Episode 0016, 09/23/2007
Title: WiMax in 2008, Don't Tase Me Bro, New Online Music
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the WEEK, Episode 13, recorded September 2nd, 2007.
This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information.
This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.
Story 1 - WiMax in 2008
This week Intel made it clear that the company is turning its full attention to mobile devices. "If it's small and mobile, Intel wants to put a chip in it" states an article at Wired.com. The chip that you'll be hearing a lot about in 2008 is called Montevina - Intel's next gen Centrino mobile platform. The feature that makes Montevina newsworthy is its support for both Wi-Fi, and Wi-Max. You may recall from previous stories that Wi-Max is the next gen wireless technology that provides high-speed Internet connections across a large geographic range. Today we use Wi-fi for our wireless connections to the Internet. In order to deploy a Wi-fi wireless network Access Points must be installed every 300 - 800 feet. WiMax technology uses one antenna to serve up the Internet to users over a five to ten mile range. Consider the benefits to school campuses. Rather than having to install hundreds of Wi-fi access points, one Wi-Max antenna could cover the entire campus. For you and I this means that soon we'll be able to pop open our notebooks in most places and enjoy instant Internet at cable modem speed.
Intel CEO, Paul Otellini, expects WiMax networks to be available to 150 million people in 2008, 750 million by 2010, and 1.3 billion by 2012. WiMax capable notebooks and smartphones are scheduled to hit store shelves in 2008.
Source: Intel adds WiMax, 3G support to Linux device plans, (Computerworld), Intel Says WiMax Is Coming Next Year — This Time for Sure (Wired)
Story 2 - "Don't Tase Me, Bro"
The Internet is an incredible tool for spreading the word about events and pulling people together around a cause. This week provided two examples of the power of the Internet. At a speech given by John Kerry at the University of Florida, a student in attendance posed questions to the speaker which was apparently considered by security guards at the event to be out of line. The student resisted security guards as they attempted to remove him from the building and was eventually tasered into submission. His scream of "Don't Tase Me, Bro" has gone viral over the Internet. Within 2 days of the incident, the phrase became one of the top-searched terms on Google. The Video of the incident quickly became the number one viral video on the Internet (available from YouTube). Within 48 hours the incident was among the most talked about events of online blogs, with Facebook and other social networking groups springing up around it, and tens of thousands of people around the world expressing their opinions about the incident and how it relates to freedom of speech. There are even "Don't Tase Me, Bro" t-shirts available.
Meanwhile in Jena Louisiana, local, country, and state officials may be wishing that the Internet didn't exist. On Thursday, over 10,000 protestors descended on the small town of Jena to shine light on what they consider to be racial inequality in the courts. If not for the Internet, the incident may have escaped noticed by anyone outside the small town. But the high school's racially-charged student scuffle that ended in 6 African American students jailed for attempted murder has captured the attention of the online world. Web sites, blogs, and social networks are holding up this incident as evidence of serious problems in the justice system, and tens of thousands are expressing their opinions online.
Source: "Don't Tase Me, Bro!" Jolts the Web (Wired), Credit energy, not egos, for 'Jena 6' turnout (Chicago Sun-Times)
Story 3 - New and Future Online Music Services
Everyone knows that the recording industry is struggling to find an online distribution model that makes everyone happy: musicians, producers, and consumers. There have been moves this year to do away with the restrictive digital rights management, or DRM, technology that prohibits consumers from making copies of legally purchased music files. It isn't clear yet as to whether DRM-free is a trend or just an experiment. Two new online music service, Spiral Frog, and Grooveshark, are making there debut with outside-the-box approaches to music distribution.
Spiral Frog is a marketing-based music service that allows members to download music for free. Windows users can sign up at spiralfrog.com and select from over 800,000 songs to download. In order to earn free music, members are presented with numerous ads as they browse for music, and are required to fill out a monthly survey to retain access to their music library. Spiral Frog currently provides tunes from Universal Music and many indie labels, and plans to expand its library to the other big labels over time.
Grooveshark's slogan is "everybody gets paid". The service uses P2P networking technology to create a community of music lovers and sharers. Grooveshark members pay for the DRM-free tunes that they wish to own, but also earn credit towards purchases by sharing and selling tunes to other members. So, the more you share, the less you pay for your own tunes. The money charged for tunes is divided between the record company, artist, grooveshark, and the member.
Sources: Music industry looks to new models to boost sales (Reuters), Startup Takes On ITunes With Free, Ad-Supported Service (Wired)
New Briefs
That's it for this week's CourseCast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at www.course.com/coursecasts. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!