A next-generation 4G wireless network based on mobile WiMAX technology debuted today in Baltimore, heralding the start of a new era for wireless consumers as Sprint officially launched XOHM(TM) mobile broadband commercial service in the first major U.S. city.
“This is truly an historic day with the birth of a completely new Internet-based business model that alters the dynamics of the traditional telecom industry,” explained Barry West, president of Sprint’s XOHM business unit. “Wireless consumers will experience WiMAX device and XOHM service innovation on multiple levels as the computer, Internet, telecom and consumer electronics industries converge to redefine wireless mobility.”
XOHM WiMAX will extend the home or office Internet experience and mobile multimedia applications to other places and additional devices. With XOHM, consumers, businesses and local governments will ultimately be able to experience new forms of interactive communications, high-speed mobile Internet browsing, social-networking tools, location-centric services and multimedia including music, video and on-demand products at faster average downlink speeds of 2-4 Mbps. The data-centric XOHM broadband service differs from present wireless offerings in that:
No long-term commitments or contracts are required, freeing customers from restrictive long-term subsidized plans;
Monthly home, on-the-go and day-pass Internet plans provide service choices;
A single monthly charge covers service for multiple WiMAX access devices;
WiMAX devices are purchased like other computing/consumer electronic devices,
XOHM broadband service is self-activated and includes future updates capability;
Customers can enjoy an Internet portal offering enhanced mobile services;
The Open Internet business model transcends other carriers’ wireless walled gardens that restrict services, choice and innovation.
Starting today, customers can purchase XOHM-branded Samsung Express air cards for $59.99 and ZyXEL modems for $79.99 via XOHM web, telesales or select Baltimore-area independent retailers. Additional WiMAX devices such as a ZTE USB modem, Intel Centrino 2 WiMAX notebook PCs and the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition are expected in market later this year.
Sprint will be the first and only national wireless carrier to offer customers a dual-mode 3G – 4G device that extends the power of Sprint’s NOW network. Expected to launch in the fourth quarter, this Sprint device will operate on the nation’s largest 3G mobile broadband network and the 4G network in Baltimore and other markets as WiMAX service becomes available.
A prototype cell phone developed by Sharp will automatically unlock your car door and let you start the car without a key.
The phone, built by Sharp Corp., uses a technology previously developed by Nissan Motor Co. called “Intelligent Key” that allows drivers to enter and start their cars without removing their keys from their pockets or bags.
Cars equipped with the system sense when the correct key is nearby, automatically unlocking their car doors, and allow the engine to be started once the key is inside the car.
The new twist on this technology is that it is loaded in a phone. The service will work on the mobile network operated by NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan’s largest mobile operator.
The companies said in a joint press release Wednesday they will display the technology next week at CEATEC, a major technology conference in Tokyo. They are continuing development and aim to bring the phone to market sometime after March of next year.
Is anyone really surprised about this technology coming out? I would imagine that there will be a lot of third party developers that will build similar software to work on just about any car. Stay tuned for a Nissan coming your way soon with the new technology built-in!
Customers of Sprint can now conveniently access their bank accounts and, in an industry first with PayPal, send payments to friends and family from most Web-enabled Sprint phones with the launch of MyMoneyManager. MyMoneyManager is an easy-to-use downloadable application that enables Sprint customers with BB&T, Citibank, IBC Bank and PNC Bank accounts to conduct banking functions right on their phones, including checking balances, paying bills and finding nearby branches and ATMs. MyMoneyManager also includes PayPal, making Sprint the first carrier to provide customers easy access to their PayPal accounts, allowing them to send money to almost anyone quickly via their Sprint phone.
MyMoneyManager is available at no additional charge to Sprint data subscribers, including those with the worry-free $99.99 Simply Everything(SM) Plan. In the future, Sprint plans to preload MyMoneyManager on phones and include additional banks and other financial service providers.
Imagine all the possibilities. If you’re out to dinner with friends and you run out of money you can quickly call your parents to add money to your account. Or how about those times when you’re on vacation and you remember your cable bill is due the next day. No worries, just pop open your phone and pay your bill. We all hate calling out banks and wasting minutes just to get our bank balance. Now you can do so in the middle of a crowded bar or at a sporting event. Let the mobile banking revolution begin (or should I say continue).
“Sony Ericsson announced the launch of PlayNow™ plus, which will offer users the ultimate mobile music experience with the freedom to discover, download, play and recommend unlimited amounts of music wherever they are and whenever they like, directly over the mobile data network.
PlayNow™ plus is due to set a new standard for the unlimited music experience on a mobile with unrivalled download speeds, high-quality audio and access to the largest music catalogue of any unlimited download service. Sony Ericsson’s PlayNow™ plus music service guarantees ‘all-you-can-eat’ unlimited access to millions of music tracks.
PlayNow™ plus is very easy to use, with millions of songs available on your PC or phone at the click of a button. No need for cables, PlayNow™ plus offers simplicity and a great out of box experience with 1000 of the best selling songs already in the phone.”
The service is set to launch in Sweden later this year with worldwide release next year. You will need a PlayNow plus compatible phone to use the service. The first PlayNow plus compatible phone will be the W902. It will be interesting how other manufacturers like Apple react to this news. Not only will users get unlimited downloads, but they will also be able to keep up to 300 songs if they choose to stop the service. The best part is the songs can be loaded onto your computer or any other device that plays MP3s. The service is not just limited to playing MP3s on a Sony Ericsson phone. The price for the service will be $15 a month.
The first Prada branded phone, the LG Prada has officially sold one million units worldwide. LG made the announcement today and they seem pretty damn proud about it. I can’t remember the last time LG released a press release about selling a million units of any of their other phones. I think they just used the press release to tease us with the announcement of another Prada phone soon to come. The press release below hints that a new LG Prada phone will be released at the end of this year in Europe.
“Since its March 2007 debut the Prada Phone by LG has been recognized as one of the world’s most sophisticated handset combining innovative design with technological breakthroughs including the first complete touch screen. This visionary approach by intimate and productive partnership from two vastly different industries became a platform for new design opportunities and opened doors to diverse multimedia experiences.
Encouraged by the strong market response, LG and Prada have committed to further collaborations and will launch a new handset model starting from Europe in the 4Q of 2008.”
I watched the live streaming video this morning of the T-Mobile G1 press conference. The press conference was held in New York City. As soon as I can get a copy of the video I’ll put it on here. The announcement was about an hour long. There was a representative from Google, HTC and T-Mobile at the press conference. Interestingly enough the CEO of HTC attended the press conference. That just shows how important the G1 is to HTC. Might I add that HTC is totally kicking ASS these days when it comes to leading technology cell phones. All three men went on about how important the phone and operating system was to their respective company. They also showed a few videos highlighting the functionality of the G1. Overall I was pretty impressed with the phone. Needless to say that when the phone comes out next month I’ll be getting one.
The Google Android platform look pretty cool. Of course you can see a lot of the iPhone functionality being mimicked in the phone. For example you can swipe your finger across the screen to move it around and you can also enlarge pictures with finger movements. Since the operating system is made by Google just about all the Google apps have been integrated into the phone. Apps include GMAIL, Google Maps, Google Calendar and so on. If you’re a Google aps user then you’ll be happy to know the aps function just like they would on a desktop. Someone asked if Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) could be opened on the phone. The reply was yes, but you would not be able to edit the document. Someone else asked if Skype was built-in and the answer was no.
Just like the iPhone has iTunes, the G1 has Amazon heavily integrated into the phone. If you’re looking to purchase music for your phone you’ll be doing it via Amazon.
One of the themes that all of the speakers kept reinforcing was the idea of 3rd party development and open source. Google Android is an open source operating system. The hopes of Google, as I mentioned in It’s All About Cell Phone Applications, is that 3rd party developers will be the driving force in creating applications that work with Android. Google realizes that the best applications will be built by 3rd party developers. To demonstrate this concept two companies were featured that built applications for Android. One of the two companies made an application that will allow you to scan the barcode of products using the phone’s camera. You will then be able to see competitive prices for that product. Pretty cool, huh. Speaking of the camera it is a 3 megapixel camera which is average, but there is not flash and no video record. Bummer. Oh well, something to look forward to in the next release.
Last, but not least the G1 has got your broadband needs covered. Not only does the G1 have Wi-Fi built-in, but it also will work on T-Mobile’s 3G network. During the press conference it was mentioned that the T-Mobile 3G network will be up and running in well over 25 markets. You can see the T-Mobile 3G network coverage for yourself. The G1 is built to be used on a broadband network so T-Mobile made sure to have us covered from all angles.
By now you’re probably wondering how you can get your hands on one of these bad boys. The G1 will be available at T-Mobile stores starting on October 22nd. You can pre-order on their website now, but the phone won’t be shipped until October 22nd. The phone will retail for $179. At a low price of $179 you know the lines are going to be very long at the T-Mobile stores so make sure you get there early! You can see more photos, specs and features at T-Mobile G1.
Today is the 23rd which means T-Mobile’s big HTC Dream announcement is set to air live at 10:30EST. You can watch the live press conference on the new T-Mobile G1 website. I hope you caught that. The HTC Dream will now officially be called the T-Mobile G1. You knew that Google had to get their name in there somewhere. In case you can’t watch the live press conference I’ll make sure to put up the video once it is released post press conference. Stay tuned!
I see tons of questions asking if certain cell phones will work with certain carriers. I’m hoping that this little write-up will help answer those questions and give you a little more knowledge about the two prevailing technologies.
Lets start with Global System for Mobile Communications or GSM. GSM is a standard that was setup in Europe. GSM was non existent in the US until recently. GSM has started making major inroads in the United States recently. To help boost the speed of GSM technology EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA were created. Each standard has a higher upload/download speed then the next. EDGE has a speed of 70-140 kbps. UMTS and HSDPA have speeds of 275—380 kbps.
In order to use the GSM network in the United States you need to have a Subscriber Identity Module card (SIM card). The removable SIM card allows phones to be instantly activated, interchanged, swapped out and upgraded, all without carrier intervention. The SIM itself is tied to the network, rather than the actual phone. Phones that are card-enabled can be used with any GSM carrier. With GSM you are able to switch from one carriers GSM network to another without any problem. For example if you take your GSM phone to Europe you can automatically get connected to GSM carriers in Europe without signing up for contracts with those carriers. The only catch is that your phone will need to be a quad-band GSM phone. Meaning your phone works on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz frequencies.
The US carriers that use the GSM network are AT&T and T-Mobile.
Now lets look at Code Division Multiple Access or CDMA. CDMA is a standard that was established in the United States by Qualcomm. CDMA is always used in parts of Asia. To help boost the speeds of CDMA, EVDO was created. The download speed of EVDO claims to be about 2 megabits per second.
A R-UIM card is the equivalent to the SIM card, R-UIM cards are only available in parts of Asia but could someday make it to the United States. CDMA carriers in the U.S. require proprietary handsets that are linked to one carrier only and are not card-enabled. To upgrade a CDMA phone, the carrier must deactivate the old phone then activate the new one. The old phone becomes useless.
The US carriers that use the CDMA network are Sprint, Verizon and Virgin Mobile.
That just about sums it up at a very high level. If you have a phone that takes a SIM card it isn’t going to work on Sprint, Verizon and Virgin Mobile. On the other hand if you have a CDMA phone it won’t work on AT&T or T-Mobile. It’s as simple as that for now.
Oh yeah, one last thing. Often with GSM you hear a lot about unlocked phones. An unlocked phone means that the phone is locked to only work with the a particular carrier. If you unlock the phone then the phone will work with any SIM card on any GSM carriers network. So if you buy a Nokia that is only sold in Europe and not by T-Mobile for example, you can unlock the phone and use your SIM card to allow it to work on the T-Mobile network. Unlocked phones does not pertain to CDMA phones as noted above.
That’s right, you didn’t read the title incorrectly. Verizon Wireless announced today that you can sign-up with Verizon on a month-to-month basis. You no longer need to sign an extended contract or have to worry about early cancellation fees. The one and only downside is that you will not be able to purchase phones at discount prices. Here are the specifics of the change:
“Verizon Wireless’ new Month-to-Month agreement gives customers the freedom to purchase new devices at full-retail price, or use their own CDMA devices without the commitment of a one- or two-year contract. Additionally customers can terminate their agreement at the end of any month without paying an Early Termination Fee.
The company’s Month-to-Month agreement is now available on all Nationwide Voice and Data plans for both new and current contract customers. Current contract customers must fulfill the terms of their current contract before moving to a Month-to-Month agreement.”
I’m pretty excited about this announcement. It goes along with what I’ve been saying. Consumers no longer need to fell locked into a specific carrier and specific line of phones anymore. Now cell phone users are starting to have the option to use any phone they want on just about any carrier they want. Mark my words, there will be a time that all phones work on any carrier. It will only be a matter of what carrier has better service in your area. I can’t wait for that day!
Samsung and Armani have teamed up to launch the Samsung Emproio Armani Night Effect. The Armani Night Effect is the second Armani branded phone. The first Armani phone was a touchscreen and this one is a classic style phone. Specs on the phone include:
Quadband GSM, HSDPA connectivity
2.2″ reinforced glass AMOLED display
3.2 mpx camera without flash
Built-in FM Radio
Dedicated music player control buttons
120 MB of User Memory
microSD memory card slot
USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0
I wouldn’t say that phone is overly stylish or leading edge. In fact, if you ask me the phone looks more like a glorified Samsung Plum. Even though it isn’t the greatest looking phone I’m sure lots of people will snatch up this phone. The Emporio Armani is slated to start selling in Europe around November. Since the phone is a quad-band GSM phone you can pick up an unlocked version and use it on the T-Mobile network.
