Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Apple: Run Mac OS X Apps On Linux?
from the must-be-a-layer-somewhere dept.
source : slashdot.org
Japanese automakers collaborate on operating system
Japanese automakers collaborate on operating system
source : engadget.com
LG Philips develops oil and water based flexible display
LG Philips develops oil and water based flexible display
source : engadget.com
How would you change the OLPC XO?
How would you change the OLPC XO?
Well that's the best we could come up with; now how about you -- how would you change the OLPC XO?
source : engadget.com
Sony and 3M settle intellectual property dispute
Sony and 3M settle intellectual property dispute
The bickering that boiled over into a patent dispute earlier this year between 3M and Sony has finally ceased, but it seems like Lenovo and friends may actually still be fighting their own battles with the innovative giant. Nevertheless, Sony Corporation and Sony Electronics are now "licensed sources of batteries containing 3M's cathode technology," and while specific terms of the settlement shall remain confidential, we're sure it was no small sum that Sony was source : engadget.com
Verizon Wireless to buy Rural Cellular for $2.67 billion
Verizon Wireless to buy Rural Cellular for $2.67 billion
Another one bites the dust, so to speak. This time around, we've got Verizon Wireless doing the acquiring, as it has just announced plans to pay $2.67 billion for "one of the nation's largest rural carriers," Rural Cellular. The news comes just over a month after AT&T handed over a staggering amount of its own to pick up Dobson Communications, and this agreement will expand the carrier's coverage "in parts of the East Coast and the South, as well as in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas, Idaho, Washington and Oregon." Verizon did note that it planned on deploying CDMA service in Rural Cellular's existing GSM markets in order to convert customers over, but it also mentioned that the existing GSM networks would remain to "serve the roaming needs of other GSM carrier's customers." Look for the deal to be finalized sometime during the first half of next year, and don't be surprised if we see a few more consolidation efforts go down in the meantime.source : engadget.com
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Access Point w/ Cellular Backbone
Access Point with Cellular Backbone
Posted by samc on July 27th, 2007The 3G Phoebus MB6000, a pyramid-shaped access point converts your cellular PC Card into an 802.11g access point. The 3G Phoebus is said to be compatible with most major wireless providers and compatible with most EV-DO, UMTS, and HSDPA networks, as well as slower EDGE/GPRS connections.
It doesn’t include the cellular card on its own, however. It needs a PCMCIA card from Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, AT&T, etc. (see the compatibility list). Of course you’d have to get the blessing of your cellular provider first - that could be the tricky bit.
It includes AC adapter and CAT-5 patch cable ($289).
Other access points with cellular backbones don’t look like the Luxor pyramid include:
- Kyocera Wireless announced a free firmware update for its Kyocera KR1 Mobile Router. The $219 access point now supports a variety of EV-DO Rev. A devices, including the Kyocera KPC680 ExpressCard as well as other Rev A devices including Novatel’s S720 PCMCIA card and U720 USB device, Pantech’s PX-500 PCMCIA card, and UTStarCom’s PC5750 PCMCIA card.
- WAAV makes “mobile access points” that allow Internet connectivity in mobile environments. Their $499 wireless router, with a single backbone connection, uses Sprint’s EVDO starting at $59.99/month. Their AirBox X2 ($1099), is the first mobile cellular router that establishes two cellular Internet connections, binding them together for additional speed. It can also utilize WiMAX or 4.9 GHz public service frequencies for the backhaul, mixing and matching various types of backbone providers.
- Sprint’s Linksys EV-DO/Wi-Fi Router costs less than $250 (plus monthly service charge).
- The $700 Junxion Box provides a similar cellular backhaul solution. It’s used on Seattle buses to provide mobile WiFi, so a static (or bike-mounted) webcam shouldn’t be too difficult
WiMax License
Taiwan Awards WiMAX Licenses
Posted by samc on July 27th, 2007Digitimes reports that Taiwan’s National Communications Commission (NCC) on July 26 awarded six companies regional WiMAX operating licenses in a second-round bid, according to the agency. Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and Taiwan Mobile (TWM, represented by its wholly owned subsidiary Tahsin United Telecom), each failed to secure a license.
First International Telecom (Fitel), which submitted the highest bid of 12.89% of annual WiMAX service revenues, plans to initially kick off operations in the Taipei metropolitan area in the third quarter of 2008, the company indicated. Fitel plans to complete 950 base stations in 2008 and then eventually expand the network to 1,500-2,000 base stations throughout northern Taiwan.
| Taiwan’s six WiMAX operating licensees | ||
| Designated 30MHz radio frequency band | Licensee and its quoted percentage for operation in the northern Taiwan region | Licensee and its quoted percentage for operation in the southern Taiwan region |
| 2565-2595MHz | Fitel, 12.89% | FET, 4.18% |
| 2595-2625MHz | Global On Corporation, 6.19% | Tatung Telecom, 7.25% |
| 2660-2690MHz | WiMAX Telecom, 5.2% | Vastar Cable TV Systems, 8.69% |
Source:Digitimes, July 2007
Cellular operators CHT, TWM and FET were expected to quote lower percentages than the other five candidates because they are existing operators of 2G, 3G and HSDPA services and thus were unwilling to secure WiMAX licenses at a high price, according to industry sources. In addition, as NCC plans to issue two nationwide WiMAX licenses in 2009, the top three were not motivated to quote high percentages in this particular bid, the sources noted.
The island’s three largest mobile phone service providers all applied for WiMax licenses. Chunghwa Telecom, the biggest phone company in Taiwan, applied to bid for licenses in both the north and south of Taiwan, as did Far Eastone Telecom and a subsidiary of Taiwan Mobile.
Nortel is providing Chunghwa Telecom with IEEE 802.16e gear, incorporating Nortel’s patented MIMO antenna technology. Nortel’s MIMO is a key capability enabling the provision of the most demanding real-time applications such as VoIP and voice over WiMAX.
source : dailywireless.org
Arraycomm + Alvarion = Smart Beaming
Arraycomm + Alvarion = Smart Beaming
Posted by samc on July 27th, 2007Wireless broadband equipment leader Alvarion and smart antenna company ArrayComm, announced today their ongoing technology partnership for integration of ArrayComm’s multi-antenna signal processing software (A-MASTM) into Alvarion’s 4Motion’s Radio Access Network.
Alvarion’s all-IP OPEN WiMAX will leverage ArrayComm’s A-MASTM Advanced Multi-Antenna software in order to offer 2 to 4 times more coverage and spectral efficiency than the WiMAX Forum’s baseline profiles, says the company. A unique combination of Beamforming, MIMO and adaptive interference cancellation, is the secret sauce. Alvarion says it maintains full profile and standards compliance.
“ArrayComm’s Multi-Antenna Signal processing (MAS) technology significantly improves the economics of WiMAX systems, increasing the range and data throughput per base station,” said Tzvika Friedman, President and CEO of Alvarion. “The relationship between the two companies will benefit operators worldwide with solutions that use ArrayComm’s unique A-MAS software and our WiMAX radio network.”
In the Arraycomm philosophy of beamforming (pdf), all architectures start with two or more antennas on one or both ends of the communication link (i.e. the base station and/or the client device), and they perform some degree of coordinated processing on the signals to and/or from these antennas, increasing both the up and downstream signal strength.
Compliant with IEEE 802.16e-2005 standards, Alvarion’s 4Motion is said to deliver all the promise of mobile WiMAX with advanced access technologies, including software defined radios, scalable OFDM, smart antennas, MIMO, and dynamic bandwidth allocation. It leverages Alvarion’s BreezeMAX base stations, the most popular WiMAX system in the world with more than 150 networks installed to date.
Sydney Australia has been using the iBurst system, which is based on IntelliCell technology from ArrayComm, for several years.
source : dailywireless.org
Earthlink
Earthlink Tweeks WiFi Business
Posted by samc on July 26th, 2007EarthLink today acknowledged their current approach to that market is not working, according to MuniWireless, and altered their business plan somewhat. To insure a return on investment, Earthlink now wants “municipal government to become a meaningful anchor tenant.”
Rolla Huff, EarthLink’s CEO made that announcement during EarthLink’s second quarter earnings call. Earthlink is now apparently on a similar path to what MetroFi has been pursuing — getting anchor tenant commitments from municipalities.
The free lunch era is over. Cities cannot expect to receive free data communications services and provide free service to residents without assisting a service provider in identifying a revenue stream that makes the project economically viable to all involved. Muni wireless is not, and never should have been regarded as, a gift horse. Business plans, such as the one which was carefully developed in Toledo, Ohio, can be identified to produce cost savings that insure deployments with minimal financial impact on a city budget. Others with unique demographics, such as Ocean City, New Jersey, can even produce revenue streams for a city. But, however it is done, service providers cannot be expected to bear all the risk and not share in the rewards.
Huff said that EarthLink is doing a detailed review of its muni business model and is “beginning a dialog” with the municipalities it has partnerships with and is considering partnering with “to explore ways we can bring this exciting technology to their communities while still providing a return for EarthLink shareholders. As in all of our business, we expect a return on this investment.”
EarthLink’s many initiatives include Helio, a cellphone joint venture with SK Telecom of South Korea. On Wednesday, the companies said they will lend up to $100 million each in additional funding to keep Helio afloat. Earthlink said its Helio cellphone business exceeded the 100,000 subscriber milestone in the quarter, but the unit’s losses mounted, posting a loss of $83.8 million on revenue of $33.2 million.
As for EarthLink’s municipal Wi-Fi business, the company said it is seeing growth in subscriber numbers, but that the additions couldn’t offset the loss of 177,000 EarthLink ISP subscribers during the quarter. The customer losses are primary due to retreating dial-up Internet access subscribers.
Meanwhile, Earthlink’s city-wide Wi-Fi network for San Francisco faces two important hearings this week as critics mount a series of challenges to the project, which would be jointly operated by Google and Earthlink.
Under an agreement SF Mayor Gavin Newsom reached in January, Earthlink would pay the city $2m over four years in exchange for the right to build, own and operate a wireless network. Newsom said it will help bridge the digital divide without saddling taxpayers with exorbitant costs.
In April, San Francisco’s planning commission said the network was exempt from an environmental review, but the San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna Free Union (SNAFU) challenged the decision. The concerns include the health effects of antennas, whether proposed terms would jeopardize privacy and free speech, and the appropriateness of the city entering into an exclusive contract that some say amounts to a giveaway of public resources.
Aaron Peskin, President of the SF Board of Supervisors, recently pushed for a faster free version (from 300kbps to 500kbps) and tighten information Earthlink and Google can collect and store about users. He’s also proposed cutting the term of the contract in half, to 8 years.
Critics, among other things, say the proposal uses unreliable technology and the city should build its own metro fiber/wireless network. A vote requiring the review could prove fatal to the proposed network, which is becoming an increasingly contentious issue between Newsom and his critics.
KQED has more on the Wi-Fi Revolution and the Wireless Silicon Valley project.
While Earthlink’s SF Wi-Fi cloud would cover some 54 square miles, the massive, 44-city Wireless Silicon Valley project would cover some 1,500 square miles. They hired Northrop Grumman as acting lead systems integrator. But the Vision for Silicon Valley has proven Cloudy. An early conclusion of the analysis, found the $100m to $150 million project was “probably too massive to sell and execute.” Cisco/SeaKay (pdf), the company responsible for the project’s public outreach, said the project’s delays stem from the complexity of the new network.
Datamonitor says the market for muni wireless in the UK and the US, will grow from $900 million this year to $6.4 billion in 2012 as local governments get on board. Or not.
Digital Gas
Digital Gas
Posted by samc on July 26th, 2007
Novatel Wireless is working with the Internet Connectivity Group to bring advertising to gas stations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico (pdf).
The deal calls for ICG to use Novatel’s EV-DO Rev. A cards to allow gas stations to eliminate the hard wire needed to change digital signs at gas pumps.
ICG’s digital advertising solution offers gas station owners and advertisers content management, distribution and display technology. They work with the Digital Signage Group (right), which provides a line of digital signage products and services.
The gas station signage uses Novatel’s Merlin PC720 EV-DO Rev A PC Card to provide a backhaul. Future systems will include an embedded option.
Other solutions include Cisco’s Digital Signage system which consists of a $1,500 Digital Media Player, a small box that acts as the lightweight client and connects directly to the display. You manage, schedule, and publish digital media for both digital signage displays and desktop video using the Cisco Digital Media Manager, an integrated part of the Cisco Digital Media System.
There are currently about 400 digital signs across the country, reports the NY Times. But within 10 years, about 4,000 billboards may be converted, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. Clear Channel Outdoor and Lamar Advertising, which has installed the majority of such billboards, promote the digital signs as more effective at getting consumers to pay attention. Marketers spent about $6.7 billion on out-of-home ads in 2006, of total ad market spending of $285 billion in the United States.
In related ad news, the Seattle PI reports Microsoft announced two advertising deals this week: one with Digg.com and another with video-game publisher Electronic Arts. The Digg deal will make Microsoft the exclusive provider of display and contextual advertising on the widely read site, according to the announcement. It’s similar to an agreement Microsoft struck with Facebook last year.
Today Microsoft announced it has agreed to acquire AdECN, an advertising exchange company. It serves as a hub where advertising networks can come together in a neutral, real-time auction marketplace for buying and selling display advertising. Separately, Microsoft announced that its Massive in-game advertising subsidiary has struck a deal to put advertisements into five upcoming Electronic Arts games, including “Madden NFL 08″ and “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08,” for Xbox 360 and Windows PCs. These are the kinds of ads that can be updated and changed using the online connection.
Nielsen, which tracks television and Internet usage, today announced the first results from its new service, Nielsen GamePlay Metrics, which can track what games users are playing, on which devices and when. During June, Sony’s PlayStation 2 accounted for 42% of total minutes spent playing games, compared with 1.5% for the newer PlayStation 3, 4% for Nintendo Co.’s Wii and 8% for the Xbox 360. But Nielsen says the average game-playing session in June was highest for the PlayStation 3, at 83 minutes, compared with 57 minutes for the Wii and 61 minutes for the Xbox 360.
In-game advertising revenue is still small, amounting to about $55 million last year in the U.S., but it is projected to grow to about $800 million in five years, estimates Parks Associates, a research firm in Dallas.
source : dailywireless.org
Wireless USB?
Wireless USB Arrives
Posted by samc on July 26th, 2007
The first notebooks with embedded Wireless USB, Dell’s Inspiron 1720 and Lenovo’s ThinkPad T61 and T62p were announced this week, enabling cable-free connections to Certified Wireless USB hubs from D-Link and IOGear to eliminate USB cords.
Another version is available in Toshiba’s Wireless UWB Port Replicator, available on three configurations of Portégé R400 series (right).
D-Link and IOGear also have Wireless USB dongles to add wireless functionality to notebooks and PCs that don’t have it built in (which would be virtually every other computer in the world).
Wireless USB was developed by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), which also developed the USB 2.0 standard. 
Unlike WiFi or Bluetooth, it does not use the 2.4 Ghz band. Instead Wireless USB uses UltraWideband techniques, utilizing a broad swath of frequencies to achieve high speed transmission at very low power.
Wireless USB devices can communicate in a 10-meter range at up to 480Mbps. Data transfers top out at 2 to 3 meters, with throughput reaching 110Mbps at 10 meters.
USB-IF is built on WiMedia Alliance’s ultrawideband Common Radio Platform. In addition, WiMedia Alliance’s radio platform is also being implemented into Bluetooth 3.0 and will be incorporated into 1394 Trade Association’s Wireless Firewire.
Data is transferred in the 3.1GHz to 10.6GHz spectrum and interference with other wireless devices is minimal. “In a particular given spectrum area, if there is conceived to be interference, the radio can turn off the particular segment of that frequency and use other bands to communicate,” said Jeff Ravencraft, technology strategist for Intel and president and chairman of USB-IF.
Certified silicon from Alereon, Intel, NEC, Realtek, and WiQuest Communications are integrated into the products, according to the USB-IF.
D-Link, like IO Gear, will sell their wireless hubs for around $200 with dongle clients around $100. They will be available later this year.
source : dailywireless.org
Saturday, July 28, 2007
SK Telecom to buy Sprint?
SK Telecom in talks to purchase Sprint Nextel?
source : engadget.com
AMD 2010 lineup
AMD updates roadmap: Barcelona "nearly here," all-new chips in 2010
source : engadget.com
Google & Sprint
Sprint, Google team up on WiMAX mobile internet services
source : engadget.com
Can we say STAY HOME
France planning to 'triple' CCTV surveillance capacity
At least those residing in the UK can breathe a momentary sigh of relief, as it's not the only locale where the amount of surveillance drones is quickly approaching the number of citizens. Reportedly, French interior minister Michele Alliot-Marie recently announced that the government is planning to "triple" the existing CCTV surveillance capacities across the country, "with a view to curb the risks of terrorism and acts of violence." Beyond just bumping the amount of eyes scanning for troublemakers, she also suggested that the network of systems be more tightly connected in order to effectively "protect the French people and enable them to move freely without fearing for their lives or property." Of course, we're sure there's quite a few citizens who'd have beef with the whole "moving freely sans fear" tidbit, no?source : engadget.com
Alright DELL
from the one-good-turn dept.
source : slashdot.org
Someone is gunna be rich
from the bad-day-bad-day dept.
source : slashdot.org
AMD
from the beautiful-hardward-needs-place-to-live dept.
source : slashdot.org
The robot rebellion
from the sounds-like-fun dept.
source : slashdot.org
Ebay
from the there's-still-that-25-mil dept.
source : slashdot.org
KisMAC this sucks
from the when-security-tools-are-outlawed dept.
source : slashdot.org
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
MobileTV
MobileTV: Modeo KOed by Crown
Posted by samc on July 24th, 2007Crown Castle International is selling off its mobile television business, called Modeo. Crown has agreed to lease Modeo’s nationwide spectrum for a dedicated mobile broadcast network to a pair of venture capital, reports RCR News.
The Houston-based tower company bought spectrum at 1670 - 1675 MHz nationwide several years ago at a bargain price and hoped to spin off a mobile television business from it. Now Crown will rent the spectrum for $13 million a year to a venture formed by Telcom Ventures L.L.C. and Columbia Capital L.L.C. effectively immediately.
Crown Castle will take a one-time hit of $10 million in “operating and general administrative costs” related to its aborted Modeo business, and will write off all its Modeo assets other than spectrum in the third quarter of this year.
The lease agreement includes assets related to Modeo’s DVB-H trial network in New York, says the company. How the joint venture will use the spectrum, though, remains a mystery, says RCR News.
While the aim of the Telcom Ventues-Columbia Capital joint venture is unclear, it may look to tweak Crown Castle’s service but continue to target wireless users with entertainment content. Both Telcom Ventures and Columbia Capital have invested substantial amounts in XM Satellite Radio Inc., and Columbia’s mobile investments include Amp’d Mobile, broadband chipmaker Sandbridge and the wireless advertising startup Millennial Media.
Competitor MediaFLO USA, a spinoff of Qualcomm, is only a few months away from its second carrier deployment, says RCR. Perhaps MediaFLO’s second carrier will be Sprint with their VUE service. Analysts say finding a business model without a wireless partner will be a challenge for operators of mobile multimedia networks.
The only other mobile TV competitor is Aloha Partners L.P., which is building the HiWire network. The company is still in the testing stage, and recently announced a lineup of 24 channels for its Las Vegas trial using the DVB-H standard, the same one used in the ill-fated Modeo system.
Mobile television revenues will increase to more than $1.8 billion in 2011, says Daniel Winterbottom, a senior analyst at Informa and co-author of Informa’s “Mobile Entertainment” report.
Datamonitor predicts mobile TV will reach 155.6 million subscribers worldwide by the end of 2012, up from around 4.4 million mobile TV subscribers today. Mobile video revenues in the U.S. totaled $146 million in Q1 2007, growing 198 percent year-over-year.
It’s ironic that the hand-wringing over 700 MHz spectrum appears to be exacerbated by the FCC’s own rules — they encouraged 50,000 watt mobile television transmitters on the lower 700 MHz band. Now, low-power, two-way communications on adjoining 700MHz channels are problematic due to interference from mobile tv transmitters.
Qualcomm’s MediaFlo has channel 55, while Aloha Partners’ HiWire has channel 54 & 59. Verizon could pick up channel 56 at the auction. That would leave blocks “A”, adjoining mobile tv broadcasters on channel 56, and block “B” — which would appear to be the only decent 12 MHz chunk for 2-way in the entire lower 700 MHz block.
Who benefits from that?
The FCC has traditionally made rules around the interests of cellular carriers. Now they have to deal with new competitors and angry consumers.
source : dailywireless.org
Open Source Convention
Open Source Convention
Posted by samc on July 24th, 2007Over 2,500 attendees are expected at theO’Reilly Open Source Convention in Portland, Ore., July 23 - 27. Tutorials and break-out sessions for programmers, designers, security experts are featured, with a healthy amount of debate about where open-source is headed and what issues it’s currently facing, says Wired.
Speakers include Chris DiBona from Google, Larry Wall creator of Perl, Guido Von Rossum creator of Python, Rasmus Lerdorf creator of PHP, Matt Asay from Alfresco, Brian Aker from MySQL, Mitchell Baker from Mozilla, and many others. There are some 14 tracks running in parallel so it’s difficult to cover the whole thing.
Some of announcements, articles, blogs, photos, and podcasts include:
- Google News lists stories from Wired, ComputerWorld, InfoWorld, CNN Money and Eweek.
- Bloggers include; The Daily ACK, Sysadminblog, Ajax Hacking, Carolrutz, Dumbcoder, Carl’s Whine, Canspice, Patrick Tufts and O’reilly Radar.
- Dana Blankenhorn compares the top two linux shows, OSCON (this week in Portland), and LinuxWorld (August 6-9 in San Francisco).
Mappam is a new ad network that specializes in placing text ads on user mapping sites. The founders are Nick Black and Steve Coast, both are core members of Open Street Map. Mappam ads can technically be put on Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Multimap, OpenStreetMap/Openlayers maps like Google Sightseeing, ParkAtMyHouse and soon Platial. The site is powered by the Ruby on Rails web-development framework with a MySQL database running on Ubuntu Linux. - SourceForge announced the finalists in its second annual Community Choice Awards. The awards recognize open source projects which not only have the most supportive community following, as well as the highest quality, productivity and ingenuity. Finalists were chosen in 11 categories. Winners will be announced on July 26, 2007.
Ohloh.net is a directory of active open-source software projects. Here are some wireless projects. OpenWrt and Wifidog are embeddable captive portal solution for wireless community groups who wish to open a free Hotspot while still preventing abuse of their Internet connection. AP Radar is Don Park’s Linux version of Netstumbler. An 802.1X Supplicant runs on Linux, BSD, and Windows with support for WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i).
The Open Solutions Alliance (OSA), a nonprofit, vendor-neutral consortium dedicated to driving interoperability and adoption of comprehensive open solutions, today announced it is hosting a series of Interoperability Hack-a-Thons. It will focus on Single Sign-On (SSO) and begins Tuesday, July 24 at 1:30 p.m. in rooms D129 and D130. It will continue on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons in the lunch area.
“The OSA was formed to speed deployments of integrated, interoperable open solutions for business users,” said Barry Klawans, OSA board member and chief technology officer at JasperSoft. “The community, specifically the collaboration among all the ecosystem participants, is the backbone for these efforts and we’re looking forward to rolling up our sleeves, addressing single sign-on and having some good old fashioned fun at OSCON this year.”
source : dailywireless.org
WiFi
Realtime Tracking: WiFi is the Ticket
Posted by samc on July 24th, 2007Wi-Fi is Muscling in on RFID’s Location-Based Services Markets, says ABI Research.
The large and growing installed base of Wi-Fi equipment means new opportunities for using Wi-Fi in unorthodox ways. One of the most interesting is the growing trend towards using Wi-Fi to provide real-time location services (RTLS) for asset management, security, and work-in-progress tracking, which have traditionally been the province of proprietary RFID solutions.
Real Time Location Systems use triangulation (to determine location) and RFID (to determine identity).
Today this market, at a mere $59 million in 2007 revenues, can best be described as “embryonic,” but ABI forecasts it to reach $839 million in 2012.
“In the past, companies wishing to deploy RTLS had to buy proprietary RFID systems, including very expensive readers. Now a large installed base of Wi-Fi equipment worldwide is making Wi-Fi-based RTLS cost-effective for companies that had never considered it before.”
In comparison with RFID, Wi-Fi-based RTLS does suffer some disadvantages. It is somewhat less accurate, especially outdoors; it is less secure, and it can require the addition of up to 20% more Wi-Fi access points to a network. But for a company with a Wi-Fi network already in place, it needs no extra cabling; it is standards-based; and above all it is cost-effective: the RTLS functions are handled by specialized software, which forms the largest portion of the investment.
Cisco is the current market leader, says Schatt, but Trapeze and Aruba are also very active in this market.
Since 2000, residents in Lyon, France, have been able to use their Técély RFID-enabled transit passes to pay bus, tramway and Metro fares, says RFID Journal. Now those same prepaid smart cards can be used to rent bikes from 175 locations across the city and its suburbs. More than 2,000 rental bicycles are available to be leased and returned across a dense network of bicycle racks placed every 300 meters or so, using a Técély pass or specially created prepaid smart cards.
Velov, the company behind its deployment, says the bikes are already being well used. “It’s a big success because 30,000 persons use it, and each bike is rented 10 to 12 times per day. The system isn’t expected to be profitable. The aim is not to make money, but to promote the use of the bike in the city,” says Agathe Albertini, communications director at outdoor advertising company JCDecaux, based in Paris.
When a customer uses the machine to buy a pass or add credit to a vélo’v or Técély smart card, he or she must go to a kiosk to swipe the card.
The kiosk will provide a code number and the number of the bike rack for the bike issued. The customer then enters that code number to select that bike and unlock it from its rack.
Might be handy for enabling library users to check out a $100 laptop, too.
Ocean City, a South Jersey beach town plans to provide electronic wristbands that can pay for access to the beach, as well as food, drinks and parking, says the Philadelphia Inquirer. The $3 million network would be owned by the city but paid for by a vendor. The city has requested proposals from interested firms, which are due by the end of the month, and hopes to award a contract by early September.
The network would enable city officials to know exactly how many people are on the beach at a particular time. The network is estimated to generate $14 million in revenue for the city over the first five years, and $12 million for the company that operates it, through user fees and advertisements to be sold on the network.
source : dailywireless.org
