Live and wireless

Three signs that the wireless revolution is almost upon us.

First, I got hold of an Apple Ipod Touch. Yes, it looks beautiful, the screen is great quality, it makes watching video on the move a pleasure. But for me the real breakthrough is wireless connectivity that simply works. It picks up networks in a moment, and the zoom function on the screen means for the first time web on the move is easy and a pleasure.

John Naughton agrees.

Then, the BBC announced its "free wifi content" deal with The Cloud - the wireless hotspot provider. At any Cloud hotspot you can get BBC content - including video and audio - without paying for access. Just go straight to the BBC site. We'll see more "free access" deals - with commercial sites - I am sure.

Finally listening to Digital Planet on the BBC World Service I heard an interview with Padmasree Warrior, Motorola’s chief technology officer, about Wi-max. It's been promised for a long time, but it now appears to be arriving with 17 cities in Pakistan already connected....

Bring it on...

Comments

[john henderson]

what took you so long? nic demo'd my mate's ipod touch to mark byford at the start of the month! (and managed to wipe all the music off it in the process - all recovered, so completely forgiven).

i emailed you yesterday about the next big thing. things have moved on a tad since then. i now have the next big thing after that. the iPod touch is only the beginning. brandon butterworth could probably build the first one in a week (if he's not done so already! eek!).

i have been checking apple patents and they don't seem to be in the same ballpark. if my searches continue to draw a blank, then i will be needing the best patent laywer in london to protect these ideas.

if on the other hand, apple do have patents or patents pending on these ideas, that’s ok too - i’m first in the queue to buy both and i can take some confort in knowing that i am at least as clever as apple’s brightest engineers. i’ll just have to be that bit quicker with the next idea. in the meantime i can continue to pursue software engineering perfection for the BBC News website and all that supports it.

so, if i may be so bold as to borrow your blog for a moment, if anyone reading this knows aforesaid lawyer please ask him to call me on 07857 270000.

and Richard, you can sack me or buy me a coffee. i'm in Broadcast Centre all day and i've got something to show you.