Wireless Tech Chat

The Nokia E75 smartphone slider style phone hides a full QWERTY keyboard below the standard 12 button main display. Also featured is a 3.2MP camera, WiFi, GPS, Java, and Symbian operating system.

The Nokia E55 has a candy-bar design and comes in white or black. Nokia says it will be the world’s thinnest smartphone, but we know the E55 has lots of competition in that race. In any case, Nokia kept the size down by skipping a full QWERTY keyboard in favor of what it calls a “hybrid keyboard.” Basically, that’s a just like a SureType keybaord on a BlackBerry device, where two letters share the same button. The 2.4-inch display supports 16 million colors and it works in both landscape and portrait modes. And thanks to a massive battery, Nokia promises that the E55 will deliver a month of standby battery life.

Quick Glance Specs
Data3G,GPRS,HSDPA,HSCSD
Keyboard/ButtonsStandard 12 button,Full QWERTY
Phone DesignBar w slide Keyboard
SmartphoneYes
Talk Time5.4 hours (324 minutes)
Touch Screen-
Featuresautofocus, video capture,
BluetoothYes, v2.0 with A2DP
Operating SystemSymbian S60
Wi-FiYes
Network
TechnologyGSM
Frequencies/Bands850, 900, 1800, 1900
Data3G,GPRS,HSDPA,HSCSD

Battery
Standby Time264 hours (11 days)
Talk Time5.4 hours (324 minutes)
Type1100 mAh
Display
2nd Display-
Colors16M
Resolution240 x 320 pixels 2.4 inches
Touch Screen-
TypeTFT,TFD,LCD (Color)
Camera and Video
Featuresautofocus, video capture,
FlashXenon
Live TV-
Megapixels3.2
Streaming Video-
Video SharingYes
Data Messaging
Instant MessagingYes
Predictive Text EntryYes
Text Message Templates-
Text MessagingMMS,SMS

Music and Multimedia
FM RadioYes
GPS NavigationYes
Music PlayerYes,MP3,WMA,MP4,eAAC+
Speaker PhoneYes
Connectivity
BluetoothYes, v2.0 with A2DP
Data/Fax Capability-
E-Mail ClientYes
Infrared (IR) Port-
Java ApplicationsYes
Memory Card SlotTransFlash,MicroSD
Operating SystemSymbian S60
PC Sync-
Pop Port-
USB PortYes
Web BrowserYes
Wi-FiYes

How much does ‘free’ cost?

Application will be integrated with the phone’s address book
Skype’s software for making free and cheap phone calls over the Internet will be built in to some Nokia Corp. smart phones.

The integration will start with the N97, which will be released in June. A U.S. carrier for the phone has not been announced.

The built-in Skype application will be integrated with the phone’s address book, so users can see when their Skype contacts are available and make free voice calls or send instant messages to them. As with other Skype applications, users will also be able to pay to make voice calls through Skype to cell phone or landline numbers.

The application will be able to run over both high-speed 3G cellular data networks and over Wi-Fi wireless connections to the Internet.

Skype, which comes from eBay Inc., is already available as a downloadable application for a variety of operating systems and phones, including numerous Nokia products. But preloading the application “removes an inhibitor to consumers because it’s already there,” Skype’s Chief Operating Officer Scott Durchslag said.

The first Skype-enabled Nokia N97 devices will be rolling out from the third quarter. Using Skype on your S60 device isn’t new, but the level of integration with the service and the device is. Skype won’t be running as a separate application, but actually plugged directly into your contacts, making the service a sleek and neat integration.

If Nokia continues on this path, they may make the U.S. market yet.

it’s expected that mobile WiMAX will “outpace LTE over the next few years due to its head start on deployments,” and potentially more importantly, the company believes that WiMAX and LTE will take “very different paths.” In fact, it’s stated that most WiMAX support will come from fixed network carriers looking to spruce up their existing offerings, while LTE expansion will likely be pushed solely (or mostly, anyway) by mobile operators. To us, it all boils down to support, and it only takes a quick survey of the field to see that LTE has the most of that. For better or worse, it seems the next-gen data war is but beginning, even though we already thought we were nearing the end.

What is WiMax? WiMAX, meaning Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology that provides wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes, from point-to-multipoint links to portable and fully mobile internet access. The technology provides up to 72 Mbit/s symmetric broadband speed without the need for cables. The technology is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard (also called Broadband Wireless Access). The name “WiMAX” was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX as “a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL”.

The bandwidth and range of WiMAX make it suitable for the following potential applications:

Connecting Wi-Fi hotspots to the Internet.
Providing a wireless alternative to cable and DSL for “last mile” broadband access.
Providing data and telecommunications services.
Providing a source of Internet connectivity as part of a business continuity plan. That is, if a business has a fixed and a wireless Internet connection, especially from unrelated providers, they are unlikely to be affected by the same service outage.
Providing portable connectivity.

ASU’s Flexibile Display Center and military partners have developed the very first display with a flexible touchscreen. Mainly designed for military applications, the screen is made out of glass strong enough to withstand the battlefield.

Instead of using solid glass for the touchscreen, the device incorporates special material from DuPont Tijin Films in order for the paper-thin display to bend or roll up without damaging the gadget. The device also uses technology from E-ink Corp, allowing users to write, store and erase their own content on the displays; eventually, they will also be available in full color. Although it sounds pretty cool, don’t get your hopes up: The Flexible Display Center estimates that this flexible touchscreen display won’t be available for another 18 months.

Now, in a major effort to revolutionize on-field command and information exchange, the Army has teamed up with ASU to establish the Flexible Display Center (FDC).

“The FDC brings together academia, industry and government to develop what, in essence, will be revolutionary information portals – devices that are small, lightweight, rugged and consume very little power,” says ASU President Michael Crow. “But they will be very powerful in that they will hold the key to successful military operations: real-time information.”

Increasing the pace
Crow adds that the center will accelerate research, development and manufacture of flexible display technologies, which will boost commercialization of flexible displays. As an early adopter, the Army will use the technology developed in the center to accelerate the pace of its transformation, which cannot be achieved with existing glass-based displays. In addition, the Army’s investment will lead to low-volume manufacturing that meets its needs while ensuring the technologies become the industry’s commercial standard.

“Flexible displays are the next revolution in information technology that will enable lighter-weight, lower-power, more-rugged systems for portable and vehicle applications,” says Brig. Gen. Roger Nadeau, commanding general of the Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command.

From Bob Sullivan: Here are two data points that don’t jibe: The average cell phone user pays $63 each month for their service, yet nearly half of cell users spend less than 200 minutes a month yakking on those phones.

POWER USERS
People who use the Web, e-mail, broadband Internet access for laptops and other fancy cell phone services don’t have a prepaid option to fall back on. But that doesn’t mean savings aren’t available. The key, as with all transactions, is knowing your bargaining position. That means always knowing your contract end date and exactly what your early termination fee might be, since it’s probably shrinking as time goes by. If you’re paying $120 per month for phone service, a $100 early termination fee shouldn’t scare you away from shopping around.

Sprint started a price war for power users last year, offering its $99 Everything Unlimited Plan. No matter how often you use your phone or what you use it for, that plan should act as a reference point. If you’re paying more than $100 per month, you should investigate other options.

Most carriers offer similar plans, but read the fine print. Everything doesn’t always mean everything. At some carriers, all-you-can-call packages charge extra for text messages, for example.

There are other devils in the details. Carriers are still charging handset upgrade fees when consumers renew contracts ($18 to $36) and activation fees when consumers sign up ($35). These fees should be included in the price of the phone, but they are rarely made clear by salespeople. Scan your bill for at least two months after signing a new contract to find this fee, then complain about it. Many consumers who do talk their way into refunds.

From Gizmodo: Remember when those two satellites collided the other day? Seems that they’ll be the space junk gift that keeps on giving, as their 800-km debris orbiting field could hamper all future space launches.

“Future launches will have to be adjusted with regard to the fact that the debris [from the collision] has spread over an 800-km area and will gather at a common orbit in 5-6 years,” said Alexander Stepanov, director of the Pulkovo Observatory in St. Petersburg.

According to NASA this massive cloud of human failure joins the 19,000 other objects that currently pollute the low and high orbit space around the planet. As we reported last week, the Hubble Space Telescope is already in danger.

How in the world (out of this world?) are the world’s nations going to cleanup this mess? They can’t even clean up the messes on Terrestrial Earth, let alone Solar Earth.

Russian Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov said Tuesday’s smashup of a derelict Russian military satellite and a working U.S. Iridium commercial satellite occurred in the busiest part of near-Earth space — some 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth.

Solovyov said debris from the collision could stay in orbit for up to 10,000 years, and even tiny fragments threaten spacecraft because both travel at such a high orbiting speed.

Oberg said the limited accuracy of tracking data and computer calculations makes it impossible to predict collisions, only their probability. He said most satellites also have little fuel to escape what most likely would be a false alarm.

James Oberg, a NASA veteran who is now space consultant, described the crash over northern Siberia as “catastrophic event.” “The collision offers a literally heaven-sent opportunity for the Obama administration to take forceful, visible and long-overdo measures to address a long-ignored issue of ’space debris,’” Oberg said.

Wireless industry ready to interface with Facebook, MySpace and Bebo

Everybody at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona wanted to be the new best friend of the social networks.

From the world’s biggest phone maker, Nokia, to tiny Irish semiconductor start-up Movidia, delegates to the wireless industry’s biggest annual gathering couldn’t stop talking about Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

The majority of visits to such online communities are still made by people sitting at a computer telling their friends where they are and how they are feeling, exchanging opinions on their favorite movies and music or uploading videos.

Buzz
Behind the buzz is a telecoms industry that has finally brought together the network speed and capacity and the gadgets to make capturing and sharing pictures or video on the run a fun thing to do rather than a tedious and frustrating experience.

Movidia, armed with $14 million of venture capital funding, has built a processor that allows users to do sophisticated video post-production on their phones, which it will soon release to phone makers for testing.

Mobile carrier Orange, the main brand of France Telecom, is tempting customers with special pricing that offers unlimited access to sites such as Facebook and MySpace — but meters all other data use.

And of course MySpace itself — created to sell advertising, not just for fun — is confident of profiting from new opportunities to sell ads based on features unique to mobile, like knowing where members are, if they choose to opt in.

Sounds interesting.

Firmware or vaporware? you decide!

LG has purportedly come out with the LG GD-900, with a transparent keypad.

Phones Review has this tidbit:

LG are as expected keeping most of the LG GD900’s “advanced features” under wraps, but this stunning handset is 13.4mm thick with 7.2 Mbps HADPA.

As for that transparent keypad, it glows when open, and furthermore LG has apparently it has two cameras, one on the front and one on the back and has designed a Bluetooth headset to match this stunning piece of mobile art. The word is LG is expecting to have the LG GD900 available for retail in the second half of 09.

LG GD900 is announced at WMC 2009 among other new handsets from LG. The first phone with transparent keypad looks amazing on the show with etched numbers illuminated by glow around its edges. Apparently, looks is the only thing offered by GD900 since no other highlight feature announced by the company. The good news is GD900 will be available in May according to its documentation, contrary with LG’s press documentation which said GD 900 won’t be available until July.

And Dvice has this alternative view:

The LG-GD900 cellphone, which was unveiled a couple of days ago, has one of the most striking designs we’ve seen. Its head-turning innovation: The softly illuminated keypad is transparent. The phone is slated for a spring 2009 release. We can’t wait until someone designs a phone that’s entirely clear.

However, we have to ask, how practical is this? Do you really want to see a hairy cheek pressed up against the glass? It reminds me of the old Jelly shoes. Cute, until you see someone’s butt-ugly toes smooshed up against the plastic.

Look mom, no buttons!

The fine folks at Endgadget found a unique headset from Phillips.

Bluetooth headsets are convenient, and their continually dwindling size gives us the hope that some day you could wear one without anyone noticing. But, smaller size equals smaller buttons, an issue Philips is looking to dodge entirely with its latest stereo Bluetooth headset, the Tapster. It relies on touch inputs, not moving ones (other than a wee power button), meaning you’ll be able to administer a gentle stroke to adjust volume or a light tap to answer a call.

From Phillips’ site:

FullSound enhanced music
What is music without heart and soul? During the recording and compression of digital music details and dynamics of the live music get lost. FullSound is a smart algorithm, running on a powerful chip inside the headset. It improves the quality of your music and restores the music’s original dynamics, stereo effects, bass and treble to reveal previously unheard detail without distortion. FullSound is enabled out of the box, and can be turned off and on.

Angled Acoustics design provides exceptional noise isolation
Derived from a thorough understanding of the anatomy of a human ear canal, the Angled Acoustic design adjusts the angle of the speaker tube and ear bud to individual ear canal shapes. Besides delivering sound directly to your ears, it also creates a perfect seal from ambient noise that enables you to listen to your music at lower volume levels.

If you like that sort of thing in a headset.

Silicon Valley chip company SiBeam has a wireless replacement for that tangle of cords behind your TV set.

Wireless HD can simply be thought of as sending a boatload of data across a wireless link, except that it is a data flow many, many times greater than your average home network. To put it in perspective, the amount of digital information required to show a movie in high definition is comparable to the data pipe required to light up an entire office building with run-of-the-mill broadband Internet.

In fact, because of the tremendous amount of data that SiBeam’s 60 GHz spectrum range can carry, it has been used on the rooftops of buildings to beam data from one building to another. Another use might be for a bank with several locations that wants to build a single, giant network. The 60 GHz spectrum has also been used by the military, mostly the Navy, to beam information back and forth between ships at sea.

The technology’s main drawback until now is that it requires exotic chip fabrication to build the radios. That translates to price tags for 60 GHz networking gear that run into tens of thousands of dollars. That expense might be worth it if you are the U.S. Navy or a large bank occupying most of a building, but not if you are a couch potato just looking to watch some HD television without plugging in a cable.

Over five years and with about $75 million in venture capital funding (raised from Foundation Capital, New Enterprise Associates and US Venture Partners as well as a strategic investment in December from Panasonic and Samsung), SiBeam has built 60 GHz chips using standard chip fabrication materials and techniques. What that means is that in a few months, for a few hundred dollars, you’ll be able to beam almost as much data wirelessly across your living room as the Navy does across the ocean.

i4u has this remarkable (ok, remarkable to me) cellphone that has a projection unit in it. Instead of wirelessly linking to a separate projection unit, it is built in.

There have been others before, but it never ceases to amaze me, like these Samsung Pico Projector Phones I7410 and W7900 debut at MWC 2009

Samsung will debut their first mobile phone with integrated DLP projector.
The Samsung I7410 for European market and the Samsung W7900 for Korean market features an integrated DLP Pico projector.
The Samsung projector phones can project content with flexible image sizes much larger than traditional phone screens. Images in excess of 50-inches are possible depending on ambient light conditions.
The Samsung projector phones not just shine with their Pico Projector feature, an OLED color touchscreen and a 5MP camera make these phones very hot. Other features of the new Samsung Projector smartphones include Sharing Powerpoint Slides, Viewing Email Attachments, Viewing pictures, Watching videos, using the projection feature as a Flashlight, 5.0-megapixel camera, High-resolution color OLED touchscreen, Intuitive flick navigation to view presentations and photo slideshows, Ultra-contemporary sleek and lightweight design and Built-in audio speakers.

The Samsung projector phones will be available in February in Korea (model name: W7900) and soon be available in the European market (model name: I7410) as well.

The Show’s projector is powered by Texas Instruments’ DLP pico technology, and though the fact that it packs a projector does increase the bulkiness of the phone as far as looks are concerned, the phone is still rather small and light. The Show can project an image of anywhere from
five to fifty inches, with a 480 x 320 resolution. It’s got a 3.2-inch WQVGA touchscreen, the TouchWiz U
and also boasts a 5 megapixel camera. There are plans for this bad dude to hit Asia and Europe (but no word on if it’ll ever make its way to North America).

From Engadget: We guess those bailout talks with DirecTV weren’t so futile after all, huh? The satcaster’s parent company, Liberty Media, has just stepped in to rescue Sirius XM from the clutches of bankruptcy, providing a $530 million life raft that it will use to pay off looming debt payments and keep operations humming. Liberty will write a $280 million check immediately, of which $171 million will go straight to debtors. Another round of funding (to the tune of $250 million) will be available to Sirius XM in order to “help it pay its debts and ward off a potential takeover of Sirius by Charlie Ergen’s DISH Network.” In return for this mighty appreciated favor, Liberty Media will own 12.5 million shares of preferred stock in Sirius XM, which it can convert into common stock should it so choose. Also of note, founder John Malone and Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei are likely to join Sirius XM’s board of directors.

Previously:

Safe to say that satellite radio is far down the list of priorities for Uncle Sam’s bailout bucks, so Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin pounded some pavement today, hitting up DirecTV and its parent company Liberty Media to try and save his bankrupted radio hydra. Apparently Smelly Melly isn’t as hot for EchoStar owner Charles Ergan to buy Sirius XM out as was previously rumored, but there’s a showdown brewing: Ergan’s been busy taking control of Sirius XM’s debt, so any deal with Liberty / DirecTV would result in feuding ownership interests. Making things even more interesting, it sounds like Ergan and Karmazin don’t really get along, so this deal with DirecTV is basically his last shot at keeping his job.

From Gizmodo:

The Palm Pre isn’t pulling any punches when it comes to attacking iPhone weaknesses. It has copy and paste, data tethering and now it will support Adobe’s Flash.

Palm has joined Adobe’s Open Screen Project—an industry initiative designed to bring full web browsing and Flash-based apps to televisions, desktops and mobile devices. So, by definition, this will not only bring a complete web-browsing experience to the Palm Pre, it could also result in the development of standalone Flash apps for the webOS platform. The Flash player for smartphones is expected to be released by the end of the year.

Also on Palm Pre, smartphones.about.com:

Software
The biggest buzz about the Pre has been the new webOS that it will run; most of the people who got a look at the phone at CES were impressed with its slick interface and ease of use.

Unlike many smartphone platforms, webOS allows full multitasking: That means you can have multiple applications open at once, and can switch between them–just like you do on a computer. WebOS uses a “deck of cards” model, which lets you shuffle between open applications without opening and closing windows. It also includes a notifications application that will alert you to incoming calls or messages without requiring that you close your current application.

Palm says it will have an applications store for the webOS, so you should have easy access to more applications that can be downloaded directly to the Pre.

If you have or are getting a Pre, what is your favorite feature?

JK on the RUN posted a not about Mircosoft’s new offering, “Microsoft Recite”.

Microsoft Recite lets you enter a voice note to yourself which could be anything like a task you need to do, a phone number, you name it. The beauty of Recite is how it lets you search these nuggets of information by voice. Recite works on Windows Mobile smartphones and can be grabbed via SMS, mobile browser or PC. I’m going to give it a try and you may want to try it too.

It works on WM6 or higher.

Micorsoft’s Recite webpage has the following:

Remember
To start recording a remembrance, press the ‘Remember’ button, then say what you would like to record. Press ‘Finished’ to complete the recording and store the remembrance.

Search
To search for a remembrance, click the ‘Search’ button and say what you would like to recall. Press ‘Finished’ to begin the search.

Results
To scroll through your retrieval results, use your phone’s up and down arrow buttons. Results are ordered by match score. The darkness of the blue color and the score bars indicate the match score.

Consumer Use
We can think of countless handy ways that you might use Microsoft Recite… record your shopping list, friends’ birthdays, addresses, school happenings, gift ideas, get togethers, favorite wines… anything you might need or want to remember later. Recite even lets you remember and search in multiple languages.

Here’s an example. Imagine your co-worker, Paul Johnson, tells you about a book that he thinks you might like, Hot, Flat and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman. To start recording a mental note, launch the technology, press the ‘Remember’ button, then say what you would like to record; in this case, “Book recommendation from Paul Johnson: Hot, Flat and Crowded.” Next, press the “Finished’ button to complete the recording and store the note. Later, when you’re ready to buy the book but are unsure of the title, click on the ‘Search’ button and say what you would like to recall. In this case, you might say “book recommendation,” then press ‘Finished’ to begin the search. Recite will then retrieve and play the book recommendation for you.

If you were hoping to load up on romantically-themed iPhone apps from the App Store, it’s time to get shopping.

iSoulmate leads the parade of last-minute Valentine’s Day additions to the App Store. In the words of app maker Point & Code the $2 iSoulmate “uses the finest principles of pseudo-science” to see if two people are compatible. That’s a fancy way of saying that the app displays biorhythms—those periodic cycles that start when you’re born and repeat until you shuffle off this mortal coil. iSoulmate lets you compare your biorhythms with another person to confirm whether or not the two of you are in sync; you can also use the app for non-Valentine’s Day purposes, such as displaying what your biorhythms are on a particular day.

I Love You in Every Language from Mobility Games does about what it’s name implies. Thee $1 app lets you wow your better half with romantic messages and personalized wallpapers in a variety of languages.

iPoet Sentimental generates sentimental poems for your valentine. Just enter the name and gender of your sweetie and a couple of traits, and Neuerung’s app whips up a poem worthy of… well, a $1 iPhone app most likely.

Love Card Add a personal touch to your Valentine’s Day communiques—or indeed, any message—with Love Card from Smooth Landon Software. The $1 app creates a heart-shaped photo frame for images stored on your iPhone or iPod touch. Small hearts surrounding the frame move around whenever you jiggle your mobile device.

With these apps available, you’re sure to have a great Valentines Day.