jump to navigation

Unwiring from copper, and a word on ETel. January 22, 2006

Posted by James Webster in : tech, web, telephony , add a comment

Since November 2004 I have been on the leading (and sometimes bleeding) edge of broadband in Australia. I am online via iBurst, a portable/mobile wireless broadband technology that uses an array of fixed base stations with ’smart antenna’ technology to send tightly focused beams to users within the area. I think the technology still has a few kinks and benefits from better LOS to the tower, but overall I am bullish enough to stay a user for the moment. And I have seen the mobility benefits first hand; having lived on the Gold Coast, a couple of places in Brisbane, and done a business trip to Sydney or two since I have been a subscriber. Plus its available NOW, whereas WiMAX will be available, ummm, whenever?

Well, the upshot of all this is that we are moving to Sydney within the next month and frankly we are strongly considering not connecting a fixed phone service. Assuming we live in an area with decent iBurst reception, I am going to set up a basic Asterisk@Home server, buy VOIP service through Engin or a similar provider and start living the wireless dream baby! Check back in a few months to see if it has worked out, or whether I have run back to the safety but emasculation of copper!

BTW, keep an eye on the blogosphere for reports of cool demonstrations coming out of ETel, O’Reilly’s inaugral emerging telephony conference.

Mac mini media centre to be revealed at Macworld Expo? December 3, 2005

Posted by James Webster in : tech, apple , add a comment

I’m with Rui on this one. A Mac mini media centre, whilst an awesome concept, will probably be hopelessly hamstrung outside of the USA. Any chance of built-in DVB-T support? I doubt it. But I wonder if the rumours of Apple’s new media experience will finally explain what is behind Vingle?

Vlad predicts hard-drive less laptops, Engadget confirms, film at 11! December 2, 2005

Posted by James Webster in : tech , add a comment

Whilst discussing the Gigabyte i-RAM, my colleague Vlad suggested that we would soon see laptops without hard disk drives, instead using flash memory. I was skeptical that flash memory would get to the necessary price point to be a cost effective alternative to rotating wheels o’ magnetic steel, but whaddya know… Engadget reports that NEC will introduce such a laptop, albiet with only 3Gb of Flash ROM for storing apps and the OS.

But still, a great prediction by Vlad. I think in actuality Vlad has harnessed the 90% of the human brain that most of us leave dormant to SEE INTO THE FUTURE!