Bluetooth Takes a Step in Speed With v3.0 Announced

From its annual All Hands Meeting in Tokyo this week, the Bluetooth SIG formally adopted Bluetooth Core Specification Version 3.0 High Speed (HS), or Bluetooth 3.0. This latest iteration of the popular short-range wireless technology fulfills the consumers’ need for speed while providing the same wireless Bluetooth experience – only faster. Manufacturers of consumer electronics and home entertainment devices can now build their products to send large amounts of video, music and photos between devices wirelessly at higher speeds.

Bluetooth 3.0 gets its speed from the 802.11 radio protocol. The inclusion of the 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) provides increased throughput of data transfers at the approximate rate of 24 Mbps. In addition, mobile devices including Bluetooth 3.0 will realize increased power savings due to enhanced power control built in.
"Like Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, this latest version was ‘born to go fast,’ said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG." Utilizing the 802.11 radio was a natural choice as it provides efficiencies for both our members and consumers – members get more function out of the two radios they are already including in devices, and consumers with Bluetooth v3.0 HS products will get faster exchange of information without changing how they connect. We are excited to expand the possibilities of the PAN.”

This newest version of Bluetooth technology builds on the inherent qualities of the current 2.1 EDR version, including Simple Secure Pairing and built-in, automatic security. And as with all versions of the Bluetooth specification, Bluetooth 3.0 HS provides developers, manufacturers and consumers with the benefit of backwards compatibility, enabling both the expansion and enhancement of this technology with every new specification release. Once products reach the market, the easiest way for consumers to learn which devices are compatible with other Bluetooth enabled devices is to visit the Bluetooth Gadget Guide.
Some applications consumers will experience include:

• Wirelessly bulk synchronize music libraries between PC and music player or phone
• Bulk download photos to a printer or PC
• end video files from camera or phone to computer or television

The Bluetooth SIG’s formal adoption of the specification is only the first step in the product lifecycle. News out today from wireless chip manufacturers and Bluetooth SIG member companies Atheros, Broadcom, CSR, and Marvell shows the second step – getting silicon solutions to device manufacturers – is already underway. End products for consumers are expected to be in the market in 9 to 12 months.
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Adobe, Facebook Tie up to Create Flash Developer Tools

Adobe and Facebook have announced a joint effort to enable Web developers to create more compelling applications using the Adobe Flash Platform and Facebook Platform.Officially supported by Adobe and Facebook, the new ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform is a free and open source programming language library that is expected to be a complete resource supporting all Facebook application programming interfaces (APIs) including Facebook Connect.
Documentation, example applications and code are now available for developers to start building rich applications with Adobe Flash and Flex software and Facebook Platform.
Ethan Beard, director of platform marketing, Facebook, said, "Our vision is to empower the world’s developers to make the Web more social with Facebook Platform and through Facebook Connect. With our official support of the ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform, our innovative community of developers can more easily use the Adobe Flash Platform to create the next generation of applications that will allow users to engage with the people they care about in even more expressive ways."
"Combining social functionality with the Adobe Flash Platform gives the millions of Flash developers the tools to create Web experiences that are truly differentiated," said Bryant Macy, director of product marketing for the Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "Flash developers are already creating great applications for Facebook, and the new ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform will accelerate the pace of social innovation on the Web."
Many developers already use Adobe Flash software, including the open source Flex framework, to build applications on Facebook, or use Facebook Connect. The new ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform affirms that applications created with the Adobe Flash Platform will continue to be an integral part of the Facebook ecosystem.
The new ActionScript 3.0 library for Facebook includes support for 60 new APIs, which are consistent with current Facebook Platform APIs to ensure seamless implementation. It is the object-oriented programming language for Adobe Flash technology, which is ideally suited for developing rich Internet applications (RIAs). It joins JavaScript and PHP as officially supported client libraries for Facebook Platform.
The ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform is available immediately as a free download along with developer documentation and tutorials at http://www.adobe.com/go/facebook.

Skype Announces Service for iPhone, BlackBerry

Skype, the Internet telephone unit of eBay Inc, is planning to launch its service for iPhone users on Tuesday and for BlackBerry in May as part of its effort to expand beyond desktop computers.
Skype has been pushing to make its service work on the most popular advanced phones with an aim to expending its more than 400 million users who were mostly lured by the promise of cheap and sometimes free calls made using its computer application. Skype Chief Operating Officer Scott Durchslag said he has high hopes for the application’s success on Apple Inc’s popular iPhone as he expects Skype’s most feature-rich mobile offering to appeal to new and existing customers. "The No. 1 request we get from customers is to make Skype available on iPhone. There’s a pent-up demand," Durchslag said in an interview before the CTIA annual mobile showcase in Las Vegas, where Skype plans to launch the service on Tuesday.
In May it will launch Skype for Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices, which popularized mobile email. It has already announced Skype for Nokia phones and for phones based on Android, Google Inc’s mobile system, and Windows Mobile, from Microsoft Corp.
CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood said the new applications give Skype a chance to boost its mobile phone position, which has been weaker than that of social sites such as Facebook, Twitter or News Corp’s MySpace. One of Skype’s unusual iPhone features is the fact that it allows subscribers use to the phone numbers in their existing iPhone address book so they do not need duplicate lists. "Whether you’re Twitter, MySpace or Facebook you want to be embedded in the address book," said Wood. "This puts Skype firmly into the game." Skype’s iPhone application will be free to download and will allow free calls between Skype users.
As with Skype on the desktop, fees will be charged for calls to traditional phones. The service will also work on later versions of Apple’s latest iPod Touch device, which has Wi-Fi links but no cellular connection. The iPod Touch launched September 2008 has a microphone, unlike the first iPod Touch launched in 2007. While Skype video is very popular with desktop customers, Durchslag said that the company is still considering whether it will offer video for the iPhone or other phones. "We’re considering video carefully but we have a really high bar on the quality," and how the user interaction will work with other applications on iPhone, he said. "If we do it we will have to do it incredibly well." CCS’s Wood said that if Skype can replicate the popularity of its desktop video feature on the cellphone it would help a mobile category that has been slow to take off, as well as boost its own status in cellphones. "I’m firmly convinced that if Skype could find a way to bridge all those cellphone cameras and laptop cameras it might kick start a video telephony opportunity," he said.
While mobile Skype has has been available for some time in other countries such as the United Kingdom, it has been slow to catch on in the United States partly due to carrier concern that it would cannibalize their phone call revenue. In the United States for example, AT&T Inc has had a monopoly on calls made from iPhones, as it is the exclusive carrier here. But Wood said that Skype has actually shown that it can boost consumer spending on cellphones as it encourages use of the phones for other services such as data. For example he said that its success on networks such as 3 UK, owned by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, suggests that carrier fears have been unfounded. "The only area where I think there are some question mark is that it could erode roaming revenues," he said, noting that some consumers particularly in Europe hesitate to use their phones while outside of their carrier territory because of notoriously high roaming fees. "The carriers will be suspicious of this service but what we’ve learned from other markets is that (Skype) did not have the detrimental effect feared," he said.

Website For The Blind Launched in Delhi

A website to create awareness among the blind and people with low vision has been launched in Delhi. The NGO, which took the initiative, claims that the portal is the first of its kind in the country.
The website www.eyeway.org provides information on eye disorders, services, education, rehabilitation, parenting, legal provisions, recreation and career guidance to the blind people.
"The website has been specially designed to create awareness among the visually-impaired people on issues related to them. The problem with the blind people is not their blindness, but the thinking and attitude of their families, the society and of themselves," said George Abraham, head of the NGO Score Foundation, during the launch of the website here Wednesday.
The portal is dynamic and has special accessibility features such as choice of background, font colour, text only options and dynamic search functions. It has three sections – informs, inspires and includes, for the wholesome information requirements of the blind.
The website enables the user to navigate with the help of magnification and talking software. The software has been bought at a cost of $800 from the US.
"We are continuously researching for information that is inspirational and empowering visually impaired people, besides looking for opportunities of reaching out to more and more people," said Abraham, who is also the chairman of Association for Cricket for the Blind in India.
The NGO also runs a radio program in Hindi, which is broadcast from 30 stations of All India Radio. There is also a helpdesk at the foundation that receives calls related to various issues that concern the blind people.
There are over 16 million blind people in the country and a further 28 million are with low vision.

Cover Flow won't show in Safari 4 sans DirectX

As those of you with older PCs may have noticed the hard way, some of the new features in Apple’s Safari 4 beta for Windows require a graphics card with at least 64MB of on-board RAM that supports at least DirectX 9. This makes it the first browser I’ve heard of with an explicit graphics card requirement, but is this really a big deal?

Missing from next to the Bookmark icon is the toggle for Top Sites.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

DirectX 9 has been around since 2004, and you can pick up a card for your desktop that supports it for around 20 bucks. This isn’t quite analogous to Windows requiring a massive hardware upgrade for Vista, although it is definitely annoying.

What is strange is that Cover Flow on iTunes will work on these older machines, including the main Windows XP computer I use at work. The graphics card is older, yet, as you can see in the screenshots, Cover Flow works in iTunes and doesn’t in Safari 4. This leads to my other complaint about the beta: Safari offers no notification when your graphics card is not compliant. Top Sites and Cover Flow merely don’t appear. So if the browser must require an upgrade, when iTunes doesn’t, the least Apple could do is include some kind of warning.

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