Wireless Blog

Wireless networks bring flexibility, but IT managers say interference, latency and security issues can be challenging.

Verizon Wireless will introduce MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot on May 17. Developed by Novatel Wireless, the MiFi 2200 lets customers create a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing the reliability and high-speed Internet connectivity of the Verizon Wireless 3G Mobile Broadband network with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as notebooks, ...

LaCie has presented two new NAS systems; the Big Disk Network and d2 Network. LaCie announced today the availability of two new high capacity Network Attached Storage solutions - Big Disk Network and d2 Network.

Despite the excitement for Amazon's new 9.7-inch Kindle DX, there's still some uncertainty about which segment of the book-reading market is most likely to drop nearly $500 on the electronic reader. A number of different possibilities have been suggested, including the elderly (large print is easier to do on the Kindle), newspaper readers (unlikely), and, perhaps most promisingly, college students.

College textbooks ring up a cool $10 billion per year in sales, and Amazon no doubt would love to get a piece of that action. But while the college and university crowd may be more receptive to the idea of an e-reader (and have the disposable cash to buy one in the first place), it's still not a slam dunk.

A Greener Campus

One way in which Amazon is trying to make the Kindle DX more compelling to students and institutions is by pitching the device's environmental aspects. Six colleges and universities -- including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' alma mater, Princeton -- have signed up to participate in a pilot program to test the Kindle DX on campus. Students at each school will be able to sign up for one of three courses and receive a Kindle for testing electronic textbooks. The other participants include Pace University, Case Western Reserve University, Reed College, Arizona State University, and the Darden School at the University of Virginia.

According to the The Daily Princetonian, Princeton's student newspaper, the university printed more than 10 million pages from so-called cluster printers. The hope is that Kindle-equipped students won't need to print out articles or chapters, but instead download them and read them electronically. Even a small decrease in printing would result in a substantial savings for the school.

Both Amazon and the universities suggest that over time, the Kindle will reduce the number of outdated textbooks that wind up in...

The Asus Eee PC T91 net-tablet is coming to the UK in late May or early June, reports Electric Pig. No word on a launch date or price for the US, but it has passed FCC tests here.

Some stores have apparently been taking pre-orders for the T91 for around $549 (although that pricing was based on guesswork and is subject to change).

The Asus netbook tablet features an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen display, a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU, and a 5 hour battery. The netbook will weigh about 2 pounds and run Windows XP and a suite of touch-friendly applications designed by Asus.

Mobile-phone users with Microsoft Windows Mobile devices and who have a Facebook account can keep up with what their friends are doing, thanks to a new Microsoft application. The software giant made Facebook for Windows Mobile available for download on its Web site.

Users of Windows Mobile 6.0 or higher can use the Facebook application to call or send messages to any of the people on their friends list; take photos and videos, then upload them to Facebook; and manage their profile.

"Now your status updates can be up-to-the moment accounts of what you're doing," Microsoft's Web site said. "Show your friends what you're up to while you're out and about."

Windows Mobile 6 is powered by Windows CE 5.0 and is linked to Windows Live and Exchange 2007 products. The standard was meant to be similar in design to Windows Vista. The functionality of Windows 6 works much like Windows Mobile 5, but is much more stable.

Mobile Apps

Facebook as a mobile application isn't new, but more companies and carriers are making Facebook available on the phone.

"As an app, yes, {Microsoft} is late to the party considering that (Research in Motion's)BlackBerry and (Apple's) iPhone already have it, and, in some cases, the Facebook app is on its later editions to those platforms," said Ramon Llamas, senior analyst of the mobile devices technology trends team at IDC.

Already, Facebook boasts 5.3 million monthly active users on the application for BlackBerry devices. Last July, Facebook made Facebook for iPhone available through Apple's App Store.

"But keep in mind that Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile devices would have allowed users access to the Facebook Web site anyway," Llamas added. "The fact that this is a stand-alone application will be a value add for customers who visit the site frequently."

Jumping on the Facebook Bandwagon

While Microsoft is behind...

I learned one rule about gunslingers. There’s always a man faster on the draw than you are, and the more you use a gun, the sooner you’re gonna run into that man.
- Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Ericsson’s long-awaited universal base station is out of the lab and into the equipment closet. Verizon Wireless will be among the first to receive the new multi-standard platform, reports Telephony, deploying it in its forthcoming long-term evolution (LTE) network.

Ericsson executives say the kit is already deployed in an existing operator’s high-speed packet access (HSPA) deployment, though they did not reveal whose. Unveiled at Mobile World Congress in 2008, the RBS 6000 is Ericsson’s first software-upgradable base station, supporting GSM, GPRS/EDGE, Wideband CDMA and eventually LTE.

Ericsson is also introducing Evo RAN, a Radio Access Network (RAN) solution enabling operators to run GSM, WCDMA and LTE as a single network. It is intended to simplify network management, lower costs and reduce power consumption. Ericsson’s RBS 6000 is now a key component of Evo RAN. The solution also includes a new common network controller, the Evo Controller 8000. Evo RAN will also be available for existing GSM and WCDMA sites based on Ericsson’s RBS 2000/3000 base stations.

LTE is cellular’s next generation (pdf) as defined by the 3GPP (Third-Generation Partnership Project) and supports operations in both the paired spectrum and unpaired spectrum. It supports channel bandwidths of 1.4-20MHz and MIMO. The wide international support for LTE ensures economies of scale, enabling cost-effective solutions for network operators.

Verizon Wireless this week announced that it has activated 11 new cell sites in Illinois in the first quarter and is on target to build a total of 96 new cell sites in 2009 in the state. Verizon is expected to become the first wireless company to offer commercial LTE-based service, starting in 2010.

Roger Gurnani, senior VP of product development at Verizon Wireless told Unstrung in April that the operator would build out LTE in its nationwide footprint within two or three years of the 2010 launch. Melone said Verizon Wireless would continue to rely on its CDMA 1x network for voice traffic during its LTE rollout. And though LTE can simultaneously support voice and data communications, Melone said the carrier will most likely use LTE for data. Verizon and its LTE providers, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, have announced the Verizon Innovation Center to develop applications for the new platform.

Ron Resnick, director of the WiMAX Forum says the fundamental differences between WiMAX and LTE are in the business models and service focuses, “Where WiMAX is all about openness and enables true broadband Internet services; on the other hand, LTE as the 3G migration path, has to address legacy service continuity such as voice”. Clear’s Innovation Network will launch in Silicon Valley this summer.

Perhaps Chicago will see a shootout between Mobile WiMAX and LTE in 2010.

Developers received a bit of a surprise from Apple on Thursday. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company told developers in an e-mail that millions of iPhone and iPod touch customers will move to iPhone OS 3.0 this summer and, as a result, it has changed its application review policy.

"Beginning today, all submissions to the App Store will be reviewed on the latest beta of iPhone OS 3.0," wrote Apple in its e-mail. "If your app submission is not compatible with iPhone OS 3.0, it will not be approved."

Apple suggested developers begin testing apps now, since iPhone SDK 3.0 beta 5 is now available on the iPhone developer Web site.

Developer Stress

Because Apple hasn't given developers a release date for iPhone 3.0, some developers reported feeling left in the dark because they must develop applications that operate on 3.0 but don't use 3.0 features. Currently, developers cannot submit a 3.0-only application since it must run on 2.0.

But Alex Sokirynsky, the developer behind Podcaster and RSS Player, said he wasn't surprised and neither should any other developer.

"I have been testing RSS Player with the new firmware since 3.0 Beta 1 came out," Sokirynsky said. "My developer friends and I are all really excited about 3.0. Any good developer should have been planning for this from the initial announcement several months ago."

On the flip side, Sokirynsky said developers may be stressing over the time it will take to learn the new operating system. "Apple did add a huge amount of new APIs, so this is going to take some time to learn," he said.

Changes Expensive

The changes may also force developers to invest more in technology to test new apps running on 3.0, and that could be a hardship for small-development shops.

"Currently, I have a small server setup to serve search results to users," Sokirynsky said....

Bell today announced the $142-million acquisition by Bell Mobility of the 50% stake in Virgin Mobile Canada not already owned by Bell, along with an exclusive, long-term licensing agreement with the Virgin Group for continued use of the Virgin Mobile brand in Canada.

Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos makes no bones in singling out a group likely to lose out as a result of the introduction of the company's new e-book reader: ink sellers. The Kindle DX, unveiled in New York on May 6, features a 9.7-inch screen designed to make it easier to read electronic versions of newspapers, magazines, and educational textbooks.

With a bigger screen than previous iterations, this Kindle is also intended for reading PDFs and other documents frequently printed on paper. If users are reading electronic versions of documents, they may not need to print as many. That in turn may curb demand for the toner cartridges Bezos laughingly referred to in remarks to journalists as "evil companions."

But purveyors of high-priced printer ink may not be the only ones on the losing side of the new Kindle. At least for now, advertisers appear to have been cut out of the Kindle picture. Early in May, when rumors began circulating that a new Kindle was on its way, the advertising industry speculated that it might contain space for digitized marketing messages. Publishers such as The New York Times or The Huffington Post news-and-blog site, the thinking went, might be able to channel ads based on a reader's geographic location or characteristics that could be gleaned from their use of the Kindle DX, says Garner analyst Mike McGuire.

No mention of advertisers was made at the product's launch. "Is there an opportunity for advertising? It wasn't brought up," McGuire says. That likely means it won't happen in the foreseeable future. An Amazon spokesman confirms that no method for serving ads on the device is currently in place.

No Deal for Existing Owners

And what of the owners of smaller, previously introduced Kindle devices? Do they get any discount on the new Kindle, which after all...