GPS Tech to help the blind

At the Leader Dogs for the Blind headquarters in Rochester, MI, technology is about to become a major player in helping those who can’t see get around, allowing them to tap into sophisticated mapping and navigation techniques that tells them where they are or how to get where they want to go. GPS devices to help guide the way for blind people

SunRocket not looking so good

I wrote a couple of months ago about my decision to try the SunRocket VoIP phone service. With a pre-pay deal that works out to less than $17 a month I figured it was worth the try.
I’ve since been getting e-mail every day from people who want to know my experience.
Alas, it’s not nearly as rosy as I’d hoped.
Here’s my answers to the most common questions:
How good is the quality of calls? Overall, pretty good, with only occaisonal whooshes or echoes.
Does it slow down the Internet for your computer? I’m not sure. I’m suspicious that it might add some latency to my clicks. That’s becoming more and more frustrating for me. Then again, Comcast could be acting up. That certainly is not a rarity. The verdict is out on how it affects the rest of the Internet operations.
What about reliability of service? Ah, here’s the really weak spot. I’ve had two outages in the last eight weeks. The first lasted several hours. The second happened this morning and has been underway for two hours now. Two outages in two months is two too many in my book. My landline service hasn’t been out in years.
What do you like best about it?Unlimited local calls and long distance. A great Web interface that e-mails me my voicemail when I’m on the road. A “follow me” feature that rings my cellphone if the main phone isn’t answered after a few rings. And if my cell doesn’t anser, it then rings my wife’s cell. I can turn that on anytime or off, when we don’t want to be disturbed. But no more important calls will be missed again.
How about techinical support? My experience has been that reaching SunRocket’s technical support is extremely difficult. As I write this, I’ve been on hold for 20 minutes. My Comcast Internet service was down this morning for a few minutes and although it’s now back, SunRocket is not. I’ve tried unplugging the SunRocket gizmo to reset the connection but it hasn’t helped. I’ve called once before about a support issue and never did get through. Reputations are won and lost by customer support. SunRocket needs lots of imporvement.
Have you disconnected your landline phone and gone all VoIP? No and I’m sure glad I didn’t. I would not want to depend exlusively on this. I may someday but not yet.
Bottom line: I can not yet recommend this to you, loyal reader. Most of the time it seems fine. But with a phone, most of the time isn’t good enough. I need some more time wuth SunRocket before I can give you a definitive take.
Update I’ve now 11 a.m. and I’ve been holding 45 minutes. Their service tape says “please remain on the line and we’ll be with you as soon as possible” but gives no estimate to how many callers there are ahead of me or my estimated wait time.
Update #2 It’s now 4 p.m. and, finally, I’ve gotten through to tech support. A pleasant enough tech named “Ben” had me unplug the gizmo form my modem, unplug the gizmo, put a regular phone in one of the ports and punch in a sequence of numbers and pound signs that I no longer remember. Plugging everything back in has it working again.
Apparently, when Comcast went offline for a while this morning, the gizmo did, too, and needed to be reset.
So… stay tuned… I’ll keep experimenting with this and let you know how it works. But I’m keeping my traditional landline until this proves itself.

MasterCard and Visa hit with biggest hack ever

The credit card numbers of 40 million Americans have been hacked. The number is staggering.
But what’s worse is that it happened late last year and is only now being confirmed. There’s no evidence of fraudulent charges from the electronic break in.
Yet.
It apparently involved the secret implantation of zombie code on the computers used by a Tucson company to manage credit card numbers for MasterCard and Visa. That code allowed the hacker access to the numbers.
40 Million Credit Card Numbers Hacked

The Silicon Valley Shakes

Oh great. Just as I get ready to head out to the Silicon Valley for a week of reporting on various high tech outfits, California seems to be bracing for the Big One after a cluster of quakes in recent days.
Californians rattled by week of quakes.

Inside Personal Tech Podcast now online

This week’s edition of Inside Personal Technology- The Podcast is now up and online.
It’s the work of Knight-Ridder newspapers technology columnists Mike Langberg of the San Jose Mercury News, Julio Ojeda-Zapata of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and me, Mike Wendland of the Detroit Free Press.
Click HERE to listen or download. Among other things, in this week’s installment we talk about a new way to watch video online, HD Radio and the way GPS and the eBay phenomenon.
Also check out our Inside Personal Technology Web log.

Online a haven for sports fantasy leagues

The folks at the Pew Internet & American Life Project have found that some eight percent of adult American Internet users say they participate in sports fantasy leagues online. That represents roughly 11 million people. And on a typical day, about 2 million internet users are going online to oversee and check on their fantasy teams. You can read the whole report here.

The newspaper vs Web dilemma

Nearly one-fifth of Web users who read newspapers now prefer online to offline editions, according to a new study from Internet audience measurement company Nielsen//NetRatings.
This is shaking the newspaper industry to its core.
Do the math, follow the trends and make the projections and, as it is now headed, the current means of producing newspapers on dead trees doesn’t have much of a future.
Online does, but despite some innovations, the vast majority of newspapers make no real money online.
The Times are indeed a-changin.
One-fifth of Web users prefer online news - Nielsen -

Podcast audience to hit 60 million by 2010

According to the consumer technology research outfit The Diffusion Group, demand for podcasts is expected to grow from less than 15 percent of portable digital music player owners today to 75 percent by 2010. That equates to a predicted audience of 60 million.
Click the graph to see how fast this is growing.

Dell would sell Mac OS machines

Looks like the rest of the computer world is getting the Mac message and seeing the potential. This is a pretty significant development, the first time a major PC player has publically welcomed the idea of doing with Mac software what they do with Windows. Dell Says He’d Sell Apple’s Mac OS

The ultimate e-mail chain letter

Thanks to reader Mike Maurer for forwarding me this e-mail chain link. This one is worth passing on. Trust me, you’ll like it.

Advanced search guide for Goog;e

Here’s a handy advanced guide to searching with Google you may way to keep as a bookmark. Think of it as a quick cheat sheet. Google Guide Quick Reference: Google Advanced Operators

14Mbps via cell phone next year?

A Nokia geek is predicting that we’ll see 14Mbps broadband speeds on our mobile phones by next year.
I’m skeptical. If we do, at what cost? $500 a month?
Still… it would be nice.
2006: Mobiles will beat PCs for broadband speed

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