Wireless

Wireless connections

EMI Partners With 3 To Supply Mobile Music
Mobile operator 3 has announced a partnership with EMI Music UK to supply full-length music tracks directly to the three million customers on their network.
Thanks to the deal, 3’s customers will be able slip on a pair of gold lycra pants and gyrate around the office to Kylie, Robbie Williams and the rest of EMI’s bulging back catalogue.
The agreement will also enable customers to access music from EMI’s other UK labels which include Parlophone, Relentless and Virgin with the “hottest and freshest” 100 EMI Music UK’s tracks made available for downloading in either WMA or AAC format (depending on the handset).
Last year, 3 became the first network to provide full-length music videos over mobiles, offering mainstream videos from Sony BMG and independent music offerings through VidZone.
In a flurry of synergetic deals, Robbie Williams launched his single “Misunderstood” on the 3 network before it had been heard on TV or radio and Natasha Bedingfield and Rooster have also streamed concerts live to 3’s customers.
Bob Fuller, Chief Executive of 3 UK, clamed that 3 was leading the way in developing the exciting opportunities of 3G mobile technology.
Dave Gould, Commercial Manager, Digital Media for EMI Music UK, added: “We’re delighted to bring EMI Music UK’s labels to 3. 3 is a leading network in bringing mobile music to their customers and we’re really excited about the possibilities of putting more great music into the hands of millions of mobile users.”
3
EMI group
4 August, 2005
Sky Gnome Wireless Listening Gadget Unveiled
BSkyB has announced The Gnome, a wireless digital receiver gadget that lets Sky subscribers listen to radio (or TV) anywhere around the house.
Sadly, it doesn’t come in the shape of a brightly coloured plaster figurine with an oversized head, but the curvy triangular form looks a jaunty enough number.
Using the Gnome, punters can listen to Sky TV and radio channels anywhere in the house, garage or garden, just so long as the receiver is within 30 metres of the Sky box.
The natty wireless receiver works with all Sky boxes and lets subscribers get an earful of over 80 digital radio channels – as well as the television channels in their Sky package – at no extra charge.
Sky+ customers can also use the cheeky little Gnome to listen to pre-recorded programmes in their Sky+ planner.
The toblerone-esque gadget offers stereo sound, a backlit LCD display providing full channel and programme information, volume and channel controls and the option to pre-set 10 fave channels.
Introducing the device, BSkyB chief executive James Murdoch built himself into an enthusiastic froth of product love and exclaimed, “This is fantastic. We think it’s just dynamite!”
A somewhat mellower Brian Sullivan, BSkyB’s director of customer products and services, observed that the Gnome was a “fun product that adds value and flexibility for Sky’s growing customer base.”
“It forms part of BSkyB’s strategy to deliver great entertainment and choice through constant innovation,” he added.
The diminutive receiver comes in a choice of Cool Blue or Funky Orange but only offers a rather disappointing battery life of up to 8 hours before the batteries need recharging
The Gnome will be available from October. Prices are still to be confirmed
Sky
4 August, 2005
Sony Ericsson’s All Sensing Smartypants Phone
Sony Ericsson’s boffins have come up with the cunning idea of creating phones which automatically change the way they behave, depending on the time, date and place.
The cunning plan was revealed after the New Scientist magazine spotted a patent application by Sony Ericsson for a ‘System method and computer program product for managing themes in a mobile phone’.
Here’s the application abstract:
“Themes provide the mobile phone with changeable characteristics pertaining to the appearance and sound presented by the mobile phone. A theme profile associated with the mobile phone contains data pertaining to which theme to apply to the mobile phone and when to transition to another theme as well as where theme content data is located.
The mobile phone then waits for a triggering event to occur. When such a triggering event occurs, it causes a transition from the currently active theme to another theme. A new theme based on an associated triggering event is applied to the mobile phone changing its look and feel.”
What this means (in slightly less wordy language) is that the phone’s wallpaper display could automatically change to reflect dates logged in the calendar application of a user’s phone.
For example, the wallpaper display on the phone might automatically display a picture of a lovely big cake on the user’s birthday or a sparkling Christmas tree on December 25th.
Travellers touching down in Glasgow airport may be ‘treated’ to a bagpipes ringtone courtesy of a GPS country location signal, or perhaps the phone might blast out some demonic black metal on arrival in the Norwegian hinterland.
A more productive use of the technology could be in restaurants where a list of the day’s menu specials could be delivered direct to the phone’s screen via Bluetooth.
Another use may be in cinemas and theatres where Bluetooth could be used to automatically silence bleeping, ringing and ‘amusing’ ringtones.
The New Scientist article suggests that the feature could be used to keep stockbrokers updated with the latest share prices every 10 minutes or give walkers continually updated weather forecasts with the information being displayed as the phone’s wallpaper.
Happily, priority coding will let users override some automated controls, thus eliminating the prospect of a tinny rendition of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s the Way (I Like It)” blasting out during granddad’s funeral.
New Statesman
4 August, 2005
PDA Sales Set For Record Year
In spite of pundits’ predictions of a swift demise, the PDA refuses to die with 2005 looking set to be a record year for handheld sales.
A combination of falling prices and extra features like wireless connectivity have invigorated the PDA market, with Gartner reporting 3.6 million units shipped worldwide in the last three months, a 32 percent leap from the same period last year.
This puts the market on track to hit 15 million units shipped by the end of year – a figure that would surpass the previous record of 13.2 million PDAs shipped in 2001.
The study ignored smartphones, such as the Treo 650 and BlackBerry 7100, but included wireless PDAs like the iPAQ 6315 and Nokia 9300.
Research In Motion’s BlackBerry was, not surprisingly, the most popular device, with shipments reaching 840,000 in the second quarter – a hefty growth of 64.7 percent, achieving a sector-leading market share of 23.2 percent.
Palm came in at second place with 17.8 percent, while Dell slipped out of the top five ranking, elbowed out by T-Mobile’s Sidekick II and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices.
HP also suffered falling sales, although both Dell and HP are scheduled to upgrade their product lines in the second half of this year.
The study by analysts Gartner revealed that Windows CE is the favoured operating system for business-minded PDA users, with the underlying software making up 46 percent of worldwide shipments in the second quarter of 2005.
In second place was RIM with 23.2 percent of PDA software shipped, followed by PalmSource’s at 18.8 percent.
“Wireless PDAs are increasingly seen as an adjunct or alternative to notebook computers, while favourable exchange rates have enabled more Europeans to purchase PDAs at an attractive price,” said Gartner analyst Todd Kort.
Like Billy Bunter at a speed eating competition, the Western European PDA market inflated by a massive 94 percent to reach 1.3 million units in the second quarter of 2005.
PDAs are proving a big hit with Europeans, with regional sales accounting for 37 percent of worldwide shipments, up from 25 percent a year ago.
In the States, growth is slower, with shipments totalling 1.4 million units, a mere 1.3 percent increase.
Garner reports that the disappointing US figures are a result of a stagnant market and the continuing decline in Palm PDA sales and aging product lines among Microsoft licensees.
Elsewhere, PDA shipments in Asia/Pacific looked sprightly with a growth of 24.7 percent, totalling around 402,000 units.
These figures chime with a similar handheld report from research firm IDC, although their findings painted a little less rosy future.
Gartner
IDC report
3 August, 2005
95% of Mobile Users Won’t Download Games
Mobile gaming big boys I-Play have released the results of a study which revealed that only 5% of mobile users have ever downloaded a game
The independent survey examined the (cough) “behaviour barriers” and motives of 2,500 mobile users across the US, UK, Italy, Spain and Germany.
The study discovered that mobile phone newbies were pretty clueless about what their phones could do, with 33% of respondents unsure whether their handset could even play games.
A further 17.5% were uncertain how to download a game while the rest said that the downloading process itself was tedious.
Of all those polled, only a mere 5% of mobile users had ever downloaded and used a mobile game.
David Gosen, COO of I-play was ready with the positive spin, “The mobile games market is essentially only five percent penetrated. The good news is that we now know what’s limiting market growth – the industry must improve accessibility to mobile games and more importantly, educate consumers on how and where to obtain mobile games”.
Curiously, the survey revealed national differences, with 80% of smart Spaniards aware of the capabilities of their handsets compared with to just 60% of Germans.
Pricing was seen as a discouraging factor by 51% of the respondents, with 48 percent in favour of free trail versions and 30% saying that that they would go for a game if a friend recommended it.
Despite the aggressive advertising campaigns run to promote mobile gaming, the industry is still clearly in its infancy, although the potential for growth is seen as enormous, especially with the interest shown in emerging markets like India and China.
Gosen went on to explain that, “virgin downloaders” need more education about the process and more information about the game before they feel comfortable making that first purchase and this is critical. We know we have to de-risk that first download for the end user.
De-risk. Now there’s a good word for buzzword bingo.
iPlay
2 August, 2005
Technorati Mobile Launches
Technorati has launched Technorati Mobile, a stripped-down version of the popular blog search facility designed to be viewed on mobile phones and handheld computers/smartphones.
In case you’re not familiar with the site, Technorati is a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in what they describe as “the blogosphere”.
Sadly, that’s not some cool, far-distant planet where everyone wears hover-boots, but simply their word for online blogs.
Technorati works by tracking zillions of blogs and building a constantly updated database of blog entries, creating what they like to describe as a “live view of the global conversation of the Web.”
Making it easier for mobile users to access this service seems a smart enough idea, so Technorati Mobile serves up similar options to the main Technorati site, but in a frill-free interface.
The text-only home page offers a search box, a list of the top ten search terms from the past hour and a short listing of Web links under the title, “What’s happening on the Web right now in News, Books and Movies.
Three stories are displayed from each category, with links underneath leading to pages containing aggregated blog comment on the stories.
There’s also the option to get a further ten stories – with associated blog links – by clicking the ‘more’ link in each category.
Although the Technorati Mobile site is designed for mobile users, we mightily warmed to its simple, no-nonsense interface and found it preferable to their Web version.
So much so, in fact, that it’s now replaced their Web version in our PC desktop bookmarks!
Technorati
1 August, 2005
Mobile Gambling: $7.6Bn by 2010 – Informa
Forget mobile gaming – the big money’s in mobile gambling, according a report by Informa Telecoms & Media
The ‘Mobile Gambling’ report predicts that the market for mobile gambling content is going to soar from US$1.2bn (~£0.67bn. ~€0.98bn) of annual revenues in 2005 to US$7.6bn (~£4.30bn, ~€6.21bn) by 2010, with more than 200 million consumers gambling the odds using mobile devices.
There is a joker in the pack however, with the report warning that the growth of the mobile gambling market is dependent upon mobile gambling operators being able to sidefoot legislative, technological and cultural hurdles.
“Mobile gambling is already generating significant revenues, but there is room for sharp growth in the years ahead,” says Stuart Dredge, the report’s author.
“Operators recognise that there is a strong demand for mobile gambling services, and there is no shortage of companies looking to provide them. However, the industry must keep in mind its responsibilities to tackle underage and problem gambling.”
The report looked at the three key types of mobile gambling – sports betting, lotteries and casino-gaming – and predicted that lotteries are going to be the number one form of mobile gambling in the next five years, spurred on by widespread handset support.
With casinos continuing to migrate their games to mobile, the report predicts growing popularity, although sports betting is expected to be a niche sector by comparison, despite bookmakers being keen to launch mobile applications for their customers to bet on the move.
The report sees Europe remaining the largest market for mobile gambling, generating a hefty US$3.2bn of annual revenues by 2010.
Hot on its heels will be the Asia-Pacific market, forecasted to generate US$2.7bn (~£1.52bn, ~€2.20bn) by 2010.
North America emerges as the dark horse, as the size of the market there will be dependant on mobile gambling being legalised in the US and the impact of any restrictions placed upon it.
Even with these caveats, the report still predicts US$979 million (~£553m, ~€800m) of annual revenues for the region by 2010.
Mobile Gambling
1 August, 2005
Team iFiber Redwire Sets New WiFi Distance Record
Those of you struggling to maintain a Wi-Fi connection from next door’s access point may be exclaiming a Victor Meldrew-style, “I don’t belieeeeve it!” at the news of a mighty new world record being set for an unamplified Wi-Fi link.
The new world record in the “unamplified” category was set last week by Team iFiber Redwire, with the Wi-Fi signal reaching an astonishing 125 miles, stretching from Las Vegas, Nevada, all the way to a spot adjacent to St. George, Utah.
The team of college students managed to crush the previous world record for the longest distance for an unamplified Wi-Fi link (55.1 miles @ 30mW) at the 3rd Annual Defcon Wifi Shootout Contest.
The shootout challenges teams to wirelessly connect two computers at extreme distances, with the winners’ collection of Z-Com 325hp+ PCMCIA cards, homemade antennas, 12 foot satellite dishes, home-welded support structures, scaffolds, ropes and computers earning them the prized record.
The team managed a full 11 Mbps data transfer rate over a distance of 125 miles, a new world record that may end up being recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.
There is now talk of attempts to smash the current Bluetooth record of 1.08 miles.
I think we may have to borrow one of their 12 foot satellite dishes because we can barely maintain our office connection through one set of walls…
Defcon Wifi Shootout
Credit for first picture : thanks to wifi-shootout.com
1 August, 2005
Mobile Firefox; Microsoft Hacking; 2.6bn UK SMSs – News Round-up
Mozilla Works On Mobile Version Of Firefox Browser
The Mozilla Foundation has released a technology preview of a mobile-phone browser, based on the same code that powers the popular Firefox browser.
With a release name of Minimo 0.007 there’s no doubting that we’re in deep into early beta stages here, but Mozilla promises to be first handheld browser to feature tabbed browsing and Web services support.
With an interface built in XUL (Extensible User Interface Language), the browser will support cascading style sheets (CSS), JavaScript and resource description language (RDF) for storing dynamic content.
Mozilla hinted that it’s been chatting to phone manufacturers about using Minimo, but there doesn’t seem to be any official announcements on the horizon yet.
Mozilla
Hackers Crack Windows Genuine Advantage Anti-Piracy Controls
Hackers have made chumps out of Microsoft, successfully bypassing their Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Programme only days after the anti-piracy scheme was activated.
The service was supposed to force users to join the WGA authentication program if they wished to receive software updates from the Microsoft Download Centre or from Windows Update.
Users were asked to download an ActiveX control which checked the authenticity of their Windows software and, if validated, would store a download key on the PC for future verification.
Quick-off-the-mark hackers quickly developed a simple one line hack which turned off the trigger for the key check – thus negating the need for users to verify their serial number before using Windows Update.
Doh!
Boingboing
SMS-Mad Brits Send 2.6 Billion Text Messages In June
Figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA) reveal that U.K. mobile phone users sent an astonishing 2.6 billion text messages in June.
This works out at an average of 86.7 million text messages sent each day throughout June – 24% higher than in the same period last year.
There’s already been 15 billion text messages sent in the first half of this year in the UK, with the MDA expecting the year’s total to reach 30 billion, compared with 26.2 billion in 2004.
Text.it
29 July, 2005
T-Mobile Plunders Guerilla Tactics To Promote Phone
Following a long tradition of The Man stealing ideas off the street to flog their products, T-Mobile is organising a series of impromptu ‘street gigs’ to promote their new Sony Ericsson D750i camera phone.
The ‘spontaneous’ performances will take part in London and Birmingham over the summer, with text and picture messages bring sent out to invite T-Mobile customers 90 minutes before the start of the gigs.
Offering ‘last minute invites to unusual locations for hedonistic fun’, you can see some of T-Mobile’s previous (ahem) ‘Guerilla street gigs’ on their T-Mobile Streets’ website
Wielding its corporate chequebook with devastating force, T-Mobile has booked a selection of hot’n’happening music artists like Mercury prize nominee The Magic Numbers, Lemar and El Presidente, along with some unknown acts.
Keen to milk every last ounce of PR potential from the gigs, T-Mobile will be broadcasting the performances online, with company bods on hand to encourage T-Mobile subscribers to test the new handset ~~run off with the thing~~.
Throughout the two-month event there’ll be a photo competition inviting punters to find the picture that best captures the spirit of the gigs.
“T-Mobile Street Gigs is the first of our new initiatives to deliver unique experiences for customers,” grooved Phil Chapman, UK marketing director, loosening his tie and turning down the David Gray.
Forthcoming gigs are currently being flagged up in T-mobile stores, with only the name of the next band to play appearing on posters.
T-Mobile customers can log into the edgy, stencil-graffiti-strewn website to register their interest and are free to invite as many of their chums as they like once they receive gig details
28 July, 2005