HDR tree
tree, sunset @ Parque Natural Ria Barosa, Barro, Pontevedra, Galicia. ( Spain, 2008 )
Thanks to everyone, this shot was in explore day13, #174, #223 and final is #239, Dropped :)
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Anyone can see this photo
Cox Becoming a Virtual Wireless Provider Using Sprint's Network in 2009 [Cellphones]
COX TO LAUNCH NEXT GENERATION BUNDLE WITH WIRELESS IN 2009
Company Sees Opportunity in Deeply-Bundled Customer Relationships,
Integration & SimplicityATLANTA – October 27, 2008 – Today, Cox Communications announced its plan to add wireless offerings to its bundle of award-winning entertainment and communications services, such as digital cable, high-speed Internet and telephone in 2009. The company is delivering on its promise to enable residential and business customers to take their Cox services with them wherever they go. Today's news marks another innovative milestone in the company's history. In 1997, Cox was the first company to introduce a voice, video and data bundle to the marketplace. Today, more than 64% of Cox customers buy multiple services from Cox and one-third subscribe to all three products.
"Wireless service will be a key driver to Cox's future growth," said Pat Esser, president of Cox Communications. "As wireless communications enters the new generation, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the entertainment and communications services our customers want, whenever, however and wherever they want them. Our bundled customers will become even 'stickier' as we offer them the ! best cus tomer experience. To deliver the best customer experience, we will manage every aspect of the service, from product development to marketing and sales to back-office operations and customer support and billing."
Cox will utilize the Nationwide Sprint Network to quickly enter the market in 2009. At the same time, Cox is concurrently building its own 3G wireless network for additional market launches in 2009. Cox will also test 4G technology utilizing LTE (long term evolution). Earlier this year, Cox joined CTIA (the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry), the Rural Cellular Association and CDMA Development Group (CDG).
In recent years, Cox successfully acquired wireless spectrum in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Auctions. "We've already invested more than $500 million to acquire wireless spectrum and to develop the infrastructure and human resources needed to architect our own advanced wireless service," said Esser. "Our commitment is firm, and the wireless services we deliver will further the Cox experience. As consumers are increasingly adopting a mobile lifestyle, we will continue to deliver in ways that are uniquely Cox – offering the first truly integrated bundle that is easy-to-use, reliable and supported by the best customer service available."
"Cox understands the importance of leveraging content across the television, computer and mobile device," said J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.d, vice president & chief analyst, Mobile and Wireless at Frost & Sullivan. "Given its existing business operations, Cox is well positioned to extend its local market assets for wireless and leverage its existing customer relationships in the markets it serves. This strategy is very similar to the company's successful entry into the landline telephone business more than 10 years ago."
Cox research indicates that consumers want a simple and easy-to-use wireless service that will integrate easily with their lifestyle. Management and deliver! y of con verged content is at the core of Cox's wireless strategy. Cox customers will be able to use their mobile phone to access television favorites, program their DVR, access content saved on their home computer and simplify their lives with enhanced voice features.
"We are in the business of making it simpler and easier for people to enjoy communications and entertainment," said Dallas Clement, senior vice president of strategy and product management. "Ten years ago, only Cox, a cable company, had the flexibility to introduce simpler telephone plans to the marketplace. And now, with wireless, we have the flexibility yet again to introduce a simpler and better wireless offer, making it easy for consumers to continue to choose Cox as their trusted provider. It's an exciting future for our customers."
Cox has a long history of innovation and customer service excellence. When Cox launched telephone service in 1997, it became the first company to deliver digital video, high-speed Internet and telephone service via a single network. This innovation and focus on customer service has earned the company many prestigious awards. In the last six years, Cox has received highest rankings in 15 J.D. Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction studies for telephone, video, high-speed Internet and commercial data. Cox is the only cable or telecommunications provider to earn highest satisfaction ratings across all product lines, including commercial data services.
Headphonies: 3-Inch Vinyl Figures Make Unique Portable Speakers [Portable Media]
Sprint LG Lotus Lightning Review [Lightning Review]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/433872264/sprint-lg-lotus-lightning-review
Price: $150
Verdict: The form factor is utterly bizarre—a flip phone as wide as Oprah's ass with a full QWERTY keyboard that takes its design cues from a chick's makeup compact thing (whatever the hell they're called). It doesn't bother to make it up by being RAZR-thin, either. Inside is another dumbphone that desperately wants to be smart, but it copies off the bright kids' paper enough to do a reasonable impression.
The UI is remarkably navigable, with real transition animations and a nice, contrast-y design, though it would benefit with a bit more horsepower to keep it 100 percent zippy and silky smooth. When you open it up, you've got a customizable row of icons you thumb left or right through, and after pausing for a second (this is where the bonus horsies would be nice) a pop-up fills the rest of the screen with what it does—for instance, the Google icon gives you Maps, Gmail and YouTube. It has an app manager too, also like a real smartphone. If only Sprint's thoroughly integrated stores were as well designed.
Email is really robust, and better than either Verizon or AT&T's standard email offering—the built-in client gives you access to all the majors (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail) and IMAP and POP accounts, plus it makes it easy to switch between them. It's the client that's been shipping on Sprint's feature phones for a bit, but since the Lotus has a QWERTY keyboard, it's actually usable now.
The browser is where it really reveals that it belongs in a remedial class—while it's another incremental improvement on generally crappy d! umbphone browser, it crashed the whole phone more than once on big pages, though it's totally fine if you stick to mobile optimized sites, especially with EV-DO. The other big flaw in this phone is the media player—it's too tightly wrapped up with Sprint's music store and takes too many clicks to get to, though the YouTube app ain't half bad. Bonus points for the power adapter, which lets you plug it in with any micro USB cable, though they're sorta negated by the 2.5mm headphone jack.
In short, if you can live with the form factor, the Lotus is a fairly capable little (big) phone for someone who's not quite ready to graduate to a big boy smartphone, though $150 for a wannabe is a bit steep when you can get one for that much (or less). $99 would make this a higher recommend. Baby steps, baby steps. [Sprint]
Solar Powered "Sticker Lamps" Offer Paper-Thin Illumination [Solar Power]
It doesn't seem all that revolutionary at first glance (it reminds me of glow-in-the dark stickers), but I can see how being able to move a serious lightsource with such a small footprint around a room would give it an advantage over similar, more traditional products. Whether sticker lamps actually make it to the production stage remains to be seen. [SCMP and EarthTimes via Treehugger]
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