Vision - January/February 2008 - (Page 83) news around the worLd ] • [ by caroLyn sLater Texas Instruments Wants to Put the “E” in e-Passports Worldwide going global More than 20 countries, including the U.S, now issue e-passports embedded with a radio chip to transmit details electronically when scanned by passport control and customs. Another 30 countries likely will make the e-passport switch in the next year or so. In 2008, the U.S. State Department will evaluate second-generation chips that can include fingerprints or other biometric-based identifiers, and chip-maker Texas Instruments (TI) plans on being a key player. Although TI was not heavily involved in the first wave of passport chipping, they plan on leading the second wave with ID chips that use ferroelectric RAM memory or “FRAM”. FRAM promises to shave a few seconds Social Networking for the off the time to scan each passport over Over-50s Set in England Best Buy Rewards Canadian the previously-used EEPROM memory. According to communications monitoring Customers Considering the millions of pass- company, Ofcom, people over the age of 50 Just in time for the 2007 holiday ports that are scanned at airports, account for more than 30 percent of time buying season, Best Buy launched seaports and borders each day, spent online in the U.K. The Saga Group, its customer reward program in those seconds add up and save on based in Kent, England, has developed the Canada. Already popular in the employee time and traveler frus- “Saga Zone”, a site styled after Facebook and U.S., 80,000 people signed up for the ‘‘Reward Zone Loyalty Protration. Other companies vying for MySpace aimed at the 50+ demographic. gram’’ during a three-week soft this business include: NXP Semi- In a four-month trial, more than 13,000 launch with a goal of 400,000 cusconductors, Infineon Technology people signed up for forums ranging from Carolyn Slater gardening tips to relationship advice. The IFX, Sharp and Toshiba. tomers by the end of 2007. There is oldest registered user is 87. no membership fee for the program which awards one point for “nearly” every dollar spent at Best Buy either in-store or online. To maintain membership, customers are required to make at least one purchase per When it comes to viewing TV on a small cell phone screen, it seems Europeans are year. Customers receive exclusive offers, saying “non”, “nein” and “não”. According to a recent study by research analysts Gartsweepstakes entries and members-only ner, only about five percent of sale events. Europeans have any interest in watching television or video on their cell phones during the next GPS Aids Australians Navigating 12 months. In sharp contrast, 20 Traffic Congestion percent of Asians are keen to use The citizens of Melbourne Australia now their mobile devices for this purenjoy live traffic data streamed to them via pose. This is not good news for a GPS unit from a special traffic channel. mobile operators in Europe who The device is the DigiWalker GPS produced were hoping to compensate for by Mio, and the service is the SUNA Traffic declining income from voice calls, Channel. SUNA was developed by Intelemwith mobile TV as an additional atics Australia which is owned by the Royal revenue source. Gartner analysts Automobile Club of Victoria. Australia is believe that the reason behind the not the first country to use the TMS techlackluster interest is that users nology which makes this service possible. It have to compromise either on the is already in use in several European cities viewing experience, or the size of the device. At the moment, music and gaming are where the traffic data is transmitted as part the lead players in the European mobile entertainment arena. • of a standard FM broadcast. Najlah Feanny/Corbis Europeans Don’t See the Need for TV on Cell Phones Mischa Photo Ltd/Getty Images Stockbyte/Getty Images www.ce.org January/February 2008 83 http://www.ce.org
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