Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Laptops, Wireless

Laptops with built-in WWAN modems aren’t anything new, but there’s a hodgepodge of hardware and services available — a situaton the GSM Association is trying to simplify with the new Mobile Broadband standardization initiative. Sure, it’s mostly an excuse to get another sticker on your gear, but companies like Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo, ASUS, Toshiba, Qualcomm and a bunch of carriers are on board to ensure that Mobile Broadband-certified machines will be ready and able to connect in some 91 countries around the world — and what’s more, they’re committed to spending a cool billion dollars in the next year promoting MB as a “compelling alternative” to WiFi and WiMAX. That should be an interesting dilemma for the carriers that also run hotspot networks, but we’ve got a feeling everyone’s happy as long as the sub fees keep rolling in.

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Cellphones

We could start off by telling you just how much this decision will hurt Qualcomm and just how celebratory the mood must be at Broadcom, but instead, we’ll key you in on this quote: “The appeals court also rejected Qualcomm’s request for a new trial.” At long last, we may have actually heard the end of what has seemed like a never-ending battle between the aforementioned parties. Today, a US Appeals court upheld an earlier ruling that Qualcomm had indeed infringed upon two Broadcom patents while ruling that a third patent in question was invalid. The ruling is obviously a huge win for Broadcom, who will soon be bathing in Benjamins as Qualcomm is forced to pay mandatory royalties for the chips it sells during the “sunset period” ending January 31, 2009.

[Via Reuters]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Handhelds

Man, the Peek email-only handheld must really be, uh, piquing people’s interest — it just went up for pre-orders and two of the three colors are already backordered a week. The $100 device should also be showing up in Targets nationwide Monday, so if you’re as curious as we are they’ll be easy to impulse purchase in person as well. Too bad that you’re locked into that $19.95/mo data plan as your only option, though — if we could somehow use our existing data plan or even pay a flat fee upfront for lifetime service we’d be way more likely to snag one. Anyone else picking one up?

[Via Silicon Alley Insider]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Laptops

Back in March it was the world’s first laptop with a 128GB SSD. Now the Dynabook SS RX1 makes the bump to the RX2 while grabbing the title to the world’s lightest 12.1-inch laptop. Or so says Toshiba. Fortunately, Tosh didn’t skimp on battery life (up to 12.5-hours when configured with an SSD) to achieve that 858-grams (1.89-pounds) weight. Shipping in late September, the SS RX2 features a semi-rugged frame, a 1.2GHz SU9300 ULV Core 2 Duo processor; up to 160GB of hard disk (or 128GB SSD); an LED backlit 12.1-inch 1,280 x 800 pixel display; up to 3GB of memory; Intel GS45 Express graphics chipset; 3x USB and 1x eSATA; 802.11a/b/g/n draft 2.0; integrated DVD super-multi drive; and built-in 3G data — a road warrior’s weapon of paradise.

[Via Impress]

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Original post by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Cellphones

Uh oh, Moto. Go ‘head with your bad self. Just days after posting a meager profit (but a profit nonetheless) and maintaining your position in third in worldwide mobile market share, along comes a report claiming that you’re still numero uno in the United States. While handset sales overall shot up 5.3% here in Q2, Motorola maintained a 26% share and managed to stare down at least a few naysayers. In related news, LG held tight to the silver with 22%, while RIM gained a double-digit market share increase thanks to sales of its oh-so-hot BlackBerry handset. Number nerds, feel free to tap the read link for even more fractions and decimals.

[Via RCRWireless]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones

According to the oracle-like superbrains at J. Gold Associates, Google’s Android OS and Nokia’s Symbian will “combine to provide a single open source OS,” sometime in the very near future… say, three to six months. Sure, Android is just about to launch on devices in late 2008, and Nokia just announced in June that it will be moving Symbian towards open source — and of course the two companies have no formal relationship that would come close to permitting such a collaboration. Still, J. Gold assures us this is happening, stating, “A combination of the Android and Symbian efforts would be good for the industry, good for Google and good for Symbian.” In related news, we understand a handful of similar mergers are in the offing: Linksys and Belkin, Red Hat and Ubuntu, Engadget and Gizmodo, and the inevitable one-two punch of Coke and Pepsi.

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky

Filed under: Peripherals

As you may have noticed, we’re not ones to put much stock in analysts’ predictions, especially when they involve the demise of something as entrenched as the mouse in as little as five years. Still, that’s the limb Gartner analyst Steve Prentice has walked out on, sort of. While he first qualifies things a bit by saying that the mouse “works fine in the desktop environment but for home entertainment or working on a notebook it’s over,” he later seems to get considerably more definitive in stating that “the idea of a keyboard with a mouse as a control interface is the paradigm that I am talking about breaking down” (the keyboard, he says, is here to stay). In place of the mouse, Prentice sees things like facial recognition systems, multi-touch, and even devices like OCZ’s mind-reading Neural Interface Actuator taking over. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to start practicing thinking really hard so we don’t get tripped up during the transition.

[Via TrustedReviews]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Snom, the German VoIP handset manufacturer today announced that their wideband enabling technology called KlarVOICE is now available in the North American market.

KlarVOICE, which can be adapted to all snom VoIP telephones, allows the capture of more than twice the spectrum of voice frequencies captured by standard phones for a high-fidelity VoIP experience. Key features of snom KlarVOICE powered handsets include full support for the G.722 codec and the doubling of the sample rate, providing an effective pass-band of 50 to 7,000 Hz as opposed to the 200-3300 Hz. The snom klarVOICE handset works with the codec G.722.2 which is able to shrink the bit rate of the voice channel down to 12.65 kbps.

snom’s SIP-based phones are often used in Asterisk and other SIP-compatible phone systems.

Pricing and Availability
The snom klarVOICE handset, which can be adapted to any existing snom 3xx series VoIP phone (snom 300, 320, 360, 370) using snom’s latest firmware release (Version7.1.33), is available for an MSRP of US$32.50.

Tags: handset, KlarVOICE, snom, snom 3xx, wideband, wideband codecs, wideband telephony

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Original post by nafiz

In late 2007, snom announced the snom m3 DECT wireless SIP phone. snom sent me a review unit a few months ago to review and alas it’s been sitting on my large pile of VoIP products to check out. The m3 is a cool looking phone and very gadgety, so usually I would have torn into the box and played with it the same day I got it, but if I set aside other projects every time I got a cool gadget, I’d never get anything done.

Well, I finally had time to install and test the snom m3 and hope to write a review soon. For now, I’d like to share today’s news that the snom m3 wireless VoIP Phone now being generally available in North America. First check out the cool specs…

• Display: 128 x 128 pixels, 65536 colors, backlit
• Li-Ion battery pack for 10 hours of calls or 100 hours standby
• Range: 164 feet indoors, 328 feet outdoors
• 12 numerical keys, 5 navigation keys, 2 function keys
• Speakerphone on mobile handset
• Polyphonic ringtones
• Automatic registration of handset
• Separate charging cradle for handset
• 8 handsets per base station
• 8 SIP registrations with different servers/registrars
• Up to 3 concurrent calls per base station
• Three-way conference
• Remote setup, password protection
• Open DECT GAP standard

Check out the news after the jump…

Continue reading snom m3 DECT SIP Phone Coming to North America…

Tags: cordless, DECT, m3, SIP, snom, snom m3, VoIP

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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We’ll spare you our feelings on just how cheesy this thing looks, as we’re fairly certain you can judge that for yourself. Those with no shame and an unrequited love for all things gold, however, may actually find this one quite appealing. Cooper’s Amber F1 purportedly features a 2.8-inch widescreen LCD, support for RMVB, AVI and FLV formats, a built-in equalizer, SRS WOW technology, a bundled case and an obligatory set of gilded earbuds to ensure public humiliation. A price or release date wasn’t immediately apparent, but please don’t say you’re willing to dig around to find out. Please?

[Via PMPToday]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Solar Technology’s Freeloader solar charger was already a pretty attractive option as it was, but the company’s now looking to give the portable charger a bit of a boost, with its new Supercharger panel promising to cut the charging time in half. As you can see above, that’s possible in part thanks to its larger size, but it’s apparently also aided by some more powerful than usual photovoltaic cells (rated at 1.5 watts). All that should translate to a four hour charging time for the Freeloader, which can be done in any weather conditions thanks to the panel’s weather-proofing (although some weather conditions will obviously be more effective than others). If that sounds like what you’ve been looking for, you can grab the Supercharger now for £20 (about $40), or grab it as part of a new Globe Trotter bundle (including a Freeloader, a Supercharger, and a carrying case) for £50, or just under $100.

[Via SmartPlanet]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Sorry Sony, but we saw these coming back in January. Sony just got around to confirming its new line of Giga Juke home audio players — at least in the UK — after letting them float around on the internet for a good couple of months. The networked SC55PKE has 80GB of storage, 16x CD ripping, a 4.3-inch LCD and iPod / Walkman support, along with a wireless hookup for beaming to a wireless control unit and five wireless speakers. The E35HD (pictured after the break) keeps it wired and boring, with a less sexy screen, slower CD ripping and the odd replacement of the SC55PKE’s ATRAC support for AAC. Yeah, we’re not following that one, Sony.

[Via Wired]

Continue reading Sony confirms Giga Juke SC55PKE and E35HD for the UK

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Gaming

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Apple_applies_for_trademark_protection_on_gaming_devices’; We’re not gonna read too much into this just yet, but when everyone’s favorite fruit-flavored consumer electronics company files to protect its trademark as it relates to a wide range of gaming devices, well, we feel you’d want to know. The USPTO sleuths over at Trademork just gave us the heads up on this recently-filed application from Cupertino, which requests protection of the word “APPLE” for products that classify as “toys, games and playthings, namely, hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games.” And come to think of it, we did see Apple file for a videogame-related patent not too long ago, so who knows: perhaps the iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV will soon have even more friends among the company’s ever-expanding non-PC ecosystem. Then again, we’ve heard this rumor in one form or another countless times before, and right now pining for a resurrected Gizmondo is already giving us enough headaches.

[Via Trademork]

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Original post by Evan Blass

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Basically just pre-PMA upgrades to existing models all around, Olympus just loosed nine new shooters. Almost all feature “HyperCrystal” or “HyperCrystal II” displays (not to be confused with hypercolor, dudes), facial recognition, OIS, high ISO modes, and a bunch of other stuff that every other camera company does now. Here’s the quick rundown.
FE series (February)

• FE-310 - 8 megapixel, 5x zoom, 2.5-inch LCD
• FE-340 - 8 megapixel, 5x zoom, 2.7-inch LCD
• FE-350 - 8 megapixel, 4x zoom, 28mm wide angle lens, 3-inch LCD

Mju / Stylus series (February)

• Mju 840 - 8 megapixel, 5x optical, 2.7-inch LCD
• Mju 850 SW - 8 megapixel, 3x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD, waterproof to 3m
• Mju 1010 - 10.1 megapixel, 7x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD
• Mju 1020 - 10.1 megapixel, 7x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD
• Mju 1030 - 10.1 megapixel, 3.6x zoom, 2.7-inch LCD, waterproof to 10m

SP series (March)

• SP-570 UZ - 10 megapixel, 20x wide angle zoom, OIS, 2.7-inch LCD

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Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve heard plenty of these initiatives before, but with the likes of Microsoft pushing the tech, it might not be too long before we’re all pushing a super-connected shopping cart down the aisle. Microsoft’s aQuantive acquisition last year has the company looking to new ad venues, and apparently shopping carts are one of those. Microsoft has been working with a company called MediaCart which builds a cart-mounted computer that helps consumers navigate the store, and then checks them out when they’re done. Microsoft wants to bring video ads into the mix, and the companies will start testing out the carts in ShopRite markets in the second half of 2008. Shoppers can bring their list to the store with a swipe of their loyalty card, and RFID tracks their movements around the store to pinpoint advertisements and other useful information. That’s a whole lot of tech coming soon to a bum near you.

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Original post by Paul Miller