PBS launched two major new content offerings -- NerdTV, an entirely downloadable weekly series focused on technology, and an array of downloadable podcasts from some of the network's signature programs. NerdTV, featuring technology columnist Robert X. Cringely's interviews with tech sector personalities, will be distributed under a Creative Commons license, allowing viewers to redistribute the one-hour shows or edit their own non-commercial versions. PBS also has formally launched an array of portable podcasts, which allow subscribers to automatically download audio content from the Internet and listen to it either on their computers or through MP3 players. PBS will initially make six shows available, including such staples as "NOVA" and "Newshour with Jim Lehrer." All of the new offerings are available through the PBS.org web site.
Every executive who has approved a connected product roadmap has made a quiet assumption: the network underneath it will still be there. That assumption is about to be tested at a scale the automotive industry has never faced. The global connected vehicle installed base is heading toward a billion units, and the cellular technology most of those vehicles depend on is scheduled to begin its retirement before the end of the decade. For automakers, fleet operators, insurers, and the telecom carriers that serve them, the question is whether the recurring revenue those services promise can survive a connectivity layer with a shorter life than the vehicle carrying it. How Scale Meets an Expiry Date Omdia research forecasts that the global connected vehicle installed base will surpass 1.05 billion units by 2035, up from 473.7 million in 2025. Few installed bases of any kind more than double in a decade, and this one signals that connectivity is moving from premium differentiator to baseline e...