Well this is something! Rumors are flying that XM will unveil a 'wearable' device next week that tunes in music from its subscription satellite radio service. Not only that, but the chatter is that the device will include a hard drive that users will be able to save recorded information to[~]I find that so tantalizing that it must be a mistake.

It's been a long time coming. When I reviewed the very capable XM Roady 2, my only complaint was that it couldn't be used as a standalone player. Just slap a Li-On battery onto the back of that unit and you'd have a perfectly decent portable radio. (Thanks, Johns!)

XM radio seen launching 'wearable' device-analyst [Reuters]

4:48:25 PM    comment   

Ben Chamy at CNet has a nice write-up of what we can expect from this week's CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show[~]CeBit for cellphones, basically[~]with a focus on mobile TV device and how carriers hope they will "save the cell phone industry." We've been sort of lukewarm on the whole mobile video bit, simply because the current offering is somewhat lackluster and it suffers from the same issue that portable video players do: not enough opportunity to watch them. That being said, while it might not be a compelling feature to revolutionize the industry, mobile TV would be a pretty nice 'value add.' Sprint's service already has 150k subscribers, so obviously some people are interested.

I would expect to see a lot more about mobile TV throughout the week as different carriers promote their mobile media plans at CTIA.

But save the mobile industry? I think the reason wireless content downloads aren't blowing up for carriers is because most people don't want to pay extra money for data. You don't have to pay your ISP a dollar every time you download a new wallpaper for your PC. Perhaps TV will be compelling enough to warrant a subscription fee[~]despite many replacing their TiVo with Bit Torrent, cable and satellite are still the dominant television services.

For cell phones, it's TV to the rescue [CNet]

4:45:39 PM    comment   

The next time Verizon or Sprint cripples some phone's Bluetooth implementation or locks you into some crazy two-year contract, take a look at this rechargeable SIM card vending machine in Tsim Sha Shui, Hong Kong, and ask yourself why we aren't using a system where switching carriers is as easy as putting $13 in to a machine and buying a new card. Then ask yourself why you aren't drinking a foil box with a quenching fruit concoction. And then ask why your juice box doesn't include some promotional mobile phone minutes *.

What we will soon have, maybe [PenguinSix]

* And if some phone company starts giving away free phone minutes on their product, I fully expect like a million dollars for the idea, thanks.

4:44:17 PM    comment   

It probably won't do much for you unless you're an attorney or a journalist, but LexisNexis has announced the availability of its information super-database via BlackBerry wireless devices. Even better, if you've already payed the arm and leg for the Lexis account, you can access the information for free[~]no additional subscription fee required. Of course, I'm not the sort of journalist that can afford a Lexis account (or can afford to actually do any research, come on)[~]I'll be rocking out the Google SMS service instead.

LexisNexis Enables Research for the [base "]Mobile Lawyer[per thou] With Expanded Applications for BlackBerry [LexisNexis]

4:41:50 PM    comment   

The average EV-DO data revenue for both operators was Won19,597 (US$17) in 2Q03, but had fallen to Won12,555 by end-2Q04. Moreover, SKT has been hardest hit, with its own EV-DO data revenues falling almost 65% from Won23,375 to Won14,217 while KTF saw only a 45% reduction, from Won15,819 to Won10,893 (see fig.).
12:04:22 PM    comment