Cellular – Page 67 – Digital-Lifestyles

MegaSIM could give phone SIM’s a boost

Not so much a case of minor to major but more a case of meagre to mega, M-Systems, an Israeli company have given the humble SIM card (the 128Kb card that comes with all GSM phones, holding numbers and contacts) a serious memory boost. Exchanging the SIM for the M-Systems MegaSIM, which can be used by all 2G and 3G GSM service providers for user identification and authentication, and storing phone settings and numbers, is somewhat akin to giving Popeye a can of spinach.

MegaSIM is a fully compatible (U)SIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module) that will give you up to 256MB extra storage space (with higher capacities to follow) by simply changing SIM cards, making things easier for users switching devices since all data can be transferred onto a new phone in a now standard way.

It’s only in development stage right now and will not be commercially available until the second half of 2005. It’s a first in the cellular market – a SIM card that combines high-capacity flash-based storage, with densities up to 256 Megabytes, and advanced security storage capacity to enable a variety of mobile applications.

MegaSIM will enable mobile operators to bundle software, applications, and games on one simple secure single-chip solution. Furthermore, it will free mobile network operators and handset vendors from the need to bundle the memory cards that are used in ‘many feature’ and smart phones.

The mobile landscape is changing as mobile handsets increase their multimedia capabilities and network speeds towards broadband. Service providers will respond to the trend by providing secure, scalable and configurable high-capacity storage. The MegaSIM card module will enable SIM card vendors to provide their mobile operator customers with a (U)SIM card enabling a variety of advanced mobile services such as MMS, MP3 and video clips downloading, full PIM functionality, and high-resolution picture storage.

M-Systems

3G Phones in Japan Get Even More Interesting

Twenty four hours is a long time in the Japanese mobile phone market, vividly demonstrated by the three interesting developments I’m going to outline below.

Firstly, KDDI, the second largest mobile operator in Japan will be distributing the new Casio W21CA handset with Opera as its default web browser – this makes Opera the first full web browser to be deployed on the 3G CDMA network in Japan.

Toshio Maki, the vice president and general manager of KDDI’s Service and Product Planning Divisionsaid in a statement:”With a market eager to experience evolved mobile communications, a crucial part of that experience will be how impressively users can browse the Internet and how rich Web content will be. Opera is the ideal mobile Web application to browse the full Web because of its speed, usability, and unique SSR [Small-Screen Rendering] technology, Opera is the best browser to utilize the high-speed access capabilities of the 3G CDMA network.”

Secondly, KDDI are about to launch a new music distribution service whilst introducing new phones that have enough memory to make them genuinely useful as music players. The new music store will launch with about 10,000 tracks, though we’ve not been able to confirm how much a download will cost.

The service will launch at the end of November, and will coincide with new phones from Toshiba, Sanyo and Hitachi. With 40mb of memory, the new Sanyo W22SA will be able to store about 100 minutes of J-Pop with around nine hours of playback.

Lastly, if you’re worried about your phone’s battery life now that it’s your video camera, music player, games console, TV and, errr, phone – then KDDI is hoping to introduce fuel-cell based batteries in the near future, with a prototype expected this year. Conventional batteries are just not up to the sort of energy drain required for all the new 3G services that network providers and phone manufacturers are hoping to seel to customers. The fuel cells are methanol-based and are charged by attaching methanol cartridges. Expect a sudden increase in tramps asking for 10p to make a phone call.

Opera

KDDI

Vodafone Offers PC SMS Software

Vodafone are capitalising on the huge and frankly unexpected success of text messaging by giving away free PC software that allows users to send text messages from their computers.

Compatible with either Microsoft Outlook or IBM’s Lotus Notes, Vodafone Text Centre makes sending SMS messages as easy as sending an (expensive) email.

Although the software itself is free, sending a text message costs the usual amount (about UK£0.10, €0.15). Cleverly, replies can be directed to the senders phone, or to their Text Centre inbox. Other features include sending messages to multiple distribution lists and a calender function to send a text message to remind you of a meeting – if you somehow can’t remember to set either the calender in your phone or PDA.

Orange released a similar product recently, the PC Messenger. During testing at the office, we were disgusted to see that the test text we sent took 12 hours to arrive – not quite to what texting is about. Not surprisingly we haven’t used it again.

Every month, nimble-fingered mobile users send more than two billion grammar-free text messages in the UK. Indeed, texting accounted for 16% of Vodafone’s revenue in the last financial year, which must be startling profitable when you consider the service essentially costs next to nothing for the network operator to provide. By providing a PC client for texting, Vodafone is no doubt hoping to increase the market still further.

Vodafone Text Centre

Yell Launch Yell.com Mobile

Yell.com, the UK business information portal styled on the Yellow Pages, has just announced the launch of Yell.com Mobile. The service aims to give access to the company’s information on two million shops and services to mobile phone users through a Java application and even provides colour maps and directions from your location. Yell.com Mobile is compatible with a large range of handsets, and a list is available from their main website. The service, excluding the premium services detailed below, is free – excluding normal network charges.

To use the service for the first time, the applet has top be downloaded by texting “mobile” to 80248. You’ll then receive a message that will prompt the applet download through your GPRS connection.

Once installed, users can search Yell by business type, name, location or browse by categories like “Gifts and Shopping” or “Days and Nights Out”.

Once a business is located, users are offered three premium services, each costing UK0.25 (€0.36): Map, Directions or Business Card. The map is presented at 1:25,000 scale with seven levels of zoom, and directions can be tailored to driving or walking and are based on the user’s current location. The business card function simply copies the full details of the company you’ve searched for to your phone’s address book.

Eddie Cheng, eBusiness director, Yell, said: “Yell.com mobile is a unique service, the most advanced of its kind currently available in Europe. The revolutionary application gives mobile users full access to Yell.com’s business information whilst they’re on the move. Once downloaded, the application sits on the mobile handset with only requested data being transmitted over the air.”

Yell.com Mobile

Vodafone announce 10 3G handsets

Nintendo DS Vodafone is launching their 3G voice services in Europe and Japan with a big splash by announcing 10 handsets at the outset.

The range of handsets, which Vodafone is excited to tell us contains some models and designs that are exclusive to them, contains Europe’s first 2 mega pixel camera phone, CD quality music and stereo speakers. The Sharp 802, 902 and the NEC 802N are exclusive to Vodafone and a further three will be exclusive at launch. The launch features the handset that we are particularly excited about, the Motorola E1000, that includes has all of the desirable features including A-GPS for location based services.

Vodafone Live!, their content play, is also heavily featured as this is the great hope in trying to gain back some of the billions they have spend to 3G licenses around the world.

Following our calls to Vodafone, they confirmed that no further details on the handsets or services would be released before November.

Vodafone

Opera Mobile Browser Hits 1m Downloads

Opera Mobile browser Opera Software ASA, who are headquartered in Oslo, Norway and make the web browsers of choice of the technical stalwart, has had one million downloads from the Web site of their mobile phone-based browser. This is in addition to the browsers that they have provided to many mobile phone makers including Nokia, IBM, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera, Sharp and Psion.

Browsing Web pages designed for PC screens has been a problem as many web sites fix their column widths, primarily to ensure their advertising banners are displayed, leading to a lot of horizontal scrolling when viewed on a small screen, such as those on a mobile phone.

Opera’s Small-Screen Rendering™ (SSR) technology intelligently reformats Web sites to fit inside the mobile devices limited screen width, thereby eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling. All the content and functionality remain available; it is only the layout of the page that is changed.

It has been running for some time on the Sony Ericsson P800/P900 and Symbian OS-based phones. Adding to these platforms, at the end of August, they launched a browser product for Windows-based mobile devices.

In June Opera displayed that they understood that browsing many web pages at their original created resolution would not only take a considerable time to download, but that phone users would be paying high mobile data charges to bring down large graphics that wouldn’t even be able to be displayed on portable handsets. Their approach – the Opera Mobile Accelerator – a subscription service, which via a proxy server run by Opera, compresses Web pages and eliminates unnecessary content before it is downloaded to the mobile phones. The net effect is a reduction in the size of download of between 50%-70% and also in the data charge. Popular with mobile phone users but, we imagine, not very popular with mobile phone service providers who will be losing income.

Opera

Opera – How SSR works

Opera Mobile Accelerator

Sidekick ll has Arrived

SideKick II, Danger’s successor to its Sidekick “smart phone.” hits the US shops running on Wednesday. The launch happens today though in Santa Monica where you can also buy the 25 percent slimmer version a day earlier.

This is a portable office, and not only because the screen swivels open to showcase a full QWERTY keyboard. What else would you call a device that incorporates instant messaging, email, web browsing, a phone service, and a personal organiser, which stores up to 2,000 personal contacts, all accessible through a simple interface? Not to mention a built-in low-resolution digital camera with flash, and built-in speakerphone, and enhanced battery life giving approximately 4.5 hours of talk time. Retailing at $299 (~£166, ~€244) with a one-year contract also makes it a very affordable moveable feast for the mobile professional. Furthermore, each Sidekick II owner gets a personal Web site, run by T-Mobile and Danger, that automatically synchronizes with the device.

T- Mobile Sidekick II owners get their own email account and can set up as many as three external accounts to deliver email directly to their inbox. Yahoo! Messenger is now available for download to the T-Mobile Sidekick II, in addition to the fully integrated version of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service, meaning users can IM their friends and colleagues while surfing the Web.

The T-Mobile Sidekick II, based on Danger, Inc.’s hiptop Wireless Solution, will be available through T-
Mobile at T-Mobile retail stores, selected national retailers, and online at www.t-mobile.com. Along with the launch of the T-Mobile Sidekick II, T-Mobile and Danger plan to introduce software that will enable Sidekick customers to wirelessly synchronize their desktop contacts and calendar information with their T-Mobile Sidekick. This synchronization software will be available for the T-Mobile Sidekick II and previous Sidekick generations.

Danger Inc.

T-Mobile

Vodafone Launch BlackBerry 7100v – With New Form

Vodafone BlackBerry 7100v Vodafone have today announced a new form of BlackBerry, the 7100v. It has been designed with the BlackBerries creator, RIM (Research In Motion) and will be the first release of a new form factor.

I’d seen BlackBerries around but had dismissed them as a suits tool, and frankly had looked down on them a little. I saw them as used by people who didn’t know better, just getting them out to show off.

While I was in Amsterdam for IBC, there were a couple of occasions where a BlackBerry saved the day. In one, a speaker arrived in Amsterdam without knowing where his hotel was, fortunately I had sent him an email as he landed at the airport – he picked it up on his BlackBerry and we were able to sort things out quickly.

Now having studied them in detail, I can see they are about the most efficient use of space a text input device could have – a thumb-able keyboard and compact screen.

The new model from Vodafone differs from the ‘normal’ BlackBerry approach of full QWERTY keyboard and large screen. Vodafone’s new 7100v takes its design cue from a mobile phone handset. It has a slightly expanded numeric keyboard, taking it from three keys across to five.

To maintain the ease of input of text, the 7100v uses the RIM-developed SureType. It appears to be very similar in function to T9, but it has only two possible characters on each key, rather than up to four with T9. Paul Stonadge, Data Solutions Executive at Vodafone UK, told us the best way to get acclimatised to it is to “get into the mind set that it is a QWERTY keyboard”

It has a built in library of 35,000 words that can be user-expanded. Another smart feature is the automatic reading in of the contact address book, leading to all your contact names being included in the typing dictionary – very smart.

Vodafone have also taken the opportunity of heavily branding both the handset and the interface – it will be clear to the user that they’re using a Vodafone.

Vodafone previously released BlackBerries, the 7230 and slightly larger screened 7730 were aimed at medium to large enterprises. They are aiming this at the SME and SoHo market – a smart move considering how often small business people are away from their desk and how vital it is form them to stay in touch.

One of the winning features of the BlackBerries has been that email was pushed to the handset rather than the normal method of repeatedly asking the mail server if it had anything new. To use the push feature, the BlackBerries originally needed to run in conjunction with MS Exchange and Lotus Domino servers – the Enterprise solution, as they labelled it. This changed a while back to allow mail to be picked up for the widely spread POP servers.

It is due for release on 1 Oct in the UK and will vary in cost depending on the call plan, ranging from free on the higher call plans to £82 (~$146.56, ~€120.60) on the Anytime 100. The email charge will be on top, varying from £8.51 (~$15.21, ~€12.51) for a heavy voice plan to £15.74 (~$28.13, ~€23.15) if it is only used for email.

We’ll be testing in October, so stand by for a review.

BlackBerry 7100

IBC News: O2 to Trial DVB-H Video to Mobile Phones

O2 and NTL have announced that they will be trialling a DVB-H mobile video service in Oxford, England next spring. That they have chosen DVB-H over the competing standards is good news for the platform’s supporters.

Nine transmitters will send sixteen channels of video to 500 O2 customers, with proposed content covering sport, music, news and ahem, soap operas. Those involved in the trial will be given phones from Sony and Nokia.

The trial is concerned with measuring consumer demand for video services, rather than being a purely technical pilot. Usage will be extensively tracked to see just what sort of service people might actually be interested in using.

The head of media business development at NTL’s Broadcast Division, Terry Howard, said: “This is a commercial trial to test the business case for a mobile TV service in the UK. We’ve performed extensive market research about consumer demand and viewing habits and it looks very positive, but these results need to be validated in a trial environment in conjunction with key players in the industry.”

O2 on the news

The Nokia 9300 – the New Communicator, Only Smaller

No doubt you’ll remember the Nokia Communicator – you’ve probably sat opposite some bloke in a meeting who had one, and I bet he had an air of desperation tinged with coolness about him. Cool, because he thought he had a nifty gadget, desperation because it was enormous and the battery was about to go any moment.

The Communicator, apart from the Trekker name, was a good idea and the various updates and iterations since the first model have improved many of its features and attributes. However (there’s always a however, isn’t there?), other more useful (and certainly smaller) smartphones have appeared, and people failed to see the point of the Communicator after a while.

Nokia are back with another attempt though, and a valiant effort it is too. The new 9300 is 50 grams lighter and several centimetres smaller around the waist – Nokia are touting it as “a new high-end smartphone with both beauty and brains.” The company is hoping to see it in a lot more shirt pockets, and tellingly, handbags.

The tri-band 9300 retains the original hinged format, opening up to reveal a full keyboard and a 65,536 colour screen. Navigation has been improved with a joystick for getting around menus, and eight function keys. Users can expand the 80mb built-in memory to up to 2 gig with an optional MMC card.

The new phone runs the Series 80 OS, and includes software for connecting to various email servers, browsing the internet and a built in office suite, including a PDF reader.

“The Nokia 9300 will appeal to a wide range of professionals who want powerful functionality from a data-enabled device without compromising the look, comfort, simplicity and usability of a standard mobile phone,” said Niklas Savander, senior vice president of Nokia’s business device unit. “We believe the Nokia 9300 strikes that balance in one stylish smartphone, without sacrificing the combined functionality that many people require but until now could only get from carrying multiple products.”

Where’s the camera then?

The 9300 will be available in the first quarter of 2005, though no pricing details have yet been publicised.

The 9300