$190.00 Phone Bill Sound Familiar?

Ok just recieved my cellular telephone bill. Im sure someone out there hears me when I say. Whats with these $39.95 a month plans that get carried out into hundreds of dollars in the long run? I mean come on you cant expect eveyone to pay an arm and a leg for these things. However call me a sucker I am going to pay it. I just dont think it is fair for them to charge that much for overage. The moral of the story is “DO NOT” use your cellular providers data service (i.e. Ringtones, Weather, etc. ). They will only grant you a one way ticket to an early disconnection fee.
This is not my first cell phone bill nor will it be my last cell phone bill. Please I would love some feedback on this post. Im sure I am not the only one who has ever dispised their cellular or static telephone company.

Motorola V710

The Motorola V710 appeared to be an excellent phone. It had everything the Razor had to offer and more. However there were several things I didn’t like about the phone also. Now I will admit most of the features had been disabled by my carrier.

One of the main features that have been disabled is the ability to place an mp3 file on the external transflash card, and use the file as a ring tone. This is obviously an attempt to encourage use of their data service to obtain ring tones. So just to make things worse the camera takes grainy photos and even worse video. The phone obviously has the capability of a 1995 webcam :) . After about 4 months of use my Motorola V710 just froze up and stopped functioning. So I purchased a Nokia 6255I and am actually impressed with Nokia’s new camera phone. This phone features to memory card expansion slots for storage of mp3’s, photos and any other data you can stuff on a MMC card. However once again I believe this feature has been disabled by my carrier. It also takes crystal clear photo and video that is actually worth shooting. The infared feature seems to work however transfer of photos from the phone to any other device via Bluetooth or infared has also been disabled. It seems to be an overall great phone. However the phone is rather blocky and I have never been a big fan of Nokia’s phone interface. This phone is a nice phone however with all these features being disabled it makes for a sour experience.

FCC Shows Rugged Pocket PC Phone From Panasonic

The FCC approved a new ruggedized Pocket PC Phone from Panasonic. The Toughbook CF-P2 has both GSM/GPRS 850/1900 as well as 802.11b Wi-Fi and Blutooth. It also features n full numeric keypad, LCD screen with light sensor for automatic backlight adjustment and SD slot. It runs Windows Mobile 2003 SE. Since it is part of Panasonic’s Toughbook line, the CF-P2 is ruggedized against a range of shock, temperature and humidity. However it is not designed for use in extreme conditions (the arctic, deserts, under water). The toughbook will most likely be available through Panasonic and their resellers, not through carriers.

Are Pringles Can Cantennas Illegal?

A Sacramento California teenager was recently arrested for hacking into his schools computer systems and changing his grades. Sacramento police searched the teen’s home and found several Pringles can cantennas and other electronic equipment they presumed to be illegal.

“While these devices are un-sophisticated there are still very powerful.” said Lt. Bob Lozito of the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force. These antennas are sometimes used as a device to access wireless networks from a distance. Many wireless networks are not secured using the common 128 bit WEP and WAP protection methods. Even though some may have the encryption implemented many networks have a misconception about network security. There is still a chance for anyone from a distance to access your data through a wireless network. There is a program available for Linux called Airsnort which allows a person to simply monitor a networks traffic and capture data packets. Once enough packets have been gathered the wireless encryption key can then be reconstructed. This can sometimes take six hours or more to do depending on the volume of traffic on your network. Even so if you are using a wireless network it is still very likely that your data could be at risk. Using other security features such as SSL (secure Socket Layer) 128 bit and getting PGP encryption software are still a good idea. If you still can’t sleep convert your network to a wired LAN and store all your sensitive data on a USB external hard drive. When the network is not in use you can simply power off the external hard drive preventing access to the data.

I personally have built one of these antennas to work with a PCMIA wireless notebook card to obtain a better signal. As far as I know it is not illegal to use a cantenna, yagi antenna or any other type of wireless Hi-Gain antenna. However it is against FCC regulations to amplify a wi-fi signal. There are many resources on the internet that provide instructions on how to construct one of these devices. The Pringles Can Antenna on The Cheap is a good one. I don’t believe it is illegal to possess a Pringles can nor is it illegal

Sprint Music Store hits sour note with price

In September, Apple, Cingular and Motorola teamed on ROKR, the first mobile music phone to synchronize with Apple’s popular iTunes jukebox software. But the ROKR met a lukewarm reception. It can hold just 100 songs, compared with thousands on most iPods.

To transfer songs to the ROKR, you have to connect the phone via USB cable to a PC or Mac. It can’t download music “over the air,” straight to your handset. Neither could other music phones sold in the USA.

Until now.

This week, Sprint Nextel introduced the Sprint Music Store, a service that lets you browse, preview, buy and download songs on the fly. The songs can be grabbed by one of two compatible handsets: the $230 (with rebate and two-year service contract) Sanyo MM-9000 and the $250 (also after rebate) Samsung SPH-A940. Each is also a camera-phone that offers you live TV, among other multimedia tricks. But it’s over-the-air downloadable music that catches your attention.

Full-track music downloads to a cellphone, without a computer, had previously been available only overseas. The idea seems pretty irresistible. Putting music on your cellphone, after all, means one less gadget to have to carry around.

In my tests with the Sanyo and Samsung models, the Sprint download operation worked mostly without a hitch. If your cell coverage fails (as mine sometimes did), you can’t tap into the music store. But you can play back already downloaded music.

When folded, the two flip phones are shorter and thicker than the candy-bar-shaped ROKR. They come with memory cards that provide pretty limited song capacity — even less than ROKR has. But you can vastly increase those limits by buying optional cards, which I’d expect most music fans to do.

There’s something undeniably cool about having a three- to five-minute song arrive on your phone, just 30 to 45 seconds after ordering it on the handset. You can sample a 30-second preview before buying it.

Here’s what’s not cool: the price of the transaction. Sprint seems badly out of tune with the rest of the online music market. Each track you buy costs $2.50. That compares with 99 cents on iTunes and even less on some other services.

Sprint’s price excludes the $15 to $25 you’ll have to pay for a monthly data plan (which you’d do anyway to access multimedia services). If you don’t opt for a data plan, a single tune can singe you for $22.50.

Sprint’s reasoning is simple: Consumers will pay a premium for instant access and convenience. Plus, you actually get two high-quality copies of the same song. One is tethered to the phone; the other can be downloaded to your computer.

The PC version is a Windows Media file that you can burn to a CD and play on some portable devices. You have the right to copy the song onto three computers.

Sprint’s price strategy

You might think Sprint’s pricing strategy was influenced by the ring-tone market. Customers already fork over at least $2 to $3 to download a customizable musical ring tone. But ring tones, which are about personalization, may be able to command a higher price.

The songs you download through the music store can’t be used as ring tones. Licensing restrictions forbid it. And even if they didn’t, the first 15 seconds of a downloaded tune might not be the most ideal section of a song for a ring tone.

I doubt the iPod crowd will agree to spend $2.50 for music, no matter how convenient. Even those who don’t own a portable player may find it too steep.

It’s too bad, because I think over-the-air downloads are a terrific idea. And Sprint has done a good job designing the music store in this first incarnation.

When you click on the music icon in either phone’s main menu, you’re taken to the store. The first time you arrive, you must create a four-digit password. The Sprint store (powered by Groove Mobile) has about 250,000 songs, with ever-growing content from four major labels: EMI, Sony BMG, Warner and Universal.

To help you find tracks, the phone’s screen lists a few songs under a Featured Music section (i.e., selections from Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West). You can use the phone’s buttons to scout titles under such categories as Weekly New Releases and What’s Hot.

You can also browse by genre or search for an artist or song. Enter a name by single-, double- and triple-tapping on the phone’s keypad. (Neither handset has a traditional, qwerty keyboard.)

I downloaded music from Eminem, Carole King and Frank Sinatra, among others. The songs you buy are tagged to an individual account. That way, if you change phones in the future, the songs remain with you.

While previewing or playing back music, you can see a thumbnail image of the album cover. I had to squint, though, to make it out on the Samsung screen. The image was slightly more visible on the larger Sanyo display.

The PC version of the song you buy shows up in your account on the Web so you can download it. Alas, you can’t also shop for music through Sprint on the Web.

Boosting song capacity

The Sanyo and Samsung phones come with tiny, small-capacity memory cards. Sanyo’s is a 16-megabyte MiniSD card, Samsung’s a 32-MB TransFlash card. One song takes roughly 1 megabyte. So you’re looking at storage limits of about 16 and 32 songs, respectively — not much.

But you can buy optional cards to boost those limits to 1 gigabyte, or about 1,000 songs. With adequate storage, you can also move music on your computer to the phone. Depending on the phone, that involves either connecting a USB cable or inserting a memory card into a reader connected to your PC. The phone accepts files in the MP3 or AAC format; you must have the digital license to transfer a song. When a call comes in, the handset mutes the music.

Now, if only Sprint would provide more harmonious pricing, I’d be singing a happier tune.

Microsoft unveils bigger push into Web software

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, unveiled Web services based on its flagship Windows and Office products as part of its strategy to deliver software over the Internet and cash in on a fast-growing market that has been staked out by smaller rivals.

At an invitation-only gathering for analysts and media held in San Francisco, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates outlined what he called “live software” that aims to make software a service, linking all digital media, applications and devices.

The new Web software will initially be supported by advertising revenue, though the company will later offer paid subscriptions. “This is a big change for everybody,” Gates told the gathering. “It is employing every part of the (software) ecosystem.”

The company will offer “Office Live” to help small and midsize businesses use and maintain the suite of software used for applications such as email, scheduling, spreadsheets and word processing.For consumers, Microsoft Corp. unwrapped its “Windows Live” service that combines things like instant-messaging from its MSN service, email and a service for creating blogs. The new service will also allow users to do such things as move information from one computer to another. “Seamlessness is key to the live strategy,” said Microsoft chief technical officer Ray Ozzie. “There’s a significant opportunity for revenue growth through advertising as it pertains to software as a service.” Upstarts such as Salesforce.com Inc. have been growing rapidly by providing business owners with Internet-based applications for tracking customer relationships and managing back-office functions.

Those applications are less expensive than competing programs from larger rivals because they are hosted on the software providers’ computer servers, rather than those of their customers. Clients also pay a monthly fee based on how much they use the service. Microsoft is at the beginning of a slight shift in strategy as it adds services to its existing software offerings, including its dominant Windows operating system, according to Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions of Microsoft, an independent research firm that tracks the company. Executives at Microsoft “realize that they have to be there” in the market for so-called on-demand software, Rosoff said. As the world’s biggest software company, Microsoft easily dominates the market for operating systems to power computers with its Windows, as well as with the Office applications. But Microsoft is facing stepped-up pressure from rivals such as Internet search giant Google Inc. Competitors have been able to capitalize on technology to quickly bring innovative and often frequently updated products to market.

Searching For The Pod Of Gold

As podcasting’s popularity grows, companies are seeing dollar signs

The buzz that built up around podcasting after its debut a year ago wasn’t about money. The technology, which makes it easy for people to create their own audio recordings and post them on the Web, sparked imaginations because it allowed anyone to create a radio show about pretty much anything, from German board games to vegan cooking. Podcasting was innovation for outsiders. And to the early purists, talk of profits was nothing less than heresy.

Not anymore. Today, upstarts, venture capitalists, and media giants are all hard at work trying to figure out how to make podcasting pay. They’re experimenting with advertisements, subscriptions, even with having on-air personalities talk up certain products, like in the early days of radio. The latest sign of commercialization? This month, pioneer Adam Curry is launching a podcast network, with 30 to 50 shows that will split ad revenues. The concept won Curry a $9.8 million investment from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, two top venture firms in Silicon Valley. “We saw the amazing adoption across the Net, and it was obvious that there was a big opportunity,” says Mark Kvamme, a partner at Sequoia.

Mavericks such as Curry don’t have podcasting all to themselves anymore. Traditional media companies, including CBS (VIA ), Clear Channel Communications (CCU ), and Walt Disney (DIS ), are lining up their podcasts right next to those from indies. Tech giants America Online, (TWX ) Apple Computer (AAPL ), and Yahoo! (YHOO ) are rushing in with aggregation services that collect thousands of podcasts in one place, laying the foundation for selling shows and ads. iTunes offers 15,000 podcasts, and listeners have signed up for 7 million subscriptions.

Some models are emerging. Many podcasters are turning to sponsorships, which typically involve a 15- or 30-second audio ad at the beginning of the podcast. The popular podcasts usually set flat rates ranging from a few thousand dollars a month to as much as $45,000. In February, Volvo (VOLVY ) agreed to pay $60,000 for a six-month sponsorship of the monthly podcast of Weblog Inc.’s Autoblog, as well as advertising on the site itself. Over that period, the show was downloaded 150,000 times.

Because the number of listeners is changing fast, a flat-rate sponsorship can end up being a bargain or a bust. KCRW, the public radio station in Santa Monica, cut a deal with Southern California Lexus Dealers for a sponsorship this summer, when the station was getting 20,000 downloads a week. Since then the number spiked to 100,000. When the Lexus deal ends, KCRW plans to charge $25 per thousand listeners. “Once we get out of this sweetheart deal, our goal is to cast our net as wide as possible,” says Jacki K. Weber, KCRW’s development director.

The rates podcasters are getting are attracting attention. Although there aren’t reliable figures for the whole field, the $25 per thousand listeners that KCRW plans to charge seems to be about average for popular podcasts. That’s pretty lofty, considering a New York City morning radio show charges between $12 and $15.

Why the premium for some podcasts? They help advertisers reach specific groups, even as media fragments. “You have to think of this more as investing in a valuable customer,” says Mary Kang, associate media director at StarLink, a Chicago ad agency. That’s one reason Sequoia’s Kvamme thinks podcasting could siphon $1 billion to $2 billion away from the $30 billion radio advertising market in three to five years.

Podcasters are experimenting with ways of pulling in money without advertising. This Week In Tech, an indie podcast with over 200,000 listeners, asks for $2 donations per month and rakes in around $10,000 a month. Others think listeners will pay a monthly subscription fee for content or perhaps a one-time download charge.

Curry is pushing the limits for indies. His troupe of podcasters plans to offer advertisers a host of possibilities, including spots where a podcaster tries out a product and podcasts devoted entirely to a product or service. Gretchen Vogelzang and Paige Heninger, the Virginia women behind the show Mommycast in Curry’s network, will promote a new toy from Hasbro Inc. (HAS ), iDog, on each episode.

Still, for all the energy some podcasters are pouring into making money, they will be dwarfed by the thousands who aren’t pursuing riches. For them, the original allure of podcasting remains: creating their own show, even if only for a few close friends.

Seagate Hosts Consumer Electronics Conference in Seoul

Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX), the world’s leading hard drive company, today announced that it will hold a Consumer Electronics (CE) Conference at Shinla Hotel in Seoul on November 4. The CE conference is designed to help local CE manufacturers have a better understanding of global CE hard disc drive market trends and Seagate products developed especially for CE applications.

Dave Yang, Seagate’s Asia-Pacific CE manager, will highlight the emerging needs for storage as entertainment and other digital content continues to proliferate. Seagate continues to expand its CE hard disc drive product offerings for applications ranging from automobile navigation and entertainment, to home theater, handheld audio, video, communications and computing. They include a breakthrough hard drive designed specifically for use in cars; the first 8GB 1-inch hard drive for handheld applications; the first 2.5-inch hard drive designed specifically for consumer electronics devices; and the industry’s highest capacity drive - a 500GB model - for DVRs (digital video recorder) and home entertainment systems.

Seagate works closely with its CE partners to enable them to be fast-to-market with innovative, best-in-class products. To that end, Seagate’s technological edge enables it to provide its partners with a comprehensive suite of industry-leading products and services. Seagate’s unique Design Service Centers (DSC) for Consumer Electronics in the US and Singapore offer a variety of services, including testing, integration and mechanical analysis, to help customers design, innovate and deliver new hard drive-capable entertainment devices. Regionally, Seagate’s System Integration Engineering (SIE) Labs also support local customers’ immediate needs. SIE Labs are located in Tokyo and Taipei.

Better processes behind ebusiness growth, says CBI

Half of UK companies now fully integrating their business processes
James Watson, Computing 19 Oct 2005

Half of UK companies are fully integrating their business processes by linking front-end operations with inventory and supply chain systems.

This compares with just 10 per cent in 2002, according to a CBI report published this week that highlights the progress companies have made in ebusiness over the past three years.

While the main priority for businesses is still cost cutting, attention is also focused on improving customer services.

Employee relations is another area where the uptake of ebusiness is booming. Some 54 per cent of the 314 respondents in the survey use electronic processes for staff entitlements, and a further fifth (21 per cent) plan to do so.

In addition, 81 per cent said they have fully or partially implemented remote working.

‘Firms are realising that what works with your employees is a precursor to what will work with your customers,’ said Jeremy Beale, head of the CBI’s ebusiness unit.
But progress in improving customer and employee-focused systems is not being matched by improvements in corporate supply chains.

Nearly 80 per cent of firms have introduced electronic payments in their supply chain, but fewer than half use electronic invoicing or online tendering.

Software Notebook: Microsoft targets IBM, Oracle set

By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Setting the stage for a showdown with two of its biggest rivals, Microsoft will release an overhauled version of its corporate database program today, trying to move further into the territory of Oracle and IBM.

The program, SQL Server 2005, aims to give Microsoft a larger role on the behind-the- scenes computer servers that store and manage data for big businesses. Although much of the company’s past focus has been on small and medium businesses, Microsoft says it has made a series of improvements to better suit SQL Server for large-scale uses, too.

“It absolutely represents Microsoft continuing to scale for the enterprise,” said Steve Guggenheimer, general manager for application platform and development marketing in Microsoft’s Server & Tools Division.

It’s another step in Microsoft’s broader effort to expand beyond its traditional software for personal computers. In contrast with Windows and Office for PCs, which dominate their respective markets, the database field is one where Microsoft is trying to come from behind.

The worldwide corporate database market totaled $15 billion in 2004, the IDC research firm says. Oracle led with 41 percent market share, followed by IBM with 31 percent and Microsoft with about 13 percent. The MySQL open-source database also has a big market presence.

Oracle executives acknowledged last week that Microsoft has made improvements in the latest SQL Server version, but they said they still don’t think it stacks up to their database systems for large businesses.

“I know that they think they’ve done a very good job, and all kudos to them,” said Mark Townsend, Oracle senior product management director. “But they’re still only just starting. Quite literally, there’s nothing that they’ve brought out that we didn’t have five to 10 years ago.”

Willie Hardie, Oracle’s vice president of database product marketing, cited advantages including the fact that its systems work not only on Windows but also on other operating systems, such as Linux and Unix.

At the same time, improvements in Windows-based servers help Microsoft’s prospects with the new SQL Server, said Jeff Reed, chief technology officer of Logicalis USA, which offers computer and networking systems that include high-end databases.

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With the new release, Microsoft is “targeting the enterprise, the mid- and large-business sector,” Reed said. “Because that has typically been the domain of Oracle, they’re targeting Oracle.”

Further boosting the rivalry between the companies, Oracle has been working to adapt its offerings, traditionally used by large companies, for small- and medium-sized businesses.

An executive with a company that partners with Microsoft is upbeat on the new SQL Server’s prospects. Among other things, he cited the lower cost of the Microsoft system.

“I think it’s a game- changer,” said JD Hammerly, vice president of North America for Areva T&D, which offers software and systems for operators of electrical grids and markets. He said Areva, which also offers Oracle-based systems, would be able to use the new SQL Server with larger customers than in the past.

SQL Server 2005 is one of the products to be launched today at a San Francisco event headlined by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Microsoft will also release the Visual Studio 2005 software development system and discuss the upcoming debut of the BizTalk Server 2006 tool for managing processes in specialized business software.

Each of the programs is from Microsoft’s Server & Tools Division, which has been performing well enough to make up for some of the sluggish growth in the company’s PC Windows and Office divisions. Microsoft said improved sales of the current SQL Server 2000 version were a key factor in the division’s 13 percent revenue growth last quarter.

With the new SQL Server release, Microsoft is aiming to lure existing customers of Oracle, IBM’s DB2 and other databases by offering discounts of as much as 50 percent to people who switch from those systems.

Microsoft today is expected to show benchmarks to demonstrate the capabilities of the new SQL Server in handling the big databases used by large companies. Guggenheimer said the company will also talk about the addition of business intelligence features and other improvements to the database program. It will also show how SQL, Visual Studio and BizTalk work together in specific situations.

Microsoft also is expected to talk about companies that will offer or work with the new software in various ways — including hardware makers Hitachi, NEC, Fujitsu and IBM’s hardware unit.

SQL Server is generally considered easier to use than its rivals, and the latest version does bring improvements in dealing with large databases, said Noel Yuhanna, Forrester Research senior analyst. At the same time, he said, Microsoft still may have some persuading to do when it comes to winning over customers who use the high-end capabilities of Oracle and IBM’s DB2.

SQL Server 2005 “is a first attempt by Microsoft to reach and close the gap with Oracle and IBM,” Yuhanna said. “I think time will tell,” he said.