Business News Holding

Tag: hardware-and-technology

  • 7 Start-ups To Watch From Mobile World Congress 2009


    The big names of the mobile world occupied vast stands at MWC in Barcelona – but some of the most interesting and innovative products, applications and technologies came from start-ups.
    Smartphone.biz-news has pulled together some of the enterprising newbies that are likely to make a big impact in the future, including video interviews and photos.

    Irish start-up Dial2Do created quite a stir at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
    The Dublin-based company lets you do various tasks on your mobile simply by calling a number and speaking.
    So you can send email or text messages, record reminders, post updates to Twitter or Jaiku stream or even listen to internet content – all while driving your car.

    The Lisbon, Portugal-based start-up wizi has developed an instant location sharing application, with the focus firmly on on individual networks.
    The free mobile app allows you to share your location instantly by e-mail or SMS.

    TuneWiki is a the music playback app that shows Karaoke-like lyrics and album art on almost all  the music on a phone. It has features like searching YouTube for videos of tracks, plus searching its database for certain song lyrics if users only remember part of a song.
    Watch below a short video demo.

    ART has developed interference cancellation technology with the potential to dramatically improve 3G call connectivity and mobile broadband download rates. Crucially, the Texas-based company says the solution doesn’t require additional network investment but will allow twice as many users to connect in the same 3G coverage area.

    MEEPASS has a developed cutting edge mobile identification solution with a secure ID tag. It works on any mobile phone and uses a 2D barcode that verifies a user’s identity without the need for the handset to be network connected. Watch below a short video demonstration

    French start-up Kapsys has developed a voice-activated GPS for city dwellers that can be used to walk, bike, roller blade, scoot or take public transport. It is also a an MP3 player, a radio and a mobile phone receiver via Bluetooth.
    See below a short video demonstration of the Kapsys device.

    Modu has designed a potentially-groundbreaking sleek and light mobile device that slips into a variety of so-called "jackets" – music players, other cellphones, car stereos, digital cameras, etc.
    See below a short video demonstration.

  • WD Readies New My Book World Storage Device


    Western Digital has redesigned its My Book World Edition to target consumers with multiple computers on a home network.

    The company says the new device simplifies the tedious task of backing up an entire household’s files.

    The network storage device comes in 1TB and 2TB capacities and has both DLNA 1.5 and UPnP certification to allow for streaming with a variety of devices.

    It also has a single USB port to let you turn any other USB drive into a network drive.

    Jim Welsh, senior vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups, said the My Book World Edition drive simply had to be plugged into a network router, a few buttons had to be clicked and it backed up the files from all the PCs and Macs on the network.

    Any changes to the files are automatically and continuously backed up to the drive.

    The new hard drives are available now in the 1 TB capacity and expected later this month in the 2 TB capacity (USD $230 and $450 or GBP 168.99 and GBP 369.99 respectively).

  • Swiss GSM Carrier in&phone Buys Blueslice's SDM Platform


    Blueslice Networks has sold a SIP-enabled ngHLR, HSS and AAA, bundled into one fully integrated solution, to Unify Mobile.

    The SDM platform is to be used by in&phone, one of its mobile operations in Switzerland.

    Montreal-based Blueslice’s CSP 3000 includes the ngHLR and its Advanced Low Cost Roaming solutions – giving in&phone the ability to offer subscribers new roaming features.

    It also means roaming charges can be significantly reduced or even eliminated.

    Blueslice said its patented Multi-IMSI will allow end-users to have a single subscription in the ngHLR containing multiple identities (IMSIs) in several countries or area codes.

    in&phone’s subscribers will be seen as "local" by the network and can roam across borders on multiple networks without paying roaming surcharges.

    Carel Begeer, founder and chief development officer of Unify Mobile, said the deal provided Unify with the tools to have multiple access technologies in multiple territories under a single user profile.

    "Cost and quality have been the main driving forces for our customers," said Begeer.

    "They want to use their mobile phone without the fear of paying huge roaming fees."

    Begeer, said in&phone, like many carriers, is faced with the challenges of modernizing aging networks while maintaining a high level of service at value prices.

    in&phones’ subscribers will be able to roam between GSM/UMTS and IP networks thanks to Blueslice’s ngHLR-based Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) solution.

  • Spitfire SIP Trunking Completes Panasonic Testing


    Spitfire has completed interoperability testing and accreditation for its SIP Trunking service with the Panasonic range of phone systems.

    This includes Panasonic’s next generation phone system, the KX-NCP (Network Communications Platform).

    The voice and data solution provider’s SIP Trunking has been designed as an ISDN30 and ISDN2 replacement to give business quality secure telephony.

    Spitfire says its typically costs a third less than the monthly rental cost of an equivalent ISDN service.

    Tom Fellowes, Spitfire’s sales director, said interoperability testing was completed for both Panasonic and Avaya phone systems.

    He said its SIP service on Asterisk and a number of other SIP systems had also been tested and approved.

    "Providing the IP circuit ourselves allows us to control the quality of service delivery to the customer," he said.

  • On2 Technologies 1080p Video Encoder Improves Image Quality and Compression Performance


    On2 Technologies has announced a 1080p video encoder aimed at improving image quality and compression performance in battery operated devices and consumer electronics.

    The new hardware design, the Hantro 8270, supports H.264 Baseline, Main and High Profile video along with 16Mpixel JPEG still images.

    Mika Hakala, SVP and general manager(Embedded Solutions) at On2 Technologies, said it incorporates proprietary technologies for video stabilization and automatic scene change detection.

    With a minimal clock frequency requirement – less than 250MHz needed for 30fps 1080p video – Hakala said the Hantro 8270 is highly suited for low powered chipsets and is intended for wireless, consumer and surveillance applications.

    The technology is designed to improve the viewing experience for transcoded content such as movies and TV shows, and consolidated streams from multiple cameras typical to surveillance systems and live event coverage.

    The video stabilization feature improves the quality of captured video by counteracting the effects of camera shake.

    Analyzing each frame of raw video, undesired movement is removed by cropping and re-positioning the frame. The process is executed prior to encoding, and thereby increases overall compression efficiency.

    "With power consumption a critical design issue for semiconductors, maintaining a low overall clock frequency is an imperative," said Hakala.

    "A key challenge in designing a 1080p encoder is the transfer and encoding of the data needed with a clock frequency acceptable to the chip manufacturer.

    "Through efficient pipeline utilization and smart parallelism for key functions, we have not only met, but exceeded our customers’ expectations for 1080p video."
    The Hantro 8270 will be available for licensing from March.

  • Sony's New BRAVIA WE5 Cuts Power Use by 50%


    Sony is making some impressive ‘green’ claims with its new BRAVIA WE5 series of Full HD LCDs.

    Dubbed the "eco TV", the electronics giant says that the WE5 is equipped with the first-ever micro-tubular HCFL backlight. It claims this is the key to its ability to cut power consumption by more than 50 per cent.

    The WE5 is the flagship of the new BRAVIA line-up, which Sony says consumes an average of 20-30 per cent less power than last year’s range.

    Among the WE5’s other energy saving innovations is an intelligent Presence Sensor that detects the body heat and movement of anyone sitting within normal range of the screen.

    Sony says that if the viewer leaves the room – to answer the door or during a commercial break – the sensor activates an energy-saving ‘picture off’ mode, while leaving TV sound on.

    The picture turns back on as soon as the viewer re-enters the room. If no movement is detected in the room – perhaps when the viewer has fallen asleep in front of the screen – the set automatically switches to standby after 30 minutes.

    The new BRAVIA also has an Energy Saving Switch that is able to cut electricity bills even further, the electronics company claims.

    It says that other televisions draw a small amount of power when they’re in standby or even when switched off.

    Flipping a conveniently-placed switch on the WE5 will turn the set off completely. Switch back on again and the TV returns immediately to its previous state.

    It’s intended as a smarter, more convenient alternative to manually unplugging the TV when it’s not in use.

    Obviously, Sony is keen to stress that the WE5 can deliver in terms of picture quality as well.

    Aside from its eco credentials, the Full HD 1080p LCD panel has Sony’s new BRAVIA Engine 3 and Motionflow 100Hz technology with Image Blur Reduction.

    The new BRAVIA line-up is due for release in the spring. The BRAVIA WE5’s other green credentials include:

    • Full HD 1080p (40, 46-inch) LCD TV
    • Smart Presence Sensor switches off picture when set is not being watched
    • Energy Saving Switch reduces power consumption to zero
    • Easily accessible, energy-saving ‘Eco settings’
    • Reduced energy consumption
    • Space-saving design cuts transportation carbon emissions

  • SiS Launches HDTV chipset For Full-HD Digital LCD TV Market


    Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) is to enter the HDTV market with a ATSC HDTV SoC chipset designed to be implanted in LCD TVs.

    Although it names no names, the Taiwanese company says SiS328 has already been widely adopted by major TV brand vendors for their next generation high quality Full-HD digital TVs.

    A developer of edge core logic chipsets, SIS products are widely used in various applications such as PCs, notebooks, embedded systems, wireless communications, servers, and digital entertainment devices.

    Its move into HDTV chips involves utilising the company’s Digital Nature Video Engine (DNVE) technology, a dual-input HDMI 1.3 receiver, 3D comb filter, two USB 2.0 ports, five analog audio stereo inputs and other features required to deliver ATSC tuning to an LCD TV.

    SiS says products will be available for shipment starting in early Q2.

  • Truphone Unveils First Multi-country Mobile Service


    Truphone has unveiled its plans for a single-SIM, multi-country mobile service that will enable users to make calls in supported countries at local rates.

    The mobile communications company says a key aim of the Local Anywhere service is to eliminate the hassle of switching SIM cards or the expense of often-exorbitant roaming charges when callers use their handsets on foreign trips, according to voip.biz-news.

    Truphone claims that the new service, which will launch in September, will offer up to 80 per cent savings on roaming charges when visiting other countries.

    Making the announcement at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Geraldine Wilson, Truphone’s CEO, said the service was intended to get rid of the need for people to juggle multiple devices and phone numbers to avoid paying roaming charges.

  • Can MEEPASS's Mobile Tag Replace Credit Cards and ID?


    French software developer MTag has just launched its cutting edge mobile identification solution MEEPASS at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

    The secure ID tag works on any mobile phone and uses a 2D barcode that verifies a user’s identity without the need for the handset to be network connected.

    The idea is that rather than carrying a wallet full of credit cards and ID, users’ mobile phones act as a single source of verified and secure identification.

    Christian François Viala, marketing director for MTag, said the software functioned without any connection costs and didn’t use a Near Field Communication chip – so removing the Big Brother effect often associated with this type of technology.

    He told smartphone.biz-news that although MEEPASS was a new product the technology had been tried and tested with the company’s mobiletag barcode reader software.

    Mobiletag enables a mobile to read 2D barcodes or tags using the phone’s camera – redirecting users to content, information or a service.

    The software has been is widely used in France and Poland and is ready for deployment in Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK.

    With MEEPASS, the solution creates a one-off 2D barcode ID tag to identify the user in situations ranging from payment transactions, loyalty programmes, ticketing and couponing.

    "Why continue to carry several credit cards, loyalty cards, tickets and coupons when all you have to do is use your mobile to identify yourself instead?" said Viala.

    MEEPASS uses private/public crypted RSA key 1024 bit technology and is downloaded by users, who then register with a personal PIN code.

    MTag has just opened an office in Atlanta, Georgia and as part of its expansion drive targeting the US market.

  • Location Sharing Start-up Wizi Sees Google Latitude As Challenge


    For a start-up like Wizi having Google launch a competing product might seem like the kiss of death.

    Not so with the Lisbon, Portugal-based developers who have welcomed the launch of Google’s Latitude as a way of bringing attention to their instant location sharing application.

    The free mobile application allows you to share your location instantly by e-mail or SMS.

    André Gonçalves, Wizi’s marketing manager told smartphone.biz-news that they saw Latitude’s launch as a challenge and an opportunity to let consumers find out about their product.

    He said Wizi’s focus was on individual networks rather than social networks and the app is typically used to tell friends your location or where you are going to meet.

    "We are something like Latitude but a bit different," he said. "Our focus is on instant location sharing.

    "We cannot compete with Latitude but it is a challenge to tell people how our app is useful to them."

    Locations can be shared between Wizi users or with an email or SMS.

    Privacy is a key feature and visibility is totally controlled by the user: with the option to become invisible to friends or disable the link to a location map.

    Wizi works on Windows Mobile or J2ME compatible devices but versions are in the pipeline for Blackberry, Android and the iPhone.

    Wizi for the Apple handset has already been used by a restricted community of early adopters who volunteered to be part of the Beta Testing Program.

    Another feature of Wizi is recommending the best routes when driving in the city using traffic data collected in real time by its community, helping to save time and the environment.

    Gonçalves said they are currently talking to handset manufacturers and operators. The former were interested because Wizi was a useful add-on to show the potential of the latest phones.

    He said the latter saw Wizi as an opportunity to increase ARPU.

    Wizi will be launching Brazil this year and the start-up is in discussions with operators in Spain and the US.