GravyPlaya TechBlog

US government IT spending General IT Facts: "Apple iTunes sells 150,000,000th digital song

Apple issued a press release on reaching a milestone of 150 mln songs sold in their iTunes Music store. The 150 millionth song was Ex-Factor by Lauryn Hill and was purchased by Beth Santisteven from Ignacio, Colorado. iTunes users are now downloading more than 4 million songs per week, a rate of over 200 million songs per year."

IT Facts: "More than half of Silicon Valley employees left after the 2000 dotcom bust

More than half of the people working at technology companies in California in early 2000 had left the technology field or the state by the end of 2003, and more than 40% experienced declining incomes over that period, according to a study by the Sphere Institute. Those who stayed enjoyed rising incomes - up 11% after accounting for inflation. But workers who left tech for other industries saw their wages stagnate or decline. Those who shifted from semiconductor makers to health care, for example, made 31% less in Q4 2003, compared with Q1 2000, after accounting for inflation."

IT Facts: "Apple product marketing says QuickTime Player almost reached Windows Media Player market share

Frank Casanova, senior director of Apple Computer QuickTime product marketing, cited recent market research that indicated QuickTime is running nearly neck and neck with Windows Media Player. QuickTime currently has 36.8% of the market, while Windows has 38.2% of the market. Real Player is in third place with 24.9% of the market. However, Casanova contends that Real Player hasn't been growing in the market."

IT Facts: "92% of high-capacity music players are iPods

New York Times congratulates Apple on owning 92% of the high-capacity music player market with its iPod product. The same article quotes iTMS online store to have 70% of the digital music market."

Intel invests in McCaw's Clearwire: "Intel invests in McCaw's Clearwire

Telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw is getting a financial boost from Intel. (As if a billionaire needed any more money)

The Santa Clara, Calif., semiconductor giant yesterday said it was investing an undisclosed amount in Clearwire, the Kirkland wireless Internet startup that McCaw introduced earlier this year.

The deal, which was announced yesterday morning at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference in San Francisco, calls for Clearwire to roll out powerful new networks that use the 802.16e WiMax standard. Those networks could create a broadband cloud that covers an entire city or county, allowing users to make Internet-based phone calls or conduct e-commerce anywhere they wander within a geographic area. Unlike Wi-Fi, which covers an area of a few hundred feet, WiMax networks are said to extend over several square miles.

Clearwire uses a similar technology in Jacksonville, Fla., where the company this summer launched a high-speed network that covers a 100-square-mile area. Clearwire will deliver service to Abilene, Texas, and St. Cloud, Minn., next month, with the company planning to enter 20 additional markets in the United States in the next year. It is also building wireless networks in Mexico and Canada.

As WiMax evolves, Clearwire and its subsidiary, NextNet Wireless, will work with Intel to deploy the networks both nationally and internationally, McCaw said.

'We have been talking for nine months and trying to mold thinking on WiMax to make sure it doesn't fall into the pitfalls that we have seen in precursor's technologies, both in the cellular world and other parts of the world,' said McCaw, who sold McCaw Cellular to AT&T Corp. for $11.5 billion in 1994. '... There is a transition that will occur when WiMax is available and we have worked very carefully with Intel in that thought process to say how can this work and how can it transition."

Analysts who cover the mobile communications sector called the partnership between Clearwire and Intel a significant development that could help jump-start the WiMax technology.

"It was one of the more important deals at this conference," said Gerry Purdy, who attended yesterday's news conference. "This was the surprise announcement of the event."

Purdy, an analyst with MobileTrax, said Intel is trying to build the market for WiMax much in the same way it did with Wi-Fi. He expects Intel to make new investments in WiMax technology companies in the coming months, though the alliance between McCaw and Intel is an especially important one.

"You don't make an investment in Craig McCaw as a side deal -- it's something that is meant to have major long-term implications," he said.

Shiv Bakhshi, director of wireless infrastructure at IDC, called the deal "significant."

"Intel is a very, very big name and Craig McCaw is a big name, so when the two get together, people should pay attention, don't you think?" Bakhshi said.

What makes the partnership interesting to Bakhshi is that Intel is attempting "to create the conditions for the success of the technology that it is backing."

Intel is not the first to invest in Clearwire. In August, the company received $160 million from a group of 23 undisclosed investors.

McCaw, who serves as chairman and CEO of Clearwire, has some experience when it comes to rolling out high-speed wireless networks. At McCaw Cellular, he bankrolled the multimillion-dollar fixed wireless network known as "Project Angel." That technology did not prove to be a commercial success, with the assets being sold by AT&T Wireless for about $40 million in 2002.

"We are, of course, tempered by the fact that everybody who has done it has failed, including AT&T when they took on our technology," said McCaw. "But we are crossing the river on the backs of the pioneers."

Sean Maloney, general manager of the Intel Communications Group, said wireless networks have been around for two decades. But he said proprietary technologies are disappearing, with the industry rallying around WiMax.

"One of the (reasons) that we are delighted about working with (Clearwire) is to ... learn from some of the things that have gone wrong in the past or some of the things that weren't as optimal as in the past," he said.

Stata Labs:
From an interview with Stata Labs co-founder..
"What kinds of products are you working on?

We have built what we call a 'Personal Content Database,' a database that's optimized for the type of semi-structured data typical of personal data and the configurations of personal platforms. At the database level, our focus is on fast, scalable search, and on replication. At the same time, we're building applications that leverage this underlying database technology. We've started with e-mail--where the management problems have become the most acute--and we'll be slowly expanding the footprint."

Does this mean yahoo wants to not only search email but everything. We know Google released its Google Desktop Search software. Does this mean yahoo will not only be able to search your email but, your mobile devices/PDA, desktop also..

This search war is turning out to be something else isnt it.. Privacy beware.

HDTV via cellphones is coming by 2006


Sanyo digital TV phoneHo hum, several manufacturers including Texas Instruments are working on chips that will allow cellphones to receive digital television signals. They expect widespread availability by 2006—the technology is already being tested in South Korea by SK Telecom. The new hardware-based receivers are different than current software versions, as they receive much better sound and can display much higher frame rates and higher-resolution HDTV signals. The industry envisions users checking in on sports and news broadcasts and “watching short shows at cafes.” A few questions remain, of course, like battery life, specialized programming, and the big one: will people pay extra for TV on their phones? The providers are sure hoping so.

How-To: Use a Pocket PC PDA as a WiFiphone
This week’s How-To is a handy one for the folks out there who use the Vonage Voice Over IP (VOIP) service and happen to have a Pocket PC device with WiFi. We’re going to show you how to turn just about any Pocket PC PDA device in to a real telephone with a working telephone number. At the end of this, we’re also going to post our phone number so you can test it out (it might be a long distance call for you).

Our favoritest branch of the government, the FCC, has finally cleared the way for broadband over power lines (BPL) and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) to be available nationwide to consumers. Now your local power company can offer broadband (which will be comparable to DSL speeds to start), and they’ve deregulated fiber optic networks, so telephone companies will no longer be the only ones laying fiber. Us, we’re just waiting for Verizon’s Fios fiber service, or really anything faster than cable, the awful late 90s excuse for broadband we’re all still using at home (when it works).

XBOX 2
Could the Xbox 2 be revealed in January? Bill Gates will be delivering the keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January 2005, and it is quite possible—even likely—that he will use this platform to reveal Microsoft’s plans for the Xbox 2. Some of you might remember that Microsoft was supposed to reveal the original Xbox at CES three years ago, but had to bail on the plans last minute. There are two ways to look at this: first, it’s exciting for gamers, as any new console launch is a good thing. On the other hand, if Microsoft shows its hand this early, it could give Sony some time to come up with an answer for PlayStation 3. Either way, it’s looking promising for some hard Xbox 2 news in January, instead of all that junk speculation.

HP’s paper thin flexible display screens


HP Paper thin flexible displayHP’s UK division has developed a technology that allows screens to be printed on sheets of plastic; images can be displayed on thin, flexible displays, which may be used for digital paper, electronic billboards, and digital photographs. We’ve all heard about this biz before (”It’s real this time!”), but apparently this current prototype can display 125 colors, and even hold the image when the display is shut off (we haven’t seen that from HP in two years). Inkless publications are obviously still a ways off, but these are all good signs.

Apple profit rises on strong iPod sales: "Apple shipped 2.02 million of the popular digital music players, up six-fold from a year ago.

The figure included iPods manufactured by Hewlett-Packard Co. a new production alliance that accounted for 6 percent of the digital music players sold in the past quarter."

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