ganedineroahora.com

This flying robot designed by a U.S.-German team recently won a contest in which the goal was to autonomously navigate inside a simulated nuclear power plant and find and image a control panel without the aid of a GPS.

Entering its 20th year, the small but venerable IARC proposes challenges that cannot be met with current technology, military or otherwise. In its next mission, the sixth, MAVs will have to penetrate a simulated security compound, steal a flash drive and replace it with a dud before exiting safely and undetected.

The Pelican is a micro air vehicle (MAV) with a quadrotor design, using four propellers on a carbon-fiber frame for lift and control. It maps hallways and rooms with a 32-yard-range laser scanner and stereo cameras while wirelessly reporting its progress to offboard computers. The location and mapping algorithm was implemented by the MIT team.

This quadrocopter can find its way around interiors.

(Credit:
Ascending Technologies)

The Pelican, based on hardware designed by German start-up Ascending Technologies with programming by a team at MIT, accomplished the mission on its fourth attempt, but with only a few minutes to spare. It netted a $10,000 prize at the International Aerial Robotics Competition.

It’s a good thing MAVs still sound like a thousand mosquitoes due to rotor noise. Otherwise they might start putting spies out of business.

Just when you were getting used to the idea of unmanned aerial vehicles patrolling the skies over your city, they’re beginning to enter buildings.

(Credit:
Ibis Biosciences)

Meanwhile, Touch Bionics’ i-Limb Hand took the silver award with its bendable fingers and rotating thumb that can grip objects in ways that traditional prosthetics have not been able to do.

Not that quoting Rumsfeld and Darth Vader in the same article is ever advisable, but it must be said that the force is strong with this one.

Frankly, I was surprised to learn that most prosthetic hands are still made of pincer-like grips with a thumb and single finger, lacking both the function and appearance of a human hand. Apparently the trick in improving prosthetic hands was to develop materials that match the shape and weight of a human hand while still being powerful enough to do what human hands do. The i-Limb uses motors–controlled by a computer chip–that fit in the knuckle to control the fingers.

Totty writes: “The equipment promises not only to alert health officials to new disease strains, but also to guard against bioterrorism and enable hospitals to identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria.”

Current methods of finding microbes that cause diseases work well if we know what we are looking for; it’s the unknown unknowns, to borrow a Donald Rumsfeld-ism, that are so hard to detect and that the T5000 seemingly can. This spring, it helped the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego identify the first two cases of the H1N1 swine flu in the U.S.

And while the i-Limb comes with the option of a silicone skin covering, Touch Bionics’ chief executive says that younger wearers seem to prefer one of two alternatives: a clear skin that reveals the hand’s inner workings, or a black metallic covering reminiscent of Darth Vader.

Totty writes:

For The Wall Street Journal’s ninth annual technology innovation awards, editor Michael Totty reviewed nearly 500 entries and, with a team of judges, weighed which of the top 180 were the most groundbreaking and which were most likely to prove useful during economic hardship. The top two awards both went to medical technologies, besting energy-efficient next-generation LEDs and paper-thin flexible speakers. Affordable health tech seems to have impressed the judges as its own sort of innovation.

The Ibis T5000 sensor can produce results in less than five hours after the sample has been obtained.

The i-Limb is able to grip objects in ways traditional prosthetic hands cannot.

With the hand, wearers can grip and turn a key, for instance, or hold a business card using a thumb and index finger. They can also close all the fingers and the thumb around an object, like a drink can or a shopping-bag handle. It’s also possible to point with the index finger, which is useful in operating a phone or a cash machine, among other things. The thumb can also be rested next to the rest of the hand, so that it doesn’t snag when putting on clothing.

The gold award went to the Ibis T5000, a sensor developed by Abbott Laboratories and its Ibis Biosciences unit that can quickly detect and identify all pathogens in a given sample. It uses mass spectrometry to determine the genetic markers of the organisms in a sample, culls through an enormous database of genetic signatures, and then applies a mathematical formula to match the analysis with the signatures in the database.

(Credit:
Touch Bionics)

After all this time, how did we get here? For one thing, it’s taken a different cast of characters in Sunnyvale to perform this version of “Waiting for Godot.”

Internally, however, the deal represents a big cultural change for Yahoo. Outsourcing the search technology team would be a dramatic reversal for a company that has also spent the past 18 months improving the quality of its search results and quietly leading the charge toward semantic search, which both Google and Microsoft have embraced of late.

The news finally puts an end to one of the biggest will-they-or-won’t-they tech stories since Apple was believed to be developing a mobile phone. It also marks the end of an era for Yahoo as an independent search company, allowing it to further cut costs and rebrand itself as a digital media company. And it transforms Microsoft, which recently unleashed its new Bing search tool, into a clear No. 2 behind Google in search technology, with what should be a steady stream of Internet-derived revenue.

And then this morning, Microsoft and Yahoo at long last announced a search deal. In a nutshell, Microsoft’s technology will power Yahoo’s search results, while Yahoo will handle ad-selling duties for both companies’ search sites. For more details, see the breaking-news story from my colleague Ina Fried, “Yahoo, Microsoft reach search, ad deal.”

Bartz has shown far more pragmatism about the future of Yahoo search and Microsoft’s money, compared with how co-founder Yang felt compelled to defend his baby against Microsoft’s entreaties. In appearances throughout the year, she has talked of a Yahoo that newcomers to Planet Earth would not realize includes a search team; during last week’s earnings call, Bartz followed her usual playbook by focusing instead on the sheer reach of Yahoo’s network of Web sites and its relationships with top-tier advertisers.

But if Bing is seen as providing a similar or better experience compared with Yahoo’s own search technology, Yahoo has less to lose by making the deal. Yahoo isn’t really a search destination in its own right: the vast majority of Yahoo searches come from people who are already on a particular Yahoo site. As long as the search experience isn’t terrible, those people will likely use whatever search provider is plugged into the box above their stocks on Yahoo Finance or the home page of their fantasy sports team, and stay within the Yahoo network.

In an interview earlier this year, Bartz estimated that Yahoo could save around $500 million a year by outsourcing search–and lo and behold, in this morning’s announcement, the company said it expects the done deal will boost its annual operating income by about $500 million. That’s a far cry from what some people had thought could be saved in 2008, but that impact on Yahoo’s operating income should satisfy those looking for the company to generate higher profits.

Where does that leave us? For one thing, hopefully the term “Microhoo” will be successfully banished to the dustbin. But with this deal, we’re entering a new era for Yahoo, Microsoft, and the search market in general.

Well, you could look it up. Since February 1, 2008, when Microsoft made a $44.6 billion unsolicited bid for the Internet pioneer, Yahoo has gone through dozens of high-profile executives, added three new directors, suffered through two reorgs, and replaced its CEO. According to reports, their flirtation began even earlier in private quarters.

Yahoo appears to be betting its future on its ability to maintain the 300 million unique users that visit its newly redesigned home page every month and the hope that display ads will finally do for the Web what they did for television 50 years ago. Microsoft is giving up the right to sell its own search ads–still easily the most effective form of online advertising–in hopes of putting a real dent in Google’s operation.

Jerry Yang’s determination to fend off Microsoft last year led shareholder Carl Icahn to gain three seats worth of influence over Yahoo management after he and two associates joined Yahoo’s board. Later in 2008, Yang stepped down as CEO and Carol Bartz was brought over from Autodesk with a clear mandate to shake up the company.

Bartz has downplayed the importance of search competition to Yahoo’s future but has hedged her bets by casting doubts on the magnitude of the cost savings–at one point, one of the primary reasons for Yahoo and Microsoft to cut a search deal–that would accompany the move to Bing-ify Yahoo search.

For one thing, both Yahoo and Microsoft might be more comfortable with the quality of Bing, which has been well-received since it made its debut a few months ago. At one point a year ago, Yahoo could have looked at Bing’s predecessor, Live Search, and wondered why it made sense to force that experience down the throats of its users.

Those are both decisions that, understandably, might have taken some time.

And throughout all the drama–involving everyone from Carl Icahn to the Department of Justice–the flirting toward some kind of deal continued, fueled by the pressure both companies felt in competing with the 800-pound tech gorilla of the 21st century: Google.

Why now?
So, after all the machinations of the past few years, why is this happening now, other than the fact that Yahoo has a new leader shepherding the deal?

Has it really been 18 months since the tech world first started talking about the possibility of a Microsoft-Yahoo deal?

There’s a simple reason why talks continued: Microsoft has cash and needs scale. Yahoo has scale–an enormous network of Web sites–but needs simplicity, cost savings, and focus. It also needs to maintain its hold on its current advertisers in hopes of shifting them over to display ads.

Trend Micro released its 2010 security products earlier this week, with three programs offering varying levels of security and service. The comparatively barebones Trend Micro Antivirus + AntiSpyware clocks in at $40, with the basic suite Trend Micro Internet Security available for $10 more and $70 for the premium Trend Micro Internet Security Pro. They all come with a full-feature 30-day trial.

Trend Micro offers up its 2010 security products

Many of the other feature changes amount to tweaks. However, for the price it’s undeniable that you’re getting your money’s worth in the Pro version. Smartphone security support for Windows Mobile and Symbian, customizable data protection to keep names, phones numbers, and credit card numbers from leaving your computer, and a dynamic firewall make it a must-consider if you’re in the market for a robust suite. Full reviews for each product are available here: Trend Micro Antivirus + AntiSpyware, Trend Micro Internet Security, Trend Micro Internet Security Pro.

Like its competitors Symantec and Kaspersky, Trend Micro’s engine utilizes anonymous data from its client base to determine when a program is behaving suspiciously. From there, it will either automatically kill the process or ask for user input. As malware and virus makers get smarter and find new ways to avoid detection, the need for behavioral monitoring will only increase.

Do you use a security suite? Which one? Let me know in the comments below.

There are a series of performance enhancements, too, at least according to Trend Micro. Trend Micro is claiming that boot times are 20 percent faster, that the programs use 40 percent less RAM, that the download itself is 25 percent smaller, and that the quick scan on Windows Vista and Windows XP is 20 percent faster.

There’s a lot that’s new in the Pro version and some of that filters down to the other editions. Users can expect to get full Windows 7 support, auto-run disabling for USB keys, gaming, and video-watching awareness so that scans don’t begin while you’re relaxing, and notably a behavioral detection engine that Trend Micro calls the Smart Protection Network.

Sprint Nextel launched a new service plan Thursday that let’s subscribers make unlimited calls to any U.S. cell phone without using up voice minutes.

The flat rate voice plan comes at a time when prepaid unlimited phone services have put pressure on fledgling national providers, such as Sprint. Some prepaid phone services, such as MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless offer unlimited calling for $45 a month or less. Earlier this year, Sprint announced it was buying Virgin Mobile, another prepaid wireless provider that offers flat rate pricing, to get a bigger piece of the prepaid action.

For just $69.99 a month, the new Any Mobile, Anytime plan allows subscribers to call any cell phone in the U.S., regardless of the carrier. The plan also comes with Sprint’s Everything Data plan, which includes unlimited text messaging and data services. Subscribers also get 450 voice minutes for calls to landlines. Subscribers already signed up for the Everything data plan will automatically be upgraded to the new Anytime Mobile plan. And a family plan for four people will cost $170.

The new Any Mobile, Anytime plan essentially discounts this service for subscribers who only talk to other cell phone users by $30.

Clearly, Sprint is using this new pricing plan as a way to stop the blood-letting of customers. Even though the company already offers some of the lowest priced and comprehensive plans on the market, customers have been fleeing Sprint to go to other carriers for several quarters. As its total subscriber base shrinks with each quarter, a mobile-to-mobile plan that allows subscribers to call other Sprint customers holds little value to customers.

What’s more, Sprint’s new service is essentially encouraging customers to make more calls to other carriers’ cell phones, which means that Sprint will have to pay the cost of connecting those calls, Moffet said in his note.

At least for now, Sprint believes that the trade off is a risk it’s willing to take as the company tries to repair is sullied reputation. Despite the fact that various surveys indicate that Sprint has improved its service and customer service, the company has so far been unable to shake its bad reputation.

In a way, the new service is like T-Mobile’s MyFaves program, which allows users to make unlimited calling to frequently called numbers on any network. AT&T announced its own version of this type of plan earlier this week, which it calls A-List. And Verizon Wireless has a similar plan called Friends and Family.

But even before flat-rate prepaid plans became popular, the big four nationwide cell phone operators began offering bundles of unlimited voice service. Over a year ago, Verizon Wireless was the first to announce a $99.99 unlimited voice plan followed by AT&T and T-Mobile. Sprint was the last of the big four to announce its unlimited plan, but it now offers the most comprehensive plan. For $99.99, Sprint’s Simply Everything plan gives customers unlimited voice minutes, data, text, e-mail, Web-surfing, Sprint TV, Sprint Music, GPS Navigation, and push-to-talk.

“We don’t think our customers want to have to keep track of or only talk to friends, colleagues or family members who make the same choices they do,” Dan Hesse, Sprint’s CEO, said in a statement.

While the new pricing structure may help Sprint keep some customers, it will likely come at a high price for the company. Moffett postulates in a research note written Thursday that some of Sprint’s highest volume callers already subscribing to the $99 Simply Everything Plan could downgrade to Any Mobile, Anytime plan, which would slash the company’s revenue.

“By stimulating demand for outbound wireless calls, the company is effectively opening the door to increased wireless settlement charges, which are statutorily higher than wireline termination charges,” he said.

The move to make all mobile-to-mobile voice minutes part of a flat rate plan is yet another indicator that voice revenues are getting squeezed in the cell phone market. This is good news for consumers who might see competitors fighting back with lower pricing on their plans. But most likely big players such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless are likely to add more mobile-to-mobile features to their existing plans rather than lowering their prices, says analyst Craig Moffett of Sanford Bernstein.

Web pages have long included anchor links, which, when clicked, send you to a specific section of the page. Wikipedia uses them heavily to help users jump between headings and navigate the sometimes large articles more efficiently. Google has announced that it is now including these anchor links in search results. This is right in line with Google’s mission of helping users to find the information that they are looking for as quickly and accurately as possible.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)

If you are a Webmaster and want to set up your Web pages to identify sections to Google, then read this post on Google’s Webmaster Central to get you started.

Google calls out the headings (Overview, Requirements, Important reactions, See also) in this Wikipedia article on nuclear fusion.

For an example of how this works, try searching for “nuclear fusion.” As you can see, Google pulls out the headings in the article, so if I was really interested in the requirements for nuclear fusion, I could jump straight there. This is a great addition and really helps in cases where you are dealing with long, text-heavy pages.

The answer lies in another question: Will these virtual decisions and educational activities translate into real-life skills?

The Netbook comes with desktop animations which link to Whyville.net, a virtual world where kids of all ages chat, shop, and visit places in town that engage them in science, nutrition, art, and business activities.

One of the most interesting locations is the cafeteria, where Whyvillians can pick a food item, view its nutritional facts, and select a meal based on an educated decision. If their character eats more fattening, high-calorie items, the cartoon character will see the effects as it becomes fatter and unhealthy. Likewise, if the character doesn’t eat enough, he will become frail and sickly. A lack of vitamin C will cause scurvy sores, and a lack of calcium will cause weak bones and a bandaged head. As a result, the child may be advised that his Whyvillian should see the Whyville nutritionist.

(Credit: Dell)

It is up to the parents to execute this process, exploring Whyville and other virtual worlds with their child. Most importantly, it’s up to them to help their child emulate their Whyvillian’s activities, like checking the nutrition label.

(Credit:
Whyville.net)

If it’s anything like the activity we’ve seen from teenagers and twentysomethings on MySpace and Facebook, where users create a semifictional version of themselves, existing only on these social networks, then Whyville may be a huge success. In a previous piece, I mentioned that profiles on social networks tend to reflect how the person wants to be perceived, rather than who they really are.

In a time when answers are just a self-driven Google search away, it only makes sense that children and preteens can access these educational resources, too. In a study conducted by the MacArthur Foundation, researchers found that “New media allow for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in a classroom setting and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults. Their efforts are also largely self-directed, and the outcome emerges through exploration, in contrast to classroom learning that is oriented by set, predefined goals.”

Apples, French toast, or oranges for breakfast? Well, let's check the nutrition facts.

That being said, it’s possible that children and preteens will develop this sad habit of creating a better, virtual version of themselves early on. Can such young minds make a fluid connection between their Whyvillian’s eating habits and their own? It’s unclear whether it’s possible, but there may be a way to make it happen.

The price of the 10.1-inch Nickelodeon Netbook hasn’t been announced, but it will be available for purchase at Dell.com and Walmart stores in October.

Perhaps this is simply giving the next generation a head-start in the digital world, or maybe now is our chance to teach the next generation that learning and education are best obtained from people, books, and hands-on activities.

Dell has partnered with Nickelodeon and Whyville.net to give life to its latest version of the Mini10v. According to Dell, the kids’ Netbook has been designed with safe computing, education, and entertainment in mind. At a glance, Dell is only trying to reach another market (children), but if you look a little closer, the Netbook may represent a change in the way the next generation of preteens and children will learn to socialize and develop their decision-making skills.

Online activities are often self-directed–children are learning, exploring, and socializing because they choose to. So, are Dell and Whyville.net onto something?

In an interview with BusinessWire, Jen Sun, who is the director of the WhyEat project said: “It’s extremely alarming to see that the number of overweight children and adolescents is on the rise; in fact, the prevalence of obesity in children 6-11 years old is three times what it was in the 1970s,…It is pretty clear that lecturing kids about nutrition isn’t going to solve the problem. In Whyville, kids are given the tools to figure it out for themselves - with a little help from us, of course.”

Vendio’s listing-creation tool lets you display images, set up promotions, and track all the items that were sold on eBay. The site also tracks customers, displaying their name, the last time they purchased products from you, when they bought those products, and more. Vendio is free to use, but it takes up to 1.95 percent of your sales that are generated through the service.

Toolhaus displays how users view you.

Toolhaus Toolhaus is a service that allows you to see the reliability of an eBay user. It lists all the feedback the user has received, including both positive and negative reviews. It’s not the most useful app in this roundup, since it basically lists information you’ll find on eBay, but it does come in handy when you want to quickly determine if you can trust users.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

HammerTap is a useful tool, but beware that it costs $19.95 per month after a 10-day free trial.

Selling Manager lets you relist items quickly.

Vendio lets you create a store in no time.

eBay tools

ListingTicker will show all your recent listings.

eBay Market Researcher Terapeek’s eBay Market Researcher tool is a fine way to determine how to get the most out of your listing.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

3. ListingTicker: having the option of listing all your eBay auctions is quite convenient.

eBay Market Researcher provides you with a variety of research tools.

1. Auctiva: with so many options and a relatively affordable price, Auctiva takes the top spot.

Photoblat allows you to upload images in no time.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Vendio Vendio is an online shopping platform. If you want to sell products on your site, it will help you out. But Vendio’s real value is in its marketplace tools that help you improve your listings on eBay.

HammerTap features the number of listings and the keywords matching your query.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Photoblat Photoblat is a neat utility if you want to save some money on adding photos to your eBay listings. The site allows you to upload photos to the service. From there, you can add those photos to your eBay listings page through tools like eBay’s Blackthorne Pro. All the photos are hosted on the Photoblat site. Photoblat charges $3.99 per month for access to its service.

Selling Manager eBay’s Selling Manager app is installed into the My eBay section of a seller’s listing page. The app allows you to manage all your listings in one place. You can also create customized e-mail templates to send to buyers who won your auction. If the buyer doesn’t pay, it automatically relists your item. If you want all these options, you’ll be forced to pay $15.99 per month. The free version of the Web-based app will let you create a professional listing and edit your listings in bulk.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Auctiva Auctiva is a full-featured product that allows you to use a variety of templates and modules to help you sell products more effectively on eBay.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

HammerTap HammerTap is another eBay market research tool that provides basic information, like the number of active item’s listings, how many times a product has sold, and the average sales price of those auctions. One of the app’s nicest features is its “will it sell?” offering, which displays a scale, showing the percentage chance of the product selling on eBay.

Auctiva is quite powerful. You can create side-scrolling galleries with pictures you upload to the site (you’re allowed 1GB of storage), change the color of your listing page, and issue invoices. It won’t help you determine if you’re selling products that eBay users want, but it will help you easily manage your auctions. Admittedly, Auctiva is for active sellers, but at $9.95 per month for so many nice features, it’s an affordable offering.

My top 3

After you sign up for the site and choose a membership (it costs $24.95 per month or $197.95 per year), you can immediately start searching through the app’s listings of eBay products. When you find the product you’re looking to sell, it provides you with information on the item’s average bid, how much the average listing makes, and how page design affected profits. The app even provides you with information on which day is best to list the product and end your auction. It’s a powerful tool.

ListingTicker ListingTicker is a simple tool that helps you post all your listings on your blog or Web site. The site asks you to input your eBay user ID. It then creates a widget to be placed on your site. It shows all your auctions that will be ending soon. It also provides your site’s visitors with a search box in case they want to find something else.

After Amazon experienced some difficulties last week with its selling options in the Amazon Marketplace, it made me wonder if anyone decided to start selling some of their merchandise on eBay. If so, they would join thousands of others who are using the online auction site to make a few extra bucks. If that’s your goal, check out some of these services for eBay sellers.

Auctiva helps you add inventory and track it on the site.

2. Vendio: Vendio has some offerings that should appeal to you.

And things are only getting worse. While the industry’s June numbers were down a full 31 percent from a year earlier, they still topped nine figures, coming in at $1.17 billion in June. But that means that in July, sales were down 27.4 percent from just a month earlier.

Microsoft was quick to jump on what may have been the only bright spot in NPD’s report: that its Xbox 360 was the only console to deliver growth over a year earlier. In its own report, trumpeting NPD’s numbers, Microsoft pointed out that the Xbox has turned in 17 percent growth for the year over the same period in 2008.

In July, according to industry analyst the NPD Group, video game sales fell for the fifth straight month, and the year-over-year numbers are striking: In July, the video games business posted sales of $848.9 million, down 29 percent from $1.1 billion a year earlier. Year-to-date sales, reported NPD, were at $8.16 billion, down 14 percent from the same time period a year ago.

Not to mention Guitar Hero 5.

And while Nintendo’s Wii still leads the pack among the big three consoles (the Xbox, Sony’s PlayStation 3, and the Wii), its lead has shrunk considerably. In July, consumers bought 252,200 Wiis, versus 202,900 Xboxes and 121,800 PS3s.

Indeed, NPD analyst Anita Frazier wrote in a report Thursday that, “In order for the industry to come in flat or slightly up for the total year, the back five months of the year have to come in 11 percent (or more) higher than the last five months of last year.”

It wasn’t that long ago that many people were making the argument that video games–because of their relatively low cost and many hours of entertainment value–were seen as close to recession-proof. But now, it would be hard for anyone to make that case.

One thing was also made clear in NPD’s July report: sales weaknesses in the industry are being seen across the board. However, hardware led the charge, with a drop in sales of 37 percent ($280.94 million in July, 2009, as opposed to $447.71 million a year earlier). Software and accessories were down 26 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

All in all, it’s hard to be optimistic about the industry’s prospects, though, as Frazier pointed out, there are a slew of big titles coming down the pike that could drive big sales. Still, the same is true every year, and as a result, there are few who could argue at this point that the video game business is facing what may be its biggest crisis in years.

In a stark reversal of the trend on display just a few short months ago–when general retail sales were plummeting even as the video games industry was still showing growth–cautious optimism in retail is now being offset by many losing months in video games.

That would seem to be a near impossible task, given the recent trend. But Frazier did throw the industry a bone: “While year-to-date results are weak, there are some big titles set to be released over the next several months, including Madden (10, from Electronic Arts) this month, which should help spur sales. The worst…should be behind us, and looking beyond August, we have The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3: ODST, and of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to look forward to.”

But now it looks like the German telecom giant could be looking for a more cost-effective way to increase its presence in the U.S. market.

German phone giant Deutsche Telekom is looking to jump into the 4G wireless market in the U.S. through partnerships with U.S.-based service providers, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

Buying Sprint Nextel would likely become an integration nightmare for Deutsche Telekom. Sprint Nextel is already the product of what many consider one of the worst telecom mergers ever. Sprint bought Nextel in 2005 for $35 billion. And for the past four years, the company has struggled to integrate two different wireless networks. Sprint’s network operates using a technology called CDMA, while Nextel uses a technology called I-DEN. T-Mobile USA uses GSM, which would introduce a third type of technology into the mix.

Clearwire said in August that it would spend between $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion in 2009 to expand its network. Deutsche Telekom could provide more funding for this endeavor in exchange for access to the network, Bloomberg reports.

A deal with MetroPCS, which sells prepaid wireless service, could help Deutsche Telekom get access to a 4G wireless network that will use a more widely adopted technology called LTE or Long-Term Evolution. MetroPCS acquired spectrum in the 700 MHz wireless auction, and it has said that it plans to build a 4G network using LTE starting in 2010. Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest mobile operator, which also acquired spectrum in the same 700 MHz auction, is also building a 4G wireless network using LTE.

As the Clearwire network comes online, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have each announced they will offer mobile wireless broadband service using the Clearwire network in areas where they offer cable service.

Clearwire has already made similar deals with other investors. Last year, cable companies Comcast and Time Warner Cable were among investors that provided the company with $3.2 billion in funding. Google and Intel have also invested in Clearwire.

Last week, rumors resurfaced that Deutsche Telekom was looking to buy Sprint Nextel. Sprint is the third-largest wireless operator in the U.S. and has been struggling the last few years to retain customers. The idea behind a potential buyout of Sprint is that it would give Deutsche Telekom more subscribers, which could help it compete more aggressively against the two largest wireless carriers in the U.S., AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Deutsche Telekom is looking to beef up its presence in the U.S. wireless market by investing in Clearwire, a company that is building a 4G wireless network using a technology called WiMax. Sources also told Bloomberg that Deutsche Telekom is also talking to Metro PCS, which recently acquired spectrum to build its 4G wireless network.

Deutsche Telekom already owns T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. But the carrier’s growth has remained flat for several quarters. And the company hasn’t yet announced plans for its next-generation network.

But if 4G access is what Deutsche Telekom really wants, then a partnership with Clearwire makes sense. Sprint owns about 51 percent in Clearwire. Last year, the companies created a joint venture combining assets from both companies. Clearwire, which has already begun building its nationwide 4G wireless network, is using 2.5 GHz spectrum that is owned by Sprint.

Partnerships with Clearwire and MetroPCS would cost the German phone company much less than purchasing Sprint outright, and it would be a lot easier than trying to digest another wireless provider.