Eye-Fi supported by Nikon D60 firmware: The Wi-Fi Secure Digital card offered by Eye-Fi can now be recognized by Nikon’s D60 SLR, a just-announced 10.2-megapixel camera due in March; pricing for the camera wasn’t released. The Eye-Fi integration solves a problem I heard widely discussed at Macworld Expo, where Eye-Fi won a Best of Show 2008 award: because cameras can’t detect the Eye-Fi, the makers of the Wi-Fi card say you should disable automatic power conservation on your camera to avoid the card–powered by the camera–shutting down while still uploading photos.

This makes logical sense, but it’s irritating. I suggested in a review and to the company that because they have a server component to the offering, that they offer an option to email, send SMS, or offer a pop-up message on a host computer when uploading is complete, so a consumer would then know to turn the camera off. At Macworld Expo, when I talked to employees at the booth, they nodded without responding. I said, these aren’t good ideas? They said, no, in fact, they’re hearing the same ideas all the time, and they’re trying to figure out how to work them in. That’s good news.

But the integration with camera firmware is, of course, even better, because it makes the Eye-Fi essentially an accessory for a camera, rather than an unrelated third-party add-on. Older cameras could have firmware upgrades, but I find even though that’s possible, most people who use cameras would never think of this, and thus camera makers would be unlikely to upgrade older cameras unless they sold well, and the maker could slipstream a branded offering into the retail channel that noted the camera was Eye-Fi ready.

Copyright ©2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.

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The future of competition for broadband and cellular wireless hits one milestone, close to other: The 700 MHz auction currently underway will distribute thousands of licenses to entities across the country for effective, widespread distribution of broadband, voice, and other services. The C Block is the most hotly contested block, representing a set of licenses that covers the entire U.S. The reserve bid for the block was $4.6b; the current high bid is $4.3b, while the next qualifying bid must be at least $4.75b. The auction as a whole had to gross over $10.3b, and that mark was also hit around noon with $10.8b bid so far. That means that it’s extremely likely now that the auction will conclude successfully, and that the C Block will be won. Google at one committed to the reserve price, so if they’re bidding–bidders are anonymous in this auction–they will make at least one bid to cross that mark.

The mixed public safety/private use D Block is still up for grabs. The reserve price is $1.4b, but the bidding has hit only over $500m. If the bids don’t reach the reserve price, the block will likely be reformulated. Harold Feld alleges monkey business in how the rules for the band were set for a putative winning bidder. In short, he writes that a one-time potential bidder moved into an advisory role to the body that will control the block for public-safety interests. He says that would allow them to set unreasonable terms for a winning bid, and that the FCC refused to set rules that would prevent unreasonable terms from being proposed. Thus, Frontline Wireless, the firm most likely to operate the D Block, shut down, as they couldn’t come up with a strategy that was financially sound. (The auction rules state that if you default, you forfeit the difference between your bid and the ultimate winning bid; Frontline could have easily been out hundreds of millions of dollars in that scenario.)

Update: By day’s end (Round 16), overall bids reached $11.5b, but no new bids had been registered for either the C or D Blocks.

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Phila. CIO three-quarters sure EarthLink will pull out of city: Nonetheless, he’s pretty happy with the service in places, and the city is considering its options. The city expects it will hear within 60 days about EarthLink’s plans.

Continental signs with JetBlue for in-flight TV, Internet: The airline will offer 36 channels of television at no cost to first-class, $6 for coach starting in a year, along with email and text messaging, price not disclosed. American, Alaska, and JetBlue now also have test plans; United and Delta are sure to follow.

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Department of Telecom (may your tribe decrease!) has recently awarded the spectrum to new players. They did that with aplomb and a lot of hoopla. Mishra ji, of TRAI fame, was needlessly fingered, perhaps by COAI (after being induced by post retirement lollies) that the whole process of awarding spectrum was unfair. So far, there […]

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Airtel recently reduced the price for 512kbps; I got a call from an excited “executive” who “informed” about the price reduction. In real terms, this doesn’t amount to much since the taxes would anyway make it more expensive than it really is. They could have reduced the prices for 256kbps instead.Trust the morons to loose […]

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Denver airport offers downloadable movies over local network: FreeFi, which is handling the advertising-supported free service in the airport, which jumped from 600 connections a day when it was for-fee to 4,000 to 5,000 at no cost. FreeFi has a deal with Walt Disney Studios to offer digital movie rentals over the local network. I have been writing for years about the power of the edge network, where instead of providing an Internet feed, media resides locally and can be moved at many times the potential Internet rate. This is the first substantial deployment in any form that I’m aware of.

You can move gigabits for free over a local network, and even at 802.11g speeds, a movie could download in perhaps 7 to 12 minutes (1 to 2 GB), especially in a well-designed network with a strong Ethernet backbone; FreeFi said a two-hour film should take 8 minutes to download on an uncongested network with a modern laptop. Move to 802.11n, and we’re talking Stars Wars: Episode IV in perhaps 2 minutes. (I’ve been expecting Apple to offer this sort of service for a while: download locally, with a requirement to authorize the film over the Net. Their new rental model requires authorization, so we might see something from them in the future.)

FreeFi told me by phone this afternoon that films will have a 48-hour rental period from download, and cost $5 to $8. The longer-than-24-hour window is a welcome relief especially for those traveling, but there’s apparently a premium: most online movie rental services charge $3 to $6, and offer a 24-hour window within 30 days after download. For travelers, this will be fine: You’ll download the film out of a need for something to do on the plane or during layovers or delays, or to have something to watch on arrival at a hotel.

The FreeFi representative said the intent was to expand offerings beyond the “dozens” that will be available now; an exact number wasn’t immediately available. The focus will be on airports, where there are plenty of the right kind of audience passing through.

I’m waiting on word as to what the software requirement is to view the films. I expect it is Windows Media Player or a Windows-only client.

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Kudos to Minneapolis’s US Internet for building a Wi-Fi network that works: The testing firm Novarum found that two zones tested in Minneapolis’s nearly-done Wi-Fi network achieved the best marks for performance among U.S. networks tested for 802.11g and 802.11n clients. These are outdoor tests, as far as I know, but that’s still saying something.

Empire State Building disabling cars wirelessly: There’s a radius of five blocks around what was once the mooring place of Zeppelins that appears to be related to keyless entry systems in cars. About 10 to 15 cars won’t start or can’t be opened every day, according to locals. In parts of the country near military bases, garage door openers and keyless cars flip out when a base flips on systems that apparently leak out-of-band signals into those unlicensed frequencies.

Long Island Wi-Fi pilot launch delayed: The 2.5-mile project along Route 110 near the borders of two participating counties, Suffolk and Nassau, has been pushed back while utility pole agreements are finalized. It’s getting close. As always, utility poles tend to take longer to secure rights to than anyone anticipates, even when they’re aware of this fact. Suffolk County Water Authority is considering acting as one of the anchor tenants for the 750 sq mi project led by E-Path Communications.

Bluetooth used to synchronize leg motions for double amputee: Two veterans are testing out mechanical prosthetics that use standard Bluetooth signaling to coordinate their motion, allowing for greater range with less effort and more natural movement. One of the veterans reports that the legs sometimes get going a little fast and there’s a chain reaction, but he sounds pretty upbeat about how it works.

A calm discussion about Wi-Fi table squatters: A neat slice of life from Milwaukee, Wisc., examining the unwritten rules of lingering over a cup of joe (or more) in cafes when it’s quiet and when it gets busy. One customer, clearly an engineer, doesn’t want unwritten rules, preferring to have written instructions about social interactions: “if the owners want the public to obey rules, they should state these rules, post a sign or something.” Because if there’s one thing a friendly cafe wants to do is post lots of rules that anyone with sense could intuit.

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The train from Worcester through Framingham into Boston, Mass., adds Internet access via Wi-Fi in pilot project: A popular 45-mile commuter line will have at least one car per train with Internet service, with the intention of expanding access to all 13 commuter lines in Massachusetts. The line carries 18,000 passengers daily across 17 stations.

This would be likely be the largest deployment of train-based Wi-Fi outside of Europe, where GNER in the UK and SJ in Sweden have a couple dozen trains on a small number of lines unwired. This trial uses Sprint’s EVDO service through an external antenna mounted on each car; 45 coaches are currently set up for Wi-Fi. The authority has already received piles of enthusiastic comments. No word on which service provider (if any) is involved among the several companies that unwire trains.

I’ve been predicting more train-Fi on commuter rail in the U.S. for a long time based on hard information from rail authorities. It’s just harder than it looks. Unlike, say, bus Fi, where cell access is available along highways, or ferry Fi, where the ferries run fixed routes across water where you can point antennas, rail lines–even commuter rail–run along often highly variable terrain or inaccessible paths. It’s just hard to get a constant signal. Most likely, most rail lines will need a combination of fixed, satellite, and cellular service–perhaps two or all three.

There’s really no substantial Wi-Fi on board trains in the U.S. now. ACE in California no longer even discusses the future of its Wi-Fi on its Web site, even though it was the pioneer, and has been saying for about two years that Wi-Fi was returning. CalTrain dropped its plan due to cost in the South Bay Area. Capitol Corridor (Sacramento to San Jose) has a plan underway that should result in service in 2009. Elsewhere, I hear rumblings about BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), Amtrak (Northeast Corridor), and other lines, but no public announcements.

Copyright ©2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.

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Before it really began, the Dade County, Flor., wireless effort shuts down: Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Alvarez has dropped his plans for an ambitious county-wide network after the departure of a key aide. It seems that WiMax was always part of the thinking for this 2,000 sq mi network, but Alvarez was optimistically relying on the separately politically organized county school board to give them valuable 2.5 GHz frequency for use! Rather than, you know, lease it to Sprint or Clearwire for tens of millions of dollars. Very optimistic.

I’m quoted in the articles saying that there are no successful countywide initiatives anywhere in the world (replace county with similar political units where unavailable). I can’t think of a one; all I know of are abandoned plans and struggling projects likely to shut down.

The mayor is quoted stating, incorrectly, “Several communities before us attempted to do too much too soon, only to learn that their models were impractical, and more importantly, costly to taxpayers.” That’s really wrong. In all the Wi-Fi networks across the U.S., only a handful involved more than a few tens of thousands of dollars, and even in those cases, there was typically a public benefit. St. Louis Park, Minn., Chaska, Minn., and St. Cloud, Flor., are the most notable examples of public dollars spent to build networks; each is a relatively small town, and each has a different story to tell about outcomes.

A few large hotzones in Miami-Dade will still be built.

Copyright ©2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.

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Broadband providers have been under scrutiny recently, as it has come to light that broadband speeds advertised by ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) are not matching actual broadband speeds that customers receive. What could be affecting the speed on your broadband?

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