CourseCast of the Week

Episode 102, 05/23/2009

Title/Description: Blockbuster Smartphone Summer, A Cable for Every Road, Streetview Bikes, Hi-tech Vehicle Maintenance, and other technology news headlines

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 102, recorded May 23rd, 2009. 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.cengage.com/coursetechnology for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.

This week's CourseCast goes out to Mr. Gillenwater's computer class at Iona Prep School in New Rochelle , New York! Thanks for listening to CourseCasts. If you would like a shout out to your school, email me at cousrecasts@gmail.com, and let me know how you use CourseCasts in your classes.

And now, the news.

Story One: Blockbuster Smartphone Summer

The eagerly awaited Palm Pre smartphone will be available to the public on June 6th from Sprint. The device is priced the same as an iPhone at $199.99 after rebate with a two-year service agreement. Apple is expected to unveil a new iPhone two days later at its WorldWide Developers Conference on June 8th. These two big releases along with several new Google Android phones have analysts calling this a blockbuster summer for the cell phone industry.
Sprint to sell Palm Pre for $200 after rebate [Reuters]
Palm Pre launching two days before Apple's WWDC announcement? [The ToyBox]
Cellphone Makers Hope for a Blockbuster Summer [NYTimes]

Story 2: A Cable for Every Road

One of the goals of the Obama administration is to provide high-speed Internet service to everyone in the country. The optimal national Internet infrastructure would provide fiber-optic connections to every residence. Due to the expense of tearing up roads and digging ditches to extend fiber "the last mile" to connect to every home, this option has been classified as financially unfeasible. A bill introduced in congress this week is intended to make a fiber-based infrastructure more feasible. California Representative Anna Eshoo has proposed that with every new road built or old road repaired fiber optic conduit should be installed alongside. Over time, fiber would become woven into the national infrastructure alongside every road with little expense.
New bill wants fiber conduit built into every road project [ars technica]

Story 3: Streetview Bikes

Google Streetview has run into an obstacle in its quest to provide video footage of every road in the world: the British footpath. Many interesting locations in the UK are accessed by footpaths - paths too small to support motorized traffic. In order to include footpaths in Google Streetview, Google is outfitting a fleet of customized bikes with streetview computers and cameras. Check the link in the show notes for photos.
Google builds Street View trikes to map UK footpaths [cnet]

Story 4: Hi-tech Vehicle Maintenance

Today's high-tech cars are loaded with processors and complicated electronics that require specialized diagnostic tools for vehicle maintenance and repair. Auto manufacturers have maintained control over maintenance for their vehicles by limiting who is able to acquire these specialized diagnostic tools. This week a bill was introduced in Congress that would require auto manufacturers to make their diagnostic tools and technologies available to anyone that would like to use it with the hopes of increasing competition in the market and lowering vehicle repair costs.
Congressmen want automakers to cough up diagnostic codes [ars technica]

And that brings us to news briefs.

• Researchers at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia have demonstrated the use of nanoparticles in DVD technology resulting in an increase of storage capacity by 2,000 times. Imagine storing 2,000 movies on one 12 TB DVD.
  Aussies cram 2,000 movies onto single DVD [cnet news]
  Storage densities that may yield a 12TB DVD demonstrated [ars technica]
• Remember Napster? Well the online music service is hoping to revitalize its business with a new tempting offer: $5 a month gets you unlimited music streaming + 5 DRM-free songs to download
  The new, new Napster: streaming + 5 downloads for $5/month [ars technica]
• After passing a very controversial law that cuts off Internet connections to individuals found illegally downloading music, the French government is taking it to the next level. A new law being proposed would require Internet Service Providers to filter and censor unlawful Web sites. It would also give law enforcement agencies the right to remotely hack and set up spy software on the computers of suspects. And it calls for the development of a government database designed to collect electronic information on French citizens.
  Next up for France: police keyloggers and Web censorship [ars technica]
• A recent study by the NPD Group found that more Americans are playing games than going out to the movies.
  Study: More Americans Play Games Than Go To Movies [Gamasutra]
• Sun is planning to open what it says will become the worlds largest online App Store. Sun's new Java App Store will target the over 1 billion PC users with millions of apps from thousands of developers that develop software with the Java programming language.
  Sun seeks to build world's biggest App Store around Java [Computerworld]
• Speaking at commencement ceremonies at both University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon, Google CEO Eric Schmidt urged grads to turn off their computers and turn off their cell phones and "discover all that is human around us".
  Google CEO Urges Grads: 'Turn Off Your Computer' [newsfactor]

That's it for this week's CourseCast. Remember that what you hear in the CourseCast is just the tip of the iceberg! Go to coursecasts.course.com for links to the full stories covered in this CourseCast. There you will also find discussion questions for use in your course, and the CourseCast Archives. Email me with your comments and 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!