Monday, April 07, 2008 4:41 PM/EST
 As someone who mainly goes to technology conferences focused on traditional software and hardware, I found going to the recent CTIA show was a good reminder of how different the mobile world is from the PC and server world, especially when it comes to applications.
For example, say I go to a traditional PC software show, such as LinuxWorld or Macworld. At the conference, I meet with some application vendors. They show me their cool new product and then they say, "Try it out," handing me a disk or USB drive or giving me a URL from which I can download their app. The whole time I have full confidence that their application will run on my systems and software.
Now compare this with some of the meetings I had with mobile application vendors at CTIA. At the show, I met with some vendors who had some very interesting applications. But if I wanted to try them out myself I was out of luck.
Because instead of just saying, "Here you go, it runs on Linux or Mac OSX, have fun testing it," the mobile application vendor says, "Well, to start off our application will only be available on these two carriers, and it will only be offered on new phones and the only way to get it from these initial carriers will be within a special business application package that they are putting together."
So instead of being able to test or use the vendor's application, I, and most potential users and customers of the application, find that the odds are we will never be able to use that specific application.
Monday, March 17, 2008 2:59 PM/EST
Click to see the slide show
When you cover and analyze emerging technologies, it's easy to get caught up in the excitement and the promise of these new technologies. And it's even easier to look at these technologies only from a positive angle.
And what's not to like? After all, most emerging technologies were designed from the ground up to bring about positive ends. Their creators want to improve people's lives, boost productivity, cure disease, provide security and bring about new waves of technology where anything is possible.
But almost any new technology that has a positive side also has a negative and more dangerous side. Technologies that can cure disease can also cause disease. Products that provide convenience imperil safety and privacy. Tools that ensure security also help secure criminals from law enforcement.
Such is the nature of innovation. But some new technologies are more dangerous than others. With that in mind, here is my list of the 10 most dangerous new technologies either available today or being worked on for the near future. Please comment below and let me know what technologies would make your list.
And, oh yeah, I decided to limit this list specifically to computing technologies, so that's why there aren't any biotech or genetics entries.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 11:41 AM/EST
Here are the emerging technologies stories for the week of February 11th.
More Android Sightings - At the World Mobile Congress in one of my favorite cities, Barcelona, there have been several interesting demos of the Google-based Android mobile operating system.
Speeding up Secure Connections - Interesting white paper on research into improving the performance of SSH and SCP connections.
Integrating Identity Management - Expect to see more integration between products in the Identity Access Management market.
The Holy Grail of Nanotech - Researchers at the Brookhaven National Lab have created a three dimensional nanoparticle, a key step in the advancement of nanotechnologies.
More Terabytes Please - IBM is announcing plans to deliver terabyte drives for their data center systems.
Canon Keeps an Eye on Watermarking - Canon has filed for a patent on a technology that takes an image of the photographers retina when taking a picture and then using this image as an embedded watermark to help protect photograph copyrights.
Thursday, February 07, 2008 3:53 PM/EST
Click the image to see the slideshow
In the world of technology, hype is like the sun. A little bit of hype can be a good thing, especially for emerging technologies, by bringing attention and light to unknown technologies and products and helping them grow. But like the sun too much hype can be a bad thing, crushing bad products unworthy of hype and even making good technologies seem less worthy or even appear to be failures.
When this happens technologies become overhyped, and this new century has seen more than its fair share of products, technologies, and technology trends that received way more adulation and praise then they deserved. And many of these technologies aren't failures or flops, but instead received so much hype that it was impossible for them to ever live up to early expectations.
With that in mind I present you with this list of the ten most overhyped products, technologies and technology trends of the century. And don't forget to comment here and let me know what would make your list of overhyped technologies.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008 1:34 PM/EST
Here are the emerging technology stories for the week of February 4th.
The State of the FCC Spectrum Auction - Here's an update on the wireless airwave auction that the FCC is carrying out right now. This thing can't end soon enough for me.
Body Powered Chips - Very interesting article about MIT research into low voltage chips that could be powered by human body heat.
IPv6 Finally Making Some Headway - Looks like about half of the root DNS servers of the Internet have finally been updated to work with IPv6 addresses. Maybe I will see widespread IPv6 adoption someday.
Converting Voice Mail to Text - Several companies are working on ways to convert voice mails into text messages that can be sent to email or text services. Great, convert something I get too many of into something that I get WAY to many of.
One Computer to Run the Internet - Research at IBM is focused on building a computer system that could theoretically run the entire Internet. That's cool but how well does it run Bioshock?
Thursday, January 31, 2008 3:48 PM/EST
 Another broad and obvious patent rears its ugly head, with every major new smartphone, including the Apple iPhone, facing lawsuits from the patent holding company.
In recent months there has been a lot of talk about patent reform. And on top of that last year saw a major Supreme Court decision that clearly should make it much harder to get and hold patents based on ideas that were clearly obvious to practitioners in the given technology field.
But so far it looks as if all this talk about reform and improvements in the patent system has been just that, talk.
That's because when it comes to stupid, damaging and overly-broad patents getting awarded by the U.S. Patent Office, recent evidence shows that it is still business as usual.
And in the last couple of weeks the Patent Office has outdone itself by granting a whopper of an overly broad and obvious patent. In terms of potential damage to technology markets, this one looks nearly as bad as the mid-1990's British Telecom patent claim to hyper-linking.
The company awarded this patent is called Minerva Industries. They are a company that appears to not make anything other than patent lawsuits (the type of company that is often described using a term referring to a mythical monster that lives under bridges) and that holds patents on everything from cell phones to car seat belts.
But cell phones are the key area in the recent patent that Minerva received. And their patent claim is a doozy.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 1:13 PM/EST
Speech recognition technology has made advances in the past few years, but has that growth been enough to call it a success?
Early last year I launched the eWEEK Emerging Technology site with a list of 10 emerging technologies that flopped. While the list included some technologies that no one argued with--hi there Microsoft Bob and the cueCat--there were some choices that elicited more than a few protests.
One in particular that drew more than a few cries of foul was speech recognition. Several readers pointed out the importance of speech recognition to people with disabilities, and I received several invitations from speech recognition software leader Nuance to take a fresh look at the current state of speech recognition.
That is exactly what I've done, and I have to say that I am impressed in many ways with the current state of speech recognition technology. However, I don't know if I'm impressed enough to change my perception of it as a technology that hasn't lived up to its promises--a flop, if you will.
On the plus side, speech recognition is seeing a boom in hype and high profile implementations that hasn't been seen since the hey-days of the late 1990s. Leading the charge are the omnipresent commercials and ads touting the Microsoft Sync feature found in some cars, which makes it possible to control music and other car features with simple voice commands (what the ads don't say is that the underlying technology for Sync comes from Nuance).
Wednesday, January 09, 2008 1:49 PM/EST
Here are the emerging technology stories for the week of January 7th.
Presentations Everywhere - One upping last week's news about an iPod sized projector, 3M is demoing an LED projector that fits inside of mobile phones.
We're All Backseat Drivers - Lots of people have been reporting on the driverless cars being demoed at CES and there have been lots of bold predictions about driverless cars.
Springtime for WiMax - Sprint is announcing that their long discussed WiMax network will be available to customers in April.
CES In Person - There has been lots of news from the Consumer Electronics Show this week and one of the best sources has been my colleague, eWEEK Labs Senior Analyst Andrew Garcia, who has been blogging daily from the show (and posting lots of cool pictures).
Friday, November 30, 2007 3:15 PM/EST
Click the image to see the list
When a product or technology is still emerging, it can be tough to call it a flop. In many cases these technologies are still trying to find their sweet spot when it comes to capabilities and usage scenarios.
But while it may be too early to refer to some technologies as flops, it isn't too early to be disappointed by the failures of some originally promising technologies. (illustrations by Brian Moore)
The past year has seen quite a few exciting new technologies that failed to deliver or actually took steps backwards in their progress. In some cases this was because of overblown promises, in some because of technical limitations and some failures were due to politics and aggressive competition.
However, all of these technologies can take solace in the fact that history has shown many cases where a technology that initially disappointed eventually became a major success.
Click here to see our list of The Biggest Emerging Technology Disappointments of 2007.
Friday, November 16, 2007 4:42 PM/EST
Cheap and easy phone calls sent over the Internet. That has long been the promise of VOIP services, especially on the consumer side.
For some this has meant ditching their traditional telephone company and replacing it with VOIP services such as Vonage or the Ooma system that I recently reviewed. These services can provide solid phone service and considerable cost savings in the home but haven't been that portable for users who want to use VOIP anywhere.
Software-based services like Skype and the Gizmo Project provide great portability, letting users make cheap or free calls wherever a computer and a fast Internet connection exists, but they rely on software and headphones and microphones instead of using traditional phone handsets.
Hoping to fill the void between these two types of VOIP offerings is the MagicJack, a small USB dongle device that makes it possible to plug any phone into a computer and make calls over the Internet. The MagicJack device costs $39.95, which includes a phone number and a year of service (which includes unlimited calls in North America). Additional years of service can be purchased for $19.95.
When I first received the MagicJack I was intrigued by it. Even at $39.95 for a year it is still cheaper than most competing options. And if one is traveling internationally, calls made back to the United States are still free. Combined with the small USB form factor, the MagicJack seemed like a perfect solution for road warriors who may not want to rely solely on their cell phone for long trips.
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