Microsoft's SpecNet promises to seek out unused wireless spectrum

Microsoft's been toying around with hardware for so-called white space spectrum for some time now, and it's now back with another fairly ambitious scheme. Dubbed "SpecNet," the hardware in this case in actually a network of spectrum analyzers that would seek out and map where spectrum is available and where it's not, and let unlicensed devices use it when it's available. Of course, that's still all a bit theoretical, and it does face a few significant hurdles. Those spectrum analyzers, for instance would cost between $10,000 and $40,000 apiece, and you'd obviously need a lot of them for a nationwide network, although Microsoft suggests that they could be set up on an ad hoc basis and assigned to different areas for a specific time period. Those interested in the finer technical details can dive into Microsoft's full paper on the subject at the source link below.

Jolicloud renames operating system 'Joli OS,' promises new web and Android apps

Well, it doesn't involve the company's Jolibook laptop, but it looks like some fairly big changes are indeed in store for Joliclould's upstart operating system. In addition to confirming that version 1.2 be released next week, the company has announced that it will be renaming the operating system "Joli OS" to avoid confusion with its online desktop, which will remain "Jolicloud." What's more, while that latter component is currently only available for Chrome, the company's announced that it will be adding support for Firefox 4, Safari 5 and the iPad (in an "experimental" HTML5 port), and it's even now announced plans for an Android app. Unfortunately, details on it are about as light as can be at the moment, with Jolicloud only saying that it's coming in the "future." More details and screenshots of version 1.2 are promised in the next few days, though.