Digital Trends
At its annual developers conference in Chicago this week, online auction giant eBay plans to announce Project Echo, a new platform that will enable developers to embed applications where more than 700,000 eBay sellers can subscribe to them. Project Echo will also include APIs that provide developers with information on buyer demographics and habits, along with inventory management tools.
In the wake of a major natural disaster, it’s important to get the infrastructure working again. These days, a vital part of that is to get telecommunications up and running – not justthe phones, but also Internet communication. What you might not know is that there’s an organization called Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) that goesinto affected areas right after the disaster. It’s a charity that works with the United Nations and the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) to restore communications indisaster-hit areas and the developing world.Right now they’re in Peru. The 8.0 magnitude there last Wednesday killed 500 people, and severely disputed roads and communications in partsof the country. Phone and Internet are fine in the capital, Lima, but in Pisco, where the quake was most extreme, and Ica and Chincha, there’s no access. Julie Cazenave, who is leadingthe five-member TSF team, said, “There is a lot of confusion right now because there is little information from the areas hit. We have to use satellite tech to re-connect differentorganization centers in the field. We will set up a telecoms centre at Pisco airport, which is the main logistical platform of emergency relief.” The team is equipped with everythingnecessary to set up Wi-Fi connections in the area, from satellite modems to laptops. They hoped to have the first centers set up by last Friday, with more over the weekend to co-ordinate recoveryweek in the areas and keep in touch with Lima. The priority will be given to aid and charity workers, but free phone calls will also be available to local residents. It’s estimated thatthe TSF workers will be in the field for at least three weeks.
These improvements are designed to further increase the robust recording capabilities and navigation of the service.
In addition to current DVR functionality such as the ability to record a program to watch at a later time, record high-definition programming (viewable only with an HDTV set or monitor) and pause and rewind live TV – the new dual tuner functionality allows customers to record two programs simultaneously while watching a previously recorded program, or watch a live program while recording an additional program. The dual tuner software will be automatically downloaded to the customer’s set-top box, the HD-capable Motorola DCT6412.
Echo, a joint venture launched with a splash of publicity in early 2003, was designed to give the big brick-and-mortar retailers such as Best Buy and Virgin Megastores an online foothold that would help them beat back file-swapping services and digital stores.
But mounting development costs, a glut of rivals offering bargain-rate services, and smaller-than-hoped-for sales across the online-music spectrum, even at Apple’s successful store, have led the big retailers to pull funding for the project, its founders say.
“The reality is that compared to all the retailers’ bottom lines, even Apple’s music sales are insignificant,” said Alex Bernstein, a co-founder and investor in the Echo project. “Our board repeatedly told us that.”
The Nokia 3300 music phone includes an MP3/AAC player, FM stereo radio and a full messaging keypad to make messaging and music mobile in one fashionable and small device. It is currently onsale at www.nokia.com/us and at Cingular stores in the United States. More carriers across North and South America are expected to offer the Nokia 3300 music phone in the coming weeks. The 3300 music phone is the first of its kind in the Americas and marks a completely new way for music fans to legally consume music content. The digital music player offers extensive musiclistening with swappable multi-media memory (MMC) cards with battery life allowing for up to 15 hours of music play, while the FM stereo radio with 20 presets can play up to 10 hours of music.Transferring music from CDs or digital files is easy with Nokia’s Audio Manager PC software and the USB cable (included with purchase). An in-box 64MBMMC card will include True Tones — an excitingnew way of personalizing the combined mobile phone and music device with real music samples as ring tones to alert users of an incoming call. When a call comes in, the Nokia 3300 music phoneautomatically pauses the music while you take the call. And when the call is complete, you can go right back to jamming to the tunes without missing a beat. A plug-in for*RealNetworks®’ award winning RealOne(TM) Player is scheduled to be available for use with the Nokia 3300 music phone in the near future. When the plug-in is made available, the RealOne Player willallow users to create play lists from their music library that they can quickly and easily transfer to the Nokia 3300 music phone for listening on the go. With advanced CD burning, MP3 recording upto 320 Kbps, and streamlined play list creation, RealOne Player offers full music management and jukebox functions that active mobile music lovers seek. When made available for the Nokia 3300 musicphone, consumers will be able to download the RealOne Player with the plug-in for free from www.real.com. As an additional bonus, the Nokia 3300 will be sold with a CD-ROM of full-lengthtracks showcasing some of today’s hottest bands and newest emerging artists. Hoobastank, The All American Rejects and Ozomatli have included never-before-released music on the CD in addition toupcoming artists Diffuser, GOB, Brand New, Wakefield, Flashlight Brown and Forty Foot Echo. Five of the music industries hottest record label’s — Arista, DreamWorks, Island/Def-Jam, Razor & Tieand Hollywood — were responsible for contributing the tracks and True Tones. Users of the Nokia 3300 music phone can download these tracks from the CD to their phone with the included Nokia AudioManager PC software. “The Nokia 3300 music phone is a hip little number that puts the bling-bling in your ring-a-ling,” said Nada Usina, general manager of Nokia mobile phones entertainmentand media. “With amazing sound quality, messaging made easy, and oodles of ways to personalize the music phone to your personality, it’s certain to be the phone to carry back to school this year.” “We are thrilled to have our music featured on the Nokia 3300 music phone. Nokia is always leading the way with innovative phones and it is great for our artists to be associated with acompany that is in touch with the same audience,” said Ken Bunt, vice president of new media for Buena Vista Music Group. North American Concert Tour to Feature Nokia 3300 Artists TheNokia Unwired Tour will celebrate the music available with the purchase of the Nokia 3300 with a 20-market concert tour in the United States and Canada from October 2 through October 31. Thetour will feature the aforementioned Hoobastank and The All American Rejects along with bands Ozomatli and Diffuser. All of these bands have contributed music to the CD or MMC included in-boxwith the Nokia 3300 music phone - an extra bonus for music lovers who buy the phone. “The music included with the purchase of the Nokia 3300 music phone is an extra bonus for musiclovers,” continued Usina. “Use it with the hands free speaker feature, and you’ve got the digital boom box of a generation.” The Nokia 3300 music phone features a radical newlook including a horizontal design with a full messaging keyboard optimized for quick text input in messaging and browsing. It supports multiple ways for text chatting including instantmessaging (IM), e-mail, multi media messaging (MMS) and text messaging. Built for stylish and trendy music lovers who need to message on the go, the phone is meant to show the personality of itsusers with True Tones, multimedia message templates and color wallpapers. The dual band (850/1900) Nokia 3300 music phone also has a high-resolution color display (128 x 128). For moreinformation about the Nokia 3300 music phone, visit www.nokiausa.com/phones/3300 . Pictures and discussion can be found here:
http://forums.designtechnica.com/showthread.php?s=2a99245d8b011290470f333951ea3535&threadid=2683
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