WiFi Alliance clamps down

Eweek.com reports that the WiFi Alliance has announced a new policy to prevent proprietary extensions to wireless standards from breaking compatibility with other devices.

The alliance said it would pull its logo - certifying interoperability with other WiFi products - from devices whose extensions made them inoperable with other devices.

AP reports that mobile phone holders in Bahrain can watch live television news and music on their mobile handsets, thanks to a service launched yesterday by MTC-Vodafone Bahrain. The first such service in the Middle East will allow customers to download and view music videos, movie trailers and other audio and video content on their mobile phones.

The service will be available in Bahrain to MTC-Vodafone`s estimated 50 000 customers. It will be expanded to Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon later.

Rockwell FirstPoint Contact Corporation has implemented its FirstPoint Business Edition solution at Global Access, a South African provider of satellite-transmitted business broadcast services and facilities.

Henry Leslie, manager of business intelligence and call centre at Global Access, says its call centre receives over 1 000 calls a week, and saw the need to upgrade its call centre from a PABX call distributor environment.

After investigating various call centre solutions, Global Access standardised on 10 seats of FirstPoint Business Edition. AST Networks, a Rockwell reseller in SA, facilitated the installation of the solution.

AFP reports that Samsung SDI, South Korea`s largest display screen maker, has developed the world`s slimmest cathode-ray tube (CRT) display for digital televisions. The new CRT display for 81cm digital TVs, dubbed Vixlim, is only 35cm thick, nearly halving the 50 to 60cm seen on traditional CRTs.

"The new product is as slim as LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs, but better quality, making itself a good fit for digital TV," the company said.