a 65 percent stake allows eBay to focus on its auction service and its PayPal electronic payments service and avoid the potential risks of the initial public offering it had slated for Skype for next year.<br />Analysts said the sale to the investors, which included a venture firm run by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, also highlighted concerns about the remainder of eBay, which faces stiff competition from rival Amazon.com Inc.<br />"It just returns the spotlight on the central issues eBay faces," said Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell, although he said the price was good for eBay.<br />Kaufman analyst Aaron Kessler said in a research note that selling eBay's fastest growing business would "clearly reduce the overall growth of eBay" and potentially lead investors to lower the amount they're willing to pay for eBay shares.<br />The group buying Skype includes London-based Index Ventures and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), along with Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.<br />Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Marianne Wolk said the valuation was at the high end of her expectations.<br />"It eliminates the risk of the planned IPO and is a better price than many of us expected," Wolk said. The valuation is 24 times Wolk's 2009 estimate for Skype after-tax earnings contribution to eBay, or 4 times her revenue estimate.<br />John Donahoe, eBay's chief executive, had said in May that a $2 billion valuation would be low for the growing Internet telephone business.<br />EQUITY DEALS<br />More than half the purchase price was financed by equity, a source familiar with the deal said. Typically, private equity firms finance purchases heavily with debt, but it has become more expensive and harder to raise financing since the credit crunch has limited access to financing.<br />Some private equity deals, for example, have been struck with 100 percent equity and no debt.<br />A separate source close to the deal said Silver Lake is providing the majority of the equity capital and CPPIB is contributing a significant portion of the capital. Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz are smaller funds but making very substantial investments for their size, the person said.<br />Skype, whose 2008 revenue rose 44 percent to $551 million, charges for calls to regular telephones but provides free computer-to-computer voice, video and text services. It had about 405 million registered users at the end of 2008.<br />About two years after the purchase, eBay made a $500 million payout for the founders on top of the $2.6 billion it paid for the company in 2005. It also wrote down about $1.4 billion off the value of its investment as it conceded that the telephony unit does not fit with eBay's other businesses.<br />"Skype is a strong stand-alone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments business," Donahoe said in a statement on Tuesday.<br />Susquehanna's Wolk said keeping a Skype stake made sense, as eBay could still benefit from Skype's growth.<br />"You don't know if there's an incentive to IPO the remaining stake downstream," she said.<br />EBay said the deal would close in the fourth quarter. The transaction is not subject to a financing condition.<br />JP Morgan, Barclays and RBC Capital markets advised Silver Lake and its investor group and committed to provide financing for the deal. Goldman Sachs advised eBay on the deal.<br />Shares in eBay were down 47 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $21.67 on Nasdaq compared with a 1.8 percent market decline. The company's shares have shot up from just under $17 in July on hopes of an improving business environment.<br />(Reporting by Sinead Carew and Megan Davies; Additional reporting by Georgina Prodhan in London and Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; editing by Will Waterman and Derek Caney, Gary Hill)<br /><br /><br /><strong>They paid $2.6b (or $3.1b), wrote off $1.4b and now sold 65% for $1.9b, doesnt look like a bad deal at all...... actually it is probably rather profitable.....</strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>what are your thoughts?</strong><br /><strong></strong>effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-4591469294762391972009-02-18T21:54:00.000-08:002009-02-26T14:00:13.505-08:00IPTV - its our future, it's here today so why kill it???<div style="font-family: arial;"> </div><br /><div style="font-family: arial;">Eugen sent this shocking announcement to me</div><br /><div style="font-family: arial;"> </div><br /><div style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://blog.hulu.com/2009/2/18/doing-hard-things">http://blog.hulu.com/2009/2/18/doing-hard-things</a></span></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><div style="font-family: arial;"> </div><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><div style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><a href="http://blog.hulu.com/2009/2/18/doing-hard-things">Doing hard things</a><br />February 18<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">th</span>, 2009<br />"I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter." — Walt Disney<br />Later this week, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Hulu's</span> content will no longer be available through <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Boxee</span>. While we never had a formal relationship with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Boxee</span>, we are under no illusions about the likely <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Boxee</span> user response from this move. This has weighed heavily on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Hulu</span> team, and we know it will weigh even more so on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Boxee</span> users.<br />Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Boxee</span> product, and we are respecting their wishes. While we stubbornly believe in this brave new world of media convergence — bumps and all — we are also steadfast in our belief that the best way to achieve our ambitious, never-ending mission of making media easier for users is to work hand in hand with content owners. Without their content, none of what <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Hulu</span> does would be possible, including providing you content via <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Hulu</span>.com and our many distribution partner websites.<br />Our mission to make media dramatically easier and more user-focused has not changed and will not change. We will not stop until we achieve it and we are sober in our assessment that we have such a long way to go.<br />The maddening part of writing this blog entry is that we realize that there is no immediate win here for users. Please know that we take very seriously our role of representing users such that we are able to provide more and more content in more and more ways over time. We embrace this activity in ways that respect content owners' — and even the entire industry's — challenges to create great content that users love. Yes, it's a complex matter. A tough mission, and a never-ending one, but one we are passionately committed to.<br />For those <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Boxee</span> users reading this post, we understand and appreciate that you're likely to tell us that we're nuts. Please know that we do share the same interests and won't stop innovating in support of the bigger mission.<br />Jason <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Kilar</span><a href="mailto:jason@hulu.com">jason@hulu.com</a>CEO, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Hulu</span></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">He then followed it up with this Article</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Is-Hulus-Heave-Ho-First-Salvo-in-Digital-Content-War-66259.html?wlc=1235658101&wlc=1235684201">http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Is-Hulus-Heave-Ho-First-Salvo-in-Digital-Content-War-66259.html?wlc=1235658101&<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">wlc</span>=1235684201</a><br /><br />Is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Hulu's</span> Heave-Ho First Salvo in Digital Content War?<br /><br />By <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Renay</span> San Miguel<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">TechNewsWorld</span><br />02/20/09 11:59 AM PT<br /><br />In addition to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Boxee</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Hulu</span> also has pulled its content from the CBS-owned TV.com, sparking a push-back from TV.com, which doesn't want to say good-bye so quickly. Could the moves by Fox and NBC-owned <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Hulu</span> be the first in a war over digital distribution of television content?<br /><br />What <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Hulu</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">giveth</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Hulu</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">taketh</span> away. At first applauded for its openness in providing its content to other distributors, the online streaming video company -- a joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp. -- this week pulled back that content from Web-to-TV software provider <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Boxee</span> and TV.com, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">CBS's</span> digital video service. However, CBS is now pushing back at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Hulu</span>, and those rumblings you hear on the digital horizon may be the first shots fired in a new round of major media company battles over the right to watch TV shows on your computer.<br /><br />CBS interactive spokesperson Sarah Cain gave a statement that is short on words but speaks volumes regarding the potential for a fight: "CBS Interactive is well within its rights to stream <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Hulu</span> video content on TV.com under its agreement with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">Hulu</span>. We are evaluating our next steps at this time," Cain said.<br /><br />Earlier this week <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Hulu</span> sent this statement to other media organizations: "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Hulu</span> has contractual rights with regards to our relationship with TV.com and we are exercising those rights. Out of respect for their confidentiality, we will not disclose our discussions."<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">TechNewsWorld</span> has sent an email request for reaction to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Hulu</span> CEO Jason <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Kilar</span>; it had not received a response by press time.<br /><br />Jockeying for Position<br /><br />Both CBS and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Hulu</span> drew kudos last year for making digital deals with "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">frenemies</span>," including the likes of online brand heavyweights AOL, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">MSN</span> , Yahoo (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">Nasdaq</span>: <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">YHOO</span>) and, of course, each other, said Forrester Research senior analyst Bobby <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Tulsiani</span>. However, its own success, couple with the economy's failure, may be forcing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Hulu</span> to revalue its content and consider new business models.<br /><br />"<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">Hulu</span> has some of the most valuable content out there," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">Tulsiani</span> told <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">TechNewsWorld</span>. "CBS has higher network ratings than Fox or NBC, but for the Web, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">Hulu's</span> content is about as good as you can get -- "Saturday Night Live," "Family Guy," "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">Simpsons</span>," that library is perfect for the Web. It targets young people, it's clips, it's viral and episodic.<br /><br />"In terms of being critical to business, you can absolutely understand why library size could become important. It's really valuable. Would you just give it away to your competitors? I can understand <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">Hulu's</span> position."<br /><br />TV.com may be been singled out by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">Hulu</span> because of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">CBS's</span> desire to pump up its offerings on the site, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">Tulsiani</span> says. "It could be jockeying for position. CBS is putting their full muscle behind it, more so than Yahoo or AOL or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50">MSN</span>, their other partners who have email, business and celebrity news and other categories."<br /><br />Cable Entering the (PC Screen) Picture?<br /><br />A report in The Wall Street Journal that cable companies may be trying to build out their own streaming video offerings for computers could also figure into the competitive mix, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51">Tulsiani</span> said, and may be sparking <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52">Hulu's</span> actions this week. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53">Comcast</span> (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54">Nasdaq</span>: <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55">CMCSK</span>) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) are poised, well capitalized and already pay fees to bring TV programming into your living room; adding another portal via your computer could be a logical next step. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_56">Hulu</span> has partnerships with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_57">Comcast</span>-owned networks including E! Entertainment, G4 and the Golf Channel.<br /><br />Cable's entry into streaming PC video may force <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_58">Hulu</span> to start charging for some content. Right now <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_59">Hulu</span> is free, ad-supported TV on your PC, and the question of paid services is addressed on the "Media FAQ" page of its Web site:<br /><br />Will <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_60">Hulu</span> always be ad-supported or are there any plans to charge for additional services?<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_61">Hulu's</span> goal is to help people find and enjoy the world's premium content when, where and how they want it. We believe that offering free, ad-supported content is a good first step toward achieving that goal and that it is the model that will resonate with largest group of users today. That said, we also believe in listening closely to user feedback to help guide our future plans.<br /><br />"Free resonates with consumers, but doesn't resonate as well with businesses," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_62">Tulsiani</span> said. "We will start seeing more experimentation with paid models. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_63">Hulu's</span> smart not to rule that out, although they do emphasize free because they know brand equity behind free is very powerful, especially at this time. But the cable guys are obviously already getting your (US)$40 a month. If they roll out a Web portal, can they charge $41? For <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_64">Hulu</span> to go from free to pay may be a tougher transition than cable going from pay to a little more pay."<br /><br /></span><br /><div style="font-family: arial;"> </div><div style="font-family: arial;"> </div><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_65">Hulu</span> started right, they got the licenses and are ad driven, broadcasting <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_66">IPTV</span> over the net, then came enablers like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_67">Boxee</span> bring <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_68">IPTV</span> back from the net into the TV and thus extending the viewer community exponentially.<br /><br />Why would <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_69">Hulu</span> now pull the plug??? Are they missing the forest for the trees? Are they seeing how great their offering is when it is viewed on a TV and working back with the TV guys to stream <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_70">exclusively</span> through a cable box???? This would be terrible and once again close the distribution.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_71">Hulu</span> don't do this!!! Quite that contrary, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_72">Hulu</span> should be partnering with many other enablers like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_73">Boxee's</span>, TV.com and maybe even <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_74">PVR</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_75">manufacturer</span> like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_76">TVIX</span>, the more the better for everyone the viewer and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_77">Hulu's</span> advertisers!!! And lets not forget the obvious next step.... The rest of the world!!! Once <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_78">you're</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_79">IP</span> the only distribution limitation is your distribution agreement with your content provider, the technology and the pipes are already there.<br /><br /><br />What do you think??? Do you understand why <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_80">Hulu</span> is cutting off their own Oxygen.....effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-18006843597774230072009-01-06T12:47:00.000-08:002009-01-06T13:06:46.880-08:00Time to buy Apple - AGAIN!!!He is a genius, they are amazing and they are going to do it again.<br /><br />I always thought that the iPods and iPhones were just a method of selling more content off of iTunes and that the real plan was to get people hooked on iTunes.<br /><br />That is where the money is.<br /><br />There was/is one major flaw in trying to conquer the world when iTunes only works with Apple devices and the Apple DRM preventing moving the music and video to other devices.<br /><br />Apple at <a href="http://www.macworldexpo.com/">Macworld</a> just announced the first step in exactly that direction, iTunes store is going DRM free.<br /><br />This is major!<br /><br />Firstly some stats. iTunes store opened in 2003, since then it sold more than 6 Billion, yup Billion, songs. Songs were sold for $0.99 per song and $9.99 per album. It has more than 75 Million registered accounts with credit card info. There are currently 10 Million songs in the iTunes store and 8 million are going DRM free. The entire catalog will be DRM free by the end of this quarter.<br /><br />The next step I am guessing or suggesting, is that iTunes desktop should recognize any MP3 player and thus enable iTunes to become the one stop shop for the entire world for digital content.<br /><br />Time to buy Apple!!! Apple closed today $93 down $1.60<br /><br />what do you think?<br /><br />effyeffy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-73534526914546353842008-07-24T04:09:00.000-07:002008-07-24T04:42:30.822-07:00I Love Google<div></div><br /><div>..... continuing along the theme of large companies that are always developing and adapting, Google is right there.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Today I went online to <a href="http://maps.google.com/">http://maps.google.com/</a> one of my favorite sites, I wanted to see how to get to a meeting I had in the City of London. I usually go to the site find where I am and then figure out either by moving the map or by using the directions feature and then chart my own way as I am either walking or riding a bike and car rules don't interest me.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>This morning I entered the points and hit Get Directions to discover what I always wanted, a new function By Walking!!!! This is amazing.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnyrto0au-gyjlDo2nPSDlxwzfnyjpd1dqjw3tYDHEA6Ex7wIX-ldvzoXNuMUKd4vgWHw-_4JO6bbnjDpffovpPMQFPLTgD6snInJlmG8NqA_C0CsXc0mHOgquGqnl21d9wvAQeg/s1600-h/bywalking.GIF"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5226544402188289026" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnyrto0au-gyjlDo2nPSDlxwzfnyjpd1dqjw3tYDHEA6Ex7wIX-ldvzoXNuMUKd4vgWHw-_4JO6bbnjDpffovpPMQFPLTgD6snInJlmG8NqA_C0CsXc0mHOgquGqnl21d9wvAQeg/s320/bywalking.GIF" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div><br /><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Keep those improvements coming........</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>what do you think?</div>effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-77154778297626218862008-07-21T12:40:00.001-07:002008-07-22T04:01:24.463-07:00Apple going to $1,000 a shareIt was just about a year ago when I wrote about the first revision iPhone.<br /><br />(<a href="http://effys.blogspot.com/2007/09/unlocking-iphones-true-potential.html">http://effys.blogspot.com/2007/09/unlocking-iphones-true-potential.html</a>)<br /><br />I was very impressed with the device but more impressed with the hacker community working to improve the phone.<br /><br />The greatness of a company is its ability to listen to the user community and adapt. It is impressive and amazing to see a $140b gorilla move and adapt like a start up. Their software releases and iPhone o/s changes have incorporated what the hackers were doing and what users were asking for.<br /><br />I was playing with the new 3g device (my pal Jamie Bambridge line up, or rather queued, as he did this in London, on the first day to get it)mainly to see what version 2.0 is like ( O/S 1.2). They have done it, they have listened and adapted, since 1.0.1 they keep making changes and as I see it, incorporating what the hacker community is doing. Of course the drive behind Apple's quick adaption and incorporation is driven by increased revenues. Let face it, though the iPhone is a very profitable device ( costing approx $173 to manufacture ) it is really just a platform which is supposed to generate lots of revenues and not only from air time.<br /><br />Adding iTunes downloader to the iPhone two O/S's ago was key, this was obviously missing from the original device since the iPhone is supposed to be an iPod too. Being an iPod you want to be able to buy that song when you hear it regardless of where you are.<br /><br />The latest major change is their application installer (or store!!), allowing to install applications onto the iPhone, competing with the famous open source Nullriver Installer (<a href="http://iphone.nullriver.com/beta/">http://iphone.nullriver.com/beta/</a>) this a welcome change and as apple know to do best a great revenue stream as they sell apps and games and upon release it is already populated with many.<br /><br />I am sure they will therefore very shortly also fix their mediocre SMS application, it is still missing forward, copy/paste and MMS functionality. As revenue is the driver I am sure this fix is in the making as it will cause more people to SMS thus increasing Apple's revenues.<br /><br />Apple is surely going to $1,000 a share...........<br /><br />what do you think?effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-27255834315864252262007-11-08T02:06:00.000-08:002007-11-08T02:13:49.456-08:00Google PhoneI have spoke many times of my thought regarding Google being undervalued. <br /><br />This past week we saw Google run up because of rumors and some facts about the new Google O/S for Cell Phones.<br /><br />The Frenzy led to many articles trying to discount Googles greatness.<br /><br />some liks the one here at InformationWeek <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/11/googles_android_2.html?cid=nl_IWK_daily#community">http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/11/googles_android_2.html?cid=nl_IWK_daily#community</a> highlighted the fact that good applications and agood O/S on a mobile is not the problem but rather the network. Though the network is rather slow and needs improving there is a lot an O/S could help and this is where I think Google is on the cutting edge.<br /><br />I think the greatness of Google is that they understand the users needs and the network constraints. I think they will be taking advantage of low speed networks and high quality programming enabling a super user expereince even on EDGE. Where Apple failed Google will win. Even on the iPhone the google maps works well as it was chopped up to work on Edge. I don't thing moving to 3G is the solution, I think learning how to move data over the slow network is where it at.<br /><br />I have been a frequent user on my Cell Phone of the adapted for Mobile; Google's search page, Google's Froogle price comparison and Google maps. These apps worked as fast and as well as on a desktop. If this is an indication of whats to come on Google's Cell Phone then the world is in for a great suprize and the devices will be sold like hot cakes, I can't wait.<br /><br />What are your thoughts?effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-87439770466768610802007-10-17T02:23:00.000-07:002007-10-17T02:38:57.054-07:00eBay Skype over?Following my post in 05 <a href="http://effys.blogspot.com/2005/09/ebay-to-pay-at-least-26b-for-skype-why.html">http://effys.blogspot.com/2005/09/ebay-to-pay-at-least-26b-for-skype-why.html</a> eBay <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">announced</span> a few days <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ago</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">writing</span> off their investment in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Skype</span>. I still don't understand why they bought it in the first place and even more <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">surprised</span> they <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">didn't</span> take advantage of its features. The only thing I saw was some buyer with a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Skype</span>-Me button. Why did eBay not use <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Skype</span> for adverts. Why <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">didn't</span> eBay create live voice/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">skype</span> based auctions. Any many other things they could have is very odd to me. <br /><br />The real question here is the future of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Skype</span>. eBay writing it off is not only in order to establish a base line with share holders who had already wrote it off in their minds, it is also somewhat of a vote of no confidence <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">in the</span> product. This together with the fact that eBay <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">hasn't</span> used any <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">skype</span> related features and the exist of the founder of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">skype</span> puts in questions in my eyes the future of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">skype</span>. Yes it is hard to imagine a company with 220 million users and 7 million simultaneous ones fades away, but, it is possible, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">look</span> at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">icq</span>.<br /><br />what are your thoughts?<br /><br /><br />here are some interesting ones<br /><br /><a href="http://www.technewsworld.com/story/59772.html">http://www.technewsworld.com/story/59772.html</a><br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Skype</span> Buy: A Mixed Bag for eBay<br /><br />By John P. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Mello</span> Jr.E-Commerce Times Part of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">ECT</span> News Network 10/12/07 4:00 AM PT<br />eBay got several things right with its $2.6 billion buy of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Skype</span>, according to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Gartner</span>. One of them was the realization that communication applications could be used to reduce friction in online business transactions. Nonetheless, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Skype</span> buy was premature, the research firm maintained.<br />What's Linux with a Lineage?<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Verio</span> Linux <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">VPS</span> delivers root access, advanced <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">FairShare</span> technology for better performance, and support that's actually supportive. It’s all from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">Verio</span>, the Virtual Private Server technology pioneer, with over 500,000 customers. Test-drive Linux <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">VPS</span> here.<br />Online marketplace eBay (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Nasdaq</span>: EBAY) paid too much for the Internet phone service <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">Skype</span> , but its head was in the right place when it made the buy, according to a report released Tuesday by a major technology research firm.<br />"eBay's September 2005 acquisition of telephony vendor <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Skype</span> was overpriced by any direct measure: technology value, user base and revenue," writes David A. Willis for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Gartner</span> (NYSE: IT) , of Stamford, Conn.<br />"However," he adds, "eBay was correct in its vision of interconnecting the worlds of business applications and communications capabilities."<br />Hit to Bottom Line The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Gartner</span> report comes on the heels of eBay's announcement this month that its books will be taking a US$1.4 billion hit in its third quarter, most of it due to writing down the value of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Skype</span>, which made $90 million for eBay in the company's second quarter.<br />That write-down could be a positive thing for eBay, contends Tim Boyd, an analyst with American Technology Research in Greenwich, Conn.<br />"The market has been discounting the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">Skype</span> acquisition ever since eBay made it," he told the E-Commerce Times. "It's been a negative overhang for the company."<br />With this write-down, he continued, eBay is finally admitting that they overpaid, cleaning up the remaining costs of the deal and moving on.<br />A phone call to eBay by the E-Commerce Times asking for comment on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">Gartner</span> report and the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">Skype</span> write-down was not returned.<br />What eBay Got Right In its report, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">Gartner</span> cites several things that eBay "got right" with the US$2.6 billion buy of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Skype</span>. One of them was the realization that communication applications could be used to reduce friction in online business transactions.<br />However, the expected synergies from the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Skype</span> buy never materialized, according to Boyd.<br />"Part of eBay's initial justification for the purchase was that it would reduce friction between buyers and sellers on the platform," he explained. "I don't think it's had much of an impact on that.<br />"Most of the sellers that I've spoken to have implied that they don't have time to talk to every buyer who's interested in their items so they don't offer a '<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">Skype</span>-me' button on their listings," he added.<br />Indeed, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">Gartner</span> maintained that the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">Skype</span> buy was premature.<br />"The market was not ready to adopt <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">Skype</span> as a means to integrate commerce," it says. "Users see its service as an inexpensive or free calling option, not a means of accelerating their business as an eBay buyer or seller."<br />Growing Demand Another "got right" by eBay, according to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">Gartner</span>, was its recognition of the growing popularity of integrated communications among Internet users.<br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">Skype</span> subscribers are doubling annually, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">Gartner</span> reports, and the service claims 220 million subscribers with more than 7 million of them frequently on line at the same time.<br />"Many are attracted by cheap or free voice calling," the report observes, "but many also appreciate the convenience of instant messaging client integration, conferencing capabilities and other productivity applications."<br />Not Worth $2.6 Billion <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">Gartner</span> also points out where eBay went wrong with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">Skype</span> deal, such as what they paid for the technology.<br />"As similar acquisitions have proven, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50">Skype's</span> basic technology could be purchased elsewhere for 1/100<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51">th</span> of the price," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52">Gartner</span> maintains.<br />"Is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53">Skype</span> a viable entity, is it a valuable?" asked Will <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54">Stofega</span>, research manager for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55">VoIP</span> services at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_56">IDC</span> in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_57">Framingham</span>, Mass.<br />"Yes," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Is it worth $2.6 billion? Probably not."<br />Flat Support Nevertheless, he argued that eBay hasn't done much to build its value since it purchased the technology.<br />"There hasn't been any real effort to take control of this thing and put some wheels under it so it becomes a premiere piece of software," he said.<br />"That's what it really is," he continued. "You can talk about it being a service, but at the end of the day, it's a piece of software that resides on a client somewhere.<br />"Getting that client onto mobile phones, onto PCs and into the enterprise in a legitimate way is something that could really start to energize the product," he opined.effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-11171566734222397192007-09-25T11:17:00.000-07:002007-09-25T11:19:14.283-07:00unlocking the iPhone's true potentialThe Wall Street Journal published an article today stating Apple has warned against hacking and unlocking the iPhone. <br /><br /><a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119067450691137954.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119067450691137954.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news</a><br /><br /><em>Apple Inc. warned users that they can permanently damage their iPhones by modifying the cellular phones to work on unauthorized wireless networks, a move that could diminish a potential threat to Apple's iPhone partnerships with carriers like AT&T Inc.<br /><br />In a statement, Apple said it has discovered that unauthorized iPhone "unlocking" programs cause damage to the device's software that could make the phone "permanently inoperable" when users install future software updates from Apple. The Cupertino, Calif., company said that any permanent disabling of iPhone that stems from the installation of unlocking software isn't covered on the product's warranty.<br /></em><br /><br />In fact Apple should be grateful that the user community has hacked their device. There is no way the Locked version Apple is selling in the USA through ATT will ever make it in Europe or in Asia. People in countries where GSM has been mainstream for well over 15 years have been used to using their cell phones in a way that will make them very frustrated with the iPhone. From my experience with an iPhone here are the things that are missing.<br /><br />MMS, that’s right, though the iPhone has a nice camera you can’t send the pictures to anyone nor can you send or receive a contact via sms.<br /><br />SMS, a very low level version that doesn’t even let you forward SMS’s let alone copy and past. There actually is NO copy and paste functionality at all in the iPhone.<br /><br />Application download and install, on the locked device you can’t really install anything, and better yet there is only room for four more icons, thanks to hackers there is a way to install as well as page up and down. But the locked original version does not let you, gone are those days when the Telephone company was able to sell you a game to download……….<br /><br />Bluetooth, does nothing other then connect to a head set and even that in a very limited fashion, no BlueJacking, no file transfer or even using the iPhone as your Laptops gateway to the internet.<br /><br />Changing SIM cards on the locked device it virtually impossible something that totally contradicts the O2 core policy of not selling any SIM locked phones.<br /><br />Ringtones are a massive pain, virtually impossible to used your one or even an MP3 file, something every other phone could do. Instead Apple try to force you to convert a song purchase from iTunes to a ring tone. If not for hackers this market would be gone.<br /><br />O2 and T-Mobile should pay attention and ensure all these are fixed before rolling out the devices in their respective markets.<br /><br />I think Apple should embrace the efforts made by hackers and enhance their device with the new hacked features or better yet open source the iPhone. After all at $299 with no contract Apple is still making a mint.<br /><br />What are your thoughts?effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1167387025849570432006-12-29T02:04:00.000-08:002006-12-29T02:18:50.250-08:00The End?I am sitting on a plane and blogging it what appears to be the last day or days this will be possible to do.<br /><br />On Aug 17 Boeing announced ( http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2006/q3/060817a_nr.html ) they will shutting down their internet in the air service company called Connexion and writing off $320Million.<br /><br />Several airlines had installed these systems in their fleets, JAL, Korean, Lufthansa, SAS, ANA, Etihad, El-Al, Asiana and Singapore Air all at an approximate one time cost of $500,000 per plane and a running cost of flying with equipment that weighs like four people.<br /><br />It is odd to see this company close and the service disappear. Especially now when the Internet is main stream and many use it for basic communication. I could understand Boeing for closing this or maybe even for not succeeding as they are not a telecom service company, but , shocked not a single provider has decided to buy this out.<br /><br />To add to my confusion ever since Ericsson released their airline enabled GSM service and had the Norwegian NPT agree on usage and test, more and more airlines are gearing up to enabling usage of GSM cell phones during flight. There are even roaming auctions on the way.<br /><br />This feels very much like buying DSL hardware stocks in 2000, you knew everyone will have DSL at home and these hardware manufacturers will hardly manage to supply the demand, yet the stock failed and till today haven't recovered.<br /><br />am I missing out on something?effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1166973802478137702006-12-24T07:22:00.000-08:002006-12-24T14:50:02.950-08:00My new Treo680My new Treo680 arrived last week.<br />I decided to wait for the right time to perform my upgrade and ensure I am doing it right.<br />I charged my Treo as instructed (till light turns solid green) and then simply plugged it in to synchronize with my existing data from my 650.<br /><br />Synchronizing looked like it was off to a good start and then it froze or seemed to be stuck at MBIn- MRIndex which is an element of Avantgo.<br /><br />I therefore decided to eliminate Avantgo and try again. I stopped the process. I Hard reset the 680 and chose to erase all data. I then deleted the Avantgo components from the appropriate directories in my PC's Treo sub directories and re synchronized.<br /><br />All went surprisingly very well. Even Versamail synchronized and all the mail from the old device got copied over. The new Treo 680 seems to have gotten all my information, bookmarks, speedials, email etc. and I am off to a good start.<br /><br />The manual states to charge till the green light is solid and this is what I did.<br /><br />It was night time and I left my Treo on all night as I always do, in case I get phone calls. The only active component of my Treo is my Versamail, it is set to check mail every 5 minutes, even my Bluetooth was off.<br />I woke up in the morning to notice I was already on low battery and was rather surprised, it was already in the red and this is a brand new device which I followed the instructions to the T.<br /><br />How could it have a worse battery than the 650????<br /><br />I charged it again in the morning but this time I started paying attention to the battery in more detail. I noticed that the green light turns on and if I press on the battery indicator ( which shows a full battery with a charging icon on it ) it says Charging 100%. but yet if I unplug the charger from charging and then press on the battery it says anywhere from 95% to 98% but not full or 100%. I then spent the day using it and noticed I was at 40% in 6 hours. This is totally unusable and I put in a ticket to palm.<br />In the mean time I am charging it more carefully and trying to get to 100%. This morning I managed to get to 99%.<br /><br />Other first impressions;<br />The Treo 680 is indeed thinner and smaller and the lack of the antenna helps a lot in having it in my shirt pocket. The bulkiness is really reduced.<br /><br />Once again they changed the position of the menu key, why do they keep doing this? Are the people who design this device not using it? This time the menu key was replace with an on/off key so inadvertently whenever I try to copy and paste or other menu function I keep turning off the device. This is extremely annoying.<br /><br />The new front screen is totally different and is taking a lot getting used to.<br /><br />Dialing from the call log, which is something I do a lot seems now to be a two press process instead of one.<br />The phone so far only rebooted on me once, I can not attribute it to anything specific, maybe it was my usage, I was on the phone with my ear piece and cleaning up my email at the same time.<br />The SMS send functionality is different and is totally inconsistent with the previous version or with making sense.<br />I am used to typing in a persons' name and the treo looks it up while I type it, bringing up only numbers categorized as Mobile. It seems to be bringing up other numbers as well. On entries that have more than one molible number it inconsistently doesn't seem to show all of them. I am trying to understand how it is working and maybe I will come up with a solution.<br /><br />What are your experiences with the new Treo680?effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1126543041664742052005-09-12T09:29:00.000-07:002005-09-20T06:39:56.250-07:00EBay to Pay at Least $2.6B for Skype - WHY???I am sure you all read the headlines and articles about EBay buying Skype.<br /><br />I have attached two below.<br /><br />Though the immediate reaction is that eBay is looking to voice enable their auctions, letting a bidder talk to the seller, brining into light the ability for the transaction to be taken 'out' of the eBay environment. I actually think there is probably more to this. eBay are much smarter than this and to add voice to their service they could have bought or developed in house for a lot less.<br /><br />If we follow a few of their past take-overs or investments we will find that they buy a product or service which will enhance their existing offering/process and expand their user access.<br /><br />Buying x.com/paypal was obviously to reduce their processing costs as most purchases were already using the paypal service, but, also to gain access to the paypal community.<br /><br />When they bought shopping.com, a deal recently completed they were buying a great catalog technology to clean up their mess, but, also to gain access to the shopping.com user community and its global reach.<br /><br />It must be the same here, obviously voice enabling their auctions might bring another type of experience which will attract bidders and sellers looking for the live touch. This can be a great way for them to invigorate their <a href="http://www.ebayliveauctions.com/">liveauctions</a> business. However how about tapping into the Skype market. How about employing similar technology google.com are employing in their google mail offering? Scan the voip calls and pop up adds and offerings based on keywords in the conversation? How about a shop now button on Skype directly into ebay? How about an eBay driven Skype notification for end of auctions? Maybe it is all of these together that are worth the billions.....<br /><br />what are your thoughts?<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050912/skype_ebay.html?.v=16">eBay to Pay at Least $2.6B for SkypeMonday </a><br />September 12, 10:04 am ET<br />By Mattias Karen, Associated Press Writer<br />EBay to Pay at Least $2.6B for Skype Technologies, Total Value of Deal May Climb to $4.1B<br /><br />STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Online auctioneer eBay Inc. agreed Monday to pay at least $2.6 billion for Internet-telephony company Skype Technologies SA, a deal that confounds many analysts not just for the lofty price tag but also for what some consider the companies' dubious compatibility.<br />The total value of the deal may climb to $4.1 billion based on whether Skype meets a series of performance targets over the next three years, San Jose, Calif.-based eBay said. It said the acquisition would create "an unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine" for Internet users worldwide.<br />Low-cost Internet phone providers like Skype are creating upheaval in the telecommunications industry. That's because Voice over Internet Protocol technology, or VoIP, breaks calls into data packets that get routed over the Internet, which is much more efficient and cheaper than the traditional circuit-switched phone system.<br />Skype -- founded by the creators of Kazaa, the free music-sharing program that riled the music business -- gives away software lets people talk for free over the Internet using computers and microphones. A paid version, SkypeOut, allows those calls to be connected to regular phones.<br />Some analysts have been skeptical about eBay's needs for a VoIP provider.<br />EBay buyers and sellers can communicate with each other via e-mail before a transaction is complete, and presumably Skype would give eBay a way to add voice to such chats. But eBay traditionally has been guarded about such communications out of fears that deals might get taken offline to avoid fees.<br />EBay said Skype would "strengthen eBay's global marketplace and payments platform, while opening several new lines of business."<br />"Communications is at the heart of e-commerce and community," said eBay's chief executive, Meg Whitman, who had won praise for avoiding deals beyond eBay's core, marketplace-based strategy, especially during the late 1990s Internet craze. "We will create an extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the Net."<br />EBay shares dipped 73 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $37.89 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.<br />Niklas Zennstrom, Skype's CEO and co-founder, will retain his position and will join eBay's senior executive team. He said the deal will help advance his company's goal to "revolutionize the ease with which people can communicate through the Internet."<br />But Ovum analyst Mark Main said he considered the deal "far-fetched" and said eBay could have found cheaper ways to improve its Internet communication abilities.<br />"EBay could have developed its own sophisticated messaging and communications platform, or even bought one, for far less money than it is paying for Skype," Main said. "And if eBay is mainly paying for Skype's user base and brand, that makes this a risky investment."<br />Skype has 53 million registered users and the company says more than 2 million people use Skype at any given moment. Since it was introduced in 2003, the company's free software has been downloaded more than 164 million times.<br />In 2004, the company generated about $7 million in revenues, which it projects will snowball to $60 million this year and more than $200 million in 2006.<br />EBay recently trounced analysts' expectations by reporting it earned $291.6 million, or 21 cents per share, for the three months ended in June, a 53 percent increase from last year. Revenue totaled $1.09 billion, a 40 percent increase from last year's $773.4 million.<br />Overall, eBay's community spanned 157 million registered users, up 10 million from March. Its online payment service, PayPal, also is becoming more pervasive, with 78.9 million account holders who exchanged $6.5 billion during the quarter.<br />But bringing Skype into the fold is expected to cut eBay's earnings, at least in the short term. EBay projected that the acquisition will bring down earnings per share by 4 cents in the fourth quarter of this year and by 12 cents in 2006.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.fortune.com/fortune/fastforward/0,15704,1103966,00.html">http://www.fortune.com/fortune/fastforward/0,15704,1103966,00.html</a><br /><br />FAST FORWARD Why Skype? EBay's Still Thinking BigWhether or not the online auctioneer overbid for VoIP company Skype, the deal does make sense.Sep 12 2005By <a href="http://ltrack.timeinc.net/r0/fastforward_09-12-2005/h_author_archive/in?http://www.fortune.com/fortune/author_archive?authorname=David%20Kirkpatrick&column_id=&year=2004">David Kirkpatrick</a>Fortune.comLast week's rumor became this week's reality when eBay announced Monday that it would buy Internet phone company Skype for between $2.6 and $4.1 billion, depending on Skype's financial performance over the next two years. A lot of us in the tech community×even senior executives at major tech companies I've spoken with×are still scratching our heads. If all eBay wanted to do was to add voice capabilities to its online transaction platform, there would have been better ways to do it than to spend several billion dollars for another company. Yet if you think of eBay as a collector of communities, several rationales for the marriage start to come into focus.First, there are more similarities between the two companies than many have noted in the initial coverage. Both are essentially hubs which enable their member/customers to initiate and complete transactions on their own over the Internet, without much intervention by the company. Ebay facilitates merchandise sales; Skype facilitates voice calls. Keep in mind that one of the biggest changes now happening in business is the empowerment of the individual. It's all about power being dispersed by the intrinsic equalizing force of the Net. You might say that eBay seems intent on creating the first genuine conglomerate of what I have called the <a href="http://www.fortune.com/fortune/fastforward/0,15704,1088315,00.html">Contribution Economy</a>.Indeed, Pierre Omidyar×eBay's founder, chairman, and largest shareholder×is one of the world's most passionate apostles of the notion that the way the Internet puts power and control into the hands of individuals is a fundamental, society-altering force. Here's something he recently wrote on his <a href="http://pierre.typepad.com/">blog</a>: "EBay has helped people pursue their individual passions and discover their own power to make good things happenÃ…they've become empowered by participating in an open and honest marketplace, in a level playing field, meeting and working/trading with people who share their interests." This is what most excites him about the company he created, and I'm convinced this kind of thinking still plays a big role in its internal deliberations. Similar things can be said about Skype. The company did not invent Voice over the Internet. But it has created the largest community of users for such a service. Just as with eBay, every incremental user makes Skype more valuable for everyone, because there are more partners available to transact×or communicate×with.But as the company has said, its ability to sell the for-pay version of Skype (which connects an Internet call to regular telephone lines) to the 157 million registered users of eBay, will reinforce the viral growth of all these businesses, as will parallel efforts to market the services of eBay (and especially its payment subsidiary PayPal) to the 52 million registered users of Skype.While eBay emphasized in its announcement that it believes Skype is a strong stand-alone business, the online auctioneer might gain so much growth for its own user community that the purchase ends up making sense for eBay, regardless of Skype's own revenues. Perhaps Skype will be free for eBay users, which might also drive people into eBay. And the ability to talk easily and semi-spontaneously to a seller could make the experience of shopping on eBay even more comparable to offline purchasing, which could attract more buyers.Then there's growth. EBay's growth in members and revenues has slowed recently. But eBay is overwhelmingly an American business while only one-eighth of Skype's users are in North America. Both companies thus get a quick way to broaden their user base.Still, this deal is best compared to eBay's much-smaller purchase last year of a 25% stake in <a href="http://www.craigslist.com/">craigslist.com</a>. Craigslist is an online local classified service that is growing wildly; it's also, like most of Skype's services, absolutely free. But by affiliating with both services, eBay keeps attractive online communities out of the hands of its competitors, notably Yahoo and Google, and gains access to a growing group of active Internet users whose business value it can, if necessary, figure out later. If eBay wants to be the first real conglomerate of the Contribution Economy, it will need as much of that economy's true currency×empowered users×as it can get.So we might expect to see more acquisitions by eBay of companies that meet a basic philosophical criterion: They give individuals great power they never could have had before the Internet came along. Those businesses don't have to be directly connected to eBay's online marketplace; I'm suggesting that eBay may see itself as not just an online intermediary between buyers and sellers but a nexus of personal Internet empowerment.I'm not sure that the huge price eBay is paying in the Skype deal is justified, but I think I do see why the company was willing to pay it. With Google and Yahoo growing exponentially and beginning to tower over the Internet scene, eBay is under pressure to keep up. Its basic vision×better living though online communities×is the same as Skype's; that's a key factor to consider when evaluating this deal. It may be just the latest of many more to come.effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1123011376322047372005-08-02T12:32:00.000-07:002005-08-02T13:03:52.126-07:00Can you steal something with no Value and not TangibleMany articles like the ones below have called a person using someone else's WiFi a thief!!! Some as you can see below even concluded that it is like stealing apples from a store.<br /><br />WHAT A BUNCH OF NONSENSE!!!!<br /><br />Lets for a second not get into the issues of whether or not this person actually went into the local network, lets focus on him simply using the other persons WiFi connection.<br /><br />What is he stealing???? NOTHING!!! Especially in the USA where the majority of people who have WiFi at their home have broadband and the majority of these broadband customers do not have a limit on how much KB they can download, which means surfing on someone else WiFi is really stealing nothing. ( It would even be hard to prove that having the two of them on the same network slows the response time of the owner, which if proven would maybe fit into stealing the owners time [milliseconds] as he waits for response.)<br /><br />I am not sure of a good analogy but how is it different from breathing the air from your neighbors backyard?<br /><br />Your comments are welcome.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Floridian Faces Wireless Trespassing Charges<br />By Jay Lyman<br />www.TechNewsWorld.com<br />Part of the ECT News Network<br />07/08/05 11:45 AM PT<br />"This is very similar to you walking down the street where a store has apples and oranges, and you grab one and keep going," said Ovum Vice President of Wireless Telecoms Roger Entner "Just because it's happening, and I think it's happening frequently, doesn't make it right."<br /><br />This issue sponsored by Sprint. Find out how Sprint helped BMW launch the all-new 3 Series in a way that was as innovative as the car itself. Wireless kiosks powered by Sprint helped BMW reach customers in unexpected places. And to date, Sprint has helped generate more than 56,000 leads for BMW. Read the BMW case study.<br />A Florida man faces stiff penalties for allegedly accessing someone's residential WiFi Internet connection while parked outside the supposed victim's home in April.<br />Police in St. Petersburg reportedly said 41-year-old Benjamin Smith would be charged with unlawfully accessing a computer network, a crime carrying a penalty of as many as five years in prison. However, Smith could also be sentenced to probation, depending on his intent and activity while allegedly accessing a fellow Floridian's wireless network, officials said.<br />While some have described the case, which is set to begin with a pretrial hearing Monday, as an overkill reaction to an increasingly common activity, the supposed victim in the case expressed legitimate concern that his data was at risk and his connection might be used for illegal or illicit purposes.<br /><br />Home Insecurity<br />Wireless experts said the case highlighted how insecure most home wireless networks are, as well as the significance of potential data loss, identity theft or getting your computer hijacked for malicious activity that can carry liability.<br />Ovum Vice President of Wireless Telecoms Roger Entner called the Florida case and others involving unauthorized wireless access of private hotspots "common theft."<br />"This is very similar to you walking down the street where a store has apples and oranges, and you grab one and keep going," Entner told TechNewsWorld.<br />The analyst indicated there appears to to be more and more unauthorized wireless access and charges against those who do it. Even if the Internet activity is simple browsing or e-mail, Entner said that it is still theft of bandwidth, which makes the price of bandwidth for everyone else go up.<br />"Just because it's happening, and I think it's happening frequently, doesn't make it right," he concluded.<br />Wireless Impersonators<br />Because a large number technology users do not secure their wireless hotspots, Entner added, they open themselves up to liability for the illegal actions of others.<br />"The other danger is that you can mimic, you can assume the digital identity of the person who owns the hotspot, and you can engage in a range of things, such as slandering or downloading child pornography. In the end, it's the person who has the hotspot who will get nailed for it," Entner said.<br />Entner advised wireless users to simply turn on whatever security their WiFi products provide. Doing so, he said, shows at least some effort to secure the network, thereby alleviating some of the users' liability. Anything is better than nothing, he indicated.<br />"Take the strongest encryption and go with it," the analyst said.<br />Victims or Vehicles for Theft?<br />Gartner vice president of mobile computing Ken Dulaney told TechNewsWorld there were differing opinions on the Florida and other wireless trespassing cases. One side argues that the issue is equivalent to burglary of an unlocked home, which is still theft; the other argument argues that wireless users are inviting the offense with a lack of security.<br />"I tend to think it's not an invasion of your home," Dulaney said. "You're sending something outside your house. If you don't secure it, shame on you."<br />Dulaney said the Florida case for Smith is "right up there with the McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) hot coffee suit."<br />The analyst added that he did not think such cases, even if they increase in number and prominence, will impact the wireless industry, indicating that vendors have done all they can so far. While securing hotspots is still a bit difficult, he said, it has become much easier in the past two years.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/44501.html">http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/44501.html</a><br /><br />---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Wireless World: WiFi 'Vampires' Attack<br />by Gene J. Koprowski<br />Chicago (UPI) July 15, 2005<br />If a squatter moved in next door, and ran electrical extension cords from his living room to an outlet on your patio, you might object to his obvious pirating of your electricity - because his actions would be obvious.<br />Many computer criminals around the country likewise may be stealing, but in this case the commodity is broadband WiFi access. Because the thefts occur over invisible wireless networks, however, most victims do not know about it, experts told UPI's Wireless World.<br />"Having your WiFi signal stolen is a real risk today," said Janet Kumpu, president and chief executive officer of Fortress Technologies in Tampa, Fla., a networking software developer. "It's not just hackers who want to break into an e-mail account. They want to use your network for their own broadband connection."<br />A suspect was arrested recently in Florida allegedly for doing just that. Police arrested Benjamin Smith III, age 41, reportedly for accessing a computer network without authorization - a third-degree felony.<br />According to the police in St. Petersburg, Fla., the suspect was sitting in his SUV using a laptop computer outside the home of Richard Dinon.<br />This kind of thing, cyber-squatting, is more common than a casual observer may suspect, experts said.<br />"Years ago, before I had a clue how WiFi worked, and when I lived in a condo, my bandwidth was always dog slow," said Robert Siciliano, an ID theft expert and security consultant in Boston.<br />"Then my computer geek friend came over and discovered that my neighbor was running a peer-to-peer program - Kazaa - next door off of my wireless connection."<br />Sometimes, the piracy may be unintentional.<br />"Recently, I rented a vacation condo that included WiFi access," said Ted Demopoulos, an IT consultant and professional speaker in Durham, N.H. "There were two equally strong and wide open signals. Which one was I supposed to use?"<br />WiFi networks are generally set up in one of three ways, experts said. Sometimes, they may be visible and open - and require no password to access. They also may be visible and password protected, or may be hidden and password protected.<br />What makes things even more complicated is although most open networks are public, more and more suburbanites and urbanites are installing WiFi access in their homes, and paying a subscription fee for it. Because most people are not very literate technically, they may not know how to set up encryption or other security features.<br />"The hackers go there," said Wayne Burkan, vice president of marketing at Interlink Networks in Ann Arbor, Mich., a WiFi security company. "They know that the networks of companies are protected, but those of homeowners are not."<br />There are Internet sites for hackers such as wigle.net, which aggregate data for the computer criminals and let them know what networks in what neighborhoods may be vulnerable, Burkan said. "My guess is that 50-70 percent of networks are not protected."<br />Burkan said that the risks of hacking into a WiFi network are greater for consumers than those posed by hacking into a landline network. That is because the passwords and user names are transmitted wirelessly for particular accounts and therefore can be grabbed.<br />When someone acquires that information, "they can log into any Internet account as if they are you," Burkan said. "These people are information vampires - ready to suck the life out of you."<br />Some experts doubt whether criminal prosecution of any WiFi offenders will succeed, however.<br />Attorney Evan Barr, formerly the chief of the major crimes unit at the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, and now a lawyer with Steptoe & Johnson, said the courts long have held it is not illegal to intercept calls placed by users of cordless and mobile phones.<br />"That's because people who use these devices do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth Amendment," Barr said. "WiFi basically operates on the same principle as these devices, so it seems unlikely that a prosecution for stealing a WiFi signal could withstand judicial scrutiny."<br />Gene Koprowski is a 2005 Lilly Endowment Award Winner for his columns for United Press International. He covers networking and telecommunications for UPI Science News.<br />Related Links<br /><br /><a href="http://www.spacewar.com/news/internet-05zzp.html">http://www.spacewar.com/news/internet-05zzp.html</a>effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1118014779809822832005-06-05T16:39:00.000-07:002005-06-06T00:56:16.913-07:00Why did eBay but Shopping.comOne Wednesday Jun 1, we all heard that eBay decided to acquire shopping. com for $620million.<br />Why did eBay decide to buy shopping.com a price comparison engine?<br /><br />My thoughts were that eBay is probably looking to integrate the price comparison engine into their database. When a person would search for a product it would at the same time searh the entire eBay database of auctions and since most auctions while they are taking place have rather low prices, eBay auctions will likely be the top of the list on the price comparison.<br /><br />My father thought that eBay would integrate the shopping.com engine for exactly the opposite reason; to inform eBay users what the market price and availablity of a product they are bidding on at eBay is.<br />What do you think?<br /><br /><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SHOP,EBAY&d=s">http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SHOP,EBAY&d=s</a>effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1112883737551468112005-04-07T07:13:00.000-07:002005-04-07T07:22:17.553-07:00Amazon, Watch them and Buy ThemHere is an interesting site <a href="http://www.audioscrobbler.com/">http://www.audioscrobbler.com/</a><br /><br />They put a plugging on your PC and track your music habits. This is rather amazing. As soon as they have critical mass they should be integrated directly into Amazon.com. Amazon.com will be able to predict best sellers and losers, manage shopping trends and best of all Amazon.com will be able to make intelligent recommendations for music purchases.<br /><br />If Apple are serious about their iTunes business (which they seem to be as iTunes is now the number 1 seller of digital music) they should probably rush to buy this before Amazon.com. Think about it a box could popup in your iTunes player as you are listening telling you what else you would enjoy....<br /><br />I am rather surprised this is isn't built in to iTunes, after all iTunes does create a statistic on your PC and is connected to the Net for the Store function and for software upgrade.......effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1112779518909270832005-04-06T02:22:00.000-07:002005-04-06T04:30:32.563-07:00VoIP2Go (part 2)On my last visit to New York, I enjoyed the FREE WiFi service many Parks in NY have.<br /><br />Bryant park a square block spanning 42nd Street between 5th and 6th avenue has a superb connection. One can literally sit on the steps of the New York Public library and do all your work. Working the corner of 42nd street can take a new meaning. If I just had a battery operated DTA and battery operated WiFi Access Point (someone should come out with these), I can sit and call the world and be fully accessible, using my Packet8, Vonage or other VoIP service.<br /><br />Then again I had my Laptop so I could call using any one of the soft-phones out there, I could actually run a few with different bases to maximize costs savings. I could use BT Communicator (http://www.bt.com/btcommunicator/index.jsp) for calls to or from the UK and I could use SkypeOut (http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/) or Net2Phone (http://web.net2phone.com/consumer/commcenter/) for the US. The best being from Jeff Pulver (He is amazing!), using his FWD service (http://www.pulver.com/communicator/) and his extensive peering numbers I can call any of my friends globally that already have VoIP based phones and they can call me with out paying a penny (other than Skype which are still not running a globally accepted SIP protocol, more in a different blog devoted to the future of Skype).<br /><br /><em>Which brings me to another thought, why don’t Packet8, Vonage and the others come out with a soft-phone line BT that I could use when I am away from my home, where their DTA is installed? Would be a great feature.</em><br /><br />A few weeks passed since I was being overly productive on the corner of 42nd & 5th when I got an email recently from my friend Bini. I was supposed to call him but he was catching a flight from New York to Frankfurt and by the time I remembered he was in the air. The email asked if I was still up and if I was I should please call him on a New York number. The email was post-what-I-remembered as his take-off time, so I figured he got delayed, the area code was 718 which is the same area code of JFK.<br /><br />I called…… The connection was not bad at all, and we proceeded to have a 35-minute conversation. Bini was in the Air on Lufthansa using his laptop logged in to the Lufthansa Internet Broadband service FlyNet (http://portal.lufthansa.com/online/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_4VGH?cID=6_0_UGE&nID=7_0_4VGI&l=en&nodeid=1331277#availability) and using the new SkypeIn (http://www.skype.com/products/skypein/) service.<br /><br /><br /><strong>The Future is Here!!!!</strong><br /><br /><br /><em>You can imaging even the sky is no longer the limit to the offerings….. AiPhone for example should get their act together quickly!!! They should offer unlimited calls in the air for one fixed low cost for example. Watch you last IP-TV-DVR/PVR saved episode anywhere in the world, etc.</em><br /><br />VoIP2Go (part 1 here <a href="http://effys.blogspot.com/2005/01/who-needs-umts.html">http://effys.blogspot.com/2005/01/who-needs-umts.html</a> )effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1111365121600326402005-03-20T16:03:00.000-08:002005-03-20T16:32:01.600-08:00Around the world in Numa Numa daysMy Friend Jay from NY sent me this picture (<a href="http://www.effy.com/siyum/IMG_0486.jpg">http://www.effy.com/siyum/IMG_0486.jpg</a>) he took on March 1st on his way to the Siyum Hashas ceremony. Over the past two weeks, I managed to receive it from several people, with a different name, and a different comment or subject topic attached to it, but, in general the same exact picture.<br /><br />The speed at which this unassuming picture made it through the world and through different cultures is amazing. Though we are all aware of the power of e-distribution experiencing it first hand it shocking, especially since I would mostly expect to see this happening with news worthy items or something totally out of the ordinary, like the famous Numa Numa Dance.effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1111081769588091172005-03-17T09:48:00.000-08:002005-03-17T09:49:29.593-08:002GRID or not 2GRIDYesterday in one of the sessions in the Dealing With Technology Risk Waters Day (<a href="http://db.riskwaters.com/public/showPage.html?page=dwt05_newyork">http://db.riskwaters.com/public/showPage.html?page=dwt05_newyork</a>), an open discussion about GRID's started. <br /><br />Here are a few important observations.<br /><br />Scott Marcar JPChase has for the trading floor a GRID of 2500-3000 CPU's, he found that trying to use idle PC's didn’t work, he created a special back bone just for his GRID off of which he has IBM Blades and Genera boxes. He has managed to reach an internal running cost of a bit below $1 per CPU Hour, he is not charging his respective departments yet and feels he could get it to below 50 cents. Applications/Businesses utilizing his GRIDs are Market Risk, Risk, FX, and FX Options.<br /><br />Marc Baumslag from Merrill first emphasized not to confuse GRID Computing with Parallel Computing. They tested and built a few GRIDs’ for their Risk and Credit Risk and found that they are simply not worth it. In general he feels GRID technology is an efficiency measure one should somehow harness as probably most PC's have at least a 50% CPU idle time and that is simply a waste. So in concept GRID should create an efficiency and thus save money. This is why he is still testing, though with no real positive finding. He did point out that a GRID would only work if you have an application or a process, which you can easily, split and distribute. For complex risk calculations etc. one must go with parallel computing, which he indeed does successfully.<br /><br />Joseph Panfil CME, will not touch a GRID!. Needs reliability and speed, hates slowness and latency. His electronic trading is heavily dependant on Parallel Computing.<br /><br />The more I meet and hear from people who actually put time and money and applications into making GRID work the more I feel the following;<br /><br />The investment in getting a GRID to work, and to generate an efficiency and maybe even a cost save is enormous. Thus it is probably only worth it if you have an enormous amount to save.<br /><br />In order for a GRID to work, don’t fool yourself, you will need to create a NEW network, probably an Infinband band, and you will probably need to rewrite some of your apps and not all your apps or businesses will be able to benefit.<br /><br />PC's with idle CPU's are not necessarily a gold mine and maybe if you really need to utilize a GRID, The Sun $1 per CPU hour is not such a bad proposition after all.effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1109769893983510852005-03-02T05:23:00.000-08:002005-03-02T05:24:53.986-08:00Happy Birthday Yahoo - 10 Already Wow!Which Web poerhouse was started by two Stanford geeks as a simple search pag with a silly name and became the biggest thing on the Internet?<br />Nope, not them. Try again. Yahoo!!<br />(from this months wired.)<br /><br /><br />Yahoo turns 10 today, get your free ice cream here (<a href="http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoo_birthday/">http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoo_birthday/</a>) or 10 year history recap here (<a href="http://uk.news.yahoo.com/promo/birthday/index.html">http://uk.news.yahoo.com/promo/birthday/index.html</a>)<br /><br />Yahoo!'s numbers: 165 million registered users, 345 million unique visitors a month, $49 billion market cap, and a 62 per­cent increase in revenue last quarter, bringing 2004 total revenue to $3.6 billion. Yahoo! makes more money and has more patents, services, and users than Google (<a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/yahoo.html">http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/yahoo.html</a>)effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10258690.post-1106667404803248922005-01-25T07:29:00.000-08:002005-01-25T07:36:44.803-08:00who needs UMTSAfter spending an afternoon sitting in the Jerusalem City Center, surfing the net via a FREE municipally provided WiFi internet connection. I have come to the conclusiong that WiFi ( or later WiMX or whatever if goes to ) become the wireless standard beyond its original real plan. Why wouldn't cell phone move away from cellular, GSM, CDMA etc and into WiFi? Why don't they simply halt at least the data expansion of UMTS, put WiFi into the phones, provide a very fast internet data connection to the phone with a later plan to transition fully into WiFi and then even the called end up being VoIP calls? Looks like some of this is actually happening....... stay tuned......
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<br />A great articla from Wireless Week
<br /><a href="http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA490446?text=azaire&stt=001">http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA490446?text=azaire&stt=001</a>
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<br />Terrible Twos?
<br />Dual cellular/Wi-Fi schemes face dual handoff, powering issues.
<br />By Karen BrownJanuary 1, 2005Wireless Week© 2005, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
<br />The classic B-52's song declared "Roam if you want to," and that is the ultimate goal behind developing technology that melds cellular and Wi-Fi local area network connections on one handset.
<br />But it looks like getting there will be a fairly long trip, filled with complex technical and strategic decisions governing when and if a call should be switched from one network to the other, and how to handle the increased power output needed to keep the Wi-Fi antenna active. Still, there are some early indications as to which direction the technology is taking.
<br />Early on, many products are using an "either-or" strategy for their dual cellular/Wi-Fi connections. That is the case for NTT DoCoMo, which rolled out the NEC N900iL handset in November. While it sports radios that can tap DoCoMO's FOMA GSM and an enterprise WLAN, Wi-Fi LAN, it can't roam between the two.
<br />"There is no handover," notes Susumu Takeuchi, DoCoMo's vice president of corporate communications in the United States. "If your call is on the FOMA, you cannot hand off to the LAN network. That isn't possible."
<br />Similarly, Nokia's 9500 Communicator offers a data-only Wi-Fi element, and it also does not possess the ability to shift a data stream from one network to another while the transmission is in progress, according to Dan McDonald, director of marketing for Nokia's enterprise solutions. Instead, the handset has the ability to switch radios and retransmit the data if the handset strays out of Wi-Fi network range.
<br />That may not create a huge problem for users who want to send an e-mail, but with plans to add IP voice capability to future dual-mode, such handoff capability will be important, McDonald notes. "It will be a burden for people who want to continue that conference call in the car on the way home, dropping calls and re-establishing. That will limit adoption. This has to be solved."
<br />Even if roaming is possible, though, it may not always be preferable. In the case of a cellular call in progress, it may not make sense to automatically switch it to a Wi-Fi connection, McDonald points out.
<br />"This switching of calls – it all sounds interesting and romantic, but it's kind of silly to go through all that trouble for a call that has already been established," he says. In addition, users may not want to switch networks if the Wi-Fi connection is in an unsecured public hot spot.
<br />In contrast, it may be vital in the reverse scenario, where a person is talking on a Wi-Fi connection and walks out of the network area. In that case, the handset would have to either drop or have the ability to handoff to the cellular network.
<br />"You can demonstrate that now in the lab environment, but again, the setup has to be so tuned and so consistent a recipe that it won't be generally available to people for a couple of years," McDonald says.
<br />TRIO's SOLUTION The trio of Motorola, Avaya and Proxim, however, say they have cracked that problem. Combining Avaya base stations and network gateways, the Motorola CN 620 handset and Proxim silicon, the three have produced what may be the first IP system that can hand off voice and data signals between Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
<br />The joint offering, dubbed the Seamless Communications Solution, will be marketed by Avaya and is now in field trials. The Seamless Communications Solution system can shift calls from one network to another, automatically setting up a second, parallel call if it detects the call signal is weakening.
<br />"So as I walk away from the building and the signal gets weaker, the phone will decide when it should start to launch an independent call through the wireless PSTN, and when it decides [the signal] is weak enough, it will just hand over," says Frank LoVasco, Avaya's senior manager for mobility. "It's a make before break kind of technology."
<br />One of the trickiest problems to solve with such roaming technology is choosing when to switch network connections – particularly if a user is walking down a street in a commercial area where there are several hot spot outlets. Motorola's answer is to limit the Wi-Fi connection to only the user's home campus. In that way, the phone doesn't face a decision of whether to tap into nearby hot spots as the user walks.
<br />It also can distinguish between its own company access point and Seamless Communications Solution access points run by other companies.
<br />"When we are in the GSM world, the phone is basically GSM only, so it is not necessarily looking for an antenna," explains Bob Duerr, director of product marketing for the Enterprise Seamless Mobility Group. It does periodically wake up to scan for antennas, "but what it is looking for is some very specific signaling from some very specific access points. So if it doesn't see those access points, it simply goes right back to sleep."
<br />That strategy is finding favor among enterprise customers as an acceptable tradeoff between security and cost of cellular minutes. "We originally thought that the enterprises would want people to be able to come in from these hot spots to cut down on their cell minutes," Duerr notes. "And we're finding they don't because of the security issues of coming in from a public spot through a firewall."
<br />POWERING ON Limiting the Wi-Fi connection also is a strategy in dealing with another vexing problem: battery drain. Wi-Fi was not originally developed as a mobile technology using battery-powered devices, so it needs some fancy engineering footwork to meet its power requirements on a mobile handset.
<br />Motorola's CN 620 has the standard cellular battery and offers between 150 and 190 minutes of continuous talk time. Unlike some other early hybrid Wi-Fi handsets, the CN 620 includes proprietary technology that cuts down the power drain of an active antenna. If a handset is communicating with a Wi-Fi base station, for example, its GSM antenna is powered down.
<br />"Unlike some phones where they are constantly looking for antennas and some of the dual-mode phones we suspect where you can't turn the antennas off … some of the proprietary technology we have inside there has really curtailed a lot of that," Duerr says. "The phone becomes very, very intelligent inside the network because it knows what it is talking to."
<br />In the office, the handset can be placed in a standard cradle charger that also has a place for an extra battery. A USB cable can plug into a desktop PC and provide charging as well as actively synching with a computer's Microsoft Exchange or Outlook applications.
<br />Other dual-mode Wi-Fi and cellular products use similar strategies.
<br />TIME FOR TALK But talk time still is an issue for these devices. The NEC handset offers standby power dual mode of 150 hours, with continuous talk time on the FOMA network totaling 140 minutes and on the WLAN 160 minutes. That's short of the average 240 to 300 minutes now offered on many cell phones.
<br />Nokia's McDonald acknowledges that putting a Wi-Fi radio into a mobile handset does come with a powering challenge. He says most Wi-Fi-enabled devices allow only three to four hours of use.
<br />"Wi-Fi is something that does draw battery power more so than cellular," he says. But he adds with Nokia's work in power management, "there are all kinds of technological tricks that are played – in your transmission power you only use what you absolutely have to, et cetera. The Holy Grail here is to ultimately have a full day of power in your hand. It's eight hours of power in your hand that you will have to work with without recharging. That's the ultimate goal."
<br />Device size limits will curb the size of the battery, but McDonald notes an operating system such as Nokia-backed Symbian that has been designed for wireless systems "is very, very power-stingy."
<br />If history is any guide, engineers will develop powering schemes that will extend the handset talk time and allow for more handoffs between Wi-Fi and cellular networks. The primary driver is the value of a product that can offer a business user a single phone wherever they are.
<br />"People should be intrigued by the possibility, and the innovation in this area will be very robust now for the next couple of years, with a lot of investment in this area and a lot of venture capital, because there is some value here," McDonald says.
<br />Although this unified phone technology may be in its toddler stage, it may quickly develop the legs to roam into wider enterprise applications.
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<br />effy hochsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06719807028511275704noreply@blogger.com0