Ofcom, the super regulator is holding a consultation on the future of number in the UK. There's nothing too exciting about that, except that in certain areas numbers are running out and (there's 680 regional codes in the UK and 58 of those have less than 100 blocks available - numbers are allocated in blocks of 1,000).
Though many other countries have charged for number allocation, the UK has remained the exception. Now Ofcom intends to pilot charging in these number restricted areas and will charge 10p per number per year. That's above the European average of 7p pa (pricing varies from 0.06p to 27p).
Ofcom has seen a large rise in the allocation of number blocks with the likes of VoIP providers and other new entrants who can request numbers directly from Ofcom in-line with the Communications Act which allows anyone to become a Communications Provider.
Unfortunately Ofcom has to allocate 1,000 number blocks as the UK has not migrated to NGN's (next generation networks) as fast as Ofcom had hoped and old equipment can only take these large blocks (Ofcom used to allocate 10,000 number blocks, so there's some improvement).
If everyone had adopted ENUM then numbers could be allocated individually, but that's a long way off and unlikely to ever be adopted by everyone.
Though currently this is only a consultation, it's likely to be implemented and then there's no reason they wont expand this to all areas and even implement retrospective charges for existing number blocks, which could be expensive for providers holding large blocks of numbers.
The consultation is available from here, it ends on 18 February 2011 and it's possible to respond on-line.
25 Kasım 2010 Perşembe
23 Kasım 2010 Salı
Video: The Networked EV - Market Outlook through 2015 by David Leeds (The Networked EV Nov 9 2010)
By Mary Vincent - Follow on Twitter @MaryVincent
Clean Tech and Green Business News was a Media Partner for The Networked EV Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles Conference, San Francisco on November 9, 2010. I attended 'The Networked EV: Market Outlook through 2015' Presentation by GTM Research's David Leeds and took a video. This Presentation is one of the best and well-researched I've seen on the subject, and it's well-worth viewing. The full description of the Presentation is below for your reference as well.
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David Leeds from GTM Research presents highlights and key findings from new market research on the topic of The Networked EV, including a market outlook at the intersection of smart grids and electric vehicles, optimizing grid infrastructure for the coming growth of connected EVs, utility trends surrounding EV deployments, and trends around advanced EVs themselves, including EV energy storage technologies.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/events/live/the-networked-ev/agenda
http://www.greentechmedia.com/events/live/the-networked-ev/agenda
19 Kasım 2010 Cuma
Ofcom wants mobile phone license exempt on boats
Ofcom is holding a consultation to make mobile terminals (phone) license exempt when used on boats.
Generally the boat (like a cruise liner) will have one or more pico cells on-board and then connect back to a base station. Ofcom will license the mobile base-stations and then the phone licenses are part of that. This is in-line with harmonise European legislation on marine communication service on board vessels.
The consultation is available on Ofcom's site and runs from 19/11/10 to 22/12/10.
Stakeholders can respond on-line.
Generally the boat (like a cruise liner) will have one or more pico cells on-board and then connect back to a base station. Ofcom will license the mobile base-stations and then the phone licenses are part of that. This is in-line with harmonise European legislation on marine communication service on board vessels.
The consultation is available on Ofcom's site and runs from 19/11/10 to 22/12/10.
Stakeholders can respond on-line.
18 Kasım 2010 Perşembe
HTC Wildfire fired into the wild
HTC have released their new Wildfire phone running Android 2.1 (Eclair) and HTC Sense with a suite of social networking tools built in (Facebook, Twitter and Flickr) and many more on Android Marketplace.
The CPU isn't brilliant (only 528MHz) and the display is only QVGA (240 x 320) and os 3.2", but it does have a 5MP auto-focus camera with flash, 512MB ROM and 384MB RAM. It supports 3G, EDGE, GPRS and WiFi (b/g), Bluetooth 2.1 and an FM radio.
There's a multitude of sensors, including G-Sensor, digital compass, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.
Here's a video of what it can do
More info can be found at the HTC site.
The CPU isn't brilliant (only 528MHz) and the display is only QVGA (240 x 320) and os 3.2", but it does have a 5MP auto-focus camera with flash, 512MB ROM and 384MB RAM. It supports 3G, EDGE, GPRS and WiFi (b/g), Bluetooth 2.1 and an FM radio.
There's a multitude of sensors, including G-Sensor, digital compass, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.
Here's a video of what it can do
More info can be found at the HTC site.
Qualcomm Snapdragons pack more byte for buck
Yesterday Qualcomm announced their new Snapdragon MSM8960™ chipset. Though based on the original (ARM) Snapdragon system, the new chip is dual core with the new micro-architecture that delivers 5 times the performance while using 75% less power.
The processor has a built-in mult-modem support all 3G modes as well as LTE, new graphics that operate at 4 times the speed and built-in support for WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth and FM.
The chip is based on a 28nm process and will be available in early 2011.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon is already used in many high-end smart-phones and tablets and the new chip should really give them a lead in the high end market against rivals such as Samsung and even Apple.
The processor has a built-in mult-modem support all 3G modes as well as LTE, new graphics that operate at 4 times the speed and built-in support for WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth and FM.
The chip is based on a 28nm process and will be available in early 2011.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon is already used in many high-end smart-phones and tablets and the new chip should really give them a lead in the high end market against rivals such as Samsung and even Apple.
17 Kasım 2010 Çarşamba
Harmony, A New Way of Looking at Our World, narrated by Prince Charles
Three decades of work by HRH The Prince of Wales to combat climate change and find innovative solutions to the global environmental crisis, culminate in the documentary *Harmony*, an urgent, accessible and practical call to action.
It offers the audience a rare glimpse of The Prince of Wales, and a new and inspiring perspective on how the world can meet the challenges of climate change globally, locally and personally.
*Harmony* is a chance to see how The Prince of Wales’ values are expressed
through the people and programs that he has supported for nearly thirty
years – a surprising and dynamic array of business leaders and environmental
activists, farmers, doctors, artists, architects, builders, indigenous
people and government officials. They are challenging conventional wisdom,
creating new sustainable technologies, and forging a deeper and more
spiritual relationship with the natural world.
Harmony is narrated by Prince Charles, and has its broadcast premiere at 10pmET on Friday, November 19th on NBC. Prior to its premiere, “Dateline” will air an exclusive interview of Prince Charles speaking with Brian Williams at 9pmET.
I was grateful to be on a conference call with the Executive Producers Julie Bergman Sender and Stuart Sender. Here are some of the thoughts they shared:
Per Stuart Sender:
"You know, when we started working on this project on Harmony people would understandably want to ask us about the Prince, you know, what is he like and what is it like to work with him? But, you know, what we really want to say from the outset is as the Prince of Wales has always insisted, this has never really been about the Prince but much more about what we’ve come to see as the principles. That said, I do want to take a minute to just say a few words about the Prince of Wales for people who may not know that much about his history.
Because this film grows out of 30 years plus of his work around combating climate change, 25 years of work as an organic farmer working on issues on sustainability, corporate social responsibility and being that is kind of lead up to his being named one of Time Magazine’s leaders and visionaries as a hero of the environment.
And so we really had a kind of, you know, extraordinary experience working with all of this material and creating a film that we hope will give people a kind of a different perspective, not just on the global environmental crisis that we hear about, but also about the way that that’s connected to real solutions that we can look at in terms of the environment and the economy are connected about how we grow and distributed our food, about how we can create new technologies that are inspired by really interesting entrepreneurs who are looking at nature and figuring out how to make - how to create solutions to some of the problems that we’re facing.
The Prince has an initiative called Dutchy Originals which acts a lot the way Newman’s Own does where natural and organic products are sold and proceeds are given to charities. And that was how we connected.
The Prince had made his own film called the Earth in Balance. All the way back in 1990 he made a film that dealt with environmental issues and climate change.
And I think he felt pretty passionately that a lot of these issues were not just still happening but that these were things that needed to be addressed with even more urgency.
You know, as he said, you know, we’re now dealing with a planet that has dwindling resources and real crisis that we’re facing. And a lot of this stuff that we continue to do we do with the awareness that we’re facing these challenges and that this was a time to issue what he calls in the movie a call to action."
Per Julie Sender:
"...I think, you know, the fact that he’s the Prince of Wales is in a way secondary to his passion about this issue, that he views his position in the world as a way to bring awareness and to bring support to people from all different economic, social religious, you know, environmental and sustainable workers and people who are suffering from climate change as much as people who are working towards making it less of a threat. He really does believe that this is his calling as a person"
Per Stuart Sender:
"The Prince has an organic farm that’s about 1200 acres. It’s quite an extraordinary place. And when you watch the movie you’ll get a little bit of a taste -- no pun intended -- of what that farm is like and why he decided to convert to organic as a kind of way of expressing his values in the world.
And..so we look at that as a kind of an example of what Harmony might be."
Ofcom consultation on "whitespace" use and Gelocation
There's lots of spectrum around, but it's a crowded space and so much of it is licensed by Ofcom i.e. in order to utilise equipment that transmits or receives data in that spectrum a "use" license is required. This is why a TV license is required. Mobile phones also require a license, but that's paid as part of the license that the mobile network operators have (and have paid for).
Various parts of the spectrum have been made license exempt such as 2.4GHz which is used by WiFi (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth and other systems like Zigbee. Licenses exempt status means that a user doesn't need to get a specific license if they use the equipment in accordance with the rules that Ofcom have published (i.e. Ofcom publish a "blanket" license and as long as the equipment in use doesn't get used outside the licensing framework, then the use doesn't need to get a license themselves). Any WiFi or Bluetooth systems will comply with Ofcom's licensing regime.
In the past Ofcom has bowed to public pressure and made certain equipment license exempt such as low power FM transmitters than can connect to MP3 and other music devices and transmit a short range to a radio (usually in a car). As they're low power, they wont interfere with the commercial radio stations (at least to other users) who have paid a lot of money for the licenses to transmit in the commercial radio bands.
Another big chunk of spectrum is in the TV bands and some of this is reserved so that interference between bands doesn't happen. The TV bands have much better propagation characteristics than say 2.4GHz which is used by WiFi and Ofcom are looking at ways of using the "dead" space for short-range low power devices which could be used say to transmit video signals between systems in the home. The whitespace could also be used for higher power rural broadband access.
They would work by looking at the bands and finding these dead areas known as whitespace and then those frequencies would be potential candidates for local transmission. However this could rapidly lead to interference between neighbouring systems (say in a neighbours house), so Ofcom wants the systems to consult a geolocation database (hosted by Ofcom) that the system could register with and ensure the whitespace was suitable for use in that area.
There would be a "master" device that would communicate with Ofcom's database and report the power and frequencies it was using and any connected devices (slaves, that wouldn't need to connect to the database themselves). The whitespace devices will be license exempt. Though Ofcom will initially run any database required, they don't evisage running the database in the future as that is best left to commercial organisations and Ofcom would like interested parties to contact them.
Though Ofcom are consulting now (the consultation runs from 09/11/10 to 07/12/10) they don't expect whitespace devices to appear until 2014.
Interested parties can respond to the consultation on-line.
Various parts of the spectrum have been made license exempt such as 2.4GHz which is used by WiFi (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth and other systems like Zigbee. Licenses exempt status means that a user doesn't need to get a specific license if they use the equipment in accordance with the rules that Ofcom have published (i.e. Ofcom publish a "blanket" license and as long as the equipment in use doesn't get used outside the licensing framework, then the use doesn't need to get a license themselves). Any WiFi or Bluetooth systems will comply with Ofcom's licensing regime.
In the past Ofcom has bowed to public pressure and made certain equipment license exempt such as low power FM transmitters than can connect to MP3 and other music devices and transmit a short range to a radio (usually in a car). As they're low power, they wont interfere with the commercial radio stations (at least to other users) who have paid a lot of money for the licenses to transmit in the commercial radio bands.
Another big chunk of spectrum is in the TV bands and some of this is reserved so that interference between bands doesn't happen. The TV bands have much better propagation characteristics than say 2.4GHz which is used by WiFi and Ofcom are looking at ways of using the "dead" space for short-range low power devices which could be used say to transmit video signals between systems in the home. The whitespace could also be used for higher power rural broadband access.
They would work by looking at the bands and finding these dead areas known as whitespace and then those frequencies would be potential candidates for local transmission. However this could rapidly lead to interference between neighbouring systems (say in a neighbours house), so Ofcom wants the systems to consult a geolocation database (hosted by Ofcom) that the system could register with and ensure the whitespace was suitable for use in that area.
There would be a "master" device that would communicate with Ofcom's database and report the power and frequencies it was using and any connected devices (slaves, that wouldn't need to connect to the database themselves). The whitespace devices will be license exempt. Though Ofcom will initially run any database required, they don't evisage running the database in the future as that is best left to commercial organisations and Ofcom would like interested parties to contact them.
Though Ofcom are consulting now (the consultation runs from 09/11/10 to 07/12/10) they don't expect whitespace devices to appear until 2014.
Interested parties can respond to the consultation on-line.
Ofcom issues new spectrum for Transportable Earth Stations
Due to the demand for extra capacity for Transportable Earth Stations (TES) i.e. mobile satellite systems, Ofcom has made available more spectrum for its use.
The following frequencies may be used for satellite uplinks
C band: 5925 - 7075 MHz
Ka band: 27.5 - 27.8185 GHz, 28.4545 - 28.8265 GHz, 29.4625 - 30 GHz
The pricing for licenses will be equivalent to those in the Ku band (13.78 - 14.5 GHz).
This follows a previous Ofcom consultation and though most responses were favourable, there were some objections from fixed earth station users, though Ofcom felt that opening up the C and Ka bands was more favourable than doing nothing with them.
The full statement may be seen on Ofcom's site
The following frequencies may be used for satellite uplinks
C band: 5925 - 7075 MHz
Ka band: 27.5 - 27.8185 GHz, 28.4545 - 28.8265 GHz, 29.4625 - 30 GHz
The pricing for licenses will be equivalent to those in the Ku band (13.78 - 14.5 GHz).
This follows a previous Ofcom consultation and though most responses were favourable, there were some objections from fixed earth station users, though Ofcom felt that opening up the C and Ka bands was more favourable than doing nothing with them.
The full statement may be seen on Ofcom's site
16 Kasım 2010 Salı
Video: Sustainable Innovation by Judy Estrin: CEO JLABS
By Mary Vincent - Follow on Twitter @MaryVincent
WNSF's West Coast Sustainability Leadership Summit
IBM Almaden Research Center, Nov 12, 2010
http://ecoprotection.blogspot.com/2010/10/nov-12-2010-wnsfs-west-coast.html
15 Kasım 2010 Pazartesi
Video: Nancy Sutley Chair White House Council of Environmental Quality
By Mary Vincent - Follow on Twitter @MaryVincent
Video: Nancy Sutley Chair White House Council of Environmental Quality Speaking at WNSF's West Coast Sustainability Leadership Summit, IBM Silicon Valley, Nov 12, 2010
11 Kasım 2010 Perşembe
Nov 17 - Clean Tech Awards Gala
Clean Tech Open is hosting it's fifth annual Clean Tech Awards Gala November 17 in San Jose, California. 150+ clean technology exhibits will be present along with the opportunity to vote for your favorite Ideas Competition Finalist. Then you'll watch Business Competition Finalist Demos and Speakers, and witness the National Winner Announcement. More Information and Registration is here.
10 Kasım 2010 Çarşamba
Video: The Power of Policy - How Can Government Catalyze the Smart Grid? (GreenBeat 2010)
By Mary Vincent - Follow on Twitter @MaryVincent
Video: The Power of Policy - How Can Government Catalyze the Smart Grid?
(GreenBeat November 4, 2010)
Moderator: Kerry Dolan, Technology Editor, Forbes MagazineDian Grueneich, Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission
Gary Klein, Senior Member, Federal Affairs; Legislative Practice Group, DLA Piper
Michael Terrell, Policy Counsel for Clean Energy, Google
James L. Sweeney, Director of the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, Stanford University
4 Kasım 2010 Perşembe
2 Kasım 2010 Salı
Nokia releases MeeGo v1.1
Nokia has released version 1.1 of the MeeGo Operating System (OS) which contains Linux Kernel 2.6.35, X.org server 1.9.0, Web Runtime, Qt 4.7, and Qt Mobility 1.0.2. It's available in several versions optimised for the devices that they run on i.e. MeeGo for Handsets, MeeGo for Netbooks, MeeGo for In-Vehicle Entertainment.
The Netbook version is actually 2 versions, one with the completely open source Google Chromium browser and the other with Google's Chrome browser which requires the suer to agree to Google's EULA.
Though the handset version supports Nokia's N900, they say it works but it's not really for end-users yet and the the user interface (UI) isn't ready for prime-time.
The IVE release supports text-to-speech using the open source Festival speech engine and speech recognition using PocketSphynx (which is based on the open source Sphynx speech-to-text system).
Though Nokia are developing MeeGo (which is the combination of Nokia Maemo OS and Intel's Moblin OS) it may be another dead-end OS as Android is starting to dominate the smart-phone market and Google will release their ChromeOS for Netbooks (though Android is already being used on tablets).
Qt (the cross-platform toolset that Nokia acquired with Trolltech) is the key technology that Nokia want to push (it sits on top of MeeGo and Symbian as well as MacOS and Windows) and MeeGo may just be a way to ensure they have an in-house development platform that's use don live devices, but that cant be a long-term strategy (MeeGo is only officially supported on the N900 and Aava devices in terms of handsets).
MeeGo version 1.2 can be expected in 6 months i.e. April and will include a more polished UI and other new features.
The Netbook version is actually 2 versions, one with the completely open source Google Chromium browser and the other with Google's Chrome browser which requires the suer to agree to Google's EULA.
Though the handset version supports Nokia's N900, they say it works but it's not really for end-users yet and the the user interface (UI) isn't ready for prime-time.
The IVE release supports text-to-speech using the open source Festival speech engine and speech recognition using PocketSphynx (which is based on the open source Sphynx speech-to-text system).
Though Nokia are developing MeeGo (which is the combination of Nokia Maemo OS and Intel's Moblin OS) it may be another dead-end OS as Android is starting to dominate the smart-phone market and Google will release their ChromeOS for Netbooks (though Android is already being used on tablets).
Qt (the cross-platform toolset that Nokia acquired with Trolltech) is the key technology that Nokia want to push (it sits on top of MeeGo and Symbian as well as MacOS and Windows) and MeeGo may just be a way to ensure they have an in-house development platform that's use don live devices, but that cant be a long-term strategy (MeeGo is only officially supported on the N900 and Aava devices in terms of handsets).
MeeGo version 1.2 can be expected in 6 months i.e. April and will include a more polished UI and other new features.
1 Kasım 2010 Pazartesi
Creek Watch app helps monitor the health of your local watershed
Creek Watch is an application that enables you to help monitor the health of your local watershed. Whenever you pass by a waterway, spend a few seconds using the Creek Watch application to snap a picture and report how much water and trash you see. Creek Watch aggregates the data and shares it to help watershed groups and agencies track pollution and manage water resources.
Available now in the iTunes App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/creek-watch/id398420434?mt=8
See the live map at: http://creekwatch.org