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All the entries posted on April 02, 2008.
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Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Video: Up close with Microsoft Surface from AT&T
AT&T showed off its version of the Microsoft Surface touch-screen tabletop computer at the wireless industry show in Las Vegas today. The gadgets will be coming to AT&T stores in a handful of cities this month.
Here, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega narrates a demonstration at a media and analyst briefing:
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Wireless: AT&T warms up to Google’s Android
AT&T, the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier, is increasingly interested in the Android mobile device software developed by Google and its partners.
At the wireless industry show in Las Vegas, Ralph de la Vega, president AT&T Mobility, said he initially reserved judgment about Android, but a recent in-depth briefing from Google has left him liking it “a lot more than I did before.”
“I think it’s going to be something that we would want,” he said.
Here’s some more of what he had to say:
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Wireless: Yahoo planning new mobile search service
LAS VEGAS - A year after launching its “oneSearch” search engine for cell phones, Yahoo just announced at the CTIA wireless industry conference here that it is refreshing the software with some new bells and whistles. It plans to roll out the new oneSearch 2.0 this summer with its wireless partners.
Coolest of the features is new voice-activated search technology, so you don’t have to try and type in that business name or restaurant you’re looking for on a tiny keyboard while you’re speeding down the highway. “Semantic search” technology makes it even more useful. Say “March Madness,” for instance, and you’ll get latest NCAA tournament scores and game schedules, according to Yahoo. Say “British Airways 287” and you’ll get current flight information.
If you do want to type your search query, a new predictive text feature will help you complete your searches quickly. Type in “Hil,” for instance, and you’ll get suggestions for Hillary Clinton, Hillary Duff and others.
Yahoo is betting big on the mobile search to help it make up ground it lost to Google in recent years. Google too, of course, isn’t ignoring the mobile search business. It’s “Goog411” service also offers voice-activated search for cell phones.
Many analysts and others say Yahoo may have the lead in mobile search technology, however. In a keynote presentation that just wrapped up here, Yahoo executive vice president Marco Boerries said the company already has partnerships with 29 wireless companies with 600 million subscribers. Yahoo’s strength in mobile search, in fact, is one of the big reasons why Microsoft Corp. wants to buy the company.
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Dell headquarters will use all renewable energy
Dell Inc. said today its Round Rock headquarters campus will use 100 percent renewable energy.
The 2.1 million square foot campus will get its energy from Waste Management’s facility that converts gas from its Austin landfill into energy and wind farms. Dell is buying the wind power from TXU Energy.
Dell also said it will raise renewable energy use from 8 percent to 17 percent at its Austin campus on Parmer Lane.
“It’s time for our industry to take a leading role in creating a clean energy future,” said Paul Bell, president of Dell Americas.
Last year, Dell said it would increase renewable energy use and improve energy efficiency at all of its company owned and leased facilities.
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Wireless: Amazon goes mobile (again)
LAS VEGAS - Amazon.com, the king of online shopping, is hoping - once again - that it can dial-up similar success with mobile phones.
Amazon just launched a new service that lets users shop for and buy goods with a simple text message from their cell phones.
Users who set up an account with Amazon’s new “TextBuyIt” service can send a text message on their cell phone to Amazon with the name of the product they want. Amazon automatically searches the Web and its warehouses for the products and replies with a list of items. To buy, a user just presses a number corresponding to the book or movie or big screen TV they want and the product - and the bill for it - gets automatically sent to their home. Amazon thinks the service will be especially handy for folks who go to a concert and want to instantly buy a CD online, or want to buy a DVD or book that a friend recommended at dinner while they’re on the way home.
The idea of cell-phone commerce - or in industry parlance, mobile or “M-commerce” - is nothing new. Retailers - including Amazon - and wireless companies have been pushing the idea in different forms and fashions for years, with scant success so far.
But that hasn’t kept them from trying. Along with Amazon, many companies at the CTIA wireless industry trade show here this week are showing off new ideas for M-commerce.
They may be - finally - on to something. A Harris Interactive poll earlier this month found that consumers may be warming up to M-commerce. About 25 percent of cell phone users with mobile Internet access said in the survey that they use their phones to buy goods by credit card. About 20 percent said they would someday like to use their phones as a “mobile wallet” to buy goods and get charged for them on their monthly cell phone bill.
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Florida may be a cyberstate but it doesn’t pay well
It sounded great to hear that Florida ranks 4th in total high-tech jobs. But there’s a downside to the findings of the Cyberstates report put out this week by the AeA.
First, the state keeps losing manufacturing jobs. Remember in the Eighties, personal computers were made in Boca Raton. In the Nineties, pagers were produced in Boynton Beach.
Those factories have closed, and while IBM and Motorola still maintain a presence in South Florida, it’s not nearly as large.
The other glaring deficiency brought out in the report was wages. In Florida, the average is $64,400, 30th among states, while the national average is a whopping $79,500. That means high-powered technology development is done elsewhere — California, Massachusetts, New York and Texas.
The AeA is pushing for improvements in K through 12 education, a financial boost for the state’s university research programs and a way to attract more venture capital. The question is: Can any of that turn Florida into a high-tech powerhouse quickly?
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Wireless: AT&T to use Microsoft touch-table tech
Want to know more about that AT&T phone? Just slap it down on this table here (but not too hard).
Taking the touch-screen trend from wireless phones to wireless stores, AT&T says it will use Microsoft Surface to help sell handsets.
The Microsoft Surface is a coffee table-like computer that allows people to interact with a display by touching it and placing objects on the flat 30-inch top.
AT&T will give the technology its first commercial deployment on April 17. It will appear in stores in Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and San Antonio, Texas. All AT&T stores may be next depending on how the pilot program goes.
AT&T plans to demonstrate the Surface Wednesday at the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas. We plan to show you what it looked like. Stay tuned.