Technology Futures

Unlike the rest of the world, cellphones in the U.S. only work on the network for which they were originally purchased, and we have always had to buy the phones from the cellular provider. In Europe, for example, you can walk into almost any store and buy a cheap cellphone and then activate it for use on the network of your choice.

AT&T has announced that they are now taking the same approach on their GSM network in the U.S. This has apparently been an option for a while, but the company has never publicized it.

The one exception to this is the iPhone, which works only on the AT&T network. iPhone users will not be able to get their phone unlocked so it could be taken to another network.

Oddly enough, AT&T's new openness is probably due in part to the success of the iPhone. AT&T's new popularity as a cellular provider has been lifting out of last place in the U.S. cellular market, and the company probably sees this as an opportunity to bring even more customers--many of whom may not want an iPhone.

Those handy wireless keyboards are a security risk. Researchers have discovered that they easily monitor every keystroke sent from a wireless keyboard to the computer. The keyboards use a very weak form of encryption that can be easily monitored using an inexpensive radio receiver from as much as thirty feet away, and the encryption algorithm is easy to crack using virtually any computer--no special supercomputer required.

This means hackers can easily monitor your keyboard and filter for passwords, credit cards, and other personal information.

In yet another indication that quality of life is increasingly affecting economic development, a HUD newsletter had the following snippet:

“California has begun losing college-educated residents, on net, to other states, in large part because of the high cost of housing,” Virginia Postrel notes in Atlantic Monthly. “The South’s population growth since the 1980s has come from the lure of cheap housing created by liberal permitting policies, according to new research by the Harvard economists Edward Glaeser and Kristina Tobin. By lowering the cost of housing, these policies give residents higher real incomes compared with similarly paid workers elsewhere – a strong incentive to move, even if you don’t like bugs or hot summers. The mobile middle class gravitates to the cities where housing is affordable.”

Smaller cities that have affordable housing and affordable broadband would seem to have a valuable edge over communities that can't offer one, the other, or either of them.

The somewhat elderly Eagles rock band has given record companies the boot with the band's latest album. The Eagles simply skipped working with a record company at all, and went straight to Wal-mart to sell their new CD. The two CD set is priced at a very reasonable twelve bucks. The artists get a bigger share of the sales, and music lovers spend less and get more.

Even more interesting, the two CD set is priced low enough that some music stores are simply going to Wal-mart, buying a bunch of the CDs, and then marking them up and selling them in their own stores.

This kind of deal probably frightens the music industry more than iTunes. Music publishers managed to retain much control over artists and their music despite the much lower distribution costs (virtually zero) of iTunes. But the Eagles have simply ignored the music publishers entirely.