Posts Tagged ‘olympics’
Nortel Networks: The contract to supply the 2012 London Olympics has been cancelled
July 17th, 2009 | 
Author: The London 2012 organisers have named Cisco Systems, the network infrastructure supplier, in Nortel’s place. Nortel had been one of eight top-tier sponsors signed for the London games, but the organisers said they had to seek an alternative supplier because of uncertainty surrounding the company’s future.
Posted in Communications | 
Tags: blog, blogs, Communications, communications equipment, game, Games, Network, olympics, sponsorship, system | 
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2008 Fiat 500 Abarth
As far as small cars go I have to rate this right at the top.
This car marks the return of Italian car maker Fiat to the world of compact sports cars getting away from the boring econovans and I have to say, what a pearl.
It’s front engine FWD turbo I4 tapping out 135bhp at max gives this little gem a top speed of 127mph. The 500 Abarth is a compact car with a subtle attitude saying “yes, see me, luuuv me” which gives this wee tot almost a soul.
Looking at this car I just can’t help myself from wanting one, but at the same time I can’t find myself behind the wheel of one. Maybe your wife might be better suited to zip up the road to your mothers to retrieve the home baked apple pie. Yet the more I look at it the more intrigued I am to test drive it when it lands in NZ.
It has an estimated fuel consumption of 33mpg which to say if your mother in-law was behind the wheel that maybe the case. The average kiwi bloke in a small manual sports car couldn’t help but throttle it racing thru the gears and in the spirit of the upcoming Olympics, GO FOR GOLD. Peace of mind comes in the knowledge that it will meet with Euro 5 legislation so would be the perfect car for Beijing clearing the air for our sports atheletes.
In closing, there’s just something about this car I just cant put my finger on but would love to have one…maybe at some point.
Posted in Cars |
Tags: apple, blog, car, Cars, compact car, olympics, sports car, sports cars, wheel |
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Adobe frees mobile flash: It’s about time
–The next version of the mobile Flash runtime will be free of license fees. Adobe also confirmed that the mobile version of the Air runtime will be free.
–Adobe changed its licensing terms and released additional technical information that will make it easier for companies to create their own Flash-compatible products.
–The company announced a new consortium called Open Screen supporting the more open versions of Flash and Air. Members of the new group include the five leading handset companies, three mobile operators (including NTT DoCoMo and Verizon), technology vendors (including Intel, Cisco, and Qualcomm), and content companies (BBC, MTV, and NBC Universal). Google, Apple, and Microsoft are not members. It’s not clear to me what the consortium members have actually agreed to do. My guess is it’s mostly a political group.
Adobe said that the idea behind the announcements is to create a single consistent platform that lets developers create an application or piece of content once and run it across various types of devices and operating systems. That idea is very appealing to developers and content companies today. It was equally appealing two years ago, when then-CEO of Adobe Bruce Chizen made the exact same promise (link):
If we execute appropriately we will be the engagement platform, or the layer, on top of anything that has an LCD display, any computing device — everything from a refrigerator to an automobile to a video game to a computer to a mobile phone.
If Adobe had made the Open Screen announcement two years ago, I think it could have caught Microsoft completely flat-footed, and Adobe might have been in a very powerful position by now. But by waiting two years, Adobe gave Microsoft advance warning and plenty of runway room to react — so much so that ArsTechnica today called Adobe’s announcement a reaction to Microsoft Silverlight (link).
Also, the most important changes appear to apply to the next version of mobile Flash and the upcoming mobile version of Air — meaning this was in part a vaporware announcement. Even when the new runtime software ships, it will take a long time to get it integrated into mobile phones. So once again, Microsoft has a long runway to maneuver on.
Still, the changes Adobe made are very useful. There’s no way Flash could have become ubiquitous in the mobile world while Adobe was still charging fees for it. The changes to the Flash license terms remove one of the biggest objections I’ve seen to Flash from open source advocates (link). The Flash community seems excited (link, link). And the list of supporters is impressive. Looking through the obligatory quotes attached to the Adobe release, two things stand out:
–Adobe got direct mentions of Air from ARM, Intel, SonyEricsson, Verizon, and Nokia (although Nokia promised only to explore Air, while it’s on the record promising to bundle Silverlight mobile).
–The inclusion of NBC Universal in the announcement will have Adobe people chuckling because Microsoft signed up NBC to stream the Olympics online using Silverlight. So NBC is warning Microsoft not to take it for granted, and Adobe gets to stick its tongue out.
What does it all mean?
Nothing much in the short term. As I mentioned earlier, this is mostly a vaporware announcement (other than the license changes). Some people are speculating that this will put pressure on Apple to make Flash available on the iPhone (link). That’s possible, if Apple’s real concern was that they didn’t like Flash Lite. Now they can port full Flash, or someone else can do it. But if Apple is in reality unwilling to let anyone else’s platform run on the iPhone then we’ll see other objections to Flash emerge.
The marketing competition to control the future of web apps is continuing to heat up. Microsoft is trying to take the whole thing proprietary by creating a comprehensive architecture, Adobe is trying to drive its own platform, Sun is trying to re-energize Java, Google is making its own moves, and so on (link). Plus, of course, most web app developers today are happy with what they’re using now and have little interest in switching to any of the new architectures (check out the dandy commentary by Joel Spolsky here).
It’s an enormously complex situation, and it’s going to take months, if not years, before we can start to see who’s winning and who is losing. Rubicon is working on a white paper that will try to clarify the situation a bit. I’ll let you know when it’s published.
In the meantime, enjoy the marketing fireworks. The intense competition is forcing companies to innovate faster and open up their products, as Adobe did today. I think that process is good for just about everyone in the industry.
Copyright 2008 Michael Mace.
Posted in Flash, Phones |
Tags: apple, apps, ash, bbc, blog, developers, docomo, free adobe, game, google, iphone, lcd display, Mac, microsoft, microsoft silverlight, mobile operators, mobile phone, mobile phones, mobile version, mobile world, mtv, ngage, nokia, ntt docomo, olympics, online, operating system, qualcomm, silverlight, sony, sonyericsson, system, t mobile, Technology, technology vendors, vaporware, video game, web applications platform, Windows |
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Australia – roaming
MOBILE carriers have taken a united stand in condemning information in a report on mobile roaming charges commissioned by the Rudd Government as inaccurate and out-of-date.
The industry’s peak representative body, the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) has issued a statement berating the reports author, accounting firm KPMG, for neglecting to include consult carrier’s for information when compiled its research.
The report, released yesterday by the federal Government yesterday prompted Communications Minister Senator Conroy to warn carriers that consumers unrest over charges for using their mobiles overseas had reached levels that warranted government scrutiny.
An AMTA spokesman described the document as “essentially a desktop report” containing questionable data.
“We believe it would have been far better if KPMG had contacted our members to check the accuracy or otherwise of data and at least get their views.
“We think it a reasonable proposition that the industry would have at least been consulted and asked for input into the report,” the spokesman said.
In its report KPMG described roaming charges levied against Australian consumers as “unreasonably high”.
Illustrating its point, it said that Australian travellers at the Olympics in Beijing could expect to pay up to $4.80 per minute to call home.
The report singled out Vodafone as the cheapest provider of the four major carriers offering calls for $1.86 per minute.
However, Vodafone Australia rejected the findings of the report. It said that the report ignored changes to international mobile voice and data pricing schemes the carrier had recently introduced ? its Vodafone Traveller and Roaming Data Bundles.
“Vodafone rejects the KPMG report because it is selectively modelled on out-of-date information,” the carrier said in a statement today.
Analyst group Ovum also urged the government not to overreact to the report.
It said that regulatory action would only serve to benefit offshore carriers to the detriment of their local counter parts.
It said the issue could not be negotiated on a unilateral basis.
“Let us hope that the Government does not decide to resolve this by implementing a Roam Watch to sit alongside the Fuel Watch and Grocery Watch initiatives,” Ovum said.
Posted in Communications |
Tags: car, mobile carriers, mobile telecom, mobile telecommunications, mobile voice, olympics, regulatory action, rim, roaming charges, telecommunications association, vodafone |
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