Religion is a Control Tool

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Religion is a Control Tool

Cisco

Cisco Beamforms Russia & Kazakhstan

Posted by Sam Churchill on February 11th, 2009

Cisco announced this week that AsiaBell launched its broadband Mobile WiMAX service in central Kazakhstan, based on Cisco’s Broadband Wireless gear including Cisco BWX 8300 beamforming access points and Cisco 7604 Routers.

• The service is offered under the brand “AERO” and is targeting an area with a population of 1 million people, including business as well as residential customers.
• Cisco’s BWX 8300 access points, Cisco 7604 Routers, Cisco ME 6500 Ethernet Switches and Cisco Catalyst ME 3750 Switches, Cisco AS5350XM Universal gateways, and Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances were used. AsiaBell also offers subscribers Cisco modems for use with desktop and portable computers.
• AsiaBell chose Cisco’s Internet Protocol IP Multiprotocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS) network core, which was integrated with the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
• The Cisco BWX 8305 base stations provide Mobile WiMAX adaptive beamforming, designed to deliver excellent coverage and indoor penetration with fewer cell sites.

Cisco says it has been contracted build WiMax services in Kazakhstan, in Soviet Georgia and in Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg).

MagtiCom is deploying WiMAX services in Soviet Georgia. MagtiCom is also using Cisco’s BWX 8300 beamforming gear. MagtiCom is currently offering broadband Internet via WiMAX in the capital, Tbilisi, as well as in nine major cities across the country.

Scartel’s Yota system in Russia is already one of the largest Mobile WiMAX networks in the world and covers Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The operator already has invested about $200 million and expects that number will rise to $300 million.

Yota’s WiMAX system, unlike Kazakhstan, is using Samsung base stations exclusively. It is expected to have about 1,000 deployed by the end of 2008.

Yota’s Mobile WiMAX coverage in Russia was expected to be available to more than 20 million people at the end of 2008. Established in 2008, Yota is the first mobile WiMAX network in Russia.

Scartel is also planning to launch dual-mode GSM/WiMAX handsets in Moscow and St Petersburg.

The dual-band WiMAX handsets were created by HTC. Operating under the Yota brand, Scartel is emulating Clearwire/Sprint, taking advantage of the immature state of Russian 3G, says WiMAX Trends. In early 2010, Sprint is expected to launch a WiMax/CDMA/Wi-Fi smartphone running Android.

Other WiMax networks are being launched in various regions in Russia by Enfortas, Synterra, Start-Telecom, Comstar-UTS, and Media-Net. Summa Telecom Company, announced the launch of its own network,having been granted a large frequency resource across Russia. The first cities to be launched in are Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok. Summa Telecom is owned by Russian businessman Ziyavudinu Magomedov, whose principal businesses include oil transport logistics and metals.

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) is the largest mobile operator in Russia and CIS with over 89.64 million subscribers. Vimpelcom, Russia’s 2nd largest cell operator, is owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group and Norway’s Telenor which have been locked in a court battle over expansion overseas, something Russian shareholders contend was blocked by Telenor. The Russian State Commission of Radio Frequencies (GKRCh) plans to transfer 2300 ~ 2400 MHz (2.3 GHz) from the military to public WiMAX.

Today Intel arranged a teleconference with reporters to provide “news and progress” on WiMax deployments. While saying little that was new, company executives acknowledged that most of the action is outside the United States. Other nations, such as Japan, Russia, Korea, India and countries in Europe and Africa are moving aggressively to deploy the fourth-generation wireless communication and data service, according to Sean Maloney, executive VP for Intel. “It’s not about the United States,” he said.

The global economic crisis has slowed down WiMax expansion, says The Standard. Taiwanese WiMAX companies have narrowed while the UK 2.6 GHz auction has been bogged down in litigation.

But Cisco’s Mobile Forecast for 2008-2013, projects global mobile traffic to increase 66-fold between 2008 and 2013 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 131 percent.

Cisco says these projections reflect a transformation in the fourth-generation, or 4G, mobile Internet that will enable consumers to view more mobile video and access a variety of mobile broadband services.

Additional key findings include:

• Global mobile traffic will exceed two exabytes per month by 2013.
• Global mobile data traffic reached one exabyte per month in half the time that fixed data traffic did.
• Nearly 64 percent of the world’s mobile traffic will be video by 2013.
• Mobile video will grow at a CAGR of 150 percent between 2008 and 2013.
• Mobile broadband handsets with higher than 3G speeds and laptop air or data cards will constitute more than 80 percent of global mobile traffic by 2013.
• Latin America will have the strongest mobile growth at 166 percent CAGR, followed by the Asia-Pacific region at 146 percent.
• Asia-Pacific will account for one-third of all mobile data traffic by 2013.

An exabyte is equal to: 1 billion gigabytes; 1,000 petabytes; 250 million DVDs

Currently, compelling applications for 3G include mobile TV, a light version of video conferencing, simple games and multimedia, MMS, SMS, email, and Internet browsing, says Cisco. But their Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, indicates 3.5G and higher and WiMAX technology categories will grow at a CAGR of 168 percent by 2013.

source: dailywireless.org

Satellites Collide

Satellites Collide

Posted by Sam Churchill on February 11th, 2009

If our calculations prove to be correct, this will be the most frightening discovery of all time.
– When Worlds Collide

Two satellites have crashed 500 miles above Siberia in the first-ever in-orbit collision of two spacecrafts, reports SpaceFlightNow. Orbital junk has collided before, but this is the first time two fully intact satellites have smashed into each other, says the Washington Post.

One of the crafts was a 1,235-lb Iridium satellite sent up in 1997. Iridium uses a constellation of 66 low orbit spacecraft for satellite phone service. Iridium confirmed today that one of its satellites was destroyed. The other was reportedly a 1 ton Russian spacecraft Cosmos 2251, a military store-dump satellite launched in June 1993.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael Carey, deputy director of global operations with U.S. Strategic Command, the agency responsible for space surveillance, said initial radar tracking detected some 600 pieces of debris.

Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. “It was a bad day for both of them.”

The collision occurred 490 miles (790 km) above Siberia. The space station flies in an orbit about 220 miles (354 km) above Earth. “This is like over 400 kilometers above the station, so we do believe that some of the debris is going down through station altitude. But it’s a very, very small minority of the debris clouds,” said Nicholas Johnson. The NY Times has an interactive graphic (right).

“It’s going to take a while” to get an accurate count of the debris fragments, Johnson said. “It’s very, very difficult to discriminate all those objects when they’re really close together. And so, over the next couple of days, we’ll have a much better understanding.”

Analytical Graphics created the simulation (below).

UPDATE: The crash of two satellites has generated an estimated tens of thousands of pieces of space junk that could circle Earth and threaten other satellites for the next 10,000 years, space experts said Friday. Any of tens of the tens of thousands of particles, 1 centimeter (half an inch) and larger, could significantly damage or even destroy a satellite.

NASA officials are closely monitoring the debris fields for any hazard posed to the international space station. They’re also concerned about 20 NASA satellites that are in orbits similar to that of the Cosmos and the 66 Iridium spacecraft (which all cross at the poles).

Other commercial satellites are in similar orbits and could be endangered. The agency’s Earth Observing System satellites, which orbit at 438 miles (705 km), “are of highest interest for immediate consideration,” NASA said in its e-mail alert

Asked if other satellites might be at risk, Johnson said “technically, yes. What we’re doing now is trying to quantify that risk. That’s a work in progress. It’s only been 24 hours. We put first things first, which is station and preparing for the next shuttle mission.” A shuttle mission, scheduled for Feb. 22, could be delayed.

Most, if not all, of the debris is expected to eventually burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.

Back in January 2007, China shot down its own one-ton meteorological satellite - resulting in a huge cloud of ominous clutter. In February, 2008, an errant American military classified satellite, USA-193 was shot down by the US Navy using a ship-to-space interceptor. More recently, Eutelsat’s W2M telecommunications satellite failed in orbit shortly after launch, leaving it dead in space. W2M is moving west (gif photo animation).

Craig Covault says a fleet of small robot spies are now on-station and taking pictures of a variety of satellites along the geosynchronous arc.

In a top secret operation, the U.S. Defense Dept. is conducting the first deep space inspection of a crippled U.S. military spacecraft. To do this, it is using sensors on two covert inspection satellites that have been prowling geosynchronous orbit for nearly three years.

The failed satellite being examined is the $400 million U.S. Air Force/Northrop Grumman Defense Support Program DSP 23 missile warning satellite. It died in 2008 after being launched successfully from Cape Canaveral in November 2007 on the first operational Delta 4-Heavy booster.

The Orbital Sciences and Lockheed Martin “Mitex” inspection spacecraft involved are part of a classified Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) technology development program. When initially launched on a Delta 2 from Cape Canaveral in 2006, the project involved maneuvering around and inspecting each other at geosynchronous altitude.

Craig Covault says the dead $400 million DSP 23 missile warning satellite has become a nightmare for controllers. It died in 2008 after being launched successfully from Cape Canaveral in November 2007. Now it’s drifting uncontrolled across the geosychronous belt — a train wreck waiting to happen — if it rams into another geosych platform.

The failure of Northrop Grumman’s missile-tracking satellite has sparked concerns that Washington’s longstanding refusal to disclose the location of classified spacecraft, even if they are dead, could boost the risk of disastrous collisions in space. The satellite is still loaded with lots of fuel but no longer responds to commands. “There’s no practical way at the moment to adjust the orbits of dead objects,” said the official.

DSP 23 has drifted past three geosynchronous satellites so far, including a European weather satellite, about 2.5 miles away. More ‘approaches’ are likely at three orbital locations in the next two months. DSP-23, designed to detect enemy missiles, has become one.

The International Space Observation Network (ISON), mostly a Russian party, uses 18 optical telescopes to track objects in space while the US Space Surveillance Network is run by US Strategic Command. Ground-based cameras and radar currently keep tabs on more than 13,000 orbiting objects. The Center for Space Standards & Innovation (CSSI), has debris tracking software and services. Here are NORAD Two-Line Element Sets for current satellites. You can plug them into free satellite tracking programs.

Here’s How Amateur Sleuths Spot Satellites. Greg Roberts produced this short video clip of DSP-F23 slewing across the geosynchronous path . Presumably out of control. Here’s another gif photo animation of Eutelsat’s W2M running wild.

The Russian Space Forces, VKS, operate GLONASS, their GPS system, and manages military space defense. The Russian Space Web has more info. The Russian Federal Space Agency (press releases), is the government agency responsible for Russia’s space science program and plays a role similar to NASA, ESA, CNSA, JAXA or IRSO. Here’s a Twitter feed from SpaceflightNow.

Some 6,000 satellites have been sent into space since the Soviet Union launched the first man-made orbiter, Sputnik 1, in 1957. About 3,000 satellites remain in operation, according to NASA.

source: dailywireless.org

Android Market

Android Market: Open for Business

Posted by Sam Churchill on February 13th, 2009

As expected, the Android Market is now accepting priced applications. US and UK developers are the first to be able to take advantage of it.

Developers from these countries can go to the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish to upload their application(s) along with end user pricing for the apps. Initially, priced applications will be available to end users in the US starting mid next week. We will add end user support for additional countries in the coming months.

Android Market says they will also enable developers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain later this quarter. By the end of Q1 2009, they will announce support for developers in additional countries. Developers can find more information about priced applications in Android Market at http://market.android.com/support/.

Google Checkout will serve as the payment and billing mechanism for Android Market. Developers who do not already have a Google Checkout merchant account can sign up for one via the publisher website.

Android Market for free applications will become available to users in Australia starting February 15th Pacific Time and in Singapore in the coming weeks. Developers can now make their applications available in these countries via the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish.

T-Mobile’s G1, the first open source Android-powered phone, has not experienced the phenomenal success of Apple’s iPhone.

T-Mobile’s $179 Android phone was announced on Oct. 22, 2008. High Tech Computer (HTC) predicted sales of 1 million G1 handsets by the end of 2008. T-Mobile didn’t provide sales figures for the phone, but did indicate that around 20 percent of phones sold to new customers and existing, upgrading customers were “smart” phones like the G1 that use their new “3G” (AWS-band) data network.

Apple announced their first 4GB iPhone for $499 on January 9, 2007. On July 11, 2008, the 8GB iPhone 3G was released for $199, supporting faster 3G speeds and Assisted GPS.

According to IDC data reported in RCR Wireless, Apple sold a total of 13.7 million units in 2008. The iPhone was No. 6 among all mobile phone vendors in the United States with 4 percent of the total market.

Nokia will unveil its new application store next week. The Finnish firm, the world’s top cellphone maker, will reportedly merge its current software Download! store with free media sharing site Mosh and widget service WidSets.

Nokia is also expected to unveil their new E75 smartphone at the Mobile World Congress trade show next week in Barcelona. It features a sideways slide-out full keyboard and will sell for 390 pounds ($563), but will be free in Britain, with an operator contract.

Ethan Nicholas raked in $600,000 in a single month with a single iPhone game, says Wired. His tank artillery game called iShoot, rose to No. 1 in the App Store, earning him $37,000 in a single day.

Until recently, there has been no realistic way for individual programmers to make serious money on their own. Most of the software market is dominated by big companies, and the traditional distribution method for independent developers — shareware — isn’t conductive to striking it rich.

By contrast, Apple’s iTunes App Store — and now the Android Market — provide a platform for marketing, selling and distributing software; all a developer needs to provide is a good idea and some working code. The Guardian explains How to become an iPhone developer in eight easy steps.

Worldwide smartphone sales totaled 32.2 million units in the second quarter, 2008, according to Gartner, up 15.7% from the same period last year.

By 2012, Strategy Analytics projects that smartphones will comprise 30% of all handsets shipped, or about 452 million out of 1.5 billion handsets. By then Symbian will still hold 39% of the smartphone OS market, with Linux/Android at 22% and Apple at 18%.

source: dailywireless.org

Netbooks Embed Broadband

Netbooks Embed Broadband

Posted by Sam Churchill on February 16th, 2009

ASUS is showcasing 3.5G, Windows 7 Netbooks at the Mobile World Congress. They are among the world’s first to boast 3.5G capabilities designed around Windows 7, using Huawei’s EM770 3G module.

ASUS will be installing Windows 7 in their Eee PC 1003HA and Eee PC T91 Netbooks. The 1003HA, with a 10” LED-backlit display and 160GB hard disk, is slated for sale exclusively through telecommunications carriers.

The Eee PC T91 features a rotatable touchscreen and a suite of touch-optimized programs.

The Eee 1000HE (right) is promising 9.5 hours of battery life at a suggested retail price of just $399. The “HE”, explains CrunchGear, is derived from the company’s “Super Hybrid Engine” technology, “which can boost CPU speed for extra power or lower it to preserve battery life, all at the touch of a button.”

The Atom N280 enhances netbook battery life. Unfortunately, the Eee 1000HE uses the older 945GSE graphics chipset not the newer GN40 graphics chip.

The Eee PC 1000HG (below) will feature Mobile WiMAX (802.16e, WAVE2) and Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) in a version currently using the N270 processor with 945 graphics.

Meanwhile, Asustek Computer’s 10-inch Atom N280-based Eee PC 1004DN is expected to be priced around US$379, while Acer is already selling its Atom N280-based Aspire 103 netbook.

Lenovo plans to launch an Atom N280-based IdeaPad S20 netbook featuring a 12-inch panel, reports Digitimes. Lenovo reportedly lost its preferential pricing for Intel’s N280 Atom CPU because Intel restricts anything larger than 10″ screens for fear of competing with full size laptops and its dual core Centrino. Intel’s N280 processor, consequently, will cost Lenovo about US$10 higher than typical quotes to vendors of their size, sources noted.

The IdeaPad S20 netbook will have an Atom N280 processor and Intel’s newer GN40 graphic chipset, with Windows XP. Will they put a WiMAX module in it? Windows 7? Is the sky green?

NVIDIA’s ION platform will combine Intel’s Atom CPU with NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400 graphic engine. Nvidia is in a graphic battle to the death with Intel. Expect all out global Netbook War this summer.

source: dailywireless.org

Motorola Testing LTE

Motorola Testing LTE in UK

Posted by Sam Churchill on February 2nd, 2009

Everybody Got to Go — Let It Bleed

Motorola has launched its first Long-Term Evolution (LTE) trial network at its test facility in Swindon, UK. Motorola said today it has performed live over-the-air LTE calls with their equipment.

Moto was one of the five vendors named by Verizon Wireless and Vodafone for their joint LTE trials. They are using prototype LTE devices on a 2.6-GHz network to perform the field trials.

Motorola said it plans to have commercial LTE systems ready by year end: one for the 700 MHz band targeting US operators such as Verizon and AT&T, and the other at 2.6 GHz for global operators.

Verizon Wireless spent $6.5 billion upgrading its network in 2008, adding or upgrading cell sites and increasing capacity. Everything must go with LTE. LTE isn’t that much different than WiMAX. Both require forklift upgrades, totally new infrastructure, high capacity backhaul and new consumer devices.

An Analysys Research study (pdf) found an LTE network running at full capacity on a 5 x 5 MHz channel could deliver 1 megabyte to a user for 0.10 euros (about 13 U.S. cents). A standard UMTS network would cost 60 European cents to deliver, while the newest HSPA networks would cost 0.30 Euros to ship 1 Mbyte. But iPhone and laptops already consume hundreds of megabytes or even gigabytes per month. By this math delivering 1 Gbyte of data would cost an operator $130 a month, says Telephony Magazine.

Paul Kapustka of SideCuts Report has a photo tour of some of Clearwire’s Portland, Oregon tower sites (below). Motorola’s WiMAX macrocells can even be mounted on telephone poles. The air conditioning unit alone on a 3G cell site is bigger than the entire WiMAX base station.

What makes “4G” networks different than “3G” networks? Simplicity. WiMAX networks are just big, flat, wireless router networks, explains Scott Richardson, Clearwire’s Chief Strategy Officer (below).

Voice centric cellular systems, with endless synchronizing and networking layers, cost more and deliver less speed. LTE doesn’t mean much without spectrum. And it costs more.

LTE upgrades may take longer, require a more money, and deliver less speed than WiMAX naysayers want to admit. Squeezing performance out of dual 5MHz channels in the 700 MHz band (and avoiding self-interference) could be tricky, say WiMAX supporters. Clearwire’s Mobile WiMAX is here now.

By the time LTE is ready for commercial service (in three years), it will already be out of date. The true “4G” standard — IMT-Advanced is expected to be ratified by then. And 802.16m should be ready with an ITU approved 100Mbps (mobile), 1Gbps (fixed) standard.

Nearly 15 million Netbooks were shipped in 2008, with Acer and ASUS grabbing a 37.3% and 33.2% market share. MIDs are likely to be cell phone replacements — and data centric.

The trillion dollar telecommunications industry needs a reality check. The next billion internet users will be value shoppers.

source: dailywireless.org

Google Latitude for Mobile

Google Latitude for Mobile

Posted by Sam Churchill on February 4th, 2009

Google today announced the release of Latitude. Google Latitude lets users share their locations and is built into Google Maps for Mobile and iGoogle, which lets users create a customized home page.

The opt in feature offers up the user’s rough location, placing their profile picture on a map accessible through a PC or mobile device. People can share their precise location, the city they’re in, or nothing at all.

By clicking on the map-based icon, friends and family member can call, text, e-mail, or IM the user. Maps will also provide driving directions to their location. Once they’ve opted in, users can hide their locations from indivduals or the entire group at any time.

Latitude is part of Google Maps for Mobile, the company’s mapping software for mobile phones, but also can be used through a gadget loaded onto its iGoogle customized home page.

It’s currently available in 27 countries for a variety of smartphones, including Android phones, Blackberries, Windows Mobile phones (5.0+), and Symbian S60s. An iPhone version will follow soon.

It relies on Google Maps’ My Location feature, which uses the signals from nearby cellphone towers to plot a user’s whereabouts. GPS is not required. Google’s earlier text-based Dodgeball application was never more than a niche application.

Rival geosocial networking applications include Brightkite, Dopplr, Loopt, MobiFriends, Sniff, Tripit, Whrrl and Yahoo’s Fire Eagle. On a Nokia, it’s similar to Contacts on Ovi, Nokia FriendView and BuddyCloud.

The service also competes with fee-based location-based services offered by mobile providers. Those include Sprint’s open location platform such as Sprint’s Family Locator as well as GPS-based solutions for Verizon’s Chaperone and AT&T’s Locator services using Where.com.

Stacey Higginbotham says, Qualcomm announced a location-based recommendation engine powered by Xiam, on Monday. The service (offered through carriers) takes demographic information, a user’s personal preferences and geographic location, and serves up lists of places and events that the user might enjoy. As well as ads.

Many location-based application now combine cell tower triangulation with Wi-Fi positioning service from Skyhook Wireless. The main advantage in these location based services is that mobile users don’t have to manually specify ZIP codes or even have GPS.

On your mobile phone visit google.com/latitude from your phone’s mobile browser to download Google Maps for mobile with Latitude. They currently support most of the popular smartphone platforms including Android, Blackberry, Symbian S60, and Windows Mobile. Google product manager Steve Lee says the smartphone audience has grown tremendously. In the U.S. alone, the potential audience is 50 million phones.

Google Maps for Mobile also makes it easy to see Street View imagery on a mobile. Street View is currently available on a variety of mobile phones.

source : dailywireless.org

Garmin + Asus = Location Based Phone

Garmin + Asus = Location-Based Phone

Posted by Sam Churchill on February 4th, 2009

Garmin and ASUSTeK Computer today announced a strategic alliance to design, manufacture and distribute co-branded location-centric mobile phones. Known as the Garmin-Asus nüvifone series, the companies expect to bring to market several Garmin-Asus nüvifone models in 2009.

All Garmin-Asus nüvifone devices will be LBS-centric devices that seamlessly connect, communicate and navigate, says the company. The original Garmin nüvifone, announced in 2008, will be re-branded as the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60.

The Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 is expected to be delivered in the first half of 2009, and additional information about the Garmin-Asus nüvifone G60 will be released at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, February 16-19, 2009.

The phone will feature Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth and Garmin’s proven personal navigation functionality. Connected Services will include localized content, such as traffic data, flight information and weather forecasts.

Garmin and Asus Nuvifone will run Windows Mobile and Android later this year, says Gizmodo. There’s no carrier or price announcement yet—Garmin says they are in active negotiations with GSM carriers in North America (AT&T and T-Mobile) and in Europe.

“We believe that converged devices are an emerging opportunity,” said Dr. Min Kao, chairman and CEO of Garmin Ltd. “This alliance is advantageous to both companies because it allows us to combine our resources and establish a strong foundation from which we will innovate and introduce the world to the benefits of LBS-centric mobile phones. We believe that through this strategic alliance we are uniquely positioned to deliver the world’s best integrated and most compelling GPS-enabled mobile devices.”

source : dailywireless.org