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The convention center has free WiFi, but I need a break before dinner. I just spent 20 minutes finding a sweet spot for my hotel’s WiFi.

My room is behind a corner, so I moved the desk 3 feet towards the window and put a phone book under my computer.

That was enough to get a better view of the nearest access point. 

Yes, I could sit in the hotel lobby like the other conference participants have done, or continue my vigil in the convention center, but I have my geek reputation to uphold… and I don’t have a cellular data card any more. 

Image courtesy of billso through a Creative Commons License.

The retirement of Bill Gates from daily duty at Microsoft prompted bloggers and journalists to write long articles about Microsoft technology. It’s summer, and we have to fill the pages somehow. 

This Engadget article called Bill Gates: top ten greatest hits (and misses) has some details and product photos. Two of the “misses” are interesting.

The AutoPC was a voice controlled system that connected the driver to music, GPS and Outlook services. It went on sale in 2000 and died a quick death, but many auto manufacturers are offering systems with similar features in 2008. The same Microsoft business unit that developed the AutoPC also developed the SYNC system for Ford. 

The second “miss” is another example of pervasive or ubiquitous computing. It’s interesting that both of these products were championed by Bill Gates himself. 

I have worn my Suunto N6 HR SPOT watch almost every day for the last 2.5 years. Yes, the watch is a little large, and I have to clip it to a USB charger every 2 or 3 days to freshen up the battery. I never got the heart rate monitor feature to work properly, though. 

Microsoft partnered with Clear Channel to distribute news, sports, stock market and other data to users via Clear Channel FM radio stations.The silvery rim of the watch face is the FM antenna. It’s a one-way device that receives broadcasts, so it’s impossible to send information from the watch.

I don’t use Outlook, so I never use the appointment and messaging features. But the baseball scores are usually up to date, as long as I’m in a Clear Channel city, and I never need to set the time. It’s synced by an atomic clock somewhere in the cloud. 

Sadly, Microsoft discontinued the SPOT watch line in April 2008 - see this Engadget article called SPOT watches R.I.P. - 2004-2008. The cloud service still works on MSN Direct. I just go to the web site, log in, and select the information and faces for my watch. 

I see fewer wristwatches on wrists these days. Many of my friends rely on their mobile phone’s clock instead, as they carry their phones with them everywhere. Most modern mobile phones sync their clock to their carrier’s system. 

Image courtesy of billso through a Creative Commons license. 

As reported by the Associated Press, Reuters and two articles in today’s New York Times, the FCC’s auction for the 700 mHz spectrum has ended. The auction started in January, as I discussed in my 30 January 2008 article. The winners bid a combined total of US$19.59 billion.

The FCC is not dumb - buyers must pay in full. Their names will be released within the next 10 days.

Many other blogs are discussing this topic, including VentureBeat, CrunchGear, DailyWireless and PhoneScoop.

Wired, Engadget Mobile and The Register have posted their updates on the FCC’s 700 mHz auction. Bidding started last Thursday for the right to use these frequencies, which include the UHF band that is used by US broadcast television channels 14 and higher. US television stations will stop using these frequencies in January 2009 as part of a long-planned conversion from analog to digital television that will support high-definition television.

In other words, this kind of auction is a rarity. It’s like finding new beachfront property in Waikiki. Of course, no one owns the airwaves. By international agreement, the radio-frequency spectrum is tightly regulated. This helps manufacturers and governements prevent radio-frequency interference (RFI), so that devices don’t overwhelm each other with static and overlapping signals. Specific portions of the spectrum are allocated to certain uses, and countries control how some frequencies are used within their borders.

This FCC auction will decide which companies rent the 700 mHz or C block for the next few decades in the USA.

These frequencies would provide better mobile phone reception than the current bands of 800 mHz to 1900 mHz. Users might get better reception inside a building, for example. As part of the deal, the FCC has mandated that the winners must allow open access to the new networks. That’s not the same as free or inexpensive access, but that requirement does mean the winner won’t have a monopoly. Someone has to design, build and sell the new hardware to use these frequencies.

AT&T, Apple, Google and Verizon have each been rumored as bidders. Current mobile telcos covet the additional bandwidth and coverage. Apple and Google could develop their own mobile data services together or independently.

Google executives have stated the company will match the US$4.6 billion reserve price of the auction, if the FCC agreed to certain conditions. The FCC said no, but there’s no good estimate on how high the auction might go. Perhaps Google was signaling that it was willing to meet the reserve price, but is the company or any other bidder willing the exceed it? Whoever wins the auction has to build out the network and earn enough money from their new services to satisfy stockholders and the market.