Fixed Mobile Networks Converge, TMobile launches HotSpot@Home
Time to get rid of that landline, and say hello to Cellular-WiFi convergence. The much-talked–about dual mode T-Mobile USA wireless service, called HotSpot@Home, that uses both the cellular and WiFi networks for seamless phone calling is now available at a T-Mobile store near you. The service, is an attempt by the smallest of the big four US wireless carriers to overcome its lack of fixed line infrastructure. This is the second US telecom to launch a UMA service. Cincinnati Bell launched its UMA-based service called “Home Run” last week.
T-Mobile has launched the service with two basic handsets – the Samsung T409 and the Nokia 6086 – for $50 a pop if you sign-up for a two-year contract. If you get one of these two phones, you can add an unlimited nationwide calling (over WiFi) option for $10 a month. The wireless company is also offering especially configured routers with the phone, though your existing WiFi routers should suffice. It also works with 8,500 T-Mobile Hot Spots in the US including Starbucks locations, and doesn’t require extra payments.
While many of you might be wondering what’s the big deal: you can actually do that with a VoIP plan from one of the mobile start-ups like Truphone over a WiFi enabled handset. T-Mobile describes its technology as GSM-over-IP, and uses the UMA technology. (See 5 Things To Know about UMA) The phone companies have promised this type of convergence for a long time, but this is the first time such technology is being offered for mass consumption.
We have been using this service for last week or so, and it works as advertised. You turn on the phone, and it automatically scans for networks, and allows you to connect to your home network, and can handle all types of security options.
We did have trouble with Apple Airport network that had WPA2 protection turned on, but when we switched to our new ADSL2plus connection from Covad and a generic (T-mobile provided) WiFi router, things went smoothly. When we took the phone to our office, it found our work WiFi network, connected and stored that information. It is hard to tell which network the call is being routed over, and if there was any quality difference, we couldn’t tell.
The service isn’t exactly cheap – but it does offer convenience of one single number. It also allows you to get the most out of your minute plan. Given that nearly 27% of mobile wireless minutes are used from home, it is not such a bad option.
It also is a good way to over come weak signals in your home. Web workers who spend a lot of time in Starbucks can also cut their wireless minute usage quite a bit, without even paying for the Starbucks Wi-Fi access plan.
The big beneficiaries of this service will be International travelers. You can carry the phone with you, say to Rome. The phone will connect to a WiFi network, and allow you to call home as if you were calling locally. The bad news is that if you have to call someone in Rome, then it becomes an international call.
Top Five Virtual World Business News Items
Taxes, trademarks, advertising, malware, and more taxes. For every story I report on for GigaOM, there’s a bunch I save, to see how they develop. Here’s a handful of online world/MMO news items I’ll be keeping an eye on for future stories in the realm of metaverse business:
-
South Korea to tax virtual world wealth: Starting in July, if you earn more than 6 million won (about USD$6500) from the buying and selling of gold coins and other MMO valuables, you’ll have to pay a value added tax. Make more than $13,000 from that trade, and you’ll have to get a business license. (Hat tip: Raph Koster.)
-
Coke frees up its trademark in Second Life? According to Reuters’ Second Life correspondent, the most recognized corporate brand in the world is letting SL users “hack” their logo into virtual products, as long as the Coke-infused items don’t contain anything overtly sexual or violent. SL blogger Csven Concord has a very interesting interview with a Coke executive involved in this project. (Disclosure: the Coke presence was co-developed by an advertiser on my SL blog.)
-
Virtual world advertising forecast to reach $150 million by 2012: That according to Parks Associates, and that’s just the money spent in currently existing worlds. In related news, another analyst expects overall advertising in games to reach $2 billion by 2011.
-
Hackers more interested in stealing World of Warcraft gold than real cash: Phish for someone’s bank account information? That’s so old school– plus, that’ll get you put in jail. McAffee reports that there is now more malware created to steal WoW account gold, than financial passwords. Logic being, if the cyber thieves get caught trying to hack WoW, the penalties are a lot less steep– plus, they can always sell the gold for cash on the gray market.
-
Uncle Sam sets virtual world tax policy next month: Speaking of taxes, the US Congress will issue its first report on the issue in August. No one knows what it’ll say, but if they make an income through real money trading or content creation in Second Life, Americans might want to start collecting receipts now.
Second Life Avatar Sued for Copyright Infringement
Right in time for the July 4th holiday week (after all, what’s more American than demanding your day in court?), businessman Kevin Alderman and his lawyer have just filed suit against someone who goes by the name Volkov Catteneo, for copyright infringement.
This would be just one IP dispute in thousands handled by US courts every day, except for two unique features: the contention is over a virtual sex bed which doesn’t exist, and the named defendant also doesn’t exist. As such, the suit will establish an enormous precedent in the new realm of virtual world law, however it shakes out.
I should back up and explain those last three sentences.
Linden Lab, the company which provides Second Life’s virtual land (i.e. server grid) and means to explore it (i.e. interface software and currency) has since late 2003 allowed its users to retain the underlying intellectual property rights to all objects and programs created in the world with its internal building and scripting tools.
This policy unleashed enormous user-created innovation, and enabled thousands of users to make a living with their virtual content creation. Alderman, known in Second Life as Stroker Serpentine (pictured) is one of SL’s leading entrepreneurs; his SL-based adult entertainment industry has become so successful, he recently sold his X-rated Amsterdam island in Second Life to a real world Dutch media firm for $50,000 very real dollars.
For the last fours years, this IP rights policy has been working more less as designed, but those who follow the virtual world business have been waiting for the other shoe to drop: what happens when one avatar tries to sue another avatar for copyright infringement in an actual court?
It finally has: Alderman/Serpentine believes Catteno is selling unauthorized copies of his SexGen bed, a piece of furniture with special embedded animations that enable players to more or less recreate an adult film with their avatars. Alderman sells his version for the L$ equivalent of USD$45, and they’ve helped make his fortune. Catteno is selling his alleged knockoff for a third that price, undercutting him.
But who does Kevin Alderman sue? Since SL users have no obligation to reveal their real life identity to other players, all the relevant data exists only on Linden’s servers and files. This is why Alderman is threatening to subpoena Linden Lab for this data, so he can bring the real person behind Catteno to trial.
I contacted Stroker Serpentine in Second Life and asked why he chose going to trial. Volkov Catteneo’s account was created in February 2007, while Stroker is a longtime and well-loved player. Why not just voice his complaint about Catteno to the SL community, so they can ostracize him and his allegedly infringing beds?
Stroker tells me he did try that method in another case, but ironically, it backfired. “[T]he last time this happened I confronted the individual about it and requested that they cease and desist…,” he says, “I was made out to be a bully and dragged through the [SL community] forums.” Linden Lab has a system for letting users file DMCA suits against each other; Stroker tried that twice, but wasn’t happy with how Linden responded. So he found a law firm specializing in copyright/trademark disputes. “We weighed all alternatives and listened to a lot of advice. So here we are.”
Trouble is, Catteno tells Reuters he doesn’t have any real world data on file with Linden Lab. (A plausible claim; since ‘06, it’s no longer necessary to register a credit card or other identifying data with Linden Lab.) I imagine the company could supply Alderman and his lawyer’s with Catteno’s IP address, and let them deal with it from there. Or if it goes forward in court, perhaps the judge will review the case, decide it’s fundamentally nuts, and toss it. Then again, the court might let it go to trial, as it did with another user lawsuit against Linden Lab, and what happens then is anyone’s guess. Numerous companies which depend on user-created content are waiting to see. In any case, may the best avatar win.
Update, 9:00am: For the legally minded, Reuters’ SL reporters (who broke this story) have put the actual legal form in .pdf at this link.
-
Archives
- September 2011 (4)
- August 2011 (4)
- July 2011 (2)
- June 2011 (4)
- May 2011 (12)
- April 2011 (7)
- March 2011 (18)
- February 2011 (17)
- January 2011 (6)
- December 2010 (7)
- November 2010 (4)
- October 2010 (13)
-
Categories
- $100
- $189 PC
- 1 person acapella
- 12.47 megapixel sensor
- 16gb
- 1800free411
- 1TB hard drive
- 2008
- 22281738
- 23769345
- 23771330
- 2TB
- 320GB 2.5-inch hard drive
- 3D
- 3D fabrication
- 3G
- 45nm
- 57-inch
- 64-core
- 746
- a million channels
- AACS
- AAPL
- acquisitions
- ad spending declines
- adobe photoshop express
- advertising
- advertising network
- adwords
- air horn
- alexa
- alexa rank
- all-in-one
- alternative energy clean technology
- amazon
- amazon fps
- AMOLED
- analytics software
- anime song generator
- answer
- aol
- APB
- appleTV
- aquantive
- architecture
- archos PMPs
- art advertisement
- articles
- asus
- Atom 330
- atom n270 performance
- audi
- audio watermarking
- baby monitor
- balloon in space
- basketball
- battery
- benq projectors
- best buy
- beyond web 2.0
- blackberry
- blackjack
- blog hack
- bluetooth
- box office earnings
- brand protection counterfeiting
- broadband
- broadband subscribers
- browser-based video
- building
- building faces
- burn
- buzzdash
- byo
- cameraphone
- cancer
- canon
- canon EOS 40D
- captcha
- case precedent
- casio exilim
- casual games
- cell phone
- cell phone mobile payments
- cellphone
- cellular over WiFi
- censorship
- channels
- characteristics of web 3.0
- charger
- cheer
- chipin
- cinematic effects
- circuit city
- citizen journalism
- clean technology
- clean water
- cleantech
- clickz
- clipblast
- CMOS
- coal plant
- code based promotions
- coke
- cold boot
- collapsible
- color scheme
- colored katydids
- combustion
- commonangels
- compactflash
- comparison engines
- compete
- conference
- consumer behavior
- consumer market
- consumer market research
- consumer power
- consumer purchasing
- context-based clustering
- contextual commerce
- copyright
- copyright infringement case precedent
- copyright law
- core 2 duo
- core i7
- corian Z
- coscripter
- counterfeiting
- crack detector
- crazyegg
- Creative Commons
- CTR
- current from vibrations
- customer
- customer loyalty
- customer service
- DAP
- DDR2
- DDR3
- deeplinking
- dell
- Dell XPS m1330
- democracy player
- design
- desktop
- didja
- diesel
- digg
- DIGIC II
- digital cameras
- digital cinema
- digital image sensor
- digital marketing
- digital media
- discover music
- distribution service
- DIY
- DNA art
- donation
- DPAC
- dpreview.com
- Dr. Augustine Fou
- DRM
- DTCP-IP
- dubai. energy efficient
- dvr
- e-paper
- earphones
- earth 2tech
- ebook
- ebooks
- eee box
- eggfusion
- electric car
- embed google maps
- embedded
- enthusiast
- entropia
- entropia 3D rendering
- epson 3LCD
- EU
- evolution from web 2.0
- exilim 12 megapixel
- expandable
- experiential marketing
- facebook ebay
- fake ID
- fax
- ferrari
- fiber optic tablecloth
- fiber to the premises
- fingerprint
- fios
- firefighting
- flash
- flavored water
- flexible OLED display
- Flextronics
- flickr
- flickr photo news
- flickrcash
- flickrcash flickr photos
- flickrcash flickr search stock photography
- flickrcash flickr search stock photography Dr. Augustine Fou
- flickrcash stock photography
- FlickrSlidr
- fluorescent lighting
- foleo
- food poisoning
- footagesandbox
- fotolog
- foveon
- framed pages
- frequent flyer miles
- freshbooks
- fruit harvesting machine
- fruit tattoo
- fujitsu
- gaming user generated
- genwi
- geothermal energy
- getty
- getty audio
- Getty Images
- getty stock images footage
- gift of music
- Glenn Gabe
- global warming
- glucose to fuel
- gmail
- gmail auto responder hack
- gmail hack
- gmail tasks
- go-digital marketing blog
- google adwords
- google analytics
- google checkout
- google chrome cache
- google earth
- Google Flight Simluator
- google image search
- google maps
- google online security
- google phone
- google powerpoint
- google talk
- google zeitgeist
- GPU
- green
- green car
- greeting cards
- groceries
- group buying
- group calling
- group chat
- group chief digital officer
- GSM
- gtalk
- GYI
- H and M clothing in SIMS
- h.264 hd encoding chip
- hacking gmail yahoo mail
- handwritten blogs
- hard drive new magnetic tech
- harry potter
- hcg
- HD projector
- hd-dvd
- hdr
- hdtv
- headphones
- hearst
- hitachi
- home entertainment system
- home phone
- hot or not
- hot or not business model
- hotornot
- how fast is intel atom n270
- hsdpa
- html converter
- hulu
- human-powered search
- hybrid mini cooper
- hydrogen generation
- hyphen digital
- i7
- iChat screensharing
- identity theft
- IE7
- ikea hotels
- ilike
- image manipulation
- images
- imagetrail
- implants
- incoming links
- incubator
- induction cooking
- industrial design
- industries
- instant messaging
- INTC
- integrated marketing
- intel
- intel 45nm
- intel atom 330 vs core 2 duo
- intel bearlake
- intel core 2 duo
- invalidation
- inventions
- inventory-centralized retail
- investment
- investors
- IP law
- iPhone
- iphone ringtones
- ipod
- ipod to TV
- ipod touch
- itunes
- jabra
- jerry yang
- jetblue
- jing
- jkwedding
- jkwedding video
- jkweddingdance
- joost
- jpeg
- Katerina
- keyboard
- kitchen
- kodak
- kodak digital camera
- laptop hard drive
- Larry Lessig
- lawsuit
- lawyers
- LCD
- LCD touch screen
- lcd tv
- LED
- LED backlight LCD
- LED display
- led lighting
- lego scale model
- levis
- levitation
- LG KS20
- li-ion batteries
- light
- light-sensitive
- lightbox
- linux
- liquid cooling for the masses
- low light
- LuckyOliver
- lympus
- macbook benchmark
- macbook pro
- made in china
- magnetic fields
- mahalo
- mailbox
- malware
- marketing
- marketplace answers
- me.dium
- media encoder
- medical images
- medical record
- megan fox
- meizu
- metrics
- microprojector
- microSD
- microsoft
- microsoft office
- microsoft yahoo google advertising
- mini
- mini projector
- miniPC
- miro
- missing link marketing
- MIT
- MMO
- motorola
- mp3
- mrm worldwide
- multi touch
- multi-point video posting
- multi-touch LCD
- multiple copies of same program
- music
- myspace news
- NAND
- nanoglue
- nanoprojector
- nanosolar
- nas
- nasa
- nbc venture capital
- NEC LCD
- nehalem
- network print sharing
- neuros OSD
- nokia
- not hackable
- not selling well
- NowPublic
- ntp
- nvidia
- Objects D'esire
- obvious
- octo-core
- October 28
- OLED
- Olympus
- omnicom
- online game
- online identity theft
- online money management
- online music
- online world game
- openCola
- overclocking
- paid reviews
- palm
- panasonic 12 megapixel hd shooter
- parakey
- password
- password managers
- patent
- patent lawsuit
- patent reform
- paypal
- pc
- PDF by email
- peonies
- personal asset
- peter kim
- pharming
- Philips
- philips ambilight
- phishing
- photo editing
- photo greetings
- photo tagging
- photobucket valuation
- photos
- photos flickr creativecommons
- photos for blogs
- photoshop
- Phreetings
- piclens
- pico projector
- PictureSandbox
- piezoelectric
- pingdom
- platial google mymaps
- player
- polls
- pollution detector
- polyesters
- polymer
- porsche design
- portable media
- post widgets to multiple sites
- postage
- pr
- prevent image download
- print server
- privacy
- prostockmaster
- prosumer
- prototype
- question
- RAM
- rank
- raw food
- RAZR 2
- rebate
- recorder
- remix
- remote control cell phone
- research
- restart windows
- retail
- retail theft
- revenue share
- RFID
- RFID cards
- RIAA
- ringle
- robert scoble
- roi of social marketing
- rss
- rubik's cube
- sageTV
- salesforce
- Samsung
- samsung cell phones
- samsung ssd
- sanyo xacti
- satl water
- screencapture
- screencasting
- Scribd
- Scribd investment VC
- scripps
- scrub clipboard
- sdhc
- search
- search innovations
- secondlife
- secondlife virtual advertising
- security loophole
- semacodes on ads
- set-top box
- seth godin
- sharp LCD
- shopping cart install
- sigma
- sign
- single login
- site stats
- skype
- slapvid
- SMS
- social marketing
- social media marketing
- social network
- social networking aggregator
- social surfing
- solar
- solar panel installation
- solar power thermal
- Solectron
- songbird
- sony OLED
- sony TFT
- spam
- speakers
- speed of information
- spffy
- spider web
- spiralfrog
- SSD
- starbucks publicity
- stars
- stats
- stephen hawking
- stereolithography 3D printing
- stereoscopic display
- Steve Fossett
- stock images
- stock photos
- streetview
- stylish projectors
- sugar
- supercomputer
- surface
- surveillance
- sweepstakes fraud
- swfir
- sync photos
- tablet PC
- tapefailure
- taxes
- taxonomy
- techcrunch
- TED2007
- tesla
- the long tail
- the perfect babe
- theives
- thermoacoustic
- thin film battery
- thin TV
- three gorges dam
- tivo
- toaster
- toolkit
- tools of production
- tornado
- toshiba hard drive
- trademark yoga
- transistor
- trash balls
- treo
- trustcode
- trusted opinion
- twango
- Uncategorized
- unlocked iPhone
- usb 2.0
- USB hub
- usb monitors
- USPTO
- VC
- vCore
- vdimm
- venture capital
- veotag
- verizon
- veryfunnyads
- VGA server
- video
- video editing
- video fingerprint tech
- video search
- videoegg
- videos
- virgin charter service
- virtual PC
- virtual sales associates
- virtual world
- visa
- voip
- voip over WiFi
- vonage
- watch
- watches
- wave energy
- weather
- web 2.0
- web 2.0 participation
- web 3.0
- web analytics
- web API
- web conferencing
- web design
- web OS
- webcam
- webmail
- wells fargo
- whatinhellwastheiragencythinking
- whatinhellweretheythinking
- whois
- widget metric traffic visitors views
- WiFi
- wifi extender
- WiFi repeater
- wiFi SD cards
- wiki
- windows
- windows vista
- wine high end
- wireless
- wireless USB
- witricity
- WOM
- woot
- word of mouth
- worldview
- WSJ
- xcavator
- xerox search
- xgrid
- yahoo
- YCombinator
- youlicense
- youtube
- youtube shooter
- zap
- zonbu
- zooomr
- zune
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS