Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Sony cooks up gaming phone, applies for patent
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
Labels: Mobile companies, Mobile Innovations, Mobiles
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Wireless Recharging for Mobile Phones
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
Labels: Mobile companies, Mobile Innovations, Mobiles
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Motorola patents solar charging tech for cell phones
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
Labels: Mobile companies, Mobile Innovations, Mobiles
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Nokia first to offer energy-saving alerts on mobile phones
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
Labels: Mobile companies, Mobile Innovations, Mobiles, Nokia Mobiles
