Malaysian eBay

eBay, the world’s biggest and most popular online marketplace, has finally reached Malaysian shores with the planned launch of its localised website on Dec 2

2,000 TMNet Hotspots by end of 2005

TM Net Sdn Bhd plans to expand its wireless network service or hotspot to 2,000 locations by the end of 2005. The company has also agreed to introduce Celcom WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) service to its customers.

The WiFi service enables computer and personal digital assistant (PDA) users to surf the net, send and receive e-mails and enjoy other benefits without wire connections at hotspot locations.

Mesh May Save the Wireless Bands

Guy Kewney reckons that with mesh networking, you can win the battle for bandwidth:

'The problem is that the standard Wi-Fi network has only three non-overlapping channels. If four access points using 802.11b or 802.11g are set up, two of them will be on the same channel, and reception suffers'

Are Our Handphones the Key?

Today almost everybody, including schoolchildren, carries a mobile phone. In fact, mobile phone users in Malaysia have reached the five million mark, surpassing fixed-line users at 4.6 million.

Mobile phones have not just become a must-have item due to their affordable price, but also due to their extensive features such as short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), built-in digital camera, games, Internet browser, MP3 player, and mini personal digital assistant (PDA).

Personally, besides making and receiving calls, the only other function I use on my Nokia 8910i is SMS. With broadband and Skype at home and at the office, I am finding it harder and harder to justify dialing out. In other words, my "handphone" (mobile phone in Malaysian speak) is more for receiving calls which have been increasingly replaced with SMSes of late!

Wi-Fi phone, ala Motorola's CN620, perhaps..

All hail the iPhone!

Link

Taipei's Mobile City Project

Taipei City's 'M-City' (Mobile City) project has selected a Wireless Mesh Network solution from Nortel to provide high-speed wireless local area network (LAN) broadband access and new wireless services in mass rapid transportation stations, selected commercial buildings and other key locations across the city.

Motorola Snaps Up MeshNetworks

In a move aimed at boosting its broadband networking, cellular giant Motorola announced that it is purchasing MeshNetworks. Although terms of the sale were not disclosed, the two companies see benefits in the union.

The purchase of MeshNetworks provides Motorola customers "a broader solutions portfolio to build scalable broadband wireless networks capable of delivering next generation content including data, voice, location and voice over IP (VoIP) services," according to Motorola.

SIMO TCI

The 'connected planet' on view this week at Madrid's International Exhibition of Information Technology and Communications (SIMO TCI) showing how to connect almost anything to anything in a regular home environment largely showcases a Dutch company's audiovisual hardware.

However, aside from the 'transparent home,' Asian firms were everywhere at the exhibition which was bursting at the seams Friday with some 80,000 people set to attend over six days before it closed its doors Sunday.

The convergence buzz word even extends beyond human beings to animals, as Leon Lin, regional sales manager for Taiwanese Global Satellite Positioning company San Jose Navigation Inc., told AFP.

As crowds moved almost trance-like towards a dazzling array of plasma television screens and minute hard drive MP3 players Lin waxed lyrical over something far more minuscule, a GPS micro-tracker, yours for in the region of 500 dollars:

"You can use it to keep track of your pets - but I don't think that's going to be its main function. You phone it and get a message back telling you its latitude-longitude position.

People can put one of these under the dashboard of their car and if the vehicle is stolen, you immediately know where it is. You can use it for children's security so you know where they are."

Lin says admitting the next step is how to produce a combined GPS tracker cum mobile phone cum music machine a la fourth generation I-Pod.

Maxis LAN Wireless LAN roaming

Maxis Communications Bhd has introduced a first in wireless local area network (LAN) roaming capabilities by allowing customers to roam using their home operator ID's and password.

This follows the inking of a commercial roaming agreements with Japan's NTT Communications, Singapore's StarHub, T-Mobile USA, Italy's Telecom Italia and Australia's Telstra through the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).

Speed upgrade for Streamyx

The best news I've read for some time..

ICT Fair at Wisma Saberkas from November 5

KUCHING – Wisma Saberkas Management Corporation is organising a fair to showcase the latest range of computers and IT gadgets, LCD projectors, alarm systems, digital cameras and other related equipment at their complex from November 5 -7 from 10.00am to 9.00pm daily at both the Lower Ground Floor and Upper Ground Floor in Wisma Saberkas.

Smart Mobs: Michael Powell on rural wirelessness

Smart Mobs: Michael Powell on rural wirelessness: "Self-empowerment – that’s the idea I most associate with our unlicensed rules – and an idea that’s so much a part of the fabric of the American way. Low equipment costs, free access to spectrum, and regulatory flexibility empower anyone who wants to provide broadband services. It’s the “democratization of communications”. We help to give you the tools and provide the freedom to build, and observe, with delight, the results."