News reports are that Dell is engineering an Apple iPod Rival, which will do pretty much everything that iPod does, but at a fraction of the price. Wall Street Journal has got hints that price may be in the range of just $100 USD, which surely looks very interesting. Guess they will launch it just before Thanksgiving Holidays :-)
This video has updates:
So those of us who want functionality, can use the Dell option (even LG/Samsung may come up with something soon). And those who want to use Apple (and feel stylish about it), can of course stay on with the iPod – surely there will be innovations in it. Steve Jobs is never satisfied with status quo- which is good.
Category Archives: Mobile & Telecom
How to Set up Wireless Network at Home?
Over the years, Wi-Fi implementations have moved toward thin access-points, with more of the network intelligence packed in a centralized network appliance, and making individual access-points mere “plug-in points”. Wi-Fi technology is now spread widely within business and industrial sites, who usually prefer a large number of Wi-Fi access-points for redundancy, support for fast roaming and increased overall network-capacity by using more channels or by defining smaller cells. Wi-Fi also enables wireless voice-applications.
Agent Peterson of the Geek Squad at Zdnet explains how to choose the right equipment and set up a wireless network at home.
- The main thing is to know which devices you have at home, which can help you choose theright technology.
- Cordless and Microphones create network interference.
- Bathroom and Kitchen create locational interference because of the large amount of metal used.
- Wireless range expander is a very handy solution.
Tags: Wireless Home Network, Network, Home Network, Integration, Wi-Fi, Wireless
Open Handset Alliance announced -Google Android to Arrive soon
Google has announced the details of its mobile OS strategy. It’s called Android and its the brainchild of the so-called “Open Handset Alliance.” The Daily Tech Rag reports on the latest and very interesting development in the Mobile application space.
Google has teamed up with 34 different partners in the technology space (including NVIDIA, Intel, Texas Instruments, Synaptics, Marvell, Qualcomm, Motorola, Samsung, T-Mobile, Sprint, Skype, LG, HTC, KDDI, DoCoMo and China Mobile) to create the Open Handset Alliance (OHA)–a group focused on building an open, fully customizable alternative to closed operating systems like Windows Mobile 6, Symbian S60 and the iPhone OS.
The OHA’s first product will be Android, an open-source mobile OS and associated application suite that’s built on the Linux operating system (and will be open-sourced via the Apache v2 License). The Android SDK will be made available to developers on November 12th and Android-sporting handsets will flood the market next year, from device manufacturers like HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung.
These handsets will be available during the second half of 2008 in the U.S. (from T-Mobile and Sprint) China, Japan, Germany, Italy and Spain. As has been reported earlier, the Android OS will be targeted toward consumers and will be available to OEMs free of charge (the OS will be ad-supported, like all of Google’s other apps).
“A few observations:
- It’s interesting that Google isn’t putting their own name on this but rather, taking a step back and pushing the OHA brand. While this certainly seems like a collaborative effort to a degree, it’s clear that Google is the driving force here–they’ve had the OS in development for three years now.
- Will this force other carriers/device manufacturers (most notably AT&T, Verizon, Nokia, RIM and Apple) to open up their handset platforms?
- Does this mean that just about every desktop developer who has thus far been shuttered out of the wireless industry will make a mad dash for that SDK in order to have an Android app out by next year? You had better believe it.
From the looks of it, Google and the OHA are sitting on what could be a real game-changer here, in terms of openness, user-customization and mobile functionality. Android is expected to usher in an age where mobile devices operate more like PCs, with users downloading, installing and customizing to their heart’s content. ”
Endadget has compiled some useful background information – if you want more details.
Read – Google press release
Read – Android mobile OS overview
Read – Google blog: “Where’s my Gphone?
Skype Users Pay Attention – Skype Defender Trojan Alert
With about 10 million people online on Skype at anytime, it’s probably the biggest communication channel in the world today, and with many new paid-plugins coming for improving the productivity from Skype, more people are using their credit cards to buy Skype minutes and also various plugins, like for call recording, fax, etc. In all Skype is rapidly established as a communication base for both people on a tight-budget and well-off professionals who like the convenience of having free online telecons, and other office tools.
All this activity has resulted in multiple phishing attacks on Skype in the recent weeks. That sets the set for a new Skype malware/trojan that calls itself Skype Defender, which sounds like a security plug-in. On Oct 16, Skype has given a warning on its own blog about the Skype Defender Trojan Alert
Here’s another report with images from F-Secure.com
The trojan steals your Skype login and password and passes it somewhere else. And it also steals any passwords saved using Internet Explorer (IE). Why is IE constantly behind Firefox in security despite having more resources? You can’t change the world, but you can change your browser. Consider using Forefox – its a safer option.
How to get your $100 iPhone Credit
This is for those who had already bought the iPhone on the initial launch prices. Rich DeMuro, Senior Editor for CNET tells how.