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Feb 04, `08 — The first big steps on the road to overhauling the Internet’s core addressing system have been taken, Reports BBC.

On Monday the master address books for the net are being updated to include records prepared in a new format known as IP version 6. Widespread use of this format will end the shortage of addresses that sites can be given. The net’s current addressing scheme is expected to exhaust the pool of unallocated addresses by 2011.

Although people use words to navigate around the web, computers use numbers. A human may type news.bbc.co.uk into a browser bar but the PC trying to reach that site will use a numerical equivalent that it gets from the net’s master address books.

On 4 February the master or root servers for the net will have a small number of records added that are written in IP version 6 (IPv6) added to them. This means for the first time that computers using IPv6, typically a PC and a server, can find each other without involving any IPv4 technology. More at the BBC.

HD DVD player sales in the US during a week from Jan 6 to 12, 2008, declined 88% to 1,758 units compared with the previous week, Tech-On! is reporting citing research company NPD Group.

Tech-On! further reports, “The period measured was immediately after US movie studio Warner Bros Entertainment had announced that it had shifted its support from HD DVD to Blu-ray Disc Jan 4, 2008.

Meanwhile, BD player sales grew 42% compared with the preceding week to 21,770 units, NPD said. An NPD analyst said Warner’s announcement might have impacted HD DVD player sales.

HD DVD supporter Toshiba Corp announced price reductions for its HD DVD players targeting the North American market following Warner’s announcement.” More at Tech-On!

Related:

HD DVD is ‘Missing the Boat’ in Australia

In the Battle of Formats Blu-ray Outsells HD-DVD in Europe

DENVER –BUSINESS WIRE– On Thursday, Dec 20, MPEG LA announced that it has commenced an action against Audiovox for breach of contractual obligations as a Licensee to MPEG LA’s MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License and 1394 Patent Portfolio License.

According to the complaint filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Audiovox has breached its contractual obligations by failing to report fully its manufacture or sale of products such as DVD players and digital TVs that use the MPEG-2 digital video compression standard or employ the high-speed transfer digital interface provided for in the IEEE 1394 standard, failing to make full payments for its manufacture or sale of such products, and refusing to allow an audit as permitted by the MPEG-2 Contract and 1394 Contract.

MPEG LA seeks, among other things, monetary damages, an order requiring Audiovox to allow the contractually required audit, an accounting of all products manufactured or sold by Audiovox subject to the Contracts, as well as injunctive relief prohibiting Audiovox from the manufacture or sale of MPEG-2 and 1394 products. More at MPEG LA (in pdf).

SANTA CLARA, Calif — On Tuesday Dec 18, Intel released a software initiator package to drive the development of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) solutions for the Linux operating system.

FCoE is a proposed specification that will allow Fibre Channel SAN traffic to run over Ethernet. By consolidating LAN and SAN traffic onto a single fabric, FCoE will simplify network infrastructure in the datacenter.

The FCoE software package is now available for download at Open-FCoE.org and can be modified according to the terms of the GPLv2 license. As part of the package, Intel has included a target simulator, so Linux developers can test and modify the FCoE software stack. Open-FCoE.org is open to all FCoE developers for source code download, code contribution and feedback.

Cisco Systems submitted the initial FCoE proposal to the Fibre Channel standards body, T11, in April. As a member of the T11, Intel is committed to working with Cisco and other companies to drive industry enablement of FCoE.

“Fiber Channel over Ethernet will be a key capability for our customers offering seamless server and storage access in the data center,” said Jayshree Ullal, senior vice president of the Data Center, Switching and Services Group at Cisco Systems. “The emergence of 10 Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth combined with Cisco’s proposed extensions to Ethernet, enables a lossless and resilient fabric for Data Center I/O consolidation. Cisco is pleased to see Intel taking a leadership role in FCoE.”

The new FCoE initiator code is based on a specification being developed by the T11 in the FC-BB-5 work group. The FCoE specification is expected to be completed in 2008. More at Intel.

BALI, Indonesia — Dec 16, `07 — A UN Climate Change Conference adopted a plan to negotiate a new global warming pact on Saturday, Dec 15, after the United States suddenly reversed its opposition to a call by developing nations for technological help to battle rising temperatures.

The adoption came after marathon negotiations overnight, which first settled a battle between Europe and the U.S. over whether the document should mention specific goals for rich countries’ obligations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The agreement launches a two-year negotiating process - the “Bali roadmap” - aiming to secure a binding deal at the 2009 UN summit in Denmark.

European and U.S. envoys dueled into the final hours of the two-week meeting over the EU’s proposal that the Bali mandate suggest an ambitious goal for cutting the emissions of industrial nations_ by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

EU Welcomes Agreement

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso: “There is only one planet. Together, developed and developing countries can reach success.”

The European Union welcomes the agreement reached at the UN climate change conference in Bali to start formal negotiations on a climate regime for the post-2012 period and on a ‘Bali Roadmap’ that sets out an agenda for these negotiations.

The conference set an end-2009 deadline for completing the negotiations to allow time for governments to ratify and implement the future climate agreement by the end of 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period ends.

The decision explicitly acknowledges the findings of the recent scientific assessment by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and recognises that deep cuts in global emissions of greenhouse gases will be required to prevent global warming from reaching dangerous levels.

The conference also took important decisions on several other issues, including launching demonstration projects to reduce deforestation, finalising arrangements for a fund to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change, and scaling up financing for transfer of technology to developing countries.

The Bali Roadmap

The conference agreed to launch formal negotiations among the 192 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on action up to and beyond 2012. These formal negotiations replace a process of informal dialogue that has taken place over the past two years. They will involve the United States, which is a Party to the UNFCCC but not the Kyoto Protocol.

The decision to launch negotiations sets out a ‘roadmap’ to guide them which includes the key building blocks of a future agreement. These are: enhanced mitigation of climate change by limiting or reducing emissions; adaptation to climate change; action on technology development and transfer; and scaling up of finance and investment to support mitigation and adaptation. Four negotiating sessions are scheduled in 2008, starting in March or April.

The decision explicitly acknowledges the findings of the IPCC’s recent Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), emphasises the urgency of addressing climate change expressed in the report and recognises that deep cuts in global emissions will be required to reach the Convention’s objective of preventing dangerous levels of climate change.

In parallel with the negotiations under the climate change Convention, the 176 parties to the Kyoto Protocol will continue negotiations already under way on new post-2012 emissions targets for developed countries that are in the Protocol. For this negotiating ‘track’ the Bali conference agreed on an intensive work schedule for 2008 to accelerate progress.

A review of the Protocol at the next UN climate conference, in December 2008, will help to inform these negotiations on future commitments by developed countries.

The negotiations under both ‘tracks’ – Convention and Protocol - will be completed at the UN climate change conference to be held at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen. The EU and many other Parties insisted on this simultaneous deadline to ensure a coherent result.

More at UN Bali Reports,  EU.

New S3200 specification delivers higher speed than competing technologies - and much sooner - with no changes to connectors or cables.

Dallas — On Dec 12, The 1394 Trade Association announced a new specification to quadruple the speed of FireWire to reach 3.2 gigabits per second.

The new electrical specification, known as S3200, builds upon the IEEE 1394b standard, preserving all the advantages of FireWire while offering a major and unprecedented boost in performance.

The new speed uses the cables and connectors already deployed for FireWire 800 products, making the transition forward easy and convenient for 1394 product vendors and their customers. Because the 1394 arbitration, data, and service protocols were not modified for S3200, silicon and software vendors can deploy the faster speed FireWire quickly and with confidence that it will deliver its full potential performance.

The S3200 specification is expected to be ratified by early February. More at 1394TradeAssociation.org.

MOSCOW, Russia — In an effort to bring people faster, lower cost and a truly mobile, data broadband technology, Comstar, Russia’s leading telecomm provider, and Intel Corporation on Tuesday, Dec 11, announced a collaboration to develop mobile WiMAX in Russia.

The joint effort will initially focus on building a city-wide mobile WiMAX network in Moscow. Comstar plans to use its 2.5-2.7Ghz spectrum footprint in the city to build the network and is targeting its commercial launch for late 2008. Intel will drive an ecosystem of the client devices with embedded WiMAX solutions.

Intel is already developing embedded mobile WiMAX solutions for notebook PCs and ultra mobile and mobile Internet devices. Starting in mid-2008 the company will offer its first embedded mobile WiMAX/Wi-Fi module, codenamed “Echo Peak,” with its next-generation Intel Centrino processor technology for notebooks and ultra-mobile devices. A solution optimized for mobile Internet devices with low-power consumption, codenamed “Baxter Peak,” is also expected to be available next year.

Mobile WiMAX is a broadband wireless technology that provides low-cost, multi-megabit speed, and great throughput for accessing large amounts of such data as movies and multi-media content. It is based on the IEEE 802.16e standard and is expected to be deployed around the world starting next year.

Intel will work manufacturers worldwide to develop and test notebook PCs and mobile devices to work with mobile WiMAX networks. A number of PC and device manufacturers have already expressed intent to embed these solutions into systems next year and more are expected in the next several months.

Comstar, part of services conglomerate Sistema, provides voice, data, Internet, pay-TV and other services. It has around 452K broadband Internet subscribers in Moscow. More at Intel.

Dec 05, ‘07 — A long-running California lawsuit over whether all megabytes and gigabytes are created equal may have reached its end on Friday, reports Declan McCullagh of CNET News.

The article further describes, “the class action lawsuit, against Kodak, Sandisk, Lexar Media, and other memory card makers, says a binary definition is appropriate, meaning that one megabyte equals 1,048,576 bytes and that the memory card sizes were overstated by 4 percent to 5 percent.

When memory capacity was smaller, the difference didn’t mean much. A decimal kilobyte, at 10^3=1,000 wasn’t very different from 2^10=1,024.

But as capacity grows, the differences become more significant (technically, the ratio between the decimal and binary representations increases). This explains why your new terabyte drive isn’t as capacious as you hoped it might be. A 10^12=1,000,000,000,000 decimal terabyte is roughly 10 percent smaller than the binary equivalent of 2^40=1,099,511,627,776.

At this point it’s reasonable to note that there actually are terms that avoid all this confusion, and those include IEEE 1541 terms Gibibyte and Tebibyte.

More at CNET News.

Single Package Is Less than 1/100th the Size of Previous Tuner.

Dec 05, ‘07 — Sharp Corporation has developed the VA3C5CZ920, the industry’s first tuner module compatible with GB20600-2006, the China Digital Television Terrestrial Broadcasting System Standard. Sample shipments will start in late January 2008. This tuner module is less than 1/100th the size of conventional “can” tuners for receiving China’s terrestrial digital broadcasts. The small package size of just 10.7 x 10.7 x 1.4 mm means that this tuner module can go into mobile equipment such as portable TVs and allow them to receive terrestrial digital broadcasts.

Established in August 2006, China’s terrestrial digital broadcast standard has begun test service and plans are for a gradual conversion to full-fledged service. This is fueling expectations for a growing market in mobile equipment capable of receiving high-quality HD broadcasts as the country heads for major events like the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

Unlike conventional can tuners, key component tuners like this one mainly go into mobile equipment and must therefore be extremely small. The VA3C5CZ920 answers this call with a compact, single package achieved through proprietary high-frequency and high-density-mounting technologies that came out of Sharp’s experience in developing tuner modules for One-Seg, Japan’s terrestrial digital broadcast format.

Major Features
1. Industry’s first tuner compatible with GB20600-2006, the China Digital Television Terrestrial Broadcasting System Standard
2. The single package measures just 10.7 x 10.7 x 1.4 mm, less than 1/100th the size of Sharp’s previous tuner
3. Achieves low power consumption of 530 mW (during continuous operation)

More at Sharp.

Dec 05, ‘07 — Video Ezy and Blockbuster have thrown their support behind Blu-ray, saying HD DVD was “missing the boat” and not taking the Australian market seriously enough, Sydney Morning Herald reports.

SMH further writes, “Paul Uniacke, managing director of the Franchise Entertainment Group, which owns Video Ezy and Blockbuster in Australia, said the local roll-out of HD DVD had been too slow as its supporters did not see Australia as an important market compared with the US and Europe.

According to market-watcher GfK, 2241 stand-alone Blu-ray players have been sold in Australia to date, compared with 609 HD DVD players.

But Sony has moved more than 100,000 units of the PS3, which has a built-in Blu-ray player. Only 2461 add-on HD DVD players for the Xbox 360, which cost $249.95, have been sold so far.

The trend in player sales is consistent with sales of HD movies. More than 102,000 Blu-ray movies have been sold to date, as against just under 18,000 HD DVD movies.

Blockbuster in the US has supported Blu-ray exclusively for months and, locally, its head of product, John McKay, said Blockbuster would buy only Blu-ray titles “for the foreseeable future”.” More at SMH.

White Plains, NY — Dec 03, ‘07 — Nokia today applauded Verizon Wireless’ announced plans to develop and deploy a fourth generation (4G) mobile broadband network. The Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology Verizon Wireless chose is an open and global specification for next generation networks that will bring scale and efficiencies for manufacturers, choice in network equipment and device for operators, and ultimately better value and richer experiences for consumers.

Broadband wireless technologies have the power to change the way people work, live, play and communicate. As the world leader in converged devices, Nokia is dedicated to offering a wide choice of mobile devices to consumers and remains committed to openness and innovation. Nokia is proud to expand our collaboration with Verizon Wireless to develop products that allow consumers to experience the benefits of mobility and the Internet.

“Nokia has long been committed to working closely with operators in the US and around the world, and is very pleased to support Verizon Wireless in their choice of LTE as their global 4G evolution path,” said Mark Louison, President, Nokia Inc., the North American arm of Nokia.

“It is very exciting to see Verizon Wireless, one of the world’s leading wireless providers, announce their open development initiative for devices and their decision to evolve their network to the open, global specification of LTE.”

Within the next 10 years, Nokia sees that demand for an enriched mobile experience and mobile computing will continue to grow at exponential rates. LTE will help to enable faster, richer multimedia services such as multi-player gaming with rich 3D graphics and simultaneous Instant Messaging or voice calls and a host of other applications providing a much more compelling mobile experience for consumers everywhere. Nokia.

TORONTO, ONTARIO –Marketwire– Dec 03, ‘07 — Nortel has successfully tested a solution with Qualcomm that will improve the mobile phone experience for users by allowing them to continue conversations uninterrupted and avoid additional roaming charges when a caller is moving between different wireless networks.

The completion of testing between Nortel’s IMS-based Voice Call Continuity (VCC) network solution and the Qualcomm chipset solution that uses their IMS/VCC device client is a major step towards the availability of out-of-the box VCC-enabled mobile phones.

VCC helps decrease mobile phone charges by seamlessly switching voice calls, without interruptions, between WiFi and cellular networks. Airtime and long distance charges do not apply when the user roams into areas of WiFi coverage - which can be in the home, office or some public retail locations.

As an IMS-based application, VCC moves beyond traditional cellular solutions by enabling service providers to offer innovative multimedia services on mobile phones like network-based real-time, multi-player gaming, enterprise service integration and interactive blogging.

“Because Nortel’s VCC is based on IMS, it will allow operators to deploy more multimedia services compared to other FMC solutions,” said Alf Decardenas, general manager, Carrier Multimedia Networks, Nortel.”

Also, Nortel’s VCC solution supports seamless voice calling across a wide range of next-generation technologies, as well as Femto cellular access points that are able to connect to the network using residential DSL or cable broadband connections.

Nortel is a leading contributor to VCC standards and our successful completion of testing with Qualcomm illustrates that we are committed to deploying commercial VCC solutions in the market, making them available to service providers within their current networks or as they evolve to 4G solutions such as WiMAX, UMB and LTE.”

Testing included authentication, calls on cellular/WiFi, in-call handover using manual and automatic triggers and a variety of error cases. Both Nortel and Qualcomm have implemented the VCC standards defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the global standard for 3G mobile phone systems.

The Nortel VCC network solution is expected to be commercially available from Nortel in the first quarter of 2008. VCC-ready devices are expected to be available from Qualcomm in the market mid 2008.

BEAVERTON, Ore — Nov 28, ‘07 — The Universal Serial Bus (USB) 3.0 Promoter Group is looking for additional contributors to its initial draft of the group’s proposed specification with a goal to have it completed by the first half of 2008.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 will create a backward-compatible standard with the same ease-of-use and plug-and-play capabilities of previous USB computer connection technologies, ports and cabling. The personal USB interconnect is targeting to deliver over 10 times the speed of today’s connection and will be optimized for lower power and improved protocol efficiency.

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group public Web site usb.org/usb30 outlines the process to become a contributor to the specification. A company must be a USB Implementers Forum member in good standing and sign a USB 3.0 contributor agreement.

Once a company has joined, it will obtain access to the current draft of the specification. The site also includes a URL for Contributors to supply comments. The group plans to review the specification with contributors at a meeting in Las Vegas on Jan. 14-15.

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group, consisting of HP, Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments Incorporated, is committed to preserving the existing USB device class driver infrastructure and investment, look and feel and ease-of-use of USB while continuing to expand this technology’s capabilities. More at USB.org (in pdf)

Brussels — November 29, ‘07 — Today the rapid deployment of mobile TV services across Europe has taken a significant step forward as EU Member States endorsed the European Commission three pillar strategy presented in July: putting in place a joint approach to the licensing of mobile TV in order to accelerate the roll out of services and to encourage innovative business models; making available spectrum for these services, possibly in the UHF frequency band; and promoting the use of DVB-H as the mobile TV standard for Europe.

Next steps will now include the preparation of guidelines for authorization procedures and the addition of DVB-H to the official list of standards whose use all 27 EU Member States have to support and encourage. This proactive European strategy for mobile TV aims at giving European consumers the benefits of television everywhere and anytime, as is increasingly the case in Asia and the US. It also gives content creators, broadcasters, service providers and hardware manufacturers the certainty they need to roll-out mobile TV services across Europe in 2008.

The Commission is strongly committed to the success of mobile TV which could be a market of up to €20 billion by 2011, reaching some 500 million customers worldwide. The Commission considers 2008 to be a crucial year for mobile TV take-up in the EU due to important sports events, such as the European Football Championship and the Summer Olympic Games, which will provide a unique opportunity for raising consumers’ awareness and for the adoption of new services.

Today, South Korea and Japan alone have 20 million mobile TV customers, more than 30 times the number of users in the EU. These competitors have undertaken massive efforts to promote their own single standards around the globe, threatening one of Europe’s most promising industries.

To date DVB-H has been commercially launched in Italy and Finland, with trials in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. More at European Commission.

Related Articles:

Deutsche Telekom’s T-Systems Wins DVB-H Mobile TV Frequencies In Germany

Qualcomm Intros Snapdragon, First Chipset to Break the Gigahertz Barrier with Multi-mode Broadband and Multimedia Features

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, Nov 29, ‘07 /PRNewswire/ — Verizon today announced plans to develop and deploy its fourth generation mobile broadband network using LTE — Long Term Evolution – the technology developed within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards organization.

The selection of LTE provides Verizon and Vodafone — joint owners of U.S.-based Verizon Wireless - - with a unique opportunity to adopt a common access platform with true global scale and compatibility with existing technologies of both companies.

Verizon and Vodafone have a coordinated trial plan for LTE that begins in 2008. Trial suppliers include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia- Siemens, and Nortel. These suppliers, along with others in the world community, have contributed significantly towards development of the standards in 3GPP.

Discussions with device suppliers have expanded beyond traditional suppliers such as LG, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson, as consumer electronics companies anticipate embedded wireless functionality in their future products.

“We fully support Verizon’s decision to select LTE as their next generation wireless broadband solution,” said Steve Pusey, Vodafone’s global chief technology officer. “LTE will build on the capabilities of Vodafone’s 3G broadband High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network technology, which is available across the entire Vodafone 3G footprint.”

“Today’s 4G announcement, coupled with our Open Development initiative announced earlier this week present a major growth opportunity for Verizon Wireless,” said Doreen Toben, chief financial officer of Verizon. “Fourth generation’s higher data speeds wi usher in a new era of wireless applications and appliances, all of which can benefit from connecting to the nation’s premier wireless network.”

More at PRNewsWire.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has opened a competition to develop a new cryptographic “hash” algorithm, a tool that converts a file, message or block of data to a short “fingerprint” for use in digital signatures, message authentication and other computer security applications.

The competition is NIST’s response to recent advances in the analysis of hash algorithms. The new hash algorithm will be called Secure Hash Algorithm-3 (SHA-3) and will augment the hash algorithms currently specified in the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-2, Secure Hash Standard.

NIST’s goal is that SHA-3 provide increased security and offer greater efficiency for the applications using cryptographic hash algorithms. FIPS standards are required for use in federal civilian computer systems and are often adopted voluntarily by private industry.

FIPS 180-2 specifies five cryptographic hash algorithms, including SHA-1 and the SHA-2 family of hash algorithms. Because serious attacks have been reported in recent years against cryptographic hash algorithms, including SHA-1, and because SHA-1 and the SHA-2 family share a similar design, NIST has decided to standardize an additional hash algorithm to augment the ones currently specified in FIPS 180-2.

NIST issued a Call for a New Cryptographic Hash Algorithm (SHA-3) Family in a Federal Register Notice on Nov. 2, 2007. The announcement specifies the submission requirements, the minimum acceptability requirements, and the evaluation criteria for candidate hash algorithms.

Entries for the competition must be received by Oct. 31, 2008. Details about the competition are available at nist.gov/hash-competition More at NIST.

LONDON — Nov 27, ‘07 — In the battle of formats, High definition movie DVDs in the Blu-ray format have outsold the rival HD DVD standard in Europe this year, breaking the 1 million barrier and constituting 73 percent of all HD movie discs sold, says Reuters.

“Citing industry sales data by Media Control Gfk International, the Blu-ray disc association said in a statement on Tuesday Blu-ray movie disc sales had topped 1 million units and when counting Blu-ray gaming discs the total number produced for sale in Europe exceeded 21 million units.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console includes a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Hollywood and electronics manufacturers are hoping that new high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and more capacity, will revive the slowing home DVD market. But the launch of the next-generation DVD players has been complicated by the fact that there are two competing technologies available, Blu-ray and HD DVD.

HD DVD was developed by Toshiba while Sony backs the Blu-ray standard”. More at Reuters.

Taipei, Taiwan — nov 22, ‘07 — The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) plans to work with the Wi-Fi Alliance to develop UWB (ultra wideband) over Wi-Fi technology, according to Derek Soh, technical marketing manager for Asia Pacific at Bluetooth SIG, DigiTimes reported.

The DigiTimes further writes, “While stating that details of the cooperation with the Wi-Fi Alliance are still under discussion, Soh said that Bluetooth SIG aims to develop next-generation Bluetooth technology that will be incorporated with NFC (near field communications), UWB and Wi-Fi technologies.

In addition, the development of Bluetooth technology is now inclining toward ultra-low power and UWB technologies, said Soh, noting that the developments will help expand the applications of the Bluetooth wireless technology into the fields of medical and health care, industrial control and automotive control.

New Bluetooth technology with ultra-low power specifications is expected to be revealed in the first half of 2008 with the first devices to be available in the second half. Bluetooth with UWB specifications is expected to come out by the end of 2008 with related devices to be available in mid-2009, Soh indicated.” Digitimes.

Nov 20, ‘07 — Speaking exclusively with High-Def Digest, Jim Noonan, SVP of Strategic Promotion and Communication for Warner Home Entertainment Group says its previously announced Blu-ray / HD DVD hybrid disc won’t be hitting stores anytime soon.

High-Def Digest further explains, “roughly six months after unveiling “Total HD” plans, Warner announced it was delaying its plans for Total HD until early 2008, but said it remained committed to the concept, promising ten to twenty launch titles upon the format’s eventual release.

Though the studio had since remained mum on the status of its plans for the hybrid format, a Warner exec has now confirmed to High-Def Digest that all current plans for Total HD have been shelved in response to a perceived shift in retailer needs following Paramount’s move to HD DVD exclusivity. “The short answer is, for the moment, it [Total HD] is on hold,” said Noonan citing reason that, they were the only studio producing content in both formats.

More at High-Def Digest.

GENEVA — Nov 15, ‘07 — A U.N. telecoms meeting decided Thursday to give mobile service providers access to bandwidth currently reserved for terrestrial television broadcasts, offering the promise of high-speed Internet access on-the-move anywhere in the world by 2015.

The decision will give manufacturers of wireless equipment greater security to develop better and cheaper devices, while service providers can expect significantly lower rollout costs for new networks.

U.S. officials lobbied hard for a global agreement on spectrum use, arguing that a common approach was better than each country or region deciding to use separate frequencies for next-generation mobile services.

Consumers in the United States are to gain access to at least some of the spectrum in question by 2009, but it will take an additional six years before those in Europe, Africa, China, Russia and much of the Middle East will have the same access.

The decision to open these frequencies — sometimes described as the beachfront property of the radio spectrum — to mobile services will mean significant cost-savings for telecommunications companies.

Countries agreed to the rule after a month of negotiations that boiled down to a battle between old and new media — broadcasters against telecommunications companies — for control of a prime stretch of radio spectrum.

All-night talks at the U.N.-hosted World Radiocommunications Conference in Geneva finally resulted in a deal by Thursday morning, but not without Europe’s powerful broadcasting interests winning a major concession that means the amount of bandwidth available for mobile services in their region will be half of what is offered elsewhere.

European broadcasters warned earlier this week that viewers of digital terrestrial television could see their reception interrupted by nearby cell phones if the two technologies shared the same frequency.

In addition to the reduced bandwidth, Europe, Africa, China, Mongolia, the countries of the former Soviet Union, and much of the Middle East would wait until 2015 before making the most cost-effective part of the radio spectrum available for advanced mobile services.

A U.S. government auction scheduled for February is expected to fetch up to $15 billion from the sale of bandwidth in the 698 megahertz to 806 megahertz range.

The same frequencies will be available for mobile services throughout the Americas, India, Japan, Korea and a number of other Asian countries, while the rest of the world will initially use only the 790 megahertz to 862 megahertz range.

Nov 15, ‘07 — The board of the GSM Association voted to back LTE (3GPP Long Term Evolution) as the mobile broadband standard to succeed HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), the CEO of the group said Tuesday.

The vote is an indication that GSM operators are unified in their support for LTE, and gives them a united front as LTE competes with Qualcomm’s UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband) and with WiMax, backed by the computer industry, to become the next mobile broadband technology.

LTE is several times faster than HSPA and could help spur demand for more downloading over cellular networks. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo may become the first operator to widely deploy the new technology, which is expected to be ready by the end of this decade.

Rob Conway, CEO of GSMA, announced the association’s backing of LTE during a speech at the GSM Association’s Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, China, and called on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the leading United Nations agency for communication technologies, to ensure the industry wins the spectrum needed to offer mobile broadband.

NTT DoCoMo is pushing aggressively ahead with plans to speed up its mobile broadband services in Japan, and is looking to LTE to take care of the job. The company counts over half of Japan’s mobile subscribers as its customers and has already started running tests on LTE technology to become its “Super 3G” offering. One advantage to LTE is that it can be used on existing 3G networks.

Download speeds on Super 3G could reach up to 300Mbps (megabits per second), Masao Nakamura, the CEO of NTT DoCoMo, said in a speech, a huge improvement over HSDPA.

DoCoMo is also researching 4G (fourth generation) mobile technology. When it’s commercialized, 4G will promise 1Gbps download speeds, said Nakamura, but in testing DoCoMo has achieved speeds as high as 5Gbps.

Testing on LTE is expected to be finished by 2009, said Matthias Reis, head of the LTE business program at Nokia Siemens Networks. Operators are currently using HSPA, and starting to roll out HSPA+ and IHSPA (Internet-HSPA). By 2009, testing will be done and operators will be able to start rolling out the technology, he said.

Meanwhile the GSMA continues to back current generation wireless technologies. Separately Tuesday, in partnership with Microsoft, it announced a contest to design laptop PCs with HSPA-enabled chipsets to make it easier for the average user to access the Internet via a mobile network.

TOKYO & SAN DIEGO –BUSINESS WIRE– Nov 13, ‘07 — DivX today announced that DivX video technology will be integrated into PLAYSTATION3 (PS3) from Sony. The popular computer entertainment system will be added to the ecosystem of devices that currently support DivX video playback. To date, over 100 million DivX Certified products have been shipped into the market, and it is anticipated PS3 will significantly expand that number.

“We are excited to work with Sony Computer Entertainment to bring DivX to PS3,” said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc. “Our technology will expand the multimedia functionality of PS3 by enabling users to enjoy access to the broad library of content in the DivX digital media format.”

DivX is currently working to certify PS3 and deliver a superior digital media technology to consumers in the near future. Current PS3 end users will be able to add DivX functionality to their systems via a separate system software update at a forthcoming date. PS3 game title developers will be able to utilize DivX’s decoder technology by updating the system software of PS3’s Software Development Kit to version 2.00, which was released by SCE on November 2^nd. DivX.

New York, NY — Nov 08, ‘07 — The head of Sony Corp., Howard Stringer, said Thursday that the Blu-ray disc format the company has developed as the successor to the DVD is in a “stalemate” with the competing HD DVD format, chiefly backed by Toshiba and Microsoft.

“It’s a difficult fight,” said Stringer, speaking at the 92nd Street Y cultural center in Manhattan.

Toshiba has been selling its players for as low as $99 at Wal-Mart and Best Buy, heading into the holiday season, while Blu-ray players cost around $450. The HD DVD camp also scored a significant win in August, when it induced Paramount Pictures to drop most of its support for Blu-ray and put out high-definition movies exclusively on HD DVD.

“We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides,” Stringer said. At the same time, he played down the importance of the battle, saying it was mostly a matter of prestige whose format wins out in the end.

“It doesn’t mean as much as all that,” Stringer said. He added that he believed there was an opportunity of uniting the two camps under one format before he became CEO, and he wishes he could travel back in time to make that happen.

Statement from Jonathan Magasanik, Vice President and General Merchandise Manager, Home Electronics, Sears Holdings.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — There have been numerous statements in the media today, attributed to Toshiba, indicating exclusive support for the HD-DVD format in Kmart stores.

These statements are false. Kmart intends to support both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray platforms, and has no plans to support either platform exclusively. More at PRNewsWire.

Nov 02, ‘07 — Stephen Shankland of CNET’s News.com is reporting on Microsoft’s HD photo is getting a nod, from Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG), to become “a higher-end sequel to the ubiquitous JPEG image standard”.

He further writes, “The multiple countries participating in the Joint Photographic Experts Group, which created the JPEG standard, have approved an effort to make Microsoft’s HD Photo format a standard called JPEG XR, said Bill Crow, who has led Microsoft’s HD Photo effort and who just took over the company’s Microsoft Live Labs Seadragon imaging project. XR stands for “extended range,” a reference to the format’s ability to show a wider and finer range of tonal gradations and a richer color palette.

“The country vote is done, and it passed,” Crow said. “That means the International JPEG committee has decided to go ahead and create the standard. Now it’s just a process of doing that work,” a process that will begin later this month in a meeting in Kobe, Japan.

The move is an important step in the transformation of the photo format from an in-house technology called Windows Media Photo to a neutral format more likely to be palatable to companies that don’t want to be beholden to Microsoft.” More at News.com, Wikipedia.