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paging services or stock market quotations. Whereas today we have two
separate bands for AM and FM, we will see the emergence of a single band for
digital radio. There may even be a single band globally and both terrestrial and
satellite transmission capabilities so we will literally be able to listen to high
quality music anywhere anytime.
Digital radio has the potential to revitalize radio as a cost-effective and powerful
medium. It is being embraced in the U.K. and Canada. In the United States
digital radio may be viewed as a potential threat to existing radio stations, just as
MP3 is viewed by some as a threat to the music industry. In the end better-
sounding stations will win out.
On March 18, 2001, "XM Rock" was successfully launched from the Sea
Launch's Odyssey platform in the Pacific Ocean. This is a precursor to making
satellite radio a reality during summer 2001. A second satellite, "XM Roll," is
scheduled to launch in early May. XM-ready radios will hit retail shelves across
the country. A state of the art broadcast center using IBM’s eServers and high
capacity disk storage is near completion. Both "Rock" and "Roll" will operate in
geostationary orbit above the United States transmitting up to 100 channels of
digital quality programming from coast to coast. You will be able to drive from
Maine to San Diego listening to the same station!
Pictures too!
Everybody’s got a shoebox of pictures somewhere. Buried in a closet. A drawer.
Or stuffed in an album. Now and then, they get taken down, passed around and
enjoyed by family and friends. But by and large, the moments that make up life
aren’t shared nearly as often as they could be. So says Ceiva Logic, Inc. maker
of the first Internet-connected digital picture frame. The Ceiva digital picture
frame looks like an ordinary 12-inch frame with a LCD screen that displays up to
10 digital images cycling continuously. Plug the Ceiva into a phone jack and it
logs onto the Ceiva Web site to download any new images posted to your
account. It doesn’t even require a computer. And anyone you authorize can send
pictures to your Ceiva account. Your friends and family can take pictures with a
digital camera and upload them to ceiva.com. The Ceiva frame can automatically
update and display your new photos everyday. Just sit back and enjoy the show.
And of course there will be video
I remember in the 1970’s when the first color display was introduced for use with
IBM mainframe computers. A lot of people said “who needs it”? CFO’s were
intrigued that it would be possible to see negative numbers in red but many were
not intrigued enough to want to spend the extra money they cost. Adoption of
color monitors was slow but then they became standard. Can you imagine having
a PC today which had only black and white?
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