Wireless – Page 103 – Digital-Lifestyles

TV-B-Gone – Rid your world of unwanted TV

Think of all the waiting rooms where you have had to endure mindless soaps, the bars where you have been silenced into submission by a cocktail of football or MTV – depending on which end you sit. If you have ever wished for a gizmo that would quell the cacophony then your wish has been granted.

A gadget cunningly disguised as a car alarm remote clandestinely switches off television sets by the simple press of a button now exists. Get your hands on one of these and going for a pint could yet again become the social event that it was fifty years ago – before the art of conversation was subsumed by wide-eyed silence punctuated by disjointed roars.

The gadget with the moral dimension has a name with a biblical ring – TV-B-Gone, and like the parting of the Red Sea it will silence the attention sapping scourge in any public area. When activated, the universal remote control with a mission will spend about a minute flashing out 209 different codes to turn off televisions, attacking the most popular brands first. There is an American-Asian model and a European one, using different codes.

TV-B-Gone’s inventor Mitch Altman, who was recently interviewed by Steven Bodzin for Wired, already has a pretty impressive track record. He wrote an Apple video game in 1977, which became a military training module, worked on virtual reality systems in VPL in the 1980’s, and more recently patented hard-drive controllers developed in his Silicon Valley data-storage maker company, 3Ware.

TV-B-Gone has just gone on sale so perhaps unwanted ambient TV may become a thing of the past, a social pariah we will tell our grandchildren about. Question is are the TV manufacturers going to fight back? Or, will it be the start of a whole new battle of wits like that between the computer security industry and the hackers, spammers and virus writers?

TV-B-Gone

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

Philips’ Connecting the Community Project

Philips have kicked off a new project in Singapore to bring together content and service providers to equip a sample of households with broadband and connectivity products. Under the auspices of Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority, the project will run for six months and residents will will participate in various ‘e’ services, including, Philips say, e-health, e-learning and e-security.

Philips are particularly interested in healthcare and the company are looking at options for providing services within the consumer’s home via a broadband connection. Applications include pop-up reminders for mediation appearing on TV screens, and the company currently delivers the service through SMS.

“We believe e-health services over broadband is one of the driving forces for establishing connected communities where patients are empowered to manage their health more effectively, and in the process help healthcare providers control costs,” said Andreas Wente, President and CEO of Philips Electronics Asia. “These personalized healthcare services would not only aim to help people with chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure manage their health more effectively, but ultimately help in maintaining a healthy digital lifestyle – for example, delivering weight management or employer health programs via a broadband enabled TV.”

The Connecting Community project is supported by Philips’ own InnoHub test bed facility, which crates a linked environment of communication and home entertainment devices that speak to one another. The InnoHub also will function as an ‘idea management facility’ for exploring the feasibility and commercial potential of innovations.

“This collaboration in Singapore embodies our vision of an emerging Connected Planet since it observes the daily habits and routines of normal families and, more importantly, identifies how their natural behavior responds to the latest state-of-the-art connectivity solutions,” said Cesar Vohringer, Chief Technology Officer, Philips Consumer Electronics. “Through an understanding of how these families interact not only virtually within the home but now through their communities, Philips can further realize its new brand promise by applying these discoveries in the creation of products that are advanced, easy to experience and designed around these consumers.”

Singapore’s IDA

Motorola to Try Out PassPay

Digital wallets have come a step closer with the news that Motorola will be trialling Mastercard’s PassPay service in some areas of the US by the end of the year.

The trial will involve two new Motorola handsets, but the company has not yet announced which ones they will be. The phones will use Near Field Communications technology to enable contactless purchases with new Motorola handsets.

Electronic purchases typically enhanced by NFC include buying travel tickets, a service already enjoyed by users in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

McDonalds and Loews Cinemas are amongst businesses that already offer PayPass services, in this case in Orlando, but the Motorola trial is expected to reach to states beyond Florida.

Ron Hamma, vice president and director of enterprise business development at Motorola said ian a statement: “Motorola is excited to be working with MasterCard to create a phone that has the potential to be lifestyle changing, and offers a convenient, fast, and secure method of payment. In essence your phone will become your wallet, key chain and your ID. Fully integrating MasterCard PayPass technology in our phones is a natural fit and major benefit to the consumer.”

PayPass

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

Microsoft Announces Plans for Your Digital Living Room and 22 New Security Flaws in Windows Products

Microsoft began the latest phase of its big push for consumers’ digital lives by unveiling Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005 (MCE) and a host of products designed to work alongside it.

Bill G and Queen Latifah demonstrated the most recent features in MCE at an event in Los Angeles, highlighting integration with Windows Media Player 10 and a compatibility with a range of new hardware devices.

To coincide with the do, Microsoft’s main press release describes a hypothetical family and how they might use digital media across the day – from recording TV programmes via their web browser to broadcasting music around the home using a Media Centre Extender.

The company also announced 22 new security holes in its Windows range whilst issuing an update to address them. One of the new flaws managed to affect Macintosh OSX users.

By promoting MCE as a digital hub, the company hopes to show consumers that they can view, share and store their movies, music and pictures around the home and on the move. To reinforce their view of the future, the company also announced a number of devices from partners like HP, Dell and Creative Labs.

Music is a very important part of MS’s plans, with Windows Media 10 and MSN Music receiving another PR boost. Amongst the devices promoted by MS were new Digital Audio Receivers from Dlink, Roku and MoniFi which are designed to play digital music from a central source in any room of the house. Creative, Gateway, iRiver and other also announced new digital media players for the Christmas season, with capabilities ranging from simple music to full video playback.

Will Poole, senior vice president for the Windows Client division at Microsoft said in a statement: “For years, many in the consumer electronics industry have viewed digital entertainment as a field of dreams: if you provide consumers with a solution, they’ll build it into a larger experience – regardless of cost or complexity. Windows XP Media Centre PC and all of these other devices and services make it possible, for the first time, for the average consumer to enjoy digital entertainment anywhere, anytime and in any way.”

Microsoft’s Media experience

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

Intel Drops WiFi from Grantsdale

Intel have dropped their proposal to include integrated WiFi in its Grantsdale chipsets. Intel Wireless Connect was intended as a cheap and easy way to make WiFi networking ubiquitous – and help Intel promote and distribute their own wireless technologies.

PC manufacturers are not so sure, however, citing concerns that the functionality would add US$50 to US$75 (€40 to €68) to the price of a new desktop computer – this does not compare favourably to an add-in card which typically sells for US$50 (€40).

Whilst integrating WiFi into a chipset has advantages such as power consumption and compatibility, stand-alone wireless networking components have better signal reception and are easier to replace should they fail.

The timing is evidently wrong for Intel, but they have stated that they intend to reintroduce Wireless Connect when the price falls – or if a big enough PC manufacturer requests it.

Intel

3GPP Goes HE-AAC

Touted as the most efficient audio codec in the world, HE-AAC has been adopted as a standard by 3GPP, a collaboration between telecommunications standards bodies to produce global standards and specifications for mobile technologies.

It’s good news for the developing AAC format, and good news for those in the mobile industry – there’s now a good chance there’ll be a common file format for music stores and mobile music. Convergence fans will also be able to transfer music between AAC compatible devices, meaning that it’s less likely they’ll have to buy the same track more than once. Furthermore, the adoption of a standard should encourage more publishers to venture out into mobile music.

aacPlus can store a reasonably high-fidelity single track in just 500kb – obviously hand for the current generation of handsets that are doubly constrained by available bandwidth and memory capacities.

Richard Poston, director of corporate communications at mmO2 said about the news: “As the first operator offering mobile music downloads, we are very happy about the final standardization. We’ve been really impressed by the excellent balance of good audio quality combined with efficient use of bandwidth.”

HE-AAC uses a spectral band replication system from Coding Technologies to reconstruct high frequency sound from hints in the encoded file. By stripping out the high frequencies, only low-frequency sound needs to be encoded and stored, meaning that music can be encoded at roughly half the bit rate of standard AAC.

Perfect if you listen to that “bang bang bang” music, but we’ve yet to test if the high-frequency substitution wheeze can encode other music types, such as those with lots of strings, accurately.

3GPP