Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
On the road to voice-driven services, consumers need devices that enable them to speak commands rather than punch keys, and Web developers need sites that will let Web-ready portable devices make use of speech-recognition technology.
Conversa has been busy crafting products and services that do both. The company has just enabled its CASSI speech-recognition technology for [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
Since we covered in September (see “Radio waves“), the technology has passed another milestone. Delphi Automotive Systems recently demonstrated one of the first mobile Satellite Digital Audio Receiver Service (SDARS) systems, which successfully tuned in and played a signal from XM Satellite Radio. Delphi will supply radios for both the XM Satellite Radio and Sirius [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
Nogatech has announced a digital video chip containing a USB interface that can simultaneously stream video and audio to a PC platform at 30 frames per second with CIF (common interchange format) resolution (352 by 288 pixels), or 15 frames per second at VGA resolution (640 by 480 pixels).
Manufactured using advanced 0.25-micron technology, the NT1006 [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
While the technical road to in-vehicle Internet access remains somewhat foggy (running the gamut from proprietary systems to those based on mobile devices), we can say “Yes, there is such thing as real computer for your car.”
Q-PC offers the Real Car Computer, an in-car PC based on Windows 98. The computer allows drivers to use [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
Among all that the networked home promises, managed services delivered via the Internet—like remote monitoring, diagnostics, and control of appliances, lighting, and security—stand to provide the most practical benefits to consumers. Now, Sun Microsystems and Invensys Control Systems are collaborating to develop and market the “smart home” infrastructure required for the delivery of such services [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
Erik Sherman’s article builds a strong case for how the ISO MPEG-4 standard is uniquely adapted to deliver the next generation of streaming media to PCs, mobile devices, and cable television. However, at least one view expressed—that standards for media streaming are not that important and that MPEG-4’s market window is later—isn’t entirely correct. We [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
“Two-way video transfer will become a standard function in next-generation consumer devices,” states Brian Knowles, vice president of marketing at MIPS Technologies. If he’s right, emerging convergence products will need to be just as accomplished at the more intensive task of video encoding as today’s products are at decoding.
For applications such as 2.5G and 3G [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
Several firms have recently announced broadband-via-satellite initiatives that have been designed to serve the information content needs of residential, business and lodging industry customers.
EchoStar Communications and Geocast Network Systems have announced a non-exclusive agreement under which Geocast will deliver personalized broadband services to PC users via The DISH Network–EchoStar’s high-power, direct broadcast satellite system.
Expected to [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
The spread of DSL provides huge incentives for ILECs, CLECs, ISPs, and ICPs (integrated communications providers), all of whom want to deliver bundled voice and data services to residences and businesses. In turn, those companies’ needs look like a bonanza to equipment and infrastructure suppliers, who are rushing to cash in.
Companies such as VoCAL Technologies, [...]
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Posted on October 17th, 2000 by admin
The UMTS (universal mobile telecommunication services) 2000 conference, held in Barcelona, Spain, from October 11 to 13 featured product announcements of interest to developers of 3G cellular communications systems. In addition, several chipmakers have recently announced breakthrough devices and processes that, in one way or another, promise to accelerate the performance of next-generation handheld devices.
PrairieComm [...]
Filed under: Untethered | No Comments »