Wireless

Wireless connections

WM1185-T: Accton’s Skype-Embeded WiFi Phone
Accton Technology has unveiled a Skype-enabled Wi-Fi phone, the SkyFone WM1185-T in Tokyo.
The big difference with this handset is that it uses an embedded version of Skype, meaning that the handset can operate without the need for a PC, as other current handsets do. Accton is one of the first companies to do so.
It’s been reported that the handset has a 4 hour talk time and around 20 hour standby. It is expected to retail for $150 (~£86~€127).
Accton plan to ship 5,000 handsets in December to Skype’s business partners and wireless broadband service providers worldwide for testing.
This is exactly the type of deal that we thought that Skype would be doing and fits perfectly into our thought of The Genius of eBay Buying Skype, where Skype turns in to the next Vodafone and eBay becomes the largest phone shop in the World, sitting between the third-party handset producers and a world of customers.
Prior to this, Accton have been producing other WiFi VoIP handsets like their VM1188B (see top), but they ran SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) not Skype.
If you’ve never heard of Accton, you’re like the vast majority of people, even those specialising in keeping a close eye on this sector. They’re a Taiwanese company better known for producing network equipment, recently reported a pre-tax profit following seven quarters of loss.
Accton consumer electronics
9 November, 2005
Blue Bsh-100: Anycom’s Bluetooth Headset With Mic
It has taken the Bluetooth headset industry a remarkably long time to twig that we don’t want to use one headset for listening to music, and then frantically rip it off to use another Bluetooth headset for answering the phone. Anycom has the one… at a price.
The company has announced the blue bsh-100 headset [right] which, at first sight, is just another of those “hang-on-both-ears” stereo headsets for iPod users. Except for the little black bit jutting out of the right earpiece. That’s the audio input device, or microphone. [see left]
It’s described as “a wireless unit that offers multiple settings for hi-fi stereo headphone for digital audio, Bluetooth headset with attachable microphone for use with mobile phones and PC peripheral using a USB Bluetooth adapter for gaming, chat and VoIP.”
And (if it works as described) the best feature will undoubtedly be its ability to connect to your PC and your phone at the same time. If a call comes in while you’re listening to streaming audio, it will switch to the phone. Of course, this won’t work if you don’t also have a Bluetooth transmitter on your PC, and so you may have to buy one.
And the icing on the cake: a Bluetooth audio gateway. Without further details (actual hands-on reviews!) this is probably going to seem more wonderful than it can in reality be: but what we’re hoping it will do, is allow you to plug several audio inputs into it, and switch between them – from landline phone to Skype, from Skype to iPod, from iPod to mobile phone.
Price in the US has been announced at $120 (~£68~e102) for the headset, and $29 (~£16~e24) for the audio adapter.
Guy Kewney write extensively, and quite brilliantly, in lots of places, including NewsWireless.net
Anycom
9 November, 2005
RangeMax 240: Netgear steps up the speed of WiFi
Netgear have released a new wireless access points with claimed speeds of up to 240Mb/s, beating that of wired networks of 100Mb/s (though modern Ethernet wired networks can now go up to 1000Mb/s or 1Gb/s and faster).
Actual speeds are likely to be much less, especially as more devices are added to the network as each to a degree will compete for bandwidth. However 100Mb/s speeds are potentially achievable, which is suitable for streaming music and video around the house (even High Definition/HD TV).
In order to achieve these high speeds, ALL the devices in the (wireless) network must use the RangeMax 240 system, though it will interoperate with older RangeMax and 802.11b/g systems.
Speed gains using clever encoding
The RangeMax kit uses an underlying technology known as MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) which uses many aerials on the base station to “steer” the beams to the particular client. Each beam can use different frequencies. This allows data resilience and as different frequencies will travel differently through walls etc, this means the system works better than straight 802.11b/g systems. Using multiple beams means more bandwidth (each beam can handle X amount of data, so two beams mean 2X data), however as multiple frequencies are used, there’s actually a greater increase (each frequency also can transmit a certain amount of data). This all gets very complicated, but is known as Spatial Multiplexing and adaptive channel expansion. RangeMax also uses adaptive channel selection to avoid channels (frequencies) that are being used by other systems.
Though these clever encoding techniques do offer big advantages in terms of throughput and resilience they are also totally proprietary to Netgear, so won’t work with other manufacturers kit (unless in standard WiFi mode, which won’t give major speed enhancements).
The IEEE (the body that sets the 802.11 standards) are working on the next phase of standards which will incorporate MIMO and other techniques, but they are not due for a while and it will take manufacturers a while longer to then make systems that conform to those new specs. There are no guarantees that any kit now will be upgradeable to those new standards.
Buying now may give instant gratification but there’s a good chance that Netgear will be your only choice of equipment in the future.
NetGear
8 November, 2005
BBC ‘FreeSat’: Where’s The Service?
Much has been made of what have been reported as poor results at BskyB (Profits announced on Friday 4 Nov 05 saw a pre-tax rise of 13.6% to £200m), intense competition is given as the cause of the lower than hoped for growth in subscribers.
The competition is attributed to the steady increase in Freeview penetration but where is the much trumpeted BBC free satellite offering, they labeled FreeSat?
Speaking recently with an NDS insider it was brought to my attention that this new ‘platform’ could be something of an empty threat. This must, of course been judged through the knowledge that NDS is the TV conditional access subscriber technology company used by Bskyb.
Even bearing this in mind, we felt it was worth asking ourselves a few questions about how it would work, who would view it and what would be its purpose:
How would it work?
Most would consider a UK satellite rival needs to be positioned to use the same satellites as Sky services that’s Eurobird and Astra 2. If you move away from their orbital positions, you’re going to have to duplicate a whole load of services across two platforms with the expense that will entail.
Who would view it?
Presumably the target audience are those who want Freeview but aren’t currently served. Freeview coverage is growing steadily and a Satellite installation is always going to be more costly than a terrestrial one, so I reckon numbers here will be limited.
The other group that would be interested are the ‘churn’ which are now reported by Sky as around 11%. These are subscribers who are leaving their Bskyb packages – but they’re really already on the Sky Freesat as unless someone comes and takes away their Set- top-box and mini-dish. They’ll get many of the FTA (Free To Air) services like ITV3 that aren’t available on analogue terrestrial and, for a small charge, can obtain a viewing card that will allow them to view those encrypted services like Channel 5, Channel 4, ITV1 and ITV2.
So what’s the purpose?
It seems to me that one purpose of the BBC floating the idea of FreeSat is as a spoiler to Bskyb. To perhaps deter those at the margin from signing up and also to increase the traditional broadcasters negotiating position when speaking to Sky.
With the promise of Satellite delivered HDTV in 2006, the continuing growth of Sky+ and the strategic takeover of Easynet, Sky still looks to know where it’s going. Given time and with the right marketing by Sky, many ‘Free-viewers’ will trade up to a Sky package that fits their requirement.
Long term, as long as Bskyb retains its hunger for subscribers, and continues to secure content that viewers wish for, I’d back it against ITV and the cable companies, with or without a new BBC sponsored Satellite version of Freeview.
7 November, 2005
Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Ships
We first reported the news of the existence of the Nokia 770 back in May 2005, when Janne Jormalainen, Vice President of Convergence Products, Multimedia at Nokia showed it to a slightly stunned crowd at LinuxWorld Summit in New York. Now it’s shipping.
At the time, we enthused – naturally. How else could we react to a WiFi-powered Web browsing tablet with a 65k colour screen, that gives 3 days of browsing or 7 days of standby? We saw it as the TV watching buddy that we’ve always wanted. We could finally dump the laptop, removing its leg-heating characteristics at the same time.
Well today, Nokia are announcing its actual availability and they’ve expanded its capabilities to enable Web browsing using Bluetooth via your mobile.
We were naturally straight on the phone to Nokia, lining up our review copy. We’d been aware of a version floating around for a while, but knew the release of software it had on it really didn’t cut the mustard. Soon, dear reader our impression of it will be revealed.
For Linux hackers everywhere, there’s the great excitement that the 770 will be running Debian Linux, with the new platform – derived from the Linux GNOME UI – going under the name “maemo”. Development on maemo has continued since May and the end of October saw the release of maemo 1.1 Release Candidate 5. They’ve even given it the fancy new name of Nokia Internet Tablet 2005, if you please.
Nokia are actively encouraging ‘Hackers’ to produce software for it. They’ve even got a maemo WiKi (shock, horror).
VoIP was hinted at back in May. It’s now been confirmed by our old mate Janne Jormalainen, “During the first half of year 2006 we will launch the next operating system upgrade to support more presence based functionalities such as VoIP and Instant Messaging.”
For once with a technology product, Europe will be seeing this little beauty first, with the US having to wait a whole week longer. Prices appear to have shifted a little, upwards sadly, to €350 ($412, £240).
Nokia 770
7 November, 2005
Guba; Guidepoint; Mobile Vending: Teenage Tech Roundup
I like this … Guba
In these times, there are many options available to us when we choose how we want to consume media. Sometimes, however, it’s the oldest choices that are the best: A company called Guba has developed a superb Usenet interface, with which it is possible to download music videos, MP3s as well as TV shows. The ease of use of this terrific application blew me straight out of the water, and I immediately signed up to it. Great service, just what I had been looking for and well worth my $15 (£8.50 or there abouts).
Now where did I park…
Guidepoint, a company that make navigation and location soft- and hardware, have released a new product, that allows car owners to track their four-wheeled pride and joy using their mobile phone. Although this technology is cool, you might be wondering what appeal it may have to someone of my age, who, at least in the UK, isn’t legally allowed to drive yet.
Well I’ll tell you why this got me a teensy bit excited: I’m a teenager. Teenagers are forgetful, and as such I am forever losing things. Imagine if I could attach small locator tags to items I lose often, and then find these tags using my mobile phone. This sort of technology would stop me losing anything, ever, and would save me countless hours of looking for my keys when they fall down the back of my desk again.
Here’s another examples. Can’t find my graphics folder for school? No problem, just whip out my mobile phone, and I would get a map with a little cross-hair on, telling me exactly where it’s located. If it was closer than, say, 10 metres, I would instead get a small arrow with a distance reading next to it, which would guide me towards the item that I had lost.
I’m not sure how such a technology would work, but a mixture of a flavour of 802.x and bluetooth would be cool, with maybe some GPS thrown in for the maps. Now if only Father Christmas read Digital-Lifestyles, he might bring me one… Sigh…
By the way, Guidepoint has now expanded their mobile service to include remote car starting and door-unlocking. Could come in handy next time I’m planning a bank robbery ;-)
Hope it gives change!
This one just about qualifies as part of the weekly round up. Engadget covered the news that mobile phone giant Vodafone are to start selling mobile phones in vending machines. Interesting idea, but I can’t really imagine it taking off to be honest: When I go phone shopping, I value the expertise of specially trained staff and the advice they have to give.
On the other hand though, a lot of staff in shops seem to lack any knowledge of mobile phones… Maybe it’s just a cost-saving measure, but sometimes I think when I walk into certain phone shops that they might as well be employing monkeys half the time!
Still though, although I personally wouldn’t buy a phone from a vending machine I can see a lot of kids who don’t care what they get as long as it’s a phone buying these.
3 November, 2005
Nokia N92 With DVB-H Receiver, N80, N71 Announced
Nokia has announced three more Nokia N series multimedia devices, the Nokia N92 (the world’s first mobile device with a built-in DVB-H receiver), the Nokia N71 and the Nokia N80.
All three multimedia -tastic handsets support all GSM bands, 3G, WLAN, corporate email access and advanced voice functionality (including IP PBX connectivity over WLAN), and come with integrated security features.
Nokia N92
Most interesting is the Nokia N92, which has the honour of being the world’s first mobile device with a built-in DVB-H receiver, letting users watch and record live TV on the move.
A curious swivelling, flip-top affair, the N92 comes with a large (2.8″) anti-glare QVGA screen supporting 16 million colours and dedicated media keys
The Nokia N92 sports a shedload of functionality for watching and searching for TV programs, with an Electronic Service Guide (ESG) offering information about available TV channels, programs and services
Using the built in software, users can also create personal channel lists, subscribe to TV-channel packages, set program reminders and interact through services such as voting, program feedback and additional web discovery.
For web surfing, the Nokia N92 comes with the new Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map, which displays a semi-transparent zoomed-out view of a web page, enabling users to quickly zip about a large page on a small screen.
Branded as a Nokia XpressMusic device, the handset offers up to 2 GB memory card support, and ships with built-in stereo speakers and stereo headset.
The N92 also comes with a digital music player, FM radio with Visual Radio support (providing interactive information on playing songs and artists) and an onboard 2 megapixel camera.
Connectivity is ably taken care of with Wi-Fi, infrared, Bluetooth and USB 2.0 support.
Based on S60 3rd Edition and Symbian OS, the Nokia N92 is expected to be in the shops by mid 2006 in Europe, with a price tag around €600.
Nokia N80
Sporting WLAN and 3G, the Nokia N80 is being touted as the world’s first handset to feature UPnP technology, and has the ability to be used as a remote control for wirelessly swapping content between PCs, audio equipment and TVs.
So long as all the gear is compatible, images and video stored on a Nokia N80 can be viewed on a TV, while MP3s on the handset can be played through an audio system.
Photos snapped on the Nokia N80 can also be printed wirelessly to any UPnP-enabled printer or photo kiosk.
Nokia N80 is also the first quadband handset designed to work on 3G (WCDMA 1900 or 2100), WLAN, EDGE and four GSM bands (850/900/1800/1900).
The phone features a sliding design with a high definition, 352 x 416 pixels display.
There’s a hefty 3 megapixel camera with capture key, full-screen landscape capture, a close-up mode switch and CIF video capture with inbuilt video stabilisation.
Storage comes in the form of 40 MB of internal memory, with support for miniSD cards of up to 2 GB.
The Nokia N80 has a built in digital music player and stereo FM radio with Visual Radio support.
Available in the first quarter of 2006, the price is expected to be €500.
Nokia N71
Finally, we come to the N71, another member of the Nokia XpressMusic family.
Billed as a “pocket-sized entertainment system”, the Nokia N71 comes with a stereo FM radio, support for digital music and videos and new Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map.
We could only find a teensy-weensy picture of the 3G clam phone as we went to print, but we can tell you that is has two displays and two cameras, one of which is a 2-megapixel camera.
Speaking at the Nokia Mobility Conference, Nokia Chairman and CEO Jorma Ollila bigged up digital convergence:
“We expect the market for convergence devices to double to 100 million units in 2006. Developers, media companies and enterprises are shifting their focus to Nokia’s S60 smartphone platform, as they see the business potential of using it to offer content and ensure secure remote access to corporate applications”
“Convergence is opening up a world of opportunities for our customers and partners, and Nokia is committed to developing the tools, solutions and products to make the promise of the digital industry a reality,” Ollila added.
Nokia
2 November, 2005
Sky Mobile TV Launched By Vodafone UK and BSkyB
Vodafone UK and British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) have announced an agreement to launch Sky Mobile TV, the UK’s first commercially available mobile TV service available on a wide range of handsets, as we first covered back in September.
The service will be exclusively available to 3G Vodafone live! customers and serve up a total of nineteen mobile channels including Sky News, Sky Sports News, MTV, Cartoon Network, Discovery, Sky One and Living tv.
The deal looks set to turbo-boost adoption of entertainment and information services to mobile phones, with users able to enjoy TV programmes on the move with access to live breaking news and sports reports from Sky News and Sky Sports News.
Available to 3G customers with suitable coverage, some programming will be broadcast ‘as live’ with others delivered as dedicated ‘made for mobile’ channels, featuring regularly updated blocks of programming.
In an attempt to lure in more customers, a special Sky Sports Mobile channel will offer ball-by-ball coverage of all three Test matches and five One-Day Internationals from England cricket team’s tour to Pakistan. But, sadly, no coverage of Cardiff City games.
The Sky Mobile TV pack will be provided free of charge (subject to Vodafone customer fair usage policy) until the end of January 2006, with customers being charged £5.00 (~$8.90, €7.38) per month for each of the Sky Mobile TV packs subscribed to thereafter,
The two Sky Mobile TV packs are:
News, Sport & Factual: Sky News; CNN; Bloomberg; Sky Sports News; At The Races; Discovery Factual; National Geographic Channel; History Channel.
Entertainment & Music: Sky One; Sky Movies; MTV (two channels*); Living tv;Discovery Lifestyle; Nickelodeon; Paramount Comedy**; Cartoon Network; Bravo; Biography Channel.
Additional mobile channels are likely to sign up to the Sky Mobile TV service over the coming months.
“This is a highly significant day for both the mobile and televisionindustries,” trumpeted Tim Yates, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone UK.
“We currently have over 250,000 3G subscribers in the country and 72% 3G population coverage across the UK. Mobile TV will be a mainstream service,” he insisted.
Vodafone
Sky
31 October, 2005
CoolZone: Nokia Open Another Content Channel
Today Nokia announced CoolZone, a Bluetooth-based distribution system that lets mobile phone users locally browse, pay for and download content on their mobiles while they are in shops supporting it.
When entering a CoolZone, the mobile user can download an application, customised for the retailer or service provider. Through this they can browse and download music, ringtones, wallpapers and videos which can be DRM protected. Paying for the content will be done at the shops till or using premium-rate SMS.
Firmly throwing the ‘retail opportunity’ language switch to on Sakari Kotola, Director, Nokia Ventures Organization said “Rich digital content is widely available and requires an efficient distribution channel. Local mobility solutions create new types of business possibilities to individuals, location owners and enterprises. CoolZone is a Bluetooth technology based content distribution system available to any retailer or location owner who wants to offer or sell digital content to their customers, and thus enhance the in-store experience,”
CoolZone is the short hand term to describe the Nokia Local Content Channel Solution. This consists of client software for the phone (Symbian client for Series 60, Java for Nokia Series 40 and other manufacturers’ phones), a small multiradio Nokia Service Point (LCP10) installed in each service location and the Nokia Service Manager (LCM10) for centrally managing the service points and the content. While the service is currently Bluetooth based, WLAN will be one of expected additions in the near future, as more phones will offer WLAN capability.
As the user of the service needs the user to download an application to use the service, we can imagine little hacking groups are already forming plans to hang around near these shops offering their own ‘applications’ with similar names to unsuspecting, or inexperience users.
While see this as a good step forward as a new ways distributing content – frankly we’re surprised it’s taken so long to come to reality, we’d thought of it years ago – it’s acceptance among retailers will depend on the financial deal for the operators of these shops. Any retailer considering this will need to realise that anyone in their shop using this service will not be looking at the goods on their shelves when they’ve got their face stuck in their mobile, figuring out which tracks they want to download.
This could go some way to explain why the first limited trial is publicly available at three Free Record Shop music stores and three Rober’s Coffee cafés in Helsinki area, Finland – they have no conflict of interest.
It may be that the slight headless-chicken-mode surrounding digital music current – as those who don’t really understand what is happening but are wowed by the huge growth of iPod – will lead the retailers to blindly jump forward to have CoolZones on their premises.
CoolZone will also be demonstrated at the Nokia Mobility Conference 2005 in Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain during November 2-3, 2005 with content from EMI.
Nokia CoolZone
31 October, 2005
SGH-i300 Handset From Samsung Integrates With BMW 5-Series
There’s been an orgy of synergistic back-scratching and brand backslapping going on in Samsung’s schmoozing department as the company announces an alliance with German luxury car brand, BMW.
As part of their strategy to achieve an “iconic image” for the brand, the Korean electronics giants said that it will be placing its SGH-i300 music phone into BMW’s series 5 models.
The SGH-I300 – scheduled for a European November release – runs on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system and comes with a capacious 3GB hard disk drive.
BMW drivers will be able to link the phone to the iDrive control interface, which features a control knob at the centre of the vehicle’s console, allowing access to various functions displayed on the in-dash monitor.
We’re not sure yet if the iDrive will just control the SGH-i300 MP3 playback or if it will also integrate communication functions too.
Back in September, we reported that Bang and Olufsen were joining up with Samsung to make a posh phone for folks with more money than sense with the resulting – and somewhat bonkers – ‘Samsung Serene’ phone expected sometime during Q4 2005.
Samsung have already been poking their dipstick into the field of mobile-to-car technology, announcing a partnership with Audi back in July.
The two companies teamed up supply a system that let users to beam MP3 tunes on their mobile handsets over the car’s stereo system using an adapted Bluetooth stereo technology called Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP).
Samsung
31 October, 2005