Category: Gadget-related Services

  • TomTom GO 700 Featured in Unique Interactive Ad Campaign in France

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteIf you are a regular radio listener in major cities in the USA, you’ve probably heard several ads for TomTom Go portable navigation systems. TomTom has a different strategy in France. They are running a two team road rally called TomTom Raid. The teams were given no food, no money, no…

  • Customer Claims Verizon Uses FIOS to Lock Competitors Out of Homes

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteI know I just got done television franchising rules should be relaxed to allow Verizon FIOS deployment, but we need folks like the FCC and state utility regulators to enforce some basic, consumer-oriented protections. A great example of what could happen if Verizon is allowed to operate solely in its interest…

  • Local Cable Franchise Politics Obstructs Verizon FIOS TV in Many Areas

    Reading Time: 2 minutesA page one report in today’s The Wall Street Journal indicates that Verizon is having difficulty launching FIOS-based television services in many parts of the country. Verizon plans to invest some $20 billion on a large-scale fiber-to-the-home deployment project, but is being asked for costly concessions on a town-by-town basis in exchange…

  • Flickr Offers Photo Printing at Target

    Reading Time: 2 minutesFlickr Offers Photo Printing at Target[ image created by Dave Aiello, courtesy of Flickr ]. Flickr announced the introduction of a photo print ordering service for users in the United States. The service is offered in conjunction with Target Stores. You have the option of picking your photo order up at your local Target…

  • How GPS Tracking is Being Used During the 2005 Tour of Hope National Ride

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteQualcomm has contributed its OmniTRACS fleet location network technology to the 2005 Tour of Hope National Ride. Here’s an example of the kind of up-to-date progress map you can get to follow the National Team: Tour of Hope National Ride Current Location Map: Uses Qualcomm OmniTRACS Fleet Location Network and Google…

  • Palm Expected to Announce Windows Mobile-based Treo on Monday

    Reading Time: 2 minutesWhile I’ve been grinding away on my consulting projects, Palm has apparently put the final touches on a Windows Mobile-based Treo that will support Verizon Wireless’s implementation of EV-DO. The first solid indication of an announcement was Engadget’s first look at the Palm Treo 700w, published on Thursday. This was followed an…

  • Fios Favorably Reviewed by Walter Mossberg

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteWalter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal reviewed Verizon’s new fiber optic Internet access service called Fios today. He liked it. He happens to live in a town in suburban Maryland where Verizon has already rolled out Fios, so he compared it to Comcast’s basic cable-modem service that’s also available there.…

  • WSJ Article on VoIP Focuses on Embedded Voice in Applications

    Reading Time: 2 minutesI forgot to mention that yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a free article called Talk of the Internet that surprisingly focused on computer applications that support voice communications between users. The article begins by describing how users of Battlefield 2 from Electronic Arts can communicate with each other via a Voice over…

  • PhoneGnome Straddles Regular Phone Line and Broadband Connection to Provide a Hybrid Phone Experience

    Reading Time: 2 minutesEarlier today, I was talking to Martin O’Donnell about a plug-and-play VoIP terminal called PhoneGnome. PhoneGnome is a small appliance that you can use to make Internet telephone calls, but you “buy and own it” and no monthly subscription fee is charged. A lot of the VoIP services encourage you to use…