The new official date for the U.S. to switch over to digital television might be June 12, 2009, but the Federal Communications Commission has just granted permission for 158 additional television stations to turn off their analog broadcasts before that date. Most of the stations transitioning early tend to be in smaller markets where the transition doesn’t present a clear public safety issue; however, the list does include NBC and ABC affiliates in Denver. Transition dates range from late March through early June; the FCC has published a complete list on its Web site (PDF).
Tag Archive: Denver
Plane Crash Twitters
Last Saturday a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 ran off the runway at Denver International Airport into a ravine. The resulting fire destroyed the right side of the plane, and 58 were injured, although none killed.
Mike Wilson was on board, and once he was safely back in the airport, he began using the popular micro-blogging site Twitter to relate his experiences.
His first post was: "Holy f—ing s—, I was just in a plane crash."
Survey Ranks U.S. Cities with Home Networks
A new market research study from MultiMedia Intelligence ranks U.S. cities on the basis of how wide their residents have adopted in-home networking during 2007. Perhaps not surprisingly, San Francisco topped the survey results, with some 28 percent of households having adopted home networking technologies. San Francisco was closely followed by Miami at 27 percent, and Los Angeles at 24 percent.
If you’re wondering why other well-known tech hubs didn’t even make the list, the survey apparently examined only top "designated marketing areas," a list of fourteen U.S. cities that omits places like Seattle and Austin as well as central cities like Denver, St. Louis, and Minneapolis.
T-Mobile Expanding 3G Network
Although it still hasn’t been officially announced, U.S. mobile operator T-Mobile is widely expected to introduce the first mobile phone build on Google’s Android platform next month, in the form of the HTC Dream. The potential problem with this scenario is that, while the Dream supports 3G data connectivity, T-Mobile is the number four mobile operator and only has 3G service up in a handful of markets. T-Mobile introduced 3G service in New York City in May and has since extended service to a handful of other markets, including Miami, Houston, Boston, San Diego, and Las Vegas.
Cisco Buys Messaging Company Jabber
Internet gear giant Cisco has announced a deal to acquire privately-held Internet messaging and “presence” company Jabber for an undisclosed amount. Based in Denver, Jabber develops and provides communication services, including instant messaging technology that’s interoperable between different platforms and applications and can, for instance, act as a gateway between normally isolated services like Google Talk, Microsoft’s Office Communication Service, IBM SameTime, and Yahoo Messenger.
“With the acquisition of Jabber, we will be able to extend the reach of our current instant messaging service and expand the capabilities of our collaboration platform,” said Cisco’s senior VP for collaboration software Doug Dennerline, in a statement. “Our intention is to be the interoperability benchmark in the collaboration space.”
Control4’s HC-200 Controller Under $500
At this week’s CEDIA Expo in Denver, home automation developer Control4 introduced its new HC-200 home automation control unit. What’s surprising about the HC0-200 isn’t so much the wealth of home automation possibilities it offers, but it’s sub-$500 price tag in a field traditionally dominated by expensive hardware controllers.
“We believe the HC-200 sets a new standard of affordability for home automation,” said Control4 CEO Will West, in a statement. “The evolution of our Home Controller line highlights Control4’s commitment to providing flexible alternatives to fit the different needs of homeowners and in the case of the HC-200 will open the door to new customers who are ready for something more capable than a simple universal remote.”
DVDO Edge Upscales Up to Ten Video Sources
Next week’s CEDIA Expo in Denver will see the introduction of the DVDO Edge video hub and processor, which aims to be the first and last question for bringing together a videophile’s plethora of video sources, upscaling them to 1080p, and making them look their best on an HDTV display. The DVDO Edge will handle up to 10 video sources—six via HDMI 1.3 inputs and four analog inputs—and take all the video up to 1080p. What’s more, the DVDO Edge offers precision de-interlacing, noise-reduction, detail and edge management, and claims to dramatically improve image quality using progressive reprocessing.
Yahoo Amps up Efforts to Tackle AdWords
Google AdWords may be the current king of online advertising, but on Monday, heavyweight rival Yahoo announced its own challenger, a new online advertising platform dubbed Amp. With it, Yahoo will attempt to consolidate different types of Web advertising into one platform that it hopes will draw in advertisers and publishers with ease of use.
Yahoo envisions Amp as a sort of stock market for Web advertising, where people where buyers and sellers of ads can freely trade impressions as easily as they now trade stock shares. Ad buyers will be able to shop among search, display, local, mobile, and video ads, and target audiences by their interests, geographic location, or demographics. A host of tools included in the system will also make it possible to see how advertising efforts measured up using common advertising metrics.
Take Your Phone Inside with Sprint’s Airave
If you find that poor signal quality means you have to go outside to use your Sprint mobile phone, the company might have a solution for you—at least if you live in Denver or Indianapolis. The new Sprint Airave, built by Samsung, is basically a femtocell base station which extends the range of Sprint’s wireless network into a small area (say, a building) by tapping into a broadband Internet connection as a way to enhance in-building wireless phone service. When users go out of range of the Airave, calls switch back to Sprint’s wireless network. The Airave improved cellular reception over an area of about 5,000 square feet, and is capable of handling three wireless calls at once.
NEC Rolls Out the Flat-Panel Displays
NEC Display Solutions is introducing three new lines of flat panel displays at this year’s CEDIA Expo in Denver, all of which are geared toward residential use, ranging from casual television viewing through high-definition home theaters.
"By introducing three unique lines of flat panel displays, and offering a host of new features and functionality, NEC provides consumers with display options for every room in their home," said NEC Display Solutions executive VP Pierre Richer in a statement. "These displays bring together NEC’s award-winning innovative video technologies and world-class product quality for unsurpassed viewing experiences."








