Phone giants preparing 'Super 3G`
Major operators are working on a follow-up to 3G that could make data transfer up to ten times faster.
A total of 26 firms - including Vodafone, Siemens and NTT DoCoMo - have signed up to develop the 'Super 3G` standard, which could make TV via mobile a commercial reality, and would offer improved content and gaming services.
The implementation of an upgraded network would be expensive - NTT DoCoMo says it would have cost around R6 billion to upgrade its infrastructure alone.
However, research firm ARC Group says mobile video could prove the catalyst, adding that the mobile video market will exceed R30 billion by 2008, with 250 million people using the service.
According to news.com, the Super 3G standard is likely to be ready by 2007, with a commercial launch due after 2009.
CAN-SPAM a "miserable" failure
A messaging security firm has slated the federal CAN-SPAM Act as a "miserable" failure that has had no impact on the flow of spam.
A year after implementation, only 3% of unsolicited e-mail complied with the legislation`s requirements, says MX Logic CTO Scott Chasin.
"Clearly [CAN-SPAM] has had no meaningful impact on the flow of spam. In fact, the volume of spam increased in 2004 and we fully anticipate continued growth in 2005. Not only is CAN-SPAM not working, it was never designed to work. CAN-SPAM was design to regulate e-mail marketing, it was never designed to actually `can spam.`"
According to InformationWeek, spam accounted for around 77% of all e-mail in 2004.
Linksys claims eightfold speed increase
Linksys announced yesterday announced the availability of technology that it says increases data throughput speeds by as much as eight times over standard 802.11g equipment.
The company announced both a wireless router and a PC Card adapter. In addition to increasing data throughput speeds, the technology increases range by as much as three times, Linksys claimed in a statement.
The Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX is available for $200 (R1200), while the PC Card will cost around $129 (R780), reports InformationWeek.
MySQL to release 5.0 beta version
MySQL is expected to release a beta version of its MySQL 5.0 open source database in January.
According to InfoWorld, the new version will feature enterprise-level functionality such as stored procedures and triggers, and also adds server-side cursor support to boost scaling by moving more program execution to the server.
The production release was originally expected to be available in 2004, but is now expected sometime this year.
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