DigitalMediaTrends.com

Intel: WiMax Goes Live In '08

WiMax is coming, seriously, this time. Chip maker Intel, whose invested hundreds of millions into the technology, is so sure that WiMax will go live in 2008 it's pumping its next-generation semiconductor technology with a new Wi-Fi/WiMax module called Echo Peak. What does any of that mean? On a larger scale, notebooks powered by the technology, called Montevina, will process information faster and be low-power, but they'll also support the new mobile WiMax standard being developed by Sprint Nextel and Clearwire that you've heard about for nearly five years. According to a recent Intel announcement, 150 million people will have WiMax access by 2008, 750 million by 2010 and 1.3 billion by 2012. More ...

P2P Network Turns Bandwidth Into Currency

A research team has created a new peer-to-peer file-sharing system that penalizes those who take while rewarding those "selfless" sharers who contribute content to the network. A manners-enforcing file-sharing network addresses the issue of clogged networks; networks become sluggish when more users are downloading content rather than sharing it. The new system, dubbed Tribler, effectively turns bandwidth into a currency, promoting P2P stewardship. Tribler is already being used by Sony to turn its Web-enabled PlayStation 3 video game console into a file-sharing device. It's also being reviewed by the European Broadcasting Union, which wants to pump TV across the Web. The idea would be to connect a TV directly to the Web, turning it into an entirely on-demand experience; the system automatically shares downloaded programs as a TV lies dormant, collecting download "currency." More ...

U.S. Can't Compete With Japanese Web Quality

Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it. Broadband service in the Land of the Rising Sun is anywhere from eight to 30 times faster than the U.S. (depending on where you live)--not to mention cheaper. Studies show that it has the world's fastest connections, too, which will likely make Japan the vanguard of Internet innovation for years to come. By offering big phone companies huge subsidies, the Japanese government compelled Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. to a nationwide build-out of fiber-optic wire to homes. The shorter, faster wires enable the transfer of information at speeds of up to 17 times faster than in the U.S. The result? The Japanese can watch broadcast-quality, full-screen HD television over the Web, an experience that puts our grainy, windowed, broadband video to shame. The quality is so good it even allows doctors to make crucial surgical decisions through video conferencing. More ...

Google To Announce Mobile Operating System

Google's mobile phone operating system is getting ready for a formal unveiling, possibly next month, according to their sources. The tech blog has christened the Linux-based system the "Gphone OS," which it says is a long time in coming. Google in 2005 acquired the mobile software company Android, whose former president and CEO Andy Rubin has been spearheading big G's OS project. Apparently, Rubin's team is currently shopping the program around to handset makers and carriers, whose various agreements Google needs to establish distribution. Engadget expects an OS announcement with distribution partners to come sometime after Labor Day. Meanwhile, the report downplays the possibility that Google is planning a phone of its own, saying that Google is sticking to the turf of Microsoft and Opera instead of competing with handset makers like Nokia and Apple. More ...

VCs Pownce On Latest Rose Project

Kevin Rose, the 30-year-old entrepreneur who started the community-based article voting site Digg.com and the Web video production firm Revision3, is at it again. His new project is a social networking, instant messaging, file-sharing hybrid called Pownce. Given Rose's track record, venture capitalists are lining up to get a glimpse.  More ...

Google Buys Spam Fighter

Google dipped into its large cash reserves to buy e-mail security firm Postini for $625 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The San Carlos, Calif., company provides software for companies to guard against spam and viruses entering their networks. The acquisition comes a week after Google closed another deal to buy telecom provider Grand Central Communications, which lets consumers have a single number for several phones. More ...

Google Strengthens Apps With Postini

Google's acquisition of Web security service provider Postini for $625 million came as no surprise to industry analysts, who saw bundling enterprise-level security into Google Apps as the search giant's next logical step toward SAAS domination. San Carlos, CA-based Postini will become a Google subsidiary, but its client base of 35,000 companies--including Circuit City and Mitsubishi Motors--will not be obligated to use the Google Apps suite of hosted services that include email, calendaring and instant messaging functions. More ...

The Widget Way to 3-D

Second Life and other virtual worlds have grabbed most of the attention when it comes to 3-D imagery online. But Web-building service Freewebs made a splash recently with a new widget - currently in beta - that turns digital photos into 3-D pictures. The technology, dubbed "Fotowoosh," lets users convert digital photos taken outdoors into 3-D models and publish them on their Web site or blog. Created by a Ph.D. candidate in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, Fotowoosh identifies sections of an outdoor image as ground, vertical or sky to determine where to "cut" and "fold" it before creating a virtual pop-up. More ...

Google Losing Talent, Too

A lot has been said about the employee exodus at Yahoo, but fellow Web giant Google is also losing employees, particularly to Internet startups. Whereas Yahoo's staff defection has more to do with the company's recent failures, Google's has more to do with the kind of employee it seeks: entrepreneurs. Such creative minds have been the secret to the search giant's success, but eventually employees want to go out on their own. As former Google employee Justin Rosenstein, a 24-year-old software engineer who left to join the social network site Facebook, says, another reason they leave is because Google, now 12,000 strong, can't execute as quickly as it used to, leaving many entrepreneur types feeling fidgety. Also, for thousands of employees brought into Google between 2003 and 2004, some highly lucrative stock options are vesting, and with the company's stock hovering near all-time highs at around $530 per share, they may feel like cashing in and just hanging out for a while. For those who want to move on, there's the potential reward at a promising Web startup. More ...

Wizzard Conjures New Keyword App: Podcasts

Keyword search advertising has transformed much of the online business. Now it's about to impact a growing, but still largely underexploited, area of online content: podcasts. Wizzard Media, the fledgling advertising sales unit of technology firm and podcast aggregator Wizzard Software, is poised to introduce a keyword advertising feature to thousands of podcasts it offers for sponsorship to national advertisers and agencies. More ...