Forget Google Phone? Google eyes wireless spectrum

The FCC plans to auction off a swath of 700MHz spectrum that is currently dedicated to over the air, analog, television signals. Presumably the bands, whose signals can carry abou double the range of those from higher-frequencies, can be used to offer consumer wireless broadband access in competition with cable and DSL. The auction is expected to rake in $10B or more.

According to USA Today, Richard Whitt, Washington, D.C. telecom and media counsel for Google, allows that Google may participate in the auction. Chilling to me was Google's request to the FCC to allow winners of the auction to create an auction system allowing third-parties to bid for use of the spectrum.

I observe that Google serves about 50% of Internet searches, down from perhaps 75% when free market forces prevailed and Yahoo! stopped purchasing Google's search ranking results. If Google owned this new frontier of spectrum outright and set the terms for third-party use, what free market forces could intervene?

Q. Cable, DSL, or holding out for 700MHz?

'Evil twin' Wi-Fi access points proliferate

There is little consumers can do to protect themselves from hackers eavesdropping on wireless communications

Head this warning to be wary of rogue Wi-Fi access points masquerading as legitimate counterparts at hotels and airports. IDG News Service's Jeremy Kirk interviews Phil Cracknell, president of the U.K. branch of the Information Systems Security Association, who warns, "With the growth in wireless networks, the 'evil twin' type of attack is on the rise."

In April I was on the road in North Carolina and changed hotels in the Raleigh area. The new hotel had fee-for-access Wi-Fi, so why did I boot and immediately access the Wild Wild Web without ponying up my credit card? Thanks to the office of the community church visible from my window, I stumbled into their open, insecure network. At least, that's what a potential Evil Twin access point would want me to think.

Whether your access is for free or for fee, encrypt your communications before entering passwords or other sensitive data to at least provide some modicum of security. Redirect to TLS-encrypted web pages (https://) when available, and use a VPN tunnel to get back to the office or even your home network. Or even better, remember your ethernet cable and jack into the wall port. Although a crafty insider could still eavesdrop your communications, at least the drive-by sniffers in the parking lot will be left out in the dark.

Q. Would my hotel time have been better spent at the pool, anyway?

Shown: USBGEAR 802.11b/g USB Wi-Fi adapter

RIM adds APIs for new types of applications

New APIs will allow developers to build social networking, mapping, audio/visual, and other types of applications for Blackberry handhelds

It looks like the Blackberry development environment will be shedding its business persona and adopting the trappings of the 24-hours lifestyle, where mobile devices are ego-centric (an extension of the 24-hour person), and not role-centric (a tool to help a person fulfill one specifice role). And what does an ego-centric device require? Music. Lots of music. Movies--full multimedia capability. And of course a camera. Email is already at the core of the Blackberry offering, but the new APIs will also embrace the textual bailiwick of mobile phones, SMS. Don't forget MMS. And why not enable GPS while we're at it?

The list of extensions being made available are numerous. Buy why? Because the competition offers them, of course. The allure of multi-function phones that have been offering all of the above have outstripped the need for, well, email on the road. I could debate the advantages of leaving my camera-enabled Zire (designed for the "home user" market) at home while bringing my Blackberry (designed for the "business attire" crowd) to the gym, for example, when I first noticed the "No Cameras Permitted" sign that appeared on the wall outside the locker room, just below and to the left of... a security camera. Have you tried to de-camera yourself lately? It's getting difficult as these devices become more pervasive as they become more commoditized. Have you checked out your daughter's teddy bear lately? If he's a model SCI-TB300, he might be recording.

Here's the rundown on API enhancements to help BlackBerryistas build more audio, messaging, and mapping, to build social networking, location-based, multimedia, and other kinds of applications."

• Audio formats: MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC
• pictures
• BlackBerry Messenger API for peer-to-peer messages
  
• GPS (local and/or external)
• BlackBerry Maps
• 3D graphics
• MMS
• SMS

Q. Will your company issue you a business communication device that enables an employee to play the latest video game while listening to ripped industrial MP3s?

Picture: Research in Motion Limited