Archive for Technology
Ambient’s Audeo-Taking Thoughts To Speech
Posted by: | CommentsKristen Nicole from Mashable did a piece called “Speak Outloud without Opening Your Mouth”. Wow….What a sweet technology! I checked out Ambient’s website to get some more information on their product the call Audeo. The company is founded by 2 engineers Michael Callahan and Thomas Coleman.
Check this out!
Pretty cool huh? It will be really sweet to see where this technology goes and the different applications that people come up with! Kristen gave some of her speculation like integrating the technology into everything from cell phones to email!
Verizon Wireless and Chicken FCC Chairman
Posted by: | CommentsI like Verizon Wireless and its not just because I’m a former employee. I feel they make wise decisions when it comes to business. For example, next time you are at the mall…check for other people’s cell phones. You can always tell who is a Verizon Wireless customer…the majority of the time they are the cell phone users who can have either a case on their phone and use a headset. The reason why you can almost make this bet is because Verizon Wireless’ sales reps HAVE to sell accessories! Part of their quota structure is selling 3 accessories per phone that leaves the store or kiosk. Now, the accessories have great benefits, but from a company perspective, this is a GREAT move on their behalf. The accessories that Verizon Wireless gets, with the expensive branded packaging, probably cost them a few dollars, $4 maybe? They then turn around and sell those accessories for at least $20. That is a lot of profit just off of accessories.
But this isn’t about Verizon Wireless and what a great company they are in some regards. This is about their recent lawsuit against the FCC and their proposed 700mhz wireless spectrum auction. Let me just say…Kevin Martin is dumb. He looks like an idiot. He allows some open-access rules for the wireless auctions and now is changing his mind and back pedaling in his decision just because Verizon Wireless isn’t happy. Verizon Wireless barely said a thing while Google petitioned the FCC for the open-access rules. Now they are suing saying that these rules violated the US Constitution. Psh. Verizon Wireless has one of the most locked down networks in the world. Every single one of their handsets has special software! All of their basic phones has the Verizon Wireless UI and the PDA’s software is locked down to take away certain features like the obex bluetooth profile! Come on!
I will say that this could change in the future. Verizon Wireless and Vodafone announced recently that they both will be adopting the Long Term Evolution(LTE) technology which is similar to the current 3g UMTS networks that the GSM carriers have. LTE is a GSM technology which should allow customers to swap their sim cards into another handset.
We’ll see how it all pans out. I am excited for the spectrum auctions and to see who ponys up for it!
Google’s Domination-Satellite Radio
Posted by: | CommentsI love the rumor mill! David Utter over at WebProNews.com is stirring up an article done by Zachary Rodgers at ClickZ about Google making a play for satellite radio provider Sirius Radio.
Google has been in the news for awhile in regards to making advertising plays in many distribution channels besides online. They are trying to do TV, radio, and even newspaper ads. I’m constantly impressed by Google and their management for going horizontal with their business and getting their hands in different jars. From a long term perspective, it gives them a lot of stability and growth.
It will be interesting to watch this rumor develop as time goes on and see if and what Google will do with Sirius. I can understand buying them, but is it really necessary to own them to do radio advertising? I guess it would make it interesting since they seem to be trying to make that same play with cell phones next year during the wireless spectrum auctions!
Standard Charging and Syncing Port for Cell Phones
Posted by: | CommentsI was working for Alltel Wireless a few years ago and I absolutely HATED Motorola. The Motorola v60s were a tank of a phone. I had a customer accidently put one through his snow blower, got chucked 10-20 feet, and was still working! There was one flaw with the Motorola cell phones…the charging port. It got so bad, that Motorola recalled a bunch of them and was replacing them with an upgraded phone, I think it was the old 720s. Not very durable, but it had a “redesigned” or “reinforced” charging/data port. During this time frame there was all this talk about Motorola changing the charging port but it didn’t come for years later when the mini usb port came out. Slowly but surely cell phone manufactures started “standardizing” their charging ports (Motorola, UT Starrcom, and Blackberry use similar mini usb chargers).
Now, with much happiness, the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMPT) agreed on a micro-usb standard for the charing ports of cell phones! I’m sure it will be awhile before this actually is implemented, but it will be interesting to see if any new or different cell phone accessories come out of it.
Cognitive Code – SILVIA AI
Posted by: | CommentsSo Teddy Ruxpin came across my Google RSS feeder this morning…what a blast from the past!
CrunchGear has apparently take the article down since then but the article was about Cognitive Code Corp. and their SILVIA artificial intelligence(AI) products. Their products look sweet, I mean, I would love to talk to my PDA or car! One highlight is that “SILVIA is a complete system for the development and deployment of intelligent applications to almost any computing platform or operating system, with a technological core that allows humans to interact with computers in completely natural and intuitive ways.”
Remember Knight Rider’s KITT? This could be KITT brought to life to some extent! They claim their system can be integrated through some development tools and API. I cannot wait until AI starts to integrate with everything from cars to cell phones to search engines to social networking!
Any other cool ways this technology could be integrated??