Thankfully, the agency realized that this statute of the tax code is "burdensome, poorly understood by taxpayers and difficult for the IRS to administer consistently," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, and "the passage of time, advances in technology and the nature of communications in the modern workplace have rendered this law obsolete."  

Now, about the rest of the tax code...

EU officials say they have reached a deal with mobile phone makers to introduce a new single, more energy efficient charger that can be used for data-enabled handsets.  EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen says selling a single, standard charger will cut costs to manufacturers and reduce the number of chargers thrown away when consumers buy new phones.

"I believe we have an opportunity for America to lead the world in mobile."
- Julius Genachowski, the Obama Administration's nominee to be FCC Chairman during his Senate confirmation hearing (June 17, 2009)
 

Wireless was front and center on Capitol Hill last week and in our view, the most notable take-away was the virtual unanimity about this industry's vibrant potential.  Again and again during three lengthy hearings, Senators and others held forth on the jobs, investment and technological advances coming out of the wireless sector.  

First, there was Genachowski, who testified, "I'm energized by what is happening around the country in mobile. We're seeing incredible innovation."

And as Senate Commerce Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller's commented during that same hearing, "For our nation to meet the challenges we face in education, health care, the environment, and to remain globally competitive," he said, "We will require top-notch communications infrastructure."  

Third, the General Accountability Office issued a report showing that 84 percent of mobile users surveyed were "very or somewhat" happy with their service.

Indeed, lawmakers in both parties went out of their way to recognize the transforming potential of mobile technologies.  This is a welcome development for what it signals about America's mobile future.

With everyone agreeing on the stakes, there was widespread recognition that new wireless services continue to spring up with remarkable speed - a core belief of Mobile Future.  

Some Members, including Sen. Rockefeller, would like to speed mobile advances in rural areas. This is an important goal, to be sure.    

But even during the sometimes tough questioning involving texting and handset issues, there was broad acknowledgement of how fast the marketplace is changing and will continue to change.

With 50,000 apps for the iPhone alone, three billion text messages sent daily, and 250,000 cell towers beaming signals nationwide, mobile consumers enjoy more and better services than has ever been possible because in today's vibrant wireless sector, companies working in the mobile space are able to anticipate and respond to consumer demands.  Thankfully, Members of Congress and the President's nominee to lead the FCC seem to recognize this progress and appreciate its potential for the future.

dcMOMO - Monday, June 22

Mobile Monday DC has a new name and they will be holding an event on Monday evening at Qorvis Communications.  The event will focus on mobile advertising and whether it is recession-proof.  The speakers for the evening are:

• Robert Samuels, Director of Mobile Products, New York Times
• Anurag Mehta, SVP, Sales and Business Development, Mobile Posse
• Marcus Startzel, Senior Vice President of Sales, Millennial Media

You can rsvp for Monday's dcMoMo event here or on Facebook.

mHealth on the Hill - Wednesday, June 24

With major health care reform on the horizon, CTIA is holding an event on Wednesday that will further examine the opportunities for wireless in the health care sector.  Dr. Eric Topol, who was a keynote at CTIA's Spring show, will get the conversation started with Congressman Adam Smith.  Dr. Topol captivated the audience with his presentation in Las Vegas that demonstrated the great potential for mHealth.  I expect he will do it again next week!

The mHealth event runs all morning and has quite a dynamic agenda.  You can find all the details right here. 

We hope to see you there!

"Protestors in Iran on Monday used Twitter for battle cries and to spread word about clashes with police and ‘hard line supporters' of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Twitter messages, some with links to pictures, streamed from Iran despite reported efforts by authorities there to block news of protests...."

The events in Iran this week help to illustrate the empowering influence of wireless technology.  And whether the user is a lone hurricane survivor in Palquemines Parish, Louisiana or 50,000 Iranians protesting perceived injustice, wireless continues to be the vital link to make their voices heard.

Most recently, seven Senators introduced the Mobile Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2009.  The Senate bill seeks to put a 5 year moratorium on new taxes imposed on consumers.  The bill is similar to the House version - the "Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2009" (H.R. 1521) - that was introducd by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.

Now more than ever Americans are depending on their wireless phones.  As we know, smartphones are no longer an item reserved for the rich and famous.  They are gadgets of necessity.  A recent story in The New York Times highlighted a woman who had been laid off and was relying on her newly-purchased iPhone to be alerted to the latest job opportunities at all times.  Her quote from the article says it all: "I absolutely got it for the job search."  On the other side of the coin, device manufacturers like RIM attribute their strong growth to their shift in focus from strictly the enterprise to the mass market.  The efforts have paid off as the BlackBerry Curve was the hottest device in the first quarter of 2009.

This is not the time to impose additional taxes on wireless users.  Everyday more Americans are enjoying the power of their "mini-computers."  Small businesses are thriving and creating a wireless ecosystem that has enabled consumers to personalize their devices like never before.  Please don't stop the music!

U.S. lawmakers are setting the stage to halt state and local governments from imposing new taxes on cell-phone and mobile e-mail services.  Several Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee's commercial law panel agreed Tuesday that "discriminatory" cell-phone taxes, or taxes on wireless services alone, are unfair.

More than 85 percent of Americans have mobile phones and wireless broadband is the fastest growing Internet service in the country.  As more Americans embrace wireless, they increasingly have the opportunity to use this technology to improve their lives.  That means better, more efficient healthcare monitoring and new opportunities for education.  It also means faster response times for police and rescuers, especially during natural disasters.

Perhaps most importantly, it means the prospect of giving all residents the economic and social opportunities that come with affordable Internet access.

The Mobile Future filing goes into great detail in these and several other areas where mobile applications are already benefiting our society.  It also encourages the FCC to include wireless as a key element in any plan to achieve the nation's broadband goals.

Please take a look.  We hope you'll consider the remarkable progress taking place right now and the promise this holds for Americans' "Mobile Future."

Here's a little demo of the Craigsphone in action - 

craigsphone from Next Mobile Web on Vimeo.

There is something for everyone here... Enjoy!

Read the full article here.

 Stay tuned for more coverage of today's panel!  Click below to link to our news release.

Going Mobile: North Carolina¹s Future in Wireless Technology

This week, that promise took another step forward as heart patients gained access to an FDA-approved cardiac monitoring system from Transoma Medical in St. Paul.  The device is implanted in the body and transmits signals about the heart's activity to a base station which forwards it (again, wirelessly) to a remote system that monitors for abnormalities.  Patients feeling light-headed can also send wireless distress signals.

Speaking of keeping a healthy heart, later this month Garmin unveils a watch that not only connects wirelessly with rowing machines, treadmills, stationary bikes, it also tracks your heart rate and calories burned.  It then sends the information to an online account where you can keep track of your month's workouts.

Speaking of wireless - are you "intexticated"?  How can you get GPS service when inside a garage?  And what wireless operating system is U2's Bono betting will be a big hit with smartphone users?

For these and 17 other cool wireless questions, click here and find out "How Well Do You Know... the Wireless World?  from today's Wall Street Journal.

MIT's SENSEable City Lab tracked cell phone activity in DC and illuminated the results with the following visualization. More than half the world's nations - over 138 countries - were represented in Washington. The biggest international callers were from Canada, Great Britain, France, and Puerto Rico; California, Florida, New York, Texas and Georgia topped the list of domestic callers.

By tracking mobile calling activity, MIT has moved beyond simply showing who attended the Inauguration. Now we also know how attendees behaved. According to the results, during the morning of the Inauguration, call activity was two to three times larger than normal levels as the crowd anticipated Obama's oath. Activity dropped as the crowd listened to the new President's inaugural address. Following the speech, calls exceeded five times the normal levels.

Clearly, people were celebrating the moment and eager to share the experience with friends and family. We could assume that. With cell phone activity data, MIT proves it.

This is exciting stuff. MIT's work confirms that, by using cell phone calling information, we can better understand how a city performs during a special event -- and perhaps even an unexpected emergency. According to MIT's report, "Until today it has been difficult to monitor urban dynamics in real time...Mobile phone networks, which we consider to be a nervous system for the city, has the potential to provide useful and rich information and services to citizens."

Just imagine what else cell phone data can tell us...

We're delighted to welcome Representative Ty Harrell, Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, who'll open the session, as well as several local experts discussing the latest wireless trends.

Panelists include:

• Art Contreras, a former U.S. Marshall and longtime law enforcement officer in the City of Houston. He will discuss how law enforcement is using mobile technology to make us safer.

• Sam Matheny, general manager of News Over Wireless, the Raleigh-based operation owned by Capitol Broadcasting that is making mobile TV reality for TV stations across the United States.

• Jerry Paradise, executive director, notebook business unit at Lenovo, which recently unveiled its line of high-speed wireless capable "netbook" computers. Lenovo's worldwide headquarters are located in Morrisville.

• Matt MacPherson, Director of Marketing for Cisco, the world's largest networking gear maker that operates a campus in Research Triangle Park with more than 2,0000 employees. Cisco is working with Clearwire to develop the next-generation "4G" network while also working to make high-speed wireless networks in the home a reality.

It's sure to be an exciting discussion so check back next week for video coverage of the event!

This item was originally posted on Huffingtop Post on May 22, 2009.

More than ninety percent of Americans are within three feet of their cell phones twenty-four hours a day. This is especially true if you're a communications director, spokesperson, or press secretary.

But communications professionals aren't just using their ever-present mobile devices to call reporters. They're also using these devices to bypass reporters. Today, the most successful communicators are harnessing the power of mobile technology to directly reach consumers, constituents, and key audiences.

Mobile is expected to redefine mass media and communications outreach. Already, it's removing the barriers that separate communications officers and targeted audiences.  Reporters are no longer the gatekeepers of information. New technologies are allowing more direct contact, engagement, and information sharing.

According to recent survey of chief communications officers, the function most frequently added to their departments last year was social media. Now that social networking is an integral part of communications outreach, many are wondering what's next. How can up-to-the-minute information and key messages be delivered even more quickly, clearly, and conveniently? How can communications teams reach people who aren't in front of a computer or television? The answer is already in the hands of 270 million Americans.

Here's just one example of how mobile technology is changing the media landscape: a few years ago Chamath Airyadasa, a Sri Lankan journalist, set up Jasmine News Wire (JNW) - a news organization that delivers information via text messages. As of mid-2008, JNW had approximately 100,000 subscribers paying 30 cents a month across Sri Lanka's four mobile phone networks. Clearly, mobile is allowing for the creation of innovative, low-cost information-sharing services. Successful communications teams will capitalize on the new outreach opportunities the mobile platform provides.

While the combined use of phone calls, email, social networks, websites and online video has proved enormously effective and remains important, bringing all communications to a mobile platform will bolster this success. It will also transform the way communications professionals and press teams work. As we move forward, it's likely that communicators will be busier than ever...but at least they won't be chained to their desks.

According to a recent Washington Post article, mobile devices are quickly becoming pivotal instruments in doctor-patient interactions.  From pulling up instructional diagrams to researching drug-to-drug interactions, smartphone technology is arming doctors with vital information at their fingertips.  This means doctors can make smart, informed decisions instantly, with the patient by their side.   Thankfully, it also means they can show us something to decipher often tedious medical-ese.

Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist at George Washington University, gives a pretty amazing first person account of how the smartphone can make a difference in a life and death situation:

One Saturday afternoon... Reiner was having lunch at a deli when his BlackBerry began to beep. It was a patient's EKG, sent to him by an emergency room physician.  Reiner pulled up the graphic on his handheld device and saw that the patient was on the brink of a severe heart attack.  He rushed to the hospital to perform surgery. 

Real-time data can make all the difference when seconds count.   I'd like to see a pager do that!

The Extraordinaries, co-founded by Jacob Colker and Ben Rigby, seeks to transform volunteerism by delvering on-demand mobile volunteer opportunities.  Essentially, delivering "skills-based volunteer tasks to people whenever and wherever they are available by mobile phone."  For instance, perhaps when you are sitting on the bus, you could tag a few pictures for the Library of Congress or identify craters on Mars for NASA.  Not only can you help out our government, you could give back to the community.  For example, identifying potholes for your municipality or helping someone with their resume.  The opportunities are boundless.

Here's their 90 second video...  Be Extraordinary!

Way before Nirvana

There was U2 and Blondie

And music still on MTV

                        Bowling for Soup, "1985"  

It turns out that the most memorable event in 1985 isn't Bret Saberhagen's shut-out of the Cards in the World Series' Game 7.  Instead, it happened about 4,500 miles away at a home in Bonn, Germany.   That year, according to the Los Angeles Times, a technologist named Friedhelm Hillebrand was part of a team developing plans to standardize text messaging technology.  The tight bandwidth constraints meant that each message would have to be as short as possible.  So Hillebrand started typing random thoughts on his typewriter.  As these comments always came in at under 160 characters, this became the standard limit for texts.   Networks and consumer attitudes have both come a long way since then.  By the end of last year, the average mobile user was sending about 350 texts (vs. about 200 calls).  

Glückwunschherr Hillebrand! (Translation: Congratulations, Mr. Hillebrand)

With lifestyles becoming increasingly mobile and fast-paced, businesses and consumers are turning to innovative wireless technologies to expand accessibility and connectivity and to increase efficiency. In Minnesota, more than 17 percent of households have abandoned landlines in favor of consolidating to wireless devices. Today, 99 percent of Americans are living in counties where wireless service is available. That means cutting-edge technology, and the exponential benefit that come with it, is within reach of nearly every American.

Coast to coast, mobile devices are not only changing how we manage our lives and businesses, but also where we run them. I know firsthand the impact mobile technology can have on entrepreneurial opportunities in rural America. I moved from a large city to rural Montana, where I co-founded a technology company that now employs 50 people and has significant funding from top-tier venture capital firms. We could not have succeeded without great talent, great determination and a great communications infrastructure.

Today, wireless communications allow us to grow and run businesses in urban, suburban, even rural America. Consumers in rural areas are embracing wireless for their communications needs. They recognize the convenience, mobility and efficiency wireless can provide. The fact is mobile technology has democratized opportunities across the nation. And commitments from carriers to expand and enhance coverage in rural areas will continue to build virtual bridges between rural entrepreneurs and consumers and their urban counterparts.

Only a few years ago, Americans in rural communities needed to commute, sometimes hundreds of miles, to reach their doctors or their jobs or even their banks. That's time and money. Advances in wireless technology are now giving everyone, regardless of where they work or live, choice. Instead of driving an hour to go to the bank, you can manage your account from your phone - anywhere. Through mobile "telehealth" communications, patients can connect to medical experts and even specialists - anywhere.

Wireless innovations are increasing efficiency while decreasing costs to consumers. From telecommuting to distance learning, it's no longer about where you have to be, it's where you want to be.

The countless new products, services and applications consumers enjoy today, however, did not appear by accident. Instead, wireless technologies flourished in an environment that allowed innovators and consumers to lead, take chances and develop services and products that are integral to today's lives. Along the way, wireless innovation spurred economic rejuvenation and growth, while creating high-tech jobs that pay well, have good benefits and provide opportunities for training and advancement.

Forward-looking policymakers support an environment that encourages both the investment and innovation necessary for the wireless sector to progress. These same policymakers recognize the significant contributions the wireless industry makes to local economies. In fact, the wireless industry has sparked one of the largest private investments in modern history. Since the early 1980s, the total infrastructure investment tops $250 billion.

Wireless innovations are effectively eliminating geographic barriers, allowing entrepreneurs to compete on a virtually level playing field. The potential is limitless. But in order to fully realize the vast benefits of wireless, we need to maintain an environment that continues to encourage investment and innovation in mobile technologies. These tools will be fundamental to building a 21st-century infrastructure that promotes job creation and fuels economic growth - in all corners of our country.

DIANE SMITH serves on the board of Mobile Future (mobile future.org) and was co-founder and chief executive officer of Auroras Entertainment, an advanced media services company in Kalispell, Mont. She will be a keynote speaker at the Duluth Chamber of Commerce's Northern Networks Conference, which is being held today and tomorrow.
 

Kyte is one of the big players in the space and TechCrunch was able to get some insights from their Co-Founder Daniel Graf about where he is positioning the company these days.  On that note, interesting to hear that Qik and Ustream are "not competitors" because they are geared to consumers.  Kyte wants to focus their efforts in the B2B space...

Enjoy!

All we can say is: LLTA. 

"Researchers are testing medicine that uses tiny wireless technology to guide pills to just the right spot."  

According to CNN, doctors are harnessing wireless GPS-like technology to deliver medicines inside your body.  The idea is that treatments will be more effective if they can be targeted inside your body at the exact point where the problem is located.  So instead of fighting intestinal cancer, for example, with a pill that dissolves in your stomach and sends the chemical everywhere, the wireless "iPill" keeps the medicine pure until it's right next to the tumor.  Then it releases the whole dose.

Think of it as the medical equivalent of using a targeted smart bomb down an air shaft - all courtesy of wireless technology.

Here's most of Mr. Kutcher's quote - 

"Years from now, when historians reflect on the time we are currently living in, the names Biz Stone and Evan Williams will be referenced side by side with the likes of Samuel Morse, Alexander Graham Bell, Filio Farnswarth, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.. because the creation of twitter is as significant and paradigm shifting as the invention of Morse code, the telephone, radio, television, or the personal computer." 

As an early adopter of the service in 2007, I have enjoyed watching it grow in terms of subscribers and functionality.  Twitter's evolution in may ways has been powered from its users not the service provider itself.  For instance, Summize (twitter search) and Twitpic (pictures via Twitter) are two examples of non-twitter developed products that thrive on it.  That is impressive to me.  

I think it is way too early to put Evan and Biz with those tech titans Mr. Kutcher referenced.  No doubt Twitter has the potential to be a transformative technology.  The continued uses of it by the community continue to amaze me.  However, if Hollywood continues to use it as a one-way broadcast channel (like TV), it completely loses its power.  That is one thing that Mr. Kutcher doesn't understand.