For years, Wi-Fi telephones and walkie-talkie-like communicators have been available for hospitals and offices. Now, manufacturers and mobile carriers are preparing to link standard cellular networks to the mishmash of Wi-Fi hotspots, a move that will expand coverage and perhaps make cheaper mobile minutes a reality.

The technology, called Unlicensed Mobile Access, or UMA, will help those who have high-speed Wi-Fi routers overcome any poor coverage in their houses or apartments. It's also a way for mobile carriers to expand their footprint without spending lots of money on new infrastructure.

UMA could enable users of souped-up handsets to wirelessly download content at broadband speeds at home and take that on the road when they leave.

"Everything from multimedia to audio, video - when you look at the capabilities of phones now, the options expand pretty quickly," Nokia spokesman Eric Estroff said.  |  source...

MICROSOFT has developed a Skype-style free internet voice service for mobile phones that City analysts believe could wipe billions off the market value of operators such as Vodafone.

The service is included in a mobile version of Microsoft Office Communicator due to be released this year. It will take the form of a voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) application that allows Office users to make free voice calls over wi-fi enabled phones running Windows Mobile software. It uses the internet as a virtual phone network as well as accessing e-mail, PowerPoint and other Office applications.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer dropped his bombshell at the mobile operators’ annual 3GSM show in Barcelona last week. The significance of his remarks was missed because of his effusive and eccentric delivery.

Trying to downplay the havoc Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile will wreak on the mobile telecoms industry, Ballmer chose a topical Valentine’s Day theme for his announcement. “I love the mobile industry and I love our operator partners, and I want to have that message precede all we’re about to show,” Ballmer said in Barcelona. He went on to demonstrate how a mobile phone running Windows Mobile can be used to make a free voice call over the internet. Ballmer told the audience: “That was a VoIP call.”

But Ballmer’s announcement may be closer to a St Valentine’s Day massacre than a love letter for the mobile operators concerned.

Cyrus Mewawalla, an analyst at Westhall Capital, believes VoIP, when backed by Microsoft, will have a more devastating effect on mobile operators than it did on the fixed-line operators, which saw their voice revenues slashed after the introduction of VoIP services such as Skype.  [ more... ]

Cingular has unveiled a new laptop card and pricing plans for world-travelers who need bandwidth at all times. The new $100 card allows users to access UMTS, EDGE, GPRS, or HSDPA networks & specs. The $110 monthly plan includes unlimited domestic use and a 100MB data cap in Canada and Mexico. The $140 plan includes unlimited domestic use and the joy of experiencing a 100MB data cap in 24 countries, including Australia, China, France, Germany, the UK, Italy and Japan.  [ more... ]

Some of the biggest mobile phone networks have joined forces to push instant messaging (IM) over mobiles.

Fifteen operators, including Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and China Mobile have agreed to work together to make it easy to IM across networks.

 

The motivation to get IM working on mobiles is driven by its huge success on the net. By getting people using IM on a mobile instead of a PC, the operators believe they can start to generate decent amounts of money for data services.

 

The mobile phone industry is looking to repeat the success of text messaging.

 

In December, British mobile users sent 3.1 billion text messages, more than ever before according to the Mobile Data Association.

 

All those short messages add up to big bucks for operators. Up to 20% of their profits, according to some estimates, result from the relatively high price customers pay every time they tap out a text.   [ more... ]

Mobile handset manufacturer Motorola has announced that it is integrating Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) technology into a number of its handsets.

Announced on Monday, the first day of the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, the deal will see Motorola add support for Windows DRM, Windows Media Audio, Windows Media Audio Professional, and Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) to a range of its handsets.

The companies claim that when the Motorola handsets are released later this year, customers will be able to connect to Windows-based PCs via USB 2.0 and automatically synchronize the music on their computer with their phone using MTP.

"Our relationship with Microsoft is about making the mobile world seamless with the desktop world and allowing consumers to experience music wherever and whenever they want," said Richard Chin, Motorola's corporate vice-president of global product marketing.

Motorola has been using Microsoft technologies on its some of its handsets since 2005 and plans to offer Windows Media-enabled handsets worldwide in the second half of 2006.

Motorola, which launched its first iTunes phones last year, will keep Windows Media phones as separate products, said Chris White, the company's senior director of global product marketing for music handsets.  [ more... ]

 

Advances in mobile phone tracking technology are turning British firms into cybersleuths as they keep a virtual eye on their staff, vehicles and stock.

 

In the past few years, companies that offer tracking services have seen an explosion in interest from businesses keen to take advantage of technological developments in the name of operational efficiency.

 

The gains, say the converted, are many, ranging from knowing whether workers have been "held up" in the pub rather than in a traffic jam, to being able to quickly locate staff and reroute them if necessary.

 

Not everybody is happy about being monitored, however, and civil rights group Liberty says the growth of tracking raises data privacy concerns.  [ more... ]

 

Microsoft announced Monday that Sony Ericsson, a joint venture of consumer electronics maker Sony and cell phone maker Ericsson, has licensed the Exchange ActiveSync protocol to enable Sony Ericsson's P990 and M600 phones to directly synchronize with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

 

The new capability will let mobile workers access their e-mail, calendar and contact information from anywhere using their Sony Ericsson handheld devices. For companies that have deployed Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2, additional mobile enhancements such as Direct Push are also supported, providing instant access to newly received e-mail messages. Both of the new phones will be available in the second quarter of 2006. Microsoft has similar licensing agreements for its Exchange ActiveSync technology with companies, such as Motorola, Nokia, Palm and Symbian [ source... ]

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with an inexpensive way to prevent digital cameras and digital video cameras from capturing that secret shot.

The technology they've devised detects the presence of a digital camera up to 33 feet away and can then shoot a targeted beam of light at the lens, according to Shwetak Patel, a grad student at the university and one of the lead researchers on the project.

That means that someone trying for a surreptitious snapshot of, say, a product prototype or an amorous couple gets something altogether less useful--a blurry picture (or a video) of what looks like a flashlight beam, seen head on. (A video of how the system works can be viewed here.)

T-Mobile International, Deutsche Telekom's mobile division, plans to launch a new high-speed mobile service in four European countries by March to improve Internet speed on mobile phones.

HSDPA, or High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, is a special version of third-generation (3G) mobile phone services. It offers data speeds that allow clients to watch television on mobile phones and is even faster than many fixed-line broadband connections.

"High-speed 3G will be available wherever T-Mobile already offers 3G coverage," T-Mobile Chief Executive Rene Obermann said at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. T-Mobile has 3G services in Germany, Britain, Austria and the Netherlands.

Mazda has created a concept car that uses a USB drive as its ignition key.

The USB (universal serial bus) feature will be part of its Sassou concept car, a small hatchback aimed at the youth market, Mazda said this week. The car will be unveiled at this month's Frankfurt Motor Show.

Sassou uses a USB "key" and interface port that will let drivers program and load files onto the car's hard drive. But auto industry watchers note that such a feature may take years to show up on showroom floors--or it may never make it that far.

"Concept cars are used to introduce a new body style and, on top of that, the manufactures throw in all kinds of features. Often, those ideas are not ready for production," said Csaba Csere, editor-in-chief of Car and Driver magazine. "It usually takes three years from design to production."  [ more... ]

A number of Creative's Zen digital-music players infected with the Wullik.B virus have been shipped to consumers in Japan.

According to the firm's Japanese Web site, the problem has affected 5GB Creative Zen Neeon with serial numbers between 1230528000001 and 1230533001680. Wullik.B, which runs on the Windows operating system, first appeared in early 2004, spreading by e-mail.

Several thousand Neeons are thought to be affected, according to reports. The problem, however, is only restricted to Asia-Pacific countries, as the Neeon is not available outside the region.

According to antivirus companies, it's unlikely--although not impossible--that users will transfer the worm from an infected Neeon to their computer. For a PC to be potentially infected, a Neeon user would have to connect their MP3 player to the computer, browse the files and copy the worm to the PC's hard drive.

Infected Neeons, which have been on sale since May, will not be affected by the virus as the digital-music players do not run on Windows itself.   [ more... ]