The Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC has a great grass-roots campaign to promote affordable high speed internet for America.

Take their speed test which will instantly measure your download and upload speeds and give you a comparison with the rest of the country and the other connected nations. (According to the site, the U.S. has fallen to 16th in internet accessibility and access speeds.)

After taking the test you can write your senators and representatives in congress to ask them to create a National High Speed Internet Policy. There is also the common “Tell-a-Friend” function to get the word out.

Get involved!

Did you forget to turn off the water and gas when you left home today? Did you leave your curling iron plugged in? The All Seeing Eye can help. The All Seeing Eye is a new, cell phone-sized device, which allows you to know what is happening at home while you our out.

The All Seeing Eye allows you to monitor up to 10 different areas of your home and can send alarms to up to 3 different cell phones simultaneously. If strangers were to enter your home or any emergency might happen, you can be alerted in real time from anywhere.

The All Seeing Eye, created by Guangdong Minnov Technologies Co., LTD, has become a sensation. Early success of the All Seeing Eye has been attributed to how easy it is to set up and use, but mainly because of its mobile application.

The All Seeing Eye photographs the situation when an emergency occurs and sends it to your cell phone via multimedia message, to be followed by a text message alarm. This high-tech security product was first installed in Guangzhou, in China’s Guangdong province for testing in 2007, which attracted a lot of attention. It is now open in Chinese markets, with plans to open in other overseas markets in the near future.

The All Seeing Eye is attractive to consumers because this device is easy to carry and set up in your home. The most interesting feature is its ability to wirelessly connect to your personal cell phone, one of the most powerful new mediums of the 21st century and connected to everyone hips 24 -7. The cell phone is becoming a multi-media forum rather than just a communication tool, including on-the-fly news, games, weather forecasts, and the Internet. Adding security to the cell phone mantra is now not only easy, but soon to become widely accepted. Finding an appropriate U.S. carrier and/or partner is hopefully Guangdong Minnov Technologies’ next step to bringing our American phones home security integration.

Sources:
Soho.com interview on 10/27/2007 (English translation)
People.com.cn article from 10/24/2007 (English translation)

Sina.com article from 8/9/2007 (English translation)

From the French Telecom giant ORANGE comes this press release.

Roland Garros 2008: sporting innovation

This year for the very first time at Roland Garros, Orange is going to film and broadcast live its first 3D sports contents for it guests. The trial will take place on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 May 2008: Orange will use 3D cameras to film all the matches on the Suzanne Lenglen court and broadcast them live. These 3D matches will also be available on VOD until the end of the tournament. At Roland Garros and in its two flagship stores located at Champs Elysées and Paris Madeleine, Orange will be providing its guests with 3D glasses to watch the matches on 3D Television. Orange is thus preparing the arrival of 3D television in our customers’ homes.

In collaboration with the French Tennis Federation and France Télévisions, this Orange premiere showcases this technological innovation which is sure to take sporting emotions to new heights.

Though not a huge tennis fan I would love to be watching baseball or football on in 3D! 3D data will of course require the broadband speeds common in France which we’re hoping to see here soon.

A press release today ushers in a new era of streaming TV technology…..
LOS GATOS and SARATOGA, Calif., May 20, 2008 – Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, and Roku, Inc., an innovator in digital media streaming technology, today announced the introduction of The Netflix Player by Roku™, a device that enables Netflix subscribers to instantly stream a growing library of movies and TV episodes from Netflix directly to the TV. Priced at just $99.99, the player is available for purchase starting today at www.roku.com/netflixplayer.
The player is simple to install, easy to use and gives Netflix members who pay at least $9 / month instant access to more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes.

I am not a Netflix customer, but am considering becoming one. Reviews from Gizmodo, BBGadgets, CrunchBase, and others all rave that this little box is a better alternative to expensive competitors like AppleTV and Vudu player who all have jumped at an attempt to bring internet and TV into one sphere. After purchasing this box, it loads your Netflix Instant play queue from online, which can include up to 500 titles among the over 10,000 movies and TV episodes currently available on Netflix.com. There is no change in monthly Netflix costs and you will continue to get your DVDs by mail. Movies and shows are streamed via Ethernet or Wi-Fi to the set-top box and signal output includes HDMI, Component Video, S-Video, Composite Video, Digital Optical Audio, and Analog Stereo Audio.

Roku is rumored to be integrated in the future with other entertainment streams including NBC’s new Hulu.tv, Pandora Radio, and others.

This is definitely a technology of the future that we can have now!

Many Americans are oblivious to the new technology known as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). What is it you ask? How expensive is it? How do I install it in my home? Is it even something worth find out about? Well how about making all of your telephone call for FREE!?

Many new services such as “JaJah” and “FuturePhone.com” claim to be free phone services that can be used in your home now. CrunchBase.com states that “You can place Jajah calls by clicking on your contacts through their website … When you initiate a call by clicking on a contact, Jajah calls back your phone and your contact’s phones [and] the call is then routed through your phone network (land or mobile), to Jajah’s servers, and then back out through your contact’s phone.” All Jajah to Jajah phone calls are free and it is free to sign up (See jajah.com). ABC 7 News reported on the same subject of free phone service.

I know that VoIP services are already beginning to make some headway into our phone markets here in the United States, but why is it taking so long to penetrate into every home? I guess that we as consumers need to start exercising a real demand for cheap phone alternatives. The technology already exists, but why does no one know about it?

PC World weighs in on all the rumors about the new features and a release date for the updated iPhone. They believe that with the SDK (Software Development Kit) and support for enterprise emails (multiple email deletes at last!) the lack of 3G coverage in the US is going to quickly become an issue. Right now AT&T has coverage in some major metropolitan areas but the timing to expand that is anyone’s guess. The US continues to play catch-up. The original iPhone hasn’t sold well in Europe because 3G has been the standard there for years.

According to Boy Genius, Sony has announced a new addition to the Playstation 3 which will let users record TV shows and wirelessly transfer them to their PSP. Bound for Europe as early as July 2008, the PlayTV should cost about $120. The unit will support HDTV and will have a built-in program guide to watch, rewind & record live television. The integration between the PS3 and PSP makes this product stand-out. Click here for a “live” demo at Katuco.com. The company announced they have no immediate plans to bring it to North America. I don’t understand why not. It isn’t like we record programs on opposite sides of the TV.

Just ask Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs.

In a Wireless Week interview earlier this month, Jacobs affirmed that the wireless telecommunications industry is making a fundamental shift into new, media-saturated territory. (You can check out the complete article here.) It’s no secret that as mobile users, we’re demanding more and more broadband (or “broadband-like”) capabilities from our handsets. Jacobs now suspects that as a consequence, operators are going to have to rethink the way they manage their networks.

When asked about products he identifies as potentially leading indicators of big changes in the industry, Jacobs pointed to mobile VoIP–and particularly to the wireless Skype services currently available from European mobile operator 3. 3 released the Skypephone, a Skype-branded mobile handset that offers unlimited Skype-to-Skype calling for free, last November. Jacobs ranks their Skype-enabled mobile products alongside technologies like Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader, Google’s Android platform, and the infamous iPhone from Apple.

As to just how disruptive these new and innovative offerings will prove to be, Qualcomm’s chief exec says the industry will still have to wait and see. But as Jacobs points out, “There are certainly desires by some of the new entrants to make some fundamental changes in the industry.”

The Far East continues to lead the way in terms of robotic innovation, with a host of major companies investing in R&D and investigating potential applications.

This video on YouTube features a series of robot prototypes, including a violin-playing humanoid robot made by Toyota.

There is much to marvel over in this emerging industry, and we hope to see similar developments in this field in the USA so that we do not lose any future competitive edge. For the time being though, and on a much lighter note, we can’t help but wonder if that music robot is capable of mastering some good old country fiddling.

Last month, the European Union took a major step in the development of Mobile TV by adding the Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld standard (DVB-H) to its List of Standards for telecommunications across the EU.

According to Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media, “For Mobile TV to take off in Europe, there must first be certainty about the technology. This is why I am glad that with today’s decision, taken by the Commission in close coordination with the Member States and the European Parliament, the EU endorse DVB-H as the preferred technology for terrestrial mobile broadcasting.”

DVB-H is the most widely used standard for Mobile TV in the EU. It is currently between trials and commercial launch in 16 countries. Commercial DVB-H services are already available in Italy (where it was first rolled out by network operator 3 during the Word Soccer Cup in 2006), with further launches expected later this year notably in Finland, Austria, France, Switzerland and Spain.

Those that have seen DVB-H broadcasts tend to remark on the excellent picture quality, crisp in detail and smooth in streaming. Difficult for us to confirm this though, as we typically are still only in a trial stage here in the US.