News Archive for 08/03/27
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UIQ on Thursday announced the latest version of its user interface, v3.3, which the company hopes will appeal to the mass market of mobile phone users. One way UIQ hopes to accomplish this is by making v3.3 able to run on slower processors than before, bringing it to lower-priced phones. The default browser for v3.3 will be Opera Mobile 9.5, providing users with desktop-like web browsing, Opera Widgets and UIQ Widget Dashboard support.
J.D. Power and Associates on Thursday released the first volume of its 2008 Wireless Call Quality Performance Study, which rates the major wireless carriers in seven specific areas relating to quality based on surveys of users. The bi-annual report rates each provider on a demerit point system, measuring their performance on a problems per 100 calls (PP100) scale, with lower scores translating to better performance. The report concluded Alltel, T-Mobile, Verizon and US Cellular are the top-ranking providers in their respective regions.
Smaller American carrier Cricket has announced its second and third AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) phones, the MyShot and Spex by Samsung. AWS is a frequency band that was opened up to cellular carriers in 2006, and is used by primarily by T-Mobile. The MyShot is a clamshell phone, featuring a 1.3-megapixel camera, with options like a timer and multi-shot capability. Also present is expanded Bluetooth support, which enables sharing photos as well as contacts. Pricing is $150.
Memory producer Rambus today revealed that it will petition for an injunction against industry rival Hynix, barring the latter from shipping RAM that allegedly infringes on Rambus patents. The action was requested after a federal court green-lighted legal efforts against Hynix as well as fellow memory producers Micron and Nanya, saying that the move to enforce patents would not tread on US antitrust laws. Rambus has said it would be willing to license the patents in exchange for royalties for memory sold.
Hynix and Samsung are gaming the market by claiming to have more orders from Apple for high-capacity memory than actually exist, according to accusations made by local rivals. While the two memory makers have reportedly both said they are taking large amounts of orders for the 32 gigabit (4GB) flash memory used in iPhones and iPods, the alleged sources claim that both suppliers are deliberately inflating the amount of memory ordered to artificially raise prices. By creating a perceived shortage, the two memory makers could reportedly take extra profits from other companies ordering at the same time.
NTT DoCoMo, one of Japan's largest mobile phone operators, said on Thursday that it has demonstrated the first molecular delivery system in its efforts to develop a molecular communication system. The system would provide biochemical conditions of living organisms, such as excitement, emotion, stress or disease. The company's ultimate goal is to integrate a bio chip into a cell phone to give it the ability to scan a user's tear, blood or sweat and send the information to a medical center for analysis via traditional methods.
Sling Media on Thursday said it would expand SlingPlayer Mobile to add support for phones running the UIQ operating system. The new version will allow some Sony-Ericsson and Motorola phones to stream and remotely control Slingbox devices at home whenever the device is connected to either a 3G or Wi-Fi network. The initial lineup will include the P1i (pictured) and P990i smartphones, the M600i, as well as the W950i and W960i Walkman phones. Motorola's RIZR Z8 is also included, Sling said. The updated version of the software will be available in the summer and will sell for $30 to first-time users but will also be downloadable for free for existing owners.
(Updated with timing info) Wolfson today said that it had been dropped as the provider for audio chipsets for a significant customer likely to be Apple, according to reports. The company itself has been unwilling to disclose the customer, but a source aware of the situation told Reuters that Apple has decided not to run with the chipmaker's audio processors for versions of the iPod nano and iPod touch.
Kodak on Thursday announced the addition of three digital photo frames, the M820, M1020 and P720 , to its range of products. The P720 is a standard 7-inch digital still photo frame, while the 8-inch M820 and 10-inch M1020 are from Kodak's Multimedia line. All three feature Kodak's new back-lit Quick Touch Border, which allows for navigating through files by touching the frame, leaving the display free of smudges.
Research in Motion's anticipated next-generation BlackBerry phone, once again said to be the 9000, may not arrive until the second half of the year, a fresh report claims. While a Vodafone leak scheduled it as shipping outside the US in May, and similar information has pointed to a six-month AT&T exclusive at the same time, new rumors point to the phone only shipping in July or August, over a year since RIM's last major device introduction.
A Canadian carrier may beat AT&T to shipping one of LG's iPhone competitors, an announcement suggests. Rogers Wireless has revealed that it will put the Vu touchscreen phone on sale in early May, despite the fact that AT&T has delayed its launch of the phone to an unknown timeframe. Through Rogers, the Vu will have access to radio- and video-on-demand services, mobile TV, and the option to buy downloadable music. Supported e-mail clients will include Rogers, Yahoo and Hotmail.
Comcast on Thursday made a surprise reversal of its past practices and said that it would halt its practice of blocking BitTorrent traffic on its cable Internet service. The provider revealed that it would instead work towards a management system on its network that will remain strictly neutral, preventing a bias towards or against any one distribution format. The move is publicly claimed as a recognition of the use of BitTorrent as a legitimate mechanism for business, which requires that it receives equal treatment along with other traffic, according to the company.
At least one of Motorola's expected replacements for its MING touchscreen phone has been leaked today, says BGR. The MING A1800 is now known to be a truly global phone and will pack not just the quad-band GSM calling of the existing phone (the A1200) but will also offer CDMA for use with Sprint, Verizon, and a handful of international carriers that also use the phone standard. In an equally rare move for a US-made phone, the A1800 will also have dual SIM card slots that allow it to work with two providers at once, such as the user's normal service at home as well as a prepaid service while on vacation.
AMD is making the unusual move of designing a dual-chip video card aimed at mid-range gamers rather than the high end, contacts inside the graphics business claim. The Radeon HD 3850 X2 will reportedly reflect its name and take two of the mid-range, ATI-branded 3850 chipsets, merging them into a single design. Like the top-range 3870 X2, the 3850 X2 would supply nearly twice the 3D performance of the single card in ideal conditions. While most details are unavailable, the card would carry between 512MB and 1GB of memory to be shared between the chips and will ramp up the memory from 1.66GHz to 1.8GHz to match.
In an unusual break from its emphasis on 3G and 4G cellular data, Nokia Siemens Networks today said it had developed a method to improve the speed of 2G networks. Called EGPRS 2, the subset of the future EDGE Evolution format adds a second carrier to the data path and promises to dramatically improve the practical speed of the connection in both directions. Downloads can run as quickly as 1.2Mbps downstream while historically slow uploads jump to 473Kbps, according to estimates.
AMD on Thursday gave a boost to its Phenom processors by debuting a unique balance between budget and high-performance chips. The Phenom X3 8000 series is the first x86-based chip line to use three cores: by using quad-core Phenom X4 chips with one core disabled, the company drops the price while still providing better performance than a native dual-core design. The X3 can improve performance with single apps but scales much more rapidly for multiple apps, especially media-intensive ones, AMD says.
HP recently unveiled additional specifications for the UMPC 2133, the company's ultraportable designed to compete with the Asus EeePC, and placed a tentative ship date of April 7th on the device. According to Engadget, the UMPC 2133 will feature a choice of a 1.2GHz and 1.6GHz VIA C7-M processor, as well as a VIA Chrome 9 graphics chipset. Choices of Windows Vista Home Basic and Business, as well as SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop are available. Pricing for the computer starts at $550.
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