TIA Telecommunities

Yahoo, Telefónica Ink Search Deal October 2, 2007

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From today’s Times, Yahoo has apparently reached an agreement to feature its search engine on mobile portals run by Spanish carrier Telfónica — a clear competitive strike against rival Google.

Times reporter Eric Pfanner does a good job outlining the slow-but-steady move toward maturity in the mobile advertising market.

The deal comes on the heels of a Yahoo search revamp, reported in the Times but detailed quite well over at TechCrunch. New features include Yahoo Local restaurant and hotel finders courtesy of Yahoo Local, with links to maps, ratings, and reviews, shortcut results from Yahoo Shopping, and bundles more features… all of which happen to be well suited to mobile search.
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Monday Blog Roundup October 1, 2007

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TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington highlights a possible blow to Technorati’s blog-ranking hegemony. Arrington makes the case that not only is the new Techmeme service very interesting, but that Technorati’s methods may simply outdated. He reasons:

…links from other blogs may no longer be the best indicator of the popularity of a blog, particularly today when blog links can be obtained by simply opening up the checkbook and paying. Also, Technorati clearly counts spam and other blogs, which can have a significant impact on rankings.

There are plenty of brilliant smartphones out there, but the iPhone will continue to be a lightening rod for controversy in the public eye… and Machinist’s Farhad Manjoo points to the device once again, calling Apple out for its recent software update that seemingly incapacitates unlocked iPhones.

John Kullman compares the iPhone controversy to fighting pirates, perhaps overusing the metaphor. It’s uncanny how many different perspectives a seemingly simple software update can produce.

I’m predicting an update from Jeff Pulver on our shared passion, the New York Mets. First he wrote them off, then he resuscitated them, and now, well, I guess he’ll have to write them off again. As for me, I lack the stomach. What a bum season.

Engadget has the scoop, via the Boy Genius Report, on T-Mobile’s Shadow branding. Will the new product line be a big stroke for the carrier? I’ve heard good things about it from a marketing perspective.

Finally, I’m reminded over and over how important it is to have resources like O’Reilly Emerging Telephony for updates on the state of play at the industry’s small and middle-sized business tier. Asterisk-developer Digium bought Switchvox in a move intended to allow the company to bring its technology back into the open-source community: O’Reilly’s Bruce Stewart agrees with fellow blogger Dan York that this deal shows that Digium “gets” integrated emerging comms technologies.

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WiMax World September 27, 2007

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It looks like WiMax World is in full swing in Chi-town and the key players are pulling out all the stops.

Motorola showed off its new 802.16e service to press, analysts, and VIPs on a swanky cruise on the Chicago River, according to RCR Wireless.
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Tech President? September 19, 2007

Posted by ianmartinez in : General, Trends, What's New?, Policy , add a comment

An article in this week’s BusinessWeek Online raises a question I hear more and more in meetings and conversations: Who will be the tech president? While most major candidates at least have tech and telecom platforms, there seems to be an opening for whichever candidates can enunciate a platform that sounds different, one that recognizes the growing importance of our sector to the U.S. economy.

What I find especially surprising is that while I’ve never really heard presidential-horse-race conversations going on in policy meetings, or in on-hours conversation between tech and telecom people, this time around it’s going on all over the place.

Who steps up and takes the tech throne? There’s probably a lot of support to be had.

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Plugging In… September 13, 2007

Posted by Grant Seiffert in : General, Trends, What's New? , add a comment

Editor’s Note: TIA President Grant Seiffert writes a weekly President’s Message to members in the Network, TIA’s newsletter. The following is from the September 10th weekly issue.

This November, electronics and technology association leaders from around the world will meet at the 13th annual World Electronics Forum (WEF) in Tel Aviv, Israel. Like last year’s gathering in Hong Kong, the WEF aims to give association directors, presidents and CEOs globally the chance to “discuss major topics of common interest.” It’s where myself and my counterparts from dozens of groups whose aim is to further high tech can network, strengthen business ties for their member companies and kick the tires on nascent international products and services that might otherwise go under the radar.

It’s also a chance to put our industries’ innovativeness and economic strength to good use.

WEF, especially this year, is about so much more than business. It’s about our role as technologists in a new world, and our role as citizens in an old one. Because Israel is such a major hub for religious and cultural pilgrims alike, and because an understanding of Israel means the potential for understanding the world’s greatest political questions, the WEF has decided to include a special tour of the country’s important sites for association leaders in its agenda this year. This means Golan Heights, the Sea of Gallillee, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Haifa, and the Dead Sea among others — all sites where innoavtion and the right regulatory environment are leading to major developments in the electronics community.
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