Here’s why TI’s mobile video projector just might succeed

http://news.com.com/TI+demos+its+movie+projector+in+a+phone/2100-1041_3-6170619.html
Here’s why TI’s mobile video projector just might succeed

Texas Instruments is showing its digital light processing (DLP) "pico" projector at CTIA. This is a tiny movie projector that can fit inside a cell phone.

The goal of this unreleased device is to substantially increase the user experience of watching video on a cellphone.


Inside, we learn that the 1.5 inch-long projector has three lasers, a DLP chip and a power supply. With these components, a handset could beam what TI is claiming to be DVD-quality video from the cellphone onto a screen aor even a wall. As a result, the projector can serve as a video player and a television. A wide screen tv, at that.

To me, this technology substantially increases the desirability of watching mobile tv. Why? Because the tv experience is not on the handset itself. Instead, the handset becomes a conveyance for transferring the video to a more visually ergonomic form factor.

Symbian OS v9.5 Brings More Features for Smartphones

Symbian OS v9.5 Brings More Features for Smartphones
See left for the rest of today's 3G news from 3G.co.uk
27th March , 2007
US : Symbian Ltd. announced the launch of Symbian OS v9.5, the latest evolution of the world’s leading operating system for smartphones. Symbian OS v9.5 brings high performance features designed for richer consumer and enterprise experiences as well as significant savings to phone build costs and time-to-market, delivering a truly scalable mobile operating system for the global market.

Symbian OS v9.5 is the result of continued deep collaboration with Symbian OS licensees, the world’s leading handset vendors, and its user interface platform partners MOAP, S60 and UIQ. With over 110 million Symbian smartphones shipped, high smartphone growth in developing markets and increasing mass market requirements, Symbian’s addressable market is broadening across segments and regions.

“Symbian is driving the market by anticipating consumers’ mobile lifestyle changes – this means enabling even richer experiences and seamless multi-tasking to make the most of tomorrow’s technology”, said Jørgen Behrens, executive vice president, marketing, Symbian. “Further, by lowering phone development cost and shortening time to market, Symbian OS v9.5 delivers on the promise of bringing the smartphone lifestyle to the mass market.”

“By reducing hardware requirements which enables cost reductions of devices, many Symbian smartphones will become even more affordable and Symbian's addressable global market will expand,” said Todd Kort, principal analyst, Gartner. “At the same time, Symbian will also help handset vendors deliver much richer multimedia capabilities driving growth in the higher-end of the mobile market. With more than 70 % market share, the launch of Symbian OS v9.5 and the burgeoning smartphone market, Symbian is well positioned to continue to drive the smartphone into the mass market." Gartner forecasts that worldwide smartphone shipments will reach 159 million units in 2008, up from 73.6 million in 2006.

Symbian OS v9.5, backward compatible with all versions of the v9 family, includes the following key enhancements:

Higher performance for lower hardware cost
Symbian OS v9.5 delivers performance improvements with reductions in requirements on memory, processor and battery, enabling smartphones based on Symbian OS v9.5 to run on feature phone hardware. Key memory optimization features including demand paging and automatic RAM de-fragmentation can reduce average RAM usage in excess of 25 per cent, allowing for more concurrent applications for an even better user experience or enabling licensees to include less memory and reduce phone build cost.

These features and more deliver substantial benefits in the areas of performance and power usage: faster device start-up time, faster start-up time of popular applications such as browser, email and navigation by up to 75%, and improvements on the already highly competitive battery life of Symbian smartphones.

Faster time-to-market
Symbian is continuing to improve time-to-market for handset vendors, system integrators and developers. Symbian OS v9.5 introduces standardized support for digital TV and location-based services (LBS) making it cheaper and easier to bring these popular services to the mass market.

The introduction of a SQL database offers developers a well known interface for storing and retrieving high-cardinality application data. This, together with integrated P.I.P.S. – P.I.P.S. Is POSIX on Symbian OS - helps developers port existing applications from the desktop or server environment to Symbian OS with minimal effort and in less time.

Designed for richer user experiences :
Multimedia

Symbian smartphones based on Symbian OS v9.5 will support rich multimedia experiences with advanced camera features similar to standalone digital cameras. The 35 new camera features include support for tilt sensors, preset image enhancements, panorama stitching, and red-eye reduction.

With improved seamless connectivity to home computers, enabling the easy transfer of music, videos and images using MTP, one smartphone can replace several devices. In addition, with support for multi-standard digital TV (DVB-H, ISDB-T) and standardized LBS, the Symbian smartphone will bring true convergence to consumers worldwide.

Enterprise

New Symbian smartphones will enable users to be more productive and cost effective with Wi-Fi to 3G connection roaming. Professionals will benefit from push-email and VoIP run over Wi-Fi when in the office and automatically switch to 3G when on the move. In addition, real-time networking ensures that VoIP services are not interrupted when other IP-based services, such as web browsing or push email, make a connection.

Symbian OS v9.5 offers contacts hosted in SQL, providing better support for large database search performances, ideal for customer-facing professionals that store thousands of contacts in their phones. Support for the new GEO property will encourage innovative use of meeting location with positioning/LBS. The interoperability of calendars with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes has been upgraded and support for Exchange ActiveSync Protocol (OTA) continues to deliver remote email, contacts and calendar synchronization.

Symbian OS v9 already offers the best-in-class security model of any open mobile operating system, designed to meet the most stringent security requirements from network operators, handset manufacturers and enterprises.

Smartphone lifestyle

The introduction of Brahmic script support in Symbian OS v9.5 extends Symbian OS support of languages to cover 99% of the world’s countries and the support for global standards including HSPDA, HSUPA and DVB-H as well as ISDB-T, makes Symbian OS the only true global mobile operating system powering both mass market and high-end mobile phones.

Symbian is committed to providing the world’s leading handset vendors with the most competitive mobile operating system to meet the demands of the mass market and the rich experiences of tomorrow’s smartphone lifestyle.

Federal Judge bars Vonage’s use of Verizon’s patented technology

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/ < Snippet from >
March 23rd, 2007
Federal Judge bars Vonage’s use of Verizon’s patented technologyPosted by Russell Shaw @ 10:05 am Categories: General, Verizon VoiceWing, Vonage

+00 votes Worthwhile?
Traveling today but this is so urgent I had to tell you.
A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against Vonage using technology included in any of three VoIP-related patents owned by Verizon.
Judge Claude Hilton said that an injunction was necessary because simply providing monetary damages "does not prevent continued erosion of the client base of the plaintiff," the Associated Press reported.
On March 8, a federal jury found that Vonage violated several of Verizon's patents and ordered the Internet-phone company to pay $58 million in damages as well sizable royalty fees. At that time, Verizon, said it would seek an injunction to block Vonage from using its patented technology.
At first take, hardly a market-confidence builder for Vonage. As more details and reax emerge, I'll be monitoring this, and offering my take later today and over the weekend.

Symbian upgrades its OS, fights off rivals

Symbian upgrades its OS, fights off rivals
This is a snippet from http://gigaom.com/2007/03/24/symbian-os-9-5/#more-8512
CTIA 2007: Symbian, the mobile OS company is expected to announce an upgrade to its OS to version 9.5 at CTIA, that hopefully will decrease its reliance on smartphones, its main patron Nokia, and also ward off competition from fast growing rival mobile operating systems, Windows Mobile and Linux.
The upgrade is even more crucial for the London-based company because large mobile carriers - Vodafone in particular - want to support as few operating systems as possible.
In 2006 Symbian had 76% share of the smartphone market, thanks to its very close relationship with Nokia (which owns 47.9% of the company, rest being shared amongst other handset makers), which had 56% share of the global smartphone market. Nokia’s E-Series and N-Series phones have been particularly popular in non-US markets. But competition from Windows Mobile and Linux is increasing according to ABI Research, a market research company. Symbian’s share of the smart phone market is going to decline to around 46% by 2012.
[ABI] Research director Stuart Carlaw remarks that, “It is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ Linux will have an impact upon this market. “
With the new OS upgrade, Symbian is trying to increase its appeal, betting that it can sneak its way into more mainstream handsets (called feature handsets in industry parlance.) The new OS is going to make more efficient use of memory, battery and other resources, making it more flexible for use in mainstream phones.
The new OS will allow Wi-Fi 3G roaming. Push-email and VoIP run over WiFi when in the office and automatically switch to 3G when on the move. In addition, Symbian has added real-time networking ensures that VoIP is not interrupted when other IP-based services, such as web browsing or push email, make a connection.
The new version will give multimedia features a major boost. The camera features would now include image orientation, image distortion correction auto-focus such as red-eye reduction - 35 improvements you find in a typical standalone digital camera.
The system will have better connectivity with home computers, via wireless and The new OS upgrade supports multi-standard digital TV (DVB-H, ISDB-T) and standardized LBS.

Skype-Trolltech deal should speed up time-to-market for Skype WiFi apps

Skype-Trolltech deal should speed up time-to-market for Skype WiFi apps


If you are Skype, you really, really want your User Interface to connect smoothly to the operating system used in Skype-certified WiFi handsets.



Best way to accomplish this is to choose an application platform that bridges what could be a chasm if not handled well.

I am guessing that's a key reason why Skype announced earlier this week that they have selected Trolltech's Qtopia as the preferred platform for doing exactly what I described.

Trolltech=mobile device software and solutions developer, based in Oslo, Norway.

As several Trolltech execs told a bunch of us have told us during the Von show here in San Jose, the advantages are not only the connectivity, but the time-to-market for Skype devices with User Interfaces containing the programs Skype users want to work with smoothly.

Will Skype save Nokia Internet Tablets?

Will Skype save Nokia Internet Tablets?
This is script from http://gigaom.com/2007/03/21/nokia-n800/#more-8476

Nokia’s Internet tablet efforts – the 770, and more recently, the N800 – have produced a mixed bag of results. While the techies have been enthusiastic about the Linux-based tablets, the consumer electronics crowd (and buyers) hasn’t been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

On Tuesday, some Nokia folks stopped by in our makeshift offices and articulated their vision for the tablet series. The company is betting that as more web services start to support the platform, the devices will gain in popularity. The Finnish phone maker believes that tablets are the next evolution of computing, and as web service matures, these Internet-centric devices will gain more traction.

And one such service is Skype. Nokia is expecting that Skype support will make the device more alluring, especially in the overseas markets.

The Nokia N800 is a nifty looking device that is very capable when it comes to making VoIP phone calls – we use Gizmo client all the time. Google Talk hasn’t exactly become our favorite, but like most we think Skype could actually make us use the device a lot more, especially for quick calls to other Skypers.

“Skype is certainly the most popular,” says Ari Virtanen, Nokia’s vice president of convergence products. Nokia will release in an early beta (without SkypeIn/SkypeOut support) in a few weeks, but the full version of Skype client is expected later this summer, Virtanen says. The Skype support, if nothing else, makes the N800 more attractive to folks who don’t want to lug a laptop along on short day trips.


We see N800 becoming a good way to consume music from subscription services such as Rhapsody and Napster. Nokia folks showed off the Rhapsody service, it was simple, easy to use and music streamed quite nicely over an EVDO-powered Wi-Fi network. Nokia wants to add more such services: Yahoo Music, MSN and Yahoo Messenger amongst others to boost the utility of the device. “It is an Internet services based platform,” says Virtanen.

“The world of computing has gone from mainframes to desktops to now laptops,” says Virtanen, “and the next step is tablets.” That future is going to take a lot longer than either Nokia or anyone else can imagine.

The sales register isn’t exactly jangling with regularity. Nevertheless, Nokia plans to add more retail outlets to its sales channel, especially in the US. Currently the device is sold online, and at Fry’s and CompUSA.

The big boost for N800’s descendants will come when Sprint launches its WiMAX network, sometime in 2008. At higher speeds, most web services are going to become easily accessible, and the N800 type devices will see their utility go up.

New way to begin VOIP/Telephony blogs

Top 5 Trends to Expect at CTIA

CTIA 2007 PREVIEW: While you’re checking out this 5 points user guide to the CTIA convention – the Super Bowl of mobile conferences – I’m likely trying to find a comfortable position on a redeye headed for hot Orlando. Hopefully it’s not too bumpy.
As if taking a cue from Helio’s ads “Don’t call us a phone company,” the rest of the mobile industry will try to rally the market around mobile data — mobile TV, cell phone entertainment, mobile social networking, and mobile ads - at CTIA which opens in a few hours from now.
Too bad, as analysts at Informa Telecoms & Media point out: “the vast majority of revenue growth – both for the operator and vendor communities - is coming out of developing markets where mobile is fulfilling a basic need for voice and text-based communications.” Yeah, but that’s not as much fun to show off in a demo booth. Anyway, on to the top 5 trends:
1) Mobile TV – Qualcomm’s broadcast mobile TV network is finally live in the U.S. and mobile TV vendors and video content companies now have a working platform to tout their efforts. Chip companies will showcase mobile TV chips, while media companies will announce content partnerships.
Verizon Wireless is the first US carrier to sell the service, and Cingular will follow soon. Hopefully AT&T COO Randall Stephenson will give us an update on the status of the rollout. Monday morning we’re picking up one of the handsets used for Verizon Wireless’ VCAST Mobile TV service. Yay.
2) Mobile Ads – Declining future voice revenues are forcing the mobile business to look at mobile ads as a way to give the bottom line a quick boost. Informa predicts mobile advertising will be around $11.3 billion by 2011. Which means, an announcement overload.
AdMob, a San Mateo, Calif.-based company will announce that it has raised $15 million in fresh funding in a round led by Accel Partners. Other startups like Xipto are showing new mobile ad-driven services like their endorsement-driven mobile advertising platform.
3) iPhone and mobile UI:– We’ll see if the iPhone makes an actual appearance (or an update from AT&T’s COO), but its presence will no doubt be felt on the UI front. We should expect more companies to showcase the fluid user interface and prototypes of touch screen phones. It looks like the much awaited iPhone and the LG Prada phone will have some new competiton.
4) Lack of compelling new handsets: Moto CEO decided to cancel his keynote, a sign that Moto’s having an uh-oh moment! But is also is indicative of how quickly winds change in the handset business. Cell phone makers can’t rest on the laurels of big hits like the RAZR for too long and are trying create the new hits of 2007.
We’ll search for innovation, but we’re not too optimistic. For some reason Chinese handset maker TCL thinks Alcatel-branded handsets are a good idea and Sprint’s getting a new music phone from Samsung, the m620 or UpStage.
5) Mobile User Generated Content – There is going to be a lot of buzz around mobile services that help subscribers create and share mobile content. We’ll be checking out StreamVerse’s MOJO service for creating mobile content like group chats and polling games. Mobidia is announcing its mobile application called CUBuddy that lets users create a real-time video call between cell phones. This is actually one part of the mobile ecosystem which could turn casual data users into 3G customers, and help goose up the carrier ARPU.