All About Mobility

Sony cooks up gaming phone, applies for patent

2007-06-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

Sony Ericsson has applied for a U.S. patent for a mobile device with video game features, but disclosed it is not yet ready to launch the phone based on Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) video game brand, according to a Reuters report.

The company did not deny development of a device combining its phone technology with Sony's portable video game technology, but said it was not set to announce any product.

Commenting on newspaper and blog reports claiming that Sony Ericsson would launch a PSP-based cellphone, spokeswoman Merran Wrigley said the company is evaluating other propositions but they won't be including parts on phones that will destroy the brand equity built up by Sony.

The cellphone maker has sold music phones and camera phones that capitalized on Sony's Walkman music player and Cyber-Shot digital camera brand. However, Wrigley added that the company did not release the products until it felt that customers would not have to compromise on either the phone or media capability.

Source : EE-Times

Wireless Recharging for Mobile Phones

2007-06-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

Cellphones may soon have no need for cables to get recharged.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced that it made a 60W light bulb glow up by sending the power wirelessly from a device 2m away. The technology is touted as "WiTricity."

While the idea of sending power wirelessly is not new, its wide-scale application has been considered inefficient due to electromagnetic energy generated by the charging devices, which would radiate in all directions.

Until recently, MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic claimed he had found a way to use specially tuned waves. The key, according to Soljacic, was to get the recharging device and the gadget the needs power to resonate the same frequency to allow them to exchange power more efficiently.

While the technology brings a possibility of eliminating cables in many portable gadgets, and even the need for batteries if devices can get power through the air, it still has a long way to go before it becomes practical.

The system is about 40 to 45 percent efficient, with most of the energy from the charging device unable make it to the light bulb. Soljacic admitted that the system needs to be twice as efficient to match charging the chemical batteries in portable gadgets.

In addition, the copper coils that transmit the power are about .61m wide, too big to be feasible for devices like laptops. The 2m range of the wireless handoff could also be increased so that one charging device may automatically power all the gadgets in a room.

Soljacic said he is optimistic that the needed improvements are within reach. The MIT team also stressed that the "magnetic coupling" process in the technology is safe on humans and other living things. Also, in the light bulb experiment, no damage was done to cellphones, electronics equipments and credit cards in the room.

Source: EE-Times

Nokia to sell TD-SCDMA phones in China next year

2007-05-29T21:56:00.001-07:00

A Nokia official disclosed the company expects to start selling handsets for China's homegrown 3G technology in the first half of 2008, according to a Reuters report.

Beijing extended early this year the pre-commercial testing of the TD-SCDMA standard to 10 cities from the original five. Analyst perceive the extended trials as a soft launch that favors local firms.

Maintaining its "technology neutral" stand and providing an open market for different technologies, the China government also approved the use of the European 3G standard—W-CDMA. The industry, however, is still waiting for the official launch of 3G licenses in the country, which the government has repeatedly stated would be available in time for the 2008 Olympics.

Source: EE-Times

RF switch enables seamless enterprise mobility

2007-05-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

In order to become 802.11n compliant, Motorola Inc. has introduced what it claims the industry's first RF wireless switch that bridges the gap between Wi-Fi and RFID, future RF technologies and indoor and outdoor wireless networks. The enterprise-class RF switch supports location, management and security services. The RFS7000 can accommodate Motorola and third-party vendor services, providing seamless enterprise mobility indoors to large businesses requiring a WLAN.

It is capable of supporting 256 802.11a/b/g access points and enables a new switch clustering concept, providing redundancy and high-performance scalability for up to 3,000 access points, Motorola said.

The RFS7000 is part of Motorola's end-to-end enterprise WLAN product suite, which comes under the company's MOTOwi4 portfolio of wireless broadband solutions and services that complement IP networks.

The RF switch's "locationing" capability enables real-time tracking of Wi-Fi devices and active tags. With this service, businesses have the ability to locate employees for safety or track high-value and mission-critical assets. In a healthcare setting, locationing services could be used to track crash carts, transfusion pumps, defibrillators, and portable X-ray and dialysis machines. Locationing can also be used to find and track inventory for customers.

Motorola's integrated management suite, comprised of a LAN planner and mobility services platform, is a set of tools to help enterprises centrally plan, deploy, manage and secure their RF infrastructure and environment, said the company. The integrated wireless intrusion protection system solution detects and locates rogue devices, protecting the network against denial-of-service attacks. The sensor-based system also provides compliance reporting and advanced forensics, as well as monitors, detects, protects and prevents intrusions to a wireless network.

Source: EE-Times

Motorola patents solar charging tech for cell phones

2007-05-23T23:44:00.000-07:00

Motorola has patented a technology which it claims will make it possible to recharge the battery of mobile phones through solar cells embedded within the LCD. The company claimed that it has rectified the problem of getting enough light to the solar cells to recharge the battery.

If Motorola were to successfully go to market with such a product, then the company would effectively eliminate the need to recharge a cellular phone's battery through a separate transformer that plugs into an electrical socket. The phone would always be charged.

Motorola believes it can get 75 per cent or more of the light entering through the front of an LCD to the solar cell by using a different type of liquid crystal. By switching from nematic crystals to cholesteric or polymer disbursed, Motorola says it can eliminate the use of a metallic reflector that's used in LCDs to illuminate the screen. The use of such reflectors reduces the amount of light that could reach a solar cell to less than 6 per cent, which is insufficient to recharge the battery.

While technologies addressing the problem have been patented before, Motorola's invention is a "more commercially acceptable solution," the company said in the patent.

"Relatively ordinary and cost-effective LCD technologies can now be utilised successfully to provide an acceptable display and nevertheless provide an acceptable level of light to a stacked solar cell," the company said.

The patent appears to have been awarded by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in April. Motorola was unavailable for comment. Solar cells are used today to power very low-power electronic gadgets, such as calculators.

Source: EE-Times

China opens market for rival 3G standards

2007-05-21T01:57:00.000-07:00

In order to improve China's homegrown 3G standard, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) approved the use of European and American 3G mobile phone standards, which rival the homegrown TD-SCDMA, according to Xinhua.net report. According to analysts, by adding Europe's WCDMA and the United States' CDMA 2000, the Chinese government has opened an open market for different technologies.

Yang Peifang, secretary general of the ministry's telecommunication economist panel confirmed that all three standards—TD-SCDMA, W-CDMA and CDMA2000—will be used in China. Yang added that the introduction of the other standards would even help improve China's homegrown 3G standard.

According to analysts, by adding Europe's WCDMA and the United States' CDMA 200, the China government has maintained its technology neutral" stand and opened an open market for different technologies.

However, the country's 3G development depends primarily on strong demand for mobile data processing functions involving multi-media solutions and internet connections. It's four major operators—China Netcom, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom—have started training 3G talents, and making technological preparations for a smooth transition from the existing mobile to 3G.

China's TD-SCDMA has passed a series of tests organised by the ministry last year. A ministry report stated that base stations and handsets based on the homegrown technology are all qualified after three years of tests.

The China government has repeatedly stated that 3G mobile services will be available in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics . While analysts say that the homegrown standard will most likely get the first licence, MII vice minister Xi Guohua, said the government will decide on how many 3G licences will be issued and it will be up to the operators which standard they want to use.

Source: EE-times

Nokia scores $2.5B order from China Postel

2007-05-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

Nokia Corp. announced that it has signed a partnership with China Postel Mobile Communication Equipment Co. Ltd, where the China company will purchase mobile devices from Nokia valued at approximately $2.5 billion. The two companies have also agreed to deepen strategic ties, particularly on network channel development, as they both make bilateral resource investments.

"I believe that our partnership will continue to bring new energy to the Chinese mobile phone market," commented David Tang, VP of Nokia.

Tan Xinhui, president of China Postel, said, "Over the past few years, we have been pursuing new ways of working with operators, mobile phone manufacturers, and consumers in order to enhance our competitiveness. We hope to have a fundamental role in the development of the Chinese mobile phone market."

As a subsidiary company of China P&T Appliances, China Postel has become a provider of mobile phones and is actively involved in China's telecom service industry. With a comprehensive distribution network for both products and services, China Postel has a market share of over 30 percent in 2006. Since the collaboration between Nokia and China Postel began in 1998, China Postel has distributed over 37 million Nokia mobile phones across China.

Source: EE-Times

VoIP code supports handset protocols

2007-05-16T05:27:00.000-07:00

VoIP products are following a trend familiar in electronics: Everything is getting connected to the Net, getting smarter, going mobile and moving toward mass consumer markets.

In a sign of the times, software developer D2 Technologies Inc. has upgraded vPort, its VoIP software for OEMs, to support multiple service protocols and classes of systems, including cellular and cordless phones. Version 1.3 of vPort, which runs on ARM and MIPS architectures, has also been ported to three additional VoIP processors.

"VoIP is maturing, adding new device types, and it's going mobile. This is enabling new user scenarios," said Doug Makishima, D2's VP of marketing.

The vPort code now comes in separate versions for gateways, desktop phones, cellular handsets and cordless phones. "Previously, we had to customize a single product for every OEM system," Makishima said.

In tandem with the release, D2 announced that China's E28 Ltd is using its software in a dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi handset. The code runs on an ARM9 applications processor that's part of the handset's Texas Instruments Omap chipset.

The offering supports separate, proprietary VoIM protocols for services such as Google Talk, Gizmo, MSN Messenger and Yahoo's IM system. The company claims it can complete a full-duplex G.729AB call for about 90MHz maximum on a typical ARM or MIPS processor.

The vPort software requires less than 800Kbytes of flash and less than 1.5Mbytes of DRAM in the VxWorks environment.

Source: EE-Times

Nokia first to offer energy-saving alerts on mobile phones

2007-05-15T06:04:00.000-07:00

Nokia Corp. announced the first mobile phones that feature energy-saving alerts to encourage consumers to unplug the charger once the battery is full.

Starting with the new Nokia 1200, 1208 and 1650, the alerts will be rolled out across the company product range, in a move that could save enough electricity to power 85, 000 homes a year.

"Around two-thirds of the energy used by a mobile phone is lost when it is unplugged after charging but the charger itself is left in a live socket," said Kirsi Sormunen, VP of environmental affairs at Nokia. "We want to reduce this waste and are working on reducing to an absolute minimum the amount of energy our chargers use. The new alerts also play an important role, encouraging people to help us in this goal by unplugging their chargers."

The alerts are one of a series of environmental initiatives that mobile manufacturers, led by Nokia, agreed to take action on this year. The Finnish company is the first of these manufacturers to implement the alerts into its products. The new models are targeting high volumes of sales in fast growing markets like India, China and Latin America.

The alerts are the latest in a series of energy-saving initiatives from Nokia. Last year, the company's newest range of chargers was awarded an Energy Star by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States for their energy efficiency. The chargers, in use since 2005, exceed the EPA standards by using 50-70 percent less energy than the Energy Star requirement, and also meet the European Union standards.

The company has set ambitious goals to further reduce the energy consumption of its chargers. By 2010, it aims to have reduced by an additional 50 percent the amount of electricity a charger consumes while still plugged into the mains but not the phone.

Recently, major companies announced plans to become more environment-friendly. Apple's Steve Jobs detailed plans for a 'greener' Apple, while IBM Corp. disclosed plans to make its data centers more energy efficient.

Source: EE-Times

Mobile WiMAX drives chipset market

2007-04-30T03:27:00.000-07:00

Market research firm In-Stat has projected the global WiMAX chipset market to reach 2.1 crore units in 2011 from 3 lakh units in 2006. The firm believed the growth to be driven by the emergence of mobile WiMAX applications.

Vendors of ICs for fixed WiMAX applications have redirected their efforts to mobile WiMAX since about the middle of 2006, said In-Stat. The majority of WiMAX chipsets produced in 2005 and 2006 were 802.16d-compliant and aimed at fixed WiMAX. A small percentage of chipsets produced early in 2006 were used in early WiBro (mobile WiMAX) devices.

"Fujitsu, Intel, Sequans and Wavesat were the fixed WiMAX base band market leaders in 2005 and 2006; all have since shifted focus to mobile WiMAX," said Gemma Tedesco, as In-Stat analyst, in a statement. "In addition, fixed WiMAX radio providers Sierra Monolithics and Analog Devices have announced mobile WiMAX solutions."

Intel Corp. has been working for years to build up the WiMAX vendor ecosystem and Sprint's announcement that it would build out a mobile WiMAX network was a huge boost for the movement overall, and has in turn put much pressure on mobile WiMAX solution vendors.

Base band vendors Beceem and Runcom are leaders in mobile WiMAX, and are powering some of the early WiBro devices. Other base band vendors aiming at mobile WiMAX include Altair Semiconductor, Amicus, ApaceWave and Redpine Signals. RF IC providers who have jumped straight into the mobile WiMAX market include NXP, GCT Semiconductor and AsicAhead.

Source : EE-Times

RIM Goes Prosumer with Pearl

2006-12-10T09:08:00.000-08:00

Research In Motion Ltd takes its boldest step yet to take its BlackBerry products beyond the boardroom, launching the Pearl, a 2G-2.75G smart phone for the GSM world with a 1.3Megapixel camera and an MP3 player, a microSD slot and a central trackball instead of a thumbwheel, weighing in at just 89 grams.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based developer is, of course, best know for its iconic BlackBerry devices in the hands of business types, with some 5 million subscribers for its services around the world. It dominates that high end of the market, try as Good Technology and now Microsoft might to dislodge it.

However, if such devices are the Rolex of push email, BlackBerry clearly sees the potential to move down, at least to the level of the designer-label watches, if not the cheapo plastic models of the Great Unwashed. It is at this tier directly outside the boardroom, which Charmaine Eggberry, its VP and MD of EMEA referred to as "prosumer/consumer", that the new BlackBerry 8100, a.k.a. the Pearl, is targeted.

In presenting the phone in London yesterday, COO Larry Conlee said RIM's carrier customers had been more concerned for it to be a quad-band GSM, with support for 2.5G (GPRS) and 2.75G (EDGE) and a camera than they had for it to support 3G. Style, as well as traditional BlackBerry substance, was clearly also a key criterion in its design, and RIM execs never tire of repeating its claim to be the smallest and lightest smart phone on the market.

There are no details available as to which carriers will be offering the device and RIM was careful to power advance copies with SIM cards from a variety of its usual customers, but clearly a number of suspects come to mind in all the main countries.

As to the services it will offer, Eggberry said RIM expects carriers to focus heavily on the recently launched BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) for pushing Webmail, or else perhaps the Express version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) designed for small businesses, rather than the full-blown BES, even though it can be integrated into a normal BES deployment.

Pricing too will depend on how highly the carriers want to subsidize the phone.

Conlee said a CDMA version of the 8100 will be out in due course, probably in about a year's time, but will have to weigh rather more than the current version. The reason for this is quite simple: as most of the big CDMA networks have already moved to 3G flavours of the access technology such as EV-DO and Rev A, there is a requirement for two radios rather than one, since all 3G phones must also be able to fall back to 2G in areas where 3G coverage is not available.

"That also means you need a bigger battery to run them both, so up goes your weight," he added. The same will also be true for an eventual W-CDMA/HSDPA version of the device, should RIM decide to develop one

Source: CBR Online

Motorola invests in mobile content testing provider

2006-12-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

Motorola Inc has announced that it has made an equity investment in Mobile Complete Inc, which provides a set of products designed to help content providers test their products and services on a wide range of mobile handsets and networks.

San Mateo, California-based Mobile Complete was founded in 2003, and in December 2005 it launched its flagship product, DeviceAnywhere.com, which enables content providers to test their mobile applications and services on a wide range of mobile handsets, including overseas handsets and networks. It does this by Direct-To-Device technology, which consists of proprietary software that allows the remote control and operation of mobile handsets directly from the user's PC.

This allows for the creation of a virtual development and testing lab for a customer's global developer community. Content providers can then access real mobile devices over the internet at any time, from any location. This service has been deployed across 10 carrier networks and five locations, including the US, Canada, and the UK.

Other products include MarketAnywhere, which allows the creation of a virtual marketing platform, LiveMonitor, which allows for the monitoring of the end-user experience of a customer's mobile services in real-time, and LiveTest, which automates the testing of applications, handsets, and services.

Motorola Ventures made an undisclosed investment in Mobile Complete, as part of a Series B funding round. Existing investor Innovacom VC also participated in the funding round.

Source: CBR Online

Safety without wires

2006-11-30T04:09:00.000-08:00

Applying the latest wireless technologies to a range of BP operations is helping to enhance safety for people, process plants and pipelines around the world. Michelle Brown reports

Should an emergency situation arise at an industrial site your natural reaction would be to get out swiftly. Swiping your ID badge as you leave might be the last thing on your mind. But what happens if the rescue services think you’re still in the affected area? An entire team could put themselves at risk trying to save someone who is not even there.

Locating all personnel quickly in such circumstances is just one aspect of operational safety that BP’s Digital Communications Technology (DCT) team has been looking at as part of the company’s commitment to enhancing safety.

While technology is no substitute for personal responsibility, DCT’s Chief Technology Office (CTO) has been working with a number of BP’s business units to explore technologies that promise to support the company’s workforce in making their environment more secure.

‘Safety ultimately is about people, their behaviours and their attitude to working safely. But technology can augment their efforts to create a safer working environment,’ says Ken Douglas, CTO director of mobile and wireless applications.

In common with a number of CTO projects in the area of safety and security, the solution to finding everyone after an incident falls under BP’s ‘sensory networks’ and ‘clipboard to computer’ initiatives (Frontiers, April 2004). These projects use a range of wireless sensor technologies to keep managers informed – on site and remotely – about what’s going on.

In the case of personnel tracking, BP has developed a Location Aware Safety System (LASS) that uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to enable safety managers to see at a glance where everyone is on a computer-based map of the site. RFID ‘smart tags’ have a chip and antenna that enable them to be located using radio signals.

Personnel wear RFID-equipped badges that broadcast their whereabouts each second to a network of wireless transmitters located around the plant. The transmitter network tracks the badges and sends the information to a central computer, which displays their location on a map of the site.

CTO applications director Curt Smith stresses that location awareness is about safety, not snooping on employees. ‘You can set it up to black out certain areas where monitoring is not appropriate. The employees see LASS as a key to improving their safety.’

The system was trialled successfully in the USA last August at BP’s Cherry Point refinery in Washington state, in the reformer process area. A project is now under way to implement LASS throughout the 250 hectare site by the end of 2006.

The technique of using RFID tags with a wireless network also lies at the heart of a separate project to tackle lifting-related accidents within BP’s exploration and production business. Historically, lifting accidents have proved to be a hazard throughout the industry on offshore installations and drilling rigs, and in pipe-laying operations.
‘Many of the people struck by heavy crane loads or lengths of pipe wouldn’t be at risk if the driver had complete awareness of everyone in the vicinity,’ Douglas points out.

But applying location awareness to lifting operations is a different challenge from personnel tracking over a large area. Fast-moving loads call for real-time information and predictive algorithms that can tell the driver if the load is on a collision course with someone. The rapidly changing environment is another issue. Most location tracking systems are pre-programmed with the plant layout but the topology of a deck changes each time a container moves. Two field trials took place last year in Aberdeen, with the next exploratory phase of the project due to begin later this year. DCT expects to have a usable system in place within two or three years.

Source : British Petroleum

Get Better Accuracy With a Handheld GPS

2006-11-25T01:45:00.000-08:00

Inexpensive, handheld GPS receivers such as those produced by Garmin and Magellan are a great aid for anybody who enjoys outdoor activities. There are many factors that affect the accuracy of the positions reported by a GPS receiver. Following these steps should allow you to get better accuracy with an inexpensive, handheld GPS receiver.

Steps

Determine the type of internal antenna in your GPS. This information will likely be listed in a table of "specifications" in the back of your owner's manual. There are two main types:
- Patch antenna, and
- Quadrifilar helix antenna
Hold your GPS properly to receive a stronger signal from the GPS satellites:
- If you have a patch antenna hold your GPS flat
  
  How to hold a GPS with a patch antenna
- If you have a quadrifilar helix antenna hold your GPS erect
  
  How to hold a GPS with a quadrifilar helix antenna

Stand where you have a clear view of the sky. Buildings, hills, trees, etc., will block the signals from the GPS satellites. The goal is to receive the signal from as many GPS satellites as possible.

Hold your GPS at shoulder height. Even your body can block the signal from the GPS satellites.

Use "position averaging". This is a feature that allows your GPS to take many measurements and then calculate an average position before saving it in the GPS receiver's memory.

Turn on the WAAS capability. The WAAS signal is broadcast from several geo-stationary communications satellites. The WAAS signal provides corrections for your GPS measurements and enhances the accuracy of your GPS receiver.

Tips

It is not necessary to constantly hold the GPS in the correct position at shoulder height. You only need to do this when you want to get better accuracy, e.g., when you are recording a waypoint.

Some GPS receivers do not support position averaging. Some GPS receivers automatically perform "position averaging". But with most GPS receivers the user must activate the position averaging function. The GPS receiver will take a measurement about once a second. Three minutes of averaging should provide enough measurements to improve the accuracy of your position. It is important to stand still during the averaging.

WAAS was developed to improve GPS accuracy for aviation in North America but it also works on the ground if:
- your GPS receiver is WAAS capable
- you are in an area covered by WAAS corrections
- you can "see" a WAAS satellite from your current location.

Warnings

Never rely on a GPS as your sole means of navigation. Always have a backup plan.

Read the owner's manual for your GPS before you venture into the wild.

A GPS receiver can be more distracting than a cell phone. Pay attention to what you are doing and where you are going.

Things You'll Need

An inexpensive, handheld, GPS receiver

How to Purchase the Right GPS Receiver

2006-11-23T02:03:00.000-08:00

The hobby of global positioning has become more popular than it ever has been. With the ubiquitous electronics store offering so many choices of GPS receivers, it's hard to know which unit is right for you. This article from wikiHow will deal with how to make the right choice.

Steps

Determine what you will be using the GPS receiver for. Believe it or not, GPS units are designed for a variety of uses, and the feature-set of each unit caters to different usage patterns. Some possible uses are:
- Vehicle Navigation - Driving on the road
- Off-Road Activities - Hiking, hunting, skiing, etc.
- Water Activities - Boating, fishing, etc.
- Aviation - Flying a plane
- Geocaching - Navigating to waypoints for fun treasure-hunting

Decide on the form-factor of your GPS receiver. This essentially describes the shape & size of the technology, or how small of a space you want to use GPS functions in. Some possibilities are:
- Handheld - A stand-alone unit that generally fits in one hand, with its own screen and buttons
- Laptop sensor - A small, plain "box" that connects to your laptop, and lets software on your laptop do the rest of the work
- PDA integrated - If you have a Palm or Windows Mobile PDA, you can get add-on sensors and software for them to do the same job as a laptop, but have it fit in the palm of your hand.
- Marine/Vehicle mount - Something which will stay in your vehicle or boat at all times, and only provide vehicle/craft navigation
- Wrist mount - Tiny GPSs have been integrated into wrist-watch form, ideal for jogging and other outdoor exercise purposes. Some of these units come with built-in fitness sensors, like heart rate monitors.

If you prefer the laptop sensor or PDA integrated types, your choices are limited only to compatibility with your operating system (Palm or Windows), and whether or not you want it to connect wirelessly. Ensure that both your laptop/PDA as well as the GPS unit are Bluetooth enabled if you expect wireless operation between the two. The rest of your functions will be determined by the software you use, which you can acquire independant of your hardware purchase. Despite this, all GPS units of this type will come with a packaged software bundle of some sort.

If you prefer a vehicle/boat mount unit, examine sizes, possible mount locations, antenna configurations etc. that are right for you. Consult your retailer for options. Some marine GPSs come with built-in fish finder features as well.

If you prefer a handheld unit, consider the following additional features and how important they are to you:
- Colour screen - More expensive, but some people find them easier to read
- Battery requirement & consumption rate - how many batteries does it take, which type, and how long does it take to drain them? Would you prefer a rechargable unit?
- Electronic compass - telling what direction you are facing while you are standing still. GPS units without this can only report your direction when you are moving.
- Barometric altimeter - calculating altitude based on air pressure
- Mapping - Displaying your current position on a map, uploading extra/custom maps into your unit
- Data entry - Some GPS units only allow you to upload waypoints from a PC, while others allow you to enter them while in the fiel
- Communications - Some GPS receivers have built-in two-way radios (ie: walkie talkies) to allow for communications as well as navigation. These units may provide position-sending functions so that you can locate others in your party
- Removable memory cards for maps - Some people prefer to be able to swap maps while in the field, rather than connecting their GPS unit to a laptop. You may purchase a GPS that provides a CompactFlash (CF) or SecureDigital (SD) slot for map cards if this is important to you.

While there are countless GPS brands on the market, both Garmin and Magellan brands have proven to be mainstays in the GPS arena. Each brand provides an online interactive tool to ask questions and recommend a product to you:
- Garmin Purchase Assistant - http://www.garmin.com/purchaseAssistant
- Magellan Product Finder - http://www.magellangps.com/ProductFinder

After you find the product that is right for you, check eBay to get an idea of what the market value is. This can often be well below the manufacturers suggested retail price found on the manufacturers website. Don't forget to factor eBay shipping into the price.

Armed with the knowledge of your ideal unit and how much you should expect to pay on eBay for it, visit the following stores in your local area to see if they carry the model you're looking for at a better price than eBay sells it for:
- Outdoor/trail shop - Anywhere that sells hiking or camping requipment
- Hardware store - Many hardware store chains sell GPS units in their hunting/outdoor departments.
- Department store - Stores such as WalMart carry GPS units in their hunting/outdoor departments.
- Marine equipment store - Even handheld units can be often be found at boat equipment shops.

The most important thing to remember about any handheld GPS unit is that the tiniest detail can ruin the experience for you. Buttons that are too small, or located in awkward places, or units that are *just* too big to fit in a certain carrier, etc. can all be deal breakers. The best way to deal with these challenges is to be sure that there is a money-back gaurantee or return policy if you find that the unit doesn't work for you in a practical environment. To this end, be sure to set aside time as soon as possible to test your new unit out as much as you can before your return policy runs out.

Tips

Borrow GPS units from your friends and see what features you enjoy and which things bother you about the unit

What extra features are there? Extra functions are available in many GPS tracking devices, an example of this is using you in-car GPS system’s speakers as a hands free for a cell phone. These extra functions can make your life much safer, but do you need them? As appealing as it may be, don’t go for the GPS tracking device or auto GPS system with the most features, many of them are unnecessary for your average lover of the outdoors or vehicle owner. (more tips available at http://www.gpstrackingdevice.net )

Gaming Company Takes RFID to the Casino

2006-11-21T23:03:00.000-08:00

Casino owners may become the newest members of the RFID bandwagon. They show a keen interest in the technology as a way to track customers from the moment they hit the gaming tables. And the purchase of two patents by a large manufacturer shows they will not miss out on the 21st century technology.

Shuffle Master, a gaming supply company headquartered, in Las Vegas, Nevada, recently purchased two RFID-related patents for $12.5 million. Like its name indicates, the company specializes in providing utility products to casinos, such as automatic card shufflers. But it also carries its own proprietary table games for casinos. The patents’ seller was Enpat, a licensing agent for the inventors, explained Paul Meyer, Shuffle Master's president and chief operating officer. "We did a lot of due diligence. We looked at over 400 patents to make sure we identified the correct ones," he added.

Source: RFID News

Nokia Unveils RFID Phone Reader

2006-11-12T00:49:00.000-08:00

The world's largest provider of cell phones is offering a kit that will enable workers to scan tags remotely and transmit data via their cell phones

March 17, 2004—Nokia, the Finnish cell phone maker, today unveiled the world's first RFID-enabled GSM cell phone at the CeBIT2004 trade show in Germany. The Nokia Mobile RFID Kit features two RFID reader shells—plastic housings that fit over a cell phone—20 13.56 MHz tags and software to enable mobile workers to scan tags and access information remotely.

Nokia expects the kit to appeal to companies such as Halliburton and Schlumberger, which provide field services for the oil and gas industry, as well to utilities and companies providing security for buildings.

"About two and a half years ago, we started looking at RFID as a way of empowering people to do things," says Gerhard Romen, head of global market development at Nokia New Growth Business, the product development unit that created the RFID kit. "Today, RFID tags tend to be mobile and readers are stationary, but things get really interesting when you turn that around and make the tags stationary and the readers mobile."

The RFID phone might be used by a engineer in the field checking a meter on a gas pipeline or other industrial equipment. The engineer would scan the tag attached to a meter to identify which meter was being read. The phone-reader would record the time of the read, and then the engineer could key in the meter reading into the phone using the buttons on the phone. The data could be stored in the phone and downloaded to a PC via an infrared connection.

Data can also be transferred via the GSM system. For example, a security guard walking a building could read a tag at each door whenever the guard checks the door to confirm it is locked. That information could be sent to a control center via the cell phone, and someone in the control center could monitor the guard's progress in real time.

In another application, a telecommunications repair technician could read a tag on a malfunctioning switching station or other remote asset. The phone would be programmed to go to a specific Web site to download a service history and a schematic diagram of that switching station to the cell phone. The engineer could then learn what previous problems that site had and which cables are carrying electric current.

Another feature triggers the phone to call a predefined number when a particular tag is read. So for instance, a security guard might scan a tag on his belt when in trouble and the cell phone would automatically call for help.

The software for the reader is written in the Java programming language. Nokia has a community of developers who create software for the phones, and Romen says he expects these developers to create new applications for customers.

The new RFID reader works with the Nokia 5140, a GSM phone that is water resistant and more rugged than a typical cell phone. Users simply slide off their existing Xpress-on cover and slide on the RFID reader. The software needed to run the reader is automatically loaded into the phone and the reader becomes operational.

The readers, which are made by third-party manufacturers that Nokia is not identifying, use the ISO 14443A communication protocol, so companies that purchase the kit can buy additional tags from Philips Semiconductor and other vendors. The read range is typically 2 to 3 centimeters (0.8 to 1.2 inches).

Nokia has been working with several companies over the past year to test how convenient and easy to use the device is. This is an important issue, according to Romen. "We've been testing it in the energy, gas supply and security industries," he says. "One of the key things with a new technology is understanding the requirements of end users who are not IT experts. Can they read the screen without glasses? What happens if I drop it? How long does the battery last?"

Romen says that the battery in the cell phone will last several days when reading 50 to 80 tags per day. The company believes there is a significant business market for the device, but also expects consumers will eventually discover the benefits of using their cell phone to control RFID applications. While it will be several years before consumer applications are common, he envisions consumers one day scanning items in stores and automatically downloading information on the product from the Web, or scanning the tag on a product to register it with the manufacturer.

Pricing for the RFID kit, which will be available at midyear, will be set by Nokia resellers. Several companies, including Minec and Magnatec Technologie, sell a handheld, GSM-enabled computer that can be equipped with an RFID reader. These sell typically sell for $1,200 to $1,500. The Nokia kit should be significantly less than that, since the GSM-enabled phone is sold separately and it doesn't have all the capabilities of a handheld computer.

Source : RFID Journal

Introduction to How a BlackBerry works

2006-11-01T10:04:00.000-08:00

Source: www.howstuffworks.com

When the BlackBerry debuted in 1999, carrying one was a hallmark of powerful executives and savvy technophiles. People who purchased one either needed or wanted constant access to e-mail, a calendar and a phone. The BlackBerry's manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM), reported only 25,000 subscribers in that first year. But since then, its popularity has skyrocketed.

Image courtesy RIM

In September 2005, RIM reported 3.65 million subscribers, and users describe being addicted to the devices. The BlackBerry has even brought new slang to the English language. There are words for flirting via BlackBerry (blirting), repetitive motion injuries from too much BlackBerry use (BlackBerry thumb) and unwisely using one's BlackBerry while intoxicated (drunk-Berrying). While some people credit the BlackBerry with letting them get out of the office and spend time with friends and family, others accuse them of allowing work to infiltrate every moment of free time.

In this article, we'll examine the "push" technology at the center of the device's popularity, RIM's former dispute with patent holder NTP Incorporated and its current dispute with Visto Corporation. We'll also explore BlackBerry hardware and software.

"Push" Technology

RIM Revenue

1999: $47,342,000

2005: $1,350,447,000

Source:
2000 RIM Annual Report

A PDA does a lot of the same things a BlackBerry does, and the PDA made its debut several years before the BlackBerry. But until recently, the only way to make the information on most PDAs match the information on a person's computer was to automatically or manually sync the PDA. This could be time-consuming and inconvenient. It could also lead to exactly the conflicts that having a PDA is supposed to prevent. For example, a manager might schedule a meeting on the PDA, not knowing that an assistant had just scheduled a meeting for the same time on a networked calendar.

A BlackBerry, on the other hand, does everything a PDA can do, and it syncs itself continually through push technology. BlackBerry Enterprise Server or Desktop Redirector software "pushes," or redirects, new e-mail, calendar updates, documents and other data straight to the user over the Internet and the cell phone network.

First, the software senses that a new message has arrived or the data has changed. Then, it compresses, packages and redirects the information to the handheld unit. The server uses hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and transmission control protocol (TCP) to communicate with the handhelds. It also encrypts the data with triple data encryption standard (DES) or advanced encryption standard (AES).

Image courtesy RIM

A person can send and receive messages and phone calls on a BlackBerry from virtually any location.

The software determines the capabilities of the BlackBerry and lets people establish criteria for the information they want to have delivered. The criteria can include message type and size, specific senders and updates to specific programs or databases.

Once all of the parameters have been set, the software waits for updated content. When a new message or other data arrives, the software formats the information for transmission to and display on the BlackBerry. It packages e-mail messages into a kind of electronic envelope so the user can decide whether to open or retrieve the rest of the message.

BlackBerrys in the United States
70 percent of BlackBerry subscribers live in the United States.

Source: Washington Post

The BlackBerry listens for new information and notifies the user when it arrives by vibrating, changing an icon on the screen or turning on a light. The BlackBerry does not poll the server to look for updates. It simply waits for the update to arrive and notifies the user when it does. With e-mail, a copy of each message also goes to the user's inbox on the computer, but the e-mail client can mark the message as read once the user reads it on the BlackBerry.

People describe BlackBerry use as an addiction, and this is why. Not only do they give people constant access to their phones, they also provide continual updates to e-mail, calendars and other tools.

Lately, RIM had been dealing with issues of patent infringement. We'll look at that next.

Study suggests mobile phone-brain tumour link

2006-09-19T02:04:00.000-07:00

The findings contradict British, Dutch surveys

A Bluetooth hands-free earpiece may be the best way to avoid the health hazard of a mobile phone.

BANGALORE:

The results of a study, conducted at the Swedish National Institute for Working Life, raise renewed fears that a prolonged use of mobile phones may increase the risk of brain tumours. Researchers examined the patterns of cell phone use by over 2,000 cancer patients and an equal number of healthy persons. Of the 905 patients who suffered from a malignant brain tumour, one in 10 was a heavy mobile phone user. For the purposes of the study, `heavy use' meant more than 2,000 hours of use — about 10 years of an average use of over one hour a day. Mobile phone users have 3.7 times the risk of developing brain cancer as non-users. What is more, there is twice the chance of the tumour occurring on the side of the head where the phone is held.

The results were published in the online edition of the "International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health" on March 16. Kjell Hansson Mild, who led the study, recommends: "Everyone should use hands-free mobile phones.... This will lower what is called the SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) value, the amount of radiation absorbed by the brain, by a factor of hundred... and also improve hearing."

The Swedish findings fly in the face of the studies conducted recently in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, which came to the opposite conclusion.

A study, conducted by four British Universities and published in the January 20, 2006 issue of the British Medical Journal, concluded that there was nocause-and-effect relation between the cell phone use and brain tumours. The Dutch Health Council also came to a similar conclusion last year, collating reports worldwide.

Studies conducted at the School of Environmental Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, however, have tended to agree that intensive cell phone use, especially as practised by young people, may lead to cancer.

While scientists may argue about the sanctity of one set of results versus another, lay users may decide to be "better safe, than sorry." Here too, scientists do not agree: The (U.K.) Consumer Association has said the wire connecting the mobile phone to the hands-free earpiece could act as an aerial and send an occasional strong current into the ear.

This would suggest that the safest solution might be one of those wireless hands-free models working on Bluetooth technology, in which there is no connecting cable at all. This is the type used in many cars. But such safety comes at a price: a wireless hands-free kit costs Rs. 2,500 in India.

(Reference: "Pooled analysis of two case— control studies on use of cellular and cordless telephones and the risk for malignant brain tumours diagnosed in 1997 - 2003." Lennart Hardell, Michael Carlberg and Kjell Hansson Mild. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health; Springer Online; March 16, 2006.)

Source: Anand Parthasarathy - The Hindu

A- Z of How GPS works

2005-12-27T21:02:00.000-08:00

Our ancestors had to go to pretty extreme measures to keep from getting lost. They erected monumental landmarks, laboriously drafted detailed maps and learned to read the stars in the night sky.

Things are much, much easier today. For less than $100, you can get a pocket-sized gadget that will tell you exactly where you are on Earth at any moment. As long as you have a GPS receiver and a clear view of the sky, you'll never be lost again.

In this article, we'll find out how these handy guides pull off this amazing trick. As we'll see, the Global Positioning System is vast, expensive and involves a lot of technical ingenuity, but the fundamental concepts at work are quite simple and intuitive.

Trilateration Basics

When people talk about "a GPS," they usually mean a GPS receiver. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is actually a constellation of 27 Earth-orbiting satellites (24 in operation and three extras in case one fails). The U.S. military developed and implemented this satellite network as a military navigation system, but soon opened it up to everybody else.

Photo courtesy NASA

NAVSTAR GPS satellite

Each of these 3,000- to 4,000-pound solar-powered satellites circles the globe at about 12,000 miles (19,300 km), making two complete rotations every day. The orbits are arranged so that at any time, anywhere on Earth, there are at least four satellites "visible" in the sky.

Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Defense

Artist's concept of the GPS satellite constellation

A GPS receiver's job is to locate four or more of these satellites, figure out the distance to each, and use this information to deduce its own location. This operation is based on a simple mathematical principle called trilateration. Trilateration in three-dimensional space can be a little tricky, so we'll start with an explanation of simple two-dimensional trilateration.

2-D Trilateration

Imagine you are somewhere in the United States and you are TOTALLY lost -- for whatever reason, you have absolutely no clue where you are. You find a friendly local and ask, "Where am I?" He says, "You are 625 miles from Boise, Idaho."

This is a nice, hard fact, but it is not particularly useful by itself. You could be anywhere on a circle around Boise that has a radius of 625 miles, like this:

You ask somebody else where you are, and she says, "You are 690 miles from Minneapolis, Minnesota." Now you're getting somewhere. If you combine this information with the Boise information, you have two circles that intersect. You now know that you must be at one of these two intersection points, if you are 625 miles from Boise and 690 miles from Minneapolis.

If a third person tells you that you are 615 miles from Tucson, Arizona, you can eliminate one of the possibilities, because the third circle will only intersect with one of these points. You now know exactly where you are -- Denver, Colorado.

This same concept works in three-dimensional space, as well, but you're dealing with spheres instead of circles. In the next section, we'll look at this type of trilateration.

3-D Trilateration

Fundamentally, three-dimensional trilateration isn't much different from two-dimensional trilateration, but it's a little trickier to visualize. Imagine the radii from the examples in the last section going off in all directions. So instead of a series of circles, you get a series of spheres.

If you know you are 10 miles from satellite A in the sky, you could be anywhere on the surface of a huge, imaginary sphere with a 10-mile radius. If you also know you are 15 miles from satellite B, you can overlap the first sphere with another, larger sphere. The spheres intersect in a perfect circle. If you know the distance to a third satellite, you get a third sphere, which intersects with this circle at two points.

The Earth itself can act as a fourth sphere -- only one of the two possible points will actually be on the surface of the planet, so you can eliminate the one in space. Receivers generally look to four or more satellites, however, to improve accuracy and provide precise altitude information.

In order to make this simple calculation, then, the GPS receiver has to know two things:

The location of at least three satellites above you
The distance between you and each of those satellites

The GPS receiver figures both of these things out by analyzing high-frequency, low-power radio signals from the GPS satellites. Better units have multiple receivers, so they can pick up signals from several satellites simultaneously.

Radio waves are electromagnetic energy, which means they travel at the speed of light (about 186,000 miles per second, 300,000 km per second in a vacuum). The receiver can figure out how far the signal has traveled by timing how long it took the signal to arrive. In the next section, we'll see how the receiver and satellite work together to make this measurement.

Measuring Distance

In the last section, we saw that a GPS receiver calculates the distance to GPS satellites by timing a signal's journey from satellite to receiver. As it turns out, this is a fairly elaborate process.

At a particular time (let's say midnight), the satellite begins transmitting a long, digital pattern called a pseudo-random code. The receiver begins running the same digital pattern also exactly at midnight. When the satellite's signal reaches the receiver, its transmission of the pattern will lag a bit behind the receiver's playing of the pattern.

Photo courtesy U.S. Army

A GPS satellite

The length of the delay is equal to the signal's travel time. The receiver multiplies this time by the speed of light to determine how far the signal traveled. Assuming the signal traveled in a straight line, this is the distance from receiver to satellite.

In order to make this measurement, the receiver and satellite both need clocks that can be synchronized down to the nanosecond. To make a satellite positioning system using only synchronized clocks, you would need to have atomic clocks not only on all the satellites, but also in the receiver itself. But atomic clocks cost somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000, which makes them a just a bit too expensive for everyday consumer use.

The Global Positioning System has a clever, effective solution to this problem. Every satellite contains an expensive atomic clock, but the receiver itself uses an ordinary quartz clock, which it constantly resets. In a nutshell, the receiver looks at incoming signals from four or more satellites and gauges its own inaccuracy. In other words, there is only one value for the "current time" that the receiver can use. The correct time value will cause all of the signals that the receiver is receiving to align at a single point in space. That time value is the time value held by the atomic clocks in all of the satellites. So the receiver sets its clock to that time value, and it then has the same time value that all the atomic clocks in all of the satellites have. The GPS receiiver gets atomic clock accuracy "for free".

Using the Data

In the last couple of sections, we saw that the most essential function of a GPS receiver is to pick up the transmissions of at least four satellites and combine the information in those transmissions with information in an electronic almanac, all in order to figure out the receiver's position on Earth.

Once the receiver makes this calculation, it can tell you the latitude, longitude and altitude (or some similar measurement) of its current position. To make the navigation more user-friendly, most receivers plug this raw data into map files stored in memory.

Photo courtesy Garmin

The StreetPilot II, a GPS receiver with built-in maps for drivers

You can use maps stored in the receiver's memory, connect the receiver to a computer that can hold more detailed maps in its memory, or simply buy a detailed map of your area and find your way using the receiver's latitude and longitude readouts. Some receivers let you download detailed maps into memory or supply detailed maps with plug-in map cartridges.

A standard GPS receiver will not only place you on a map at any particular location, but will also trace your path across a map as you move. If you leave your receiver on, it can stay in constant communication with GPS satellites to see how your location is changing. With this information and its built-in clock, the receiver can give you several pieces of valuable information:

How far you've traveled (odometer)
How long you've been traveling
Your current speed (speedometer)
Your average speed
A "bread crumb" trail showing you exactly where you have traveled on the map
The estimated time of arrival at your destination if you maintain your current speed

Source: www.howstuffworks.com

Love your mobile? Blame your personality

2005-12-09T21:17:00.000-08:00

Young people who can't live without their mobiles are likely to be extroverts or have low self-esteem, researchers say (Image: iStockphoto)

People who chat on their mobile phones in the movies or who have crippling phone bills tend to have particular personality types, say Australian researchers.

Psychology lecturer Dr James Phillips and his team from Melbourne's Monash University say people who are more likely to get into trouble with their dangerous or disruptive mobile phone use are young, extroverts or people with low self-esteem.

Their study, published in the current issue of the journal CyberPsychology & Behavior, surveyed 195 people over 18 about how they used their mobile phones.

Among the questions the researchers asked were about the size of their phone bills, reasons for calls, and aches and pains linked to phone use, such as 'SMS thumb' brought on by lots of text messaging.

The researchers also asked if family and friends complained about their phone use; if they were late to appointments because they were on the phone; or if they became annoyed when someone asked them to switch off their phone.

The researchers did not ask about using the phone while driving as study participants may have lied to avoid incriminating themselves, which would have affected the results, says Phillips.

Participants also undertook psychological testing that Phillips says shows a clear correlation between personality type and problem phone use.

"These people don't appear to value what they are doing at a particular time," says Phillips.

"They may have spent $100 on a Paul McCartney ticket but even that isn't enough to get them to switch the phone off."

Different reasons for a huge phone bill

Phillips says people with different personality types use their phones for different reasons.

"Those with poor self-esteem are more likely to seek reassurance using their phones or they are unhappy and using their phones to reach out to others," he says.

"While the extroverts tend to be using them more to make social arrangements with a large network of friends."

Phillips says the results would help authorities develop advertising campaigns to target problem users to dangers like using a phone while driving, in hospitals and at petrol bowsers.

"If we can predict who is more likely to have problem and why then we can target them in advertising," says Phillips.

He said problem mobile phone use could be fixed as it was similar to a "very strong bad habit or bad priority".

By Catrina Purcell

ABC Science Online

Hands-free mobile no safer when driving

2005-12-08T00:49:00.000-08:00

Agence France-presse

Holding a mobile phone while driving more than quadruples the risk of an accident, and using a hands-free phone kit is almost as dangerous, according to an Australian study.

Researchers interviewed more than 450 drivers in Western Australia who owned or used mobile phones and who had been involved in car crashes serious enough to warrant hospital treatment.

Most of the drivers also gave their permission to get records of the phone use from their mobile phone company to get precise timings of calls and see how these compared to the estimated time of the crash.

Drivers who had used a mobile phone, either holding it to their ear or using a hands-free system, were 4.1 times more likely to have an accident in the next 10 minutes than if they had not made a call.

The comparative risk with a hand-held phone was no less than 4.9 times, and with hands-free phones it was 3.8 times.

The study, published today online by the British Medical Journal, says the findings raise worrisome questions about the expanding use of hands-free technology, adopted by many drivers in response to safety messages or laws about using a hand-held phone while at the wheel.

"If this new technology actually increases mobile phone use in cars, it could contribute to even more crashes," the paper says.

The researchers say the next step is to see if certain types of hands-free devices, such as car kits or voice activated units, are safer than others.

Because of concerns about the risks of a potential crash, using a hand-held mobile phone while driving is illegal in the European Union, all Australian states, and selected states or provinces in the US and Canada.

Graham Chalker, chief executive officer of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association, says a hands-free device can reduce the physical effort to make and receive calls.

"However, drivers should also avoid making calls in heavy traffic or bad weather conditions and they should not engage in distracting, complex or emotional conversations," he says.

The truth about the Mobile virus scares

2005-12-06T23:12:00.000-08:00

Some simple facts before proceeding to cabir, the nemisis you were told

Fact: no-one can pass a virus to your Symbian smartphone over Bluetooth or MMS without your knowledge. See Viruses for Symbian OS below for much more on this.

Fact: it's impossible for any piece of malicious software to make your smartphone unusable. Even if you allow a piece of 'malware' (i.e. a malicious program) onto your unit, it can't touch the OS and applications in ROM, which means you can always do a hard reset to get back to a working system.

(For hard reset, type in ‘*#7370#’ works with older Series 60 smartphones, 'Dial'+'*'+'3' while powering on for newer ones, procedures for UIQ and Series 80 units are in the manual) to get back to a working system.

Fact: the Symbian 'viruses' you read about aren't really in the wild, in the same way that Windows viruses are. Because it's realistically impossible for these apps to spread, you simply will not come across them in any significant number in the real world.

Fact: you're not going to pick up a worm through being online either, as Symbian OS's TCP/IP stack and port handling is far, far tighter than that (that used to be) used in Windows.

Fact: the biggest hazard in the Symbian world is the 'warez' scene, where unscrupulous people 'crack' commercial software and then put it up for free download or try to get friends to beam it around. Quite apart from the ethical considerations about putting genuine Symbian authors out of business, these cracked versions are the perfect opportunity for a malicious cracker to insert routines designed to cripple your phone or scramble your data. You can stay clear of such malware by downloading your Symbian OS third party software from trusted sources and staying clear of warez.

There really is no danger whatsoever of your Symbian OS smartphone becoming 'infected' with something without your knowledge. So sleep easy.

Now do you think, you need a Anti-virus program for your mobile ?

Related Readings:
----------------------
Symbian resolute in face of mobile virus row:
http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39151947,00.htm

Mobiles catch Cabir virus at world athletics:
http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39151322,00.htm

Mobile phone viruses: 'Don't panic!' -- http://networks.silicon.com/mobile/0,39024665,39130139,00.htm

Viruses for Symbian OS - the truth -- http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk/viruses.htm

Excerpts from Original article by Steve Litchfield (www.allaboutsymbian.com)

Overview:

Have you ever tried getting an application (or indeed any other kind of file) from one smartphone to another? Quite apart from the logistics of getting Bluetooth in the right mode ('Visibility: shown to all') on the recipient phone and getting the phones to actually find each other, anything request from another phone to send something has to be manually authorised (i.e. the recipient has to actively read the warning and press a button marked 'Yes'). And, for an application, there are many extra steps to agree to, in terms of accepting that you want to install it in the first place, that it probably hasn't been officially signed and then deciding which disk (internal or expansion card) to install to.

This is totally unlike the virus situation on desktop computers, where viruses infect you quickly and silently, reaching out to others via extra email transmissions and via direct Internet probes. Under Symbian OS, there is (so far) no known way for software to get sufficiently under the hood without your express permission to be able to do any of these things.

A Symbian targetted virus in the Real World

So you're walking through Paddington station, London, within Bluetooth reach of a hundred other smartphone users. And you've left your Nokia 6600 (or similar Series 60 smartphone) open to incoming Bluetooth connections because you often share contacts and appointments with colleagues and it's simply more convenient to leave this setting 'on'. All of a sudden, an 'infected' Series 60 smartphone (assuming there are any in the wild) reaches out to your phone and you hear a beep. Looking at the display you see

"Receive message via Bluetooth from Nokia 3660?"
with buttons marked 'Yes' and 'No'.

Your first choice should obviously be 'No', as you're not with a friend or colleague and are not expecting an incoming contact, appointment or file. Pressing 'No' means instantly stopping the incoming connection dead in its tracks. But let's say that you press 'Yes', out of curiosity perhaps. The virus application will be received into your Inbox, which may even automatically spot that it's a Symbian Installation (SIS) file and will start installing it. There's still no need to panic, though, as you'll then have to accept the various installation warnings and questions:

"Installation security warning: Unable to verify supplier. Continue anyway?"
with buttons marked 'Yes' and 'No'.

There's no application title shown yet, and perhaps you decide to carry on a little further, again out of curiosity (remember that you're not expecting anything).

Now we're getting to the nub of the matter. Symbian OS next pops up the question:

"Install Cabir?" (or "Sexxy", or whatever the heck today's media-favourite virus is called)
with buttons marked 'Yes' and 'No'.

At this point, if you still answer 'Yes', then you deserve everything you get! (As an aside, there are still at least two more questions to answer before the application is actually installed, giving you two more chances to back out)

Conclusion

Does the above sequence sound like the seamless and invisible mechanism needed by any decent virus if it's to propagate itself effectively in the wild? An emphatic NO.

You can keep your Symbian smartphone completely free of malware by following a couple of simple rules:

1) Don't accept unsolicited Bluetooth transmissions from other phones. Or trust applications tacked onto MMS messages ('e.g. Hey, try my new, kewl game!')

2) Don't install applications unless they are ones you've asked for or have downloaded from reputable software sites (Handango, AllAboutSymbian, My-Symbian, 3-Lib, etc.)

3) In most cases, it's quite safe to leave Bluetooth visibility as 'Shown to all'. If you do get bothered by too many unsolicited connection attempts, simply change the setting to 'Hidden'. Although given that the number of 'infected' Symbian Series 60 phones worldwide is truly tiny, you really don't have to worry! You're more likely to be hit by lightning or to win the lottery...

(C) 2004, 2005 Steve Litchfield

Google Sandbox Effect: What the hell is it ?

2005-12-02T03:08:00.000-08:00

A site is sandboxed when it is new and does not rank for keyword phrases that are not incredibly competitive (such as a unique company name) in Google after making the page "search engine friendly" and after being indexed. This phenomenon, the techies describe as Google Sandbox Effect

A sandboxed site doesn't means a site that has not been indexed by Google. That is wrong. Sandboxed sites are very much so indexed by Google, but have a hard time ranking for keyword phrases, no matter how competitive they are.

Origin of the name:

Guys from Search Engine Roundtable found existence of some form of issue with Google and new sites. The first post was named New Sites = Poor Results in Google, that was before it had a name. In a WebmasterWorld thread linked to from the "New Sites = Poor Results in Google" entry, the term "sandbox" came about. Later on, guest author SEO Guy posted an entry here using that title The Sandbox Effect, which helped make its name

Does the sandbox really exist?

Google engineer Matt Cutts has essentially acknowledged that a sandbox effect exists and that it's a product of their algorithm, and at least one other anonymous Google engineer is reported to referred to a "probation" period for new sites. Despite some differences in terminology, the sandbox as an abstraction for a specific sum of parts in Google's larger algorithm is almost certainly existent.

How long are sites sandboxed?

The reported sandbox period is extremely variable; ranging from 3 months to indefinite, the typical range though seems around 6-9 months, and one Google engineer has reportedly stated the actual range is 6-12 months. Many have observed that the period appears to correlate with industry competitiveness/popularity, with the most popular and commercial industries having the longest "probation" period.

10 methods to bypass or escape the sandbox

Note: I've avoided listing methods aimed at only minimizing your time in the sandbox—as opposed to methods of actually escaping it—as those are basically paramount to good SEO practises, which is obviously way beyond the scope of this article.

Buy out old domains—Even if a domain is low on inbound links, the age factor will almost certainly be enough for it to have expired the sandbox; typically a year is good age to ensure a domain is sandbox free; if possible negotiate with original owner keeping the WHOIS record as similar as possible to prevent triggering a fresh sandbox cycle. Domains never indexed in Google, no matter what how early registration date aren't likely to avoid being sandboxed.
Buy recently expired domains—Some theory as above, but applied to domains that have actually expired. There is some evidence to suggest very recently expired domains can avoid a fresh sandbox cycle. A good measure might be domains expired but still indexed in Google.
Collect the low hanging fruit—While sandboxed you aren't going to rank well for competitive terms, but you may be able rank for low traffic ones. Large quantities of low traffic terms can be just as rewarding, and if you target the right ones you'll be strengthening the theme of your site for when your more competitive terms are freed from the sandbox.
Drag your competitors down to your level—We really don't condone or recommend this; it's listed here for completeness sake, and to make you aware of tactics that can be used against you: If you can't aspire move upwards, the second option is to drag your competitors downwards, into and below the level of the sandbox. StuntDubl summarizes the main blackhat tactics at the disposal of those who willing to cross the line. Even if we did recommend this, logistically it's a non-option since you'll no doubt have hundreds or thousands of competitors' pages ahead of you, not to mention that each one of those competitors can use the same tactics against you.
Buy your way in—Irregardless of sandbox status, you should almost always consider doing at least one PPC campaign for each of your targeted terms, in order to estimate the ROI before spending resources targeting terms organically.
Explore non-Google traffic sources—Getting sandboxed clearly illustrates the danger of putting your eggs in one basket. Consider using your time in the sandbox to explore and make full use of other sources of targeted traffic, learn to survive without being at the whim of Google.
Hijack your competitors rankings—Again, we don't condone or recommend blackhat tactics: Performing a 302 redirect to one of your high ranking competitors from a non-sandboxed domain (preferably of higher PageRank/trust than theirs) can sometimes succeed in hijacking their SERP listings. So that the traffic can be gleaned, the redirect can be cloaked for the benefit of the Google-bot, with regular visitors being redirected to your sandboxed site. Again, we do not recommend this, and only on small number of occasions have such tactics been publicized to work.
Use subdomain from developed site—According a quite a few experts; since sandboxing appears to be based on 2nd level domain, hosting your site on a subdomain of an already established domain will avoid the sandbox. If you redirect all pages to the new domain once the site appears thoroughly indexed; it should reportedly maintain a non-sandboxed status.
Acquire "trusted" links—A fair amount of SEOs have claimed to have escaped the sandbox by acquiring enough "trusted," high quality authoritative links. The most often cited source for links capable of freeing a site are high profile news sites; .gov, and .edu sites; and dmoz.org. That this method can immediately free you from the sandbox is somewhat contested, but most seem to agree that it can either a) avoid being initially sandboxed, or b) shorten your stay. At least one Google engineer is reported to have supported the theory that high quality backlinks can negate the sandbox.
Perhaps you aren't sandboxed after all—Consider and research into the possibility that you aren't sandboxed and instead simply suffering the effect of a very ineffective SEO campaign. For this purpose SEOMoz.org offers the Sandbox Detection Tool.

Definition and origin borrowed from www.seroundtable.com
10 effective methods borrowed from www.webmasterbrain.com

Is Google Search Over Hyped?

2005-12-01T04:38:00.000-08:00

Google is supposed to be the defacto queen of web search. Or so it look likes. Until now, even I thought so. Recent blind study finds not so. Is it a myth?

Guys from www.webmasterbrain.com began a Search Engine Experiment to discover which of the top search engines really offers the most relevant search results. With 5,000+ participants thus far, the below Pie reveal the results as they currently stand:

The modes operandi works like this -- the user is asked to key in a search string. Results are fetched from the three search engines branded as (brand x, y & z) and user is asked to judge which search engine is most relevant. The surprise is.......

Current results show Google offered 42% relevant results compared to 33% for Yahoo and 27% for MSN. This is not a great performance considering the close figures by yahoo & MSN and the much hype surrounding Google Search. Though, Google is clearly the leader, the margins are not so high to make it the defacto engine as perceived.

(Note: the image above is updated automatically, so you will probably be seeing newer figures than written).

They are planning to experiment indefinitely with the test results automatically updated every 15 minutes. The updated results will be shown in the images above and below.

Readers can take the blind test to find out which search engines' results you personally prefer.

Included is also a disclaimer that despite best efforts at making the test fair, and prevent cheating, they remind that by no means the accuracy of these test results can be gauranteed.

So watch out this blog.

Tips for Searching Google

2005-12-01T01:56:00.000-08:00

by Gary Price --> source: www.virtualchase.com

Limiting by date can be a problem. Genie Tyburski and I wrote an article about this last year. Date searching is reliable only when Google can consistently identify them as it does with Usenet message (Google Groups) and news (Google News).

A potentially useful way to limit the scope of a search is to use the syntax for file type (filetype:). For example, filetype:ppt google finds mention of Google in PowerPoint slides. Other formats include .pdf (Adobe Acrobat), .doc (Word) and .xls (Excel). Other search engines also let you query these formats.

You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard. Example: "George * Bush" finds George W.
Bush. Example: "To * * * to be" finds "To be or not to be". I've used this strategy to find email addresses: "email * * <domain>".

Some documents are not completely indexed by Google. Indexing of the text in Web pages stops after 101kb (For PDF, it's 120kb.)

Google limits the number of search terms to ten.

Not every Google version offers all of Google's features. For example, Google via the Washington Post does not offer the cache or similar page options.

Finding out who links to a Web page is popular. You use the link (link:) syntax. However, you
cannot limit the search using additional syntax. For example, you cannot discover which .edu sites link to the home page of The Virtual Chase. The search link:www.virtualchase.com site:edu does not work. AllTheWeb, on the other hand, lets you add additional syntax to a reverse link search.

For the most part, search engines display one result per domain. For example, enter "competitive intelligence" "new york". Google returns two listings from SCIP. To see additional pages from the same domain -- scip.org, you have to click the "more results" link.

Search terms are linked to dictionary definitions via Dictionary.com. Find the link near the top of the page in the blue bar. Other engines also offer this feature.

Using Google UncleSam, limits your search to material from government sites.

Findlaw also offers a focused version of Google. The filter boosts the relevancy of legal and government information. See LawCrawler.

Google is wonderful, but it is not the only Web search tool. Take a look at Teoma, AllTheWeb and Vivisimo.

Finally, learn about and bookmark specialized or, as a professor at Penn State calls them, niche databases. This can save you time and aggravation. Examples include the new keyword searchable version of The Wayback Machine or the even newer SMEALSearch, which indexes freely available, scholarly business information.

Gary Price (Gary Price Library Internet Research Consulting) is the author of the essential Weblog for searchers, The ResourceShelf.

Much hype about SKYPE

2005-11-30T03:14:00.000-08:00

Source: http://mobilemag.com dt: Nov 21,2005

RadioShack and Skype announced that they have entered an agreement that allows RadioShack to distribute Skype-ready products in about 3,500 RadioShack retail outlets across the US.

For those three people who have not yet heard of Skype, it is a leading Internet communications firm which has successfully brought free Internet calling to more than 66 million people worldwide since its inception in 2003. Currently, Skype is clocking in about 175,000 new users every day. To use Skype, you only need to download the free software, which enables unlimited calling to other Skype users wherever they may be.

The uniqueness of Skype lies in the fact that it directly resides on your PC or mobile phone to facilitate calling operations. Skype does not only offer Skype-to-Skype calling. It also offers paid, subscription based services enabling you to call regular phones for as low as US $0.02 per minute.

The RadioShack-Skype agreement serves to further push Skype as a leading Internet communications firm in the US, exposing Skype to even more potential users. Moreover, RadioShack's retail stores offer consumers an outlet where they can buy Skype-certified products such as the Motorola Wireless Headset and Internet Calling Kit, which is the first Skype-certified Bluetooth offering.

Here's a rundown of other Skype-certified phones and headsets you can get at RadioShack.

- New Motorola H500 Bluetooth headset and PC850 USB Adapter bundled in the Internet Calling Kit (a RadioShack limited offer with an MSRP of US $99.99

- Linksys CIT200 Skype-enabled Cordless Internet Telephony Kit, MSRP US $129.99 (with a limited time US $15 mail-in rebate)

- Logitech Premium USB Headset 250 with an MSRP of US $39.99

- VoIP Voice Cyberphone K USB Internet phone, MSRP of $39.99

- Skype Starter Packs: the Skype Starter Pack, priced at US $4.99 until Dec. 24, 2005, allows anyone to get started with free Skype software, a Skype-enabled headset and 30 SkypeOut minutes to call any number anywhere in the world.

Now a Laptop for the poor

2005-11-30T02:38:00.000-08:00

Source: BBC News technology Nov 17, 2005

A prototype of a cheap and robust laptop for pupils has been welcomed as an "expression of global solidarity" by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Nicholas Negroponte wants to make millions of the machines

The green machine was showcased for the first time by MIT's Nicholas Negroponte at the UN net summit in Tunis.

He plans to have millions of $100 machines in production within a year. The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power consumption and will let children interact with each other while learning.

"Children will be able to learn by doing, not just through instruction - they will be able to open up new fronts for their education, particularly peer-to-peer learning," said Mr Annan. He added that the initiative was "inspiring", and held the promise of special and economic development for children in developing countries.

Green machine

A working prototype of the machine was on show

The foldable lime green laptop made its debut at the World Summit on the Information Society, which is looking at ways of narrowing the technology gap between rich and poor.

Nicknamed the green machine, it can be used as a conventional computer, or an electronic book. A child can control it using a cursor at the back of the machine or a touchpad on the front.
It can also be held and used like a handheld games console and can function as a TV.
"The idea is that it fulfils many roles. It is the whole theory that learning is seamless," said Professor Negroponte, who set up the non-profit One Laptop Per Child group to sell the laptops to developing nation governments.

"Studies have shown that kids take up computers much more easily in the comfort of warm, well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums and remote areas all around the developing world."

There has already been firm interest in the machines from governments, though no laptops have yet been manufactured.

Professor Negroponte said he had asked the most enthusiastic countries, Thailand and Brazil, not to give written commitments to buy the machines until they had seen the working model, likely to be produced in February.

There has also been interest in the machines from five manufacturers and three big brand name technology firms, but no firm commitments had been made.

Big name supporters

The laptops will be encased in rubber to make them durable and their AC adaptors will act as carrying straps.

They have a 500MHz processor, with flash memory instead of a hard drive which has more delicate moving parts, and four USB ports. They link up and share a net connection through "mesh networking".

Plans for the global domination of the children's laptop are ambitious.

"The initial plan is to start with countries that are big and very different to each other," said Professor Negroponte.
"We are launching with six countries initially, then six months later, as many countries as possible." Those include countries in the Arab world, two Asian, one sub-Saharan, and South American nations.

The project also has some big name supporters on board, including Google, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

But it will rely on open-source software so that support for local content and languages can easily be built.

Although the laptops will initially be available to government only, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is in talks with commercial manufacturers to make it available on the open market.

To take part in the initiative, governments have to commit to buying a million machines for around $100 each.

Mr Annan urged leaders and stakeholders at the summit to do their utmost in ensuring that the initiative was fully incorporated into efforts to build an inclusive information society.
"We really believe we can really make literally hundreds of millions of these machines around the world," Professor Negroponte said, as costs continued to drop.

He added that it was critical that children actually owned, instead of loaned, the machines.
To overcome the potential problem of secondary "grey markets" for the machines, Professor Negroponte said the idea was that they would be so ubiquitous and prominent it would deter potential re-selling.

"I hope there would be community pressure so it does not appear in the secondary market. The technology is in it so that the machine is disabled if not connected to the network after a few days," he added.

Sharing and collaborating

Technical breakthroughs have already driven the prototype design, but every technical breakthrough in the next five years would mean costs would continue to fall, he said.

Michail Bietsas, MIT's director of computer systems told the BBC News website that laptops benefited primarily from mesh networking, as a way of sharing scarce net connections.
One computer with a wi-fi or 3G net modem, for example, would share the connection with others in a classroom.

He explained that the display did not have a backlight or colour filters that more pricey LCD laptop displays used, so saved power. Instead, bright LEDs are used which reduced power consumption by a factor of 10.

The screens are dual-mode displays so that the laptop can still be used in varying light conditions.

Although children will be able to interact with each other through the machines, education was still the priority for the laptops.

But by using mesh networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing homework, and even share homework tips on a local community scale.

Collaboration will also be encouraged by using open-source software, which the children could develop themselves and use in local communities.

"Every single problem you can think of, poverty, peace, the environment, is solved with education or including education," said Professor Negroponte.

"So when we make this available, it is an education project, not a laptop project. The digital divide is a learning divide - digital is the means through which children learn leaning. This is, we believe, the way to do it."

Nokia identifies five phases of workforce mobility to help companies gauge and guide their use of mobile technology

2005-11-30T01:12:00.000-08:00

Nokia Press Releases: www.nokia.com dt: Nov.10, 2005

Key stages help companies measure the value of their own approach to mobile technology and outline the building blocks necessary for a successful strategy

New York, NY, USA - Leading edge? Or lagging behind? With the pace of technological change, it can be difficult for any decision maker or IT professional to know where their organization stands in deploying and effectively using a given technology, and in the still maturing world of mobile technology it can be even more challenging. While enabling a workforce with mobile voice capabilities provides certain value, overlooking other aspects of mobile technology, such as simple applications or the right type of network access, can prevent businesses from realizing the full ROI and productivity benefits the technology has to offer. It is with this in mind that Nokia is introducing five phases of workforce mobility that companies can employ to evaluate their own use of mobile technology and ensure proper planning of a successful mobile strategy. The thinking is outlined in a new report available today.

The five stages start from an organization's idea of mobile technology and the integration of mobility into an overall IT strategy, and play out the course of mobile technology to the point where the way business is done is forever changed. That shift is still ahead, but in between the two extremes lay several phases many companies can identify with now - from starting to mobilize workers as more of a matter of convenience, to taking the notion of mobility for granted and focusing on increased productivity.

Integral to getting the most from mobile technology are several building blocks Nokia has identified that companies should keep in mind when developing and implementing a mobile strategy. These pieces consist of much of the same components that make up any IT strategy, including leveraging existing assets and infrastructure, addressing diverse user needs, and ensuring security, scalability and support is in place.

"No one would consider ignoring security or support in their desktop environment, so why should it be any different for the mobile environment? Considering most employees that have a corporate PC or laptop are likely to have mobile phones as well, you can see how important the mobile world is becoming to business," said Bob Brace, vice president, mobile solutions, Nokia Enterprise Solutions. "The phases of workforce mobility we've identified are valuable in that businesses can see the large-scale impact mobile technology holds for the future, and if organizations aren't thinking about significant pieces today, they can adjust their planning to make getting there that much easier."

"Most companies today are in what we've termed the first two phases of workforce mobility. They're either working to include mobile technology as part of their IT planning and procurement, or they've accomplished that and now they're working to mobilize their workforce through voice and applications like email. Even in these early stages, taking a comprehensive approach to mobility will help avoid headaches down the road," continued Brace.

The introduction of the "phases of workforce mobility" is part of a continuing initiative for Nokia to provide businesses with the reference materials and resources they need to successfully enable mobile technology within their own organizations. To read the detailed report, visit http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,330,00.html, and for more information on Nokia's workforce mobility initiative and the latest offerings for business, visit http://www.nokia.com/business.

About Nokia

Nokia is a world leader in mobile communications, driving the growth and sustainability of the broader mobility industry. Nokia connects people to each other and the information that matters to them with easy-to-use and innovative products like mobile phones, devices and solutions for imaging, games, media and businesses. Nokia provides equipment, solutions and services for network operators and corporations. www.nokia.com

Survey: What Do Symbian S60 Device Users Want?

2005-11-30T00:59:00.000-08:00

Source: Nokia Developer Newsletter dated Nov. 22, 2005

For the uninitiated Symbian Inc has renamed Series 60 to S60 to encompass the everchanging game of Mobile device.

What do smartphone users want? According to a new survey of S60 device users, conducted by Nokia, their strongest smartphone interests are personalization, ring tones, and imaging. The survey used special software on the devices of roughly 600 users in the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, and the United States to collect hard facts on how smartphones are used. Some key findings follow.

Smartphone use goes well beyond basic voice calls and messaging. In fact, on average, the U.S. panelists employ 13 applications a week. Among those applications are browsers, camera, media gallery, profiles, and Bluetooth interfaces.

Personalization and ring tones are popular. More than 60 percent of U.S. panelists have configured thumbnail photos for their contacts, and two-thirds use photos they took with their smartphones. More than 95 percent have changed their ring tones, and about 85 percent have changed them more than once. All but 2 percent of European panelists take at least one photo each with their devices each week. About 70 percent of European panelists shoot at least one video a week. Their favorite way of moving photos from the device: Bluetooth technology.

Are there any takers ?

A Brief History of Videophones

2005-11-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

News Source: http://dailywireless.org

On June 3, 1880 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated what he considered one of his greatest inventions, the photophone. By using the sound of a human voice to vibrate a sunlit mirror towards a receiving device, Bell was able to transmit sound over an invisible beam of light.

In 1964, The Bell System showed off the first video phone at the New York World's Fair. At $21 (about $120 in todayÂs dollars), for a three minute PicturePhone call, the service between New York, Washington and Chicago was short lived. A new boxy version was released in 1969. But videophones didn't get far in the 60s when each party needed a T-1 line.

AT&T tried again with the VideoPhone 2500 introduced in 1992. It was billed as the world's first full-color, motion videophone. It worked in any home using regular phone lines. But the resulting low frame rate made awful pictures and the $1500 units were too expensive.

Forty years later, the technology may be catching on. Or not.

Thepacket8 desktop phone (below) is giving it a shot. Their one-piece videophone uses a broadband connection to transmit audio and video. It was initially listed for $299 plus a $29.95 monthly fee. It uses Packet 8's VoIP service.

Motorola's $600 OJO Videophone (right) includes a 2.4 GHz cordless phone with DSL and image compression Video4skype, allows anyone with a VoIP Skype account to make video-calls. And then there's Flash Meeting software which offers a free download of their easy-to-use videoconferencing application.

The upstream capacity of cellular's EV-DO and HSPDA networks (about 56Kbps) may limit mobile video calls for the immediate future. Mobile users may need WiFi or WiMax, which is capable of 256 Kbps or faster upstream. Soon MPEG-4 AVC chips could deliver high quality images, indoor and out.

Now it's Sony's turn.

Sony's new Instant Video Everywhere service is said to replicate the traditional telephone experience, making IP-based video and voice communications similar to placing a phone call.

The IVE service features personal video numbers, multi-person calling, video call mailbox, and live video operators.

Sony is partnering with Glowpoint to offer free, unlimited video and voice service for consumers worldwide.

Like Skype, IVE also will feature a premium service
that lets users dial traditional wireline phones and cell phones from their computers. A monthly fee of $9.95 for the premium service includes a 10-digit phone number so IVE users can receive calls from regular and mobile phones.

IVE allows customers to place video and audio calls to cell phones, telephones, and any other traditional conferencing system, and communicate face-to-face from any broadband enabled location or WiFi "hotspots".

Sony IVE is a Windows-based application that works with Windows 2000/XP software. No ÂMacÂ version is available yet. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and H.323 standards are used in the network. The GlowPoint Network uses an MPLS (Multiple Protocol Layer Switching) backbone, while the GlowPoint Video is a managed QoS IP-based system. Resolutions of 640x480 or better are possible with enough bandwidth.

With the IVE service, customers are not limited to talking only to other video users on the same proprietary service. The IVE service allows all users to directly contact all other standards-based video users and even those who do not have video access or Webcams.

Sony's video conferencing service features:

Personal Video Numbers: IVE users each get their own personal video number with which they can easily place and receive video and audio calls.

Multi-Person Calling: Users can include up to six people in an audio or video conversation.
Video Call Mailbox: Video and voice callers can leave a video or voice message when an IVE user is not available. IVE users can also personalize their full-motion video outgoing messages.
Live Video Operators: Users have Âone-clickÂ access to a Live Video Operator available for directory assistance, call transfer and more.
MyIVE User Portal: Allows real-time online call detail, access to Video Call Mailbox messages, and more.
ÂLisa,Â the IVE Video Call Assistant: With ÂLisa,Â a friendly face alerts you when your outgoing calls can not be completed because the person you're trying to reach is unavailable or the number may not be correct.
IVE Video Portal: Instant access to previews of feature motion pictures, special romotions for new Sony products, IVE service updates, video customer service and more.

Sony said the IVE service replicates the traditional telephone experience, making IP-based video and voice communications similar to placing a phone call. The service features include personal video numbers, multi-person calling, video call mailbox, live video operators and more.

Sony also has a product called LocationFreeTV which consists of two pieces, an untethered 12-inch or 7-inch LCD screen, and a Âbase station.Â The LCD screen displays video programming that it receives over a WiFi link from the base station. It also works with Sony's PSP.

Enterprise level video conferencing has been around for a while.

High definition videoconferencing, is alive and well in a hospital in Norway (right), which is the first customer of the LifeSize Room product. It features 1280x720 resolution over a 1 mbps
connection, and promises to connect to any high definition display. It uses h.264 compression and can also stream content from PC's to be shared over the connection.

Polycom is introducing a high def conferencing system. The company plans a US$6,000 upgrade kit for its high-end VSX 8000 group conferencing unit in the second quarter of 2006.

Of course Apple's $1,299 iMac G-5 (review) has a built-in iSight camera, for iChat AV with H.264.

Judy Reed Smith, founder and CEO of Atlantic ACM, told TechNewsWorld she is somewhat skeptical about the demand for Sony's new service. After all, she said, AT&T debuted a video phone at the World Fair in the 1960s that got plenty of attention but never went anywhere.

Meanwhile, Skype, bought by eBay this September, will make a national rollout on Monday. More than 3,000 RadioShack locations nationwide will begin
offering a Skype Starter Kit, which includes the software that enables a customer to use Skype's free computer-to-computer telephone service, a headset and 30 minutes of Skype's premium service, with
which a user can call a landline or cell phone, reports C/Net.

The move is an attempt by Skype, the world's largest provider of voice over Internet Protocol, to introduce its service to mainstream America. Before this deal, U.S. consumers could only get Skype service by downloading the software from the Internet. SkypeOut's 1 million paying customers represent a bit less than 4 percent of current registered users for its free Skype service.