iWorld
Alcatel enters mobile TV arena
MUMBAI: Paris based communications provider Alcatel has announced the creation of Alcatel Mobile Broadcast. This is a new internal venture dedicated to Mobile TV.
Alcatel states that as a provider of video solutions, both fixed and mobile, it is ideally positioned to be an important player in this new promising segment. The recent experience from 3G service offers demonstrate a significant consumer appetite for Mobile TV. However, while current mobile networks enable the distribution of numerous TV channels, they have limitations in terms of global coverage and the number of users simultaneously receiving these channels in the same cell.
Mobile operators and broadcasters are therefore considering several options to establish an additional infrastructure to deliver TV and various multimedia services to their mobile customers, economically and with the best possible coverage.
Alcatel says that this new venture will develop the appropriate technologies, build the necessary ecosystem and promote the solution to mobile operators and broadcasters.
Alcatel’s mobile activities president Etienne Fouques said, “Alcatel’s unique positioning in both mobile and satellite activities worldwide will help to bring a complete and efficient Mobile TV solution to our customers based on an hybrid offer combining terrestrial and satellite coverage.”
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
