Wireless

Wireless connections

Log On Through The Lord
Cardiff vicar Reverend Kimber is hoping that by introducing wireless broadband access from the pews of his city centre church, more people will be encouraged to join his flock at St John’s Church.
The decision was made after the tech-savvy Reverend discovered that the thick walls of the 1473 church blocked his own wireless signal as he used his laptop to write sermons and create orders of service.
The Welsh capital is awash with Wi-Fi after a joint project between Cardiff council and BT Openzone resulted in more than 100 wireless broadband points being created around Cardiff city centre and parts of Cardiff Bay.
With the streets full of wired Welsh business folks looking for a fix, Kimber realised that they might appreciate a quieter place to do business.
“The church is a sanctuary for everyone, including business people with laptops and mobiles who may want to find a quiet area without lots of noise and loud music to sit in peace and do some work or just send an e-mail,” Kimber told the BBC.
The laptop-toting vicar added, “I couldn’t do my job without one and it has made me more aware of other people’s needs.”
After Kimber approached BT, the company agreed to fill in the gap in Cardiff’s wireless broadband network and fitted the church with its own Openzone node, providing access to surfers sitting in the corner of the north aisle at St John’s.
Hopeful to convert Skype surfers into Bible-troublers, the Rev Kimber said: “This church has a strong commitment to be open for people in the city, and of course, if this will encourage more new people into the church, the project will have been a success.
Fearful of mass sessions of multiplayer shoot-em-ups and virtual battles breaking out in the aisles, Kimber added, “All we ask is that they respect the church environment and do not to use loud mobile ring tones or play music on their computers, especially when a service is in progress.”
It wouldn’t be the first time the church has seen battle – the original medieval church was severely damaged during the revolt of Owain Glyndwr in the early 15th century.
According to Ann Beynon, BT’s director Wales, when it comes to wireless connectivity, Cardiff is now one of the most connected in the UK.
St John’s church, Cardiff
Wireless broadband goes to church
31 May, 2005
Does Anyone Understand The Ringtone Business?
It’s OK to say you don’t understand the ringtones business.
I know there are people who initially claim they do, but not one of the many people that I’ve spoken to about the ringtones business can explain its workings to me. I’m not talking about how the downloads work, but why it’s so big.
Anyone in the UK will be able to tell you at some length about the Crazy Frog ringtone – it’s been a cultural phenomenon.
When they make I Love May 2005 (inevitable), some sardonic fellow (they normally are fellow, those sardonic ones) will make a witticism about it, that’s just long enough to fit perfectly into the edit between the clips. Then those watching will be able to delight in hearing the hallowed tones again.
Reasons for this started with an incessant TV advertising[*1] campaign.
This lead to three possible reactions – the haters, the lovers and the not-bovered.
I’d imagine that lots of the UK viewing public hate it to the point of distraction, despising the ‘music’ and being irritated at their generally bafflement at ringtones. In fact 60 people chose to voice their disapproval to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), other chose to complain about other parts of the frog, which quite honestly I can’t say I’ve been looking for. As quoted from the ASA Website.
“It wasn’t long before complaints were flooding into the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Some viewers complained that the commercial was annoying and broadcast far too frequently. However, the main crux of the complaints related to a far more unusual and surprising subject matter. Frog genitalia.
Viewers had noticed that Crazy Frog was very definitely male due to a protrusion that stuck out from his cartoon body. The complainants found this inappropriate. Some were worried about children seeing this kind of advertising material whilst a few parents had felt embarrassed by some of the questions their children had asked them.”
The Crazy Frog was investigated and exonerated on all counts.
As to the regularity of the adverts, they said
“Lastly, though the ASA accepted that advertisements which are broadcast frequently can rankle with some viewers, it didn’t uphold the complaints, as it’s the advertiser and broadcaster who decide how often they show a commercial.”
So the ASA say it’s OK for them to continue spreading their joy among the nation – even if they don’t want it.
This has started a revolt from other advertisers who don’t want to be on the same slot as the Crazy Frog. On some channels this has lead to many Jamster ads[*2] being shown in the same break. In fact, this afternoon on E4, nearly all adverts were Jamster’s.
In the process of this it has become the first ringtone to reach number one in the charts since downloads have become included.
Popjournalism tells us
“Representatives from the UK Singles Chart said the novelty track sold 150,000 copies and was at one point outselling Coldplay’s new single “Speed of Sound” on a four-to-one basis.”
This stuff has been on the news and news quizzes. We’re told it’s sold over 11 million copies throughout Europe for goodness sake.
Ironically its popularity is the tragedy of its success.
How often do people who have chosen that as a ringtone incorrectly reach for their phone, when its played in a TV ad; on the news; a chart show on the radio; or as someone else’s ringtone? Conversely, how many have missed calls because when their phone was ringing, when they assumed it was from another source.
Its popularity defeats its main purpose – you can fail to be alerted when someone is try to contact you.
This comes to the core of my misunderstanding of ringtones.
The draw of ringtones is to individualise the phone handset. But with ringtones, there is no scarcity of supply. Everyone can have one, if they pay for it.
If a ringtone becomes well known enough, like Crazy Frog, the purchaser ends up paying for the privilege of advertising their product for them.
I can foresee the next wave of ringtone distribution will be quite different – generating the same kind of revenues (remember, 11m ringtones at £3) without the huge amount they’re spending on TV adverts.
I would mobilize their most powerful sales force – the ringtone user. By enabling each of the ringtone enthusiasts to act as sales people, they let them sell tunes directly to their friends, with a percentage of the sale to them for their trouble.
Unfortunately instant gratification for the keen purchaser is not currently possible due to the inadequacies of phone DRM, so direct transfer of music peer-to-peer is not allowed, due to the “fear of piracy”, or not trusting your customer as it’s otherwise known.
Perhaps a SMS/WAP passed token would work …
As to how do you judge what’s going to be a massive smash – I really have no idea
[*1 A sweet spot has been created. The downward pressure on the cost of advertising on the UK’s terrestrial channels, has crossed the rise in income generated by the ringtone business. This sweet spot, unfortuntley, creates very frequent TV adverts for ringtones.]
[*2 Jamster sell the Crazy Frog ringtone, other ringtones, wallpapers, etc]
An extensive history of the Crazy Frog birth is available from bloggerheads.
31 May, 2005
MobiTV Powers Orange 3G TV
We covered the announcement of Orange’s 3G TV content to mobile handsets last week, but today we discovered who’s providing the content-to-mobiles technology powering the services.
Idetic, the company behind MobiTV, who are in turn Orange’s partners for the service, are the technical brawn behind the operation. Headquartered in Berkeley, CA they have been around since 1999, originally working on bandwidth optimisation systems for cellular networks.
We spoken extensively with Ray DeRenzo, former Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone America’s Global Platform and Internet Services Group, who joined Idetic as VP of EMEA (so he’ll have a somewhat less-wide business card these days), running through many areas of their business.
A fortuitous early deal with Siemens saw the creation of a smart proxy server product being bundled with Siemens hardware and begin actively sold, with Siemens effectively becoming a sales agent for Idetic system. This licensing deal gave them the breathing space, and cash flow, to further develop the system.
The roots of the system that is being used on the Orange project lay in a demonstration system for delivering content over IP connections to TV, originally created as a sales tool to sell their optimisation products.
During a demo with a major US broadcaster, the eyes across the table lit up, generating great excitement about using the system to syndicate broadcaster content to many platforms.
This pivotal moment for the company, altered the companies direction, expanding them in a new direction.
After much careful thinking and planning they’ve ended up with an end-to-end solution, spanning ingestion; digitisation; encoding; and distribution going initially to IP TV, now cellular and wireless.
In what must have been a pretty big transition for the technical-focused company, they launched MobiTV, hiring the BSD’s from Hollywood, TV and the cellular world. By gathering content distribution deals initially in the US, now Europe and soon Asian markets, they have placed themselves in an enviable position, supplying the delivery system and the content to be delivered – both sides of the transaction.
With expansion into Europe and Asia on their main, back in February, MobiTV swelled their ranks with some of the great and the good from the mobile world, one of which being our interviewee Ray DeRenzo. A smart move bringing in people who’ve been very close to the Giant.
Digital-Lifestyles spoke to Ray this afternoon who confirmed their first trip to MipTV this year had been highly rewarding with many of the content companies beating a path to their door. He commented that seeking content deals has been significantly easier in the US, as the content owners are consolidated into a small number of very powerful providers, differing from the significantly more fractured map of Europe.
Their heritage in the US has done them big favours. The deals that they have made there have enabled them to supply a similar service to the Orange TV service, in the US to Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless and a number of other regional carriers in the region carrying 23 channels.
These US roots could go someway to clarify why the Orange UK TV service is so weighted towards US content. Signing deals like CNN are a sure thing in many countries of the world.
The simplicity of the whole system is quite beautiful. Ingesting at satellite downlink sites in the US and Europe, this is transferred to their operations centre in the US where the content is prepared and distributed to cellular phone users handsets via their downloaded application. When content is delivered of the handset, the application takes care of the deliver of the content, DRM and rescaling of the video to the specific characteristics of the destination handset.
They’ve opted not to use the RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) standard as many other video streaming services have, but have decided to use their own packeted-delivery approach, which they claim is more bandwidth efficient than leaving the connection constantly open, as RTSP does. It would seem to make sense.
Orange have initially decided to only offer a bundle deal, £10 (~US$18 ~€14.5)per month including 20 hours of access to any of the TV content. MobiTV system is also able to offer many more payment options including one-off payment using micro-payments.
Depending on the handset that is used, MobiTV claim mobile views should be getting a frame rate of around 15 fps, which while it’s around half the frame rate of ‘normal’ TV, sound eminently very watch able – certainly a considerable improvements on the much maligned 1-2 fps of a couple of years ago.
The delivery of TV and video content to the mobile handset is currently white hot both in the content and mobile worlds – and it’s been getting that way for the last 18 months. What has yet to be consistently proven is the consumer’s appetite for paying for it – Will it have the run away success of SMS or only generate the mild interest of MMS.
We don’t know Idetic/MobiTV’s offering intimately, but from the overview we’ve had it certainly looks like an interesting offering.
Idetic
MobiTV
27 May, 2005
Vodafone 7100v: Upgrading Its Software And Syncing With PocketMac Blackberry
Following on from my recent detailed review of the Vodafone 7100v Blackberry, I thought it would be worth passing on a few tips I’d learnt over the process. One attempting to reassure readers through the scary process of upgrading the operating system on the 7100 Blackberry; the other, a solution for syncing your information with an Apple Mac – not something that is natively supported by RIM or Vodafone.
Upgrading the software on a Vodafone 7100v Blackberry
Before properly using the Blackberry, I paid a visit to the Blackberry Web site and downloaded the latest software update for my handheld. This is one of the things with advanced devices such as this: they get to be so much like computers that they have new software upgrades available on a regular basis.
Upgrading the software on the handset was quite a daunting experience, because my 7100v refused to connect correctly. I would get repeated error messages, saying it wasn’t connected properly, and the only way to get it connected was to unplug and then reconnect the cable from the handset.
Updating the software on the Blackberry essentially wipes everything off the device before putting new software on, there were a few occasions when I thought, “oh dash, I’ve broken it” because nothing seemed to be responding. These worries proved to be unfounded, as after a few minutes I was greeted by the Vodafone logo appearing on-screen signaling success of the upgrade process.
Syncing (with a Mac)
After updating the software, which by the way you need a Windows computer for, I set about syncing the Blackberry with my Mac. My existing phone, the Sony Ericsson P910i, works correctly out of the box with Mac OS X’s iSync application, syncing wirelessly over Bluetooth within a few seconds.
The 7100v, although it has Bluetooth, doesn’t have a Bluetooth synchronization profile, which in my mind is something the Blackberry developers should have thought about, as it would have been a relatively easy software fix. As a result of this, the Blackberry wouldn’t sync with iSync and the cable wouldn’t work either, as iSync had no drivers for it.
A little research on the Internet revealed a company by the name of PocketMac who make Mac/Blackberry sync software. Upon request, they kindly sent me a free license key for their software, which then allowed me to seamlessly sync my address book and calendar from my Mac to my Blackberry.
PocketMac Blackberry in operation
I did have one or two issues with it initially, but these were to do with using Apple’s new released operating system update, Tiger, which has a new version of iCal, a calendar application, which initially refused to work with PocketMac.
Some lateral thinking was needed – by getting iCal to sync to Entourage, the Mac equivalent of Outlook on Windows, and then telling PocketMac to sync calendars from Entourage, I got it working.
Despite the Tiger problem, that they tell me will be fixed soon, I was impressed with PocketMac Blackberry. It fills a large gap left by RIM’s lack of Mac support.
PocketMac Blackberry
Vodafone 7100v Blackberry
27 May, 2005
Vodafone 7100v Blackberry Review – email; Calendar; Phone
This is the third and final part of this in-depth review focuses on the mainstay of the Blackberry – email, calendar, or even using it to speak to people. The first part of this review, looking at
Usability: 3/5
Syncing: 4/5
Screen: 5/5
Web Browser: 4/5
Email/Messaging: 5/5
Calendar/PIM: 3/5
Software/Features: 2/5
Central Telephone Functions: 4/5
Overall Score: 3.5/5
26 May, 2005
Sony K750i: Pre-release Preview: It’s A Beauty
About a month ago I had the chance to spend two days with a pre-release version of the Sony K750i handset and as it’s now closer to the release of the handset, I thought an overview of the product might be timely.
Despite it being a pre-release version of the phone, the couple of bugs that I came across were pretty small and inconsequential and in general it ran very well.
The form of the phone was, for me quite petit, but that�s to be judged against a Nokia N-Gage QD, which isn’t the lightest of fellows. I soon got used to the size and placement of the keys, picking the use of the central joystick up quickly.
The navigation through the menus is very simple and effective, which is heavily aided by the quality of the good-sized display which takes up the same space as the keypad.
One feature I particularly liked was being able to soft-program the joystick “User Controlled Interface” Hurrah! I set it up to start the built-in audio recorder (quality OK, not great) when I pushed the joystick right, and turn on the bright/near-blinding light that is the flash.
Despite its very handy form (~10cm H, 4-5 cm W, 2 cm D from memory), it has some impressive features.
You morph it in to a camera by sliding the lens cover at the back of the device. Using the 2mpx camera you can easily captures clear pictures with vivid colours during light days.
When shooting in low light levels the quality is noticeably degraded, but what do you expect from a 1cm lens? To account for this they’ve provided a flash that can also be selected to flash SOS with retina-burning brightness!
Video recording is OK, given the devices restrictions.
The biggest news I’ve left to last. It’s also an MP3 music player, which having been using the W800 a lot recently, appears to offer the same functions as the much anticipated first Sony Walkman mobile phone.
It has a play/pause button at the top left on the side, and volume controls on the opposite side (the shutter button is also on that side).
I’d just assumed the K750i would have a ‘normal’ headphone jack, letting me choose the headphones that excited me, but the provided headphones had to be connected via a Sony-interface at the bottom of the phone. This brings obvious advantages, like them having a mic, letting to let you use them as a hands-free set.
Connecting a uploading content was relatively straight forward to setup and use. I can’t comment on its information syncing ability as this wasn’t available.
Conclusion (based on two days usage)
Despite having to get used to a new phone interface, I fell for the K750i over the short period of usage I had. Frankly it was a real struggle for me to give it back. I think this is going to sell by the truck-load (and that’s a lot of phones, because they very small :) ).
Summary
Compact, quality, capable music player and camera phone.
Rating
4/5

We understand the k750i will be released in the next month in Europe.
26 May, 2005
Vodafone Rakes in Record Revenues
Vodafone execs spent the morning cackling wildly to themselves, throwing wads of dollar bills in the air and rolling around silk-covered beds covered in cash as record revenues and profits for its full year results were announced to the world.
The mobile operator – the world’s numero uno by revenue – has raked in eye-wateringly large pre-tax profits of £13bn, before write-downs.
With revenues increasing 4.3 per cent year-on-year to £34.1bn, these are champagne cork-launching record figures for a UK company.
Vodafone’s subscriber base rose by 16.3 million to 154.8 million, and the company have announced that it will buy back £4.5bn worth of its own shares, and double its dividend payment to 4.07p.
“We have met or exceeded all of our stated targets and significantly increased returns to shareholders,” purred chief exec Arun Sarin, sounding like the cat who got the cream, the milk float and the dairy that made it.
But in-between triumphant licks of triple-thick Cornish clotted cream, Sarin sounded a cautious note, warning that competition was rising.
“Whilst competitive pressures are increasing, there is clear evidence that our global scale and scope is enabling us to deliver innovative customer propositions and to produce superior results,” he puffed.
The company have experienced organic customer growth of 12 per cent globally, with Vodafone live! active devices increasing to 30.9 million and adoption of 3G services rising to 2.4 million devices at the year end.
“Here in Europe, we are leading the parade on 3G,” Sarin air-punched.
Vodafone performed particularly well in strong markets such as the US and Spain, with revenues growing at more than 20% year on year.
The company also kicked ass in its core European markets, with Italy, Germany and the UK doing especially well, despite fierce competition.
Vodafone didn’t get it all their own way though, with disappointing figures from Japan prompting a business improvement plan in the year ahead (the company currently lags in third place with around 16 per cent market share behind NTT DoCoMo and KDDI.).
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Fiscal Year Pretax, Pre-Items Profit GBP10.3 Billion
25 May, 2005
Orange And Virgin Top UK Customer Satisfaction Survey
Orange has triumphed in a study rating customer satisfaction among mobile phone contract providers, with Virgin Mobile coming in top in the pre-pay sector, according to the 2005 UK Mobile Telephone Customer Satisfaction Study, run by J.D. Power and Associates.
Orange romped home with an overall index satisfaction score of 746 points (out of 1,000), with the company’s 22-point increase reflecting improved performances in areas such as billing, image and customer service.
Vodafone shuffles behind Orange with an index score of 738, while Virgin Mobile, which has been included in the study for the last two years, retained their crown as the highest ranking provider within the pre-pay sector, notching up an overall index satisfaction score of 753.
Virgin Mobile earned customer plaudits for their cost of service and customer service factor, with Vodafone once again consigned to a close second place with an index score of 742.
T-Mobile, on the other hand, slumped below the industry average for both its pre- and post-pay offerings which registered just 708 overall. O2 just scraped in, matching the industry average rating of 733.
The authors of the study claim that the results reflect the positive impact of increasing competition and lower tariffs.
Customer loyalty has also been encouraged by companies offering existing customers new tariffs rather than just new customers.
It would appear that mobile users are a happier bunch, with overall customer satisfaction increasing to 723 index points from 711 in 2004 in the pre-pay segment.
The contract segment seemed a well-chuffed bunch too, with satisfaction levels rising to 733 index points from 720 index points in 2004.
“It pays to satisfy your customers, because those most satisfied will give the highest number of recommendations, thereby increasing sales,” advised Gunda Lapski, director of European telecommunications and utilities services at J.D. Power and Associates. “A good reputation can have a positive impact on the number of customers held by a provider.”
The study asked consumers what had been their main reason for selecting their network provider. Fifteen percent of customers were influenced by having friends, families or colleagues on the same network, while a further eight percent made their decision after having a network recommended to them.
Virgin’s network clearly contains a host of happy bunnies, with nearly 50 percent of its pre-pay customers ready to recommend their current network provider, while 45 percent of Orange contract customers were prepared to do the same.
The phones themselves were the only factor not to achieve an increase in customer satisfaction, with nearly half of all customers having replacing their handsets in the past 12 months.
Mobile technology and photo messaging is still a hot potato, with 35 percent of all mobile owners snapping on camera phones and 21 percent sending photos from their mobiles.
Accessing the Internet to check mobile accounts has also grown in popularity, with 16 percent visiting their provider’s Web site in the past 12 months to do so, compared to 13 percent in 2004.
J.D. Power and Associates
25 May, 2005
Bluetooth Units Hit 5 Million A Week
Like the spotty geek who turns up in the pub with a stunner on his arm, Bluetooth has confounded critics by reaching the significant milestone of five million Bluetooth units shipping per week.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced the growing consumer demand for Bluetooth, citing the wide acceptance of Bluetooth technology in a multitude of applications such as mobile phones, cars, portable computers, mp3 players, mice and keyboards.
“Five million units shipped validates the sizeable market for Bluetooth technology,” roared Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG before weirdly adding, “every time you blink an eye, another ten Bluetooth chipsets see the world.”
“When you couple that with the recently announced collaboration between the Bluetooth SIG and UWB,” Foley continued, “Bluetooth technology will further reinforce its leading position far into the future. Even today, we expect this will have a positive impact in Bluetooth uptake.”
Quick as a flash, Harish Naidu, Microsoft’s general manager of the Windows Device Experience Group was on hand to shove a congratulatory oar in: “The five million per week mark proves that Bluetooth technology has strong marketplace traction. Microsoft is committed to ensuring that the platform support in Windows meets the needs of the marketplace.”
Faster than a gabba ringtone, Jyrki Rosenberg, Nokia’s Director of Strategic Technology Marketing was also on hand to join the backslap-fest, “For Nokia, Bluetooth technology is an important element in our optimized mix of radio technologies that enables seamless connectivity and a more wireless lifestyle for customers.”
Seizing a convenient opportunity to squeeze in a bit of PR, Rosenberg added, “Already today, Nokia has introduced state-of-the-art mobile devices that allow data transmission using both high- speed cellular networks, WLAN hot spot access, and Bluetooth technology.”
The first release of the Bluetooth Specification was released in 1998, and despite initial cynicism, over 3400 companies have become members in the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).
The number of Bluetooth products on the market has soared with volumes doubling from 2003 to 2004, reaching an installed base of over 250 million.
Growth is predicted to reach 500 million units by the close of 2005.
Bluetooth.com
25 May, 2005
Nokia 770: Maemo Linux-powered Wi-Fi Tablet Surprise
Nokia has surprised pundits at the LinuxWorld Summit in New York by announcing their new Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, a handheld Wi-Fi device for accessing the Internet around the home over a wireless broadband connection.
Looking like a chunkier, Darth Vadar-esque version of their Nokia 7710 smartphone, the half-pound tablet measures three-quarters of an inch thick, 5.6 inches wide, and 3.1 inches deep.
Sporting a 4.1 inch 65K colour TFT touch screen display, the PDA-like device is being touted as a cheap alternative to buying an extra personal computer for connecting to the web around the house.
To that end, the 770 boasts 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and a v1.2 Bluetooth system supporting the Dialup Networking, File Transfer, GAP, Serial Port, and SIM Access profiles, with a USB port provided for wired connectivity.
The included 1500mAh battery should keep going for about 3 hours of browsing or 7 days of standby time.
Nokia imagines that consumers will leave the 770 in places like the sofa, by the bed, in the loo etc, providing an ‘instant on’ way to quickly check up on email, football scores, do a quick web search etc.
“We are very excited to introduce our first Nokia Internet Tablet device to the market. With the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet consumers can access broadband Internet services away from their desktop, for example in the backyard or at a cafe within a Wi-Fi hotspot,” spun Janne Jormalainen, Vice President of Convergence Products, Multimedia, Nokia.
Unlike some teensy-weensy mobile displays, Nokia’s sizeable 800×480 pixel screen should make browsing the web and interacting with email a reasonably practical proposition.
Text can be inputted via a virtual keyboard or by stylus using the handwriting recognition system with a hardware interface consisting of a 5-way d-pad controller and buttons for home, menu, escape, zoom, and full screen.
The unit will come with an Opera web browser and email client built in, as well as a RSS news reader, Internet radio, various media players, world clock, a PDF viewer, and Flash v6 compatibility.
Naturally, there’s an orgy of acronyms detailing the zillion and one audio and video formats that the unit supports (deep breath): MP3, Real Audio, MPEG4, AAC, WAV, AMP, MP2 audio support, with MPEG1, MPEG4, Real Video, H263, AVI, 3GP video support and a slew of common graphics formats supported, including Animated GIF JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG and SVG-Tiny. Phew!
A user-installable software patch – scheduled for release at the beginning of 2006 – will introduce Voice Over IP (VOIP) and Instant Messaging to the feature set.
The 770’s software is based on Debian Linux (v2.6), with the new platform – derived from the Linux GNOME UI – going under the name “maemo”.
Nokia intends maemo to be an open platform and will provide a SDK in the hope of stimulating software developers into writing customised software.
“Linux is a logical choice for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet as Linux and the Open Source development platform provide us with fast and efficient solutions to build products for this new Nokia product category,” added Janne Jormalainen.
Powering the Nokia will be a TI 1710 OMAP (ARM based) processor, offering 64MB of DDR RAM and 128MB of internal FLASH memory. Around 64MB of this should be available to the user.
There’s a RS-MMS card expansion slot onboard and the unit will ship with a 64MB card.
Rounding off the package is a USB cable, travel charger, carry pouch and a desk stand. Sadly, the meanies at Nokia have not included a stereo handset but at least they’ve had the courtesy to include a regular 3.5mm stereo headset jack instead of the usual proprietary rubbish.
The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is planned to start shipping in the third quarter of 2005 in selected countries in the Americas and Europe, retailing for $350 (~£191, €277).
Nokia
Maemo
25 May, 2005