Author Archives: Jonas Review Editor

First there was regular phone service. Then there was cellular phone service. The latest buzz has been about VOIP (voice over internet protocol). By routing phone calls through a broadband internet connection, there can be real cost savings. This has been gaining momentum, and starting to become prevalent with such bonuses as one monthly payment for unlimited phone calls including long distance. In short, this has been a revolution in telecommunications!

Never to rest on their laurels, the next act planned is for VOIP broadband phone calls across wireless internet connections. Now, anywhere there is an open wireless network, with a handheld wifi phone, you can sit all day and talk. I could see this type of device as really useful for folks that like to talk at Starbucks all day, and for travelers at airports and hotels where wifi networks are commonplace. Perhaps, for urban dwellers with city wide wifi networks (like those being assembled in San Francisco and Philadelphia), this may one day become the phone of choice for many users.

Growing up is sometimes a painful prospect. Getting hazed at school is a fact of life for generations, and probably generations to come. Unfortunately, the latest is cyberbullying, and this definitely goes too far. This involves criminal activity, including hacking into a school’s server, and posting “mean spirited images” and racial epithets.

San Francisco school officials are trying to figure out who hacked into a high school Web site, posted a student’s face over vulgar and mocking images, then added racist and gang-related captions using the student’s name.

Normally, the Washington High Web site features the usual school fare: club news, athletic schedules, student triumphs and information for parents.

But on Wednesday, school officials realized that someone had replaced all the school information with a set of photo montages apparently intended to humiliate a single student.

A fear years back, the internet was the scariest thing to the “big three” television networks. After all, file trading was about to ruin the music industry as fast as you coud download Napster. Except that Napster didn’t, and iTunes now is making a bundle. Earlier this week, NBC News announced the bright move (and reported on this web site) to allow their evening news cast to be seen in its entirety on its web site. I personally can’t wait because I often miss the news, and would definitely take the opportunity to see it over the internet later. The other networks are not standing by though.

ABC has episodes of “Lost” available for download from the iTunes store, and ready for the new Video iPod. I suspect that a fair chunk of the videos downloaded so far were this content. I like the show, but some folks are downright obssessed.

Now the latest is that CBS is offering episodes of their show “Threshold” for download off their website. This is kind of a surprising move, but then again, don’t they give it away when its broadcasted anyway?

I see this as timid steps in a brave new distribution model. Let’s hope this is profitable for them, because its great for folks. Maybe one day I can dump my VCR and just catch up on my shows via the internet!

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I’m still having a little trouble swallowing this one. When Apple announced the Video iPod I was a little skeptical. After all, most “iPodders” use their units while exercising, or in the car. Neither needs video, and are definitely more suitable to an audio experience. Most users didn’t really use the photo features of the last generation. And who really wants to watch a 2 inch screen for longer than a few minutes? Finally, Jobs had said in the past that the iPod was really not suited for video in the end.

Well, there are a million reasons why the Video iPod is succeeding. Apparently, there have already been 1 million videos downloaded from the iTunes site! I’m still trying to figure out how many of the players that Apple could have sold in less than a month to have that many videos downloaded, but this sounds like a very hot product, and THE Christmas toy for this year. This also proves that you can’t always guess what’s going to catch on.

You can read the original press release here.

I’ve seen the future of internet mapping technology, and the word is WOW! We all started with Microsoft’s Streets & Maps on CD, and it was incredibly useful. The internet brought us Mapquest, and Yahoo Maps, and now it was always up to date with links to everything around a spot. I started playing with the Google Earth software a few weeks ago. The satellite images with street map overlays provide detail that make me feel like I work at the CIA with a satellite at my disposal.

Today, I found out about A9 which is in beta. Their database is limited to only a few cities currently. They combined MapQuest maps, with 360 degree pics down the street. Want to know what you’ll see at an intersection? Just scroll around. to get any more detail, you’ll need to actually go there.