WiredRed Gets Wired Into Labor Department
Verizon Joins Wingcast in Auto Internet Service
HIGH TECH by Brad Graves
San Diego-based WiredRed Software reports the U.S. Department of Labor has purchased 18,000 seats of its E-pop Alert product for its headquarters.
Company founder Allen Drennan compares the product to a modern-day public address system. It lets certain people on a computer network send high-priority, one-way customized messages to others on the system.
Such emergency messages can include sound files (like a blaring siren) when the alert pops up on a client personal computer.
“We designed the product specifically for the large, sprawling campus type of facility much like DOL’s Washington, D.C., headquarters,” Drennan said in a prepared statement.
The company did not disclose terms of the deal.
E-pop Alert customers also include Pfizer, Domino’s Pizza, Dominion Nuclear and Compaq Switzerland.
WiredRed is privately held and was founded in 1998.
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Rolling ‘Round With Wireless: San Diego-based Wingcast LLC has announced it will deliver services to automobile-based Internet devices using the Verizon Wireless network.
The technology is called telematics, and it will transmit hands-free voice service as well as computer data services to vehicles. Bedminster, N.J.-based Verizon Wireless runs a coast-to-coast network using Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA.
Wingcast is a joint venture between the Ford Motor Co. and San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. , which holds many patents on CDMA.
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CDMA Again: San Diego-based LG InfoComm USA Inc. has introduced three wireless phones that use the advanced, “1x” version of CDMA and which will be able to tap into future 1x networks. One model is a smartphone, meaning it also works as a handheld computer. Another supports the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) platform to run the applications of your choice.
LG InfoComm is part of LG Electronics of Seoul, South Korea. Worldwide, LG employs 64,000 people.
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Patent Portfolio: San Diego-based Path 1 Network Technologies Inc. has licensed its video-over-Internet-protocol technology to Visionary Solutions in a nonexclusive deal. Carpenteria-based Visionary Solutions will use Path 1’s patented DotCam technology in networked video products. Visionary Solutions serves the security market, among others.
In unrelated news, U.S. Patent No. 6,282,271 has gone to San Diego-based Konexx for its modem protection device called ModemMinder. The product shields analog modems from the comparatively high voltage encountered on digital private branch exchange telephone lines in hotels and office buildings.
Patent office records show the patent was assigned to Gutzmer Enterprises, Ltd. of San Diego, and credit the invention to Alan A. Gutzmer of Poway and George J. Wasemiller of Oceanside.
Konexx just announced the patent, which was awarded in August.
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Count The Crickets: Some more notes on the growing wireless network of San Diego-based Leap Wireless International Inc.: New markets are Visalia, Calif.; Eugene, Ore.; Lincoln, Neb.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and the Michigan cities of Battle Creek-Kalamazoo, Flint and Jackson. And the carrier announced Dec. 17 it had signed its 1 millionth customer for Cricket, the brand name of its wireless service.
Send high-tech news to Graves via e-mail at bgraves@sdbj.com.
