Retail Sales in U.S. Fall – For the first time since last September, sales results were worse than economists – who had predicted a .2% gain – had expected. There were large declines in home entertainment products, hardware stores, auto dealers, gas stations and department stores. Home Retail Group CEO Terry Duddy said “Economic conditions remain both challenging and uncertain, with this quarter proving difficult in terms of consumers’ willingness to spend.”
Obama Signs Plan to Auction More Spectrum for Mobile Devices – Yesterday he signed a presidential memorandum making 500 mHz of government and commercial wireless spectrum available for commercial use over the next ten years to nearly double the spectrum currently available for everything from smartphones to wireless broadband connectivity for laptops to new forms of communication. A clash is expected with some broadcast TV stations who currently own the rights to some of the spectrum to be auctioned off. The White House said the auction would raise tens of billions of dollars which would be invested in public safety, additional job-creating infrastructure investments and deficit reduction. The amount of information flowing over some wireless networks has grown by over 250% per year thru the increased usage of smartphones, netbooks, mini-laptops and other wireless devices. The majority of the spectrum would be auctioned off for voice, data and video applications thru licensed mobile broadband, and some would be offered free for use by technology startups and small businesses, and some used for a public safety network. The FCC is pushing ahead with a National Broadband Plan – an ambitious effort to bring high-speed Internet to the entire U.S.
Francis Dreyfus 1940-2010 – Music publisher and founder of Dreyfus Records Francis Dreyfus died last week at age 70. Among the major artists his label brought together were Jean Michel Jarre, Michel Petrucciani, Richard Galliano, Bireli Lagrene, Ahmad Jamal and Philip Catherine. His Jazz Reference series of CDs restored legendary recordings of classic jazz and bebop using a special technology developed with sound engineer Rene Ameline.
WHDI 2.0 to Coexist with Wi-Fi – As more home entertainment devices use HDMI cable to connect to TVs, there can be a major clutter behind one’s TV set. Also, the growing trend of mounting screens, speakers and components on the wall means the expense and difficulty of running many wires to them inside the wall. The new technology of Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) offers the same quality as HDMI yet connects wirelessly. There are other competing wireless solutions, but WHDI is slated to become the standard with mass adoption from the hardware makers. The WHDI LLC organization announced this month the detailed tech features in the upcoming version 2.0 of the specification. It will handle all 3D formats required by HDMI v1.4, and will enable Wi-Fi support in the same channel. It will also support the next-generation HD video format of 2Kx4K, with four times the resolution of 1080p HD, and with reduced power consumption and footprint it will be ideal for mobile device integration. WHDI 2.0 is targeted for release in the second quarter of 2011.
