ManyMedia

Why QWERTY? Why not something more usable, like a cording keyboard? Does anyone think we can actually type on this device?

…the Nokia 6820 is here because of one characteristic, its keyboard. Nokia first debuted this ingenious design a year ago in the 6800 model, and it transforms the phone into something that’s at the same time a little more useful and a little less capable than a PDA. The phone looks like a traditional candy bar handset, only the front flips up to reveal a full 51-key QWERTY layout with the phone rotated 90 degrees. It promises to solve one of the dilemmas of a mobile device: they make for reasonably good devices for viewing material in some circumstances, but are lousy for entering text.

Devices cell phone, keyboard, mobileTech, PDA, phone, QWERTY

Edible camera now available!

Given Imaging has designed the first camera capsule meant for human consumption. The Zarlink Semiconductor camera module is used in the M2A endoscope capsule, while light-emitting diodes flash the gastrointestinal tract, images captured with the microchip camera are sent via the RF transmitter to a data recorder worn on the belt of the patient. All this is run by two ultra low-power silver oxide batteries that will operate for 6-8 hours.

What happens after 8 hours to the batteries?

Devices camera, data recorder, edible, endoscope, medical, mobileTech

UK company High Energy Magic announces the SpotCode platform for extending the use of your mobile phone:

Using High Energy Magic’s SpotCode Platform you can use your mobile phone to easily interact with computers of all shapes and sizes: whatever you’re doing, wherever you are. Your phone becomes your own all-in-one mouse, keyboard, storage device and authentication system.

This certainly has enterprise application possibilities. Check out the videos.

Devices authentication, computers, mobileTech, phone

Following the FCC’s promise to release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)–”to outline plans for and solicit comment on using available (i.e. unused) TV channels for unlicensed devices,” some broadcasters are starting to mumble.

What could TV-Fi look like? It’s a bit complex, since the FCC has blocked out a number of channels that can’t be used even if there isn’t a television station broadcasting on them, including 2-4 (potential interference with VCRs, DVD players, cable set-top boxes), 14-20 (Land mobile radio services), and 37 (Radio astronomy). Channels 52-69 are also off-limits; these channels and the frequencies associated with them have already been sold off at FCC auction for licensed use and/or been set aside for use by public safety concerns. And finally, you can’t use any channel that has a broadcasting TV station on it. Since each TV station has two broadcast licenses — one analog, one for Digital TV conversion — take the number of local TV stations you get, then multiply by two. Some year in the future, the analog licenses are supposed to be returned, but that and the 52-69 saga are an ugly story for a different day.

TV-WiFi is being described in two different flavors %u2013 indoor LANs and long-haul broadband networks. The indoor LAN version may look something like Wi-Fi, except with higher data rates and the ability to cleanly penetrate through walls and floors. It could be something as simple as an expanded ultrawideband (UWB) device, but nobody really knows.

Network, Policy broadband, broadcasters, channels, FCC, FCC auction, LAN, license, spectrum, TV, unlicensed spectrum, UWB, wi-fi

Chaska, MN, is lighting up the entire city, predicting 2,000 of its 18,000 residents will sign up for its new high-speed wireless service.

The city’s newer wireless network also is intended as a public safety tool. Computers now found in police squads will be adapted for Wi-Fi use, for instance.

But the network is primarily intended for home users, which makes Chaska and its technology partner, California-based Tropos Networks, consumer-Wi-Fi trendsetters.

Tropos specializes in adapting the short-range Wi-Fi technology for long-range use. This is accomplished with radiolike devices installed atop light poles and other vantage points. The devices don’t require hard-wired access to the Internet, only power, which means they can be deployed quickly and affordably.

In Chaska, 64 of the wireless-networking devices are scattered over a 4-square-mile test area. About 200 will be deployed over 12 to 13 square miles by mid-June to create a citywide network, Mayer said.

This is all well and good, said one industry expert, but Wi-Fi isn’t necessarily the best technology for a citywide wireless network.

Network broadband, city, muni wi-fi, Tropos, wi-fi, wireless

Smaller than a dime, this reader module supports the Near Field Communication standard that allows interaction when devices are touched.

The NFC standard is being backed by Nokia, Philips and Sony, who launched the NFC Forum at the CeBIT trade show earlier this year. They say that people could use NFC to establish a link between two handheld devices in order to swap music — or they could just wave their NFC phone at a smart film poster to automatically buy a ticket. NFC will act as a digital identifier. Once the connection has been established between two NFC-enabled devices, another wireless technology such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth will be used to actually transfer the data.

Alternatively, it could help a user to use their mobile phone as an e-wallet. A demonstration of NFC’s potential at CeBIT showed a travelling businessperson using their NFC-capable phone to check in at the airport, collect a digital key on arrival at their hotel, and pay their bill electronically when they checked out.

Devices, Network authentication, bluetooth, handheld, identification, mobileTech, near field communication, phones, RFID, wi-fi

Seems that “free” is a better business model in many places than “pay” after all.

Cities and community development organizations across the country have embraced free Wi-Fi to boost economic development and attract visitors to downtown areas. A handful of small airports in the shadow of large hubs offer free Wi-Fi to attract travelers. And Verizon Communications Inc. in New York offers Wi-Fi free of charge to its Internet service subscribers to distinguish itself from its cable-modem rivals.

Operators of free Wi-Fi hot spots are capitalizing on the boom market in Wi-Fi-enabled notebook and handheld computers. Gemma Paulo, an analyst at In-Stat/MDR in Scottsdale, Ariz., estimates that shipments of notebooks equipped with industry-standard 802.11b chips or cards–which offer a raw data rate of 11Mbit/sec. at a range of 100 feet indoors and 300 feet outdoors–will hit 16 million this year.

Devices, Network 802.11, free, mobileTech, muni wi-fi, municipal network, wi-fi

I like the concepts of personal mobility, vehicle modularity, and mobile communities.

With the unveiling of the Personal Mobility (PM) concept car at the Toyota Motor Show in October 2003, Toyota’s designers shared a new vision of personalized travel. Rather than simply rolling out a futuristic vehicle, Toyota unveiled a plan for changing how we travel in our individual vehicles.

Since the advent of the automobile, the car model someone chooses has reflected something about his or her personality. The average American driver spends one hour and 41 minutes in their cars each day, almost more than any other daily activity, according to research from the University of California at Berkeley. Toyota recognizes that fact and has designed the PM to create an entirely new vehicular modality in which people are not isolated by their vehicles, but rather are joined together in a mobile community.

In this article, we’ll profile the PM’s design, power, and unique features. We’ll also take a peek at some other Toyota concept cars.

Devices automobile, car, community, concept car, mobileTech, Toyota, travel

WSJ reporter Lee Gomes does a little war driving and finds we’re [this close] to being meshed–right now.

I set out driving, back and forth, for many long hours. (How do cabbies do it?) While I was only logging technical information about the networks I was encountering, I learned that sometimes, the technical can also be personal. When you set up a home wireless network, you can, if you want, give it a name. Many of the names I was seeing — 2boysNlove, imaginaryfriend, DONTBOTHER — made me feel as though I was eavesdropping on other folks’ somewhat personal affairs.

The undertaking also provided a window into the ways that society and technology intersect. Netstumbler makes a bonging sound every time it detects a network. In Bernal Heights, chock full of Volvo-driving Kerry voters, it was bong-bong-bong, virtually one for every house. My laptop was quieter in the flatlands of the Inner Mission, home to working-class Hispanic families living in three-story apartment buildings. And in the public-housing projects on Justin Drive next to the freeway, it was utterly silent.

In the end, I counted about 3,000 wireless networks in my ZIP Code. The 2003 population of 94110 was 75,000, meaning we have one Wi-Fi access point for every 25 people.

For my project, I had borrowed from my neighbor Brian Warner, a famous programmer in the Python computer language, a small GPS receiver that plugged into my laptop and recorded the locations of all the networks I was seeing. When I was done, I made a map of them. (See map.)

With a lot of help from the folks at ESRI, a mapping-software company, I added to the maps a bit. For instance, I calculated per capita wireless ownership by census tract, and then mapped it. I also mapped average household income. It’s no surprise the two are highly correlated.

In fact, the more affluent parts of my ZIP Code had nearly 10 times as many hot spots, per capita, as less tony areas. It’s the old-fashioned digital divide, updated to the age of wireless.

Network digital divide, hot spots, mesh, wi-fi

Lemme see… customer loyalty or legislative compliance. As a business, which would I choose? Seems Canadian firms go with the former, while U.S. firms prefer the latter. Do the same people that make this decision also wonder why the American “consumer” market doesn’t trust many of the companies they do business with?

The study, the first to compare the corporate privacy practices of comparable Canadian and U.S. firms, found that Canadian businesses see their privacy practices as an opportunity to improve relations with customers, while their U.S. counterparts viewed privacy measures more as a way of complying with legislation and avoiding civil lawsuits.

Indeed, 61 per cent of surveyed Canadian companies linked ‘good privacy practices’ to customer trust and brand loyalty, compared to only 17 per cent of U.S. companies.

‘Canadian privacy leaders seem to understand and respect the need for compliance with federal and provincial laws,’ states the study, which was commissioned by the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner.

‘However, they rarely see compliance as the single goal or mission of privacy management (and) are more likely to hold the view or belief that their role is inextricably tied to information ethics rather than obedience to the law.’

Content, Identity Canada, compliance, corporate practices, customer relations, ethics, legislation, Policy, privacy