P2P Mobile

Mobile firm Melodeo has unveiled a new peer-to-peer music-sharing feature using BlueTooth technology.
Seattle-based Melodeo provides music to subscribers through its “Mobile Music Solution”, which resides directly on the user’s phone allowing consumers to shop, preview, purchase and download over the air and play and store full-length music tracks.
Don Davidge, senior vice president of Melodeo said the P2P feature was a “huge win for artists, music publishers, record labels, operators and mobile phone users,” as all parties are compensated in the file sharing process.
Mobile operators are able to deploy Melodeo technology on their networks to offer their subscribers access to Melodeo’s music library provided by Warner Music Group and other record labels.
Users can send a selected track to another user with a Melodeo-enabled mobile phone located within BlueTooth range.
The song file, which is DRM protected, pops up on the recipient’s mobile phone and they can listen to a 30 second preview of the song. If the person likes it, they can choose to but it and the Melodeo server then sends a decryption key via the carrier’s network to unlock the song, and bill the purchase to the recipient’s account.
The Melodeo peer-to-peer system will also be used to send music as a gift, with the charges billed to the sender’s account. The firm said is also considering give customers “recommend a friend” rewards.
Tracks sent via BlueTooth technology do not use operator’s network bandwidth, which the firm said will provide a more efficient distribution mechanism for digital music.
Melodeo said its Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution fully protects the tracks in both download and peer-to-peer activities.
The service will be available during the first quarter in Europe, the firm said.
“We expect that as the service grows it will not only be a significant source of revenue for artists, publishers and labels, but will also bring music to new audiences,” added Davidge. “Ultimately, we anticipate that sending a song will soon be as common as sending a text message or making a call.”

Auto makers to create car-to-car WLAN by 2006

Car makers BMW, Audi, Daimler Chrysler, Volkswagen, Renault and Fiat have won a German government grant to help develop the basis for a standard method for car-to-car wireless data.

The money will be used by Network on Wheels (NOW), a project run out of the University of Mannheim with the participation of Karlsruhe Technical University. NOW is funded in part by the German 'Ministry for R&D'; the Car2Car Communication Consortium, a non-profit organisation founded by said vehicle manufacturers; Siemens; NEC; and the Fraunhofer Institute, itself better known as the home of the MP3 format.

NOW is focusing on 802.11 technology and IPv6 to develop "inter-vehicle communication based on ad hoc networking principles". Essentially, it's exploring ways that moving vehicles can automatically set up temporary links with other cars, bikes and trucks in the vicinity, and share traffic information.

With routing capabilities, the whole thing could become a huge 'automobile Internet', with vehicles warning each other - and their drivers - about slow-downs, bad weather, accidents and other road problems.

NOW's work will feed into the Consortium's effort to create Continuous Communications Air Interface for Long and Medium Range (CALM) - this vehicle-to-vehicle network. The Consortium is keen that a standard be defined for CALM-style networks, allowing manufacturers to differentiate without the risk of building (potentially dangerous) incompatibilities into the system. It sees CALM as a kind of automotive answer to the way GSM and GPRS came to be defined as Europe's mobile telephony standards.

It's all very clever, of course, and impressive from a technological standpoint. However, alongside the rewards there's a risk to personal liberties, as the potential is once again opened for government and law-enforcement agencies to track vehicle movement. Something we'll undoubtedly be forced to swallow on the grounds it allegedly makes terrorism less likely. Along with the ID cards, phone taps, satellite tracking, CCTV cameras et al that are supposedly keeping us safe.

CALM also ties into the European Commission's eSafety Programme, itself geared toward a 50 per cent reduction in road fatalities by 2010.

The Consortium plans to build its first prototype by mid-2005, with more advanced prototypes for field trials coming late Q1 2006. The final CALM specification is scheduled to arrive at the end of that year.

Monaco Telecom fait des démonstrations du WiMax en mer

En décembre 2004, l'opérateur Monaco Telecom et le géant américain Intel avaient signé un accord en vue de développer le WiMax dans la principauté monégasque. Ce week-end, à l'occasion du salon Imagina, l'opérateur a présenté son projet de couverture de toute la ville de Monaco, baptisé " Digital Country ".

Pour asseoir son projet, l'opérateur a fait la démonstration d'une transmission et d'une diffusion de vidéo haute définition vers un bateau croisant à une vingtaine de kilomètres des côtes. La liaison effectuée a affiché un débit de 20Mbits par seconde . Pour Monaco Telecom, ce n'est pourtant qu'un début : l'opérateur affirme qu'il sera bientôt en mesure d'atteindre les capacités maximales de la technologie WiMax, à savoir : 70 Mbits par seconde, pour une portée de 50 kilomètres .

Misant sur le besoin des propriétaires de bateaux en termes de connexions Internet, Monaco Telecom a fait savoir qu'il installerait des bornes WiMax dans l'enceinte du port pour permettre aux bateaux de garder une connexion en mer.

L'opérateur devra également répondre au souhait du gouvernement princier de faire de la principauté une véritable vitrine des nouvelles technologies, contribuant au développement économique et touristique du territoire.