Friday, January 28, 2005

My cellphone, my life.

We aren't there yet. Despite the technical advances, my cellphone/PDA won't allow me to run my life. It does a nice job of helping me manage things. I can do email, which untethers me from my desk. I can take, send, watch and listen to movies and audio. All very nice.

It's the next generation or two that excite me and make me very, very curious.

Here is what I expected from my next PDA/Phone beyond what I can buy today.

1. At least 1gb of storage via flash memory, or 5gbs through a miniature drive

2. A standard USB port so that I can copy any standardized files to or from an external storage device

3. The ability to recognize that storage device as a drive accessible to my phone apps.

4. The ability to call a number or use bluetooth to replace my credit or debit cards and automatically record the transaction in a money management program

5. The ability to watch videos in Mpeg4/VC1/Divx format. It's going to come in handy when my car manual is in the glove compartment on a USB flashdrive and I can just watch the video on how to fix what breaks. I want to be able to use my phone to watch directions on whatever complex operations I may come in touch with.

5a. This can also come in handy when I'm looking at buying a present for my wife. Particularly something that works in the kitchen that I don[base ']t fully understand. Let me plug into the USB or via bluetooth, see a demo of it on my phone while imin the store.

5b. Of course, being able to Froogle it for pricing based on the bar code would help as well, as would knowing if they have it in stock without having to get a clerk, placing my order and picking it up or having it shipped to my house.

Naturally, storing all my receipts in the phone in case there is a problem

6. I want to be able to save and store my IMs and Text Messages

7. I want to be able to download tickets to events and just let them scan my phone rather than having a ticket.

I may call it my phone, but in reality, it's my portable transaction device. Anything I can collect, create, transact or transmit digitally, I want the ability to do through my phone.

It's a digital world, why not?

Same applies to being able to plug in the USB wire hanging from the ATM terminal with instructions.

[Blog Maverick]
5:36:55 PM    comment   

7-Eleven Plans Mobile Upgrades In 5,800 North American Stores. In a project designed to help workers track product inventories and order new merchandise, 7-Eleven plans to install ruggedized handheld devices from Symbol Technologies and a mobile terminal from NEC at all of its 5,800 convenience stores in North America. [Computerworld Mobile/Wireless News]
5:35:01 PM    comment   

Nokia to use new TI chip for low-cost mobile phones. TI technology integrates most handset electronics into a single chip, to be used for low-cost phones in growing markets. [Computerworld Mobile/Wireless News]
5:30:46 PM    comment   

Windows Media goes mobile with Verizon. Verizon's V Cast users will have access to audio and video clips encoded in Windows Media. [Computerworld Mobile/Wireless News]
4:49:54 PM    comment   

SK-Earthlink Links South Korean Mobile Operator, Earthlink Networks. Mobile operator SK Telecom and Earthlink Networks launch 3G/Wi-Fi combo firm: Sky Dayton is the CEO of SK-Earthlink, a new MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) that will sign up end users with the promise of integrated Wi-Fi and third-generation cellular data networks for voice and data through a single handset. Dayton founded Earthlink and Boingo Wireless. SK Telecom provides service to 18 million customers in South Korea, and their sister company in the SK Group, SK Teletech, makes advanced handsets for domestic use and internationally to China, Israel, Kazakhstan, and Taiwan. Dayton said in an interview today that SK Telecom offers a remarkable array of handsets including units with hard drives, five megapixel cameras, and satellite television broadcast receivers. "Not all those things are going to be applicable in a US market," Dayton said. The service will attempt to leverage the growing availability of 3G networks with the increased ubiquity of Wi-Fi hotspots. Dayton says that although handsets and service plans won't be available until as late as the end of 2005, that generally SK-Earthlink would focus on allowing its customers to make voice calls from home Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi hotspots, and 3G cellular networks. They would also leverage Wi-Fi alongside 3G in offering advanced data and entertainment services, although he did not mention specifics. "We think there's a big group of Internet savvy early adopter" consumers in the US who want this but can't get it, he said. SK-Earthlink may use Boingo's platform as the base on which they develop hotspot relationships--Dayton will have an arm's length involvement in that decision--but Boingo will certainly also continue to sell to other carriers regardless. Other reports note that SK-Earthlink will use CDMA technology, SK Telecom's flavor, which ties them closely in the U.S. to Verizon Wireless and Sprint PCS, the only two remaining CDMA carriers here. Verizon has already deployed a significant portion of their ambitious EVDO network offering speeds of hundreds of kilobits per second, and Sprint PCS is committed to higher-speed offerings than its current 1xRTT rate that compares to modem speeds. At the same time, Verizon Wireless said recently that 3G will trump Wi-Fi, a sentiment that baffles Dayton. "Wi-Fi is an unstoppable force," he said. "It's like trying to deny there's a big elephant in the room." Both technologies "are great individually, but if you put them together" they allow the best connection wherever a user... [Wi-Fi Networking News]
4:49:11 PM    comment   

Search Engines Go Mobile. Yahoo Local launches SMS messaging of business information, while Ask Jeeves prepares to move into wireless search later this year. [eWEEK Technology News]
4:48:38 PM    comment   

Intel's Mystery Mark, VIIV, Sparks Intrigue. Recent trademark filings from Intel Corp. are raising speculation that the world's largest chip maker may be preparing to create a new global brand. The question is, what does VIIV mean? [eWEEK Technology News]
4:48:14 PM    comment   

Adobe Looks Ahead to Video, Devices. Adobe President Shantanu Narayen speaks out on the company's biggest opportunities and challenges, emerging paradigm changes in technology, and the role of Adobe products in a cross-platform environment. [eWEEK Technology News]
4:47:52 PM    comment   

Mobile virus epidemics: don't panic. Low risk [The Register]
4:47:19 PM    comment   

Mobile phones shipments up 38% in Q4. Record breaker [The Register]
4:46:11 PM    comment   

WIRED: Why Wilco Is the Future of Music. Lawrence Lessig. They (we) demand an end to the war, and the attack on innovation that it represents. Yet there's something hollow about the earnest rage on both sides of this debate. Hollow, as in inauthentic. It is artists who make music, not the industry that markets it or the technologies that take it. [Tomalak's Realm]
4:45:37 PM    comment   

SIMpill: Medicine Bottle with SMS Reminders.

simpill.jpg imageA South African doctor has developed the SIMpill, a pill bottle that uses SMS to monitor how often pills are being taken and can send alerts to a patient's phone if they have missed a dose by mistake. Each time the cap is removed, a small cellular transmitter in the bottle sends a secure SMS to a central server, which stores information about the intervals in which the prescription should be administered. If something goes wrong with the dosage, the service sends a message to the patient's cell phone, alerting them of the discrepancy. Since many long-term infectious diseases become resistant to medication if they miss a dose, the SIMpill can make it easier to maintain a more structured regimen.

Technology Reminds Sick to Take Pills [AllAfrica via MedGadget]

[Gizmodo]
4:44:51 PM    comment   

Cingular Launches LG F9100.

LG_g9100cing.jpg imageCingular has launched the LG F9100, the strangely captivating phone with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It's only $150, too, so it's not that much of a hit to the wallet. Until somebody gets a hold of one to review it, though, I'm going to reserve judgement. These sort of Sidekick fighters live and die by their AIM clients. If the LG F9100 doesn't have a decent one, then it'll die on the vine. The fighter's vine, I guess. (Thanks, Naoya!)

LG F9100 launched by Cingular [MobileTracker]

[Gizmodo]
4:42:08 PM    comment