Web TV and 3-D TV - towards a more interactive immersive television experience

Since the introduction of leisure time in the early 1900’s with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, people have had more leisure time on their hands.

However, this will not be a thorough history lesson, albeit I am a History Channel buff. We have now reached a point in our human history in the 21^st Century where we have a plethora of entertainment resources that occupy our empty non-working hours, from the traditional Radio, Television and newspapers to recorded media, be it on hard drives, DVD’s and Blu-Ray or on the Internet, as recorded information is merely being streamed or downloaded for viewing by the user.

But as the Internet matured from the Dot Com Bubble days of venture capitalists pumping millions into companies without a brick-and-mortar setup as was the case in the 90’s, we shifted away from the Web 1.0 of GIF (Graphics Interchange Files) and basic HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) to a more immersive and interactive Web 2.0 as it is called.

Improved security, more embedded Videos, Audio and improved Video and Audio content upload and download, effectively the Internet that we know today, which is soon to improve thanks to the implementation of HTML 5 that supports embedded music and Video playback.

This interactivity as far as I am concerned, has ruined the Internet for people like myself, who were quite content with just being able to access the Internet for information on websites and send email. But with the coming of Google and the rise of Social Networking sites such as Hi5, FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace and FourSquare as examples!

Uses have been found for all this improvement in Video and Audio rendering as well as the dramatic increases in Broadband speeds and as such we are in a Golden Age in our world, where most people interact mainly over the World Wide Web, which was originally developed to allow real-time sharing of information among scientists in the early 1960’s.

Early signs of this can be found on reading the research note by Morgan Stanley intern Matthew Robson, aged fifteen (15) years old, which he wrote in 2009, entitled  “How Teenagers Consume Media: the report that shook the City”, printed by the Guardian Newspaper, Monday 13 July 2009 10.23 BST, The Guardian.

Makes for interesting coffee table reading……..

This increased Internet interaction has resulted in people thus spending more of their leisure time on computers and mobile devices, the latest growth area for Telecoms Providers as hinted in the article “Boom times ahead for mobile Web access”, published  Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:05AM EDT  By Daniel Silva, AFP, PhysOrg.

You can not only have your Social Network with you wherever you go, but you can also get to stream and download your Video and Audio content embedded in news, email and Social Networking websites. These websites mostly makes their money from advertising embedded in their webpages, the bread-and-butter of Fortune 500 Companies such as Google since the late 1990’s.

Now with the advent of Social Networking, Behavioral Targeted Marketing, where information collect by Social Networks is sold to Third Party Advertisers so as to target users with ads tailored to their tastes.

This as research by the NAI (Network Advertising Initiative) reveals that targeted advertisements have a 6.8 % success rate of turning a browser into a buyer as opposed to 2.8 % for non-targeted advertisements, as stated in the article “Study: Like it or not, behavioral ad targeting works”, published March 24, 2010 9:01 AM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News – The Social

This is done on their Social Networking Profiles.

Thus, in the eyes of young people there is no need among young people for the archaic Broadcasters and their Radio and Television stations and newspapers, whose shows are not relevant to them and whose advertising is not tailored to their likes or dislikes, a general trend now captured for the first time by the 2009 MRSL All Media Survey, which has now begun capturing information on Internet usage.

Though not on the use of Web TV and Streaming Radio, Downloaded Podcasts and Videos and online publishers, which is now urgently needed, as suggested by Marcia Forbes in her article “Twitter, Twits and Tweets”, published Thursday 22^nd April 2010 by Marcia Forbes, The Jamaica Observer, in which Mrs. Forbes appears to have lost some of her marbles and regained her youth in exchange by going onto Twitter.

Suggestion to Marcia Forbes: also try out FaceBook and FourSquare, when it eventually has geo-location information for Jamaica.

However this research piece is not about Social Networking’s rise and how it is funded by venture capitalists and advertisements earnings. It is about what the traditional Broadcasters, Radio and Television and Newspapers both here in Jamaica and the United States of America have in the “skunk works” to deal with the lackluster interesting their offering.

Newspapers can now breathe a sigh of relief, as their savior, the Apple iPad has come as stated in the review “Early reviews: iPad is 'beautiful', 'blazingly fast', 'has a touch of genius'”, published Wednesday April 1 2010 by Ben Patterson Yahoo! News as this now marries Video, Audio and news (that’s text by the way) content on a portable device that is both 3G and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) compatible.

Thus companies like Marvel can return to its roots as a big seller of its published comic book heroes both past publications and fresh new material on this new media platform as stated in the article “Comic Book Publishers Plot comeback via Apple iPad”, published Wednesday April 7, 2010 By Douglas MacMillan, Business Week - DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT. The New York Times is also betting on the Apple iPad as the means for its revival and Hulu is looking to serve up content on the Apple iPad.

Radio and Television might also be saved by this one device, as its introduction has brought out a lot of other companies also working on a tablet device, such as HP and it HP Slate as stated in the article “HP preps its would-be iPad Killer, the Slate” published Tuesday Apr 6, 11:13 am ET By Ben Patterson Yahoo! News and the Microsoft Courier.

Thus, competition will drive prices of Netbooks down as stated in the article “iPad, tablets expected to dampen Netbook sales”, published April 6, 2010 8:17 AM PDT by Lance Whitney CNET News – Crave and " Netbook Sales Sag as the iPad Arrives” published April 7, 2010, 12:27AM EST By Cliff Edwards, CNET News – COMPUTERS as these new devices capture consumer’s interests.

Here in Jamaica, Radio and Televisions savior is the as yet completed DSO (Digital Switch Over) from Analog to Digital broadcast as stated in the “Slow road to digital switch-over  - Cable groups mum; Flow ahead but network coverage behind”, published Saturday  August 15, 2009 by Mark Titus, Gleaner Writer

DSO is not only more spectrally efficient but also cheaper to maintain as each broadcaster in both Radio and Television would have only one (1) channel as opposed to multiple channels or stations based on geography spectrum allocation.

Even cheaper, is that they could user a Telecoms Provider’s Wireless Broadband network to carry the HDTV Radio and Television Programming, to be decoded by a Receiver Box, effectively allowing Broadcasters to make money by reselling Wireless Broadband Internet Service from Telecoms Providers.

Examples such as Digicel’s Wimax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) or CLARO or LIME’s 3G much as Time Warner Cable is currently doing as alluded in the article  “Time Warner Cable to resell WiMax Service”, published July 30, 2009 11:55 AM PDT, by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Wireless.

Thus with Wireless Internet acting as the carrier for the HDTV broadcast offerings, Broadcasters would also be able to introduce VAS (Value Added Services) that make their Radio and broadcasting services more web-like as stated in the article “Cable TV: Pushing to Become More Web-like”, published April 16, 2009, 5:00PM EST  By Tom Lowry, BusinessWeek – Strategies. VAS services such as:

1. VOIP (Voice over IP), Data Backup and File Transfer Services using Digicel’s DataCenter as stated in the article “Digicel diversifies - $500m data centre opens November”, published Friday August 28, 2009 by Mark Titus, Business Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner.
2. Video Calling, most likely using Skype with the Telecoms Providers acting as a “dumb pipe” as alluded to in the article “Skype on TV: Will the Videophone finally be reality?” published March 2, 2010 4:00 AM PST by Erica Ogg CNET News - Circuit Breaker,
3. Instant Messaging via Television,
4. Interactive Television Programming as suggested in the article “Cable TV: Pushing to Become More Web-like”, published by April 16, 2009, 5:00PM EST by Tom Lowry, BusinessWeek Strategies, Paid-Per-View Programming
5. Online Voting for scientific statistic polls
6. Election Voting for Government of Jamaica
7. Personalized Targeted Advertising
8. Geo-Location Services and Personal Tracking Services
9. Augmented Viewing Services, Phone Directory Services
10. Market Surveys
11. Channel slots for other broadcasters among other service offerings.

Even more possible is the provisioning of Web TV, which is cheaper and requires only that the user have a modem and subscribe to the service, allowing password and login access to a Web TV site that allows for the customer or subscriber to watch TV shows on demand

As is the case with Hulu or the deal inked by Time Warner and Google’s Youtube as stated in the article “Time Warner, YouTube ink distribution pact”, published August 19, 2009 12:34 PM PDT by Larry Dignan CNET News - Digital Media.

The Government of Jamaica via the Broadcast Commission can also implement a Radio and Television Tax to subsidize the cost of the receiver box and thus get Jamaicans to register their ownership of their Television sets, critical to the provision of the above VAS services, similar to those that can be offered by a Telecoms Provider.

An even greater attraction to Broadcast Television would be the introduction of not only 3-D Televisions as stated in the article “Samsung, Panasonic start selling 3-D TV's this week”, published Tuesday March 9 2010, 11:04 am ET, By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Write, AP, Yahoo! News.

Whose introduction and acceptance are predicated on the success of the James Cameron Oscar nominated 3-D flick Avatar and hence the phrase the “Avatar Effect” but also coming 3-D content. Hollywood Studios are fully onboard, turning immediately all of their animated content into 3-D movies, with live action feature films being done at the time of shooting.

Even movie studios across America are retrofitting for the expected surge in 3-D movie content as stated in the article “Alice opens with $116.3 million, a 3-D record”, published Monday March 8^th 2010, The Jamaica Observer and more HDTV set makers such as LG and Sony are joining the bandwagon to sell 3-D TV’s.

Some of the same set makers recently partnered with Skype to make their HDTV offerings Broadband friendly by pre-embedding Skype VOIP Video Calling software into the HDTV sets as stated in the article “Skype on TV: Will the Videophone finally be reality?”, published March 2, 2010 4:00 AM PST by Erica Ogg CNET News - Circuit Breaker.

Already 3-D content will be a feature of ESPN’s FIFA World Cup on a new channel specifically for 3-D content, set to debut in June, around the same time Sony plans to launch its line of 3-D enabled HDTV. Mainstream acceptance, however, seems to be about a year from now, as stated in the Video “CNET News”, aired April 9^th 2010, by Brian Cooley, CNET News as currently for a First Generation Technology.

Its “wow” factor and unique delivery of content makes it a sure hit, but it also is somewhat expensive and thus falls into an early adopters market, has little or lackluster content support, both in terms of Video games and Television content

The main “buzz kill”, if you will, are the glasses, which are thick and annoying to wear and you require separate glasses for separate Television sets, which is only natural for its debut. 3-D Glasses Portability (should I start campaigning for that from now?) will result in increased interest in this device.

Even better if the glasses looked like regular glasses or were made into fashionable accessorized glasses by support by some leading brand makers such as Miu Miu, Ray Ban or Dolche and Gabbana with a little help from SMT (Surface Mount Technology) to miniaturize the electronics Technology to fit into the frames of regular glasses and use the wearers electrical charge to power the device.

Expect also Technology to make copying of Blu-Ray content impossible to view if the viewer does not have the right glasses Technology, as DVD’s are being phased out and stronger protection being placed on Blu-Rays, this time taking into account the impact of Internet downloading and stronger file and physical media encryption incorporating the glasses to protect content.

Thus the benefits of DSO and 3-D outweigh any possible perceived fallout that the broadcasters suspect will result from DSO as not only will it result in the modernization of the Broadcasters, it also will be a financial windfall in terms of VAS and the resale of the spectrum and “white spaces” to the Telecoms Providers.

This is to be used to provide High Speed Data services that are unencumbered by metallic or steel structures that normally absorb higher frequency Radio waves as alluded to in the article “TV white space Networks tested”, published February 24, 2010 4:06 PM PST by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength

Even for the Newspapers, allowing for the transition also of the newspaper companies into a cheaper paperless form on either the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, Sony Reader or the recently launched Apple IPad, set to launch in the summer of 2010.

Possibly by then, the Light will dawn upon the people in Broadcasting and by extension the Newspapers and result in the transformation that will make them realize that their ill-placed fears about the transition to Digital are a hindrance to the greater riches that await them on the other side of the Digital Divide.

BlackBerry Bashing - the phone i hate so much that i would give it away for free

With such a depressing state of affairs as the Government of Jamaica continues to stall in the extradition of the wanted Tivoli strongman Christopher “Dudus” Coke, now resolved, with Christopher “Dudus” Coke in the Custody of the people in the United States of America as stated in the article “Dudus vs USA”, published Friday June 25 by Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner and corroborated in the article “'Dudus' in NY court today”, published Friday, June 25, 2010 by PAUL HENRY Observer staff reporter, The Jamaica Observer.

There is evidence now emerging that indicates that he indeed had links to other organized crime criminals in the United States of America as stated in the article “'Dudus' had American admirers”,  published Friday June 25 2010 12:15:23, The Jamaica Gleaner, I again am attracted by the flashing lights of the Telecoms Providers towers, a distraction from what seems to me a simple matter that apparently is somehow complicated.

Thus I am again bashing my favorite phone to hate, the RIM Blackberry, which finally has gotten some more slightly improved recruits in the form of the Blackberry Pearl with its tiny annoying condensed QWERTY keyboard on the AT&T and T-Mobile’s Telecom Network and the Blackberry Bold 9650 which has an improved optical track pad and is on Sprint and Verizon’s Telecom Network as stated in the video CNET Loaded aired April 27^th 2010 by Natalie Del Conte.

Yet again, I am disappointed, as it has not improved its lackluster browser, still has not improved its Messenger service to include some aspect of Social Networking, such as the experimental Microsoft Kin (Microsoft in bed with makers of Sidekick and OS and hardware built by Sharp? Experiment!!) as elucidate in the news report from CNET News, played April 24^th 2010, CNET News.

This is going to be big hit this summer with its two (2) adorable sidekick-esque phones, the aptly named Kin 1 and Kin 2, the names alone guaranteeing success, as there are related devices and foster related hence the name.

Blackberry seems to be strategically making gradual updates in the aesthetics of the phone as opposed to its functionality, a department in which the Apple iPhone and mobile smart phones running Google Android OS wins with little effort in the eyes of John Public.

Already, Blackberry is showing very disappointing numbers in the 4Q quarter of 2009 as stated in the article published “Is competition finally getting to RIM?”, published April 1, 2010 8:49 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength.

Scientific Studies done by Crowd Science pointing to a possible high rate of defections from the Blackberry camp are definitely not helping, as stated in the article “iPhone will continue to beckon Blackberry owners”, published March 18, 2010 11:40 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News Nanotech - The Circuits Blog

Worldwide Blackberry is still going strong, which is natural, as the Apple iPhone, despite its popularity in the gadget crazy United States of America.

It is a rather expensive device, easily setting you back US$599.99 unlocked and can only be fixed by qualified Apple Technicians (read “expensive”) and the mobile smart phones running Google Android despite predictions of being hugely popular as stated in the article “Analysts predict bold growth for Google Android”, published January 25, 2010 2:18 PM PST by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength,

This is confirmed by a scientifically conducted statistical review by ComScore that upheld the truthfulness of this statement as proclaimed in the article “Google Android growth outpacing the industry”, published April 5, 2010 2:36 PM PDT by Tom Krazit, CNET News - Relevant Results have a problem - fragmentation.

Reports of fragmentation or splintering of the source code of the Android OS, resulting from too many frequent updates by Google of its Android SDK (Software Developer Kit) thus making it difficult to build apps for Android when each slightly different fragment or splinter does not work the exact same way.

An old problem of Open Source as state in the article “Report: Android fragmentation could harm growth”, published April 8, 2010 8:50 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength are not a help to Google Android cause, resulting in glitches phones that appear to the user to be refurbished phones.

These factors, which make these excellent yet pricey alternatives to the Blackberry appear to be a bargain, are currently the Blackberry’s competitors Achilles Heel, which would explain in part the slow adoption of the Apple iPhone being sold exclusively by CLARO and the lackluster interest in acquiring Google Android phones by local Telecoms Providers, especially as they are associated with low cost smart Taiwanese Mobile Equipment Handset Vendor HTC.

This despite high profile EU (European Union) companies such as Nokia who recently sent Symbian into Open Source heaven as stated in the article “Symbian now fully open-sourced”, published shed February 4, 2010 6:25 AM PST by David Meyer, CNET News - Wireless and now confirmed with the launch of their first Open-sourced phone as stated in the article “Nokia launched Open Source phone” published Wednesday April 28 2010, BBC News.

So the Blackberry, by sticking to its proprietary roots, even after it has given away it RIM Blackberry Enterprise Server to Telecoms Providers for free as stated in the article “RIM to give away server software”, published February 16, 2010 4:32 AM PST by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - 3GSM blog is actually doing the right thing.

Thus allowing its competitors to experiment with technology while they just watch the trends and copy what seems popular and stable in the short term into its new line of mobile devices. As obvious from the update of the trackball to an optical track pad yet no browser update, as their messenger is just fine.

Then it happened, a lightning bolt of insight that hit me when I read that last referenced article: RIM, despite the popularity of its competitors, is still king because like FaceBook, it makes changes to its smart phone line, as suggested above that people accept, and keeps its products simple and focused on being a business phone and not a cool toy. Their device is a smart phone, not a mobile device trying to be everything to everyone.

By keeping it simple, it manages to maintain its number one spot as its competitors have to learn from their mistakes what it had long ago honed over time in its defeat of Palm back in the early 90’s: “Keep it Simple” and “everybody loves free worldwide messaging”.

This is why I believe the Telecoms Providers should give away the smart phone for free this Christmas, as that move to make their RIM Blackberry Enterprise Server free to the Telecoms Providers is pure genius, as they make money from the Data Plan service, not the software.

Thus here is my proposal. A free Blackberry Bold with every purchase of any mobile phone, be it Prepaid or Postpaid or the handing in of a mobile phone instrument for the Telecom Provider or for the Telecom Provider’s competition provided that the customer sign up to a Data Plan and register the phone in their name using Government of Jamaica approved identification i.e. Voters ID, Drivers License, Passport, TRN, Birth Certificate.

The Blackberry would have three (3) months free Data Usage with full Blackberry Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Facebook and other goodies on the internet just for paying for one (1) months Data Plan subscription. In effect, the customer would be getting a Prepaid Blackberry by purchasing a thirty (30) day data plan with a ninety (90) days free data.

Thus, customers would have to top up in order to make voice calls, would not have to pay for data for a free trial period of three (3) months, after having signed and paid for a Data Plan for a month, with no deposit or down payment whatsoever, effectively a free Blackberry. What would be different in this giveaway is that the SIM card IMSI and the phone instrument IMEI would be registered in the Telecoms Providers Switch to the customer.

Thus if the customer attempted to change the SIM card for another SIM card or flash and unlock the Blackberry, the mismatch created would result in the phones not working, as each Telecoms Provider would have their own registered list of paired phone numbers, SIM card IMSI and the phone instrument IMEI.

Also, any Blackberry attempting to log on to the network that is not in the list of registered Blackberry for each Telecoms Provider would not be able to work, without Telecoms Providers having to appear to be colluding to fix the market.

This is very possible, as the impending ruling from Amhad Zian Mian, Director of the OUR (Office of Utilities Regulation) on how MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is to proceed and it necessity were brought to the fore by Senator Phillip Paulwell, Opposition Spokesperson on Telecoms and ICT in his speech to Parliament recently, as stated in the article “Paulwell calls for number portability”, published Wednesday April 21, 2010 by Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner.

During these MNP meetings with the Telecoms Providers and the OUR, slated to occur in June 2010, the Telecoms Providers can begin officially sharing information and as such lists of Phone Instruments (mobile, fixed line mobile, landline or wired /wireless modems) IMEI and SIM Cards (mobile, fixed line mobile, landline or wired /wireless modems) IMSI so as to facilitate this offering, which would boost Blackberry usage, especially of its Data Plans, thus stimulating the mobile internet market into steady growth by giving away three (3) months data service.

Fears of people scrapping the Blackberry phone after the free data services are unfounded, as the phone is a giveaway, and as such the customer is not obligated to use the Blackberry data service.

But as the Blackberry is so popular and the Data Plans are so affordable e.g. CLARO currently offers JA$1700 for the full Blackberry messaging plans and JA$1500 Blackberry Lite plans for thirty (30) day plans, that it would be a hit with customers, especially as they have a choice of just basic Blackberry messaging and messaging and full messaging and browsing.

A Blackberry Party would be a nice gesture, inviting the public to party with the CLARO Staff on Christmas Day, free entry of course being given with a CLARO Blackberry, as the phone would be the ticket.

But why stop here? Free Skype enabled HDTV’s with built in broadband connectivity and a wireless Data Plan in exchange for old NTSC standard TV’s to stimulate acceptance of not only video calling via a TV as stated in the article “Skype on TV: Will the videophone finally be reality?”, published March 2, 2010 4:00 AM PST by Erica Ogg, CNET News - Circuit Breaker, and 3G enabled Netbooks in exchange for a working Laptop.

If even one of the Big Three (3) Telecom Providers this Christmas, be it CLARO, LIME and Digicel shall make not only the iconic and absolutely fabulous Blackberrys free but also HDTV’s and 3G and 4G Netbooks free – once you purchase a Data Plan.

Especially when the fact that the slated launch of DigiTv is only months away as stated in the article “DigiTV launch for 2009 - Mobile Provider branches into TV”, published Friday November 14^th 2009 by Ross Sheil, Online Co-ordinator, The Jamaica Observer, the people would love them forever.

The Telecoms Providers need to face the fact that to drive traffic on 3G or WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) they need to effectively begin promoting the Wireless Data Network and the usage of its most visible brand.

The Blackberry, by doing what RIM has done for the Telecoms Providers, which as Jesus exhorted us, they should do unto us, John Public, their most valiant supporters thought the thirteen (13) years since the liberalization of the Telecoms Sector – giveaway the Blackberry or “CrackBerry” as it is affectionately called absolutely free.

I give you CrackBerry Christmas Crazy GiveAway Promotion…………albeit the name does need a little work.

LIME a paragon of efficiency - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

I'm your biggest fan

I'll follow you till you love me

Papa, Paparazzi    

Baby there is no other superstar you know than of me

Papa, Papa, Paparazzi

Promise I’ll be kind

But I won't stop until that boy is mine

Baby you'll be famous

Chase you down till you love me

Papa, Papa, Paparazzi

Excerpt from the song Paparazzi by Lady Gaga

Telecom Provider LIME is finally getting with the flow and is finally rolling out 3G island wide, having only initially launched in Kingston and the Metropolitan and now confirmed reports in The Jamaica Gleaner stating that they are expanding to Montego Bay, the Second City.

Much to the delight of MBCCI (Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry) past president and man-about-town, Mark Kerr-Jarrett, the newly minted Telecom Provider LIME Board Member as stated in the article “LIME to build US$40m 3G Network for Montego Bay”, published Sunday June 27, 2010, by Janeta Silvera, The Sunday Gleaner.

The prognostications of LIME Country Manager, Geoff Houston for Montego Bay sound as bright and as cheery as a Telecom Provider’s Tower.

To quote LIME Country Manager, Geoff Houston’s own words, “We are making huge investments in upgrading all our networks in the west, rolling out 3G, more broadband and more fixed lines by Christmas”. Christmas, John Public balks? By then the 3G revolution would have passed and we would be looking at 4G!

Did not Telecom Provider LIME launch 3G with much fanfare in September 2008? Its now 2010 and they only have coverage in Kingston Metropolitan areas alone. Meanwhile Telecom Provider CLARO has sprouted wings and is already island wide in a year, shoddy workmanship and unpaid workers and illegal constructions aside.

Telecom Provider LIME is moving a bit too slow, even sums of money it pandered to Ericsson, three billion dollars (US$3,000,00,000) just to do an upgrading of its island wide network infrastructure seem to be a bit of an overspend, as Contractors are a wasteful bunch who do not have the tedium to practice efficiency in doing their work.

Perhaps they need to read my blog article on the necessity of Alternative energy entitled “Alternative Energy - A Telecom Provider's Strong Tower”, “Alternative Energy and Helix - A Test case for wind Power for Telecom Providers” and “Alternative energy and Telecom Providers - An Environmental Marketing Strategy”.

Meanwhile, Telecom Provider CLARO came to Jamaica and in one fell swoop, Telecom Provider C&WJ rebranded itself with new armour in the guise of Telecom Provider LIME.

A rather “sour” now so sweet acronym that beckons us to embrace the now awakened Landline, Internet, Mobile and Entertainment service, which has thus far been a success as reported in the article “LIME reporting better business since rebranding”, published Sunday, 22 March 2009, The Jamaica Gleaner with dramatic improvements in efficiency.

The people in Trinidad do not relate well to the Telecom Provider LIME brand and there are complaints that the name does not properly reflect Jamaican culture as stated in the article “New LIME brand fails to recognize Jamaica's uniqueness - shareholders”, published Friday July 31, 2009, by Mark Titus, The Jamaica Gleaner, despite achieving stated aims of business efficiency albeit with no engineering efficiency.

What can I say, I have a LIME Postpaid Mobile Phone and I am possibly their biggest fan. Between lawsuits such as “LIME suing Digicel for US$3.8 billion for overcharges”, published Friday, 04 September 2009, TechJamaica, LIME has launched much coveted smartphones from RIM (Research in Motion) namely:

1. The Blackberry Curve 8900 as stated in the article “LIME launches the Blackberry Curve 8900 Smartphones with Free Service Offer”, published February 10 2010 by BlackBerryCool
2. The Blackberry Storm as stated in the article “LIME introduces the Blackberry Storm to customers in Jamaica”, published Friday, 17 April 2009 by TechJamaica.

Strides have also been made in terms of efficiency as it relates to top up methods as Telecom Provider LIME makes improvements in terms of its service delivery, such as the launch of their new Self Top Up service as stated in the article “Text Top Up - A Caribbean first from LIME”, published Wednesday, 03 March 2010, by TechJamaica.

Probably the most significant Telecom Provider LIME footnote is the case involving Telecom Provider Digicel and Telecom Provider LIME from 2002 and Telecom Provider Digicel’s claim that cross network rates are set by the Telecoms Provider’s which Telecom Provider LIME disputed and won when the case finally reached the Privy Council as stated in the article “LIME wins US$340 million payment as London Privy council throws out Digicel Appeal”, published Thursday, 21 January 2010 by TechJamaica.

This case could lead to another type of most desired efficiency, that being MNP (Mobile Number Portability). Thus to complete the transformation, all they need is to change out their old air conditioning systems for new modern energy efficient ones, disconnect water supplies to these exchanges (who lives in an exchange anyway?), and eventually make a commitment to move their network off the grid altogether using Solar and Wind Power.

Changing their RBS (Remote Base Stations) from mobile to Ericsson and their landline switch to a FiOS based Switch from Ericsson would be a wise move, especially as Ericsson has purchased Nortel and thus would be in a position to basically take over the portfolios of previous users of the Canadian based Telecoms Vendor’s  Equipment, as stated in the article “Ericsson wins Nortel's NorthAmerica GSM Unit”, published November 25, 2009 6:38 AM PST by Lance Whitney, CNET News - Wireless.

This is signed and sealed in the article “Ericsson to pay US1.33 billion for Nortel Wireless Tech”, published July 25, 2009 1:56 PM PDT by Natalie Weinstein, CNET News – Wireless, (http://www.cnet.com). 

The only disappointment that John Public registers is their slowness in coming out with 3G Internet and the above promised MNP, even the call by Senator Phillip Paulwell, Opposition Spokespersons on Telecoms ring hollow as stated in the article “Paulwell calls for number portability”, published Wednesday  April 21, 2010 by Daraine Luton, The Jamaica Gleaner.

This is something that John Public would truly stand up for and cheer. 3G has the potential to be bigger than wire based ADSL as if usage patterns in the United States of America are anything to go by, once the performance and the price is right as stated in the article “Can 4G wireless take on traditional broadband?”, published March 22, 2010 4:00 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - CTIA 2010

Prior speculation to the contrary not withstanding as stated in the article “Will 4G Wireless Really Threaten Wires?”, published August 13, 2009, 8:22PM EST By Stacey Higginbotham, Business Week – GigaOM.

Bridging technologies make speeds such as HSDPA+ make 20MBps as possible in Canada on Telecom Provider Rogers Wireless possible and Japan’s Telecom Provider NTT DoCoMo possible, so an immediate push towards LTE (Long Term Evolution) is not necessary.

With Telecom Provider CLARO possibly soon to launch the Netbook killer in the form of the Apple iPad as well as an Apple iPhone refresh (Apple iPhone 3GS or Apple iPhone 4G with iPhone 4.0 OS??) as stated in the article “Will iPhone 4.0 derail Microsoft's phone plans?”, published April 9, 2010 10:24 AM PDT by Ina Fried, CNET News - Beyond Binary.

Telecom Provider LIME’s launch of a one (1) day, seven (7) day and thirty (30) day pass on their 3G network as stated in the article “LIME Launches PrePaid Mobile Internet Services”, published Friday, April 09, 2010, The Jamaica Observer

This is an early sign of a now re-energized Telecom Provider LIME that is ready to come to the market to shake up the dominance of Telecom Provider CLARO with a most generous discount of JA$1500, half of the plan cost of Telecom Provider CLARO.

Thus Telecom Provider LIME’s best bet to get back into the game would be the introduction of low cost smart phones, as Telecom Provider CLARO has the iconic Apple iPhone and Telecom Provider Digicel has the Blackberry market cornered.

Perhaps something in the Google Android camp, seeing a how most Mobile  Equipment Vendors have gone Android as stated in the article “Sony Ericsson shows love for Android”, published February 14, 2010 6:18 PM PST by Marguerite Reardon CNET News - 3GSM blog.

This was earlier forecast in the article "Analysts predict bold growth for Google Android", published January 25, 2010 2:18 PM PST by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength

This is now confirmed by statistical analysis by ComScore in the article “Google Android growth outpacing the industry”, published April 5, 2010 2:36 PM PDT by Tom Krazit, CNET News - Relevant Results.

With built in 3G and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) built into the phones, the sale of 3G-to-Wi-Fi Routers would be a good fit to the arsenal of Telecom Provider LIME, especially as Telecom Provider Digicel is a yet to reveal its hand…………and I will follow Telecom Provider LIME till they love me………. Papa, Paparazzi.

Apple iPad hurricane - what more cakes and ale in the future

Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

Excerpt From Williams Shakespeare‘s Twelfth Night 

The Apple iPad is truly a man for all seasons, which has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the above quote, as is there merely for show. But show and tell it is for Apple and it latest toy the Apple iPad, being venerated as if it were Ganesha, the Indian elephant head Deity that removes obstacles set before the wayward traveler.

With great reviews thus far as stated in the article “Early reviews: iPad is 'beautiful', 'blazingly fast', 'has a touch of genius'”, published Wednesday April 1 2010 by Ben Patterson Yahoo! News, and comments as to how responsive it is and un-Microsoft in its rendering of a tablet (actually an eReader) as stated in the article “How Apple's iPad Succeeded where Microsoft Failed” published Tue Apr 6, 8:00 pm ET by John C. Dvorak Yahoo! News (PC Magazine), more repetitions of the same are not required again.

Curiously enough, even though it lacks a USB port or SD Card reader, it is far more stable, secure and less hacker prone than the HP Slate which has all these things as stated in the article “HP preps its would-be Ipad Killer, the Slate” published Tuesday Apr 6, 11:13 am ET By Ben Patterson Yahoo! News that runs the slow, unstable and hacker friendly Microsoft Windows 7 as stated in the article “HP Slate more Netbook than iPad”, published April 19, 2010 11:25 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News - Nanotech - The Circuits Blog.

Indeed, even the announcement of the Apple iPhone 4G and the new iPhone 4.0 OS as stated in the article “Will iPhone 4.0 derail Microsoft's phone plans?”, published April 9, 2010 10:24 AM PDT by Ina Fried, CNET News - Beyond Binary and the possibility of a CDMA 1900 Apple iPhone being ported to Verizon and possibly even contracts with Sprint and T-Mobile to carry the Apple iPhone as hinted at in discussions between Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and Apple as stated in the article “Verizon CEO has told Apple of iPhone interest” published Tuesday April 6, 10:28 am ET, Yahoo! News seems uninteresting.

The excitement of the Apple iPad launch, which seems set to surpass that of the 2007 Apple iPhone launch, slowly simmering to a boil come this Summer when the Apple iPad 3G and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), Apple iPhone 4G with the new iPhone 4.0 OS and the announcement of the Apple iPhone on Verizon is expected by many a giddy Apple fanboy. But what is the next big future product from Apple?

Their is so much buzz and excitement from Apple’s announcements thus far that there is absolutely no news muchless rumors about any other potentially noveau Apple products, aside from product refreshes (they don’t call them updates) expected for MacBook Pros, Apple iPod Touch and Apple iPod Nano, Snow Leopard OS, iTunes and other Apple Gadgets out their I am yet to bump into in the wild. Just because we have all become virtuous Apple fan boys for Apple’s latest toy, does not mean that there is no more “cakes and ale”, an illusory reference to ones enjoyment of more Apple Gadgets in the future.

However, based on current trends it seems that there is indeed something coming on the horizon, as all these product refreshes point to a new computer design based on research and consumer testing of these concepts on their current product line. This by way of:

• Apple vocal stance against Adobe Flash and its demonstrated blocking of Adobe in the new iPhone 4.0 OS as stated in the article "Adobe scraps work to bring Flash apps to iPhone", published April 21, 2010 2:53 AM PDT by Stephen Shankland, CNET News - Deep Tech
• Apple’s support for HTML 5 and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n)
• Apple’s push to introduce new gesture based technology to the Apple iPhone as stated in the article “Apple to give next-gen iPhone the finger?”, published February 26, 2010 3:01 PM PST, by John Paczkowski, CNET News - All Things Digital
• Apples support of the Universal micro USB charger standard being pursued by the GSMA (Global System Mobile Alliance) as stated in the article “Apple, others agree to universal cell phone charger standard in Europe”, published June 29, 2009 11:22 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength
• Solar power to all of the products in line as stated in the article “Apple eyes gadgets with built in solar panels”, published January 22, 2010 7:46 AM PST by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech

 Alas signs can also be seen from the companies that Apple has purchased, such as Quattro Wireless as stated in the article “Apple to buy Quattro Wirerless for US$275 million”, published January 4, 2010 8:25 PM PST by Kara Swisher, All Things Digital, CNET News – Apple.

So let us add this all up and lay my cards straight.

The future gadget from Apple in the next five (5) years will be a computer that is solar powered, both in terms of its processor as well as the mainboard. This as currently there is research being done in terms of solar powered 10 nm process 5 GHz processors, designed in Japan and manufactured in the Peoples Republic of China or Taiwan that use up to 30% of the power of regular processors.

It may even function when there is no power as stated in the article “Report: Asian firms eye alternative to Intel”, published September 9, 2009 3:00 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News - Nanotech - The Circuits Blog

This future gadget uses Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) the latest Wi-Fi standard for now and the foreseeable future as stated in the article “802.11n Wi-Fi standard finally approved”, published September 11, 2009 5:33 PM PDT by Dong Ngo, CNET News - Wireless and is compatible with 3G and 4G, be it LTE and WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) built in from the factory, much as it is currently with smart phones and netbooks.

It will have no cables but instead will use the seven (7) gigabits per second wireless WiGIG protocol developed by the Wireless Gigabit Alliance. This Alliance includes such Industry Technology heavyweights as   Intel, Dell, NEC, Toshiba, and Microsoft.

WiGiG is intended to be used on high end home entertainment and computer products for point to point high speed data transfers of video and audio between multimedia devices such as HDTV screens and Blu-Ray players and computers as stated in the article “WiGiG group finalizes new wireless standard”, published Friday December 11 2009 by Lance Whitney CNET News - Wireless.

WiGiG will run over the 60 GHz spectrum, an unlicensed frequency relatively unused at this point and be in direct competition with proprietary standards WirelessHD and Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI). Thus, this computer may not even have a keyboard, or mouse for that matter as using the WiGiG wireless standard, all peripherals would be wireless as the bandwidth would be more than adequate to interconnect or tether separate wireless devices within the room.

Even seeking out and connecting remotely to a LG, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony WiGiG compatible HDTV 3-D set, as all four (4) currently support WiGiG and will be rolling out the service as stated in the article “Samsung, Panasonic start selling 3-D TV's this week”, published Tuesday March 9 2010, 11:04 am ET, By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Write, Yahoo ! News.

When you are not near to the screen, you can wear an optional pair of eyewear that looks like a pair of stylish Miu Miu or Dolche Gabbana transitional rimless glasses which have wireless connectivity via 3G, 4G, be it LTE and WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) built in. Its lenses able to go opaque and bring up a HUD (Heads Up Display) Screen reminiscent of the glasses worn by a female femme fetale in the movie G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra or even the movie Johnny Mnemonic,.

This would be effectively a form of augmented reality as stated in the article “Augmented Reality goes Mobile”, published November 3, 2009, 12:44AM EST by Rachael King, Business Week - AUGMENTED REALITY.

Its display would probably be in 3-D as well and the glasses would have also a magnetometer, an accelerometer and built in 50 Mega pixel camera. The computer, though, would also have a bi-directional fiber optic cable standard connector called LightPeak to connect and transfer data from external devices, as in the next five (5) years it is hoped that this standard created and supported by Intel for consumer electronics mainly aimed at computers and large hard drives.

It will be the new port configuration standards replacing all physical ports such as Serial, Parallel, USB, FireWire, HDMI as stated in the article “Intel's Light Peak: One PC cable to rule them all”, published September 23, 2009 12:54 PM PDT by Stephen Shankland, CNET News - Deep Tech. This is much in the same way it is hoped due to industry wide support that WiGig will be the high speed wireless data transfer standard to interconnect devices to computers wirelessly.

LightPeak will support speeds as high as 10 Giga bits per second as currently demonstrated by Intel at the Intel Developer Forum held in San Francisco, California in September of 2009 and in the next five (5) years, that speed will increase to 100 gigabits per second. As such all devices that connect to this computer will have to connect with either the LightPeak or WiGig standard and transfer data at these rates, requiring much faster RAM (Random Access Memory) or Primary Memory.

Most likely in the future hard drives will be counted in terabyte sizes and be smaller than a USB Thumb drive and both hard drive and main memory will be the same memory area, with memory allocated based on software needs with no need for paging or virtual memory file creation. The computer itself should be no larger than an Apple iPhone and because it is solar powered, should be always on and possibly use only 35 Watts of power, similar to a light bulb.

Because of its SFF (Small Form Factor) and the future ubiquitousness of WiGiG and LightPeak as connection standards, this computer would not require a screen, merely to be near to HDTV complaint screens that support these protocols and for the persons to wear their glasses. augmented reality with Kinect-like capabilities, much as is the case with the Nintendo Wii or the Apple iPhone.

And finally, most importantly of all, in this bold new future, the DVD and CD will be rendered obsolete worldwide, signaling a tremendous blow to piracy, with hard drive storage devices that use WiGiG and LightPeak.

 High end games, normally purchased on DVD’s or Blu-Ray would be streamed over the 3G, 4G, be it LTE and WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) network connections via services similar to that of OnLive, copies of the service slated to launch this June 2010 as stated in the article “OnLive game streaming service to start in June”, published Wednesday March 10, 3:19 pm ET by BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo! News, (AP)

In the future Wireless Internet will be very affordable, as with the proliferation of competition due to the ambitions broadband due to the National Broadband Plan by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as stated in the article  “A conversation with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski”, published March 23, 2010 8:45 PM PDT by Molly Wood, CNET News - CNET Conversations

The expected surge in usage from customers for 3G, 4G, be it LTE and WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d) and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) data services that mimics wired broadband usage will no doubt soon occur as more and more people catch on to the trend of having Internet access wherever they go, even to the point of replacing traditional wired broadband.

This is once the performance and the price is right as stated in the article "Can 4G wireless take on traditional broadband?", published March 22, 2010 4:00 AM PDT by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - CTIA 2010 despite prior speculation to the contrary as stated in the article  “Will 4G Wireless Really Threaten Wires?”, published August 13, 2009, 8:22PM EST By Stacey Higginbotham, Business Week – GIGAOM.

Also in this future, fiber optic may be common place, possibly using cheaper plastic fibers, as already Google is testing out applications that can work over ultra fast fiber optic broadband networks as stated in the article “Google subsidizes ultra fast broadband test”, published February 10, 2010 8:58 AM PST by Stephen Shankland, CNET News - Deep Tech, with the ever enthusiastic Topeka, Kansas unofficially renaming itself to qualify for the broadband test as stated in the article “Topeka unofficially re-christened itself 'Google'”, published March 2, 2010 11:27 AM PST by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News - The Social.

Also, spectrum or unused “white space” frequencies currently occupied by Broadcasters post DSO (Digital Switch Over) in 2009 would have been thoroughly mapped out by Google and Microsoft and placed in a White Spaces Spectrum Database as suggested in the article “Google wants to build 'white spaces' database” published January 4, 2010 5:54 PM PST by Tom Krazit, CNET News - Relevant Results.

Already White space Frequencies are already in use in parts of the United States of America to deliver wireless services in places where spectrum was being restricted by terrain as stated in the article "TV white space Networks tested", published February 24, 2010 4:06 PM PST by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength.

Thus the future, now forever changed by the introduction of this new Apple device, the Apple iPad and it effect on computer architecture and the next Great Apple Gadget is summarized in a few simple words:

• High speed wireless and wired connections both between computer and Telecom Provider or ISP (Internet Service Provider) as well as between consumer electronics devices
• An emphasis on energy efficiency using solar power
• Portable design common ultra fast memory area for RAM and hard drives counted in terabytes
• Universal High Speed Internet 100 Mbps

And hopefully Jamaica would have gone DSO as stated in the article “Slow road to digital switch-over  - Cable groups mum; Flow ahead but network coverage behind”, published: Saturday  August 15, 2009 by Mark Titus, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Ditto that for MNP (Mobile number Portability) would have occurred in 2010 as stated in the article “OUR signals policy shift on portability - Says Jamaica running out of phone numbers”, published Friday November 20, 2009 by Mark Titus, Business Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner.

The latter now seems certain to occur, as Senator Phillip Paulwell, Opposition Spokespersons on Telecommunications and ICT has spoken in support of MNP implementation and competition in the Energy Sector as stated in the article “Paulwell calls for number portability”, published Wednesday April 21, 2010 by Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter, The Jamaica Gleaner

I give you the Apple Cider. Have fun in the future drinking Apple’s Juice like a true fan boy!!!!!