New Technology: Fashion Week to Embrace Barcode Technology

With Fashion Week returning to New York in the beginning of September (this time at Lincoln Center), for the first time, the event will be using barcode technology to organize attendance and seating at the various runway shows.  According to an article in Signature9, emails will now be sent sent to guests who can RSVP via a website. After RSVPing, guests are emailed a barcode to be scanned upon their arrival using check-in kiosks, which give guests their seat assignments. 

Though this technology is common at tech trade shows and conferences, it is leap forward  for Fashion Week, as attendance was usually done the old fashion way, via lines and someone with a clipboard.

Verizon Promises Live TV on iPad

GigaOm reports that Verizon is stepping up its mobile TV services with the announcement yesterday that its FiOS subscribers will be able to watch programming on their tablet devices, including the ubiquitous iPad via a new app it has developed. To authenticate subscriptions, streaming to tablet devices will only be available at a user's home -- at least that's how it will work at launch.

 
Verizon CIO Shaygan Kheradpir told those at a press briefing that the technology for the app was already in place, but that the company was clearing it with its content providers. The app will be available after all the providers sign on.

The GigaOm report notes that Verizon also showed off a new video-on-demand app that will allow subscribers to rent or buy movies and content through the company's website or a set-top box, and then download and watch on up to five PCs and/or mobile devices, including the Droid X, Droid 2, Blackberry Storm, and Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. Functionality for the Big Red iPhoneis also in the works. The VOD app will be available Q4 of this year.

In other Verizon news, Fierce Wireless reports that in southern California the carrier is testing a $99 unlimited everything plan to counter Sprint's Simply Everything plan, also priced at $99 per month. A Verizon spokesperson told FW that it was a limited-time promotion available on single lines only. The pricing, or at least the "unlimited part," isn't likely to stand once tiered data plans are rolled out. 

Regardless, the testing is an indication that Verizon is experimenting with its pricing strategies. The nation's largest carrier is often branded as the "luxury mobile provider" compared to the likes of T-Mobile, which offers an unlimited everything plan on its no-contract Even More Plus for $79.99 per month. 
To counter other discount carriers like MetroPCS, Cricket, and Boost, Verizon is also testing a $50 unlimited prepaid plan in the Southeast. 

It will be interesting to watch how the price wars develop, particularly with Verizon's ambitious handset roadmap and LTE offerings in the pipeline. Will the nation's largest carrier be able to expand its 4G footprint without bumping costs or adding $10 surcharges?

Microsoft looks to games to build Windows Phone 7 success!!

Microsoft is playing catch-up in the smart phone space and is relying on gaming, one of its strengths, to help it kick-start the upcoming Windows Phone 7 line of phones.

The company is building in extensive Xbox Live support into its Windows Phone 7 devices, which are due out this holiday season. This has been announced months ago but now we're getting a closer look at what it all looks like.

I got a chance to play with Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7 and it looks like a very polished experience, befitting the work Microsoft has already done on its Xbox 360 console. Microsoft is also announcing some 60 titles now as part of a first wave of games that will launch with Windows Phone 7.

Xbox Live, for the uninitiated, is the online service for the Xbox 360 and Windows PC games, providing achievements, gamer scores, game downloads, avatars and head-to-head multiplayer gaming.

The Windows Phone 7 experience brings much of the same features to the mobile phone and integrates it all together. You get an avatar that you can dress up and outfit with props. You can see your gamer score and achievements from individual games, on the Xbox 360, PC or on the phone. You can message friends online and see what they're up to. There will also be multi-player options for playing against other Windows Phone 7 users or you can play turn-based asynchronous games with PC players.

The real key here is that this is all incorporated into the larger Xbox Live experience. So the changes you make to your avatar travel between your Xbox 360 experience and your phone and vice versa. The points you win on a Windows Phone 7 game, (you can earn up to 200 points) will be reflected in your overall gamer score.

But the platform won't be very appealing without good games and Microsoft thinks its got a compelling mix of Microsoft exclusives, unique titles and familiar games pulled from other platforms. Microsoft also announced it's building its own first-party studio dedicated to Windows Phone 7 games.

There's a new Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst title that builds a tower defense game atop actual Bing satellite maps, so you can defend real locations. There will also be a Halo: Waypoint game as well along with an impressive looking action RPG title called The Harvest.

There's also more casual fare like IloMilo, a simple puzzle game as well as RocketRiot, a side-scroller. And of course, there will also be familiar games like Uno and a new version of Bejeweled. Microsoft is also requiring that all games have a trial mode, so you can try before you buy.

Overall, the games looked good and seemed to play well in my short time with them. The Harvest, in particular, looked amazing though I didn't see much of the game. I'm not sure it's beyond anything you can create on the iPhone but Microsoft's senior director of PC and mobile gaming Kevin Unangst said the company's focus and experience on gaming, as well as its integrated Xbox Live support, should help gaming become a key selling point for Windows Phone 7.

"The Xbox Live experience is a unique differentiator for the phone," Unangst said. "We get games, we've invested in games and we think it's a key reason people will choose a Windows phone."

He said Microsoft will not only be making its own games but will be working hard to lure developers, said Unangst, and working with them to optimize their titles for Windows Phone 7 devices. Make no mistake, this is Microsoft's portable gaming platform.

New technology: Is Best Buy Making its Own Tablet?

Best Buy's chief technology officer Robert Stephens recently posted photos of a prototype tablet on his Twitter feed, fueling speculation that Best Buy is creating its own in-house branded tablet computer.           Best Buy has been making re-branded products with the Rocketfish label for a while now, but seeing as how Best Buy is the only major U.S. retailer (besides Apple Stores) with a contract to sell the iPad, is it shooting itself in the foot? And can the relatively unknown Rocketfish brand produce a decent alternative to the slew of soon-to-be-released tablets?

The photos Stephen posted are the only information available about the potential Best Buy tablet. The photos are only form factor representations without guts inside, according to Stephens. He did hint at the possibility of using Android as an OS when he tweeted "the question is: Is 2.2 ready for the tablet interface?" -- a likely reference to Android 2.2, or Froyo.

The New York Times points out the Best Buy tablet's physical similarities to the Hewlett-Packard Slate -- a tablet that was heavily hyped by Microsoft in January, but then quietly disappeared, with all indications that HP plans to use its newly-acquired Palm WebOS instead of Windows 7.

Rocketfish is known (but not well known) for manufacturing rebranded products, such as AV cables, computer parts, and GPS chargers. These products get disappointing reviews that hover around the 2.5 or 3 stars mark (out of 5 stars) on Best Buy's own Web site. While Rocketfish products are nothing more than cheaper alternatives to name brand accessories, their apparent subpar quality doesn't paint a promising picture for a more complicated product, such as a tablet.

Other in-house brands sold by Best Buy are Geek Squad, Insignia, Init, and Dynex. Best Buy has been pushing its in-house branded items lately, as the competition to sell cheap alternatives to name brand devices heats up. Investopedia notes: "In focusing on its house brands, Best Buy seems to want to accomplish what Sears Holding has done in developing a strong customer brand loyalty through Sears brands such as the Kenmore appliances and Craftsman. Best Buy is competing with Wal-Mart and Amazon by developing better quality products using customer feedback and analyzing consumers' needs and wants."

What do you think? Can Rocketfish make its mark on the tablet market? Will the Best Buy tablet suffer the same fate as the JooJoo tablet, which had a lot of hype, horrible reviews, and really embarrassing sales (only 90 pre-orders ... and 15 returns)? Will Best Buy's continued sales of the iPad seriously hurt its own tablet's chances?

New Tehnology: Saudi accord to prevent ban on Blackberry 'in sight'

Saudi Arabia was to ban the phone on Friday because it operates an encrypted message service that cannot be monitored. Officials said a deal was likely whereby the authorities would have access to decipher exchanged messages. Several other countries have expressed security concerns over the Blackberry system.

Encrypted data
An official with one of Saudi Arabia's three licensed mobile operators told AFP news agency: "A deal has been virtually reached and we are in the process of adding the final touches."

It is believed a special server for the messenger system will be set up in the country as part of the deal.
One Saudi official told the Associated Press news agency that tests were under way to see how such a server would work.

Blackberry's encrypted data is stored in Canada, the home country of manufacturer RIM, out of reach of third party monitoring. Saudi Arabia had said this meant it did "not meet the regulatory criteria of the commission and the licensing conditions".

Blackberry has about 700,000 subscribers in Saudi Arabia. Services were reported to have stopped working for four hours on Friday but then resumed. An agreement could help overcome concerns expressed in other countries such as India and the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE has said it will ban Blackberry e-mail, messaging and Web browsing in October.

Latest Tecnology: Verizon, Google propose Web traffic rules

An employee rides her bike past a logo next to the main entrance of the Google building in Zurich, July 9, 2009.

(Reuters) - Verizon and Google said on Monday that regulators should be able to police Web traffic over cable and telephone lines, but carriers should control the speed of access to content on wireless devices.
The joint announcement marks a surprising industry compromise over so-called "net neutrality" -- a term that means high-speed Internet providers should not block or slow information or charge websites to pay for a fast lane to reach users more quickly. But it is unclear if the giant companies can get lawmakers or regulators to move forward with their proposal.

But analysts said the Federal Communications Commission is unlikely to cheer for a proposal that would only apply to a slice of Internet channels.

The FCC has been trying for about a year to craft rules for how Internet traffic should be managed on telephone, cable and wireless devices. That effort was thrown into disarray in April when a court ruled the FCC overstepped its bounds by sanctioning Comcast Corp for blocking bandwidth-hogging online applications.

The proposal by the telecommunications and Internet giants on Monday came after the FCC failed to broker an agreement on net neutrality among broadband providers and Web companies.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast said the compromise would not be enough to avert a potential move by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to reclassify broadband into a stricter regulatory regime -- one that would allow it to police Internet traffic.

"He is looking for greater network neutrality safety safeguards and a broader agreement among parties," Arbogast said.

Failure to agree on rules for wireless devices -- which has broad implications for Silicon Valley, media companies and others trying to determine their next investments -- is one of the major reasons the talks at the FCC failed.

Handheld devices is a lucrative business for companies expecting growth in wireless broadband Internet services as more people use Blackberries and other smartphones.
Public interest groups lashed out at the proposal, calling it another failure to protect wireless Internet users.
"That alone makes this arrangement a nonstarter," said Andy Schwartzman, head of the Media Access Project.

At the meetings, the hope among FCC officials and the companies was that, if they could solve the net neutrality conundrum, the FCC would drop a broadband reclassification proposal.
But the meetings were suspended after reports of the side deal between Verizon Communications Inc and Google Inc, who came up with their own proposal after previously being on opposite sides of the debate.
A spokeswoman for the FCC, which is trying to determine if net neutrality rules should apply to both "land lines" and wireless devices, declined to comment.

LEAVING OPTIONS OPEN
The Google and Verizon chief executives said on a call with reporters that the proposal does not represent a business arrangement and there are no plans to provide Verizon consumers with a dedicated pipeline to watch YouTube videos and other Google products.

"As far as we're concerned, there would be no paid prioritization of any traffic over the Internet," said Verizon Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg.

But while the companies said the proposal does not allow for paid prioritization on the public Internet, carriers should be able to make private arrangements with service and application providers to let them offer differentiated services outside of the public Internet.

"Examples of this could be very highly sophisticated healthcare monitoring services, or smart grid services or super advanced educational type things, or even entertainment services," Seidenberg said.
AT&T Inc said it is not party to this proposal, but did not outright oppose the proposal.
"The Verizon-Google agreement demonstrates that it is possible to bridge differences on this issue," said AT&T spokeswoman Claudia Jones.

Seidenberg and Google CEO Eric Schmidt said regulators should police Internet service providers to ensure they do not block or slow Internet traffic on phone lines.

Telephone companies previously suggested that another agency with competition and consumer protection missions such as the Federal Trade Commission might be better suited to regulate broadband.
Google and Verizon said the FCC should have full enforcement authority over the rules, including the ability to impose up to $2 million fines on companies that violate the proposed rules.

However, it would not let the FCC go beyond the net neutrality rules written in potential legislation.
"This deal proposes to keep the FCC from making rules at all," said Joel Kelsey, political adviser at Free Press, another public interest group.

(Reporting by John Poirier and Sinead Carew; editing by Andre Grenon and Robert MacMillan)