Now you can pay by simply using your voice. Voice Pay: Pay by Voice: "To use Voice Pay, consumers first need to set up an account. This one-time enrollment process involves calling a Voice Pay number from a cell phone and establishing a user name and password, as well as providing credit-card information. The consumer will also be asked to register a particular cell-phone number and give a voice print by repeating a series of randomly generated numbers."
P.s. Make sure you do not day-dream of shopping. Before you know, your account deposits will follow whatever you say before you wake up :-)
Monday, June 11, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
iPod and Nike Sports kit
Do you jog with your iPod? Now it helps you keep track of your health as well. iPod with Nike Sports Kit, complete with the pedometer.
Friday, May 18, 2007
iPhone is OK'd by the FCC
The iPhone is OK'ed by FCC today. The only question now is the timing and pricing of the launch. Since there is so much press and blogging on iPhone aleady, I would refrain from writing about it. Will that price point work to get Apple the stated goal of 10% market share? is the question now. TG Daily
qode.com - It's in the code
This company qode.com - It's in the code has a downloadable Java application that can enable your mobile phone to read Barcodes. This technology is being used in Japan to read barcodes (from billboards or magazines) by pointing your cell camera to the barcode and taking a picture. The web browser instantly takes you the website with special offers. Imagine a McDonald's billboard with a barcode on it. You take a picture and get a 20% coupon on your cell.
I have a version of this app on my MOTORAZR and it works well. I also tried this on the ISBN number of the book on my desk and I was taken to its publisher's website.
I have a version of this app on my MOTORAZR and it works well. I also tried this on the ISBN number of the book on my desk and I was taken to its publisher's website.
Sabeer Bhatia - The Hotmail founder
Recently had a chance to meet with Sabeer Bhatia, The hotmail founder. He gave a talk in UCSD on "Web 2.0" and what was memorable in his talk was his story of selling hotmail.com to Microsoft. I found this story on Asiaweek.com about him pretty close to how he described his negotiations with Bill Gates & co. Currently he is busy with Arzoo.com in India, apart from his NanoCity project. Got to see the human side of the big names in Silicon Valley.
Jott.com - Mobile Note Taking and Hands-Free Messaging
Just came across this company. Jott Networks. Jott.com - Mobile Note Taking and Hands-Free Messaging Started by 2 ex-Microsoft employees. The idea is simple. Speak something and it becomes a written word.
Most Americans spend time a lot of time in the car and get an idea or a thought while driving when there is nothing to write on or the hands are on the wheel. Here is your chance to let someone else write it down and send to wherever you want. It could be as simple as you need to reserve a seat for dinner or as important as a patent idea. The company provides a number for you to call and then all you need to do is leave a voicemail. The tool sends you the written note in an email or text message format.
Most Americans spend time a lot of time in the car and get an idea or a thought while driving when there is nothing to write on or the hands are on the wheel. Here is your chance to let someone else write it down and send to wherever you want. It could be as simple as you need to reserve a seat for dinner or as important as a patent idea. The company provides a number for you to call and then all you need to do is leave a voicemail. The tool sends you the written note in an email or text message format.
Friday, August 05, 2005
The RIM-Microsoft war starts...
Motorola Moto Q The world's thinnest
office email phone powered by Microsoft Window's mobile 5.0 versions (first such device) is all set to challenge Blackberry's RIM
next spring. It will be an interesting game to watch. Somehow I sense a deja vu. Reminds me of the last OS war between Microsoft
and Symbian (Nokia).
office email phone powered by Microsoft Window's mobile 5.0 versions (first such device) is all set to challenge Blackberry's RIM
next spring. It will be an interesting game to watch. Somehow I sense a deja vu. Reminds me of the last OS war between Microsoft
and Symbian (Nokia).
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Motorola and Samsung to share mobile technology patents
Motorola and Samsung to share mobile technology patents| Reuters.com Many big companies are avoiding the patent fights which are proving to be really expensive to everyone and ultimately hurting the industry. Here is a news of two big mobile companies coming together to resolve their patent differences. Samsung and some Japanese companies are already doing that in some other areas. Not everyone agrees though that, resolving it outside courts might be a good idea. Nokia has decided to challenge some decisions in this regard with Interdigital. Nokia may contest patent arbitration decision - Yahoo! News
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
The telecom consolidation continues....
Motorola buys Sendo | Reuters UK Just when I wrote about consolidation, here is one more...Mot buys Sendo now.
BenQ Buys Siemens Mobile
BenQ Buys Siemens Mobile - News Headlines - Mobiledia The consolidation continues in both sides. Cingular buys AT&T Wireless, Sprints acquires Nextel and now BenQ buys Siemens mobile. Sony Ericsson is already an old story. How long will this continue? In long term, I guess there will be only a few telecom carriers on one end and a few chipset manufacturers on the other end. In the middle, there will be the (remaining few) handset manufacturers who might end up just being the "cost cutting" and "form factor/UI" experts, with their markets shares looking like dancing graphs every quarter.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Markets are already watching the new kid on the block
BW 50: Qualcomm: The Son Gets The Call
Markets have already started watching him. So far the reviews are positive. They say now he has to eye big partners like Motorola.
Markets have already started watching him. So far the reviews are positive. They say now he has to eye big partners like Motorola.
Friday, June 17, 2005
Qualcomm CEO elect Paul Jacob's headline event
Recently attended the SDTC headliner event Qualcomm CEO elect Paul Jacobs' address and interview . A well-attended event with about 300 San Diego telecom folks around, looked like all the advertising of this event that SDTC did had paid off.
After the initial SDTC formalities, it came to Dr Paul Jacobs' interview. This young CEO-elect who is all set to take over a multi-billion company (by July 1st ) which some say is the poised to become next monopoly, a la Microsoft, looked quiet pleasant and an accessible kind of person. and there he was… He started off by saying everyone to please switch their cell phones ON as that is what would keep everyone in the business. :-)
His speech
In his 10 page presentation titled "Convergence at hand - New opportunities for Qualcomm and its partners", Dr Jacob talked mainly about two issues he says are close to his heart and also feature on his agenda for years to come: partnerships and innovations.
what partnerships?
Well... the first one is well-known about Qcom, but the second? He explained. For past few years, QC has been active in building the telecom eco-system that has enabled the manufacturers, carriers and content developers launch some new products and services, and they will continue doing that. Apart from the technology, does that sound a lot like Brew? well, yes. After all he was one of the main driving forces behind the idea of BREW itself. (In fact he came up with that name BREW, which he talked about later in Q&A.)
What kind of partnerships he means? He continued... Companies from Japan are coming up with a lot of innovative ideas for products like cell phone eg. someone developed an application to take a picture of english text and translate to Japanese. Well, Qualcomm would not get into such innovation, but partner with such companies to integrate those ideas in their platforms and enable them run. He maintained QC enabled the garage developers by making them available the BREW platform and training.
Okay, what about carriers? He said just like everyone else, QC is watching the telecom markets and services launched in Asian hubs of Japan and S Korea, the region which is being termed the "World's laboratory" for telecom.
Customers in these countries can shell out top $$$$ for advanced business and entertainment services on cell phones. He cited video services as an example. When video was offered "flat rate", the uptake was huge. So huge that it took 70%+ of the network bandwidth. but when carriers brought it to "per packet" service, the demand reduced very drastically. so how can QC help here? By optimizing the bandwidth of networks with technological innovations so that carriers can still offer these services at a flat rate or equivalent.
Keeping the costs down
As opposed to the Asian markets, US markets are very conservative in spending on new services like video. These markets are also "price conscious", so it becomes essential to reduce the price of the handsets. That’s where QC comes in. By integrating as many applications as possible in a single chipset, they can help bring the costs down. For countries like India and China where the market potential is huge but the demand is basically towards the low price devices, it makes sense to keep the costs down by integrating as many things as possible in a single chip. (Markets like Japan/Korea are ready to pay for the secondary ASICs on the board) and this is why Qualcomm is focusing on integration.
The person
All in all, Paul Jacobs talked and sounded like an engineer. He knew the technical implications of what he was promising. That's a good thing to see.
Q & A
Later there was a pretty light interview and Q&A session which I tried to capture in brief summarized way...
Q: How did you come up with the name BREW?
A: It was very interesting. We discussed and debated a lot and I finally came up with the name BREW. The room laughed as they thought I was thinking beer. :-) Some thought it is a take on Java. Some thought this name is already overused. I wrote these letters on board and kept them for weeks. 'W' was easy (for wireless), 'B' was to be for basic or binary, but 'R' & 'E' was tough. Later someone suggested runtime environment. and there it was. but then Legal team said, forget it, someone would have a trademark on it already. I pushed for it for all the hardwork and they found there was no trademark.
Q: You mentioned "partnerships" 21 times and "innovation" 15 times, what about a partnership with Nokia?
A: Did I mention "execution"?
Q: yes, I hope not Nokia's execution though :-)
A: yes, we are afraid of each other, but yes, in some areas we would like to co-operate and some other areas, we would remain competitors. Same is true with TIs and Intels of the world.
Q: You talk so much about data apps and future of cell phones. Which phone do you use and which app do you use?
A: I use Motorola 710 and I use brew calendar sync app on that one. I also play the solitaire game in the car, when I am not driving!
Q. What keeps awake at night?
A: Partnerships and innovation leadership
q. Are you targeting UWB area also?
A: yes
Q. what did dad tell after the press conference ?
A. Nothing specifically but Bill told me "Paul don't sc#@w this one up!" :-)
A. Say, you go to a party. What do you tell the people about what you do?
A. I tell them about cellular telecom. I tell them our chips and that they are in a lot of cell phones, just like "Intel inside" thing in PCs. I tell them about data, voice, brew, data apps and so on until they leave.
Q. Will you be able to clear the hurdles in getting the spectrum for mediaflo?
A. yes, there is a resistance from incumbent players but it benefits them ultimately. Video clips on phones would drive people to go to the TV channels anyway.
Q. There is always a gap between concept and technology. Where do you stand?
A. Well we achieved great things in CDMA. We got into gsm and now, we are actually welcome in the GSM operators doors. So I am hopeful.
After the initial SDTC formalities, it came to Dr Paul Jacobs' interview. This young CEO-elect who is all set to take over a multi-billion company (by July 1st ) which some say is the poised to become next monopoly, a la Microsoft, looked quiet pleasant and an accessible kind of person. and there he was… He started off by saying everyone to please switch their cell phones ON as that is what would keep everyone in the business. :-)
His speech
In his 10 page presentation titled "Convergence at hand - New opportunities for Qualcomm and its partners", Dr Jacob talked mainly about two issues he says are close to his heart and also feature on his agenda for years to come: partnerships and innovations.
what partnerships?
Well... the first one is well-known about Qcom, but the second? He explained. For past few years, QC has been active in building the telecom eco-system that has enabled the manufacturers, carriers and content developers launch some new products and services, and they will continue doing that. Apart from the technology, does that sound a lot like Brew? well, yes. After all he was one of the main driving forces behind the idea of BREW itself. (In fact he came up with that name BREW, which he talked about later in Q&A.)
What kind of partnerships he means? He continued... Companies from Japan are coming up with a lot of innovative ideas for products like cell phone eg. someone developed an application to take a picture of english text and translate to Japanese. Well, Qualcomm would not get into such innovation, but partner with such companies to integrate those ideas in their platforms and enable them run. He maintained QC enabled the garage developers by making them available the BREW platform and training.
Okay, what about carriers? He said just like everyone else, QC is watching the telecom markets and services launched in Asian hubs of Japan and S Korea, the region which is being termed the "World's laboratory" for telecom.
Customers in these countries can shell out top $$$$ for advanced business and entertainment services on cell phones. He cited video services as an example. When video was offered "flat rate", the uptake was huge. So huge that it took 70%+ of the network bandwidth. but when carriers brought it to "per packet" service, the demand reduced very drastically. so how can QC help here? By optimizing the bandwidth of networks with technological innovations so that carriers can still offer these services at a flat rate or equivalent.
Keeping the costs down
As opposed to the Asian markets, US markets are very conservative in spending on new services like video. These markets are also "price conscious", so it becomes essential to reduce the price of the handsets. That’s where QC comes in. By integrating as many applications as possible in a single chipset, they can help bring the costs down. For countries like India and China where the market potential is huge but the demand is basically towards the low price devices, it makes sense to keep the costs down by integrating as many things as possible in a single chip. (Markets like Japan/Korea are ready to pay for the secondary ASICs on the board) and this is why Qualcomm is focusing on integration.
The person
All in all, Paul Jacobs talked and sounded like an engineer. He knew the technical implications of what he was promising. That's a good thing to see.
Q & A
Later there was a pretty light interview and Q&A session which I tried to capture in brief summarized way...
Q: How did you come up with the name BREW?
A: It was very interesting. We discussed and debated a lot and I finally came up with the name BREW. The room laughed as they thought I was thinking beer. :-) Some thought it is a take on Java. Some thought this name is already overused. I wrote these letters on board and kept them for weeks. 'W' was easy (for wireless), 'B' was to be for basic or binary, but 'R' & 'E' was tough. Later someone suggested runtime environment. and there it was. but then Legal team said, forget it, someone would have a trademark on it already. I pushed for it for all the hardwork and they found there was no trademark.
Q: You mentioned "partnerships" 21 times and "innovation" 15 times, what about a partnership with Nokia?
A: Did I mention "execution"?
Q: yes, I hope not Nokia's execution though :-)
A: yes, we are afraid of each other, but yes, in some areas we would like to co-operate and some other areas, we would remain competitors. Same is true with TIs and Intels of the world.
Q: You talk so much about data apps and future of cell phones. Which phone do you use and which app do you use?
A: I use Motorola 710 and I use brew calendar sync app on that one. I also play the solitaire game in the car, when I am not driving!
Q. What keeps awake at night?
A: Partnerships and innovation leadership
q. Are you targeting UWB area also?
A: yes
Q. what did dad tell after the press conference ?
A. Nothing specifically but Bill told me "Paul don't sc#@w this one up!" :-)
A. Say, you go to a party. What do you tell the people about what you do?
A. I tell them about cellular telecom. I tell them our chips and that they are in a lot of cell phones, just like "Intel inside" thing in PCs. I tell them about data, voice, brew, data apps and so on until they leave.
Q. Will you be able to clear the hurdles in getting the spectrum for mediaflo?
A. yes, there is a resistance from incumbent players but it benefits them ultimately. Video clips on phones would drive people to go to the TV channels anyway.
Q. There is always a gap between concept and technology. Where do you stand?
A. Well we achieved great things in CDMA. We got into gsm and now, we are actually welcome in the GSM operators doors. So I am hopeful.
Friday, April 08, 2005
What's this blog about?
What's this blog gonna be about?
"well, it is going to be random thoughts typed down with some irregularity".
Very scholastic sounding statement which shows enough lack of clarity to pass off as a Microsoft's error message. :-)
But this blog is mainly going to about happenings in Mobile telecom area and trends. And some personal experiences at work and industry along the way.
"well, it is going to be random thoughts typed down with some irregularity".
Very scholastic sounding statement which shows enough lack of clarity to pass off as a Microsoft's error message. :-)
But this blog is mainly going to about happenings in Mobile telecom area and trends. And some personal experiences at work and industry along the way.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
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