Wireless World: Aisle displays for shoppers

http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20060724-123351-3637r


By GENE KOPROWSKI, UPI Technology Columnist

CHICAGO, July 28 (UPI) -- Wireless retailing is growing beyond mere point-of-sale service and inventory management, as new displays are coming to market that interact directly with customers in the shopping aisles, experts tell UPI's Wireless World.

These systems, which integrate hardware interface technologies, application software and wireless infrastructure, are poised to play a direct role in the in-store shopping experience of consumers. These systems have the potential to improve store operational performance by influencing the purchasing behavior and buying habits of shoppers.

"The outcome will be a new generation of grocery shoppers with a transformed view of their supermarket shopping experience," said Mark Smith, an analyst with Applied Data Research, a technology consulting firm based in Amherst, N.H. "Despite the enormity of such a shift, the economics of the grocery industry and the logistics of deploying these powerful mobile shopping systems in an industry with tight margins have slowed adoption to a crawl as a few major players cautiously feel their way through this new customer paradigm."

The transition to in-store wireless shopping, he noted, will be evolutionary, but ultimately it will be driven by information-savvy consumers as repeated exposure and acceptance time produces a new level of expectations. "Early-adopters of the technology will be positioned to ride the learning curve and maintain a tactical advantage over the competition," said Smith.

The interest in wireless in the retail space was stimulated by Wal-Mart, which a few years ago commanded its supply-chain vendors to start using wireless tags to track inventory in real time, including companies like Serious Magic, maker of Ovation software, or Altec Lansing headphones. The so-called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags -- which can be put on boxes of software, pallets of headphones, or other consumer goods -- are exciting the imagination of the industry and are now starting to take off globally, experts tell Wireless World.
Sales of RFID systems around the world will grow from $550 million this year to about $6.78 billion during the next 10 years, according to a report from the Cambridge, U.K.-based consulting firm, IDTechEx.

Growth in the market will be led by "disposable" RFID tags, like smart, active labels and real-time inventory location systems.

Tracking, locating and monitoring products and employees will be the single most significant driver for the growth in the wireless retail space, said the researchers.

"Growth factors include: increased competition in consumer goods, terrorism, threatened disease epidemics and consumers demanding better service and more information," according to the report.

What is more, the researchers said, RFID tags will become cheaper and smaller by 2016, which will help fuel growth.

Currently, healthcare and air industry markets are the most prolific consumers of RFID tags. "In both cases, the customers are prepared to pay for quality and readability, and prices are not in a free fall," said the report.

The researches said that G2 Microsystems, the Australian company that designed the lowest power, lowest cost WiFi chip on the market, recently set up its headquarters in the United States. Many Israeli and European RFID suppliers are doing the same.

There are about 1,000 RFID vendors around the world "with an increasing number of mergers and acquisitions and continual growth," said the researchers at IDTechEx.

There are also about 10,000 projects with RFID deployment globally and about 60 new projects launching each month, IDTechEx said.
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Gene Koprowski won fellowships at The University of Chicago and at Dartmouth College for his reporting for United Press International. E-mail: hitech@upi.com

Wireless World: PDA makers eye small firms

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By Gene Koprowski, UPI Technology Columnist
CHICAGO, July 21 (UPI) -- Christopher Bennett started two small businesses this year and recently made the executive decision to drop the BlackBerry wireless device he had been using to communicate with his clients and his partner. The entrepreneur switched to another wireless data carrier and now uses the Motorola Q smart gadget. "It's been amazing for business," Bennett, founder of www.doodyduty.biz (a pet waste removal company), told United Press International's Wireless World. "I've never used a PDA (personal digital assistant) so effectively to grow, control, and manage a business."
This is not good for Research in Motion, the famous maker of the BlackBerry, based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. After settling a longtime patent dispute with NTP for $612.5 million earlier this year, RIM is refocusing its strategy, this time on the small and medium business market.
"Mobilizing applications for users is the most significant IT catalyst for boosting productivity in the enterprise today," said Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-chief executive officer at RIM.
The challenge for the Canadian developer of one of the best-known PDAs, however, is that there are plenty of other companies already targeting the same market. By no means do they have the niche to themselves.
"The wireless e-mail market continues to evolve and flourish," Terry Austin, president of worldwide marketing and sales at Good Technology, a rival of RIM, told Wireless World. "Whether BlackBerry exists, or not, will be a footnote in the face of diversifying handheld alternatives from Nokia, Motorola, HP, Palm and others, and powerful enterprise software and service alternatives."
BlackBerry is ignoring the critics, however, and moving ahead with a new, hosted service for firms that don't have the IT resources to deploy wireless service software across their entire network. The new service supports an array of software applications, including Microsoft Exchange, IBM's Lotus Domino and Novell's GroupWise software, for collaboration. Some partners seem to believe in the strategy too -- IBM, EDS and even the United Kingdom's Vodafone are helping to market and distribute the new BlackBerry service.
The services the company is planning to offer -- according to a spokesman -- include desktop software that pushes e-mail messages from servers to PDAs, hosted Internet and a hosted enterprise server. This may seem like a bold move for the firm, but, in reality, it is just catching up with what Palm and Nokia are already doing, experts said. RIM has the resources to pursue its strategy, however. The company's sales last quarter were a surprising $613 million, an increase of 9 percent from the previous quarter. The company has nearly 6 million customers and added another 680,000 last quarter. So it does appear to have some momentum.
Some IT experts do see the advantages of their strategy. "Right now, BlackBerry is the only vendor that offers a complete, secure push e-mail solution; they control the hardware and the software," David Hoff, a spokesman for Optimus Solutions, an IT solutions and services provider based in Norcross, Ga., told Wireless World. "While it is a proprietary system, it does not interface with all three leading corporate e-mail systems -- Microsoft, Lotus and Novell."
Hoff said that BlackBerry's fame gives it an advantage over other competitors, like Good Technology and Nokia, even though they may already be selling in the small and medium business (SMB) market.
"In the long run, RIM/BlackBerry has a very significant lead, and for the SMB market, most people will tell you the solution just plain works," said Hoff. "In SMBs, where IT skills can be in short supply, Nokia, via Intellisync, and Microsoft might have an advantage by being able to provide multiple parts of the solution. But they have both got a lot of ground to cover."
Yet, there are still some in the small-business world -- accountants and other financial folks -- who are reluctant to use wireless for their business, due to security concerns. "As tempting as it might be, my business will never go wireless. Period," Eva Rosenberg, who practices a form of tax law as an enrolled agent before the Internal Revenue Service and who is publisher of Taxmama.com, told Wireless World. "The potential security risks are too high. Anyone who maintains records containing other people's financial data would be well-advised to take the same precaution. This includes tax professionals, financial advisers, stock brokers, and investment advisors, bookkeepers, medical offices, just to name a few."
-- Gene Koprowski is a Lilly Endowment award-winning columnist for United Press International. E-mail: hitech@upi.com

Networking: Protecting your MP3s

By Gene Koprowski, UPI Technology Columnist
http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1183575.php/Networking_Protecting_your_MP3s
CHICAGO, IL, United States (UPI) -- You probably have a lot of MP3 files -- like the smash hit 'Crazy' by the U.K.`s Gnarls Barkley -- on your PC. Maybe some oldies too, and a lot of other computer files, with extensions like .EXE, .MPEG, .JPEG, and other, often confusing, file formats.
With all that valuable content, maybe you should think about maximizing your Windows XP operating system, getting more out of it than just playing MP3s, and also securing those expensive files from iTunes?
There has been so much news about phishing expeditions, hackers, crackers and online Russian mafia scams, nefarious folks who want to damage your computer, and those expensive files, just for fun.
The anti-virus software developer McAfee recently released a report that indicated that the number of vulnerabilities discovered on the Macintosh OS X platform had increased by 228 percent, from 2003 to 2005, while Windows vulnerabilities discovered in the same time period had increased by 'only' 73 percent.
But the good news is that you can prevent the loss of those valuable files -- 99 cents a download adds up fast, when you have hundreds of songs on your hard drive -- and improve the performance of your PC with a few simple steps to secure your network, experts tell UPI`s Networking.
'Most losses -- are the result of human errors or system loopholes that can be easily and cost-effectively remedied,' said Ira Winkler, president of the Internet Security Advisors Group, who has also been dubbed the 'James Bond' of computer networking, because of his keen understanding of the high- and low-tech methods used to make computers susceptible to security breaches.
Here are some other, savvy bits of advice from Winkler and other pros:
-- Keep your PC and security software updated, constantly. Just as you put on a seatbelt when driving a car, make sure the operating system is up to date and utilizing the recommended security updates, every time you turn on the computer;
-- You should always install anti-virus, anti-spyware and a personal firewall to protect computer files. Keep your software updated as new viruses and spyware bugs are released virtually daily. One protective software package -- the Office Depot Internet Security Suite -- is available for just $49.99 and shields against viruses, spyware, hackers and phishing scams;
-- Be cautious when working with confidential information. Reviewing documents when traveling or working outside the office can maximize productivity, but if the files include sensitive information, always make sure no one can see what you are working on. A good way to ensure your information remains safe from wandering eyes is to install a laptop privacy filter so only you can see the information. For example, the 3M Notebook Privacy Filter, available for as little as $59.99, darkens screen data from a side view allowing only the user to view information on-screen;
-- Always use passwords and keep them private. Passwords are the simplest way to protect your information, but make sure you don`t use basic passwords like your name, birthday or phone number. If you need to write down your password, keep it in a secure location and do not share it. If you need to share your password, change it as soon as you can. If you have trouble remembering passwords, the Microsoft Fingerprint Reader, available for $39.99, lets you log on to your PC and your favorite Web sites with the touch of your finger -- without having to remember all of your passwords;
-- Put your laptop on lockdown -- secure your notebook from theft by attaching a cable lock, such as the Targus Defcon CL notebook computer cable lock, available for as little as $29.99, which tethers it to a desk or other surface. Cable locks are portable and can go on the road, so if you use a laptop at a business center, it can also be secured;
-- Enable Auditing on your Workstations. While this is a fairly normal practice for servers, it is not usually performed on PC workstations unless there is a high risk of data theft. Auditing can include account log on events and account management;
-- Disable default shares. Windows XP automatically creates a number hidden administrative shares that the operating system uses to manage the computer environment on the network. These default shares can be disabled via the Computer Management console in the Control Panel;
-- Disable Dump File Creation. A dump file can be a useful troubleshooting tool when either the system or application crashes and causes the infamous 'Blue Screen of Death.' However, they also can provide a hacker with potentially sensitive information such as application passwords. You may disable the dump file by going to the Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery and change the options for 'Write Debugging Information' to 'None';
-- Disable the ability to boot from a floppy or CD-ROM on physically unsecured systems. There are a number of third-party utilities that pose a security risk if used via a boot disk. If your security needs are more extreme, consider removing the floppy and CD drives entirely. As an alternative, store the CPU in a locked external case that still provides adequate ventilation;
According to Dan Hubbard, a security specialist at Websense Inc., the network security consultancy, taking 'a proactive approach' will preserve your PC and optimize your ability to use it. There`s no better way to protect those MP3s.
-- Gene Koprowski is a Lilly Endowment Award-winning columnist (2004, 2005) for United Press International.

Designing like an expert online

GENE KOPROWSKI, UPI Technology Columnist
CHICAGO, July 26 (UPI) -- Design and graphics software used to be targeted solely at commercial art professionals -- creative directors at ad agencies and magazine production editors. And, perhaps, rightly so. But the Internet is changing all that, experts tell UPI's The Web. Now, entrepreneurs in small businesses, and middle managers in corporations, are the focus of marketing efforts for Corel Corp. and other graphics and design software makers.
"We have become focused on specific market segments," Nick Davies, general manager for graphics at Corel Corp., told The Web. "We're now focusing on occasional users -- people who have their own businesses. Many of these people have an aptitude for graphics, but are not trained."
Most of the time, these professionals are designing and developing their own Internet sites, and own Internet adverts, as well as creating their own brochures and business cards.
So, Davies said, the latest version of Corel Draw Graphics Suite has been made easier to use than earlier versions. "We're not dumbing down the product," said Davies. "We're just making it easier to use the application."
For instance, Corel is including some training videos on CD-ROM with the new version of the software, CorelDraw Graphics Suite X3. "Entrepreneurs and small-business owners want that -- because they don't want to spend two hours out of the office, at a class learning about the software," said Davies.
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