Google may be planning to use blimps, balloons and other “high-altitude platforms” over developing markets in Africa and Asia to provide wireless Internet access to areas that are currently not well served. High-altitude platforms, or Haps, can be manned or unmanned aircraft, balloons or blimps that operate between 17km
Just as the music industry was getting used to the idea of another shift in formats – from compact discs as the distribution mechanism to digital downloads over the Internet – another huge change in the way people listen to music looks set to shake the business to its foundations. A decade after Steve Jobs
The most memorable image from Microsoft’s reveal of the Xbox One was an animated German Shepherd with Kevlar armour and a high polygon count. Motion-captured from a retired Navy Seal dog to serve as a player companion in this year’s iteration of Call of Duty, the pooch is an apt mascot for the console. The dog
The GSMA Association, which represents most of the world’s mobile operators, has opened a permanent office in Nairobi in Kenya. The office, housed at the city’s iHub, will allow the association to work more closely with its members throughout the continent. The move shows a
Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, is at a crossroads. The company, with Microsoft, dominated the client-server era of computing. Its chips power most servers and PCs sold today. But the action in the computing industry is no longer in desktops and laptops, but rather in smartphones
Microsoft on Tuesday night joined the next generation console battle with the announcement of its Xbox One that critics are billing as an all-in-one entertainment device rather than simply a gaming console. While Microsoft gave the world a fairly detailed look at the features and capabilities
Few people remember third place. Whether in sport, science or business, there’s little glory attached to the bronze medal. But two multinational giants, BlackBerry and Microsoft, are straining to be the third player in the burgeoning smart phone market. The latest figures from
It has an arcane name and involves complex communications technology, but there’s every reason you and I should be getting very excited indeed about “television white spaces”, the gaps in spectrum between broadcast television channels. Google and Microsoft are pouring millions of dollars
“It’s all about the ecosystem.” That’s a catchphrase much bandied about these days. For mobile device manufacturers, having a range of quality software is as important as the hardware. Perhaps even more important. Two companies, Finland’s Nokia and Canada’s
Microsoft plans to work with the CSIR and the State IT Agency (Sita) to launch a trial network in South Africa’s Limpopo province that will test the feasibility of using so-called television white-spaces spectrum to offer more affordable wireless broadband access. The trial will be the third white-spaces trial
