"Today video calling is only for Windows, but our strategy in the past has been to roll out on other platforms reasonably soon," said James Bilefield, Skype's vice president of business development. "It depends on feedback and testing - and we have dedicated teams on those platforms."
The clear message there is to start bugging Skype to support other platforms.
We covered this a week ago at Techworld, from an interview with Joe Bobier, who invented the technology.
There are a couple of interesting things about this. On one level, it's a UWB-like system that promises to do longer distance, by the use of a narrowband licenced channel for a timing signal.
So far, it's only been demonstrated indoors (and that's the basis of its support by Stuart Schwartz, the Princeton professor).
The people involved have a history that I am still disecting.
All of which makes me want to wait and see how it works in the proposed wide-area demonstration.
Peter
Irrelevantly to this discussion, I had a Slashdot post on xMax accepted over the 4 July weekend, that never appeared on Slashdot.
Read the Techworld article. It does give the voting figures. It also says the vote "failed to provide an outright winner". What it also reports is that an Airgo statement gives a strong reason to hope for a merger of the proposals - something in contrast with the UWB deadlock.
In my original Slashdot submission, I believe I wrote "end-game" rather than "end-point", which seems fair. It either got changed or I mis-typed (in which case I apologise) - I can't check which here.
Either way, your accusation is out of line. If you want to beat on someone, beat on Unstrung or PC Magazine.
Well, it's certainly coming on quicker than Bluetooth. When bluetooth was launched, $5 units were a distant prospect, and Zigbee is starting at that point. Sure it's big for phones, but it is the right start.
The 5 million units won't be in phones, but to get to 1% of something as established as Bluetooth in one year, is pretty good (and well beyond what Bluetooth did at that stage).
And Heile certainly didn't think Zigbee would only make 5 million. He said it would make more than that, but he didn't know how much more.
He expects an order of magnitude more in 2006. No evidence to back that up, you would say, and you are right.
The causes for optimism are:
- a standard with interoperability tests at the outset
- designed for a particular purpose, in a market that can reasonably be expected to be large
- attention to issues that matter like battery life and speed.
Zigbee could care less about Bluetooth. It's after a much bigger area (sensors) that Bluetooth doesn't touch.
If Bluetooth dies of its own accord, Zigbee could take up some of the slacek according to Bob Heile of the Alliance (did I mention my interview with him too many times already?)
Exactly. The IEEE publishes the standard. The Zigbee Alliance publishes a specification which makes sure that products that meet the standard work together (there's usually some grey areas in the standard).
It's a standard, alright. Whether it gets into widespread use is another question (anyone remember OSI?) and that depends on having products quickly.
But it seems like Zigbee is onto this one, with some pretty aggressive plans (interview with the Zigbee chair I mentioned earlier).
Zigbee chips will be available for $5 in the first quarter of 2005, according to Bob Heile of the Zigbee Alliance. I had a long interview with him about Zigbee's prospects. He clearly enjoys his work.
Zigbee will be big in phones, and he reckons it's on target for 5 million units by the end of 2005.
Actually, I ducked the issue, and submitted "UK spectrum to be thrown open" or somesuch. In fact, I managed to write the whole thing without an "-ise" or "-ize". And spell "superseded" correctly.
Peter
If you want it in Skype terms, it's one month's free Skype Out. According to the BBBC page, it's free calls to anywhere in the UK, ie not just net calls.
The MBOA SIG published its specifications for the physical layer. This means that standardisation is going full-speed ahead despite the deadlock in the IEEE, and there should be a full protocol stack by Christmas.
It's covered in Techworld by (ahem) yours truly.
And here's the MBOA SIG a href"http://www.multibandofdm.org/press_111004.htm l">press release.
Peter Judge
http://www.techworld.com/mobility
Seems to me that with the world beyond 802.11g looking a bit fragmented, the Wi-Fi standards aren't as settled as everyone is saying.
Now would be a perfect time to "embrace and extend" the standards, and bend Wi-fi one way or another - if Microsoft wanted to.
The only thing is it would cause more trouble than it was worth - causing potential trouble with the authorities, and partners.
Here's my opinion on why they dropped Wi-fi hardware.
Peter Judge
Slashdot Mirror
Here's what we managed to get out of Skype. We asked about future plans for other platforms - and anything else we could think of.
"Today video calling is only for Windows, but our strategy in the past has been to roll out on other platforms reasonably soon," said James Bilefield, Skype's vice president of business development. "It depends on feedback and testing - and we have dedicated teams on those platforms."
The clear message there is to start bugging Skype to support other platforms.
We've kicked the tyres a bit, and it's pretty good. Shame it doesn't work on Linux or Mac, but Skype tells us these versions are on the way...
We covered this a week ago at Techworld, from an interview with Joe Bobier, who invented the technology.
There are a couple of interesting things about this. On one level, it's a UWB-like system that promises to do longer distance, by the use of a narrowband licenced channel for a timing signal.
So far, it's only been demonstrated indoors (and that's the basis of its support by Stuart Schwartz, the Princeton professor). The people involved have a history that I am still disecting.
All of which makes me want to wait and see how it works in the proposed wide-area demonstration. Peter Irrelevantly to this discussion, I had a Slashdot post on xMax accepted over the 4 July weekend, that never appeared on Slashdot.
Read the Techworld article. It does give the voting figures. It also says the vote "failed to provide an outright winner". What it also reports is that an Airgo statement gives a strong reason to hope for a merger of the proposals - something in contrast with the UWB deadlock.
In my original Slashdot submission, I believe I wrote "end-game" rather than "end-point", which seems fair. It either got changed or I mis-typed (in which case I apologise) - I can't check which here.
Either way, your accusation is out of line. If you want to beat on someone, beat on Unstrung or PC Magazine.
Every year, Microsoft has made this claim (read more at Techworld). Usually after a major Windows security issue, or a big PR campaign about security.
This year's one is not as good as last year's classic, Days of Risk.
Because phone comapnies want us to keep our phones in our hands, so they want us to use them as door openers, light controllers, etc etc.
If Zigbee communicates with vending machines too, it gives them a piece of a whole new set of transactions...
Peter
Well, it's certainly coming on quicker than Bluetooth. When bluetooth was launched, $5 units were a distant prospect, and Zigbee is starting at that point. Sure it's big for phones, but it is the right start.
The 5 million units won't be in phones, but to get to 1% of something as established as Bluetooth in one year, is pretty good (and well beyond what Bluetooth did at that stage).
And Heile certainly didn't think Zigbee would only make 5 million. He said it would make more than that, but he didn't know how much more.
He expects an order of magnitude more in 2006. No evidence to back that up, you would say, and you are right.
The causes for optimism are:
- a standard with interoperability tests at the outset
- designed for a particular purpose, in a market that can reasonably be expected to be large
- attention to issues that matter like battery life and speed.
Zigbee could care less about Bluetooth. It's after a much bigger area (sensors) that Bluetooth doesn't touch.
If Bluetooth dies of its own accord, Zigbee could take up some of the slacek according to Bob Heile of the Alliance (did I mention my interview with him too many times already?)
Peter Judge
Techworld
Exactly. The IEEE publishes the standard. The Zigbee Alliance publishes a specification which makes sure that products that meet the standard work together (there's usually some grey areas in the standard).
It's a standard, alright. Whether it gets into widespread use is another question (anyone remember OSI?) and that depends on having products quickly.
But it seems like Zigbee is onto this one, with some pretty aggressive plans (interview with the Zigbee chair I mentioned earlier).
Peter Judge
Techworld
Zigbee chips will be available for $5 in the first quarter of 2005, according to Bob Heile of the Zigbee Alliance. I had a long interview with him about Zigbee's prospects. He clearly enjoys his work.
Zigbee will be big in phones, and he reckons it's on target for 5 million units by the end of 2005.
Peter Judge. Techworld
Actually, I ducked the issue, and submitted "UK spectrum to be thrown open" or somesuch. In fact, I managed to write the whole thing without an "-ise" or "-ize". And spell "superseded" correctly. Peter
If you want it in Skype terms, it's one month's free Skype Out. According to the BBBC page, it's free calls to anywhere in the UK, ie not just net calls.
The MBOA SIG published its specifications for the physical layer. This means that standardisation is going full-speed ahead despite the deadlock in the IEEE, and there should be a full protocol stack by Christmas. It's covered in Techworld by (ahem) yours truly. And here's the MBOA SIG a href"http://www.multibandofdm.org/press_111004.htm l">press release.
Peter Judge
http://www.techworld.com/mobility
Seems to me that with the world beyond 802.11g looking a bit fragmented, the Wi-Fi standards aren't as settled as everyone is saying. Now would be a perfect time to "embrace and extend" the standards, and bend Wi-fi one way or another - if Microsoft wanted to. The only thing is it would cause more trouble than it was worth - causing potential trouble with the authorities, and partners. Here's my opinion on why they dropped Wi-fi hardware. Peter Judge