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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

HTC shipping out 50000 mobiles with Google OS?

From Engadget -

A UBS analyst is reportedly confirming that HTC will ship about 50,000 cellphones running on a mobile OS made by Google by the end of this year. Analyst Benjamin Schachter also suggested that the first batch wouldn't "be for sale" -- rather, they'd be used exclusively by developers "to understand how the software works."

These reports also help substantiate the belief that Google will likely be focusing on software, and furthermore, Mr. Schachter insinuated that he wouldn't be too awfully shocked if another handset maker (such as LG, imagine that) also jumped in to provide hardware.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Free cellular calls. No cell towers needed. Say bye-bye to your service provider.

From Neoseeker -

TerraNet, a Swedish company, has begun testing of their new peer-2-peer calling system. No service provider needed, no cell towers required, just a fully charged cellphone and other users are all that is required.

Their system uses modified handsets to roam out over a cellular mesh network to find peers within 2km of range. Once a peer is found, your cell call is passed through that peer and up to a maximum of seven hops in total until you're connected. Though the system probably wont be implemented in large cities, TerraNet has pointed out that this P2P calling feature would be sufficient to cover a small rural village or a disaster area. The modified handset are currently undergoing some field testing in both Tanzania and Ecuador.

As mentioned earlier, the handsets in question do require the TerraNet hardware to function in this mesh network calling mode. TerraNet is hopeful that cell phone manufacturers will begin adopting this technology in future revisions of their phones. So far only Ericsson has signed on.

Monday, October 8, 2007

7 Reasons Why Microsoft is DOOMED

From Ask Rea Maor -

#1. Their business model is a dead-end. - Back when Microsoft first started business in 1980, software as a commodity was still a fuzzy concept. Now, in 2007, the concept of software as a commodity is rapidly wearing off again. Today, it’s all about the service and maintenance - something that Microsoft isn’t prepared to deal with.

#2. They flunk at Web 2.0. - Another shift in the technology market is the much-hyped web app. More and more programs can be downloaded from a server and run in a web browser, rendering the OS less important. Meanwhile, the biggest stake MS has ever had in the Internet user-space is its Internet Explorer.

#3. They’re running out of friends. - They’ve been brought up on multiple anti-trust charges. They have been the subject of 130 lawsuits, too. IBM, their former friend, now values Linux above them. And then there’s Sun, Apple, Google, and Oracle, who are flat-out competitors while favoring at least open source, if not Linux.

#4. They only have a couple of cash cows to work with. - Their two products that they stay afloat on is Windows and Office. All other products are also-rans. MSN, Zune, MS Surface, etc. And the XBox is selling well… at a loss.

#5. People are hating on Vista. - We didn’t even see this many people mad about Windows ME.

#6. Their stock isn’t rising any more. - This is not to say “this week”, but rather over the last seven years.

#7. PC makers are starting to turn their backs on Microsoft. - Sure, small-time markets have offered alternatives to Microsoft, but when a giant PC seller like Dell starts selling Ubuntu machines, that’s another big sign. HP has followed suit.

More details at the site.