Wireless Blog

Wireless carriers in Washington DC are expecting an explosion of cellphone traffic on Jan. 20, says the Washington Post. That’s when millions of visitors pour into Washington to welcome the new president.

Carriers are erecting extra cell sites to boost voice and data capacity, but two DC companies are also working on text messaging solutions which require much less bandwidth and can get through even when voice networks are choked.

• TeleCommunication Systems in Annapolis says the text message President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign sent to 6 million voters last year when he won the Democratic nomination.

  “That message blast was not properly coordinated with carriers,” he said, so the influx of messages was interpreted as a cyber-attack by some networks, causing the traffic to be blocked or delayed. That was because many carriers store a message for a short time before delivering it. Now TeleCommunication Systems has a product that delivers text messages immediately to save bandwidth.

  The company is also working with the Federal Communications Commission to develop a location-based broadcast system so weather alerts and public safety warnings can be sent to the cellphones of residents of a geographic area. TCS technology has delivered a record 130 billion text messages during the first three quarters of 2008 and expects to deliver close to 200 billion messages for the year.

• AppTek of McLean is hoping many inauguration attendees will use its product that translates text messages into different languages. The company has licensed its technology to other online firms including TransClick.com, isec7.com and OnsetTechnology.com. Consumers can download the software to their BlackBerrys, PDAs and other smartphones.

  AppTek is also working with DARPA to develop handheld devices that can translate two-way conversations in real time. The device is intended for use by military and intelligence workers.

Both firms hope the mass text messages that helped fuel Obama’s campaign success will continue long after the inauguration, says the Washington Post.

The WUSB display adapter set is based on Wisair’s WSR601 single chip. It will be available through Cables Unlimited in the U.S. and will be demonstrated at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2009 (via Press Release from Wisair - January 5, 2009) Campbell, California - Wisair, a leading provider of single-chip based Wireless USB solutions, today announced [...]

Smith Micro Software has been selected by Clearwire to deliver connection management software for mobile WiMAX.

Smith Micro customized the connection manager specifically to Clear’s mobile WiMAX requirements. This application features a highly refined user interface emphasizing ease-of-use, reliability and simplicity. The application also supports most major WiMAX devices in the industry today.

“Clearwire is focused on delivering a simple value proposition for customers of our new ‘Clear’ mobile Internet services to be launched in Portland, Oregon in early 2009,” said Scott Richardson, chief strategy officer of Clearwire. “We turned to Smith Micro to develop an easy-to-use connection manager that would provide our customers with seamless, simple access to our new Clear mobile WiMAX network.”

Smith Micro Software enable people to connect, share, distribute and manage information over wireless and wired networks. Clearwire launches in Portland tomorrow. Dailywireless will be there.

Twenty two-year-old Paul W. Sinker III of Stroudsbourg, PA got his car mired in the mud early on New Year’s Day after an evening of partying. He called OnStar for assistance and, after the police were called, things went downhill.

He was given a field sobriety test and subsequently arrested.

Apple’s last Macworld Expo starts tomorrow — without CEO Steve Jobs. This morning Jobs put out an open letter to address questions about his health.

Jobs’ letter boils down to “no, I’m not dying, but I am ill, and so I’m not up to doing the keynote.” He explains that, as many onlookers have noted, he’s “been losing weight throughout 2008″.

Jobs said the cause appears to be “a hormone imbalance that has been ‘robbing’ me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.” Jobs will continue as CEO while he is regaining weight in what he called a “simple and straightforward” remedy.

A new Mac mini is rumored for Macworld 2009. The new model includes a Mini DVI connector as well as a Mini DisplayPort. With these two new connecting points, users could enable two displays at the same time. A new 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro with a fixed internal battery is also expected along with a refresh of the iMac line. A 28-inch model, a set of 24-inch devices, and two 20-inch variants are expected by MacNN. The company could be transitioning to NVIDIA-based integrated graphics with the 20-inch refreshes, while the 28-inch iMac is said to feature an Intel i7 Core processor.

Meanwhile, over at CES in Las Vegas, the show goes on (Engadget, Gizmodo and C/Net). Here are 25 hot products at CES including Cables To Go.

The USB to VGA Adapter Kit is a wireless VGA solution for connecting a computer to a monitor or projector. The kit lets users wirelessly display video content from a computer to a remote monitor, projector or television up to 30 feet away. The Wireless USB to VGA Adapter Kit uses Ultra-Wide Band and operates in the frequency of 3.1GHz to 4.8GHz (WiMedia Band Group 1).

Other highlights include Nvidia’s $199 glasses that turn compatible monitors into three-dimensional displays, using LCD shutters to quickly alternate between left and right images. The wireless glasses come with an adapter that plugs into a regular USB slot.

Connect Minoru to your PC and he will come alive, his eyes will light up and he will be looking at you in 3D.

The new IdeaPad S10 netbook from Lenovo will pack LenovoSocial, a suite for “social networking enthusiasts,” along with VeriFace facial recognition tech and a multi-touch trackpad.

It should be able in March for $349. Available in black, white, red, blue, or pink. The S-10 is fairly unique in that it also features an Express Card slot.

Lenovo announced four PCs today – the IdeaPad Y650, Y550, Y450 laptops and an all-in-one desktop dubbed the IdeaCentre A600.

The IdeaPad Y650 has a 16-inch screen, is an inch thick at its thinnest point and weighs about 5.6 pounds. The Y550 and Y450 have 15.6 inch and 14 inch screens, respectively. The Y650 will run you $1,199 with the Y550 and Y450 priced at $829 to start.

The A600 desktop is Lenovo’s first all-in-one design and comes with a 21.5 inch screen. Lenovo said that the desktop, which starts at $999, is an inch thick at its thinnest point and is designed for entertainment, high-def and gaming.

The ThinkPad W700ds (above), a dual screen mobile workstation, has a 17 inch screen and a 10.6 inch secondary screen attached. The secondary screen can also pivot. This dual-screen laptop starts at $3,663.

China last week approved long-awaited licences for next generation mobile networks, whetting investor appetites with the promise of major new orders for equipment makers and revenue for network operators.

Freescale Semiconductor is entering the fast-growing netbook market with a solution that promises to make possible portable devices that feature 8.9-inch displays, eight hours of battery life, and prices under $200.

Freescale's solution is based on its new i.MX515 processor featuring ARM Cortex-A8 technology. The solution includes software, components and resources that aim to help OEMs rapidly develop and deploy netbooks.

"We see a huge opportunity in the netbook market as consumers demand more cost-effective and higher-performing solutions," said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale's networking and multimedia group. "Our solution for netbooks will enable OEMs to develop compelling products that feature cell-phone-like battery life at extremely aggressive price points."

Explosive Market

Freescale is offering a netbook reference design based on the i.MX515 processor created in collaboration with Pegatron. The reference design incorporates the processor, Canonical's Ubuntu operating system, a new power management integrated circuit from Freescale, the SGTL5000 ultra low-power audio codec, and Adobe Flash Lite for mobile devices.

According to ABI Research, consumers are expected to purchase 140 million netbooks in 2013, compared with only 15 million in 2008. Often priced between $300 and $400, netbooks provide more than enough performance for a host of Internet activities such as social networking, Web surfing and using e-mail.

"As was evident in the 2008 holiday season, the netbook market has exploded due to consumer demand for affordable and compact devices that allow users to conduct routine tasks like social networking or shopping on the Web," said Philip Solis, principal analyst at ABI. "The netbook market is still in its infancy, and it represents a huge market opportunity for companies like Freescale. As advanced platforms for netbooks become increasingly available, price points will drop and the market will expand."

Keeping Costs Low

The Freescale solution is engineered to keep costs low by incorporating highly integrated...

Lenovo has released a new mobile workstation expressly designed to eliminate the user compromise of having only one display available on the go.

Called the ThinkPad W700ds, the new dual-screen machine sports a primary screen with 1920x1200-pixel resolution and a second 768x1280-pixel color display that slides out from the machine's cover. "That's 10.6 inches on the diagonal," said ThinkPad team member Wes Williams.

Covering All the Angles

The integration of a second color screen only contributes a few extra millimeters of thickness compared to the machine's predecessor, the single-screen W700. Like an automobile's rear-view mirror, the second screen can be tilted up to 30 degrees.

The primary color display, which measures 17 inches diagonally, delivers 400-nit luminance performance when users select the WUXGA screen option. By comparison, the luminance delivered by most computer displays typically ranges between 50 and 300 nits.

"The 400-nit display is super-bright," said Lenovo spokesperson Kristy Fair. "There are other optional displays, but the 400-nit is the brightest."

Moreover, the WUXGA screen's 72 percent wide color gamut enables a color intensity boost of more than 50 percent. "Color gamut is the screen's ability to display a wide range of colors -- the higher the gamut, the more intense the colors are," Fair explained. "For users in fields like photography and digital content creation, this is important."

Customization Options

Every time Williams used to go on the road he had to lug around a second monitor, a color-calibration unit, a digitizer and pen, and a backup hard drive as well as the computing system. "Now there is a better way," Williams said.

The ThinkPad W700ds provides users with a wide array of configuration options to meet mobile workstation needs. For example, it can be customized with solid-state storage, dual integrated hard drives that can be configured for high-speed or mirror RAID, and...

Freescale on Monday is expected to announce a new processor for netbooks that may challenge chip maker Intel on price in the low-cost computing space.