October 2006 Archives

The use of cell phones has changed society yet again. This time, the change took place at Detroit Metro Airport, where officials noticed that the pickup/dropoff lane for the L.C. Smith Terminal was getting crowded when vehicles idled at the curb waiting for passengers who were still in the airport somewhere.

To reduce the congestion, the airport created a “cell phone waiting lane” where cars can wait while the driver calls the person being picked up, arranges the exact pickup time, and then pulls up to the regular pickup/dropoff lane once the person is actually there and ready to hop into the vehicle.

Here’s a diagram of Detroit Metro’s new cell phone waiting lane (marked by blue arrow).

Rumors have been flying around the past few days that Apple’s next generation of iPods will use touchscreen based navigation instead of its iconic scroll-wheel.

The rumors are based on Apple’s Oct. 26 filing for a patent (20060238517) to protect an “Electronic Device Having Display and Surrounding Touch Sensitive Bezel for User Interface and Control.”

TG Daily blogger Mark Raby noted in an Oct. 27 post that this patent bears some similarities to another one (20060242114, “Method and apparatus for configuring a computer”) filed recently by Apple, apparently related to a possible tablet computer. But, the electronic device patent seems more geared to an iPod.

“While the patent doesn’t specifically say the application is targeted for use in a media player,” Raby writes in reference to patent #20060238517, “it does include various potential diagrams of portable devices that could use the technology, and buried in there is a portable media player.”

Raby continues: “According to the patent, controls would be handled outside of the main display, as opposed to a point-and-click, stylus-based application.”

The Inquirer blogger Nick Farrell said in an Oct. Continue Reading...

If you find it too difficult to check the weather by using a website like weather.com, you could always look out the window. Or, even easier, you could simply glance at your Brookstone 5-Day Wireless Weather Forecaster, which displays weather data obtained by radio signal from AccuWeather.

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated in any way with Brookstone or AccuWeather. I just think this is a cool gadget.

I happened across Brookstone’s new weather product while perusing newsfeeds this afternoon. Not only does it wirelessly get the forecast, but also detects where you live to provide your local weather. Continue Reading...

The big wireless news so far this week is T-Mobile’s launch of its dual-mode WiFi/Cellular service in Seattle.

TMCnet Associate Editor Patrick Barnard reported yesterday that the new service “lets T-Mobile’s subscribers make free phone calls using their at-home WiFi network or from any number of public WiFi hot spots which have been set up throughout the city. For now, only subscribers using the Nokia 6136 and the Samsung T709 dual mode phones can place free calls over WiFi.”

The new service uses Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology, which was developed by Kineto Wireless and is now part of 3rd Generation Partnership Project’s (3GPP) standards. (T-Mobile also is using femtocell technology to enhance wireless network coverage, according to TMCnet Executive Editor Robert Liu.)

Liu, who reported last month on T-Mobile’s service ahead of its official deployment in Seattle, corresponded today by e-mail with Kineto Director of Marketing Steve Shaw, to get some additional details about how the service functions.

In an e-mail correspondence, Shaw told Liu that UMA enables true seamless handover between WiFi and cellular networks, “without any noticeable (sub 50 msec) service interruption.”

UMA enables this functionality, Shaw explained, because it works in the same way as a base station  controller in a cellular network.

“When you drive across town, your GSM call is seamlessly handed between BSCs and radio antennas as you drive,” Shaw said. “UMA uses the exact same technology to accomplish call handovers.”

For subscribers, the benefits are pretty obvious: the ability to conserve cell phone minutes and make calls from any location. Continue Reading...

On Monday, the iPod celebrated its fifth birthday. To celebrate this momentous event,analysts and commentators over the past day or so have been opining about the success of Apple’s MP3 player.

A common theme among the iPod birthday stories I’ve been perusing this morning seems to be analysis of just exactly how and why Apple came to dominate the MP3 player market in such a relatively short amount of time. Lots of people, not least manufacturers like Microsoft (which plans to release its Zune MP3 player in time for Christmas) of competing products would love to crack the winning code.

Two of the more interesting pieces (in my opinion) exploring how Apple infected the world with iPod fandom, are a PC Magazine article published on abcnews.com and a blog entry by PC World’s Harry McCracken.

In the PC Magazine article, Mike Kobrin notes that Apple captured 27 percent of the MP3 player market (pushing aside competitors like Archos and Creative) within a year of launching the iPod—and then goes on to list some of the reasons why he thinks the company has been so successful.

According to Kobrin, Apple’s success can be attributed to the following factors:

1. iPod dominated quickly because of its sleek design, innovative scroll wheel, and user-friendly music management software.

2. Continue Reading...

We’d all like to believe that the medical equipment found in hospitals is efficiently managed, so that if we need it, it’s readily available. But apparently, that’s not always the case.

In a new report out today, ABI Research says that, at any given moment, much of the expensive equipment owned by hospitals—everything from low-tech wheelchairs to high-tech machinery—is hard to find because it’s either already being used, or is in storage. The result is that hospitals tend to over-purchase this type of inventory, and then not utilize it efficiently.

Two wireless technologies currently are vying for position to provide hospitals with better systems for managing their equipment inventories, ABI says: WiFi and active RFID (tags with internal power source).

ABI quotes analyst Sara Shah as saying that less than 5 percent of North American health care facilities are equipped with what are known in the industry as real-time locating systems (RTLSs), so the market truly is up for grabs.

The advantage of WiFi-based RTLSs, Shah says, is that most hospitals already have WiFi networks in place, and many medical devices are equipped with WiFi functionality.

“The value proposition is that they can keep their existing infrastructure and add new elements,” Shah said of WiFi-based RTLSs for hospitals, in the report.

She added that WiFi RTLS vendors such as Aeroscout, Ekahau and PanGo market their products based in part on the fact that they’re standards-based and non-proprietary. The downside of WiFi-based systems is that hospitals will need to install additional access points to bring the needed functionality to existing networks.

“On the other hand, RFID vendors such as RF Code and Radianse point to the wide application of RFID for asset tracking, and their longevity in the industry,” ABI says.

It is true that RFID technology has been around for quite a while. Continue Reading...

All week, a new report out from ABI Research about femtocell technology has been burning a hole in my pocket. Friday has arrived, so it’s time to comment or throw this into the “never got to it” pile.

In the report, ABI predicts that, by 2011, annual worldwide shipments of femtocell products will reach 19 million units. The research firm predicts that “Initial offerings are likely to be simple affairs that rely on Ethernet connections to existing ADSL gateways.”

I’ve noticed that there’s been a fair amount of commentary recently regarding femtocells, but I have to admit that I’ve been a bit sketchy on just exactly what the technology does and why it’s significant. To hopefully offer a bit of perspective on the topic, this morning I did some looking around to become better educated.

The first thing I discovered is just how new femtocell technology is—it doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia entry yet. Continue Reading...

Yesterday I got an e-mail from one David Fish, an attorney at The Collins Law Firm in Naperville, IL, alerting me to a new lawsuit against Motorola for allegedly manufacturing Bluetooth headsets that endanger the hearing of users.

Fish, who specializes in business, securities and tort litigation, described this lawsuit as “a very significant case---and if the facts turn out to true, a very important case.”

Curious, I decided to check it out. In an Oct. 18 post on his blog, Fish explained that the lawsuit (Alpert v. Motorola, et al, 06-cv-5586)—brought by defense firm Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney—was filed in Federal Court in Chicago, and alleges that Motorola’s Bluetooth headsets can cause hearing loss.

“The complaint claims that exposure to sounds emitted from the headsets, even for time periods as short as a few minutes, can cause serious and permanent hearing loss,” Fish wrote.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) hasn’t yet formally ratified its 802.11n wireless standard, but manufacturers already are planning or releasing products based on the draft specification. The latest to do so is D-Link, which today announced three new wireless devices based on draft 802.11n technology.

D-Link’s new products are the Link Xtreme N Gigabit Router, and two accompanying desktop and notebook adapters—DWA-552 and DWA-652. All three products, the company said in its press release, “are designed for consumers, small businesses and gamers who demand the highest performance possible from their wireless networks.”

One of the key selling points of the new products is their potential, according to D-Link, to deliver wireless speeds up to 14 times faster than 802.11g.

A PC Pro report yesterday noted that speed and reliability are key reasons why many manufacturers—including Belkin, Linsys, and US Robotics—now are offering products using the draft 802.11n specification, ahead of its official ratification.

“Offering broader bandwidths and engineered for quality of service, 802.11n promises the ability to stream video and audio wirelessly around the home in a more robust and reliable manner,” reporter Matt Whipp wrote in the PC Pro report.

Wikipedia’s entry for 802.11 notes that the new 802.11n specification “builds upon previous 802.11 standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput…”

According to Wikipedia, 802.11n is projected for official ratification in 2007, and promises to deliver a maximum data rate of 540 Mbps and a range of about 160 feet. Continue Reading...

Rumors started flying yesterday about a possible “iPhone” from Apple after a post appeared on the Apple Insider blog citing information from Prudential Equity Group analyst Jesse Tortora, who said in a research note that Apple will begin offering two iPod-based cell phones during the first quarter of 2007.

According to the Apple Insider report, one of the phones will be a smart phone (with integrated keyboard, video and music capabilities) and the other will be a smaller phone with music functionality only. At least one of the phones, Tortora said, will include WiFi capabilities.

The new phones reportedly will be launched in small numbers at first as a market test.

“Although these phones represent significant upside earnings potential for the company, there are some concerns regarding market acceptance and battery life, given the number of functions included in the phones,” Tortora is quoted as saying in the research note.

Some of the blogosphere responses to Tortora’s research note include references to Apple’s application for the “iPhone” trademark. A few posts, such as this one from U.K.-based TechDigest, suggest that the trademark application was made recently and as such is further evidence of Apple’s plans to soon introduce its own cell phone.

But, business lawyer David Canton (who works for the firm of Harrison Pensa in London) wrote

“The blogosphere has a couple of mentions about an article on the AppleInsider that points to a recent Apple trade-mark application for ‘iPhone’ in a ‘Far Eastern’ trade-mark office,” Canton writes. Continue Reading...

Sifting through various wireless-related news this morning, I came across a report from In-Stat dated Oct. 11 (I must have lost track of it among all the IT EXPO related news) in which the research firm discusses a recent survey it conducted that found users of 3G mobile phones are more interested in navigation applications than watching video.

In-Stat notes that the results of its survey are a surprise, since video has been touted for some time now as being the “killer application” for next-gen mobile services.

If the survey’s 1,000+ respondents do indeed represent reality, it means carriers and vendors have some quick legwork to perform—notably, In-Stat says, by expanding the availability of GPS and A-GPS-compatible handsets.

“Unfortunately, technology choices left over from the 1990s make this difficult but carriers and handset vendors are starting to provide an increasing flow of products that better meet the 3G customers’ needs,” In-Stat analyst David Chamberlain is quoted as saying in the report.

In a Chicago Tribune article about In-Stat’s survey, reporter Jon Van characterizes the respondents as “early adopters and business users of mobile phones on the market.” Van quoted Chamberlain as saying that only 15 percent of respondents were interested in mobile video, while 53 percent were interested in navigational applications.

I am curious about the “early adopters” classification. Somehow I would have expected that such users would be more interested in the “cool” or “fun” aspects of new technology, rather than their practical applications. After all, any new technology has kinks to work out at first, and often that means only someone who is really “into” technology for its own sake is willing to put up with the glitches.

Then again, maybe navigational applications are fun and cool, too.

“People like the idea of getting directions from their phone to take them to their destination," Chamberlain is quoted as saying in the Tribune article. Continue Reading...

Here is an interesting article about fixed-mobile convergence, by Computerworld Australia’s Darren Pauli, that appeared in the October 9 edition of TechWorld.com. Pauli predicts that, despite all the talk about dual-mode (WiFi/Cellular) telephone services and handsets, most companies will hold off another five years or more before jumping on board with the new technology.

The reason, Pauli says, is that “while FMC promises reduced call costs, access to multiple communication lines via one number and seamless network switching, the mobile technology behind it is dragging its feet.”

Pauli quotes Paul Budde of BuddeCom as saying that FMC won’t take off until mobile carriers are forced into deploying next generation networks. By “next generation networks” Budde refers to IP-based networks, which he says are “needed on both the mobile and fixed sides,” meaning that “mobile networks will need to replace 3G with a true IP wireless network”—be it 4G, WiMAX, or IMS.

In other words, there may be business drivers now for FMC services, but the network technologies on the carrier end just aren’t yet capable of delivering those services on a large scale.

This kind of reminds me of the mid-1990s when the library I worked for signed up for DSL service that wasn’t actually deployed yet. Despite many promises from the provider involved, the service wasn’t actually delivered until more than six months after the library ordered it.

Time will tell just when (if?) the critical mass on both the consumer/enterprise and carrier/provider sides turns the promise of FMC into reality. Continue Reading...

One of the items waiting in my Inbox this morning was a new report from ABI Research, predicting that by the end of 2008, 25 percent of WCDMA handsets will include GPS capabilities.

The research firm gives four main reasons why it thinks its prediction is accurate:

• Regulatory requirements are inducing vendors to include GPS in their products

• Staying competitive may require adding GPS

• GPS may be attractive to carriers looking for a way to increase ARPU and recoup costs associated with licensing 3G spectrum

• Consumers increasingly are demanding applications, such as portable navigation, that require GPS

ABI thinks that GSM carriers will begin issuing RFQs for GPS during 2007, which will be followed by vendor selection. By the end of the following year, ABI predicts, average selling price of GPS chipsets will drop to $2.70.

In the report. ABI analyst Alan Varghese notes that, for the past several years SiRF has been the leader when it comes to GPS integrated circuits. But he predicts that the company will soon be facing competition from Amtel (based in California)/ublox (based in Switzerland), Global Locate (based in California), GloNav (based in California), Nemerix (based on Switzerland), Texas Instruments (based in Texas) and uNav (based in California).

On the consumer end of things, I would predict that GPS is most attractive for the same reasons cell phones are in demand: convenience and safety. Continue Reading...

Last week, I blogged about D-Link’s launch of its new, dual-mode handset—the V-Click—and noted that the only other comparable product slated for availability soon is Paragon Wireless’ hip-2200. It appears I may have spoken too soon.

According to an Associated Press report that hit the wires Friday, by year’s end T-Mobile plans to launch its own dual-mode handset and companion service. The service reportedly will be rolled out using Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology.

AP reported that the news came from Robert Dotson, CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG (T-Mobile’s parent company), who hinted that the new service and handset likely will be rolled out initially in Seattle, Washington, where T-Mobile is headquartered.

No news yet about how much the handsets, or the service, will cost.

So stay tuned—dual mode voice service may be arriving sooner than you thought, at least if you live in Seattle.