Posts Tagged ‘game’
Driving a Tata Nano in Mumbai
February 13th, 2010 | 
Author: Over Christmas I optimistically nominated the Tata Nano as my car of the decade, even though I hadn’t actually driven one. It’s social significance and engineering achievement was what appealed to me.
I put that straight yesterday, though, on a half-hour adrenalin-charged drive through Mumbai’s crowded streets. To be honest it wasn’t the car raising my pulse to a steady 150bpm, it was the crazy driving conditions here. It’s like being bombarded with one of those tennis ball serving machines or being on the top level of a video game; things come at you so randomly and so fast that you’re just fire-fighting to stay out of trouble.
Chas Hallett blog: A taste of India
Thousands of pedestrians, other cars, street traders, cows, buses, taxi cabs and the odd dog are all sharing the same space.
Timidity means failure though; you’ve just got to grit your teeth and go for it or else some crazy cabby will be occupying the piece of tarmac you’ve got your sights on. And keeping his hand glued to the horn whilst he does it. Then again, while such a system shouldn’t really work, here it kind of does.
Anyway, most of my time in the Nano was spent preserving it, me and the lads from Autocar India in the back. I did find out, however, that it’s way better than a £1500 car deserves to be. The ride is surprisingly good for such a short car that has to bounce over Mumbai’s chronic roads. The two-cylinder motor is not the quietest device but its low-down grunt is ideal for town work – and quick squirts to get out of the way of slower obstacles. It also feels stable and well-planted on the road. The unassisted steering, too, is sweet and communicative if predictably stiff at parking paces.
Best of all though is the Nano’s space. It’s barely bigger than a Smart but four big blokes can easily squeeze in. And four of us did in search of yet another amazing Indian meal. It also feels extremely well made. Sure the cabin is basic and the driving position too high for my tastes, but I reckon that our 4000 miler will still feel solid in 10 years time.
The main consideration with the Nano though is that it was Ratan Tata’s vision to get some of his less fortunate countrymen away from transporting their entire families on a scooter (you see thousands of them) and into four-wheeled transport. Yet, it’s far from being just utilitarian transport – it’s way too good for that.
So anyone who voted for the Range Rover, the eventual winner in our poll, or anything else – sorry I think that you were wrong.
CDNs: Limelight now offers turnkey customizing and monetizing media delivery in a mobile world
According to Nielsen(1), US consumers are watching more content per month than ever before, and viewing is wide spread across three screens: traditional television, Web browsers, and media-enabled mobile devices. As audiences continue to fragment across devices, publishers need a simple way to deliver content wherever those audiences go. LimelightREACH and LimelightADS solve this problem by using contextual awareness and an intelligent delivery platform to customize media assets on the fly. The technology delivers a high-quality playback experience for consumers and new targeted revenue opportunities for content publishers. This means publishers can create content once, yet distribute and monetize it across many networks and connected devices.
“Consumer viewing habits are evolving rapidly with the expectation that media should be available not just at home, but on the go. As a result, many of our customers are looking at aggressively expanding the reach of their online media in the mobile arena,” said Bill Loewenthal, vice president and general manager, mobility and monetization solutions, Limelight Networks. “Our solution is a combination of mobility products and robust, media-grade infrastructure that provides the scale necessary to support ever-growing audiences, and the field-proven success of mobile infrastructure technologies that target and personalize media delivery.”
LimelightREACH uses the company’s intelligent global computing platform to auto-detect end-user devices and deliver device-optimized media files, with no change in the publishing process, for the best consumer media experience. The solution enables publishers to distribute properly-formatted content to almost any media-enabled mobile handset — from early video-capable phones to smartphones such as the Apple iPhone™ 3GS or Palm Pre™ — using a single, Universal URL. Based on an ever-growing library of device profiles, LimelightREACH delivers the right file over the right protocol and network to the specific device that requested the content. Through an open architecture, LimelightREACH can be paired with Limelight Networks’ own media-grade content delivery service, or service from other major CDN providers.
LimelightADS helps publishers move beyond the Web browser to reach audiences in widgets, mobile applications, video games, and more. The service allows publishers to present dynamic pre-, mid-, or post-roll video and audio advertising into media that is delivered to mobile or connected users. LimelightADS works seamlessly with a publisher’s existing ad insertion process, integrating directly into leading ad decision engines like DoubleClick DART and Microsoft Atlas, and allowing publishers to maintain any existing management interface for measuring ad success. Publishers can change ads dynamically and even rotate multiple campaigns and advertisers within the same content segment. With LimelightADS, publishers remain in control, managing their ad sales and operations as they always have — whether they are using their own internal ad sales teams or are working through a trusted partner. Limelight Networks supports Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) mobile video standards.
LimelightREACH and LimelightADS Bring Device-Optimized Targeting to Mobile Media Delivery, Allowing Publishers to Customize Content and Advertisements for Individual Devices
see also LimelightREACH and LimelightADS
Posted in Communications | 
Tags: 3g, advertisement, Advertising, amp, apple, application, Audi, blog, blogs, Computing, consumers, game, Games, iphone, Management, Marketing, microsoft, Mobile, mobile application, mobile applications, mobile device, mobile devices, mobile market, mobile marketing, mobile world, Network, online, palm, smartphone, Technology, video game, web browser, world | 
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USA: AT&T reports significant growth in use of its Wi-Fi hotspots in Q2 2009, fueled by smartphones
In the second quarter, AT&T handled nearly 15 million Wi-Fi connections on its network — a 41 percent increase over the first quarter. With approximately 25.6 million connections so far in 2009, AT&T Wi-Fi connections this year have already surpassed the 20 million connections seen in all of 2008.
Additionally, the number of customers with Wi-Fi access as part of their AT&T service continues to grow. AT&T broadband connections — which include both wireline broadband and wireless LaptopConnect cards — grew by 209,000 in the second quarter to reach 16.9 million in service. AT&T includes unlimited Wi-Fi access with qualifying AT&T High Speed Internet plans, 3G LaptopConnect plans and with select smartphone plans.
Wi-Fi Connections Increasingly From Smartphones Versus Laptops
In the second quarter, 49 percent of the total connections were made by integrated devices. This is an increase of 41 percent over the first quarter 2009 — a significant shift that tracks with the growth of Wi-Fi enabled devices.
“Our Wi-Fi network is a competitive differentiator for AT&T and a major value for our customers,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “We include unlimited Wi-Fi access with the majority of our broadband and smartphone plans, and our customers are clearly taking advantage of it. It’s another reason that twice as many smartphone customers choose AT&T than any other carrier.”
AT&T Investing in Wi-Fi Network
Since the beginning of the year, AT&T quadrupled its Wi-Fi network authentication capacity in preparation for increased sessions, the ongoing rise in consumer demand for Wi-Fi, and to ensure reliable performance on the network.
“Our customers want both speed and mobility,” said Angie Wiskocil, senior vice president, AT&T Wi-Fi Services. “They love the convenience that AT&T Wi-Fi offers, and we continue to enhance our Wi-Fi network, expand our portfolio of Wi-Fi enabled devices and extend our hotspot footprint to offer the best customer experience.”
Also in the second quarter, AT&T made several Wi-Fi enhancements and formed strategic relationships including smartphone-friendly upgrades to the Giants Digital Dugout Wi-Fi portal at AT&T Park in San Francisco, which serve to enhance the fan experience at Giants home games, and a strategic agreement with Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide to provide complimentary Wi-Fi to any customer that visits a store.
AT&T’s Wi-Fi network complements its wired broadband and wireless 3G networks, offering Wi-Fi connectivity in more than 20,000 hotspots in the U.S. — including retail stores, restaurants and airports from coast-to-coast.
Largest Wi-Fi network claim based on non-municipal company and owned and operated hotspots. An 802.11 b/g enabled device required.
AT&T Sees Significant Rise in Wi-Fi Hotspot Connections During Second Quarter
see also A full list of AT&T Wi-Fi locations
Posted in Communications |
Tags: 3g, amp, blog, blogs, car, connectivity, game, Games, high speed internet, Internet, Investing, laptops, Marketing, Network, smartphone, upgrade, wi-fi, wifi, Wireless |
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Mobile Apps: A few developers have already made $1 million from the apps they wrote for the iPhone
Apple’s iPhone has changed all that and now this tech industry is gaining a reputation as a potential goldmine for some developers.
Some lucky coders are not only managing to earn a living out of their apps, but some have earned their first million that way.
Mac novice Rob Murray is one of the lucky ones. He is now one million dollars richer thanks to a game called Flight Control.
He wrote the basic code for it in days, and managed to complete it within two months with some help from graphic artists.
The interest in handset apps is so high that Stanford University is offering a free online course on how to build them.
Posted in Communications |
Tags: apple, application, apps, bbc, blog, blogs, developers, ford, Free, game, iphone, Mac, Mobile, online |
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Americas: Operators have issued a policy document calling for better assignment of spectrum for mobile broadband
“Policymakers have an important and challenging role in obtaining additional spectrum and bringing it to the market to serve society and meet the growing demands of consumers,” stated Chris Pearson, President of 3G Americas. “Smartphones and mobile Internet devices are moving from the headlines, out of the shops and into the hands of customers who are quickly exploring a wide variety of productive services and applications for education, healthcare and safety.”
Various analyses have demonstrated the singular importance of spectrum harmonization in meeting emerging mobile broadband. Among the most serious impacts of spectrum fragmentation are the cost and performance of mobile devices. Handset size constraints and component costs place limits on the number of bands and technologies that wireless devices can efficiently incorporate. As a result, support for fragmented spectrum allocations is frequently minimized in favor of more common regional and global brands that leverage economies of scale as well as the capabilities for international roaming.
3G Americas emphasizes the criticality of spectrum harmonization. At the same time, it supports the efforts of standards bodies and industry players in developing techniques to put fragmented spectrum bands to use, while promoting service provider coexistence. In particular, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) continues to develop technical approaches, including various carrier aggregation techniques (permitting the asymmetric pairing of radio channels), to address existing and potential spectrum fragmentation challenges. These approaches are showcased in the paper.
The white paper also reviews steps taken internationally by policymakers to maximize the use of spectrum by diverse parties while concurrently minimizing the potential for harmful inter-system interference. The report summarizes the important considerations for policymakers, which need to be factored hand-in-hand with the technical approaches. Conclusions of the white paper include:
– Spectrum should be harmonized and coordinated to the maximum extent feasible
– New spectrum should facilitate access by new technologies of all stripes
– Appropriate protections should be established for incumbent and/or adjacent service providers to protect against interference
– Spectrum policy should foster, as far as possible, the efficient use of spectrum
– Rules covering the allocation, auction and deployment of spectrum should be predicable and transparent, prior to auctions
“Spectrum is a limited resource and yet it is a key ingredient to the success of mobile broadband in the Americas,” Pearson added. “The challenge and opportunity for countries throughout the Americas is to properly inventory and identify new spectrum for the wireless industry.”
3G Americas Recommends Plan to Maximize Broadband Spectrum
see also 3GPP Technology Approaches for Maximizing Fragmented Spectrum Allocations (registration required)
Posted in Communications |
Tags: 3g, amp, application, AWS, blog, blogs, car, consumers, game, headlines, Health, Internet, Mobile, mobile broadband, mobile device, mobile devices, mobile internet, service providers, smartphone, system, Technology, technology approach, third generation, Wireless |
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