Stories by Ephraim Schwartz

On the wireless front

Never before have the battle lines been so clearly drawn between competing vendors. Still, the vendors continue to treat the corporate public like idiots who will actually believe one side or the other is interested in real standards or the user's welfare.

All things wireless dominate show floor

HDTVs (high-definition televisions) and car stereos -- once staples of the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas -- are a thing of the past in 2002. This year, wireless technology news has blanketed the massive convention centre.

Fearless forecasts

Prediction 1: Wireless Ethernet, also known as IEEE 802.11b or Wi-Fi, will continue to cover ground like a stampeding brontosaurus in Jurassic Park III. And as it becomes ubiquitous, wireless carriers will start to hurt. Why? Because as Wi-Fi gets incorporated into corporate networks, gets deployed in public places, and even becomes part of the design and construction of new homes, VOIP (voice over IP) will become the killer app that closes the deal for Wi-Fi installation.

Triple A handhelds

Security threats to handhelds are minimal today because handheld devices are still not well-understood within hacker circles. But as businesses begin extending their applications to remote handheld users, there's no doubt that your Palm, Pocket PC, BlackBerry, Visor, and the wireless networks they use will become tempting targets.

Choosing a handheld

In the old days, as Intel took us down the road from 90MHz processors on desktops and notebooks to the approaching 2GHz, IT managers would roll the PCs over every 18 months or so without a second thought.

Technology's limits

For some of the public and for the FBI it is a tale told through cell phones. Passengers on doomed flights calling loved ones to say goodbye and to secretly give out information they understood could be used in the ensuing investigation. A stewardess relays the seat numbers in which two of the terrorists were sitting.

Embedded Linux OS

A survey of US embedded system developers released last month indicated that 45.3% expect to target Linux or any open-source OS in the coming year.

One task too many

Chewing gum and walking at the same time may be fairly easy for most of us, but as I wrote more than a year ago in this column, having a hands-free conversation over a cellphone does not mean that your brain is also free.

Bluetooth comes of age

Discounting for the moment the issue of collisions when Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11b are in close proximity to each other, the wireless standard Bluetooth is getting closer to becoming real as a technology, and for the first time, companies are beginning to talk about what it will be like to use Bluetooth and its features and functions.

Mixed messages offer fuzzy picture for e-marketplaces

Commerce One Inc. customers and prospects listening to a keynote presentation at the company's annual eLink conference here on Tuesday were presented with mixed messages about whether companies will have difficulty deploying an e-business platform and about what type of e-business marketplaces, public or private, will dominate.

[]