ArchiveOctober, 2007

The Associated Press reports that major airlines have come to an agreement that will allow their passengers to register their phones when buying an airplane ticket; a bar code will then be sent to the registered phones, which will be used to check in passengers to a flight.

This system would eliminate the need for boarding passes. The International Air Transport Association says the industry wants to phase out paper tickets all together by 2010, for a cost savings of more than $500 million a year.

Alltel jumped into the increasingly competitive WiFi business yesterday, when the cell phone carrier announced a flexible new wireless broadband service that increases its customers’ access to the Internet, and ties the Alltel WiFi service to standard EVDO data services.

Through a deal with Boingo Wireless – a network of existing WiFi hotspots – Alltel WiFi will provide access to “thousands of hotspots throughout North and South America,� according to the company’s press release. This new category of Internet access can now be coupled with Alltel’s Wireless Internet service (nnn) starting at $9.99 a month, to provide more options for laptop users.

In other words, Alltel subscribers can now augment their existing Wireless Internet service with a faster, more reliable WiFi connection when within range of a WiFi hotspot. Also, for those who don’t require a long-term data contract, Alltel WiFi is available on a prepaid basis, with access cards available for $19.99 per week or $9.99 per day.

Broadcom is in the news again. But this time, the story has nothing to do with the company’s ongoing feud with Qualcomm.

On Tuesday, Broadcom unveiled a new multimedia processing chip capable of powering high-definition video, 3D graphics, and camera resolutions up to 12-megapixels – all without unduly taxing a cell phone’s on-board battery. The advance is expected boost next-generation multimedia performance for an entire class of upcoming cell phones.

Broadcom becomes the first company to provide a way for high-definition images to appear on cell phone displays, and the VideoCore III could also narrow the shrinking gap in quality between cell phone cameras and stand-alone cameras.

No more searching for quarters or running back to your car to feed the meter before parking enforcement gets there. Sound good to you? Sounds great to me, especially in the Washington, DC, area where parking violations can run up to $125 per incident. San Francisco is testing a system to allow drivers to pay parking meters with their cell phones.

To initiate the service, a driver need only call a toll free number on the meter and establish an account, by providing a credit card number. At that point,l To pay for meter time, it’s a matter of entering the amount of time needed and the meter number. Drivers will receive a text message before time runs out reminding them and prompting them to add more time without having to return to the meter.

Parking Enforcement will have special wireless devices in order to check the status of each space so that tickets will not be given to those who have paid by cell phone. San Francisco will be testing three different services for 90 days and collecting feedback from users and residents. We’ll be watching and hoping the pilot program goes well.

I never thought I’d say this, but I found a way that I like MySpace. The mobile version (point your phone or PDA browser to mobile.myspace.com) is a stripped down version of the popular social networking site - and I mean that in a good way.

Once you log in, you can access all your profile including mini pictures of your friends, see messages and friend requests, update your blog, or change your status. Unless you have a T-Mobile Sidekick or a Helio though, you won’t be able to upload pictures directly to MySpace from your phone.

But what the mobile version of MySpace lacks (that is an improvement over the web version) is all the blinking random content that has nothing to do with what you’re looking for or trying to do. At the moment, there are no ads on the mobile version of MySpace, though I’m sure that’s coming – and will probably be quite targeted to location and interests. But if they can keep the design and navigation as clean as it is currently, I won’t mind a few ads. It’s nice to see a mobile version that’s an actual improvement over what we’re used to on the web.