Satellite radio comes from space bearing gifts: 100 digital channels with eclectic music options and few or no commercials, beamed directly to cars and home stereos. To date, the service has been available only in the continental United States, but all that is about to change as dueling satellite radio providers, XM and Sirius, have recently signed deals with potential Canadian providers.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, along with privately held Standard Radio, and Sirius Satellite Radio have teamed up, while a competing venture launched by Toronto entrepreneurs John Bitove Jr. and Stewart Lyons has allied with Washington-based XM Satellite Radio.
In Saturday’s Globe and mail, Michael Posner writes about the three contenders (CHUM has recently entered the picture) for consumer satelllite-radio dollars. Satellite radio is in Canada’s near future.
Some analysts expect satellite radio to grow the way satellite TV did. If so, XM and Sirius radios will become standard in cars and homes sooner than later, and both companies could become budding media giants.
Category Archives: Web & Tech
More Seniors Using the Internet
Recent weeks have seen a series of reports about growth in Internet penetration, in Canada and across the United States.
The latest release from the Pew Internet & American Life project focuses on senior citizens and identifies a 47 percent increase in Internet access in that age group from 2000 to 2004. According to Pew, 22 percent of seniors age 65 or older reported having access to the Internet. By comparison, other age groups include 58 percent of age 50-64, 75 percent of age 30-49, and 77 percent of age 18-29. Internet use only continues to grow.
Microsoft’s New Service Pack 2 gives Windows XP a major face-lift
Microsoft has just released a close-to-final version of the second major update to their Windows XP operating system, which adds new, much-anticipated security tools to the heart and soul of their virtually ubiquitous commercial operating environment.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 — due out some time in the second quarter of 2004 — includes a number of positive changes to key operational security aspects of Internet Explorer (including a configurable pop-up blocker that will now be turned on by default); a much improved Windows Update service that is intended to make it significantly easier for the end user to automatically install critical updates to the operating system to keep viruses, Trojans and worms at bay; and the creation of a Windows Security Center, a new tool that not only simplifies access to security settings in various Windows components, but includes as well a powerful new firewall and one-stop, centralized access to all necessary security components (firewall, antivirus, spyware control, and more) that your computer, and your family, requires to surf the Net safely.
And that’s all just for a start. There’s much more to come.
In an address to the recent RSA Security Conference that was held in San Francisco, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates provided the first public introduction to Windows XP Service Pack 2. To view his informative and quite fascinating address on Windows Media Player video, click on this link.
Hey Kid, Your Backpack is Ringing
Encouraged by inexpensive calling plans and concerned about safety, more parents are buying cellphones for their young children.
“I text-message my friends more than I call them,” says Amanda Gerber, 12, who got her own cellphone about a year ago after trying to convince her parents that she needed one. Amanda, a seventh-grade student, says she uses the phone primarily to keep in touch with her parents but also talks to friends.
Amanda’s mother, Lyndsey, says the phone gives her peace of mind in case Amanda needs a ride after school … (or) … “If she’s meeting a friend at the mall, it’s so convenient.”
Read Jeffrey Selingo’s story in the New York Times (registration required).