Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL in merger talks?

Engadet think that Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL are in merger talks.

This is the only report at the moment, but it would make sense. It is also one of the few mergers (or basically acquisitions) that are possible now that T-Mobile US have ruled themselves out of buying up the smaller operators.

Migrating from Visual SourceSafe to Team Foundation

Just spent some time migrating Visual SourceSafe to Visual Studio Team Foundation. I found these Akash Maheshwari articles indispensable:

Walkthrough: Preparing to Migrate from Visual SourceSafe to Team Foundation

Walkthrough: Migrating from Visual SourceSafe to Team Foundation

T-Mobile US plan 3G in 2007

T-Mobile US have not yet commited to purchasing any US 3G spectrum, but plan to rollout such a network in 2007 (see Reuters.com).

Newsbreak

Newsbreak RSS feed reader for smartphones such as the Orange SPV C500. Pocket PC versions are also available at the same link.

GSM Goes Wild

3G and WiMAX attract the most attention, but it is GSM that is driving industry growth according to a recent report. See also GSM Goes Wild. “During 2004 alone, Ericsson shipped GSM transceivers corresponding to 40 percent of the total volume delivered since the introduction of GSM. 2005 is expected to present yet another record.”



The GSM customer base throughout the Americas region has more than doubled from 65.9 million in Q1 2004 to more than 136.3 million as of Q1 2005.



During the first three months of 2005, there were 87.74 million new customers globally. GSM accounted for 79.93 million or 91% of these new subscribers.



In the North American region, the main growth in terms of number of net additions during Q1 2005 has been in GSM, with nearly 7 million subscribers. The 7 million net additions during this quarter were 30% higher than the same period in 2004 whereas the number of CDMA additions fell slightly.

For more information, see http://www.3gamericas.org/English/Statistics/

According to Ericsson, new mobile subscription growth between 2005 and 2010 breaks down as follows:



The number of new GSM sites being rolled out is staggereing. The high installation and opex (operating expenditure) inhibit deployment of both 2G and 3G systems, directly affecting operating profits (See Unstrung Insider report, Open Base Station Bonanza). Here is a cost breakdown from a PowerWave analysis for April 2005 with the total deployment cost per base station around $100,000.

A Hitchhiker's Guide to Avalon Beta 1 RC

Tim Sneath : A Hitchhiker's Guide to Avalon Beta 1 RC

Jobs On Suing Bloggers

Wired co-founder John Battelle's blog has an entry Jobs On Suing Bloggers. Jobs is quoted as being prepared to take this "unqualified journalist" issue to the Supreme Court if necessary. Very odd, and very difficult to uphold in a court of law, I would have thought. I've yet to come across a single respected "qualified journalist" that has anything positive to say about Apple's weird posturing.

Jobs is also quoted saying the reason he pulled all of Wiley's publications from Apple stores is because "I didn't want to do business with them". Which doesn't tell us much and is odd since Wiley has some of the highest selling Mac related books on the market. It is also counter-productive since iCon is one of the biggest selling computer-related books this year.

Microsoft Virtual Earth

Virtual Earth is Microsoft's answer to Google Maps. For more information see Chandu Thota's WebLog.

Update: Here's a Channel 9 video.

Apple to use Intel chips?

Apple said to explore use of Intel chips for Macs.

UK WiMAX trials to start June

Broadband wireless is coming to the UK soon: see ISP Review. Telabria will deliver a symmetric 45 Mbps service over a 15 mile radius.

The main purpose of this trial is to test radio propagation, QoS, network capacity etc.

TomTom MOBILE 5 released

This'll turn your Orange SPV C500 into a GPS navigator. See TomTom MOBILE 5 for more information. The GPS receiver is relatively small and connects via Bluetooth.

Wow

Look at this:



Is that not really cool? The 40" OLED WXGA screen also looks okay. It is 1" thick, by the way. See here for more information.

"Avalon", "Indigo" Beta 1 Release Candidate

Download here.

TiddlyWiki

There are loads of good Wiki frameworks out there including FlexWiki, JSPWiki, MediaWiki, TikiWiki and so on. However, I thought this one is pretty cool: TiddlyWiki. It's ultra lightweight (just a simple HTML page). It's written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript to run on any modern browser without needing any server side logic. If only someone would come up with a set of names that didn't sound so silly... TiddlyWiki indeed!

Newsgator Media Center Edition

There's a Media Center Edition of NewsGator. It does lots of cool things. For example, if an item in a feed features video content, by clicking the Play Video" button, the video clip will play in the standard "minimised" window. One more click and it starts playing full screen. Apparently this has been around for some time and I've somehow missed it. Anyway, here's a download and more information can be found here. All you need is your standard Newsgator Online password. It'll handle all the synchronization with the Outlook or Mobile editions.

Mac OS X 10.4.1 Update released

Mac OS X 10.4.1 Update

MSN Search Toolbar

MSN Toolbar Suite is released. See Search and browse smarter with MSN Search Toolbar, now with Windows Desktop Search.

The official add-in site is here and a developer guide is here.

Images

Here's a list of sites containing some amazing high-quality images:

Caedes

Edenpics

stock.xchng

Terra Galleria

Quake for SPV C500

spvQuake

Visual Studio 2005 Team System Editions Pricing

Visual Studio 2005 Team System Editions Pricing

Windows Mobile 5.0

Windows Mobile 5.0 - what is new? - detailed list of changes and improvements (see also Microsoft).

1GB miniSD card

Computer Webstore list the 1GB miniSD card for £62. miniSD can be used with Orange SPV C500 phone. See SanDisk Mini Secure Digital 1GB Card With Adapter.

Beginning Mac Development

A good article on Mac development is here: Beginning Mac Development.

Hack Windows Media Center for 4 TV Tuners

See Hack Windows Media Center for 4 TV Tuners on Engadget (direct link here).

A History of the GUI

A History of the GUI

Sprint and Intel to work on WiMAX

Sprint (and eventually Nextel) and Intel are to work together on implementing the IEEE 802.16e WiMAX standard. See Sprint and Intel to Explore WiMAX Broadband Technologies. This has been expected for some time since Sprint Nextel own the unused 2.5 GHz band. This should offer a more effective development than current 3G offerings (see WiMAX and 3G technology comparison).

Google Web Accelerator

Google Web Accelerator. More info here.

Avalon Playing Cards

Adam Nathan has created a set of XAML Playing Cards.

CoolCommands for Visual Studio 2005 beta 2

Gaston Milano has upded his CoolCommands to support Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2. Collapse All Projects and Open Project Folder are essential.

The download is here here.