Posts filed under 'Wireless Tech'
RTX Telecom, a world leader in wireless product development, today announced that the RTX developed Cordless DUALphone has received FCC approval as the first US DECT product in the world.
The Cordless DUALphone has been successfully launched in more than 45 other DECT markets in Europe, Africa and Asia, giving mobility to many Skype users in these regions. Now US-based Skype users will soon be able to cut the cords and move away from the PC when using Skype.
The DUALphone concept allows the same cordless handset to be used to place or receive calls both via the analog telephone network and via the internet, using e.g. Skype as a softphone.
DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication), a worldwide standard for cordless phones, has gained FCC approval in April 2005.
The biggest advantage for DECT cordless phones, compared to other digital cordless phones operating in ISM bands such as the 2.4GHz band and the 5.8GHz band, is that they operate in a frequency band dedicated to DECT products, making these cordless phones truly “WiFi-friendly”.
For many years, RTX Telecom has served the industry as a design house for wireless products.
Now US DECT can be added to the large portfolio of technologies and products that RTX Telecom can develop for clients around the world. The latest addition to this list of products and clients has been the wireless gamepad developed for the Microsoft Xbox360.
“The opening of the US DECT frequency band will create a lot of opportunities for new cordless products to be introduced in the US market. RTX Telecom is certainly ready to help customers design and develop products that fulfill both market and FCC requirements,” says Jorgen Elbaek, CEO and President of RTX Telecom.
“I am very excited to see the world’s first US DECT product which RTX has developed. I am surprised at how fast RTX has developed the phone; the standard is extremely new. I see the potential of the US DECT market as huge, because US DECT offers excellent audio quality, and does not conflict with US WiFi systems, which is a major problem with the existing US cordless phones,” says Erich Kamperschroer, Chairman of the DECT Forum.
June 30th, 2005
A recent IDC study recorded that notebooks now make up 45% of the PCs sold in the US. In fact, in May of this year, laptops outsold desktops for the first time for a full 30-day period.
With Laplink PCmover, new Laptop PC users can now move their applications, settings and files from their older wired PC to a new WiFi equipped laptop with a few simple clicks and without establishing a physical connection. In a matter of hours PC users can send applications, files and settings effortlessly from one PC to another using fast WiFi technology and PCmover’s simple and powerful migration process.
New desktop and laptop PC owners no longer need to spend days or even weeks searching for program CDs and serial numbers, resetting hundreds of preferences, and worrying about all the files they may have forgotten to transfer. PC users can now move everything across a wireless connection in minutes. No lost files or missing data. No painstaking resetting of preferences. In just a few hours, the favorite PC environment users spent years perfecting will be transferred flawlessly to the new machine.
“As far back as 1983, Laplink provided the fastest, most reliable data transfers over a physical connection. Laplink transfer cables were so well known that by 1998, “to laplink” actually became the accepted term for transferring data between PCs,” Thomas Koll, Laplink CEO, explained. “But as new wireless technologies emerge, we continue to make sure that our products are compatible.”
To initiate a fast, convenient wireless migration, users simply connect the old and the new PC to the same network. After loading the PCmover software onto each machine, they can use a simple, intuitive migration wizard to begin the painless, automatic process of transferring all the old PC’s files, email, settings and applications to the new machine. Nothing is left behind. PCmover moves all types of files and applications, including music and multimedia files, desktop settings, registry settings, and Internet settings, favorites and bookmarks.
PCmover’s wireless migration capability makes it an ideal complement to the purchase of a new laptop. “New laptops are usually equipped with wireless access cards,” explained Todd Rupley, SVP of Retail and Online Sales. “So by adding a copy of PCmover to their purchase, laptop buyers are taking home a fast, easy, wireless way to transfer everything they need to their new machine.” As long as the older PC has a network connection to the new laptop, a wireless migration from the old PC to the new one can be accomplished using the simple Wizard interface in just minutes.
“I get asked all the time about PC migration software,” stated Zaine Ridling, author of The Great Software List. “Thanks to Laplink, there’s an affordable, high-quality application that does the job you expect it to do without the hassle you thought it would be.”
PC users such as Gary Bunker, Director Asia Pacific for Usability by Design, Ltd., use PCmover because it gives them peace of mind while saving them valuable time: “Overall, the entire migration took less than four hours, whereas a previous migration took me well over two days, with missing data and applications turning up for weeks afterward,” he said, continuing, “I’d recommend this product to others in a flash!”
For a fast, convenient, wireless way to transfer files, settings, and applications from an older PC to a newer one, there is only one choice; Laplink PCmover.
June 29th, 2005
Motorola has announced the launch of the FOMA M1000, the world’s first-ever WLAN-integrated W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS dual-mode smartphone which they have developed jointly with NTT DoCoMo.
The new handset is modeled on Motorola’s 3G A1000, which won high acclaim from consumers in Europe and Asia. The M1000 will be available in Japan from July 1, 2005 through NTT DoCoMo channels.
“This is a breakthrough for the Japanese market because this goes beyond what was available to consumers here in the past. The fact they can now have 3G, business applications and multi-media functions makes this truly a seamless mobile experience and something Japanese consumers have been waiting for” said Michael Tatelman, Vice President and General Manager of Motorola Mobile Devices Business in North Asia.
The FOMA M1000 is designed to attract today’s increasingly mobile consumers who want connectivity with their workplace, their home, on the road and at play using one device.
Clearly distinct from conventional 3G mobile handsets, the FOMA M1000 provides features such as international roaming, full Internet browsing and high-quality voice and video communications, as well as the capability to send/receive e-mails to multiple addresses with attached files and view major business documents such as Microsoft® Word and Excel documents. The handset is also Bluetooth-enabled and contains Personal Information Manager (PIM) software and a large-capacity memory providing the flexibility to add applications.
“We are positioning FOMA M1000 as a strategic offering to promote “must-have” products in Japan’s sophisticated and highly developed market” commented Tatelman. “Partnering with NTT DoCoMo has been a vital step in Motorola’s re-entry into the Japan mobile device market” he said.
June 22nd, 2005
Intel have unveiled Wi-Fi chip technology which is designed to comply with all current and predicted standards ranging from 802.11a to the expected requirements for 802.11n. 802.11n promises to offer better range and higher data rates than current wireless networks. While current wireless technologies only offer a maximum speed of about 54 Mbps, 802.11n will approximately double that to about 100 Mbps.
The new Intel technology will automatically switch between radio networks, providing always-on wireless network connectivity for mobile devices and could find its way into Centrino chips soon.
The underlying manufacturing technology is tied to CMOS - the technology Intel uses to make all its microprocessors and other computer chips. By doing so, it keeps manufacturing costs low and the potential to produce this capability in high volume.
“What we want to accomplish is the ability to connect to any network, any time, anywhere. The user will not have to worry if he is on a Wi-Fi network or a cellphone network,” said Krishnamurthy Soumyanath, director of the Communications Lab at Intel’s Corporate Technology Group. “This system-in-a-package design uses more low-voltage circuitry than we’ve ever used in the past, which means we can integrate it and make it lower cost while operating at lower voltages and providing longer battery life,” noted Soumyanath.
June 18th, 2005
According to reports, Intel has signed a deal with South Korean telco KT to roll out WiMax services in cities across the country.
Intel and KT will collaborate on ensuring inter-operability between WiMax and WiBro, a similar technology that KT was planning on marketing later this year.
“We are very, very optimistic that WiMAX will provide an alternative broadband channel into the home,” Intel’s chief executive Paul Otellini told a news conference in Seoul. “With Mobile WiMAX, Koreans can take the broadband Internet access they have enjoyed for years in their home on the road,” Otellini added.
Source: Reuters
June 17th, 2005
Nokia and Intel have announced that they will cooperate to accelerate the development, adoption and deployment of WiMAX technology.
The companies will collaborate on several areas in support of mobile WiMAX technology (the IEEE 802.16e flavour) including mobile clients, network infrastructure and market development. For mobile devices and notebook platforms, Intel and Nokia will work closely to identify and deliver the unique power and performance requirements of the technology, and will work on base station strategies to help deploy a WiMAX network infrastructure that will provide adequate and reliable coverage.
In addition, the companies will engage in market development efforts to demonstrate to service providers and the industry how WiMAX can enhance data service capabilities of the network while complementing existing 3G networks. Lastly, Nokia and Intel will work together to ensure successful finalization of the 802.16e standard in IEEE and related specification work in the WiMAX Forum.
“Nokia’s end-to-end multiradio strategy covers many wireless technologies optimized for uses from local connectivity and fast data transport, to broadcasting technologies and full mobility of voice and data,” said Tero Ojanpera, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Nokia. “WiMAX will be an important technology complementing 3GPP and 3GPP2 technologies. It will also create new opportunities for the consumer and enterprise markets.”
“Broadband technologies - of all types - represent an enormous opportunity for businesses and individuals around the world,” said Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of Intel’s Mobility Group. “Even though we and the industry as a whole are at the early stages of discovery and development, the industry momentum is remarkable. To have innovators like Nokia working to bring WiMAX and other broadband wireless technologies to the masses is very encouraging.”
Nokia and Intel are members of the WiMAX forum, which is an industry-led non-profit corporation formed to promote and certify compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products. WiMAX, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances. WiMAX can be used for a number of applications, including “last mile” broadband connections, hotspots and high-speed enterprise connectivity for business.
WiMAX IEEE 802.16e version, which is expected to be standardized later this year, will offer increased portability of broadband Internet access.
June 10th, 2005
Yahoo! and Sprint have announced the launch of the first downloadable application that gives customers in the USA access to Yahoo! Mail from a mobile device.
The Yahoo! Mail for Mobile client is available to consumers across the USA now on select Sprint devices. It gives consumers access to their Yahoo! Mail account through a PC-like interface on a mobile device.
The service allows users with select Sprint PCS Vision handsets to sign into and manage their Yahoo! Mail account from their phone, including, easy message management and access to their Yahoo! Address Book. The Yahoo! Mail client also gives Sprint customers storage for their e-mail on their handset, which means they can access their previously downloaded messages even when a data connection is not available.
The service is $2.99 a month, and can be purchased directly from the handset and will be charged on their monthly wireless bill. An optional feature of the Yahoo! Mail client is instant notification of new messages - standard text messaging rates will apply.
“We are excited to give consumers enhanced access to their Yahoo! Mail account on their mobile device for the first time and continue to expand our long-term, successful relationship with Sprint,” said Doug Garland, senior vice president, Yahoo! Mobile.
Yahoo! and Sprint initially announced an agreement to offer Yahoo!’s content and services to Sprint PCS Wireless Web subscribers in June of 1999. Since then, the two companies have continued to launch new services such as the Yahoo! Mobile Photos and Yahoo! Messenger for Mobile client applications, mobile games such as Yahoo! Poker and the next generations of enhanced products such as Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Finance on Yahoo!’s Mobile Internet service.
June 8th, 2005
WiMax has been seen as a way of getting high-speed internet access to areas hard to reach using traditional communications channels, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that one of the first major trials of WiMax technology would be in an out of the way place. Athens, Georgia (the US State, not the country for the benefit of our non-US readers) is the lucky town to get WiMaxed up, courtesy of BellSouth.
The US’s third largest telco is to trial a WiMax service in Athens, before rolling it out to parts of Florida. Pricing, or indeed any details of connection speed, are yet to be announced.
Some commentators are less than impressed with BellSouth’s announcement, with one, Mike Masnick of The Feature, saying, “there’s really nothing special in WiMAX that makes that any more feasible than on wired broadband. So, in the end, all any one is left with is a new WiMAX trial from BellSouth that’s neither new nor WiMAX.”
Mike’s beef is that the company backing BellSouth, Navini, are supplying their propriety technology based on the 802.16 WiMAX protocol, whereas the competing 802.20 is more likely to become the ratified standard (whenever that happens), so the trial is based on technology that has already been trialed, it’s just been rebranded to jump on the WiMax bandwagon.
Whatever the details, it’s good to see a major telco moving WiMax into the consumer arena as more will follow. We look forward to a ratifying of the WiMax standard to really start the explosion.
June 8th, 2005
Samsung have launched two laptops equipped with Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology that almost doubles the data transfer speed over a wireless network and boosts the usable range to 900ft.
The X20 and X25 use a wireless chipset from Airgo Networks instead of Intel’s Centrino which is popular in wireless-equipped notebooks at the moment. This will be seen as a blow to Intel who had marked both laptops down as users of Centrino technology.
KH Uhm from Samsung, said, “Given their significant technology lead, Airgo’s True MIMO is the best fit for embedded wireless in our new high performance Samsung X20 laptops. Together, we are enabling the mobile office by offering a standards-based platform with wireless connectivity that outperforms all other embedded solutions on the market.”
MIMO works by making better use of the available radio spectrum by sending several data signals over a single 20MHz radio channel. The MIMO laptop must be used in conjunction with MIMO routers which are manufactured by Netgear, Linksys and Belkin, amongst others.
June 2nd, 2005
Elgato Systems, creators of the award-winning digital TV recorder EyeTV for the Mac, today officially released EyeConnect, the Macintosh market’s first fully integrated media streaming software based on Universal Plug and Play Audio/Video (UPnP AV).
EyeConnect enables digital music, video, or photo content, including EyeTV recordings, iPhotos and iTunes stored on a Macintosh, to be played on a broad variety of UPnP AV certified devices throughout the home. EyeConnect supports all digital media formats and is capable of streaming slideshows, music and even HDTV in full video quality with Dolby Digital sound*.
Starting today EyeConnect can be purchased online at www.elgato.com for $99.00. A free, 30-day trial version is available for download.
“CES 2005 was bursting with announcements about new media players and devices that will revolutionize the media experience in the living room”, says Freddie Geier, Elgato’s CEO. “Elgato’s EyeConnect media streaming software addresses this rapidly growing market for home networking. In the first four months of this year the market has already seen a broad range of consumer electronic brands announcing their UPnP AV solutions. We want to give the Mac community the freedom of choice for their favorite living room equipment.”
The research company In-Stat (www.instat.com) expects media networking to continue to grow rapidly over the next few years. The integration of media ports into CE devices will continue, with many devices having Ethernet and 802.11x ports standard in coming years. Total media networking connections will grow from over 51 million in 2005 to over 223 million in 2009, a 29% annual growth rate. Much of the growth will be driven by PC vendors, who are rolling out Media Center PCs that fit both in look and function in the living room.
With EyeConnect software, Mac users can effortlessly manage the wired or wireless streaming of stored multimedia content to multiple devices in a connected home environment. EyeConnect automatically determines the digital media formats supported by the UPnP AV certified device, which typically include MP3, AAC, JPG MPEG -1, MPEG -2, MPEG -4 and many more. As an added benefit, the content remains organized as found in the user’s Macintosh library. In addition, EyeConnect supports HDTV content as well as Dolby Digital.
EyeConnect works with all UPnP AV devices and was tested successfully with the following products: Philips Streamium (SL300i, SL400i and MX6000i), Netgear MP115, D-Link DSM-320 MediaLounge, Buffalo LinkTheater PC-P3LWG/ DVD , GoVideo D2730. These devices and many more like them support UPnP AV, which is a broadly accepted industry standard that enables digital content to be identified, managed, and distributed across multiple devices. It is supported by a wide range of consumer electronics companies including major players like HP, Netgear, Panasonic , Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony , Toshiba and many more.
What is UPnP AV technology?
UPnP AV (Universal Plug ‘n Play) technology is an open networking architecture that employs TCP/IP and other Internet technologies for a seamless flow of digital content through a home. UPnP AV products work easily with each other and do not require complex configuration. EyeConnect supports the growing number of brand name digital media devices certified for UPnP AV.
May 11th, 2005
Next Posts
Previous Posts