Devices

New devices to consumer digital media

PalmOne Releases Tungsten E2 PDA
PalmOne’s Tungsten E – introduced in 2004 – proved to be a rip-roaring success, becoming the top-selling handheld in North America and among one of the best sellers world-wide.
However, the handheld market has changed rapidly in the past eighteen months, with the growth of rival Windows powered PDAs and, more importantly, the explosion of smartphones offering PDA-like features.
Unlike the groundbreaking PDAs created by the innovative Sony Clie range (sadly since departed the Palm platform), palmOne have decided to play very safe indeed, with the new Tungsten E2 using the same tried’n’trusted design as the Tungsten E and Tungsten T5 units.
This means that the plastic tablet-style unit measures up at a reasonably lithe 114 x 78 x 15 mm and weighs a pocket-unchallenging 133 grams.
A square 320 x 320 16-bit colour TFT dominates the front of the unit, which palmOne claims is “typically 30% brighter than the Tungsten E display” with “40% better colour saturation”. As usual, there’s a fixed handwriting area below.
Apart from the inclusion of palmOne’s new Multi-Connector serial port (replacing the previous mini-USB port), everything is much the same as its predecessor, with the directional pad, application buttons, SDIO slot, IR port, headphone jack and metal barrel stylus being unchanged.
What is new, however, is the overdue inclusion of Bluetooth 1.1, supporting all the standard profiles with a helpful onscreen wizard aiding connectivity. Sadly, Wi-Fi is not included, although palmOne claims that the E2 works just dandy with their SDIO Wi-Fi card.
There’s been some tinkering under the hood, with the unit sporting a new 200 MHz processor (up from 126MHz) which should make most Palm apps purr along nicely, and the inclusion of non-volatile memory to avoid data loss in case the battery runs down. Shame there’s only a measly 32MB on offer though.
Battery life, as ever, is excellent, with some users reporting that they’ve managed to squeeze an amazing 17 hours of non-stop MP3 playback out of the device (palmOne claim a more modest 10-12 hours of continuous use).
MP3 playback comes courtesy of the bundled RealOne audio player, with users able to listen via the built in speaker or headphones.
Other software includes a media suite (for playing back videos or viewing photo stills) an upgraded PIM suite, Web browser in ROM, with VersaMail and Documents To Go available on the included CD.
For an entry level PDA, the new palmOne E2 is a very capable device, with the inclusion of Bluetooth, superb battery life and improved multimedia features making it an attractive offering for budget-minded professionals and consumers looking for an affordable handheld.
OUR RATING: 4/5 stars Cost: £169 (US$249, €248)
palmOne Tungsten E2
13 April, 2005
Sony W800 Walkman Phone First European Showing
I had a Sony W800 Walkman Phone in my hands for the first time today at the Sony Media Experience in Bordeaux. There’s already been a terrific buzz about this camera and it was great to get my hands on the thing during what Sony claims was its first European outing.
First impressions – good. Its weight is just right, light enough to make it carriable but sufficiently weighty to make it of substance.
The central music button is the focus of the handset and, not surprisingly, pressing it takes you straight to your music selection.
Once tracks have been selected, there are separate buttons on either side of the handset. The button on the left is play/pause and the right control volume. Again, without having to dive into the menus of the phone. A smart move.
The software comes with the handset will take music CDs straight from the player on your machine to handset, without intervention.
It follows on from other Sony camera phones, in that taking photos is easy. Simply sliding the switch at the rear of the machine, takes the horizontally-held phone straight to camera mode, again without having to devle into menus.
The W800 should retail for €500 (US$644/£341) pre-operator’s discounts.

Single button to access music

Volume controls

Headphones attach at the bottom
12 April, 2005
Frontier Silicon Trials Roadster Automotive DAB Module
Automotive DAB market gets a boost with successful road trials and three new design wins for Frontier Silicon.
In possibly the longest sentence we’ve ever read in an announcement (68 words long!), Frontier Silicon breathlessly informed us of the success of their trials with the Roadster automotive DAB module.
The Roadster module, launched last year, is based on the award winning DAB technology already in use in over 70% of DAB radios on the market today.
The module allows OEM (original equipment manufacturer) fitting of DAB into integrated head units in the car, giving drivers a wide choice of DAB services.
In addition, the module supports telematics features such as Traffic Message Channel (TMC), TPEG and other emerging traffic data services at the full DAB decode rate.
The vertically mounted module is a fully shielded, self-contained complete system featuring Eureka 147 DAB receiver, dual band (Band III and L-band) high performance RF front end, base band processor, power supply, flash memory for program and data storage, additional random access memory and a full suite of firmware.
The Roadster module operates from a single 3.3V supply, pulling just 800mW power while decoding DAB, and also includes a phantom antenna power supply to support active antenna arrangements.
The whole caboodle measures only 55mm x 37mm x 13mm and is designed to mount inside a 1DIN radio/CD player.
Steve Evans, VP sales, Frontier Silicon, opened up his big book of industry buzzwords and let rip: “The automotive Infotainment market is an exciting area and a natural extension of the consumer DAB radio market which we have successfully helped to grow over the last three years.”
“The key factors that enabled our Roadster module to be successful in Winning the design slots with these manufacturers are its RF performance, power consumption and small size as well as the robust and feature-rich firmware that we are able to supply alongside the module. The ability to support TMC on the module was also considered an advantage.” He added, “We are looking forward to seeing the first production cars later this year with DAB functionality enabled by the Roadster module.”
Frontier Silicon
11 April, 2005
Talking Street Created By Living Streets Charity In London
Living Streets, a national charity, launched its election campaign, “Talk to me about streets”, by making street items like paving and signs talk back to passers-by in Meard Street, Soho, London.
The charity is campaigning for the need make streets and public spaces safer for residents and available to local communities for socialising and play – in our eyes a worthy cause.
At the risk of giving acid flashbacks to aging hippies wandering by, the charity installed micro-electronics to animate everyday objects in an attempt to get across their message.
Paving ‘squealed’ underfoot to point out the dangers of tripping over broken paving while spooky whispering windows resonated with the sound of absent children, no longer able to play in our dangerous streets.
Living Streets Director Tom Franklin explains, “The streets are the one public service that everyone uses. Politicians can directly improve people’s daily lives by improving the street environment.”
“Pavements for people” is one of the campaign themes. At the moment pavements often seem to be for everything except walking – parked cars, road signs, litter, fly tipping and dangerous clutter. For older people and the blind and partially sighted, it can put people off going out at all.
Many people and companies volunteered their time to make this event a success. Fergus Rougier created the audio for the Whispering Window, and the Clock Tree. Both of these produced sound that would be most unexpected in a city.
Verity Parker, who is doing an PhD at Brunel investigating electrical conductive fabrics, worked with Stock Displays to produce talking street signs, labelled in standard UK form, but with short audio samples.
Verity’s work also worked by referencing the street where the demonstration ran, one example being a stone nose placed apparently randomly on one of the building, lead to one of the pieces of work using voice samples of “I spy” and sneeze (mp3, ogg).
When we spoke to Verity about the project she was full of enthusiasm for it, telling us it was a “privileged to work on the project”.
‘The street that talks’ has the support of the Royal National Institute of the Blind, (RNIB) which also campaigns for streets and the built environment to be more accessible to blind and partially sighted people.
Steve Winyard, Head of Public Policy at RNIB said, “It is vital that people with sight problems are able to walk safely around their streets. The Government surveyed three hundred people with sight problems and found that every one had had an accident whilst walking. A safe environment is fundamental to independent living and for accessing public transport.”
An accompanying new Living Streets’ pamphlet – written by two of Britain’s most eminent architects, Lord Richard Rogers and Sir Terry Farrell – was also unveiled at the event.
The ‘talking pavestones’ concept was based on the ‘tune stones’ exhibition created for Eureka! The Museum for Children in Halifax when it opened in 1992, while the event has some resonance with the aims of the direct action, eco- activist group, Reclaim The Streets.
Audio samples
Fergus-Rougier-1 mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Fergus-Rougier-2 mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Fergus-Rougier-3 mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Fergus-Rougier-4 mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Ah mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Sneeze mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Kiss mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Teehee mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Verity-Parker-Whistle mp3, Ogg Vorbis
Relevant links
The Royal National Institute of the Blind
Living Streets
Eureka! The Museum for Children in Halifax
Reclaim The Streets
Stock Displays
Photo credits: Living Streets, Fergus Rougier & others
6 April, 2005
Laguna DC551HD From Pace, HD STB With HDMI, Among Others
Pace Micro Technology, a cutting edge UK digital set-top box provider tasked with developing emerging technologies across all television platforms, has trumpeted the launch of a number of STB’s and PVR’s, including the Laguna DC551HD and DC 501 Chicago all-digital set-top box.
The Laguna DC551HD is a high definition set-top box (HD STB) that comes with HDMI as standard. HDMI is being insisted on by many content owners as the means of interconnecting HD equipment, ensuring the content remains encrypted as it passes between devices, in an effort to reduce unauthorised content copying. It also boasts support for an optional 1394 5C protected interface to let people move content from the box – in a controlled fashion, of course.
Pace is also offering the Tahoe DC775 HD-DVR, claiming it to be the most advanced high definition DVR for North America, and the first cable set-top box to offer features based on next generation silicon. Interestingly it offers a number of ways to save video content to the 160Gb hard drive – Standard Definition (SD), High Def (HD) and enhanced analogue. With multi-room video distribution and support for high-speed data connections for home computers, wireless routers and VoIP included you might be wondering what isn’t included.
The ‘Chicago’ set-top box is an all-digital device with a common platform designed to operate on North American cable networks and the Chicago DC 501 claims to be the most powerful standard definition, all-digital box available, boasting an industry leading MIPS processor and it’s also the first in the industry to offer DSG and OCAP support as options.
Consumers burdened with Ye Olde analogue televisions won’t have to miss out on the digi-fun either as the box can hook up to such near-Neanderthal devices.
The Chicago DC 501’s innovative design allows the set-top box to stand vertically or lay horizontally, with a cunning infrared (IR) receiver extender allowing the box to be mounted remotely on a wall or discretely hidden away.
Pace Americas’ President Michael Pulli spun out the spiel, “We’re in a unique position as the only set-top box provider with licenses and technology to deploy boxes on all types of cable TV networks. This underscores a major part of our long-term strategy for the North American market, which is to develop set-top box solutions with a common platform that can easily be deployed on any network.”
Pace Americas’ VP of Technology Chris Dinallo had clearly feasted on a diet of buzzwords before adding, “All-digital and digital simulcast are critical industry initiatives, and uniquely, Pace is proud to be the only set-top box provider that can support all-digital on both networks.”
“All-digital networks allow entertainment and communications to flow easily across many devices. Consumer demand, better picture quality, spectrum efficiency, competition, and the ability to offer more revenue generating services are all driving cable operators toward all digital,” Dinallo added.
The Chicago DC 501 is the first in a series of Chicago all-digital boxes to be released this year.
Other model announced include (ready for this, deep breath …) the Daytona DC755HD, Indiana DC511 and some further details on the PVR2Go, a Personal & Mobile Entertainment Device.
Pace Micro
5 April, 2005
Moxi II Media Deal Between Digeo And Samsung
Samsung have jumped into bed with Digeo – a leading provider of media center software and services – and announced a deal to produce the next-generation Moxi II Media Center product family.
The companies are claiming that the new family of Samsung Home Media Center products will rival the features of personal computers designed for living room entertainment centres.
The Moxi II Media Center, scheduled for release in the autumn, will combine the functions of an advanced video recorder, jukebox, photo viewer and Internet telephone in a single unit (although cable providers will determine the exact feature set).
The boxes will sport four TV tuners (for recording multiple shows at once and/or feeding multiple live TV streams to satellite Moxi Mini boxes around the house) with enough onboard storage to record up to 40 hours of high definition programming.
There’s also support for Voice over IP for making and receiving calls (Moxi’s current Moxi Telephone app can only manage and receive calls).
US cable companies Charter Communications and Adelphia are set to be the first two cable companies to start dishing out the boxes to customers.
“We are pleased to be bringing powerful media center technologies to market with Digeo,” purred Gee Sung Choi, president of Digital Media Division for Samsung Electronics.
“Our Home Media Center solution launching this fall will be our marquee cable product, setting new standards for operators by delivering unprecedented, highly valued media center services and applications throughout the home.”
The new units will use the sci-fi sounding Digeo X-Stream chip set, a smart little fella that incorporates a chip that integrates several functions previously handled by multiple chips.
The cost-reducing chip will also offer improved graphics performance with Digeo cranking up the speed of the microprocessor from 733 megahertz to 1 gigahertz.
“The first product … is the first in this family,” said Michael Markman, Digeo’s senior director of marketing. “But the architecture, the design will allow for much further growth.”
Cable box makers face mighty mean competition from PC companies knocking out entertainment PCs running Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition. The latest PC models also support multiple-room viewing as well as HDTV.
Samsung
Digeo
5 April, 2005
Toshiba unveils XDR ‘world’s fastest’ memory chip and ‘one-minute charge’ battery
Toshiba has developed a super-fast Lithium-Ion battery capable of being charged to 80 per cent of its full capacity in under 60 seconds. According to the company, a full charge takes just “a few more minutes”.
Toshiba prototype ‘one-minute charge’ Li-ion battery can be recharged about 60 times faster than conventional lithium ion batteries, with the company claiming that the technology could be commercialised for portable electronics products in about three years.
Toshiba has developed two prototype batteries, with the smaller prototype (measuring 3.8mm by 62mm by 35mm) retaining 99 percent of its capacity after being charged 1,000 times, and the company are claiming that their fast-charging batteries will have about the same life as conventional rivals.
The company has been shouting about the new battery’s eco-credentials, pointing out that the fast recharging time will consume less energy than today’s Li-ion cells, leading to reduced carbon-dioxide emissions.
And, as they say on shampoo adverts, here’s the science: Toshiba clever technology uses “nano-particles” to “prevent organic liquid electrolytes from reducing during battery recharging. The nano-particles quickly absorb and store vast amount of lithium ions, without causing any deterioration in the electrode”.
So, err, now you know.
Toshiba’s ‘miracle’ battery will come to market next year, the company said, initially in automotive and industrial applications.
Toshiba announce Billy Whizz memory chip
Meanwhile, those crazy speed freaks at Toshiba have been busy making the earth go faster with an announcement that they have been sampling computer memory chips with the “world’s fastest data rate.”
The 512Mb XDR (extreme data rate) DRAM chips run at a turbo-charged speed of 4.8GHz, which is about 12 times faster than that of the memory typically found in today’s desktop PCs.
DRAM is the main type of memory used in PCs and servers. The faster the memory, the more smoothly computers tend to work with the increased speed offering better graphics and gaming performance.
Working at the 4.8GHz speed, the chips deliver a bandwidth of 12.8GBps, making them suitable for use in high-end digital TVs and PC graphics applications.
If more voltage is used, the chips can work at a peak operating speed of 6.4GHz, according to Toshiba.
XDR memory technology was developed by U.S.-based Rambus, with the chips incorporating Rambus’s ODR (octal data rate) signalling, which can transfer eight bits of data per clock cycle, according to Toshiba.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Japan’s Elpida Memory have also licensed XDR technologies from Rambus, and both chip companies plan to go into mass production of 512Mb XDR chips in the second half of 2005.
Toshiba made it past the post first, with Kim Soo-Kyoum, program director for semiconductor research at market research company IDC commenting, “Yes, it looks like Toshiba’s is the first … and yes, it’s the fastest … but Samsung and Elpida have similar schedules.”
Adoption of XDR as a main memory in high-end computing will start during 2007, according to a December 2004 report by IDC.
Toshiba
31 March, 2005
A780/ MPx220, Motorola Phones Bundle GPS Navigation App
Motorola is to bundle GPS navigation software and hardware with the European versions of its A780 and MPx220 smart phones.
The handsets will include ALK Technologies’ CoPilot Live navigation software and Navteq ‘street and places-of-interest’ maps for European countries, installed on a memory card.
The Linux-based A780 has a built in GPS receiver hardware, while the Windows Mobile-based MPx220 will require a separate Bluetooth-enabled GPS receiver.
CoPilot Live uses maps and GPS location data to calculate multi-stage routes, displaying turn-by-turn directions on screen and speaking them out loud to avoid drivers crashing into hedges while looking at the groovy 3D map display.
The software also plugs into ALK’s GPRS-based tracking system, which allows third-parties to find out precisely where they are and how long it will take for them to arrive at their destination (we fancy there’s a few in this office who could benefit from such a feature after a night in the pub).
The product can also quickly plot alternative courses in response to updated traffic news and traffic jams.
GPS navigation has proved a bit of a hit in Europe, with sales bolstering up an otherwise declining PDA market.
A variety of vendors have busied themselves bundling together low-cost handhelds, GPS receivers and navigation software packages that together cost far less than a dedicated GPS systems.
David Quin, ALK’s UK marketing chief, said the Motorola deal was “an important step on the road to mass-market adoption of GPS navigation”.
The Motorola deal follows a similar agreement with T-Mobile, which recently announced that it will bundle CoPilot Live with its SDA and MDA Compact smart phones (and offer CoPilot Live separately to existing SDA and MDA users.)
Both handsets use Bluetooth to communicate with a separate GPS receiver.
Motorola’s handsets and GPS bundles will be available from “select” mobile operators throughout Europe, with pricing and availability determined by the carriers themselves.
Motorola
ALK Co Pilot
15 March, 2005
ATI IMAGEON: Full Multimedia Phone Chips
ATI Technologies have introduced two new media processors, IMAGEON 2282 and IMAGEON 2182, offering a shovel load of ‘groundbreaking’ multimedia capabilities for mobile phones.
The company boasts that their mighty new chip can turn the ‘umble mobile phone into a high-resolution megapixel digital camera, a high-fidelity digital audio player and a digital camcorder with streaming video and video conferencing capabilities (tea-making features extra).
The IMAGEON processors are fully compliant with the 3GPP mobile media standards and capable of delivering high-levels of performance and quality independent of the host processor.
Ravi Gananathan, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Handheld Products Group, ATI Technologies Inc invites us to stick on our “visioneer” glasses:
“Just imagine the freedom of taking the functionality of your camcorder, MP3 player and digital still camera with you in a package that only weighs a few ounces.”
“The new IMAGEON processors from ATI combine advanced audio and video processing capabilities to turn mobile phones into mobile entertainment centers.”
The audio engine in the chip is a flexible and programmable beast, enabling CD-quality, 3D ring-tones along with high-quality stereo recording and playback in industry standard formats, including AMR, AAC, MP3, Real Audio, WMA and MIDI.
Meanwhile, the video engine enables a mobile digital video recorder/player and a 3 mega-pixel digital still camera, with the IMAGEON 2282 providing video streaming and video conferencing functionality with picture-in-picture support.
“The best camera is the one you have on hand to capture a memorable moment. That applies to all media devices,” enthused Gananathan. “Digital camcorders are the next killer application that carriers and consumers are looking for on mobile phones. The next generation IMAGEON powered mobile phones will allow users to be ready when they need to be – to snap a picture, record a movie or listen to music with no compromise on quality.”
ATI is promising ‘unparalleled visual quality and display features’ for the new chips with its ‘ATI’s PowerPlay’ power management technology claimed to offer the lowest power consumption at all levels of functionality.
The higher performance IMAGEON 2282 is targeted at the high mid-tier mobile phone segment while the IMAGEON 2182 targets the mainstream, low mid-tier segment.
Phones powered by the new IMAGEON processors are expected to ship later this year from leading handset manufacturers.
ATI IMAGEON
15 March, 2005
C-Flash Smart Phone Memory Cards Launched by Pretec – CeBIT 05
Announced at the CeBIT tradeshow, Pretec have introduced a new memory card format for smartphones, called the C-Flash cards.
Created as a rival to SanDisk’s TransFlash format, these fellas are absolutely tiny, with diminutive dimensions of just 0.7 inches by 0.5 inches by 0.04 inches (17 mm by 12 mm by 1.0 mm) – making them about the third of the volume of RS-MMC or miniSD cards.
Pretec C-Flash Cards will have support for SD/MMC and USB, and Pretec will also offer various adapters for C-Flash such as SD, miniSD, MMC, RS-MMC and USB.
This format will also have support for MU-Card, a specification from China lead by Mu-Card Alliance. C-Flash has been adopted as the next small form factor version of MU-Card (called MU-Flash).
Coming with built-in smart card (SIM card) support, these Lilliputian cards require less space for their memory card slots than rival formats – so could contribute to even smaller phones.
The trouble is, with a card this small, we could easily see it disappearing behind the back of the sofa, under a beer mat or being swallowed by the family guinea pig. And does the world really need yet another Memory Card Format?
C-Flash has also been submitted to the MMC Association to be considered as the next small form factor standard of MMC.
Pretec is currently sampling 128 MB C-Flash cards to major mobile phone makers, and 1 GB cards are expected to be available by the second quarter of this year. Mobile phones with C-Flash slots will be in the market this summer.
Pretec
15 March, 2005