Sony Rumor Mill: Flash of Chrome, Rumble of Thunder

By Richard Adhikari
TechNewsWorld
03/21/11 11:46 AM PT (http://www.technewsworld.com)


An upcoming Sony Vaio laptop will be a hybrid of an ultra-portable and desktop replacement notebook, according to a recent report. The super-thin laptop will be able to hook up to a docking station that will augment its hardware, providing a graphics boost and an optical drive. Thunderbolt technology is also said to be included. Meanwhile, Sony's also reportedly putting together a Chrome Notebook.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) is readying a hybrid Vaio notebook with a docking system that augments its hardware, as well as another Vaio sporting Chrome OS, according to a report in SonyInsider.

The so-called hybrid notebook will feature the communications technology Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) introduced as "Thunderbolt" recently in its MacBook Pro notebooks, the report stated.

This notebook will apparently have an unltra-thin chassis as well as a docking station equipped with its own discrete graphics processing unit (GPU), a Blu-ray drive and other connectivity options.

"Intel is in ongoing discussions with all PC OEM customers about implementing Thunderbolt technology on their systems," Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) spokesperson Dave Salvator told TechNewsWorld.

"Apple took a strong interest and collaborated with Intel to help bring the technology to market at this time," Salvator elaborated. "There is no exclusivity to this arrangement."

Sony and Apple did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Possible Tech Specs for the Sony Hybrid

The ultra-light Sony Vaio notebook will have Intel Wireless Display, SonyInsider claims.

Intel Wireless Display lets users view and share content from their hard disks, home networks or any browser-equipped device with the largest screens in their homes. That sounds suspiciously like Sony's Qriocity, which targets Apple's iTunes service.

The Vaio will apparently also have a solid-state drive, an Intel i7 processor, HDMI output with 3D support and a battery life ranging from 8 hours to 16.5 hours. It will weigh about 2.5 pounds.

The docking station will have an AMD (NYSE: AMD) Whistler-XT discrete graphics processing unit with 1GB of VRAM, a Blu-ray read/write drive, HDMI and VGA output, an RJ45 Ethernet port and a USB port. It will weigh about 1.5 pounds, SonyInsider reported.

"I would expect Intel to let other PC OEMs make use of the Thunderbolt technology," Matthew Wilkins, a principal analyst at IHS iSuppli, told TechNewsWorld.

Intel would not confirm whether Sony will unveil an ultra-light notebook using Thunderbolt technology.

"That's a question to take up with Sony," Intel's Salvator said.

About ThunderBolt

Thunderbolt, which is Apple's name for Intel's Light Peak I/O technology, was codeveloped by the two companies. It has two bidirectional channels offering maximum transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps each.

The technology uses two protocols -- PCI Express for data transfer and DisplayPort for displays. It is compatible with existing DisplayPort displays and adapters. Users can daisy-chain up to six peripherals using Thunderbolt.

Device manufacturers that have announced support for Thunderbolt include Western Digital (NYSE: WDC) and LaCie.

Apple became the first computer vendor to deliver Thunderbolt in products when it announced a new MacBook Pro line using that I/O technology in late February. However, while Intel plans to use optical connectors in Thunderbolt, the version in the MacBook Pros uses copper instead.

That doesn't mean the Mac Pros can't use optical connectors, though.

"The version shipping today on Apple's MacBook Pro systems can use either electrical cable, which is copper, or an active optical cable," Intel's Salvator remarked. "Thunderbolt will have those same options when it runs on other systems," he added.

Intel expects to see other systems using Thunderbolt on the market early next year, Salvator said.

Other Planned Sony Products

Sony also has a Vaio laptop running Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Chrome operating system, SonyInsider stated.

This will likely have an Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) Tegra 2 core processor, 1GB of memory, a 16GB eMMC (electronic multimedia) card, an 11.6-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels, and an ultra-low power GeForce GPU from Nvidia, according to SonyInsider.

The device will have a wide keyboard similar to the Google Chrome Cr-48 laptop keyboard, SonyInsider suggested. It will run on WANs and have an 8-hour battery life.

The Vaio laptop running Chrome OS will weigh about 2.2 pounds, SonyInsider reported. It will be launched in summer. Features such as Bluetooth and GPS will reportedly be added later.

It's not clear whether Sony will be able to launch either of these products on time. The company, like many other Japanese manufacturers, was hit hard by the massive quake that struck Japan last week and the tsunami that followed.

 

At press time, reports said indicated Sony would restart a lithium-ion battery plant that it closed in the aftermath of the quake and tsunami, but six of its other plants will remain closed. Those six turn out various products, including lasers for Blu-ray players.

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Asus' Eee Pad Transformer Is a Notebook in Disguise

By Richard Adhikari
TechNewsWorld
03/28/11 6:00 AM PT (http://www.technewsworld.com)

Asus' latest swing at the tablet scene is the Eee Pad Transformer, a Honeycomb tablet that can be combined with an optional keyboard docking station that turns it into a notebook computer, more or less. The Transformer's guts seem to be on par with most other Honeycomb tablets in the field, but will its keyboard accessory be enough to make it stand out in an increasingly crowded space?

 

 

Asus on Friday announced the first shipments of its Eee Pad Transformer, which are directed to Taiwan.

The Eee Pad Transformer is so named because it uses an optional docking station that provides a full QWERTY keyboard with unique Android function keys.

This tablet runs on an Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) Tegra 2 dual-core processor and uses Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android 3.0 operating system, aka "Honeycomb."

Its frame just over half an inch deep, and it weighs in at about 24 ounces.

It comes preloaded with Polaris Office 3.0, which supports the most frequently used file formats on PCs, such as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Office, XLS, XLSX, PowerPoint, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) PDF, and image files such as JPG.

The Transformer has 9.5 hours of battery life on one charge. This goes up to 16 hours when the docking station is used.

"I'd put this in the class of the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Atrix," Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat, told TechNewsWorld. "It's seeking to bridge the gap between a mobile device and a computing device."

Asus did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Details About the Eee Pad Transformer

Like many other tablets running Honeycomb, the Transformer has an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor.

It also has a 5MP rear camera to shoot and record HD video and a 1.2MP front-facing camera for videoconferencing. The device supports both WiFi and 3G.

The Transformer has a mini-HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack, two USB ports and a built-in SD card reader. It also has built-in SRS Sound technology.

The tablet comes with a scratch-resistant 10.1-inch in-plane switching (IPS) Gorilla Glass touchscreen with LED backlighting. This can be viewed at angles up to 178 degrees. ASUS claims the screen provides 50 percent more accurate and crisp rendition than its competitors.

Asus has overlaid its Waveshare user interface on top of Honeycomb.

The company provides one year of cloud storage on Asus WebStorage free to purchasers of the Transformer.

Information on price is still sketchy; reports suggest it will range between $500 and $700. If those reports are correct, the Transformer won't beat out the iPad 2 in price.

Just Another Brick in the Android Wall?

Apart from the optional docking station, there's little to distinguish the Transformer from other Android tablets, according to In-Stat's McGregor.

"All these tablets have dual core processors, high quality screens, and dual cameras, so you have to provide a significant differentiation if you're going to target the market," he said.

"I played with several tablets running Android 3.0 at CTIA," Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at the Yankee Group, told TechNewsWorld. "They start to feel very much the same."

That uniformity has led Android tablet manufacturers to seek their own differentiators.

"These guys are all looking for a magic bullet," McGregor stated.

"Do you have a slide-out keyboard, do you have a docking station? I don't think anybody has found the secret sauce," he opined.

Even with the docking station, Acer's Transformer doesn't quite stand out of the crowd, McGregor thinks.

"The docking station is cool, but does it buy me that differentiation? I don't think so," he said.

Whether Asus can match the iPad 2 with its Transformer is open to question.

 

"Apple blends three ingredients: A sexy device, seamless connectivity and compelling cloud content to create its connected experience," Howe pointed out. "At present, most Honeycomb tablets I've seen are delivering only two out of those three ingredients because they lack the cloud-based apps."

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Mobile Health Apps, Part 3: On the Cutting Edge

By Pam Baker
TechNewsWorld
04/28/11 5:00 AM PT (http://www.technewsworld.com/story/72348.html)

New mobile health apps "can be very powerful in making patient information more readily accessible -- but also in allowing patients to become a more active participant in their own healthcare," says Deanna Benson, project manager at Mutual Mobile. "This has numerous positive implications for the patient, but can also be very beneficial from a business standpoint in the way of reduced healthcare costs."

 

The future of mobile healthcare apps is already here, and it readily conjures images of "Star Trek" and Dr. "Bones" McCoy's medical tricorder. Take for example, a new app system developed by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital that detects cancer.

The palm-size nuclear magnetic resonance device, which mimics the gigantic MRI machine, sits on a patient's bedside table. The tiniest of samples from the smallest of needles can instantly be tested and the results calculated by an app on the doctor's smartphone.

In many cases, the system will eliminate the need for surgical biopsies. In trials, the darn thing is measuring between 96 percent and 100 percent accuracy -- far better than the 84 percent accuracy rate of conventional tests. Plus, doctor and patient have the results in less than an hour instead of waiting three days for conventional methods to render results. The system isn't quite ready for clinical use, but this app and others of the same ilk are expected to be in wide use in the near future.

"While there is already a number of mobile applications for doctors, the real transformation of healthcare lies not in better doctoring but in better partnering between doctors and patients," Girish Nair, vice president of business development at DataArt, told TechNewsWorld. "We think centralizing the administration and decentralizing care is the key to success. And by decentralizing of care, we refer to remote care."

Up Close From Far Away

"The future of healthcare apps will cater to the strengths of the new mobile technology platforms, allowing patients to send doctors a picture, for example, to receive a clinical opinion and guidance, without having to venture in for a traditional appointment," Nick van Terheyden, M.D., CMIO at Nuance Communications, told TechNewsWorld.

Further, new apps are being developed that are designed to keep patients informed and close the loop on care delivery. Applications are popping up that are essentially a mobile extension of existing medical technologies such as X-rays, ultrasounds and electrocardiograms.

"These applications can be very powerful in making patient information more readily accessible -- but also in allowing patients to become a more active participant in their own healthcare," Deanna Benson, project manager at Mutual Mobile, told TechNewsWorld. "This has numerous positive implications for the patient, but can also be very beneficial from a business standpoint in the way of reduced healthcare costs."
Remote medical care isn't only about delivering a diagnosis -- it's about delivering information and thus control of health decisions and related costs to the patient.

A user can summon a noted physician's view and advice on practically any disease or ailment with the American Health Journal app, which has the largest video library of physician interviews on any health-related topic. As of January 2011, the app has been downloaded more than 603,000 times in upwards of 157 countries since its release in August 2010.

Patients can schedule/confirm appointments (even same-day appointments), renew prescriptions instantly and access their health records via apps such as One Medical Mobile. Created by Tom Lee, M.D., founder of One Medical Group, a primary care practice in San Francisco and New York City, One Medical Mobile includes a clinical triage function. The feature helps people identify what symptoms they're suffering from and whether they need an appointment or can simply save their copay and instead get help for free from a One Medical physician via email or phone.

DNA App Maps Preventive Care

As if diagnosing and treating illnesses as they manifest weren't enough futuristic pocket power, along come apps that guide patients on how to prevent or postpone future ailments.

Consider the Personal Genome Assistant app. First, the patient has a genetic test or genome sequencing to determine genetic predispositions to specific diseases. Then the PGA incorporates genome sequence or partial sequence data interpreted by the new fractal science with personal preference and known health data -- which is stored at online cloud facilities like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Health Vault or Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Health -- to optimize choices as one goes through their day to prevent or postpone the predictable health problems.

If the patient knows, for example, that he has a predisposition to diabetes and is currently lactose intolerant and allergic to peanuts, he can proactively make choices to prevent health problems now and in the future.
The app allows the user to scan bar codes of food and supplement products using a smartphone's camera. The app then immediately analyzes the product's ingredients and informs the user whether consumption of the product is good or harmful for either of the three of his health concerns. In mere minutes, the user knows exactly how the product will affect him now -- and in the years to come.

Andras Pellionisz, the developer, is a cross-disciplinary scientist and technologist with Ph.D.'s in computer engineering, biology and physics. He founded HolGenTech as a genome analytics company to leverage high-performance hybrid computer hardware with a novel, fractal algorithm-based approach for genome analysis and recommendation.

The PGA has not been publicly released yet, but has applications for any and all of the growing number of direct-to-customer personalized medicine models, such as 23andMe, Navigenics, or GenePlanet in Europe, and Theragen Bio in Asia.

Newly affordable full genome sequences from companies like Pacific Biosciences and Complete Genomics make our genomes available and useable. Applying patented genome search, analysis and recommendation, Pellionisz makes the genome useful in the PGA.
 

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RIM threatens to take thunder away from Apple

By Daxim Lucas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:56:00 04/24/2011 

MANILA, Philippines—It took a while for the makers of BlackBerry to join the tablet race, but now that they have, Research In Motion has done so in a big way.

Members of the local press were given a chance recently to preview the new BlackBerry PlayBook ahead of its global launch, with company officials demonstrating the much-awaited device inside the so-called BlackBerry PlayBook Bus as it drove around the Makati Central Business District.

One thing that immediately grabs the user’s attention is the sheer brilliance of its 7-inch screen (similar in size to what is widely considered as the Apple iPad’s main rival, the Samsung Galaxy Tab).

Playbook’s high definition, multitouch screen puts out pictures with a resolution of 1024 x 600. Watching videos or playing graphics-intensive games on the PlayBook is an amazing experience, especially with its super fast 1 GHz dual-core processor, making it faster than many laptops currently being sold on the market.

The company describes the PlayBook as “the world’s first dual core, multi-processing, multi-tasking, ultra-thin, enterprise-ready, professional-grade tablet.”

The device is “perfect for either large organizations or an ‘army of one,’” as it is designed to give users “uncompromised Web browsing with full Adobe Flash support, true multitasking and high performance multimedia,” according to the firm.

Company officials, in fact, stress PlayBook’s ability to utilize Adobe Flash, putting it way ahead of its rival (read: the Apple iPad). They say a significant amount of Web content nowadays relies on this system shunned for so long by Apple.

However, one important feature of the device, which BlackBerry is touting as an asset, is the very same feature critics have come to sneer at: by itself, PlayBook is a Wi-Fi only device.

To access the Internet outside a Wi-Fi hotspot, the user will have to use a feature known as BlackBerry Bridge, which essentially tethers the tablet to a user’s BlackBerry smartphone and uses the latter’s data connection to connect to the Internet.

The device also uses this feature to do secure e-mail, browsing and the ubiquitous BlackBerry Messenger messaging service all coursed through the smartphone’s connection— something Playbook cannot do independently. Officials say this feature saves the user the hassle and cost of having to pay for a second SIM card to access the Web, unlike the Galaxy Tab or iPad, which require their own mobile connections.

Will Playbook succeed in dethroning the iPad? Only time will tell. But for certain, it is a worthy challenger.

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Acer notebook begs to be ‘touched’

By Raquel P. Gomez
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:28:00 03/27/2011  

MANILA, Philippines—Thanks to Apple’s iPad and its ilk of touch slates, the notebook PC is again undergoing a significant change.

This time around, it is taking on notable characteristics, such as the multitouch user interface and rich Web-friendly 3D animated apps that respond intuitively to touch.

One interesting new touchscreen device is Acer’s Iconia 484G64ns—a full-featured notebook that boasts of not one, but two touchscreen displays.

With the Iconia, the keyboard area has been deliberately taken out and replaced with a touchscreen glass display, where a virtual keyboard and rich graphics-enhanced control/management icons may be tapped or swiped for input and access to the notebook’s features.

Acer officials say the Iconia is both an “evolution” and “revolution” of the notebook design.

Referring to it as a “touchbook,” a new category of the traditional notebook, Acer officials say the Iconia boasts of full-touch features that provide users with enhanced content consumption and a different level of infotainment that no other notebooks can offer.

Iconia has a dual 14-inch multitouch, high-definition and high-brightness (1366 x 768 resolution) LED-backlit TFT LCD screens that support up to 10-finger touch.

The LCD screens are also durable because they are made of tempered glass with a scratch- and fingerprint-resistant face. The screens are manufactured by Corning, a renowned manufacturer of tough glasses.

Video support for the notebook is handled by Intel HD Graphics, with 128 MB of dedicated system memory that supports Microsoft DirectX 10.

With the elimination of the hardware keyboard in Iconia, how can a user effectively manipulate the laptop?

In answer, Acer introduced the Ring Control Interface. It is the intuitive entry point that launches Acer’s touch applications and handy built-in features and controls.

To launch the ring control interface, one has to lightly tap the keyboard/touch display area with all fingers and, immediately, a “ring” icon appears.

Rotating the ring icon via more circular finger gestures will allow access to tasks and apps.

Using the ring, one may access the Gesture Editor, which lets customization of touch gestures in launching other tasks, like opening of websites, viewing the desktop, or even simple locking of the PC.

A tap of the Windows Manager will allow users to organize their applications on the dual touchscreens or even an external display.

Another noteworthy Iconia feature is the virtual keyboard, which has adaptive typing intelligence and predictive text input, similar to those found in touch smartphones.

As a full-featured notebook, the Iconia is powered by first-generation Intel Core i5-480M processor (3MB L3 cache, 2.66GHz with Turbo Boost of up to 2.93GHz, DDR3 1066 MHz 35W) that supports Intel 64 architecture and Intel Smart Cache.

It is also fitted with 4 GB DDR3 memory and 640 GB storage.

Also, Acer introduced its slate PC called the Iconia Tab W500.

The Iconia Tab W500 is a 10.1-inch Windows 7-run multitouch slate.

I

t boasts of an AMD C-Series C-50 (1MB L2 cache, 1 GHz, DDR3 1066MHz, 9W) processor, an AMD A50M Fusion Controller Hub chipset, and up to 2GB DDR3 memory chip with a 32GB SDD (solid state drive) capacity.

What sets the Iconia Tab W500 apart from the rest of the slates out there is the addition of a dockable keyboard that allows a user to type onto real hardware keys.

Similar to the Iconia touchbook, the Iconia Tab W500 comes with a nice range of applications like the multitouch Acer Ring control interface, touch optimization interface and a Device Control console, allowing for a total touch control experience.

One advantage of a Windows-run slate is its ability to become a great device for unified communications—or the so called voice over IP (VOIP) communication solutions.

The Iconia Tab W500, which features a webcam, can be used for video calls powered by Microsoft Lync—a cloud-powered Microsoft service that links up Microsoft Outlook/Exchange users. It allows for fast video calls, voice calls, or mere chats via secured wireless connections.

The Iconia touchbook will retail for P79,900, while the price of the Iconia Tab W500 is still to be announced.

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Nokia may be down but not out in smartphone race

By Paolo Montecillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:26:00 03/27/2011    


MANILA, Philippines—Mobile phone maker Nokia has not given up on the local smartphone race just yet as it delivers its most advanced device model—the E7—in the hands of tech-savvy Filipino consumers.
Nokia last week announced that the new E7, would work just as well for people tracking their investment portfolios, or users who just want to play Angry Birds.

The device will hit the country’s stores by the end of the month.
The effort put in by designers to make the Symbian-powered E7 not just stylish, but also easy to use, is obvious.

With a 4-inch display, the E7 sports Nokia’s biggest screen ever for a touchphone. This is made more impressive by the Amoled technology used—its colors being worlds apart from other smartphones.
At first glance, the E7 takes styling cues from its brother, the Nokia N8, but who’s complaining?
The E7 feels just as sturdy as the N8, which is surprising because sliding the screen up from the phone’s left side will reveal a hidden qwerty key pad.

Unlike other phones that have moving parts, the E7 feels like a solid block.
According to Benoit Nalin of Nokia Philippines, the keyboard under the E7’s screen will suit more than just one market segment.

For fun-loving users who enjoy watching videos and playing games, the E7’s sensitive touchscreen will work fine.

However, more business-minded users who need to send long e-mail messages or take notes are likely to appreciate the tactile feel of a keyboard.

“People are continuing to look for solutions that suit both their work and personal life. In business circles, this is known as the ‘consumerization’ of IT,” Nalin said.

The Nokia E7 also gives people the confidence to bring their own smartphones to the workplace to connect securely to corporate messaging servers.

At the same time, with 16-gigabytes of storage, a high-resolution screen, and an 8-megapixel camera, the E7 can more than satisfy the needs of users who like to live a large part of their lives through Facebook and Twitter.

Available in dark gray and silver white, the E7 will retail for about P32,000.

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VoWiFi in the air

By Don Herana
INQ7.net
First Posted 22:02:00 10/12/2006

DURING the last few years, there has been an increase in the demand for wireless connection to networks and the Internet. Indeed, we can view a lot of available Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) “hot spots” everywhere -- in some office buildings, coffee shops, restaurants, malls, hotels, and other public places. And with it, wireless radio is becoming more of a standard specification for notebook computers.

For an organization, being free from a wired connection can boost productivity by cutting the cord that binds associates to their desktop computers, allowing more mobility with the power to communicate, use enterprise software applications, access information and accomplish important work, on the go.

Wireless Fidelity 101

Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) is the underlying technology of wireless local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications. This 802.11 specification is a wireless standard that defines the over-the-air interface between a wireless client and a base station or between two wireless clients.

The 802.11-enabled notebook computers and handheld devices talk to each other and to the rest of the network without wires through devices called "access points." These access points are connected to enterprise networks and the Internet through a cable or DSL line. Various radio frequencies are also available, identified as "a," "b," "g" and soon, “n”. For instance, 802.11b is the standard for wireless LANs operating in the 2.4 GHz spectrum with a maximum bit rate of 11 Mbps. This is the standard currently used in most Wi-Fi hot spots, while 802.11a operates in the 5 GHz frequency range with a maximum bit rate of 54 Mbps -- much faster than the "b" standard. Another standard is 802.11g which is commonly used in offices. Devices based on this standard operate on the 2.4 GHz band and deliver bit rates of up to 54 Mbps. All 802.11g devices are backward compatible with the 802.11b standard.

Voice over Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi, however, is just the tip of the iceberg. It now extends to voice technology -- known as Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi or VoFi) -- as a key driver of the next phase in the wireless revolution. This emerging technology allows people to communicate wirelessly by voice over enterprise networks and the Internet. The major driving force behind VoWiFi is the proliferation of voice-enabled mobile handheld devices, EDAs (Enterprise Digital Assistants), digital handsets, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and notebook PCs. The demand is starting to increase for these devices that allow people to communicate and multi-task with a freedom, flexibility and productivity that wasn’t possible before with just using a mobile phone.

Besides Wi-Fi, another technology that makes VoWiFi possible is VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Over the last few years, VoIP has received major attention among companies. Initially, the major benefit was saving money on long distance calls. Now, enterprises realize that VoIP also increases productivity as part of an overall strategy of integrating voice, data and Internet access.

While VoIP is typically on a phone system or computer sitting at the desk, think of VoWiFi as a mobile VoIP. As organizations move to VOIP based phone systems for their desktop users, many solutions are available that enable portable wireless devices with audio input and output capability to act as VoIP handsets. These applications convert the devices, via a software application called “Soft Phone” to interact with VoIP vendor products. Sometimes, the problem is echo when communicating between devices through VoWiFI but there are some applications that can do echo cancellation to resolve this issue.

And, with the increasing number of wireless hot spots both inside and outside of a company's managed network, the infrastructure to support fully integrated Wi-Fi voice access using VoWiFi does makes sense. Mobile VOIP adds new and better ways of workforce collaboration. An investment in 802.11 and VoIP technologies today can prepare businesses to adapt VoWiFi in the not so distant future.

Wi-Fi and Cell Phone in one?

VoWiFi delivers a flexible system for providing mobile data and voice communications than other technologies that require the implementation and maintenance of separate devices for each. For example, in a warehouse environment, two-way push-to-talk radios may be used to provide voice communications among workers and warehouse supervisors and WLANs for wireless data collection in inventory and shipping/receiving applications. By using VoWiFi devices that combine voice and data, these businesses can eliminate the need for two-way radios and the additional costs on managing these devices.

For so many years, businesses and consumers have accepted cellular phone and portable computing technologies. It’s all about the power of mobility, which continues to drive more and more people towards faster adoption of wireless technology. The optimum solution can be a combination of Wi-Fi and cellular. A Wi-Fi/cellular roaming solution requires dual-mode handsets that support both VoWiFi and cellular. For example, when you’re inside your business building with Wi-Fi access, you can use your dual-mode cell phone as a VoWiFi enabled handheld device. And when you’re outside of the Wi-Fi range, it will act as your normal cell phone.

Clearly, enterprises seeking a competitive advantage and lower operational costs could evaluate the areas of their business that can benefit most from VoWiFi technology. Ultimately, the objective is to provide the solutions that can help organizations accelerate revenue growth, increase productivity, operational efficiencies and profitability.

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Friendster evolves to escape Facebook's shadow

Associated Press
First Posted 16:22:00 04/28/2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia— Faded social networking site Friendster will soon delete nearly a decade's worth of user photos, blog entries and other data in a revamp to set it apart from Facebook, a company official said Thursday.
The overhaul is meant to help Friendster regain a semblance of online relevance after being outmuscled by Facebook, which boasts about 600 million active users. Friendster has accumulated at least 115 million registered members since 2002, but only about 40 million currently have valid emails and fewer still are active users.
Friendster emailed its members over the past week to inform them to save their pictures, profile information, messages and blog posts on other sites by May 31, said Nor Badron, a company spokesman based in Singapore.
"This is an evolution of the site to push the boundaries of our business," Nor told The Associated Press. "It's not about direct competition with Facebook. Whoever wants to compete with Facebook would be crazy."
It is the biggest change to Friendster since Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan's online payment systems company MOL Global purchased the site in late 2009. Tan's businesses include retail franchises in Southeast Asia such as Starbucks and 7-Eleven.
In June, Friendster will launch services that are not provided by Facebook, focusing on a new platform for social interaction in gaming, music, entertainment and online shopping, Nor said.
Friendster members can have a different social networking experience by cultivating unique online identities that are different from their real-life ones, Nor said. They can connect with people whom they don't personally know and share music with them or play online games together.
"We realize there's no need to have photo albums or the duplication of status updates on both Facebook and Friendster, so this is something totally different, a whole new ball game," Nor said. "It's about something you don't do on Facebook that you can do on Friendster."
Nor declined to say how much Friendster is investing in the changes or give details about its financial targets.
The biggest number of Friendster users are now in the Philippines, the United States, Malaysia, Indonesia and Britain.

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ICANN hires hacker to keep Internet safe

Poated at http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20110429-333574/ICANN-hires-hacker-to-keep-Internet-safe Agence France-Presse First Posted 07:54:00 04/29/2011

SAN FRANCISCO—The agency in charge of the world's Internet addresses on Thursday appointed veteran hacker Jeff Moss to be its chief of security. Moss, whose hacker name is Dark Tangent, is the founder of Black Hat computer security conferences as well as an infamous DefCon gathering of hackers that takes place annually in Las Vegas.

Moss will begin work Friday at the Washington, DC offices of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as vice president and chief security officer. "I can think of no one with a greater understanding of the security threats facing Internet users and how best to defend against them than Jeff Moss," said ICANN chief executive Rod Beckstrom. "He has the in-depth insider's knowledge that can only come from fighting in the trenches of the on-going war against cyber threats."

A self-described hacker for more than 20 years, Moss has a resume that includes stints at Secure Computing Corporation and in the security division of professional services firm Ernst & Young.

Moss is on the US Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council.

"I'm looking forward to bringing my skill sets to ICANN," Moss said.

"Its role in coordinating the global Internet addressing system means that it is positioned to become the leader in identifying and dealing with online threats to the Domain Name System that could affect two billion global Internet users," he continued.

Beckstrom joined Moss at Black Hat in Las Vegas last year to announce a key upgrade to the Internet that promised to stop cyber criminals from using fake websites that dupe people into downloading viruses or revealing personal data.

ICANN teamed with online security services firm VeriSign and the US Department of Commerce to give websites encrypted identification to prove they are legitimate.

The Domain Name System Security Extensions, referred to as DNSSEC, basically adds a secret, identifying code to each website address.

The domain name system is where the world's Internet addresses are registered and plays a key role in enabling computers around the world to speak with one another online.

"The global threats to the Internet's Domain Name System are in essence the digital cold war of the new millennium," said Merlin Hay, member of the British House of Lords and chairman of the Information Society Alliance.

"To win this war we need someone like Jeff Moss who understands the hacker's mindset and has the international experience to grasp that today's online attacks can come from just about anywhere on the planet."

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