The European Commission is aiming for one-fourth of businesses, public authorities and households in the European Union to use next-generation Internet addresses by 2010 because the current system is running out of addresses.
Pushing people toward Internet Protocol version 6, or IPv6, would make available “an almost unlimited” number of Web addresses — just as lengthening telephone numbers has allowed more phones to plug in.
The EU’s Internet commissioner said more addresses were needed if Europeans were to use Internet-enabled devices such as smart tags in shops, factories and airports or intelligent heating and lighting systems in their homes. The addresses include long series of numbers to identify a Web connection.
Of the 4.3 billion addresses allowed by the address system most people use now, IPv4, only 700 million — or 16 percent — are still available. IPv4 dates to 1984.
Moving to a next-generation Internet could be like changing the engines on a moving airplane and cost billions of dollars in replaced networking devices, software and personal computers. But advocates say restructuring of the Web’s underlying architecture will improve security, mobility and other emerging needs.
Japan’s Nippon Telecom and Telegraph has already rolled out a public IPv6 network and China plans to put one in place shortly. But the ball isn’t rolling yet in U.S. and Europe, though the U.S. has made IPv6 a condition for government contracts for Web site services.
Lost? Sniff around for your whereabouts: One of texting’s most common messages — “Where r u?” — may become a quaint phrase of the past with a new program that lets your friends and associates find out for themselves.
The program Sniff, which stands for “social network integrated friend finder,” will track down anyone who has signed up and agreed to be “Sniffed.”
Generally for less than $1, Sniff produces a rough address and map for any participant using the same technology rescuers employ to find wayward hikers who call 911 by cell phone — triangulating the caller’s location based on which cell phone towers are nearby.
If you’re lost, you can Sniff yourself.
About 180,000 users in Scandinavia are doing it, and the program recently launched in the United Kingdom, where Sniff searches go for 50 pence.
Denver-based Useful Networks, owned by Liberty Media Corp., says the program is handy for finding friends on the way to happy hour, and it expects at least two major U.S. wireless carriers — CEO Brian Levin wouldn’t say which — to start offering Sniff within weeks through Facebook and www.sniffu.com.
The startup Loopt offers a similar service that automatically updates users’ friends’ locations. And Google Inc.’s Dodgeball will tell all your friends where you are when you send Dodgeball a message updating your location.
9,600 bucks for a speaker?: Sony, the company that brought you the egg-shaped music player and the dog-like robot, has now created the transparent tube speaker.
Called Sountina — a combination of “sound” and “fountain” — the $9,600 acrylic speaker goes on sale June 20 in Japan with sales elsewhere still undecided.
Sony Corp. said the 3.3-foot speaker spreads high-quality, natural-sounding audio 360 degrees around itself by vibrating and can fill hotel lobbies, wedding halls and other large spaces.
Sony officials said the speaker’s exact coverage depends on an area’s interior surfaces.
The tube, slightly thicker than a baseball bat, was shown to reporters at Sony’s Tokyo headquarters Wednesday.
LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, in blue, amber, pink and purple at the bottom of the tube are reflected in the stainless steel at the top of the tube. In a darkened room, they reflect off a steel string dangling inside the tube.
Sony senior manager Noriyasu Kawaguchi acknowledged some people may prefer more blast and heavier bass.
“Maybe it doesn’t work in the way some American consumers are expecting their speakers to work,” he said.
870 bucks for speakers is more like it: Sony says its newest speakers can deliver the sound of a top-notch home-theater sound system even though they’re just a little bigger than golf balls.
A full Home Theater System HT-IS100 includes five of the roughly cube-shaped 1.7-inch speakers plus a 17-inch-tall combination amplifier and subwoofer for bass sounds.
The $870 set, to go on sale in Japan this month, will be available later in North America and Europe, Sony Corp. spokeswoman Eiko Sato said. But pricing and dates aren’t set.
Panasonic powers up its Evolta battery: Watch out Energizer Bunny. Robot Evolta kept climbing and climbing — up a rope dangling from a Grand Canyon cliff for nearly seven hours on a pair of AA batteries that Japan’s Panasonic is billing as the world’s longest lasting.
To prove how durable its new alkaline batteries are, Panasonic had the 5-ounce, 6.7-inch blue imp clasp a rope with its arms and feet and climb as far and long as it could. That turned out to be about 1,740 feet over the course of six hours and 46 minutes, Panasonic, also known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., said Tuesday.
The company says the new battery cell — called Evolta, combining “evolution” and “voltage” — can keep gadgets running 20 percent longer than offerings from rivals Duracell and Energizer.
From the Associated Press
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