Wireless

Wireless connections

Skype Secures Deal With 3G Mobile Partner, E-Plus
Skype has slapped hands and manfully patted backs with German network operator E-Plus as the VoIP giant secures their first 3G partnership.
The exclusive offering will see Skype bundling in their Internet telephony software with E-Plus’s flat-rate data subscription.
This will let subscribers to the Skype/E-Plus deal benefit from a fixed-rate mobile Internet access, freebie Skype calling and the ability to control call costs using the E-Plus flat-rate data subscription.
Niklas Zennström, Skype CEO and Co-founder was ready with a quote: “We look forward to working with other innovative mobile operators around the world to bring the value and convenience of the Skype global Internet communications experience to their millions of mobile phone subscribers.”
The busy-bee Skypesters are said to be already hatching up schemes with a number of major handset and headset manufacturers – including Motorola – to develop a broader range of offer Skype-ready devices
“The use of Skype is growing strongly. Through our co-operation we are combining the advantages of mobile and stationary Internet access,” said Uwe Bergheim, Chief Executive Officer of E-Plus.
The flat-rate data subscription from E-Plus will be offered to its 9.8 million subscribers for €39.95 (~£27~$50) per month in October.
The company hopes to attract revenue from the fixed network and lure people off their landlines by persuading customers to make mobiles their de facto choice for making calls.
Skype currently claims more than 2.8 million Skype users in Germany.
Elsewhere, Skype has added a call forwarding function to the latest release of its VoIP software.
This lets users forward incoming Skype-to-Skype and SkypeIn calls to another Skype Name or to any landline or mobile phone.
The call forwarding is free so long as users have sufficient Skype balance available to forward the call to landline or mobile numbers.
Skype
E-Plus
6 September, 2005
4G Prototypes Phones Record Scorchio Speeds
Prototype cellphones capable of transmitting data faster than a startled squirrel on speed have been demonstrated by NTT DoCoMo in Japan, according to the New Scientist.
To test the speed and reliability of the new phones, the prototype handsets were used to view 32 high definition video streams from a car rolling along at 20 kilometres per hour.
NTT DoCoMo officials claimed that the 4G phones manage to receive data at the incredible rate of 100 megabits per second while on the move, and an astonishing gigabit per second while static.
At these kind of white-knuckle speeds, the contents of an entire DVD could be downloaded within a minute.
Compare those breakneck speeds with the stately download speed of 384 kilobits per second (129 kilobits per second upload) offered by DoCoMo’s current 3G (third generation) phone network.
Naturally, the boffins behind NTT DoCoMo’s experiment high-speed phone network have come up with a suitably techie description of the technology, describing it as Variable-Spreading-Factor Spread Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VSF-Spread OFDM).
This _apparently_ increases downlink speeds by using multiple radio frequencies to send the same data stream.
During the tests, another smartypants wireless networking trick was employed to send data via various routes across a network to further increase data capacity.
Going under the snappy acronym of MIMO (multiple-input-multiple-output) multiplexing, the technology could, for example, enable a cellphone to receive data from more than one base station in range.
Lajos Hanzo, a communications expert at Southampton University in the UK found the prototypes “technically impressive,” but warned that NTT DoCoMo will need assistance from other phone companies for 4G take-up.
“In today’s world nobody can go it alone,” he told the New Scientist.
“And hence any standard proposal must be internationally ratified, which has not as yet take place,” he added.
There’s already been some international activity to cooperate on standards, with Japan and China signing a memorandum on 24 August to work together on 4G.
But don’t start throwing out your 3G phones quite yet though: NTT DoCoMo doesn’t expect to launch a commercial 4G network until 2010.
NTT DoCoMo
5 September, 2005
iTunes Promotion Sign Up Iggy Pop, Madonna and Little Richard
Pop stars are falling over themselves to fill their pockets with corporate cash as the Apple/Motorola iTunes phone promotion machine switches into overdrive.
Motorola has already waved their weighty wad in the direction of Madonna, Iggy Pop and a host of other music stars who have all been sufficiently tempted to associate their faces with the iTunes phone.
An article on the Marketing news Website Brand Republic reports that: “Motorola has signed an artist from every generation to appear in the ads, including Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, Lil’ John, The White Stripes, Sleater-Kinney, Sum 41, Mya, Pussycat Dolls and Billie Joe from Green Day.”
The company are still negotiating with Alanis Morissette and The Bravery.
Serious underground tremors are expected around Jimi Hendrix’s burial site as the rock legend will no doubt reach maximum graveyard revolutions on the news that a look-a-like has been booked to perform in the ads.
Apparently, all the pop stars will be seen singing in a phone box in the adverts.
The Brand Republic article goes on to say that, “The ads may debut from next week, at the same time the Motorola phone with iPod personal music system is launched.”
The iTunes-supporting phone is rumoured to be called the Motorola Rokr and will be made available in two models offering 512MB or 1GB of storage.
The ‘iPhone’ is expected to be announced by Apple at a press conference on 7th September.
Motorola
iTunes
5 September, 2005
Apple’s iPhone Coming Soon?
After enjoying huge success with the iPod, mini iPod and photo iPod, Apple are looking to score another hit with consumers with the expected announcement of the iPhone, a music playing mobile phone.
Speculation about the new product has been running rife after Apple announced a mystery San Francisco launch scheduled for next Wednesday with the teasing statement, “1,000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again.”
Pundits are predicting that Steve Jobs’ outfit will finally be launching their much-delayed music-playing mobile in partnership with handset giants Motorola, the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer.
The New York Times reported that Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with research firm Ovum, had been briefed on the new phone and that it would be compatible with Apple’s iTunes software, declaring it “a deluxe music player now on your cellphone.”
The phone has taken longer than a one legged sloth to arrive, with the project dogged by delays while rivals Sony Ericsson and Nokia have gained ground with their own music-playing models handsets – Sony Ericsson’s recently launched W800i phone has already proved a hit and Nokia’s 1,000 song-capacity N series will be in shops by the end of the year.
Despite arriving late at the party, Apple are hopeful that the iPod brand will successfully translate into big sales amongst the world’s estimated 1 billion mobile phone users.
Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst with Jupiter Research, had some doubts: “It’s been awaited for a year, if not more. That means people might be disappointed, because I don’t think it will be much more than a phone that can play music – and there are already others on the market that can do that. But iTunes and iPod are quite famous now in the music space, and they will be hoping for leverage.”
Some analysts have also expressed concerns that the iPhone might cannibalise Apple’s own market and cut into sales of their low end players, while others suspect that mobile phone networks might refuse to carry the phone to protect their own music download services.
With Motorola’s history of announcing new products months ahead of launch and Apple’s traditional penchant for headline-grabbing, last-minute announcements, the launch might be an interesting one.
Apple Motorola
31 August, 2005
News Roundup: Hamster Powered Mobile; US Kids SMS
Elvis Charges Mobile Phones
A 16-year-old lad in the West Country is breaking open the alcopops as he celebrates passing his GSCE electronics course – all thanks to his cunning hamster powered phone charger invention.
Peter Ash, from Lawford in Somerset, rustled up the wheeze after listening to his sister Sarah moaning that his pet hamster Elvis was keeping her awake at night by whizzing around on his exercise wheel for hours on end.
A light bulb illuminated above young Peter’s head as he realised that his hamster’s nocturnal marathons could be used to generate electricity.
For the next 13 months, the teenager worked on perfecting the hamster-powered device for his GSCE electronics coursework project.
After strenuous trials, Peter managed to get the insomniac hamster to generate enough power to charge his mobile phone overnight.
Rumours that he is now working on a dog powered version for powering small sound systems have proved to be unfounded.
Nearly 40% of Mobiles Bought By US Teens For Texting
A recent survey in the States by IDC and SMS.ac revealed that talking is, like, so uncool amongst teenagers, with Da KidZ preferring to text than talk.
The study revealed that 35.9% of teens acquired their cellphones for the sole or main purpose of texting, with just 13.3% of them getting all traditional and actually talking into the things.
Naturally, we advise that a large mountain side of salt be consumed with these ‘facts’ seeing as the survey was commissioned by online text service SMS.ac who have something of a vested interest.
Curiously, the survey doesn’t explain what the remaining 50.8% of kids are doing with their phones.
SMS.ac
A Feast Of Firefox Facts
Anyone using the excellent Mozilla Firefox browser may find this site invaluable: http://www.extensionsmirror.nl
The site serves up a ton of useful links to turn browser dabblers into Firefox pros, with information about rendering issues, downloading, interface enhancements, installable mini-applications, configuration and preference customisation, browser tabs, extensions and more.
30 August, 2005
NDS To Protect Content On Mobile TV And DAB With Frontier Silicon
Set Top Box (STB) and PVR company NDS have today announced that they have reached an agreement with Frontier Silicon, a fabless manufacturer of digital media semiconductors based in the UK, to work together on technology to protect digital TV and DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) content on mobile devices.
Frontier Silicon are already well known for pioneering in next gen digital chippery with their DAB chips; the “World’s First” DMB and DVB-H mobile Digital TV chip – in their words; they’ve also innovated in DAB with the introduction of DABplus, a DAB radio with EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) built-in.
The deal sees NDS have their mVideoGuard DRM technology built-in to Frontier’s T-DMB, DVB-H and DAB receiving chips. Interestingly it also sees Frontier Silicon moving into producing kit for the head-end (where it’s broadcast from) – to ensure mVideoGuard is in place from end-to-end.
Many readers, especially the non-UK massive, may be thinking ‘So what? Who and who have signed a deal?’ Well the significance of NDS moving this way is that it may signal where Sky is moving. Sky, as I’m sure you know, is the satellite TV company who own the UK in satellite delivered TV, and who’s parent company News International now owns US satellite giant DirecTV.
For a long time Sky and NDS have been developing content protection schemes. They feel this is vital before they let their subscribers move their TV shows from STBs to other devices – including mobile devices.
Despite working on conditional access for mobile TV for a number of months (with NDS), this is the first time that Frontier have built DRM in to their chips, and it’s also thought that this is the first deal that NDS have done putting DRM in system apart from their own.
Is this a move to have NDS as an established provider of DRM? Well it having Sky as a reference client certainly isn’t a bad move.
Frontier Silicon
NDS
30 August, 2005
Bluetooth Billboards To Bother Bystanders
Bluetooth enabled billboards may soon be bothering passers-by with wireless advertisements blasted to mobile phones, according to the New Scientist magazine.
The brainchild of Alasdair Scott, co-founder and chief creative officer of London-based Filter UK, the ‘BlueCasting’ system will send a message to Bluetooth enabled phones strolling within 100 metres of a wired-up advert.
If the user has their Bluetooth turned on, they’ll be pestered by an invitation to download a pile of digital content related to the advertised product.
Anyone bonkers enough to actually agree to this can look forward to having their phone bombarded with video ads, discount vouchers, animations, music, still images and other advertising guff.
Trials took place recently at six London railway stations in partnership with the advertising company Maiden Group, with Bluetooth-equipped posters offering to beam promotional material and song clips from Coldplay’s new album to passers-by.
Over the space of two weeks, 87,000 Bluetooth phones were recorded ambling past and – amazingly – 17% of those were willing to download the clip.
Although such a high take-up figure is sure to moisten gussets in advertising boardrooms, we reckon it’s more to do with the novelty factor and the fact that the test billboards offered popular mainstream content.
Had they been offering people the chance to download dire advertisements like ESURE’s insurance toe-curler (punchline: “calm down dear, it’s only a commercial!”) we confidently predict that the take up would have been closer to 0%.
Now on to the science bit: The system uses proximity-based broadcasting courtesy of a directional Bluetooth transmitter lurking behind the billboard.
This beams the adverts to anyone within 100m of the billboard with Simon O’Regan, Filter UK’s Technical Officer insisting that, “only people who can see the billboard are offered the additional promotion.”
The Maiden Group are currently installing transmitters on its billboards at 30 U.K. train stations over the next 18 months, and plans to extend the service to large shopping malls, with Filter getting ready to pester harassed passengers with their own sites at Heathrow.
It looks like consumers won’t be able to escape being bothered by requests to download material from Bluetooth adverts as there’s currently no UK regulations restricting the use of Bluetooth ads being sent to mobile phones (short of users being forced to turn off the Bluetooth ‘discoverable’ functionality)
However, the advertising still comes under the jurisdiction of the Advertising Standards Authority who have voiced concerns that adverts for 18-rated computer games may be blasted at under age kids.
Mind you, we imagine ne’er do wells are going to love the BlueCasting system, with the area around Bluetooth enabled posters turning into a virtual shopping mall for mobile phone purloiners.
Bluecasting
Filter UK
26 August, 2005
Happy Birthday Win95; PSP Software Upgrade; 12 Hr Batteries; Mobile Flight Mode – Teenage Tech News Review
It’s Tin For Win95
Yes, that’s right, Wednesday marked 10 years of vaguely intelligent computing. 10 years ago, Windows 95 was released. It’s weird, because it’s 10 year old technology, but it really doesn’t seem that old: I still remember using it at school on old computers. Makes you wonder why Microsoft are still using a ten year old interface (OK, it’s shiny and got a plasticky look now, but you know what I mean).
The Washington Post has an interesting read on the subject here, basically an announcement they wrote about it at the time. It’s funny to read how some things about marketing campaigns for high-profile software releases have changed nowadays, and what parts have stayed exactly the same. One thing everyone will likely recognise is the hype!
As granddad would say: “It was better in the old days!”
Browse the Web on PSP
Despite only officially being available in Europe from the 1st of September, the software updates for it have finally reached v.2.0. This latest update includes a host of exciting new features, including a Web browser and the ability to play AAC music tracks. These added features for a handheld gaming system that is already looking very promising, serve to make the gadget a must-have for every technology-conscious teen under the sun. Being able to browse the Web on the device, which incidentally has Wi-Fi technology, might even make it a laptop replacement of sorts. Beware though: The device has no keyboard, so typing long emails on it might become a little tiresome, as it uses a virtual on-screen keyboard for text input.
I have briefly played around with a PSP, as a friend of mine was in Japan and brought one back with him. The graphics look awesome, despite the text being Japanese, and I can’t wait to get my hands on one!
Laptop Battery Low Warning
The Register is running a story on how Panasonic and Intel are working together to make a 12-hour laptop battery. Can’t wait for this technology to filter down to phones and other small consumer electronics, as battery technology is the one thing the vast majority of gadgets still seem way behind on. It’s all fine and dandy having a million and one functions in one device, but if the battery only lasts two hours, then to me, it’s no use.
Apparently, the technology works by adding a small amount of Nickel to the standard ingredients of a battery pack.
Remains to be seen how long this will take to mature, but in the meantime, I can always hope for cold fusion to arrive!
Upgrades To Flight Mode
With all the new gismos appearing on phones nowadays, it seems a shame to be unable to use them on a plane, ofcourse with all the wireless features switched off. This is why phone companies started introducing a concept called flight mode.
The theory behind this simple setting on a handset is to allow users to utilize all the features on their phones, when they’re not allowed to have anything that transmits radio signals. What, then, is the use of this if you’re not allowed to use it? I recently came back from holiday, was sitting there in the plane, minding my own business, trying to reply to some mail on my Blackberry, when a member of the flight-crew and asked me to switch it off. I tried to explain that a) it was in flight mode, and so wasn’t going to harm anyone, and b) that I had some work to do, so could he please leave me alone.
The flight attendant then stated that it was company policy to make people turn their phones totally off at all times, adding that I could use my laptop instead if I so wished. Now bear in mind the stupidity of this statement: My laptop has GPRS, 3G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, and would likely broadcast the hell out of anywhere, and the flight attendant would rather I use it than my phone which is innocently sitting in there flight mode, not bothering anyone. Trying to explain this resulted in a rapid degrading of his ability to speak English and ended with him just pointing to my laptop and sticking his thumbs in the air. The airline, which shall remain nameless for now as I don’t want to stir up any trouble, will not be receiving my custom again. When will airlines realise that they have to be nice to people and move with the times a bit more to receive their custom? In these days of cut price travel, it’s all about value-added services, and this certainly is one of them.
I was interested then because of this, about what I read regarding the Consumer Electronics association trying to make it possible to easily determine whether a phone is in flight mode or not. Can’t wait to see some results, but I fear it may then still be a case of training flight crew to know what it means.
26 August, 2005
Onkyo CR-505DAB CD Receiver Review
See the update below for the reason for the reason we now don’t rate this product.
After our clapped out Sony mini-system refused to play one track too many and the usual thump on the side failed to yield the required result, we realised it was time to find a new stereo system for the office.
With the room stuffed full of humming computers, books, cables, gizmos and overflowing racks of CDs, we were looking for something compact but with enough grunt to shake the walls when the punk rock mood takes.
After several trudges up London’s hi-fi Mecca, Tottenham Court Road, and long periods scanning the minutiae of online spec sheets, we decided that the Onkyo looked like the one for us.
One trip to Richer Sounds later we returned back to the office clutching the Onkyo CR505 DAB CD receiver system.
For £240 (~US$433, €352~) you get a lot of bang for your money, with the attractive brushed aluminium unit packing in a high quality amplifier, CD player, AM/FMRDS tuner and – best of all – a DAB (Digital Broadcast Audio) receiver.
Unlike many other all-in units in the same bracket, this puppy offers a ‘proper’ amplifier with high-quality Wolfson DACs delivering accurate digital-to-analogue conversion and discrete output stage circuitry for a clean output signal.
Moreover, there’s a slew of RCA/digital connectors available on the rear for hooking up external units like MD players and cassette recorders, so the unit can be used as the heart of a small hi-fi system.
Setting up the system was easy enough, although it was strange to discover that three separate aerials had to be installed for the FM/AM and DAB tuners!
We couldn’t wait to get playing with the DAB tuner, and after a quick bash on the auto-scan button we were astounded by the huge variety of channels it managed to find.
Admittedly, most of the channels sounded absolute rubbish, but it was a revelation to find so much content available.
With all those channels to wade through, it was necessary to set up our own list of favourites, and although it was a bit of a fiddly process, it wasn’t long before we’d programmed the thing to our liking.
The nice thing about DAB is the additional text information transmitted with the audio signal, and the CR505’s pretty blue LED display served up two rows of text, with users able to choose which DAB information they want onscreen – we fell in love with the scrolling text option that provided details about the station and the song currently being played.
The FM and AM tuners were equally straightforward enough to sort out, with the auto scan quickly scooping up a list of available radio stations.
The onboard CD player usefully supports MP3s recorded on CD-R and CD-RW discs as well as Audio CDs. We had no problems at all playing a wide selection of discs.
With so much on board, working out what does what can be baffling at first, but we were pleased to find that the manual came in just one language instead of the usual United Nations ten-ton tomes.
The Onkyo system is offered in two flavours. The CS-220UK version ships with Onkyo speakers but we bought the bare-bones CR-505DAB unit and wired up our own £100 (~US$180, €147~) Eltac speakers.
The sound was impressive, with a tight, controlled bass and clear soundstage. Cranking up the sound levels, the system coped admirably, with no harshness or distortion marring the thundering output.
The system would make a great bedroom, kitchen or study stereo system, offering a huge range of radio channels and enough poke to accompany the occasional air guitar wig out or party.
If you’re looking for a compact, flexible mini-system with loads of features and a big sound, ~~we thoroughly recommend the Onkyo. It’s a winner!~~
~~FIVE STARS~~, Now ZERO STARS
See the update below for the reason for the now Zero rating.
Specs:
Amplifier: 25 W/Ch int4 (1 kHz), WRAT (Wide Range Amplifier Technology), Discrete output stage circuitry, Tone control (Bass/Treble), Tone direct and 3 audio inputs and 2 outputs.
CD Player: Plays Audio CDs and MP3 CDs, Wolfson single-bit D/A converter, 20-track programming, Random/Memory/Repeat play modes, Optical digital output.
Tuner: DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) with 59 Presets, 5-mode timer (Timer 1/2/3/4/Sleep), 40 FM/AM presets, Automatic FM scan tuning, RDS (CT/PS/RT).
Other features: Battery-free memory backup, Headphone jack, RI-compatible remote control
Onkyo
Update 24 November 2005
Sadly, we have to add that after we gave the Onkyo such a glowing review, ugly problems reared their head.
Firstly, the CD player started to stall on new and old CDs, introducing party-wrecking uninvited gaps mid-way through albums.
Changing disks made no difference and after triple-checking that there were no overheating problems, the unit was sent back to Richer Sounds who gladly swapped it over for a replacement player.
Sadly, this turned out to be even worse, with the same CD-stuttering problem and a curious display glitch that sent random characters flying across the screen.
We’d had enough, so once again despatched the unit back to trusty Richer Sounds who were happy to oblige with a full refund.
With two failed units we can’t recommend this player to our readers.
Maybe we were just unlucky, but after having major problems with two ‘regular’ units (i.e. not press review models), we’d hate to see others experiencing the same hassle.
We’re now planning a review of a replacement DAB product from PURE – expect a review and news shortly.
25 August, 2005
Nokia Grabs Lead In 3G Phone Market
Nokia has risen to become King Of The Hill of 3G phones with a market share of 17%, with its attractive range of 3G phones trouncing products from rivals NEC and LG.
According to a report by Strategy Analytics, the phone-shifting Finns scooped a 17% of the 3G handset market in the three months from April to June, 2005.
Chris Ambrosio, director of the Strategy Analytics wireless device strategies service observed that Nokia’s hefty share of the 3G market represents nearly half of its global overall share in the global mobile market, currently standing at 33%.
Previous 3G front-runners Motorola and LG have been overtaken by Nokia, with the report warning the manufacturers that they “have significant work to do to match up in the next battle for WCDMA phones priced below US$200 (~£111, €164~) wholesale, which will present significant mass-market opportunities in 2006 to 2010”.
The study notes that the market for 3G phones is still comparatively small, with only nine million units shipped in the second quarter of 2005 – small beer compared to the total sales of 185m handsets for the same period (source UDC).
“WCDMA (3G) technology, which accounted for just 5% of total handset sales during Q2 2005, remains a market in the early stages of development, but it is worrying for a cluster of aspiring Asian vendors that Nokia has already become best in class,” commented Chris Ambrosio, director of the Strategy Analytics’ wireless device strategies service.
Nokia’s market lead has been assisted in no small part by the popularity of their acclaimed 6680 3G handset, recently lauded as the “best-in-class 3G phone” in Western Europe.
Nokia’s triumph means long faces in the Motorola offices, with the company failing to make much progress with their 3G phones, despite their funky ‘lifestyle’ GPRS phones like the V3 Razr proving a hit.
Strategy Analytics
24 August, 2005