Wireless

Wireless connections

Palm Launch Windows-Powered Treo 700w Smartphone
Palm have finally announced the launch of their much anticipated Windows Mobile powered Treo 700w smartphone.
Initially available on the US Verizon Wireless’ EV-DO network, this is the first of the hugely successful range of Treo smartphones to run on the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system.
Looking similar to the widely-appreciated Palm OS Treo product range, the Treo 700w runs Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition on a 312 MHz Intel XScale PXA 27x processor, with 128 MB (60 MB user accessible) non-volatile storage memory.
The transition to Windows has, however, seen the TFT screen resolution shrink from Palm’s 320 x 320 pixels to a more miserly 240 x 240 pixels (the same as the Treo-alike HP iPAQ hw6500 series). Early reports suggest that the screen is somewhat washed out compared to the current Palm Treo 650.
The Treo 700w comes with its familiar QWERTY thumb keypad with backlighting, a SDIO expansion slot, built-in Bluetooth 1.2 and 1.3-megapixel camera with video capture.
Notably, the Windows Treo is compatible with SDIO Wi-Fi cards (although we would have preferred built in Wi-Fi), something that the Palm OS Treo failed to deliver on (despite emphatic promises to the contrary at their product launch).
The device is designed for 800/1900MHz CDMA EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) networks, and measures up a pocketable 58 x 113 x 23 mm, and weighs 180 grams.
The removable battery gives up to 4.7 hours of talk time or up to 15 days of standby.
“Customers have long been asking for a Palm Treo smartphone on the Windows platform, and we’re thrilled to say it’s here on the Verizon Wireless network,” said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc.
“The Treo 700w smartphone is powerful, flexible and easy to use, while also being enterprise grade right out of the box,” he added.
If Palm have successfully managed the transition to the Windows platform, we can expect this new smartphone to be a winner, although we do wonder what long-term impact it may have on their Palm OS range.
There’s no news about a UK release yet, but details for US deals can be found at the Palm Website.
Palm Treo 700w smartphone.
6 January, 2006
Motorola Ditches iTunes With ROKR E2 Release
Motorola says adieu to Apple and bonjour to Linux as it unveiled its shiny new ROKR E2 phone at the Consumer Electronics Show today.
Adding unlimited song support, a VGA camera and a web browser, the new phone fixes many of the well documented problems of the ROKR E1, the first iTunes phone, jettisoning Apple in the process.
The new phone looks pretty similar to the original E1 phone, but offers several notable improvements including nippy USB 2.0 song transfer rates compared to the sluggish USB 1.1 of its predecessor and the removal of the artificial 100-song limit, with the Secure Digital slot supporting memory cards up to 2 GB.
Running on a new Linux-based operating system, the Motorola ROKR E2 also includes a high-res 320×240 screen, a 1.3 megapixel camera with video recording, a built-in FM radio, Opera Web browser Bluetooth (supporting wireless music streaming to stereo Bluetooth headphones), and joy-of-joys – a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and not one of those ruddy annoying mini sockets that are incompatible with normal headphones.
Competing directly with the likes of the Sony Ericsson W600i and Samsung MM-A900, the new E2 lets users create and manage playlists on the device itself and offers dedicated music control keys placed on the front and side of the handset.
The phone can play “a variety” of music formats (no more info yet), with drag and drop song transfer from PCs.
Motorola’s decision to shun iTunes certainly represents a gamble. The tight integration with Apple’s jukebox service gave the phone a huge lead over its rivals, but Motorola’s well documented tiffs with Apple look to have permanently soured the relationship.
In the absence of iTunes, Motorola intends to push their iRadio Music Service, a subscription music service that uses mobile handsets as the base platform.
The company announced the music service at CES yesterday, with an offering of 435 commercial-free radio channels, which Motorola claims is one of the widest selections of subscription music entertainment available.
Available in black or white, the Motorola ROKR E2 is expected to emerge in mid-2006 with “mid-tier” pricing.
kodakgallery.com/photovoice.
4 January, 2006
Mobile Malware Set To Triple in 2006
Anti-virus software vendors McAfee Avert Labs have released a dire warning about impending doom for smartphone users, claiming that mobile security threats are expected to triple next year.
The company say that the number of malicious software programs targeting mobile devices is expected to soar to 726 by the end of 2006, up from an estimated 226 at the end of 2005.
And it’s not just malware that’s going to be putting our phones under siege, with targeted phishing attacks and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) – like adware and spyware – also anticipated to increase
Craig Schmugar, virus research manager for McAfee Avert Labs predicts that mobile malware is going to be the biggest headache for the year ahead, “They’re gaining increased interest from the virus (writing) community,” Schmugar said.
“And as these devices become more pervasive, they become a bigger target,” he gloomily added.
Schmugar claimed that the consumers’ lack of interest in applying security software to their mobile devices (i.e not buying their software) is likely to compound the problem.
Whipping up the fear and dread, he pointed out that the “I Love You” virus, which rapidly infected tens of millions of PCs in 2000, would have spread wider and faster in smartphones which do not have security software installed (i.e. their product).
According to McAfee, a 45 to 50 percent rise in commercial PUPs is expected next year, although the company reckon that new legislation – coupled with restraint in the advertising software industry – may keep a lid on growth.
Although we’ve no doubt that smartphones are going to increasingly be targeted by pesky phishers and vile virus writers, we won’t be dipping in our wallets quite yet.
McAfee Avert Labs
20 December, 2005
Boomerang Box Offers High Accuracy UK Tracking System
Cambridge outfit, HD Positions, have launched their ‘Boomerang Box’ device, a new low cost, high accuracy positioning system which locates vehicles and other valuable assets.
The Boomerang Box is a robustly constructed device with two year battery life and low installation cost, and it can be bolted into vehicles or containers or just slapped in the drivers seat.
Powered by Cambridge Positioning Systems (CPS) Matrix technology, the system uses the Orange UK network and provides coverage all over the UK – including inside buildings and containers – with a claimed accuracy of less than 100m.
Back in Febuary this year, we covered CPS’s work with Nokia to bring their mPosition System to market.
There’s a growing demand for location based services letting companies keep a watchful eye on the whereabouts of valuable moveable assets like trailers, cars, motorcycles, caravans etc (maybe they’ll stick them on employees soon so they know when they’re skiving off in the boozer?).
The service works by HD Positions supplying the interface to Matrix, facilitating related Machine to Machine (M2M) services, including network connectivity, billing and support.
Nigel Chadwick, director of HD Positions commented that the market for high accuracy positioning systems has been held back by a number of factors including poor area coverage, prohibitive purchase, fitting and operating costs, power consumption, and slow and inconsistent location reporting.
Clearly chuffed with his new product, he continued, “The Matrix system, combined with the latest devices now appearing on the market provide consistent and high accuracy positioning with high speed reporting at low cost, and as such are increasingly deemed by management teams as an essential and viable element of asset management and risk reduction.”
We tried to find a picture of the actual Boomerang Box, hopeful that it would be an amusing looking thing that would spice up this rather dull report, but there was nothing to be found on their Website.
So here’s a picture of a frankly disturbing fluffy cat called ‘boomerang’ that we found on the Web instead.
Retreve
19 December, 2005
Sprint, MSpot Stream Full-Length Movies To Mobile Phones
Sprint and MSpot, have announced the launch of MSpot Movies, a new service which streams mobile-optimised feature films to mobile phones.
Perhaps puffing a little too deeply on their hyperbolic inhaler, MSpot Movies are claiming to “bring the magic of the silver screen to mobile phones” with their new service, which offers Nationwide Sprint PCS Network subscribers on-demand access to seven movie genres.
The streaming movies will be categorised into Comedy, Drama, Horror, Adventure, Westerns, Animated Features, and Movie Shorts genres, with recycled TV shows including “Hearts Afire,” “Conan the Adventurer,” and “Starhunter 2300” (what a mouth-watering selection!)
The streaming content will be cut up into ‘chapters’ (short segments optimised for a mobile audience) and will also include music concerts and stand-up comedy specials.
MSpot will be adding new titles weekly, enabling subscribers to watch all of the individual “chapters” of an entire movie at any time.
It’s the company’s third service offering, joining MSpot Radio and MSpot Music on the Nationwide Sprint PCS Network, with more multimedia entertainment services planned for next year.
Although there’s no denying that mobile video is set to grow – Strategy Analytics reckon they’ll be 150 million viewers by 2008 – we really can’t raise much enthusiasm at the prospect of burning up our bandwidth by watching a selection of crap movies on a tiny screen in 5 minute chunks.
MSpot
13 December, 2005
StealthText: Self Destructing Text Message Service
A UK company is introducing a “StealthText” service which sends self-destructing mobile phone text messages.
Messages sent via StealthText will vanish after 40 seconds onscreen with the company, Staellium UK, hoping that the service will prove popular with business executives dealing in sensitive information. We can think of a host of rather more dodgy applications for the service too – how about the thousands of people having affairs via SMS?
The company is claiming that their ‘Mission Impossible’ style auto-destructing texts have already picked up interest from financial services companies, the Ministry of Defence, celebrity agents.
The Stealth Text service requires both sender and receiver to sign-up by texting STEALTH to 80880. This provides a link to download the StealthText applet via a WAP connection. Ten self-destructing messages will cost £5.
Users signed up to the service will receive a text notification showing the senders name and providing a link to the message.
The recipient must open the link and read the message within 40 seconds (tough luck, slow readers!) before it vanishes into the ether forever, leaving no trace in the phone’s memory.
“The ability to send a self-destruct message has massive benefits for people from all walks of life, from everyday mobile users, through to celebrities and business people, but this is just the start,” said Staellium CEO Carole Barnum, adding that the company intends to extend the service to include self-destructing email, voice and picture messages in spring 2006.
Currently only available around the world for users of UK SIM cards only, the company plans to make the service available across Europe, in the US and Asia next year.
Seeing as they intend to be dealing in highly confidential information, we have to say that their truly awful Website hardly inspires confidence – it looks like something knocked up by a spammer in a hurry.
Ever heard of using style sheets to provide a full Web experience for people on PCs as well as a bare-bones WAP version, guys?
Staellium
12 December, 2005
PetCell: A Teenage Take: Don’t Be Daft
All too often articles about the things teenagers are interested in are written by people old enough to be their parents. Teenage thinking isn’t represented. Lawrence Dudley gives you a point of view that you won’t find in other publications. You see, Lawrence is a teenager.
Woof … I mean, Hello?
There’s loads of relatively serious articles on media and technology all over the Internet nowadays. This isn’t one of them.
Mobile phones are reaching into all sorts of new markets, often, not just reaching but forcing, with operators seemingly desperate to reap more profits. There’s the mobile for kids, the Firefly, and the mobile phone controlled kettle.
Of course, this can’t possibly be enough… and come on, the dog feels left out when you go to Carphone Warehouse and there isn’t a Carphone Kennel to match. The answer to this is, of course, the PetCell.
Come on, admit it: When your dog is late, possibly because it is busy peeing against a tree somewhere, don’t you wish that you could give it a quick ring to check it’s OK? Yeah, didn’t think so. Nevertheless it exists, so I guess some overly-pet-protective marketing drone somewhere decided that it was a viable product.
From what I gathered, the device lets you set a fixed area in which your dog is allowed to be. If your dog goes outside this area, the unit sends you a text message. I personally think that this is kind of like shutting the door after the horse (or dog) has bolted.
I mean, you notice your dog’s missing, and, look at that, how helpful, your mobile phone confirms it! What a useful bit of technology!
Of course, it only does this while the battery isn’t flat or the dog has decided to go for a swim. I’m guessing that it will be marketed as waterproof when it is released in 2006, but as with all “waterproof” devices, I seriously doubt it really is.
I’m guessing that there will be different models too, so that the dogs with the cool phones have something to show off to their mates. The mocked-up image at the top of this piece is what I imagine two cell-phone equipped dogs to act like, shown on an advert for Carphone Kennel.
I’m sorry if I sound a little negative this week, but I am sick of these tacky technologies coming out which serve no particular real-life purpose. And this is coming from someone with a passion for gadgets, don’t forget.
I mean, who’s really going to call up their dog to find out which lamp post he’s peeing on? And I guess those people who would, probably also wouldn’t mind paying an outrageous monthly subscription for the service, which is no doubt how the service will be paid for.
Now if only one of these could be invented that’s small enough to be fitted on valuable items like my laptop, or my wallet. Now that would be useful, and save me looking for either of them when they get stolen. And when they do get stolen, I will know where they are and possibly who stole them.
The problem with that, of course, is that this would constitute genuinely useful technology, something which the gadget industry has an extremely bad grasp of.
Shame really.
9 December, 2005
Virgin Mobile Fishing For Extra Cash – Vodafone and FT Interest
Both Vodafone and France Telecom are now considering a rival bid for Virgin Mobile, following a “unanimous” decision by the Virgin board to reject the starting offer from NTL. Financial sources say both companies have asked to look at the Virgin Mobile books.
This means that if NTL wants to buy the brand and put it on all NTL products, it will have to come up with a bigger offer. NTL, waiting for the Stock Exchange to open before making any announcement, is going to have trouble finding the money after its big takeover offer for Telewest, say finance analysts.
It also means a nasty gap in the future of T-Mobile, which provides the network for Virgin as a virtual network; neither France Telecom nor Vodafone would renew that contract, and the loss could be crushing, following T-Mobile’s defeat in the contest to buy O2.
Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson has told reporters he is sure the deal will go ahead.
From Australia, Forbes quotes Branson as saying that the new company will be formed and will be called Virgin TV – all it will take, he added, is a small increase in the offer. He said the current offer under-valued the company in the eyes of his fellow directors, but that “the difference between what they’ve asked for and what NTL has offered is not considerable in financial terms.”
According to the Times, the difference is between the current offer of £817 million and a hoped-for bid of £891m – increasing the bid to 345 per share while the Guardian thinks the extra needed is rather less at 340 pence.
Guy Kewney write extensively, and quite brilliantly, in lots of places, including NewsWireless.net
8 December, 2005
LG-SB130: Pause Live TV On Your Mobile Phone
Say hello to the LG SB130-KB1300 handset, a clever-clogs, do-it-all device that can do play and pause live TV as well as deal with every multimedia-type task you can lob at it.
The LG LG-SB130 claims to be the first in the world to be able to pause a live television broadcast playing on its screen so that users could, for example, take an incoming call, and then pick up where they left off once the call is finished.
This piece of technical jiggery-pokery is achieved courtesy of LG’s ‘Time Machine’ feature, which can record live TV transmissions to the phone’s 80Mb internal flash memory.
This memory can apparently fit up to an hour’s worth of broadcasting before it starts writing over the oldest bits with new content.
The all-in-one device (also known as the KB1300 ) can also can play back video (DMB), play back music (MP3) and snap two megapixel pictures courtesy of its built in AutoFocus camera.
But no amount of technical prowess and enthusiastic grinning from obliging Korean models can detract from the fact that’s the phone’s a bit of an ugly fella.
Looking like a mutant Transformer, you half expect the thing to cunningly fold up into a robot shape, but there is a method to its madness, with the oddball swivelling screen making it ideal for holding the phone and watching TV.
The aerial’s a bit of a beefy affair too, but we doubt if the geeky market the phone’s aimed at are going to mind.
Naturally, we’ve haven’t the faintest idea when – or even if – this weird looking gizmo is ever going to be released in Europe, but we definitely like the idea of watching – and pausing – live TV on the go.
Babelfish afficiandos can find out more about the phone at LG’s Korean site.
7 December, 2005
Funky SH902i FOMA Handset Launched By Sharp Japan/NTT
Japan Sharp and NTT DoCoMo will be launching the SH902i FOMA, their funky new 3G clamshell phone in Japan this week.
The sleek swivel-flip phone is dominated by a hefty 2.4-inch, QVGA (240×320) screen which incorporates Advance Super View (ASV) technology.
This limits the viewing angle of the screen to keep nosey Parkers from getting an eyeful of your personal SMS or emails – handy if you like to plot the premature death of your boss in the staff canteen.
As ever, there’s a veritable feast o’multimedia bolted on board, with the all-swivellin’, all-flippin’, shiny handset coming with an impressive 3.16 megapixel autofocus camera, an MP3 Player and the highly rated NetFront Web browser.
For expansion, there’s a miniSD slot available that can read cards up to 1GB.
Because the phone is aimed at the hip’n’groovy crowd, it comes in a range of colours with the usual daft names (Carbon Red, Leather Black, Shell Blue and Glass White).
The phone goes on sale in Japan on December 9th with no date set for us technology-starved folks in Britland.
If multimedia-tastic whirring Flash animations in Japanese are your thing, you can find out more about the phone – and spin it around to your heart’s content – on the 902i Website
6 December, 2005