Wireless

Wireless connections

Why I Still Love The Palm Treo 650
As you know, we *heart* nice, new shiny gadgets and we love to sit on the (sometimes uncomfortable) cutting edge of technology.
So when it comes to smartphones, we’re only going to be interested in strutting around with the very latest, gizmo-stuffed, state of the art model, right?
Wrong. In fact, my favourite phone remains the comparatively ancient Palm Treo 650 which, at nearly three years old, probably makes it the oldest piece of technology we’re still using!
So why have I gone backwards when there’s so many new, all-singing, all-dancing smartphones about?
The answer is simplicity.
The Palm platform may not be basking in the white heat of technology, but sometimes it’s more comfortable to hang out in the more temperate margins where things don’t get so sticky.
With the Treo just about everything works.
Unlike every Windows Mobile device we’ve tried, it feels like a proper smartphone rather than a phone bolted on to a PDA (or vice versa).
Based on the mature (some may suggest over-ripe) Palm OS, the Treo provides an intuitive and stable interface, with the five way controller and tightly integrated software ensuring that the stylus stays docked in the silo for most everyday tasks.
When there’s a need to input some text, the Treo has one of the best small keyboards in the business, with its brightly illuminated QWERTY keypad perfect for short emails and text messages.
Moreover, the interface is fast and responsive and although Palm’s idea of multi-tasking is simply to close down whatever you’re doing and start up the next program (while remembering all the settings) it doesn’t suffer from the gradual slowdown to a crawl that constantly blighted our Windows experience.
While there’s a good argument that Palm OS is in danger of becoming woefully outdated, it still does the job jus’ dandy and with the deft addition of a few third party programs, you can end up with a flexible device that can hold its own against everything else out there.
In part two, i’ll explain why I find the Palm interface and aesthetics to be some of the best in the business, but for those who love to peruse spec sheets, here’s the basics:
Palm Treo 650
wireless radio: GSM/GPRS/EDGE model: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz world phone. GPRS class 10B
processor: Intel™ PXA270 312 MHz processor
memory: 21MB user available stored non-volatile memory.
battery: Removable rechargeable lithium ion battery
talk time: Up to 6 hours talk time and up to 12.5 days standby time
operating system: Palm OS 5.4
size: 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches (11.3 x 5.9 x 2.3 cm)
weight: 6.3 oz. / 178 grams
display: Colour TFT touch-screen, 320 x 320 resolution, 16-bit colour (displays over 65,000 colours)
expansion: Supports SD, SDIO and MultiMediaCards
audio: RealPlayer included – requires SD memory card, sold separately
camera: VGA with 640×480 (0.3 megapixels) resolution and automatic light balancing, 2x zoom, captures video
Treo 650
30 June, 2006
PocketDAB 1500 Released By Pure Digital
We’re big fans of Pure Digital and their seemingly endless mission to push the features and functions of DAB radios. Their latest move is to launch a new portable DAB radio.
Launching DAB on the world with the attention-grabbing BUG radio designed by cardigan-wearing, ex-shoe designer, Wayne Hemingway (which they recently updated), they’ve followed it up with numerous diverse models.
True to their innovating inclinations, Pure has been selling their PocketDAB 1000 radio successfully for some time, but not content to rest on their laurels, have taken the chance to improve on their success by launching a new, improved (as they say in the washing powder ads) version, the PocketDAB 1500 – and at a lower price than its predecessor.
They added FM with RDS, textSCAN, a striking black anodised aluminum case and a ChargePAK rechargeable battery pack. Not content with adding features, they’ve managed to reduce the weight to the little fellow to 123g, making it their lightest so far.
To ensure this beauty has enough power for 24 hours of constant listening, the set is recharged by plugging it into the mains electricity to juice up the ChargePAK battery.
You could well be asking what the hell textSCAN is? Let us enlighten you. One of the features of DAB is the ability of the broadcaster to have text scroll on the displays of the receiver. textSCAN give the listener control over this text, so it’s not lost as it scrolls off the screen.
Recognising that what they’re selling is audio quality, Pure have done a deal with Sennheiser to have Sennheiser’s MX300 headphones included in the package.
Pure clearly think about the usability of their radios, which shows, giving features like automatically remembering the user’s ten most listened to stations in a favourites list.
DAB while on the move was, for a long time, a problem as the required signal strength is higher than analogue. Public perception of digital radio reception, or digitally reception generally is that it’s better quality. This can be true, but only when reception is sufficiently strong. Unlike analog reception, which will gently fade in and out, without the required minimum reception levels, digital can be a highly disturbing experience, with unpleasant, hard-edged choppiness hitting your ears.
This combined with the power-hungry design of the initial chipsets is the reason why we didn’t see truly portable DAB radio coming to market at the same time as the early mains-powered models.
The PocketDAB 1500 package can now be had in the shops for a RRP of £89.99, actually giving a price reduction on their previous model.
Pure PocketDAB 1500
29 June, 2006
BT Home Hub Examined
To date, most ADSL equipment that BT has put out has been pretty …. functional … or put another way, ugly. Their ethernet routers have been transposed from office equipment, and their USB kit, the Frog as it was known … well don’t get us started on that*.
This has all changed with their latest packaging of broadband. Released alongside this, the newly-announced BT WiFi Home Hub has been designed to seduce people into pulling their router out from it previous position in the study or under the stairs, and putting it in to their living space.
Why would they care about that? Well it’s important for the success of products like BT Vision, their autumn-release IPTV service, as the connection between the Home Hub and the BT Vision box currently has to be wired ethernet. Given most people don’t have their house cabled for ethernet, the Home Hub has to be located close to the main TV in the house, normally in the lounge. It also doesn’t hurt to have their new wireless-DECT VoIP phone handsets sitting in the main room in the house either.
It’s a looker
BT have clearly had the industrial designers on the case and what they’ve turned out is a bit of a looker.
Being white, you can’t but fail to be reminded of Apple (being that they own the colour white). It’s like a cross between a small, white, upstanding PS2 and an iPod, but lacking the curves of the iPod.
The BT VoIP handset, or BT Broadband Talk handset as they call it (sssh, don’t mentioned VoIP), sits in an integrated docking unit that is slots in the front of the base of the Home Hub.
What can you connect to it?
Apart from the 802.11G/B wireless connectivity, there’s six physical connectors tucked away at the back of the Home Hub.
There’s the connector that runs between the phone line and the box, a slot for you POTS phone, two ethernet connectors (one of these will be used for BT Vision) and two USB connectors.
One of these USB ports is intended for computers that don’t have ethernet ports on them (are there any of these still in circulation?) and the other is for an as-yet unannounced use.
One trick I feel they’ve missed is using the Hub as a print server, but discussing this with BT’s, they suggest that this is something that could be introduced later, via a software update.
Disco lights may drive you mad
The only issue we raised after spending a brief time with it was the usage indicator lights that sit at the top of the unit, which flicker whenever data passes through the box. Sadly, as yet, these can’t be turned off.
We’d imagine that while having these beauties flickering away may be a novelty initially, but long term, people are going to find it _really_ annoying, as they catch them out of the corner of their eye. Expect either the addition of some masking tape over them or a software update giving the option to kill them.
Over broadband software updates
Keeping equipment up to date is a expensive and risky business, especially if you need to get the customer involved.
Like their video phone handsets, the Home Hub can be updated remotely by BT over the broadband connection. This gives them a chance to provide new features in the future, or to fix an problems that they might find, without having to bother the subscriber.
Do you need a Home Hub?
If you want to carry on using the Internet as you have previously, then the short answer is no, _but_ if you want to use any of the new BT services like BT Vision or BT Homesafe, their home security system (more on this soon), then yes.
For BT Vision to work, the STB that comes with it has to be able to control the flow of data over the broadband connection, because frankly, getting TV to run over a 2Mb DSL connection is asking a lot of it. If little Johnny is sitting in the bedroom downloading goodness knows what, he’s going to have to have his connection throttled, which Dad is watching the Football on Saturday night.
* Thank the gods of USB that BT have finally dumped the USB-connected Frog that used to ship in previous version of their broadband offering. We found this an odious move purposely designed to limit the number of computers that connect to one. In our book, this was detrimental to the wider adoption of broadband in the UK.
23 June, 2006
BT Include OpenZone WiFi Minutes with Broadband Package Shakeup
BT have released a shake up of their home broadband offering.
As well as reducing the number of options available, they’re also boosting the packages to try and both get people to switch to them, as well as attempting to induce their current subscribers not to switch away.
Mirroring their phone call plans, BT have gone for the Option 1, 2 & 3.
250 minutes of BT OpenZone WiFi
Most of the offering isn’t that different – OK, they’re bundling Norton Antivirus and firewall – the big innovation is the inclusion of 250 minutes of BT OpenZone WiFi.
BT have done a clever thing here in providing WiFi minutes. People will come to realise that they can use WiFi when out and about … near a BT roaming point only of course.
This is of course only averaging 8 minutes a day – and we all know how quickly time on the Internet can disappear.
Once they get used to that behaviour, people will start to run out of the 250 minutes that are available over the month – and start to pay BT for extra minutes.
This is a very clear indication that the convergence of network access is now well underway.
Free VoIP calls to UK Landlines
All of the packages provide free evening and weekend calls to UK landline, and until Jan 07, free video calls. International calls are not discounted – at all, which we thought a bit shocking.
This is not just calls using the PC softphone, but using the new Hi Def phone handset. We’ll cover this in more detail soon.
As well as the Hi Def phones and BT softphone, calls can be made to other BT VoIP handsets, like the now available BT Broadband Talk Videophone 1000 and soon to be available 1000 video phones.
We specifically asked about linking to other VoIP services. With no shock, we heard that this wasn’t going to be supported ‘at launch’, and we suspect ever. Locking people in to the BT handsets will be a way to attempt to increase their subscribers, with BT subscribers encouraging their family and friends into having a compatible, ie BT handset.
Equipment
In an effort to try and get you to step up to the highest subscription, BT are using an increasing amount of equipment to induce you to be tempted every increasing monthly fees. They’re leveraging their ability to buy huge amounts of equipment and the discounts that brings to them.
The entry-level Option 1 customers will be provided, free of charge, with a BT Wired router; Option 2 brings the white BT Home Hub; Option 3 includes the Home Hub and VoIP/DECT handset, that they label the Hi-Def handset.
If you persist in opting for Option 1, you’re able to purchase the Home Hub at the additional cost of £30 – £25 if done online.
Costs
There’s a promotional offer on each of the packages of a reduced cost for the first six months of subscription.
Option 1 – £9.95 for six months, then £17.99/month
Option 2 – £14.99, then £22.99/month
Option 3 – £22.99, then £26.99/month
Learning a trick or two from the mobile business, contract length for the entry Option 1 is 18 months. The others are a more expected 12. Do you get the impression that they really don’t want you to go for the Option 1?
Options 2 & 3 are pretty much the same, except for the amount of data that can be downloaded by the subscriber – option 2 give 6Gb usage per month, Option 3 a more generous 40Gb. It’s unclear if BT Vision is used if this will be included in the usage.
23 June, 2006
Symbian Academy Launches: Free Teaching Aids For Universities
Symbian, the smartphone OS company, are pulling a smart move (pun intended) by offering free assistance to Universities and their lecturers to have Symbian programming skills built into courses. Very clever.
They’re designed to make it easy for universities to create courses that teach Symbian software development and to integrate a Symbian component into existing computer science courses.
Those who sign up are showered with free course materials, training, technical support, development literature, expert Symbian lecturers.
It’s all part of the idea to “maintain the growth of the thriving Symbian ecosystem,” what ever that means in English.
As a sweetener to the lecturers to get involved, Symbian will provide “exposure to Symbian’s industry partners.” Pretty healthy if you fancy running a software development company and want to get exposure for your potential products, or you’re getting a little bored of Uni life and fancy impressing those in industry that you’re a bit of visionary.
Nokia are the dominant shareholder in Symbian (47.9% share holding) and you can see how seriously they’re taking getting their software into education, they’ve even got a Head of Academic Relations, a Harri Pennanen.
If you fancy getting involved, just drop a mail to [email protected] and tell them that Digital-Lifestyles sent you.
Symbian Academy
22 June, 2006
T-Mobile Offers Unlimited Mobile Surfing For A Quid A Day
T-Mobile has announced that it is to extend its web’n’walk unlimited mobile Internet access service to include pay-as-you-go customers.
From 1st August, pay-as-you-go customers will be able to gorge themselves on the Internet for a maximum of a quid a day for the web’n’walk service.
T-Mobile says the service will be available for up to 25 handsets across the contract and pay-as-you-go web’n’walk tariff range, including the Motorola V3, the Nokia 6131, the Nokia 6233, the Sony Ericsson K750i and the Samsung E870.
Phil Chapman, Director of Marketing for T-Mobile UK, looked deep into his crystal ball and saw the clouds clearing, “We strongly believe that in future, mobile will be individuals’ primary means of accessing the Internet, just as it already is for voice communications.”
All the web’n’walk handsets come pre-configured to connect immediately to the Internet, with customers able browse any web pages they chuffing well like rather than the ‘cut-down’ mobile-optimised web pages available through some services.
To help new customers on their mobile surfin’ way, T-Mobile Favourites comes pre-stocked with links to popular UK websites like Amazon, Sky, lastminute, BBC, Yell, Multimap, BAA and the RAC.
With two thirds of mobile customers on pay-as-you-go contracts, T-Mobile are hoping to scoop up new and existing customers to their new data deal, with each kilobyte of data charged at 0.73 pence, up to a ceiling of £1 – after which, customers will pay nothing more for rest of the day.
We love it
We’re already big fans of T-Mobile’s web’n’walk service – after years of paying eye-wateringly inflated data access charges, we were delighted to jump on their unlimited web’n’walk flat rate of just £7.50 a month for pay monthly contracts.
With unlimited data usage, we’ve found the service more useful than Wi-Fi in daily use – now we can get our email, check the news, download RSS feeds and waste time on IM/chat without having to wander about looking for a free hotspot. Nice.
There are caveats to the service though, with a ‘fair use policy’ applying to their definition of ‘unlimited’ and anyone trying to use their connection for laptop surfing can expect a prompt slapdown from Messrs T and Mobile.
T Mobile
22 June, 2006
Bright Star: BT Media and Broadcast Sale Close
As you may recall, we first reported the sale of BT’s Media and Broadcast division (or BTM&B as it’s known internally) and its TV satellite interests at the turn of the year. Since then detailed negotiations have been ongoing, with around 200 staff worldwide expected to be moving away from the comfy world of BT, to the more exposed waters of a private equity-driven outfit. We’ve heard that it’s expected to be known as Bright Star.
The new enterprise centred around Satellite Occasional use and satellite TV multiplexs will be headed up by Mark Smith who was the boss of what was, a couple of years back, BT Broadcast Services. Joining Mark there will be some new hires alongside those former BT folks, described as ‘in-scope’ who we understand have decided to take a sweetener of around £4,500 to transfer their skills and experience to the fledgling outfit.
It is expected that initially BT’s Media and Broadcast customers will notice little difference as BT continue to offer a wrap that includes satellite expertise. Beyond that, Bright Star will be looking at other opportunities not limited to BT’s customers.
The new business will include satellite earth stations in the UK, France and the USA but it is as yet unclear where the operation will be headquartered. Currently BT’s M&B operates out of the iconic BT Tower.
The transfer and negotiations around the unit are likely to have given BT some food for thought as to how they can manage the disposal of business units they do not see as key, or that are giving rates of return below the main business’s targets.
After such protracted negotiations it will be interesting to see if a more bottom line-focused business emerges and if BT attempts similar transfers around the peripheries of its empire in the future.
22 June, 2006
Bug TOO DAB Radio released by Pure Digital
It might look like a weird mutation between Dr Who’s K9 and and the wobbly robot from Lost In Space, but we like the fact that PURE Digital’s new Bug TOO DAB radio is brave enough to stand out from the current crowd of wood’n’plastic identikit DAB radios.
Building on their success of their their earlier, Wayne Hemingway-designed Bug digital radio, the Bug Too adds the latest DAB digital radio developments, including an electronic programme guide (EPG) and textSCAN, and a new feature letting users wake up to their favourite MP3 or recording.
As with the earlier Bug DAB radio, there’s a fully specified radio lurking inside the bonkers exterior, with MP3 playback, record to SD card and the excellent ReVu feature which lets users pause and rewind live radio.
The feature set
Now sporting a new titanium silver finish, the Bug TOO looks much the same as its predecessor, offering a bright, clear, scrolling LCD display on a bizarre bendy stalk.
This usefully displays artists names, song titles, news, sports results and other information, with the EPG feature offering programme information and schedules.
With the Bug TOO being compatible with EPG broadcasts, users can browse upcoming programmes, see a short description of each programme and then select them for scheduled listening or recording to SD memory card.
As with their Pure DMX-50 DAM microsystem, it’s possible to record DAB radio to SD card or to an external MiniDisc player, with MP3 playback available from tunes stored on the SD card.
There’s also alarm, sleep and timer record functions – including an MP3 alarm – so the Bug TOO could be a handy bedside radio. We’re not quite sure why anyone would want 20 configurable alarms though, but if that’s what you’re after, the Bug’s got ’em.
We like Pure Digital and this new radio looks to be good value too, costing around £100 and available from June 2006.
The Bug
22 June, 2006
T-Mobile Sidekick 3 Announced
T-Mobile has finally officially announced the T-Mobile Sidekick 3, adding a new trackball controller, Bluetooth and EDGE data to the popular Sidekick 2.
The design’s had a bit of a spruce up in the design factory, with sleeker lines and a narrower 131mm x 59mm x 23mm (5.2″ x 2.3″ x .9″) form factor making the device feel more like a phone.
As with earlier incarnations, the new Sidekick sports a spring-assisted, flip out display with a QWERTY keyboard lurking below.
The keyboard has been significantly improved, and now boasts proper individual keys rather than the rubberised cover seen on earlier versions.
The D-pad controller is now accompanied by a new, ergonomically-improved trackball control which replaces the older up/down roller wheel.
The speed and sensitivity of the trackball can be adjusted to suit personal preferences and (we like this bit) the trackball can glow various colours. Cool!
The Sidekick boasts a new 1.3 megapixel camera and assist light, with a large 65k colour, transflective TFT display supporting a rather underwhelming 240×160 pixel resolution.
Sidekick’s new MP3 player lets users create M3U playlists or play music based on artist, album, genres or composers, with a Mini SD card expansion slot providing storage for up to 2GB of tunes and multimedia stuff.
In line with its all singin’ and dancin’ billing, the Sidekick comes with a 64MB Mini SD card in the box, along with a wired headset and USB cable.
Connectivity
With tri band support (850/900/1800MHz), the GSM Sidekick will suit jet setters flitting between the States and Europe, with a talk time of nearly six hours providing ample scope to keep up with the latest gossip.
New for version three is a Bluetooth system supporting both the OBEX Push and Headset/Hands Free profiles and a mini-USB port for transferring files from a PC.
The built in web browser zips along on sites designed for mobiles (thanks to some nifty server side pre-processing and compression), but things slow down considerably when viewing regular sites, with the low res screen soon showing its limitations.
Sidekick 3 users have the option to synchronise their contacts, notes, calendar entries and email via the T-Mobile website, or they can fork out for a copy of Intellisync to synch their device directly with Microsoft Outlook on a Windows PC.
Messaging
The popularity of Sidekick phones has been assisted in no small measure by their excellent messaging abilities, with text messaging, email, and instant messaging (but still no MMS) supported by a built in spellchecker.
New for version 3 is the support for MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger, supplementing the existing AOL Instant Messenger connectivity.
Compulsive chatters can now enjoy up to 10 simultaneous active IM conversations with T-Mobile’s back-end server ensuring that connections and conversations won’t drop if the signal is momentarily lost.
What we think
Although the rather hefty bulk and teen-friendly looks of the Sidekick may not be everyone’s tastes, there’s no denying that it’s a very capable phone supported by some fun features.
There’s not enough functionality to tempt us from our beloved Treo 650, but for the targeted demographic – teens/fashion victims/schlebs etc – the Sidekick looks sure to prove a hit.
Shame about the poor screen though.
Specs:
Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Display 240 x 160 pixel, 65,000 colour display
Trackball
Bluetooth 1.2 (limited to Hands-Free profile and vCard exchange)
1.3 megapixel digital camera w/LED flash
miniSD memory card slot (supports up to 2GB cards)
64MB of SDRAM/64MB Flash memory
Music player software
Size: 130 x 59 x 21.8mm
Weight: 6.7 ounces
T Mobile
21 June, 2006
Sony Ericsson K610im Adds i-mode
With a full blown parp on their PR trumpets, Sony Ericsson has announced its new Sony Ericsson K610im, their first GSM/UMTS handset to offer full support for i-mode.
What’s i-mode we hear you ask?
Well, it’s a wireless Internet service developed by Japanese provider NTT DoCoMo, which currently operates at 9.6 kbps and offers iMail, iMMS and Web browsing via C-HTML, a subset of HTML.
With Web pages and content specially formulated for i-mode, users can expect nippier viewing of multimedia content using the included NetFront browser.
Although the download speed isn’t exactly impressive right now, the next-gen i-mode looks to be a much sleeker beast, supporting white-knuckle speeds up to 384 kbps.
Back to the phone, the Sony Ericsson K610im features a 1.9″ (176×220) 260k display, a 2 megapixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom and a second VGA camera for video calls.
There’s 16 MB of onboard user memory, with a 64 MB Memory Stick Micro bundled in the box (the phone can support cards up to 1 GB).
Other features include a speakerphone, Bluetooth, USB 2.0, USB charging and a flight mode.
Available in ‘carbon black’ only, the K610im is expected to start shipping in the third quarter of 2006, with pricing to be announced.
K610im specifications
Imaging and messaging
1.9″ QCIF+ (176×220) TFT 260k
2 megapixel camera and VGA Video call
iMail
Push e-mail
2.5 x digital zoom
16 MB user memory (actual depending on operator customization)
Video recording/playback
SMS and iMMS
DoJa stand-by application
Music
Speakerphone
64 MB Memory Stick Micro (M2 (support for up to 1GB)
Media player [MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ support ]
Support MFi & Mobile MP4
Full streaming Audio & Video
DoJa 2.5 OE
i-mode DRM
Polyphonic 72 voices
3D games
OMA DRM v. 1.0
Music DJ, PhotoDJ, VideoDJ
Connectivity
Memory card slot
UMTS 2100 + GPRS 900/1800/1900
Bluetooth™ technology
PC Tools & Software
USB 2.0 Mass storage
USB charging
Fast port system connector
External antenna connector
Flight mode
Access NetFront Web Browser
Kit Content
-64 MB M2
-USB Cable
-PC software
Sony Ericsson
20 June, 2006