Taiwan has launched what it’s calling the “world’s first dual-network application service”, according to today’s Taipei Times (which charmingly, and perhaps accurately, calls it a Duel Network in its headline). The network combines wireless local area networks (WLANs) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). In a demo set up in Taipei’s Nankang Science Park, workers… Read More »
I reckon we need to redesign public spaces to take into account all the folk who mill around tapping out SMS messages. People seem to be have gotten the idea that you can walk and talk on a cellphone at the same time, thereby causing minimal disruption to others, but texting still seems to be… Read More »
I don’t have much of a clue about whether Bluetooth is really going to survive: Enough respected writers think it’s getting better for me to believe it could do, but if it does, it’s got to address the security issue. That seems to be happening. I’ve prattled on here before about bluesnarfing — where data,… Read More »
The Wine Spectator Online (via Boingo Wi-Fi Insider) reports that a Sonoma, CA, vineyard is using Wi-Fi to monitor growing conditions at their site: The system uses 40 wireless units on existing trellising posts around the 30-acre vineyard fitted with sensors that measure microclimate data such as soil and air temperature and moisture content, rainfall… Read More »
Could RFID tags be used by shoplifters? Robert Lemos of CNET’s News.com writes from Las Vegas that a German technology consultant believes the Radio Frequency Identification tags “could be abused by hackers and tech-savvy shoplifters”. He quotes Lukas Grunwald, a senior consultant with DN-Systems Enterprise Internet Solutions GmbH, as telling a discussion at the Black… Read More »