Thailand's M-Web Introduces E-Business Arm
E-business in Thailand got a boost last week when M-Web, a leading content provider in that country, introduced an Internet business division called Internet Solution.
Its services include an e-business infrastructure, implementation and consultant services, system integration, Web hosting and online marketing. Internet Solution already has customers: 11 banks, seven auto businesses and 100 other small- and medium-sized companies.
Wan Chotikavan, vice president of Internet Solution, said the company has achieved synergy with M-Web's other services, which range from its 13-homepage network to online advertising and Internet access. Internet Solution will also provide a commerce service that will offer e-business services to companies with limited budgets.
M-Web expects Internet Solution to supply 50 percent of its revenue by the end of the year.
Broadcasting Via Web Made Easier
Internet Web-casting company Netbriefings made two products available last week that will enable companies to deliver streaming media through the Internet without technical expertise.
The hardware component is called the Remote Meeting Unit. It integrates the hardware necessary to collect input from cameras, microphones and projectors and then codes and compresses the data. The data is transmitted to Netbriefings for Internet distribution.
The other product is a software component, the Event Management System, which allows event planners to design the Webcasting session through user-friendly screens that run on a standard Web browser.
St. Paul, Minn.-based Netbriefings provides Internet-based Webcasting products as cost effective alternatives to traditional corporate communication and education.
Survey Uses Proof of Age Card's Database
Mobile software and portal technology company room33 and CitizenCard, the United Kingdom's leading community service provider, agreed to work together to complete an SMS-based survey of teenage CitizenCard cardholders.
Under the agreement, CitizenCard will use room33's m-sweepstakes mobile marketing application to survey holders of CitizenCards between the ages of 12 and 21. The goal of the survey is market research.
CitizenCards provide proof of age for anyone older than 6 in the U.K. and the Irish Republic. Card holders who have given permission to take part in the survey, which aims to find out things like how often young people go to the cinema, will get a text message on their mobile phones to which they can reply. The card scheme is backed by the police and the U.K. government. More than 150,000 people possess the cards.
Calling All Future Bookies
Interested in becoming a racehorse bookie? The National Joint Pitch Council is offering a two-day course for bookmakers who want to work at racetracks.
The class includes information on getting started, making a book, buying a pitch, computerizing receipts and understanding NJPC rules.
The council, which is the governing body of horse race bookmakers in the U.K., is offering the class for £180, which includes a visit to the Sandwon Park racecourse. The class takes place on Aug. 8 and 9. For more information, visit www.njpc-ltd.co.uk.
Emotion Mouse Knows When You've Been Sleeping
In the works at IBM is a computer mouse capable of gauging the emotions of the person using it.
Termed the Emotion Mouse; it is molded to fit the shape of a hand and endeavors to determine feelings by measuring pulse, temperature, general somatic activity and galvanic skin response - the skin's ability to conduct electricity. It reads heart rate through an infrared on the thumb, temperature through a thermosistor heat-sensitive chip, general somatic activity through the mouse driver and galvanic skin response through the fingertips.
Cognitive scientist Wendy Ark, who has been working on the project for three years, said the Emotion Mouse could help with such things as helping teachers interact with students via the Internet in more subtle ways than the medium currently allows. It could also help employers know when an employee is burning out.
The mouse, which can differentiate between six different human emotions, could potentially react to a human's anxiety by playing soothing music. Some critics of the invention say there's nothing soothing about it, though.
"Nothing could be better calculated to induce fear and panic in a computer user than the knowledge that their emotional responses are being continually gauged and monitored," said Caspar Bowden, the director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research.
AOL Germany Launches DSL Service
AOL Germany is introducing digital subscriber line service that will be available Aug. 1 for a flat rate of 39.9 German marks (US $17.50) per month.
The service has a minimum contract of one year, and the first month is free. It will compete with T-Online International, the dominant Internet service provider in Germany and Europe's largest ISP. T-Online costs 49 marks (US $21.86) per month. Italian ISP Tiscali and Mobilcom subsidiary Freenet are also planning to enter the fray.
To receive the AOL DSL service, users must have a DSL connection from Deutsche Telekom, which spun off T-Online International in April 2000 but controls about 80 percent of it.
New Interactive TV Option in Northern California
OpenTV and USA Media Group on Monday launched what they call the most in-depth interactive TV content package available to U.S. cable operators using the Motorola DCT-2000 set-top box.
The package features 29 interactive applications using e-mail, instant messaging, shopping, news, games, weather and sports. It will first be available in Half Moon Bay, which is in northern California.
A variety of games will be available, including those of Static's Playjam, an iTV entertainment and games channel. The OpenTV platform features nine games, including the children's game "Nutz," and the strategy and memory game "Headfunk." Games from LudiTV will be available as well.