Episode 0032, 01/18/2008
Title: New Apple Products, Semantic Web, the Bandwidth Crunch
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 32, recorded January 18th, 2008.
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 - New Products from Apple
Last week, I reported on the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This week, I have news from MacWorld, the annual Apple convention in San Francisco. The high point of MacWorld has always been Steve Jobs' Keynote speech where he introduces new products. This year Steve had several new products to introduce. They are not as earth shaking as last year's unveiling of the iPhone, but still interesting as indicators of where technology is headed.
First, there was an announcement of some new software updates for the iPhone and iPod Touch. iPhone users get Google's "My Location" technology which automatically shows your current location on the map. They also get a customizable home screen, multi-user text-messaging and other tweaks as a free upgrade. iPod Touch users will have to fork over $20 to update their devices with new software which includes Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes, and Stocks.
Other Apple announcements included a new video rental service in iTunes that matches up nicely with an upgrade to Apple TV. Apple TV is a set-top box that now allows users to download movies and music through a television interface directly from iTunes without the need for a PC. With standard and hi-def movies available in price ranges from $2.99 to $4.99 per movie, the new and improved Apple TV and rental service could give traditional movie rental businesses and pay-per-view a run for their money. In fact, the day iTunes rental service was announced, shares in Blockbuster plunged 17 percent.
The grand finale of the Keynote speech was the unveiling was a new ultra thin notebook computer called the Macbook Air. The Air measures 0.16 inches at its thinnest side and 0.76 inches at its thickest. In fact, it is the thinnest notebook made. Steve Jobs introduced the Air by sliding it out of a manila envelope. While it weighs only 3 lbs the Air is not light on features or power. It boasts an LED backlit 13.3 inch display, a 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor custom designed for the Air, a full backlit keyboard, a large touchpad that includes multi-touch gesture recognition, and a five hour battery.
Source: "MacBook Air Leaps Ultraportable Hurdles" (Top Tech News), Blockbuster Shares Drop on Apple News (TopTechNews), "Apple TV: The New HD Format?" (Top Tech News), "Apple Bets on Online Movie Rentals" (TopTechNews)
Story 2 - Semantic Web Takes a Big Step Forward
That was the headline of a ComputerWorld article published this week that introduces a technology called SPARQL spelled S-P-A-R-Q-L. SPQRQL combines database technologies and Web technologies to allow users to pull different types of information from different online sources for quick and accurate Web-based solutions to questions and problems. A service such as this, that is able to quickly provide Web users with exactly what they are seeking, is called the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web makes use of intelligent agents to find, share, and integrate, information from the Web more quickly and reliably than today's search engines. This week, the Semantic Web took a big step forward when the main governing origination of the Web, the W3C, introduced SPARQL as a standard for Web development.
Source: "Semantic Web takes big step forward" (ComputerWorld)
Story 3 - The Bandwidth Crunch
Several news stories this week combine to provide insight into a growing problem for Internet service providers and their customers: the bandwidth crunch. Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be transferred over a network in a certain amount of time. The crunch refers to the recent issue of bandwidth being used to its maximum capacity and slowing down overall service.
The network carriers are blaming video and movie transfers for the crunch, much of which is in violation of copyright laws. Time Warner says that 50 percent of its bandwidth is taken up by five percent of its users - the users that are uploading and downloading large video files. Comcast faces the same challenge. Comcast has been accused of throttling, or cutting back, bandwidth for P2P file sharing; the company is currently under investigation by the FCC. Since Comcast advertised unlimited bandwidth, it may be in violation of the law if it is indeed selectively holding back or blocking certain individuals or services.
Time Warner announced this week that it is experimenting with a new model for Internet service billing. The new model bills customers according to how much data they download and upload. Users swapping videos over P2P networks would receive a whopping bill at the end of the month while those that simply check their email and surf the Web would have a reasonable bill. If implemented fairly, this may provide a solution to the bandwidth crunch, but it might also inhibit the migration of legitimate video services from television to the Internet.
Internet service providers are also under pressure from the music and movie industries, as well as from the government, to help curtail illegal music and movie swapping. Some analysts are predicting that the Internet service providers may make use of watermarks - digital signatures embedded in media files, to restrict the illegal transfer of those files over the network. One article goes as far as naming 2008 to be the "year of filters" due to pressures being placed on both the ISP's and on colleges to filter and stop illegal file sharing through the use of filtering technologies.
Source: "Time Warner Links Web Prices With Usage” (New York Times), "FCC Investigation of Net Neutrality a Good Start" (TopTechNews), "FCC Asks Comcast About Internet Filter" (Wired), "DRM Is Dead, But Watermarks Rise From Its Ashes" (Wired), "2008 shaping up to be "Year of Filters" at colleges, ISPs" (ARS Technica)
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. E-mail us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com. Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!