-Opening Comments
“Welcome to HiWEB-Interactive, bringing you information from the edge of
technology”
*This is a summary of recent news and technology highlights.
HiWEB-Interactive - Show #11 - From May 15th 2008
Airing weekly Thursdays at 8p (PST) - And available on LIVE.HIWEB.NET as well as
archived
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-Hot News Topics this week (*Prepped 24 Hours Prior)
1 - CBS to acquire CNET for $1.8 Billion
2 - Google Launched “Friend Connect”
3 - HP seals the deal, buys EDS for $14B
4 - Bold new BlackBerry 9000 to take on expected 3G iPhone
5 - Download Now: Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope Released
6 - AT&T to boost 3G speeds more than fivefold by 2009
*Youtube viewers make sure to see HiWEB.NET for the
live streaming, also this entire show and other past shows.
See http://live.hiweb.net
<<<CUT FOR YOUTUBE POSTS>>> IE: Stop Recording/Start Recording
-Review of Hot Topics (*Elaborate on Hot Topics)
*SEE PRINTED NOTES…..
1 - CBS to acquire CNET for $1.8 Billion - CNET shareholders would receive
$11.50 a share if the deal closes. This amount represents a 45% premium to
Wednesday's closing price and above any price at which the stock has traded in
about two years. Shares of CNET rose 42% to $11.30 in recent premarket activity,
while CBS' stock fell 3% to $24.10.
This deal would bring more technology content to the airwaves. No, I doubt we
will see Rafe Needleman calling the next Giants-49ers game, but what we might
see is shows like Natali DelConte's Loaded appear on any of the CBS television
networks. I can see strong online-tv convergence with this deal.
CBS will make a cash tender offer for all issued and outstanding shares of CNET
Networks
$11.50 per share, representing an equity value of approximately $1.8 billion
The Board of Directors of CNET Networks has unanimously approved the merger
agreement and unanimously recommends that CNET Networks stockholders accept the
tender offer and tender their shares.
http://www.centernetworks.com/cbs-acquires-cnet
<Change Slide>
2 - Three's Company Or Three's A Crowd? Google Launched “Friend Connect” On
Monday - Don't they say good things come in threes? Well, regardless, we've
heard from multiple sources that Google will launch a new product on Monday
called “Friend Connect,” which will be a set of APIs for Open Social
participants to pull profile information from social networks into third party
websites. MySpace launched Data Availability on Thursday, a competing product.
Yesterday, in a suspiciously timed pre-release announcement, we heard about
Facebook Connect, another similar product (with a nearly identical name to
Google's Friend Connect). Like Data Availability and Facebook Connect, Google's
Friend Connect will be a way to securely send personal profile data, including
friend lists, presence/status information, etc., to third party applications,
say our sources. The primary benefit of these services is to allow users to
maintain a single friends list and to coordinate social activities across
different sites that perform different services. See my post on the Centralized
Me for more of my thoughts on this.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/09/threes-company-google-to-launch-friend-connect-on-monday/
<Change Slide>
3 - HP seals the deal, buys EDS for $14B - "I see [the acquisition] as an
attempt by HP to really go head to head with IBM in a much more meaningful way,
especially in technology services and IT outsourcing," Dana Stifler, research
director with AMR Research, said Monday, while the two companies were still in
talks. The worldwide market for IT services was worth $748 billion in 2007, an
increase of 10.5 percent from the year before, according to recent figures from
Gartner. IBM led the market with about $54 billion in revenue, followed by EDS
with $22 billion. HP was in fifth place with revenue of $17 billion, behind
Accenture and Fujitsu. Buying EDS will grow HP's services business and allow it
to offer a wider range of services to attract large business customers. EDS is
strong in infrastructure management services and also custom application
services, where it helps companies to design, integrate and manage applications.
EDS is less strong in providing services for packaged applications, however, and
the acquisition will not give HP a big lift in the type of business consulting
services delivered to line managers and business executives either, Stiffler
said Monday. HP has been keen to expand its services business for years, and EDS
is not its first attempt to do so. In 2000 HP dropped plans to acquire
PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, which was ultimately scooped up by IBM two
years later, for $3.5 billion. The worldwide market for IT services was worth
$748 billion in 2007, an increase of 10.5 percent from the year before,
according to recent figures from Gartner. IBM led the market with about $54
billion in revenue, followed by EDS with $22 billion. HP was in fifth place with
revenue of $17 billion, behind Accenture and Fujitsu. HP has been keen to expand
its services business for years, and EDS is not its first attempt to do so.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/051308-hp-buys-eds-for-139.html
<Change Slide>
4 - Bold new BlackBerry 9000 to take on expected 3G iPhone - RIM said "hello" to
the iPhone this morning when it introduced the long-anticipated BlackBerry 9000,
also known as the BlackBerry Bold. Aside from its dashing good looks, the Bold
has tweaks under the hood that not only improve upon past BlackBerry offerings,
but ensure that it stays a step ahead of the competition. For now, anyway. The
Bold is RIM's first BlackBerry to support tri-band HSDPA (3G) networks, which
complements its built-in WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The half-VGA screen features
480x320 resolution, which is twice the resolution of the most recent BlackBerry
Curve. The Bold, of course, continues with RIM's commitment to the "real" QWERTY
keyboard along with a trackball located just under the screen. The built-in 2MP
camera has video recording capabilities, built-in camera flash that is common on
BlackBerry devices, and 5x digital zoom.
On its own, however, the Bold is still a very attractive option for those in
business who are married to things like the BlackBerry's handling of corporate
e-mail and the non-touchscreen keyboard that many BlackBerry enthusiasts still
love. On the flip side, Apple said at its SDK Roadmap event in February that the
iPhone 2.0 software will introduce "real" Exchange support, push e-mail, and
other enterprise features that it currently lacks, possibly bringing it up to
speed with the BlackBerry in that regard.
Unfortunately for RIM, the Bold is not yet commercially available. The company
says that it will be widely available this summer, and told CNet that it expects
the price to be somewhere around $300-400. If it were available today, RIM might
be able to capture more sales than it will after the next-gen iPhone is
released. By then (whenever that may be), the two may be roughly on par in terms
of features once again.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080512-bold-new-blackberry-9000-to-take-on-expected-3g-iphone.html
<Change Slide>
5 - Download Now: Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope Released - Microsoft has
released its highly anticipated Worldwide Telescope software, which can be used
by astronomers and non-astronomers alike to explore the heavens with a desktop
client akin to Google Earth
Reasons why WWT is far better than Google Sky:
1. Immense data and imagery
2. Very easy to navigate and visually appealing
3. More advanced and is a great tool for astronomers and scientists alike
4. You can connect a telescope to it
5. You can create and share virtual tours
6. Not as slow and bulky feeling client
I looked around at it, and I love it. It's more feature rich, and it's really
better than Google Sky. There are some things Google is good at, but I have to
say that WWT takes the cake on this one. And as far as I know, Microsoft didn't
have to purchase any company to make WWT. Google had to buy Keyhole and Where2
to make Google Earth/Maps, and their not half as good as VE/WWT. This is one of
those amazing things that MS does sometimes, and we could wish were done more
often.
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/
<Change Slide>
6 - AT&T to boost 3G speeds more than fivefold by 2009 - AT&T said Wednesday it
plans to boost the speed of its 3G wireless network to speeds of 20 megabits per
second in 2009, paving the way for over-the-air downloads that are more than
five times faster than what customers can achieve today. Speaking at the Morgan
Stanley's annual Communications Conference, the company's mobility chief Ralph
de la Vega said engineers already have a version of AT&T's HSPA (High Speed
Packet Access) 3G network up and running in the labs at speeds of 7.2 megabits
per second, or approximately double the theoretical throughput of its existing
network. "It's clear to us that we are in the very early stages of what I would
call a wireless data revolution," he said. AT&T plans to transition to HSPA
release 7 sometime in 2009, which will deliver even bigger speeds "exceeding 20
megabits per second," according to the executive. He said the upgrade will
require few if any hardware modifications to the company's infrastructure and
will instead be a smooth transition achieved largely through a software upgrade
to its electronics. De la Vega also said that his firm has "a clear and logical
path" to 700MHz 4G access via the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard in the 2010
timeframe which should again increase speeds fivefold to nearly 100 megabits per
second.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/05/14/att_to_boost_3g_speeds_more_than_fivefold_by_2009.html
<Change Slide>
- Viewer Questions (*Troubleshooting, New Tech, Etc.)
How can I setup a Free VPN?
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a great way to share files and access remote
machines. Over at Computer Networking Help there is a tutorial that'll show you
how to set one up.
OpenVPN at http://www.openvpn.net
Also check out Hamachi
Instantly connect multiple computers in a VPN at
https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp
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-New Technology to keep an Eye On
(Auto Tech, Alt. Fuel, Environment, Hacking, High Tech, etc…)
1 - U.S. military to build botnet? - A colonel in the U.S. Air Force argued in a
recent opinion piece that the United States needs to build its own collection of
computers able to digitally "carpet bomb" enemies with a denial-of-service
attack.
The capability to overwhelm attackers would help the nation deter attacks
against its systems, Col. Charles Williamson III, a staff judge advocate for the
U.S. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, stated in
an opinion piece in the Armed Forces Journal. Military bases could use outdated
PCs as nodes on its "botnet," replacing their hard drives with a simple flash
drives.
"America needs the ability to carpet bomb in cyberspace to create the deterrent
we lack," Col. Williamson wrote. "America faces increasingly sophisticated
threats against its military and civilian cyberspace. At the same time, America
has no credible deterrent, and our adversaries prove it every day by attacking
everywhere."
The U.S. military has grown more worried about cyber attacks. A year ago, online
protesters attacked the northern European country of Estonia, essentially
cutting off online contact to many of the nation's businesses and government
agencies. Other denial of service attacks have shut down news sites and even
forced an Israeli company to go out of business. While the degree to which
nation-states take part in such attacks is unknown, the U.S. military has
flagged China as a major future threat in cyberspace.
http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/737
<Change Slide>
2 - Sharp rolls out 46-, 52-inch LCD TVs with built-in web browser - Sharp has
just let loose a pair of new sizable and feature-packed LCD TVs, although you're
more likely to find one of 'em in a kiosk or a conference room than a home
theater. Intended primarily for commercial use, the 46-inch TL-M4600 and 52-inch
TL-M5200 each boast a full 1920 x 1080 resolution, along with a "sub-6ms"
response time, a full range of ports (including DVI-D and HDCP-compatible HDMI),
optional speakers, and a 1,500:1 contrast ratio on TL-M4600 and 2,000:1 on the
TL-M5200. Both also boast fanless internal cooling systems to keep the noise
down and, perhaps most notably, LAN connectivity complete with a built-in web
browser. Of course, just because Sharp's targeting businesses and the like
doesn't mean it won't sell you one, although you'll have to drop a hefty $4,000
for the 46-incher or $5,000 for the 52-inch model.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/13/sharp-rolls-out-46-52-inch-lcd-tvs-with-built-in-web-browser/
<Change Slide>
3 - Superpowerful small wind turbines light up the night - We've seem some
impressive wind power tech, but a new breed of small, high-power wind turbines
could potentially bring efficient wind power home. Developed by an inventor
named Doug Selsam, the new turbines have rotors just 14-18 inches in diameter,
but can produce 200 watts in a 20MPH wind, and much more than that at higher
wind speeds. The trick is using high-strength carbon-fiber materials that allow
several rotors to be hooked up as one -- in strong winds a thirteen-rotor system
can produce enough juice to blow out a bank of car headlights "like flashbulbs."
That's pretty impressive -- especially since the system is light and balanced
enough to be held up with one hand. No word on when or how we might see these
hit the public, but we can see some pretty sweet applications -- laptops in the
park, anyone?
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/13/superpowerful-small-wind-turbines-light-up-the-night/
<Change Slide>
4 - RINGBO the riding robot is for kids, the song is for everyone - Why is this
child so happy? It's because he's taking RINGBO the riding robot by the horns!
See his glee as he cruises around for an entire hour at a blazing 2MPH? Hey, it
only took six hours to charge up. RINGBO is controlled by those horn-like
joysticks, and we can only hope that front panel contains an IR receiver -- one
that might give parents hours of pleasure as they override their kids' intended
direction. RINGBO will be shown by Airrobot at this week's Koreannovation Trade
Show in NYC, so we'll be sure to bring our offspring, as it's meant for children
aged 2-3 and up to 66lbs. We just want to know two things: how much, and can we
cheat the 66lb weight limit? Maybe just a little? C'mon. Want to have your mind
totally blown? Please watch the video after the break. Please.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/13/ringbo-the-riding-robot-is-for-kids-the-song-is-for-everyone/
<Change Slide>
-Tech Tip / Demo
Enable 3G Data on your MACBook, MacBook Pro
or MacBook Air - Use AT&T HSUPA Type Devices for the best possible experience.
With Data Speeds from 600k-1400k Downloading and 600-800k Uploading. With
automatic roll back to previous technologies like EDGE and GPRS. AT&T has loose
support for these devices however they work very great! And Support is available
via the OEM…
-Broadband Performance, Send Large Attachments, Access VPN Connections with
ease, Global Compatibility, Simple to use and set-up
Use the Option Wireless GT Ultra Express supporting 3G HSDPA and HSUPA (Express
Card)
Get Wireless DSL-like speed: downloads up to 7.2 Mbps, uploads up to 2 Mbps
The GlobeTrotter Express HSUPA gives you the latest technology with Option´s
proven performance and reliability in the new ExpressCard/34 format. Within its
compact form we provide a multi-band, multi-technology receiver offering the
best upload and download speeds available today.
http://www.option.com/products/globetrotter_express_hsupa.shtml
http://support.option.com/att/
(Mac Drivers / Communication Manager)
Use a Sierra Wireless USBConnect 881 supporting 3G HSDPA and HSUPA (USB Device)
The AirCard® 880U & AirCard 881U are the latest in USB modems from Sierra
Wireless. Designed to work on HSUPA networks, mobile users will experience
significantly increased speeds - up to 7.2 Mbps downlink and 2.0 Mbps uplink.
http://www.sierrawireless.com/product/AC880U_881U.aspx
http://www.sierrawireless.com/support/support_and_downloads.aspx?id=4,13,1,2
(Mac Drivers)
See AT&T for these cards at
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phones/pc-cards.jsp -
All card are free with a 2 year contract. With DataConnect costing $60/mo for
5GB
See AT&T Coverage Map @
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/?type=data
-General Talk/Discussions
1- Viewers see giveaway link on HiWEB.NET for more details. Next Giveaway
Tonight following this show - Remember the eligibility requirements. Subscribe
to Youtube, Register and Comment on Blog - *And then stay Tuned for Hot
Giveaways
2- Future segments will include music production segments, hardware reviews and
product demos…
3- We are currently engaging SME to produce custom segments away from live show
-
4- Viewers can send show Tips / Recommendations to live@hiweb.net
5- HiWEB-Interactive Past Shows on
http://www.hiweb.net/pastshows.html (past shows)
-Closing Comments
This was HiWEB-Interactive - Show #11
Remember tune in anytime at live.hiweb.net and Thursdays at 8p (PST) for the
HiWEB-Interactive Tech Show
“Thank You for participating in HiWEB-Interactive, we look forward to bringing
you more information from the edge of technology” Until next time have Fun with
your technology - Gotta Jiboo!