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Facing fierce competition, some cellular carriers are looking to take on more of the development work associated with building cell phones. A small but potentially growing number of carriers are writing their own specifications for new handsets and then working directly with third-party original design manufacturers (ODMs), thus bypassing handset manufacturers...

Companies large and small now rely on digital content. They download brochures to salespersons, ship video clips to employees, and plaster their logos in front of consumers. As more information takes digital formats, corporations need tools to monitor the use of their assets, which freely move in and out of their networks ...

Cable companies are branching out, moving from their traditional video services to new markets, such as Internet access and voice communications ...

Telecommunications carriers clearly see the future: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. This technology enables them to roll out high-speed multimedia services to consumers and businesses faster and at a lower cost than traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) services. While those features are alluring, the carriers are struggling to put the infrastructure in place that is needed to support VoIP...

You're sitting at a restaurant waiting for a friend who is 10 minutes late. The maitre de tells you that if your friend does not arrive in the next 5 minutes, your table will be given to another group. You try to remember your friend's mobile phone number but can't, so your only option is to sit and wait ...

Like many organizations, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers noticed an ever-increasing volume of traffic on its frame relay network, which connects 42 field offices in the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. "We had to find a way to continue to provide our users with adequate response time without dramatically increasing our telecommunications costs," said Al Canfield, network administrator at the government agency...

Telecommunications carriers see the future, and it is voice over IP (VoIP) services. This technology enables them to roll out high-speed multimedia services to consumers and businesses faster and at a lower cost than traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) services. While those features are alluring, the carriers are struggling to put the infrastructure in place that is needed to support VoIP...

The Internet has delivered dramatic productivity improvements. Executives now have a simple way to exchange electronic mail messages, large and small companies are able to market their products worldwide and corporations have replaced manual procedures with automated ones. Along with these advances have come some downsides: a deluge of electronic mail marketing messages, a proliferation of spam and a number of online scams...

One morning, you receive an e-mail notification from your bank that states it needs to update your credit card data. A fill-in-the-blanks form is attached that asks for information like your address, phone number and password, so you complete it, and hit the Send button ...

One would not call them intimate at this stage, but certainly the mutual interest between wireless local area networks (WLANs) and video applications is growing ...

Telecommunications service providers are adding a new item to their product lines: cable TV services. Carriers view this as a natural addition to their ever-expanding service lines, which include local service, long distance communications, Internet access and wireless capabilities ...

It could happen in an airport when you walk from a seat in the waiting area to a newsstand. Or it could happen when you park your car in front of a client's office and rush in to pick up a needed report. Or it might happen when you walk across the room in the local coffee shop to grab cream for your latte. When you return, you make a startling revelation: Your laptop computer is gone...

The quest for more bandwidth is never ending. Soon after vendors make one technical advance, they move on to the next. With 54 Mbps 802.11g wireless LANs now poised to gain a lion's share of product shipments, vendors are examining ways to push the bandwidth plateau past the 100-Mbps mark. ...

The sight of commuters' heads bobbing up and down as they listen tomusic on their way to work may be replaced by intent gazes examining theprevious night's episode of the "Sopranos" or the ninth inning of thebaseball game. Manufacturers are hoping that the next big wave inpersonal entertainment will be portable video players (PVPs), devicesthat feature not only a computer screen for viewing but also hard diskstorage so individuals can carry the content that interests them...

Consumer devices, such as entertainment systems and home security products, are gaining intelligence and becoming more PC-like. As this occurs, users want to connect them to home local area networks and automate processes, such as moving music files from PCs to stereos or turning lights on and off. Because standard network protocols are needed to deliver such functionality, home security system suppliers formed the ZigBee Alliance, basing its core technology on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which is a low-cost, low-bandwidth technique for transmitting information...

The simple ding-a-ling heard when an incoming call arrives is being replaced by a bevy of Top 10 tunes. Ring tones -- simple notes or 30-second clips of popular songs -- have emerged as a popular value-added data service for wireless carriers. ...

More and more digital devices are being put in homes as a result of consumers doing such things as moving audio files from PCs to home entertainment systems. In response to the upswing in demand for networked services in the home, the HomePlug Powerline Alliance is moving to make the technology to connect those devices more readily available. ...

Since wireless phones have become so inexpensive and easy to use, their use is rapidly rising in corporations. While the phones can deliver alluring productivity benefits, they also can present a new security risk: Corporate assets, such as new products, manufacturing floor layouts, and business plans, are now susceptible to attack. ...

Wireless carriers are finding online gaming via use of cell phones to be the latest cash cow to boost revenues. "Carriers have been surprised that wireless gaming is even more lucrative than ringtones," Ken Hyers, a senior analyst with market research firm In-Stat/MDR, told TechNewsWorld ...

At the moment, the truism that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" can easily be applied to Apple's iTunes online music store and those services that are attempting to compete with it. In April 2003, Apple launched the iTunes service and quickly sold millions of songs. As a result, companies such as AllofMP3.com, Microsoft, MusicMatch, Napster, Rhapsody, Sony and even Wal-Mart have taken various approaches to try and duplicate Apple's success...