Archive for February 15th, 2006
Seamlessly manage your music and mobile phone from a control panel, with backlit digital display, located externally on your sleeve.
•One-touch phone control including voice dial, receive and end a call and mute function via Bluetooth wireless connection between your jacket and phone
•One-touch iPod control, including playlist, artist, album and track navigation, volume up/down and play/pause/stop via an intuitive click wheel style button
•Removable control panel, speakers, mic and rechargeable battery
•Compatible with any brand of Bluetooth 1.1 or 1.2-enabled mobile phone that supports “headset” or “hands-free” Bluetooth profiles
•Compatible with any Generation 3 or newer iPod with Docking Connector (Excluding iPod Shuffle)
Burton and Motorola have launched the Burton Audex line of winter jackets (US$600 sans iPod or RAZR) with a hidden network of wired and Bluetooth connections that let you take mobile calls while listening to an iPod on the slopes. A sleeve LCD panel features caller ID and track controls.
February 15th, 2006
Upcoming Intel-based Mac Minis will not sport an integrated iPod dock, a variety of sources said to be familiar with Apple’s plans have claimed. Such a move was predicted late last year, with the precedent of discoveries made in March 2005 that the computer had the internal connections necessary for a built-in dock.
So might the Intel-based Mac Mini, but an AppleInsider report citing information received from “multiple contacts” said Apple has decided not to add the feature this time round.
he following November, Apple-watching website ThinkSecret said its sources claimed an Intel-based Mac Mini, codenamed ‘Kaleidoscope’, will sport a built-in dock along PVR functionality. However, AppleInsider this week said it had been unable to confirm the inclusion of PVR software.
February 15th, 2006
The Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Loox T810 is an advanced 3G phone running Windows Mobile 5.0, complete with WiFi and GPS navigation. The T830 model adds a 2.0 megapixel main camera plus VGA sub camera. It also features a QWERTY keyboard and a large 2.4″ 240×240 pixel transflective touch-sensitive display.
The Pocket Loox may have a somewhat long-winded name, but it’s one of the most impressive smartphones we’ve seen to date, and the fact that it comes from Fujitsu Siemens is a nice surprise (and ironically, it’s competing somewhat with the P50 from the BenQ Siemens stable).
Looking a little deeper under the hood, the Pocket Loox has a 416MHz Intel PXA270 Xscale processor, 64Mb of memory (expandable using SD/MMC cards - slot is SDIO compatible), GSM 900/1800/1900 plus UMTS 2100 support, 802.11b and g WiFi support and Bluetooth. There are optional navigation packages to use with the SIRFstar III GPS module, although cost and availability is not known at present.
The software package is pretty impressive too, with Windows Mobile 5.0, Pocket versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Internet Explorer, plus Windows Media Player 10, MSN Messenger and various other applications available for the Pocket Loox platform. The Pocket Loox also supports VOIP calls.
The Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Loox is a big, heavy phone though. At 190 grams and 126×64x21mm, it’s one of the largest devices around. Of course, it’s also one of the best specified handsets on the market too, and it’s lighter than the Nokia 9500 and substantially less weighty than the HTC Universal.
On the negative side, the screen is only 240×240 pixels which is less than the 240×320 pixel you’d expect for a device like this (although the transflective display could be impressive by the sounds of it). And it would be nicer to see more use made of the GPS capabilities, as the Pocket Loox does not seem to include a satellite navigation capability as standard.
Having a camera version and a non-camera version is a nice touch, as it will give the Pocket Loox a broader appeal. We wish more manufacturers would do this.
Overall, the Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Loox is an extremely impressive bit of kit, considering that this is the company’s first attempt at a device of this type. It’s a promising looking device, and it should have other manufacturers worried.
Estimated availability of the Pocket Loox T810 and T830 is early Q3 2006, priced at around 700 Euro.
February 15th, 2006
Sony will be presenting the next-generation entertainment device at the Taipei Game Show, and Chinese-language paper the Commercial Times said Sony will devote a quarter of its extensive 80-booth show space to the PS3.
The show won’t mark the PS3’s first public outing - it was shown at the E3 event in May 2005 and more recently at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held last month in Las Vegas. In each instance, however, the boxes on display are believed to have been dummy cases, not fully operational prototypes. Where the console has been seen to be doing something, it’s just been pumping out rolling graphics demos.
It’s tempting to hope that will see the first reports from gamers who’ve got their hands on the highly anticipated console, but we suspect Sony will hold back until next May’s E3. Taiwan is unlikely to be a focus market for the PS3’s launch, not like the US, Europe and Japan. Even Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has yet to launch there - it’s currently scheduled for a March 16 debut after the software giant was forced to delay the console’s release because of “supply constraints”.
February 15th, 2006
We’ve heard of designing gadgets for girls, but NEC’s latest music and movie player takes the cake. Preferring not to spray the device metallic pink, the technique favoured for other female-friendly toys, the company has instead styled the 30GB hard drive-based VoToL PK-MV300 after a perfume bottle.
The VoToL sports a 2.7in, 320 x 240, 65,536-colour display on side and the player’s name on the other. What might be taken for the bottle’s cap is the main control, ready to activate selected MPEG 2, MPEG 4 and WMV 9 videos, and MP3, AAC, Ogg, WAV and WMA DRM audio tracks. NEC has built in an SD card slot to allow images taken on digital cameras to be copied across the VoToL’s hard drive - the player will show JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP images, and can text files too.
NEC said the new device sports an aqueous user interface - a “liquid GUI” that represents the player’s volume , battery charge and other settings with a water-level visual accompanied by watery gurgling and plopping sounds.
The 188g player measures 12.3 x 6.1 x 1.8-2.2cm and contains a rechargeable lithium-ion battery good, claimed NEC, for four hours’ video playback.
To be fair, NEC is pitching the product at trendy young Japanese folk of either gender - it reckons the VoToL has a suitable unisex look.
February 15th, 2006
Volkswagen is partnering with Google to devise an in-car navigation device that plots your path using Google Earth images and points-of-interest (POI) data rather than the more basic vector graphics displayed by today’s sat nav units.
VW’s pitch for the product - as reported by EETimes - is that it will make for a more natural representation of the drive’s route than current navigation tools provide.
While you’re driving the last thing you should be doing is peering at a tiny screen trying to figure out where you’re heading, but it may well make position-fixing easier when you’ve pulled over.
Of course, Google will need to enhance the quality of many of its maps, particularly if VW wants to offer the product outside the US. Even in the West, rural-area maps can be a tad low-resolution on Google Earth, we’ve found.
Beyond the imagery, the unit sounds like a typical GPS-based navigation system, offering route planning, POI signalling and re-routing around hazards. At this stage it’s unclear whether users would download the maps onto the unit en masse on a journey-by-journey basis, or directly via a mobile phone network 3G data connection.
“With this kind of system, you could see the hotel where you’re staying, instead of just getting directions from A to B,” said Arne Stoschek, head of displays and sensor materials at Vokswagen’s Palo Alto, California-based Electronic Research Lab. Well, the hotel’s roof, at the very least…
February 15th, 2006
If you’re more about form rather than function, then the new fashionphone available from T-Mobile is right up your alley. This MP3-Chocolate phone, as it’s been called, doesn’t have a heck of a lot of features to it, but it sure looks hot doing it. The sleek design includes an internal antenna and incredibly smooth finish.
Jam away to all your favourite tunes using the embedded media player, which interestingly also does video playback (MPEG-4) on its less than huge 128 x 128 pixel LCD display. If the 32MB internal memory doesn’t do it for you, you can also expand with a microSD card. But if you’re looking for high speed data transfer, the only acronym you’re going to find attached to this Chocolate phone is SMS. No EDGE, GPRS, or WAP here.
This sleek, square handset weighs in at a mere 54 grams, and it’s chocolate; I still haven’t figured out exactly what that means. Look for this phone at your local T-Mobile retailer some time in the second quarter.
February 15th, 2006
At 3GSM World Conference , Steve Ballmer CEO of Microsoft announced the latest Microsoft creation to take on the BlackBerry, Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile.
The software is based on MS Office Communicator 2005 desktop client and has been designed for the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server. It allows mobile workers to have real-time communications with secure instant messaging and integrate Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony.
Microsoft already has support from 102 mobile operators and 47 device manufacturers, including Hewlett Packard and Symbol Technologies. The new mobile offering will hit the streets in 55 countries like a pandemic. Mobile real-time communications will be at everyones fingertips.
February 15th, 2006
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. That seems to be the mantra of the major toy manufacturers these days.
Many of the big dogs in the toy business, such as Hasbro, are jumping on to the iPod bandwagon, the same destination that they couldn’t wait to abhor until just a few weeks ago. With sales down across the board in recent months, toymakers are looking to cash in on what they see as an exciting new trend.
You can see for yourself at the American International Toy Fair, which is running this week in snowy New York. Anything remotely musical, it seems, has an iPod connection. A short perusal finds electronic drumsticks, electronic guitars, and even electronic playmates approximating speakers. What do they all have in common besides their need for electrical current? They are all made with the iPod lover in mind.
Check out Baby Einstein, which is showing off a rocking chair that connects to an iPod so that parents can sing along to their favorite lullabies while they rock their youngsters to sleep.
Heard of SpongeBob? Of course you have. But he’s also heard of the iPod, as evidenced by Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants speaker system, which happens to include iPod plug-and-play functionality.
Staying in the musical vein, Blue Box is offering an electronic guitar, drumsticks, and stage mike, all part of an iPod-compatible plug-and-play set for the budding musician.
Hasbro, one of the giants of the toy industry, has its own innovative iPod-enabled toys, including I-Dog and I-Cat. These furry friends are extremely interactive and allow children to create their own tunes by simply petting the toys.
February 15th, 2006
STMicroelectronics has just started the mass production of its STLC4370 Mobile Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) chip, which is geared towards mobile phone use.
Its diminutive size allows it to be used on a wide variety of mobile devices, including small PDAs and fold-open portable keyboards. In fact, the chip has already been incorporated into several Wi-Fi mobile phones that were recently released in the market.
The STLC4XXX line of chips will expand with an IEEE 802.11b/g and an IEEE 802.11a/b/g in the first quarter of this year. The cost of the chip has been cut to speed up the use and support of WLAN connectivity in mobile phones.
WLAN mobile phones can access business email services and advanced voice features, including Internet Protocol PBX. The STLC4370’x support for IEEE802.11e Quality of Service guarantees dependable performance. It also uses consolidated security capabilities that utilize IEEE802.11i and Wi-Fi protected access functions to safeguard data.
Secure Digital Input/Output (SDIO) or Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) supporting clock speeds of up to 40Mbps furnish host controls. The WLAN driver uses the Symbian OS and Series 60 UI, enabling it to have energy-saving features which prolong standby and talk times. Though it is especially designed for cellular phones, the STLC4370 can also be used for other handheld devices such as PDAs and digital cameras. For non-cellular units, the STLC4370 provides a wide range of Linux drivers which provide a fast development of tablet or multimedia formats.
The STLC4370 has a consolidated single-chip WLAN. In addition, it has an RF/VCO, ZIF transceiver, and an OFDM/CCK digital baseband processor, among the many other features and capabilities that it has.
February 15th, 2006
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