Month: January 2013

Pricing policy might be the price for mobile spectrum

21 January 2013 by Steve Blum
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Can they meet in the middle?

The gap between the consumer expectations created by broadband service providers and delivered performance is once again drawing attention in Washington. Mobile carriers are the ones in the crosshairs this time.

Silicon Valley congresswoman Anna Eschoo says she's going to take another try at passing legislation regulating what mobile carriers have to tell customers when they sign up for service plans. She's specifically targeting pricing, terms and conditions of service and network management techniques that can have an impact on the level of service that's actually delivered.… More

New Zealand mobile broadband still easy and affordable

20 January 2013 by Steve Blum
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Lake Wanaka, New Zealand. Why spend time on the Internet?

I’ve been doing my annual check on New Zealand’s mobile telecoms, from a traveler’s perspective. Coverage appears to be much the same. Some prices have gone up and some down.

Vodafone and Telecom NZ both deliver 3G service pretty much everywhere I go, in both North and South Islands. I haven’t seen any change from last year in 2degrees’ coverage, which seems to focus on urban areas and not so much in the countryside, where I’ve been spending most of my time this trip.… More

Three elephants still standing


Samsung had their attention at CES 2013.

Samsung left Las Vegas with a firm grip on the industry’s leadership crown. Its CES presence overshadowed other traditional consumer electronics companies, cementing its position as a dominant global technology player.

Paying Bill Clinton to guest star at its keynote address was just icing on the cake. Arguably, the flexible touch screen that Stephen Woo, Samsung’s president of electronic device solutions, also demonstrated on stage drew more attention than the ex-president.… More

Simplicity key to manufacturers' home automation solutions


Cloud-based server checks to see how it's running. You can look inside yourself to see if you need milk.

Three competing, and perhaps ultimately complementary, home automation business models are emerging:

  • Manufacturer supported.
  • Consumer-centric.
  • Carrier managed platform.

Lowes and AT&T moved aggressively at CES last week to position themselves as leaders in the consumer and service provider categories, respectively. Several companies were pitching to manufacturers, but the leader in that space looks to be Arrayent at this point.… More

Show loved ones you virtually care

17 January 2013 by Steve Blum
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Hey. The guy on the left doesn't have an exhibit floor pass.

You don’t have to settle for just sending flowers to a relative in a nursing home. You can send yourself, and the whole family, via a $1,500 teeping robot. Or if you’re on a budget, maybe rent the telepresence device for a few bucks an hour. It’s cheaper than a plane trip, easier than packing the kids in the car and not as hairy as a dog.… More

Next wave of global technology brands coming from Southeast Asia

16 January 2013 by Steve Blum
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Disco fever, Hanoi style.

Southeast Asian manufacturers fared better at CES last week than companies from Africa, South America or even India, where the exhibitor count was two, none and ten, respectively.

I counted a total of twenty-one companies from the ASEAN region, with Singapore accounting for thirteen of those and Thailand with three.

Tosy, the sole Vietnamese manufacturer, had the biggest floor presence. The Hanoi-based toy maker was demonstrating its range of dancing robots on a big stage in the Las Vegas Convention Center's Central Hall.… More

Playing with augmented reality


Great way to meet new friends.

It'll be small development companies like Sphero that turn wearable computing products like Vuzix's headset mounted smart phone video display into genuine augmented reality (AR) devices.

The Boulder, Colorado based company already has a neat gizmo on the market. It's a white plastic sphere about the size of a tennis ball that glows in different colors and rolls around on the floor, powered by an internal motor. You control it with an iOS or Android app via a Bluetooth link.… More

Useful augmented reality not so far over the horizon

14 January 2013 by Steve Blum
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Wearable, but not quite a fashion accessory yet.

An augmented reality (AR) product showed promise at last week's CES. Vuzix was showing its boom-mounted smart phone display. It's not light enough yet to mount on a pair of regular eyeglasses, but with a dedicated headset it's comfortably wearable.

The video display is small, but it's always in front of you and at most requires a brief glance to read. Right now AR apps require you to hold a smart phone up in front of you to see a data overlay on reality – the names of streets, say, or product information in stores.… More

Game on for voluntary spectrum auction

13 January 2013 by Steve Blum
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It's all about doing business now.

“The unstated reason for this auction is the money. It was estimated we could raise $24 billion,” said Congressman Lee Terry, a Republican from Nebraska. “We wanted the FCC to design the rules to get us the $24 billion”

The debate now is over what those rules should be. The FCC intends to carry out a three step process next year to shift frequencies in the 600 MHz range from television broadcasting to mobile broadband uses.… More

Ready, fire, aim for real

12 January 2013 by Steve Blum
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High caliber consumer electronics takes on new meaning.

To shoot something a thousand meters away with a rifle, you need a sharp eye and steady hands. Or a high tech rifle that tracks your target and pulls the trigger for you.

TrackingPoint offers just such a weapon, and introduced it to the CES world at the Showstoppers event last week. It has a video camera, processing power and WiFi capability so someone can watch what you're doing in real time.… More