Digital life event

Last Friday, I visited the digital life expo. Crazy crowd with games, was really trying to figure out where the future is heading. Took me years back, when I was playing for hours with these car simulators or the sport games, basketball, Olympic games etc. When I was a kid, was so crazy with my first Atari and my friend's Amiga 5000, old days! Impressed from some TV screens, a very cool light camera and had a chance to look closer at some cell phones, especially Nokia that they had an amazing resolution to watch TV or movies and not only. Besides that, I didnt get any innovation vibe and even the high technology didnt inspire me at all.
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My expectations were more to check out digital devices, smart devices for the next generation residence that definitely is not all about games. A robot from iRobot with a camera that could run several tasks as a household 'servant' was my highlight, but still an old technology and it was in a box, not even demo. Lastly a guy was remotely controlling a huge techie bee with some noisy wings that was flying and suddenly ended up to somebody's head, really funny!

-E

Telecom Webinars

Today, I attended a Webinar with title Ethernet-Based Consumer Services: Delivering Quality IPTV, VOD & More. Lightreading is a really cool website, organizing these webinars, where an industry's expert is making comments on really nice slides and the whole event lasts 1 hour. It is an amazing source of knowledge, combining audio and picture and then the discussant is answering to couple of questions that you IM to the event's host. Cool stuff!

The future in next generation networks (NGN)goes with Ethernet, but there is no single winning networking design. That is the magic in that case,there is a plural of different architectures that each operator is deploying. The new services will make things more complicated for the operators, as there is a need for more intelligent services such as bringing video servers closer to the user to save bandwidth in the backhaul and struggle with the cost's increase. We might see multiple set-top boxes at home in the future serving different needs. Smart Metro networks solution with multi-service edge routers were discussed with dynamic broadcasting that will increase the number of HD TV channels to the end-user. The IPTV operators are the leaders in packet intelligence transportation with an ultimate need to control the per subscriber QoS. The future is in the intelligent high QoS services' integration no matter the access technology, FTTH, cable or wireless.

Global Earth Day for the Internet

It was about time and Susan did that few years ago as founder of the OneWebday.org. September 22 is the official date to celebrate the Internet, an amazing tool that changed our life into an online life. We have to show appreciation and respect. But looking all over the planet, we will see that some countries are really suffering, either from infrastructure and access technologies limitations i.e. China is a huge country, difficult to cover or the government is banning access to certain Websites limiting the access to the Internet - example of Turkey and YouTube.
An interesting article is posted from Susan discussing the Internet status, especially in the USA, where the President George W. Bush promised ubiquitous high speed Internet access for 2007. Instead speeds are slow, prices are high, and competition is nominal.

interesting upcoming events

There are two upcoming events/expos I am going to attend in Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The first one is "Digital life" Sep 27-30 2007, which is the #1 annual event in Consumer electronics exhibiting cutting edge technology. Definitely a high of interest event and very entertaining.

The other one is on Business IT solutions in the same center, "Interop New York 2007" Oct 22-24 2007. This event is more for IT savvys and professionals.

Both are excellent events, have invited also friends to go together; its really amazing how futuristic is the technology and what we actually use today. Barriers? Sometimes, price, or technology unawareness or we even needs unawareness and where the technology could fit and make our life easier. The more we expose ourselves to similar events, the better we understand the role of high-tech solutions in our personal and business life.

-E

The Human Unlimited Bandwidth

Unlimited, the most catchy ad keyword with millions of different interpretations. As we are discussing at the CITI about the unlimited bandwidth networks based on the consumers rising needs, I realized that exactly the same pattern could be identified in the human networks. We have unlimited bandwidth/capacity to satisfy our personal and the others' also needs. Where are your limits - hard to know - and when do you say no, refusing to do something? Hardly never, you download everything to your brain, trying to entertain your life in one way or the other forcing yourself to do it for money, for glory etc. Ever thought how much bandwidth you use for your real needs? Usually limited, what a waste, since most of the time you are the victim, sacrifying it to pay for the societal needs. But everybody likes the unlimited. Most of the time an unlimited service is a waste, cause it makes no sense, unlimited phone calls, so what? Old news!

Are you unlimited? Define yourself. Does unlimited love exist? Extremely rare phenomenon, described only in books as an altruistic illusion of the last decade.

Attributes of the leaders? I can do everything, working 24/7 proving your unlimited style. Thats the one and impatience is the other. Quick decisions are for the experts and still they might have a high-risk factor included, proving them wrong! Day by day we realize that this unlimited bandwidth curve is like an S-curve that reaches its saturation level and then drops. Everybody wants your bandwidth, as they dont have theirs! After that flat point, you refuse, you have more time for yourself and your hobbies and sometimes you reinvent life or you regret! Where do the fortune-hunters belong? Definitely not in the free dictionary. To be continued..

-E

MTA's awakening!

Finally MTA awakes and is going to start a new pilot program in 2007 in deploying wireless booster signals in the subway stations only.. I t was about time, hello NY, the center of the world to catch up, offering to the millions of business warriors and not only a communication relief that we are so desperate, when we lost connections for hours, when traveling underground. In a global survey, isnt that a surprise that Tokyo, Berlin and other developed European cities are already ahead in wireless technology solution and subway coverage, when MTA, a profitable business, is struggling to implement a solution since 2005?


And on the other hand we are always discussing best business practices, but when it comes to technology, we are cell-ebrating old-fashioned solutions that are already adapted years ago.

-E

Goodbye Cable?

Lately things are getting more and more difficult for the US Cable operators. After the CableCards story where cable operators had to give up the conventional cable boxes they so profitably lease to subscribers, containing technology for functions such as video-on-demand and HDTV, a new hurricane is urging, making them to sweat even more. The FCC has proposed -- somewhat at the telecoms' urging -- that the owners of apartment buildings and condos be prohibited from entering into exclusive deals with cable operators.


It is a fact that the next 3 years, maybe even sooner, the cable will become an old technology, unable to keep up the price war against the Telcos and follow the households bandwidth needs pushed by IPTV, online gaming and more new applications. Regulation is cleaning up the competition and is removing all the exclusive rights the cable used to hold in equipments and communities. The Telecom Act is keeping up with a fair competition and giving more choice and power to the consumer. And the cable operators started realizing that they need to replace their old infrastructure with Passive Optical Networks, a strategy that will bring them years behind Verizon and AT&T.

-E

my name is Jobs, Steve Jobs..

....and I have a license to kill. Reminds of James Bond attitude, as he easily kills the 4Gb iPhone model.Steve Jobs Offers Rare Apology,Credit for iPhone. You are loyal to buy our hell expensive product, but now we need more market of a cell phone that you carry most of the time only for prestigious reasons. My marketing class in a brief survey I did the other days, is desperate for the iPhone. There you go Steve, your new market! How about of a student discount, as you cut the price? -:)
But it is not only that technology is bumpy, he would rather say that they overpriced the product and some consumers paid a premium for a 'basic' cell phone, cause consumers have most of the time limited knowledge of what the product can do and of the other products in the same category and price. Apple's pricing reminds more of Google's IPO and definitely a market show off with a strong new entry that will soon lead into a bubble. Whats the point to discontinue the 4Gb version that was getting even more affordable now? Apple and At&T are in panic with a series of mistakes, without giving real answers to the consumers

But, for example Nokia has 3G cell phones at 5Mpixels with 8Gb capacity that are superior compared to the Apple's device i.e. N95 and the Europeans know that. My personal opinion especially after that price shake is that iPhone has no luck in the European market to compete against Nokia and Ericsson. And Apple realizes this now and they drop the US price to gain more market share especially the average incomers. Merging the two models into one, with more capacity, Apple leads the market into one choice, reasonably priced; looks like a favor to the consumers with an OK cell phone. But not only that, after the iPphone's market reaction, criticism and feedback Apple realized that they will start soon to loose market share, cause it is not worth to pay all this money for that product and they cut off the price.
Good job guys!

-E

Google "Yes" - Earthlink "No" -:)

The Mayor of San Francisco wanted but Earthlink this time stops Google's ambitious plans to offer free Wi-Fi to the city and use it as a testbed for new products and new business models with an edge to online advertising - what else?

Its really amazing to have the public interest on your side and to lose your industrial partner. Is that a plan against Google from the other competitors - perhaps. However, I am not sure if Google wants to take over AT&T's ISP empire and headache that I personally doubt it, thats not their field at all. But I agree with some analysts that they need a larger platform such as San Francisco to test their products, giving away free Internet. But in any case Earthlink was not the right partner to carry out that project with all the internal financial problems and the recent layoffs. Perhaps Earthlink was the last ISP that accepted to help Google to implement its plans, but really was or turned out to be a very weak choice

-E