Wireless

Wireless connections

Google Movie Search Born
A handy Google search feature went live this week that lets users find showtimes at nearby movie theatres using either their computer or mobile phones and other wireless devices that use short-message services.
The service is available from any Google search box or via SMS.
So a movie hungry visitor to New York could enter their zip code in this search phrase “movie: 10122” to get a listing of what’s playing and when at theatres in their area. If they’re looking for a specific film, typing in, for example, ‘Vera Drake in 10122′ will provide local listings and show times.
The new feature also provides information such as theatre locations and reviews, and enables users to search for movies by title, plot or genre, sortable by movie or cinema.
Other possible searches can help with recommendations or simply refresh fans’ memories (or settle late night arguments).
A query such as “movie: lick my love pump” would return with “This Is Spinal Tap (1984)”, or searching on “movie: great fights” would provide a list of films featuring lots of fabulous punch-ups. And before you ask, yes, it works for naughty words too.
The search results come with a star rating, calculated on an aggregate of online reviews, and links to critics’ reviews.
“We’ll expect more traffic flow overall in movie names,” said Marissa Mayer, Google’s director of consumer Web products. She said increased inventory will increase bidding. “We’re basically creating a new market for AdWords.”
In addition to film studios, Google expects marketing interest from video and DVD distribution companies such as Netflix, Blockbuster Online and Amazon.com, and from marketers of celebrity wallpaper, mobile ringtones and other such money-spinning merchandise.
This latest service ups the stakes in the ongoing bunfight between Google, Yahoo – and recently MSN search – as they battle to provide the most comprehensive set of Web search tools – and get a slice of fast-growing advertising revenues.
Google
24 February, 2005
Robert Clark Photo Trip Sponsored by Sony Ericcson: PR Own Goal?
We know that camera phones are getting better and that the Ericsson S710a Camera Phone has a better one than most, but this over-excited PR bonanza from Sony has rubbed us up the wrong way.
Here’s the story: Sony have waved enough bags of gold at award-winning photographer Robert Clark to entice him to trudge across North America capturing “spontaneous” pictures through the viewfinder of a Sony Ericsson S710a camera.
Now, you may think getting a top photographer to go around taking pictures and then slapping them up on a Web site is fairly unspectacular stuff, but Sony’s press department clearly doesn’t agree.
“A New Era of Digital Photography Begins Today” screams their hyperbolic announcement, “Join Robert Clark as He Travels Across North America, Spontaneously Discovering Life as It Happens”.
We’re not quite sure what ‘Spontaneously Discovering Life as It Happens’ entails. Maybe he’ll be stumbling across new life forms with every step or be in a constant state of astonished delight as wonderful creatures ‘spontaneously’ appear before his eyes.
Mind you, this Clark fella appears equally keen to join in the mutual PR lathering:
“It is truly exciting to have the opportunity to undertake such a prolific journey across North America, and have the opportunity to capture the people, places and things that make this country unique,” purred Robert Clark.
“The camera phone is revolutionising how we see the world, allowing us to capture intimate moments more spontaneously than ever before. This tour aims to be a defining moment in the era of digital photography – elements of American life all captured with a high performance Sony Ericsson camera phone.”
Quick as a flash, Sony’s Vice President of Marketing for Sony Ericsson, Frances Britchford, was on hand to further inflate the wild claims being made for this blatant publicity stunt:
“The Image America tour, and our partnership with the very talented Robert Clark, provides a unique opportunity to capture the essence of the United States and Canada through something that most of us now consider essential to our lives – the cell phone”.
And just when you thought he couldn’t get any further carried away, he rolls out this spectacular piece of convoluted PR guff:
“For experienced photographers or true photo novices, the S710a is the perfect tool to capture life’s moments as they happen.”
Now we like the Sony Ericsson S710a phone. It’s a great phone.
In fact, it’s a nicely designed, well specified, fully featured smart-phone with an above average camera that is fine for taking holiday snaps and photographs of your mates getting drunk. And that’s about it.
It is not – and never will be – “the perfect tool for professional photographers”.
With a resolution of just 1.3 megapixels it sits near the bottom of the pile of even the cheapest digital cameras, so the only professional photographers likely to be using this camera are the ones being sponsored by Sony.
Despite the ludicrous blurb, it’s a fairly safe bet that Clark will produce a fine set of pictures that will put almost all camera phone photographers to shame.
No doubt his years of experience producing work for esteemed magazines like National Geographic and Sports Illustrated will get the very best out of the Sony phone and the ‘commemorative book’ he’s knocking out at the end of his tour will be a fine looking thing (although the cynical amongst us wonder how much pre-publishing Photoshoppery will go on behind the scenes).
For consumers looking for a handy camera/phone combination capable of producing reasonable quality 6″ x 4″ prints, the Sony Ericsson S710a is a fine choice. Professional photographers should, however, look elsewhere.
Sony Ericsson S710a photos
Robert Clark at American PHOTO
Sony Ericsson Image America
Sony Ericsson
23 February, 2005
T-Mobile Use WiMax and WiFi on UK Trains and Double WiFi Coverage
T-Mobile has unveiled ambitious plans to further expand its global Wi-Fi footprint, aiming to install 20,000 hotspots across the world by the end of the year, including trains.
Clearly mindful of the huge growth in VoIP traffic and the corresponding loss of revenue, the network is hoping to ‘own’ a large slice of the WiFi action and keep raking in the profits, no matter how many consumers disconnect from its telephone and cellular networks.
Already a big cheese in the world of Wi-Fi, T-Mobile currently has over 5,300 hotspots in the US and over 7,000 hotpots across Europe.
As part of their uber-expansion meisterplan, T-Mobile (Deutche Telecom’s mobile brand if you didn’t know) is offering WiFi hotspots on trains and what they claim is the first “truly broadband Wi-Fi service” on trains in the UK. We learnt this with some surprise, as GNER have been running a Satellite-powered WiFi service on their trains since April 2004.
Currently trialing on the busy London to Brighton route run by Southern Trains in the UK, the T-Mobile commercial service will launch in Spring. The selection of the route makes perfect sense, with this train line being the physical embodiment of the Information Super Highway, taking Nuu Media types between the two UK centres of online culture.
Naturally, there’s some cunning technological shenanigans involved in keeping Internet connections open while trains plunge into long tunnels, and T Mobile has solved this problem by running a WiMax network running alongside the tracks.
WiMax is a fixed-wireless technology based on the 802.16 standard, and in this instance allows for high speed connectivity of up to 32 Mbps bi-directionally to and from the train. WiMax can run up to 70Mbps. Wi-Fi antennae are then used to distribute the signal within the carriages.
The service will allow commuters an additional 55 minutes of online time in each direction, letting them liven up their journey with remote office work, Web surfing and the ability to email their loved ones to say that they’re stuck in a tunnel somewhere near Gatwick.
If you’re fed up with five pounds an hour WiFi access, you’ll be pleased that T-Mobile is also bringing down its once-eye-wateringly expensive Wi-Fi tariffs to something comparable to US rates. A new “all you can eat” WiFi tariff in the UK offers unlimited wireless access for £20 + VAT per month. This includes train-based access.
Germany appear to get a rougher deal with a time-based, ‘all-bearer’ tariff in Germany priced at 35 Euros for 10 hours. With this customers can download or upload as much data as they like on these schemes via 2.5G, 3G or Wi-Fi over the 10 hours.
T-mobile
17 February, 2005
3 Exceed 10 million Mobile Video Plays
UK 3G operator 3, proudly trumpeted the fact that more than 10 million music videos have been watched by its customers on their mobiles since the launch of its Video Jukebox service only six months ago.
Cocking an industrial-sized snoot at all those naysayers who declared that people were more likely to poke their eyes out with a rusty nail than watch videos on phone, this represents a huge growth in the market.
Naturally, 3 are keen to build on their success and have announced a new agreement with SONY BMG Music Entertainment UK which will double the list of artists whose music videos are available for fans to download or stream onto their video mobiles.
Sony has a bumper pack of artists on its rosters, allowing 3 customers to shake their mobile booties to the likes of Destiny’s Child, Lemar, Manic Street Preachers, Natasha Bedingfield and the Zutons. And, err, Britney Spears.
Not all of these videos will be available concurrently, however, as 3 have an editorial team selecting popular content for their ‘Today on Three’ service. This normally gives users the choice of between 40-60 videos, with the video selections changing regularly. 3 told us they found customers are interested in videos that are “the latest, and then they move on”, only being interested in “what’s current.”
3’s Chief Operating Officer, Gareth Jones enthused: “Thanks to our innovative jukebox service, we’ve created a significant mobile audience for music videos in just six months. We’re offering the latest music videos, on demand, straight to your mobile, and our customers are lapping it up.”
Clive Rich, Senior Vice President, SONY BMG Music Entertainment UK also underlined their company’s support for mobile music downloads, “It’s clear now that there is huge consumer demand for mobile music and it is our policy to deliver our artists’ videos and music to their fans anyway, anyhow, anywhere – at any time. This market will continue to grow.”
We asked 3 for a breakdown of how many people were paying each time they played a video, and how many had taken advantage of the fixed price, “all you can eat”, five pounds a month deal. Surprisingly they didn’t have that information yet.
We have to admit that we were surprised by this enthusiastic uptake, but questions remain as to how many of these downloads were simply people taking advantage of the free video deals currently offered to new subscribers. We’ll have to see if they continue to download at such an enthusiastic rate once they have to start paying for it.
3
16 February, 2005
PacketVideo Ships on 17m Mobile Phones in 2004
In their 2005 “State of the Company” address just made public, PacketVideo bigged up their successes in 2004 and mulled about the future of mobile multimedia.
Clearly, 2004 was a time of happiness and joy for PacketVideo, with the company announcing that 17 million phones embedded with PacketVideo media software were shipped by top handset OEMs worldwide in 2004.
PacketVideo also helped launch five 2.5G and 3G multimedia services, including the recent Verizon V CAST video-on-demand (VOD) service in the US, and the OrangeWorld service on Orange Signature phones in 2004 and early 2005.
PacketVideo is the numero uno supplier of embedded multimedia communications software for mobile phones with more than 60 ‘design wins’ and 17 million handsets shipped in 2004.
The company’s software enables mobile phones to take digital pictures, record home movies, play back digital music and videos, and make two-way videophone calls.
PacketVideo specialises in building and ‘commercializing’ (we think that’s American for “selling”) multimedia capabilities such as VOD, music on demand (MOD) and two-way video communication and messaging.
“These much-anticipated multimedia services, made possible by the growing availability of 3G networks, are finally a reality for millions of people around the globe,” trumpeted Dr Jim Brailean, CEO of PacketVideo. He continued, “PacketVideo’s software is at the heart of delivering these new and innovative services that let customers download, play, and share streaming audio, video and live broadcasts on their mobile phones.”
Looking to the future, PacketVideo expects continued growth and technology innovation, and anticipates an increase in both lovely lolly and market share.
“We believe 2005 will be the year of multimedia services such as VOD, MOD (Movies On Demand) and two-way video telephony. We will see the multimedia technologies permeate all levels of handsets, allowing more and more consumers to take advantage of the multimedia capabilities,” enthused Brailean.
PacketVideo
16 February, 2005
Nokia Series 60 Update, Smartphones to the Masses
Mindful of the advance of Linux as an OS for mobile handsets, Nokia is giving their updated Series 60 Platform 3rd Edition, the loud fanfare treatment at 3GSM Cannes.
Although the Series 60 Platform is currently the leading smart phone platform in the world (licensed by mobile phone heavyweights such as LG Electronics, Lenovo, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens), things are hotting up in the smartphone market with increased competition from Linux and Microsoft’s just-announced ‘Peabody’ phone.
Running on Symbian OS v9.0, the updated software will enable Series 60 handset manufacturers to create smartphones for various user segments, device formats and better target high volume consumer markets. And – they hope – beat off Linux.
The Series 60 3rd Edition will be available for licensees in mid-2005 and comes stuffed full of groovy new features including enhanced multimedia and enterprise functionality, sustainable application business support, customisation tools and improved platform architecture.
But what does that mean in English? Allow us to explain!
The software will include all the features and functions of the previous editions – including multiradio, extensive application suite, scalable UI and high-resolution support – and bolt on lots of new refinements for business and consumer users.
Let’s look at multimedia first: the new software will offer a new music player, more functionality for rich media content, USB mass memory storage and high-quality multimedia rendering.
The music player will come with all the bells and whistles demanded by the youth market (and hipster execs!), including “seamless and easy-to-use music downloading” with personalised themes and skins.
USB support means that it’ll be easier to exchange music files from mobile to PC, although we suspect that some of their target audience may not be quite so excited by the inclusion of OMA Digital Rights Management (DRM) v2.0.
For business users, the Series 60 3rd Edition also includes significant improvements in many areas, including a new security framework and calendar, synchronisation and device management enhancements.
The new functionality on a platform architecture level will allow manufacturers to target devices for specific segments, with increased support for different hardware configurations, including single and dual-chip hardware architectures and improved performance.
The global smartphone market is expanding at a huge rate – Nokia will have shipped approximately 20 million Series 60 based devices by the end of February and estimates the overall smartphone market in 2005 to exceed 50 million units. In 2008, Nokia expects the smartphone market to be around 25 percent of the total mobile device market.
Series60.com
Series 60 Developer Platform 2.0 and Feature Packs (PDF)
15 February, 2005
Smart2Go , Maps and Local Guides to your Mobile Phone
The Smart2Go Personal Navigator is claiming to be the first mobile navigation system to combine satellite navigation with an extensive travel guide. For travellers who don’t know their A-Z from their GPS, the Personal Navigator promises to make finding your way around town a breeze, with routes, directions and 3D maps being generated at a click of a button on your PDA/smartphone.
Initially running on Series-60 Nokia phones, the package is supplied with a separate GPS location device that uses Bluetooth to find its precise location. Instead of just serving up a boring old route from A to B, the Personal Navigator digs into its database (compiled by Tele Atlas) to dish up a load of useful local information to guide users to petrol stations, banks, car parks, etc.
Hard drinking, wild-living road warriors will be pleased to learn that the program can serve up details of nearby pubs and nightclubs, while more cultured types will enjoy looking up museums, tourist sights, shopping information.
Additionally, Personal Navigator can also provide recommendations, updated daily, for events in culture, sports and more – and if you fancy meeting up with your friends, smart2go can send them route details by sms or e-mail.
Although Smart2Go is a fully fledged satellite navigation system, it can speed up route calculations by utilising its own maps, stored in memory, rather than making the user wait (and pay) for a connection to an external server.
Maps of many European countries and the United States are already available. Locations can be entered through the keypad and the resulting navigation directions are spoken loudly and clearly (available in four languages).
Smart2Go are clearly going for the mass market with this application, as it runs on all Nokia Series60-Standard smartphones with Bluetooth and SD/MMC slot. The company is also promising versions of smart2go for MS Windows Smartphone, PocketPC, Nokia Series 80 and Palm OS in the near future.
Smart2Go Personal Navigator
Gate5
Tele Atlas
15 February, 2005
‘Ultra Low Cost’ Mobile Handsets Announced by GSM Association
In response to demand from emerging markets the GSM Association (GSMA) is forging the way toward for a new ‘Ultra-Low Cost’ mobile handset market, producing sub-US$40 (Euro 31, £21) handsets. Some of the more cynical observers are wondering if this is an attempt to create a demand, or an early move to ensure a toehold in the potentially lucrative emerging market.
This initiative was kick-started by GSMA-commissioned research that identified handset cost as the single biggest barrier to mobile communications affordability in emerging markets.
Although we can’t help questioning the need to commission an entire study just to discover that ‘poor people can’t afford handsets’, the GSM Association aims to use the economies of scale of GSM to drive a new ‘Ultra-Low Cost’ market segment.
The GSMA brought together a group of its operator members that serve emerging markets to create critical mass through a special procurement initiative.
“One of our key goals as a global trade association is to help connect the ‘unconnected’ people of the World, a mission that is critical to the social and economic development of many emerging market countries,” said Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the GSM Association. “By directly addressing the cost of handset ownership, we believe that we can unlock the new ‘Ultra-Low Cost’ market segment.”
The operators participating in this stage of the initiative are: AIS Telecom, Bharti Televentures, Globe Telecom, Maxis Mobile, Orascom, SingTel Mobile, Smart Communications, Telenor Mobile and Turkcell. Together, they represent significant presence in Eurasia, the Arab World and Latin America.
A handset specification and tender was issued to 18 different handset vendors, with Motorola’s family of products (built on its new, ultra-low cost C114 platform) being selected.
The handsets are optimised for their durability, long talk time, and design preferences of emerging markets and Motorola has committed to start delivering these products during the second quarter at a price point below $40 (ex factory) – with a strategic intent to work with GSMA members to develop follow-on products at sub $30 (Euro23.10, £15.89) price points.
Once shipments begin, the initial unit volume target for the first six months is a massive 6 million handsets, which equates to around 1 percent of the global handset market.
As economies of scale kick-in, this new market segment has the potential to add more than a 100 million new connections per year.
Motorola’s Chief Executive Officer, Ed Zander comes over all touchy-feely in the announcement:
“Connecting the unconnected with new Ultra-Low Cost, high quality, beautifully-designed handsets is a critical component of Motorola’s growth strategy – and it is the right thing for us to do as a good global citizen. We are delighted to have won the opportunity to seamlessly partner with the GSMA and member operators to deliver the magic of mobile communications to those who have never experienced it.”
(Note: Motorola had sales of US $31.3 billion (Euro24.1 billion, £16.5 billion), in 2004). The next stage of the project will see the project extended to other emerging market operators, while more vendors will be encouraged to supply terminals for this sizable segment.
According to GSMA estimates, in the region of 80 percent of the world’s population have wireless coverage but only 25 percent use mobile services.
By bridging the gap between supply and demand, the GSMA hopes to accelerate mobile penetration into a user segment currently seen as financially unrewarding.
“This announcement is just the beginning,” enthuses Conway, Chief Executive Officer of the GSMA .
“We also believe that the creation of the ‘Ultra-Low Cost’ market segment represents a significant step towards a sustainable business case for all players in the supply chain. Our mission is to aid economic and social development, by ensuring more people than ever before benefit from mobile communications.”
The mobile usage equation has three major elements: handset, service provision and regulatory / tax requirements.
While the GSMA is working with operators and vendors to address the first two, the third requires serious government support to lower taxes and regulatory requirements.
The GSMA will be reaching out to governments and regulators across emerging markets towards this goal.
GSM Association (GSMA)
Industry Comment (GSMWorld)
15 February, 2005
Nokia, Microsoft Music shock: 3GSM
Much to everyone’s surprise, Nokia has just announced at 3GSM that they are to put Microsoft’s Media player software on their handsets.
Prior to this, Nokia has had a long running, and seemingly-solid relationship with Real Networks.
Music bought in either format will be invisibly exchangeable between mobile phones and Microsoft’s media player.
Microsoft Digital Media big gun, Amir Majidimehr was brought on stage to explain that Microsoft would be creating a software ‘bridge’ between their digital music format/DRM and OMA, the mobile worlds chosen DRM.
In return Microsoft will also be supporting OMA DRM and AAC music format in their Windows Media player, via a plug in.
When asked about how this would affect the relationship with Real, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Mobile Phones said that as an open platform, Nokia was happy to work with all audio players. Quite if Real will be as casual and off-hand about it, is highly doubtful.
We suspect there will be much shouting and screaming at Real Networks.
14 February, 2005
Nokia mPosition System Brings in Cambridge Positioning Systems Matrix
There’s a big future in locations-based services and Nokia are making their move to provide technology for it. As part of the Nokia mPosition System, Nokia is rolling out the Nokia intelligent Gateway Mobile Location Center (iGMLC) 4.0.
Billed as a new, cost-efficient platform for location-based services (LBS), the Nokia iGMLC platform is highly flexible and simultaneously supports both GSM and WCDMA 3G location based services. “The new platform offers our customer a cost-efficient means of deploying location based services, as well as excellent scalability and flexibility in terms of capacity and choice of positioning technologies,” says Heikki Hemmi, General Manager, Location Business Program, Networks, Nokia
Nokia are hoping that this system will provide operators with a future-proof and cost-effective solution for providing mobile services based on the location of the user, as Hemmi says “The platform supports the entire range of complementing positioning methods, from low-accuracy to high-accuracy technologies.”
Teaming up with Cambridge Positioning Systems (CPS), Nokia aims to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art solution, with the platform supporting a variety of positioning technologies for both GSM and WCDMA 3G.
This includes new support for enhanced Cell Identity and Mobile Station-based A-GPS (based on the Secure User Plane (SUPL) protocol) and support for Cambridge Positioning Systems’ SUPL Matrix for 2G.
Secure User Plane Location (SUPL), works on any network and doesn’t require additional investments in the core and radio network, as Chris Wade, CPS Chief Executive Officer explains, “CPS believes SUPL is the simplest and most cost-effective route to high accuracy. Matrix is particularly suited to this new open standard due to its ability to offer high and robust accuracy, all-area coverage and fast location fixes in a software-only implementation.”
With the Nokia mPosition System allowing mobile operators to build complete end-to-end systems for Location Based Services (while supporting both legacy and LBS enabled handsets), we think this is a significant development.
The Nokia iGMLC 4.0 platform will be available in the second quarter. Support for MS-based SUPL A-GPS and CPS’ SUPL Matrix for 2G will be available as a software upgrade in the third quarter.
Cambridge Positioning Systems
Nokia
Nokia Location Services
14 February, 2005