Trends I'm Watching

Seven Technologies That Change Everything

Source: Business 2.0 :: Magazine Article :: Features :: Seven Technologies That Change Everything.

Innovation always has the power to disrupt business. Here’s what to watch in the years ahead.

1. AJAX
WHAT IT IS: Software tools that make browser-based applications behave more like software running on a PC.

2. BIOGENERICS
WHAT IT IS: Generic forms of the patented drug proteins sold by big biotech firms.

3. DEEP WEB SEARCH
WHAT IT IS: Technology that boldly goes where no search engine has gone before.

4. HIGH-DEFINITION RADIO
WHAT IT IS: Forget satellite. Regular radio is getting an upgrade, with CD-quality audio and many more channels.

5. HYBRID CELL PHONES
WHAT IT IS: Wi-Fi-enabled cell phones that bring together cellular and landline phone systems.

6. MICRO FUEL CELLS
WHAT IT IS: Batteries for portable electronic devices that use a refillable external fuel supply, from hydrogen to natural gas, methanol, ethanol, and sodium borohydride.

7. WI-MAX
WHAT IT IS: Wi-Max is like Wi-Fi on steroids, with a theoretical range of 30 miles.

A very different future is calling on billions of cell phones

Source: USATODAY.com - A very different future is calling on billions of cell phones.

Bigger than television. Bigger than the PC. Bigger than the telephone.

The cell phone's impact will be so huge because — unlike those previous technologies — it's so widespread. People in developing countries who a decade ago owned nothing more complicated than a water pump now have cell phones.

At the other extreme, middle-class teenagers in the USA now carry in their pockets a networked computing and communicating device more powerful than the mainframes that might've run a good-size company when their parents were the same age.

Last week, Gartner Group put out a report saying that by 2009, 1 billion cell phones will be sold a year. Not owned. Sold. By then, 2.6 billion people will be using cell phones, Gartner says.

There will probably be a world population of about 6.8 billion in 2009. If you take out the number of people living in abject poverty, babies, nursing home residents and the Amish, most everyone who could possibly own a cell phone will have one. For perspective, about 200 million TVs will be sold in 2005. Almost four times more cell phones — 779 million — will be sold during the year.

Anything so big and powerful literally transforms society. TVs, PCs and telephones changed everything from daily habits to the world's power structure.

via Emergic.org via Textually.org

India, Canada to jointly develop new wireless technology

Link: Microwave Engineering Online - India, Canada to jointly develop new wireless technology.

BANGALORE, India — Indian and Canadian telecoms agencies are working jointly to develop new broadband wireless networking technology to provide communication in rural and remote locations.

India's Center for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) and Canada's Communication Research Center have signed an agreement to look at the possibility of using MILTON, or Microwave Light Organized Network, a wireless technology developed in Canada, as a cheap, last-mile access solution.

Wireless Sensor Networks: Sensors Everywhere

Link: InformationWeek > Wireless Sensor Networks > Sensors Everywhere > January 24, 2005.

Wireless sensor-network technology is at the frontier of computer networking research and could be tech's next multibillion-dollar market. Today largely the domain of military-funded academic research and a handful of startups spun out of these projects, wireless sensor nets could figure prominently in the plans of multinational companies and the world's largest IT vendors.

Hands-Free Devices Really Do Cut Mobile Phone Emissions

Link: mercola.com: Hands-Free Devices Really Do Cut Mobile Phone Emissions.

A new study proves the point: Using hands-free devices with your cellular phone cut the energy and radiation that goes to your head by almost half.

Researchers used probes to measure the electrical currents created by wires from hands-free kits in different positions. The emission level of a mobile phone is measured as a specific absorption rate (SAR), the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body per unit of body mass.

Using a "dummy" head containing liquid (configured to measure SARs) and seven mobile phones, scientists discovered the range of maximum emissions for those operating at 900Hz and 1,800Hz was significantly reduced by using hands-free devices. These tests put an end to any erroneous concerns by some that using earphones connected to a mobile phone could actually "increase" SARs.

Wireless ID Theft

Link: “Sniffing” Out Wireless ID Theft - The WiFi Weblog - wifi.weblogsinc.com.

According to Christopher Faulkner, CEO of C I Host, identity theft through wireless devices is on the rise, and people should steps to protect themselves. In addition, Faulkner describes how wireless devices can be located and tapped into by a “sniffer,” a computer program on a laptop or a separate device that searches for a connection between a device and its wireless network, and can eavesdrop on all traffic traveling over that connection, including text messages, financial transactions, e-mails and file transfers. It also gives the person using a sniffer access to all of the information on the device, including the phone book, addresses and any stored files.

MIMO — The Next WiFi

Link: E M E R G I C . o r g: January 18, 2005 Archives.

MIMO -- which stands for Multiple Input, Multiple Output -- is likely to be the basis for the next major flavor of Wi-Fi, now under development, which goes by the technical name 802.11n. It's intended to replace the most common flavors used in homes today, which engineers call 802.11b and 802.11g. But MIMO is so good that makers are rushing it into the market even before the new standard is complete.

Standard Wi-Fi base stations send out a single data stream, even if they have two antennas. This single stream is diluted by a number of factors, including "scatter" -- the tendency of radio waves to bounce off objects and thus travel over multiple paths, not all of which reach the receiver.

But MIMO base stations send out multiple data streams using multiple antennas (three in the case of the new Belkin and Linksys units). The receiver card then scoops up the scattered beams from their multiple paths and reconstructs them into a single, strong signal.

ZigBee

Link: ZigBee Special Report: The ZigBee Buzz Is Growing.

Wireless Control That Simply Works Companies looking for reliable and secure wireless monitoring and control solutions have a new alternative –- ZigBee™ (www.zigbee.org). ZigBee provides the network, security and application profiles layers for the IEEE 802.15.4 global standard for reliable, low-power, wireless data communications.

ZigBee’s standards-based approach simplifies wireless design, accelerates product development and reduces project risk. In addition, customers will soon be able to enjoy interoperable wireless products from multiple vendors, for example, lighting systems, utility meters, and heating and cooling systems can be interconnected to simplify operation and optimize energy consumption. The ZigBee Alliance, a rapidly growing international association of semiconductor companies, software providers, systems integrators, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), is defining the ZigBee specification, along with the requirements for certification and product compliance testing. The goal of the ZigBee Alliance is to provide "Wireless Control That Simply Works."

Multiple radios boggle cell phone design

In the 1980's there were numerous operating systems for PCs. The marketplace will pick the winner.

Link: CommsDesign - Multiple radios boggle cell phone design.

The bad thing about wireless standards is that there are so many of them, particularly for PANs. Indications are strong that one or two could consolidate or drop out during the next couple of years. But around the same time, three or more wide-area wireless standards hit the market, in what is starting to seem like a zero-sum game.

In the wide area, meanwhile, at least three approaches to delivering digital TV to handsets are marching toward a 2006 market debut. That's about the time WiMax is expected to start giving the latest cellular-data standards a run for their money for long-range, high-speed service.