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Wireless Technology: Worlds Apart

TechNewsWorld – The Asian cellular phone market is something of a paradox. Countries such as Japan and South Korea have invested the equivalent of billions of dollars to develop sophisticated, high-bandwidth wireless services, such as mobile video and mobile commerce technologies. One reason for doing this was so they could lead the world in deployment of such services; however, other countries have been slow to follow that lead.

In terms of sophisticated cellular data services, Japan and South Korea are well ahead of their European and North American counterparts. “When the Internet first evolved in the late 1990s, it was largely English-based,” noted Neil Strother, an analyst with Forrester Research. “In Japan and Korea, mobile alternatives emerged, and these countries have remained ahead of the pack since then.”

In those countries, consumers rely heavily on their handsets. “In Japan and Korea, the cell phone functions like a laptop,” Bill Hughes, principal analyst at In-Stat, told TechNewsWorld. Users surf the Internet, purchase goods and watch TV on their handsets.

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Remote PC Repair, Part 1: The Warranty Alternative

TechNewsWorld – Online support, or remote computer repair, offers consumers the ability to have a computer technician resolve their computer issues across the Internet. There are many companies that offer these services. The biggest differences tend to be in terms of support, hours of operation and price. A consumer with an ailing computer contacts the repair service either by phone or through the company’s Web site.

Consumers and small-office and home-office (SOHO) workers often buy their computers from online stores or discount warehouses. They often reject add-on support packages at checkout to keep the purchase price low. If the computer breaks within 60 or 90 days, the manufacturer will handle the repairs, they reason.

However, when the initial warranty period expires and the computer misbehaves or malfunctions, who to call for service often becomes a daunting — and costly — challenge. Big companies outsource maintenance and repairs or have an in-house tech staff. Consumers and SOHO/SMB entities are stranded when computer woes strike.

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Google Blasts WSJ, Still ‘Committed’ to Net Neutrality

Wired – Google is taking some heat this morning from a Wall Street Journal piece that argues the company is abandoning its support of network neutrality in an attempt to make sites like YouTube faster than the competition.

The WSJ claims Google has approached major internet service providers “with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content.”

That would seem to fly in the face of the company’s long-standing support for network neutrality, but Google has called the WSJ’s article “confused,” and says that it remains committed to network neutrality.

The contention comes from the varying definitions of network neutrality. The simplest version of network neutrality says all internet traffic should delivered at the same speed over the same network. Unfortunately for supporters of the everything-is-absolutely-equal version of network neutrality, the concept has always been an ideal, more of a myth than reality.

The problem lies with what are known as content delivery networks (CDNs) that use so-called edge servers, located physically closer to you, to cache and deliver content faster. When you request the content from, in this case YouTube, it can be transmitted from the proposed edge servers rather than from Google’s central servers.

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The Next Netbook Trend: Cellphone-Like Contract Deals

Wired – How’s this for some technological wizardry? Take a $350 netbook and turn it into a $1,500 device without changing anything inside.

That’s exactly what Acer, RadioShack and AT&T have done with their latest netbook offer. On Friday, the trio said they will offer a netbook for $100 upfront — but with a $60 per month, two-year data contract on AT&T. Over the two years of the contract, that adds up to a total of $1,540, or more than four times the list price of the netbook alone.

With the move Acer became the first company to bring a netbook on contract to the U.S. The offer is modeled on how most cellphones are currently sold, and follows similar netbooks-on-contract offers overseas.

“It is interesting move,” says Bob O’Donnell, a vice president with research firm IDC, “but it won’t make a huge dent in the marketplace right away. “The price points they are available today are way too high for most people.”

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First-Ever Photo of Liquid on Extraterrestrial World

Wired – The Huygens probe has captured an image of what may be the first drop of liquid ever observed on an extraterrestrial surface.

The photo is evidence that liquids may exist on the surface of other planets and moons, not just frozen lakes. And liquid is more likely habitat for extraterrestrial life.

Among the pictures snapped by the Huygens probe after landing on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005, one appears to show a dewdrop made of methane that briefly formed on the edge of the probe itself (indicated by arrow at bottom of image on right). Scientists think heat from the probe caused humid air to rise and condense on the cold edge of the craft.

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