1884 news (1884 unread) in 6 channels
wimaxpodcasting's Podcast
(43 unread)
Engadget
(236 unread)
Filed under: Wireless
Continue reading Sprint leaks XOHM WiMax service details and devices
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, Household, Wireless
Permalink | Email this | Comments
AP - The craggy gullies where Idaho cowboy Paul Nettleton runs 1,200 head of cattle are often precious minutes from reliable cell phone coverage.
AP - The hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast could be a test for the country's wireless carriers, which faced criticism and a regulatory push after Hurricane Katrina took out networks.
Filed under: Wireless
Sprint's oft-delayed XOHM service is finally about to go live, ready to launch in Baltimore sometime next month ahead of Chicago and D.C. later this year. We already know about the potential joys of city-wide 4G access, so Sprint is taking this opportunity to talk up "geobrowsing," uLocate-based functionality that enables WiMax surfers to get location-specific info on traffic, events, and weather, provided by third-parties like Google and NAVTEQ. With Sprint offering profit sharing and a free API to partners, expect that list to grow quickly if XOHM takes off. What Sprint is not yet offering are the specific pricing details for consumers, but day passes have been confirmed along with longer-term contracts, all able to extended to include multiple devices if you're suitably endowed.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: Portable Audio, Wireless
TrekStor has this interesting piece of kit on display at IFA, the Wireless SoundBox. It all starts with a USB stick attached to the computer. From there, your music is streamed wirelessly at a distance up to 25-meters to up to 20 of the boxy, 2.4GHz speakers. The 4x battery (AA, presumably) speakers feature a nice to touch, "softtouch" coating, individual volume controls, and line-in for connecting audio sources directly. The sound quality was about on par with what we'd expect from such a tiny speaker but the range was quite good considing the level of public 2.4GHz noise on the IFA show floor. €50 (about $74) takes home the stereo starter set (USB stick and 2x speakers) with each additional speaker costing €30 (about $44) starting in October. See our attempt to run away with 'em after the break.Continue reading Video: TrekStor's Wireless SoundBox is wireless sound in a box
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Wireless
Filed under: Wireless
While 802.11n has been stuck in endless certification hell for years, the IEEE keeps cranking out additional wireless standards -- the latest is 802.11r, which allows devices to move from access point to access point with less than 50ms in downtime, even for authenticated connections. That's quick enough to keep a voice call alive, which should make the next generation of VoIP phones and other devices that much more flexible when support arrives -- let's hope that's soon.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
AP - WHAT'S WRONG: The new iPhone 3G has been marred by bugs, spotty service and other oddities.
AP - First an iPhone price cut left early buyers feeling foolish, and then came reports that some iPods were spitting sparks. Now the new iPhone 3G has been marred by bugs, spotty service, disappearing programs for the device and a veil of secrecy over software developers trying to broaden its appeal.
AFP - The European Commission warned Thursday it had mobile telephone operators that overcharge users in its sights after finding some companies were rounding up call durations to bill customers more.
Reuters - Mobile phone operators may face
legislation from the European Commission to crack down on what
the EU executive sees as overcharging, but industry said such a
step would amount to micro-management.
Reuters - Looking for a partner? For millions of
Indians, taking the first step towards getting married could be
as easy as picking up a cellphone.
Reuters - Sony's (6758.T) joint venture with
cell phone maker Ericsson (ERICb.ST) must do better, Sony's
chief executive was quoted as saying by a German newspaper on
Wednesday.
NewsFactor - The iPhone took hits on two fronts Wednesday as Orange -- an iPhone 3G carrier in France -- admitted to limiting 3G bandwidth for its customers, and a security flaw was discovered in the iPhone that enables unauthorized users to access private data on the phone when it is supposedly locked.
AFP - Growth in worldwide sales of mobile telephones will slow sharply in 2008 as consumers face increased economic difficulties, a report by Gartner research institute showed on Wednesday.
Reuters - A weakening global economy will blunt
cellphone market sales growth this year, research firm Gartner
said on Wednesday.
Mathew Ingram notes that Google is continuing its campaign to use television "white spaces" for Internet connectivity, a promising concept that hasn't panned out so far. I think the most interesting tidbit in Ingram's post comes from an interview with Richard Wiley, the guy who chaired the committee that developed what became the current digital television standard. Ingram says Wiley told him that one of the broadcasters' criteria for the new standard is that it use as much spectrum as possible. That sounds backwards, but it made sense for the broadcasters, because they knew they'd have to give back any spectrum they didn't use. And it's consistent with past experience; we've written before about the broadcasters' spectrum-hoarding tendencies.
Perverse incentives like this are an inevitable consequence of the FCC's Soviet-style process for assigning spectrum usage. As long as the uses for spectrum are decided by fiat by the FCC, current licensees are going to play these kinds of games to ensure they get the biggest slice they can, even if they waste spectrum in the process. A better way to handle the transition (and still a good idea today, for that matter) would have been to give the broadcasters a fixed spectrum allocation and then allowed them broad flexibility on how to use it—including the right to lease or sell unused portions to third parties. That way, if they found a way to transmit television signals with less spectrum, they would have been able to lease out the unusued portions to third parties who could put it to more productive use.
In addition to promoting more efficient spectrum use in the short run, putting more spectrum on the market (as they're doing in the UK) would have positive effects on the overall telecom market. By driving down the price of spectrum it would make it easier for new firms to get into the wireless market. So far, the relatively small number of licenses that have been put on the market has allowed incumbents to snapped them up and keep out new entrants. Putting more spectrum on the market would make this strategy a lot more difficult to pull off.
Timothy Lee is an expert at the Techdirt Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Timothy Lee and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.
Reuters - China Mobile (0941.HK), the world's
largest wireless operator, posted a 51 percent rise in
quarterly profit on strong subscriber growth, but faces new
competition in China's revamped telecoms sector.
AP - Bluetooth wireless headsets for mobile phones are puzzling: We're supposed to control them with couple of unmarked buttons and get feedback from a single indicator light.
Reuters - Nokia (NOK1V.HE) unveiled two new
high-end phone models, the N79 and the N85, as the world's top
cellphone maker battles against increasing competition from the
likes of Apple and Samsung (005930.KS).
Reuters - Mexicans will soon be able to pay
for small purchases such as restaurant meals and taxi rides
using their mobile telephones, the country's banks said on
Monday.
NewsFactor - In a move to cash in on the back-to-school mobile phone-buying sprees, Verizon Wireless on Monday launched a new phone dubbed "Blitz."
Reuters - Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGn.DE)
wireless business T-Mobile has sold more than 120,000 new 3G
iPhones since its sales launch on July 11 despite distribution
problems, its chief executive told a German weekly magazine.
Filed under: Displays, Peripherals, Wireless
Continue reading IOGEAR's Wireless USB to VGA kit extends your monitor sans wires
Permalink | Email this | Comments