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  • Orange Brings Mobile HDTV to Hybrid Phones


    Orange is to offer high definition mobile TV to users of hybrid mobile/fixed Unik handsets.

    From next month, its customers in France will have access to more than 60 HD mobile TV channels, 20 of which will be with unlimited access.

    In September, Orange announced the world’s first 3G+ UMA platform, combining the two technologies to allow customers with hybrid phones to connect whether at home, near an Orange WiFi hotspot or on the move through the 3G network.

    Initially, the mobile HDTV service will only be available through LG’s KF757 handset or on the Sony Ericsson G705u.

    Orange currently has one million Unik subscribers.

    The channels are available on the Orange TV Player or, if the handset does not support the software, on the Orange World portal.

  • YouTube Offers Widescreen HD Videos


    YouTube has finally moved to a default widescreen player with an HD-friendly 16:9 aspect ratio.

    Perhaps not coincidentally, the announcement follows the video sharing giant’s recent decision to start hosting full-length Hollywood movies.

    Not that anyone will be complaining.

    YouTube has long lagged behind competitors such as Vimeo and Blip.tv.

    They have offered HD and widescreen players for some time now – but they don’t have the audience figures of YouTube.

    So this certainly opens up the options for video fans that steadfastly refused to compromise on quality by submitting to YouTube.

    A YouTube spokesman said that by expanding the page width to 960 pixels the new, wider player would provide viewers with a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience.

    The change does mean that since the majority of videos on the site were uploaded as 4:3, they will now appear with black bars on the sides.

    Quite why YouTube hasn’t either given users the option to select a player depending on aspect ratio or, better still, to auto-detect it, is anyone’s guess.

  • VoIP in India: An Interview With TringMe CEO Yusuf Motiwala


    VoIP in India is very hopeful and is witnessing a number of players. This is being said across plausible internet sources and is now supported by the thoughts of Yusuf Motiwala, CEO, TringMe.

    TringMe’s range of diverse services: Call Widget, Mobile VoIP and use of web-based messengers, has won them a strong consumer base in the last 2 years.

    biz-news.com blogger correspondent Jolsna Rajan spoke with Yusuf Motiwala about TringMe’s success, its ongoing initiatives and a lot about the status and outlook of VoIP market in India.

    Biznews: Firstly, VoIP is a very young market in India. Potential seems to be high despite the recession. What would your opinion be on VoIP s outlook in India? Will we see any continual change in the offerings like the way TringMe has – no phone or a landline but just a microphone with Gtalk?

    Yusuf: Yes, VoIP is a nascent market in India, but a lot is happening around it including, as you know, the guidelines from TRAI to legalize VoIP. VoIP has a lot of potential and the recession is not going to hurt it since the need to communicate is only growing. The continued penetration of Internet, the increasing need to integrate voice over IP and the need to provide telephony to the masses for even better prices than what exists today will only help VoIP in Indian market.

    We strongly believe that as the means of communications increase (Phone, Internet, Instant Messenger, Mobile), the need to unify them will become a key to manage them. The caller does not need to know all the forms of communication devices/IDs that I carry/have. Instead, the caller should only know my one and only one ID to reach me and I should be able to receive calls on any device that I choose to. Isn’t it more intuitive?

    Yusuf Motiwala, CEO, TringMe

    To be precise, TringMe is not just microphone with Gtalk, but a lot more. As captured in our product offerings (TringMe products), we were the first ones to demonstrate web-based (Flash-based) telephony. TringPhone and our Push-N-Talk widgets enable anyone to call directly from the web. Our MobileVoIP intelligently uses any available data network including WiFi, GPRS, 3G networks to make and receive calls for next to nothing. Our SMS-based calling "brings VoIP to the masses" on the lowest end phones which are meant for only Voice and SMS. Coming to Gtalk, our platform enables Instant Messengers like Gtalk to do telephony. When you are calling from PC (Gtalk,TringPhone, Push-N-Talk widgets), all you need is microphone/speaker and when using a phone, you will not need to learn anything new. The idea is to leverage current devices and integrate them in an intelligent way. With TringMe’s platform, one can use any of the above mentioned ways of calling to call on any device. So, for example, one can call from Gtalk to a mobile device, from browser to a landline, from mobile device to a browser etc.

    Biznews: Very recently, has TRAI made VoIP in India to be legal. However, usage of VoIP has always been high and therefore with it being made legal can we expect an exponential shift in the usage of the service?

    Yusuf: To be precise, TRAI has made the recommendation to DoT (Department of Telecommunications)) to legalize VoIP. This is a big "key" step for VoIP in India. Although VoIP is being used in several forms, there has been some notion of it being not completely legal and hence we haven’t seen services that utilize VoIP to the fullest. Officially legalizing it will open the gates for usage that were potentially in the "gray area" with regards to the legality of VoIP.

    Although, it’s tough to say, predict the quantity of increase in usability, there is no way, but up for VoIP to grow. We believe that any technology that can be used to bring services to the masses is the technology that wins. VoIP is one such service since it now enables the bottom of pyramid – the common man – to make worldwide calls for a few paisa. This has never happened and as a lot of potential. Only time will tell the extent in which VoIP affects each and every one of us.

    Biznews: There are many players in the VoIP segment, so it seems. Do you agree with the statement? Is it a very competitive environment? Are players forced to reduce costs of their offerings because of competition or is the market purely driven by the customer level support / convenience?

    Yusuf: Yes, there are many players in VoIP segment and it is a competitive environment. But if you look closely, there is a major difference when compared them with TringMe. Most of the companies are "VoIP providers" – i.e. the ones which sell VoIP mins – and VoIP mins is becoming a commodity and hence you see cut-throat competition and price-wars amongst them. TringMe is in a different league – we have built technology that is used by those providers and hence we eventually benefit because of price-wars amongst the "VoIP provider". Our technology and algorithms to utilize VoIP and provide a unified way to communicate across the web and mobile has created quite a disruption in the market space given that we were the first ones to demonstrate web-based (Flash-based) telephony.

    Given the competition in the market, customers have a choice and they will not accept mediocre products for an extended duration. For a brand, it’s important that certain quality be maintained. We believe in it whole-heartedly. Infact, although VoIP has usually been associated with "not-so-good-voice-quality", Andy Abrahamson, a noted VoIP expert has commented that TringMe’s voice quality is even better than Vonage, a leader in VoIP services ( TringMe Conversations – Phweet, Aircell & TringMe Traffic Patterns). Customers and Companies are quick to "understand" such usability aspects and hence today, we are proud to say that TringMe is serving millions of customers. Big companies have embraced TringMe’s products and services which only underscores our belief that quality and the right way to use technology sells.

    Biznews: We also hear that VoIP prices are not regulated in India. Does TringMe see this as an advantage when every competitor is trying to fight their own space in the low cost market?

    Yusuf: Given that we are a technology platform provider, de-regulated VoIP prices is only a boon for us. Our technology leverages VoIP providers and hence we only benefit from such a competition. In general, competition is always healthy and we welcome competitors who want are looking to enter the same domain as ours.

    Biznews: With the increase in the market potential, can we expect a greater focus on marketing initiatives? In other words can we expect a lot of advertisements (online/ print/ TV)? Is TringMe planning on it?

    Yusuf: We have been lucky that our users have been our best marketing campaign. Almost all the market that exists for TringMe today are as a result of work-of-mouth marketing from our users. We have allocated some marketing budget for the near future to propel TringMe to the community which hasn’t yet tried TringMe. So, yes, you can expect marketing initiatives from our end. At this point, we cannot disclose the details of marketing plans since some of it is still in the works.

    Biznews: We did a quick user perception about VoIP and the question asked was: what is the first thing that comes to your mind when one says VoIP? It was interesting to note that there were no much diverse opinions. Most of them said – Skype and cheap calls. And some said low quality.

    Yusuf: Skype has been a big revolution to make Internet calls common-place. Given the precedence of calls over internet when compared to the PSTN calls, associating "cheap" with it is understandable. Since Internet was never designed to carry voice, the early attempts have yielded low/bad/not-s-good quality at the end-points.
    It’s reassuring to hear these comments since we started with similar thoughts when building TringMe. The idea was to definitely change the "low quality" perception and we have successfully demonstrated that quality can be improved with algorithms, even in the low bandwidth scenario.

    Biznews: If you could convey a message about VoIP to the same audience, will it be cheaper calls or would you like to better the perception in the minds of people?

    Yusuf: Everyone has realized that with time, the call rates have dropped and they will continue to do so. It’s important for folks to realize that TringMe’s call quality is much better than what they may perceive. Andy Abrahamson, a noted VoIP expert has commented that TringMe’s voice quality is even better than VonageAs you may seen or heard, Alec Saunders’s Calliflower replaced the PC calling solution from multi-million dollar funded Truphone to TringMe’s flash widget for convenience and quality.

    TringMe is like talking on regular phones. This, we believe will go a long way in making users realize that TringMe has taken the VoIP calls to the next level, to a place where cheap calls need not be low quality calls.

    Biznews: Also, does TringMe view the market as a challenge since most of the users rely on Skype, Jajah and Jaxtr?

    Yusuf: That’s no longer true. TringMe platform is serving 4 and half million customers everyday and hardcore Skype users moving to TringMe indicates emergence of new player. To give you an example, Phweet founder is Skype veteran and adapted to TringMe’s technology when he founded Phweet (and now skype – Phweet & TringMe connection), meet8 is an old Jajah customer now moved their entire network to TringMe, the quality speaks.
    Why? TringMe’s platform is much more diverse and covers a diverse range of spectrum than the competitors including the ones you have mentioned. We offer all of what any of our competitors provide and more. You can look at our portfolio to get a better idea of our offering which will help you better understand the overall competitor’s space and our position.
    Creating a website like Jajah, Jaxtr or Grandcentral is a matter of few minutes using TringMe’s powerful API (TringMe Blog – Roll-out your own click-to-call service). Complete source code is available.

    Biznews: A last question which is again on TringMe – If the large audience could know about TringMe what would it be?

    Yusuf: For a common man, TringMe is easiest way to stay voice reachable from anyplace in the world using any device and at anytime. For developers, integrating voice and telephony to any web-application is just a matter of few minutes.

    Biznews: Can we expect more? Will we see more features and any ongoing change?

    Yusuf: Yes, innovation is one of the core hallmarks of TringMe. As you may have known, we have released a lot of products/features in the last one year of our existence. New features, innovative solutions and interesting applications built on TringMe’s platform will definitely keep us busy and we will bring some of these applications to the market soon. Our goal is to establish TringMe as the de-facto voice platform of the web and empower everyone from a small developer to a big organization to easily deploy voice enable solutions. We have several patents (for e.g. Enhanced Click2Call) and the team is encouraged to file patents for novel ideas and algorithms. . TringMe is a small focused team with an ability to be amongst the top players in this industry.

    About TringMe: TringMe is based out of Bangalore, India & having marketing presence at San Diego, US & Singapore. TringMe was launched in October 2006. They offer call widgets, web based SIP phone, mobile VoIP and connects IM users. These solutions are offered to enterprise and home based users. The company website gives a clear message that the company is set to make calls simpler and easier; a VoIP service for the next generation.

    About Yusuf Motiwala: Yusuf Motiwala carries with him 14+ years of experience in communication and multimedia industries and is the Founder and CEO of TringMe

  • Invitation To Exclusive Networking Event At The Broadband Business Forum


    Wireless and Smartphone.biz-news are hosting an exclusive networking cocktail event in conjunction with the Broadband Business Forum, being held in Rome, Italy.

    The event will bring together over 100 leading Wireless/Broadband industry figures drawn from exhibitors and decision-makers attending the Forum.

    To be held on December 2nd at 16:00, invitees will have the opportunity to exchange views, contacts, information and deals on the Wireless and Broadband market.

    If you would like to join us please confirm your participation here: www.bbfeurope.com/cocktail.html

    Broadband Business Forum 2008 is Europe’s premier tradeshow dedicated to analysing the evolution and regulation of fixed and mobile broadband. Last year’s event attracted more than 4,200 participants.

    Smartphone.biz-news provides wireless consumer electronic business news to professionals worldwide.

  • Inventory Problems Cloud Storm's Launch


    Whether the long, cold waits – and, for many, ultimately empty-handed departures – were down to a security issue or general inventory problems is still not clear.

    What’s certain is that the Blackberry Storm’s US launch didn’t go as either exclusive operator Verizon or maker Research In Motion would have wished.

    Lines of people formed outside Verizon Wireless stores on Friday to buy the Storm, the first touch-screen phone from RIM that aims to compete with Apple’s iPhone.

    Today, Verizon has placed a notice on its online ordering page stating that: "Due to limited availability of the BlackBerry Storm 9530 smartphone, orders will ship by 12/15".

    While Verizon has declined to give specifics on inventory levels, the shipping delays are being attributed in some quarters to a last-minute security glitch.

    The Storm was to have launched with OS version 4.7.0.82, but because of the security issue every handset had to be downgraded to .65.

    This time-consuming task is the most likely reason why so many fewer handsets arrived in-store and online for release.

    Just to make matters worse, some of those who did manage to buy a Storm were met with activation issues as Verizon’s servers seemingly met the same fate as AT&T’s and Apple’s on iPhone 3G launch day.

  • Sensor Doubles Camera Phone Low-Light Performance


    Aptina has launched a new sensor for high-end 5-megapixel camera phones that promises to double performance in low-light situations.

    Called the MT9P013 5MP image sensor, it also promises to provide high quality video recording capabilities supporting up to 720p HD video at 60 frames per second and full 5-megapixel resolution video at 15fps.

    To achieve this, the new 1.75-micron pixel, 1/3.2 inch optical format sensor leverages the same light-capturing technology Aptina is integrating into its 1.4-micron image sensors.

    Aptina expects mass production of the MT9P013 to begin at the end of January 2009.

    Other MT9P013 Key Features:

    • high frame rate
    • data output options include a high throughput 2-lane MIPI serial interface capable of 1500 Mbps or greater and a parallel interface with throughput of 96Mb/sec x 12 bits.
    • The output options combined with the sensor’s input clock for the PLL enable users to consider a variety of ISP solutions, including the MT9S311, Aptina’s ISP solution designed specifically for manufacturers integrating Aptina 5MP sensors.

  • Scalado Promises Next Generation Of Mobile Photography


    Shutter lag is one of the biggest gripes about taking photos on a camera phone – especially on higher resolution handsets.

    So it was interesting to hear first hand Scalado’s take on a solution to that particular problem.

    Appropriately called the Scalado Camera Solution, it enables zero-shutter lag, burst capturing and instant zoom/pan in the camera.

    The new technology also promises to improve JPEG image handling performance by effectively managing the large files produced by high-resolution images.

    Smartphone.biz-news was given a glimpse of the product by Mats Jacobson and Sami Niemi, respectively CEO and CTO of Scalado, at the recent Smartphone Show in London.

    Niemi demonstrated the possibilities the technology offers, including snapping three images in a row with no shutter lag and a speedy shot-to-shot time.

    As well as ensuring users don’t miss that "moment", his demo showed the product’s ability to instantly zoom into the resulting JPEG image to review the details of the photo in real-time.

    He said manufacturers would now be able to offer real-time viewing and capturing of high-resolution images, totally eliminating shutter lag.

    "This is the kind of user experience we want – where everything is instant," he said. "You can see all the details and have the shot you wanted. This is the next generation of imaging."

    This is all good news for phone manufactuers especially following research from Strategy Analytics showing that a quality camera is the primary mobile phone add-on for which consumers in the US and Western Europe would be willing to pay – and willing to pay the most – compared to other mobile device features.

    The Scalado Camera Solution is based on two products: the SpeedTags IP and the Scalado Camera Engine.

    The former is a minimal modification to the HW JPEG encoder that enables the encoder to produce modified JPEG images, referred to as SpeedTagged JPEGs.

    Several camera sensors and camera modules for camera phones are already embedding the SpeedTags IP, such as sensors from both Aptina, OmniVision Samsung and MtekVision.

    Jacobson said that as well as addressing the missed shots problem, the Camera Solution dealt with other !! usability problems !! including:

    • slow image browsing
    • slow zooming
    • inability to edit mpx images in full resolution
    • long shot-to-shot times

  • Forget Megapixels – Most Camera Phones Not Up To The Job


    When it comes to cameras – and that includes camera phones – many consumers are fixated by the megapixel count.

    Yet John Turner, product manager for multi-media at Symbian, said higher resolution was definitely no guarantee of quality.

    He said this was especially true since the majority of camera phone photos are taken in the darkened environs of bars and nightclubs.

    "There is a four to six megapixel sweet spot for camera phones," he said. "But customers have in their minds the idea that resolution equals quality, so they are always going to want more resolution.

    "The majority of pictures are taken in a pub or nightclub but only a quarter of all phones have in-built flash.

    "So camera phones are not catering for that primary use. That will change over the year to come and improve things a great deal."

    Camera Phone Sales Outstrip Cameras‘

    Camera phones have increased so rapidly in popularity since the first snap-on versions were introduced in Japan in 1999 that they now threaten the market for traditional digital cameras.

    So much so, that by 2009, more camera phones will have shipped cumulatively than "normal" cameras have shipped in the entire history of photography.

    Turner said the camera fitted well with the trend towards a convergence of digital devices, allowing it to be integrated with the cell phone, Internet and GPS.

    He said this was to the consumers’ benefit – with just one device to carry and charge, while allowing users to connect with social networking sites, tag photos with locations and so on.

    But this has also created a few challenges, according to Turner, because consumers now expect camera phones to function as well as cameras.

    So it’s now taken for granted that "standard" features, such as higher resolution, better storage performance, better battery life, smile detection and image editing, will also be on the camera phone.

    Megapixel Fixation

    The fact that consumers regard megapixels as a headline indicator of performance is something that retailers and manufacturers haven’t been quick to discourage.

    Indeed the megapixels count continues to climb rapidly, with 12 mpx expected to be offered on some handsets next year and 16 mpx the year after – putting them firmly in amongst the mid-range digital camera market.

    Ericsson AB of Sweden recently announced that through technologies such as “HSPA Evolution” and” LTE” (long term evolution), by the year 2012, they would develop mobile phones with cameras from 12-20 megapixel and Full HD video shooting capabilities.

    The future might also bring an XGA resolution display (1024×768 pixels) with a digital camera and new camcorder technologies to mobile phones.

    Turner said this striving for greater resolution didn’t necessarily translate into better photos, since issues such as shutter lag were making a "hard problem even harder".

    He said Symbian was working closely with partners such as Scalado to address these challenges.

    Symbian is also spending money on improving multi-media in general and making it easier for its partners to introduce new features, such as accelerometers and HD multi-media processing.

    Turner said this would be seen in big changes that were going to be made to the operating system by the end of the first half of 2009.

    So no more blurry, out-of-shot party pics then. What camera phones features do you regard as the most essential for developers to concentrate on?

  • IBM Buys Transitive To Cut Customer Costs


    IBM is to to buy Transitive in an acquisition intended to help its customers cut costs.

    Once the deal is completed, IBM is expected to move the virtualization software company’s California personnel to one of IBM’s local sites.

    Research and development staff located in Manchester, UK, will remain at their current facilities.

    IBM has been using Transitive’s technology in its IBM PowerVMTM software, which consolidates customers’ Linux workloads onto IBM systems, since January .

    Transitive has sold more than 10 million copies of its cross-platform virtualization technology and has 48 patents.

    Its product, QuickTransit, allows software applications that have been compiled for one operating system run on systems with different processors or operating systems without modifications.

    Transitive’s technology is based on research developed at Manchester University in 1992. The company was founded five years later by Alasdair Rawsthorne, a computer-science lecturer, and a team of his graduate students to bring QuickTransit to market.

    In 2005 the company signed Apple as its first major customer.

    Apple and Silicon Graphics, along with IBM, are Transitive’s OEM customers. The company has been providing QuickTransit technology to run Apple’s Rosetta translation software and the product is shipped on all of Apple’s Intel-based computers.

    No price has been released for the purchase.

  • Lenovo Promises Desktop PC Breakthrough


    Lenovo has launched a desktop computing solution that can dramatically help businesses reduce IT costs and security risks by turning off hard drives and storing all data in a non-server remote location.

    Called Secure Managed Client (SMC), the company claims it is the first solution to do all this while still offering users the flexibility and performance of a traditional desktop PC.

    It consists of a client, a hard drive-less ThinkCentre desktop PC Intel vPro technology, a Lenovo co-developed software stack and a centralized Lenovo Storage Array, powered by Intel.

    Peter Schrady, vice president, general manager, software and peripherals Relevant Products/Services, Lenovo, said SMC was the rarest of gems – a breakthrough technology in desktop computing.

    "We’ve all seen the rapid-fire advances in mobile Relevant Products/Services computing such as batteries, connectivity, and the like, but this is the desktop PC’s turn to shine," he said.

    "SMC is an exceptionally engineered innovation designed for better manageability, better security, better performance and a better balance sheet."

    Shrady said SMC offers several significant benefits over current server-based computing options such as blade PCs, thin clients or desktop virtualization Relevant Products/Services.

    Most notably, these include:

    • Preserves PC fidelity — SMC gives the end user a full Windows experience
    • Avoids IT complexity — SMC works with and enhances current IT process and tools
    • Safe and flexible investment — An SMC ThinkCentre can easily be converted back to a traditional desktop PC by re-enabling the hard drives
    • Energy efficient — An SMC ThinkCentre uses less energy Relevant Products/Services than a traditional desktop PC
    • Security — Information from all desktops in an SMC fleet is stored in a safe, single location, significantly reducing the threat of on-site theft of data

    Lenovo said some of its large enterprise customers have already recorded significant results from SMC pilot deployments.

    The company estimates that using the SMC solution can potentially reduce the expense of fully managing a PC from USD $120 per month to as low as $70 per PC.

    This is based on expense estimates for large enterprise customers in North America that take into account such things as deskside IT visits, call center support Relevant Products/Services, and management costs.

    The SMC solution is currently being offered on the ThinkCentre M57p(1) desktop PC, and can also be offered on the ThinkCentre M58p(2 )in early 2009.