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U.S. Representative Pushes CDMA in Iraq
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sent letters to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and various legislators asking them to support rival CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology, pioneered by Qualcomm, for a new Iraqi cell phone system. Qualcomm is based in San Diego. In the letter, Issa expresses concern that if GSM technology were chosen, much of the equipment could come from manufacturers in France and Germany , as well as Finland and Sweden. That means the U.S. government would be handing over taxpayers money to companies in some countries that have decided not to support U.S. war efforts.
Read the full story on: InfoWorld
Demise of Mini-PCI Wireless LAN Card Expected
The current mini-PCI wireless LAN card could be replaced by several new potential industry standards now being drafted, according a panel session at the JEDEX Conference last week. The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association JC61 committee is expected to finish several draft standards later this year for new interfaces between the baseband, MAC and RF portions of WLAN chips. Patrick Yu, marketing director for ALi Microelectronics, said the new standards would open the WLAN market to allow the mix-and-match of different vendor RF, baseband and MAC chips for greater competition. Yoran Solomon, Texas Instruments director of wireless LAN business development, said the proposed JEDEC standards would allow moving the radio in PCs close to the system antenna to eliminate the relatively long coax cable now used to connect the mini-PCI card to the antenna in PCs.
Read the full story on: EBN
Palm Faces WLAN Gaming Patent Infringement Suit
Palm was hit with a lawsuit claiming that the ability of its PDAs to network wirelessly with other such devices on an ad hoc basis, in turn allowing users to compete in multi-player games, infringes the intellectual property of Peer-to-Peer Systems. Peer-to-Peer Systems maintains a US patent, number 5,618,045, filed in February 1995 by two Jerusalem residents, Michael Kagan and Ian Solomon. The patent was granted in April 1997. According to a report from The Register, the patent basically is for connecting any two devices over a wireless LAN and playing a multi-player game with them.
Read the full story on: The Register
Nextel plans Smartphone, Wi-Fi phones
Nextel Communications by next year will offer a Motorola mobile phone based on Microsofts Windows Powered Smartphone platform, and in the second quarter of this year the carrier will begin trials with a phone that can be used on Wi-Fi wireless LANs, a Nextel executive said. The Smartphone device will support tri-band GSM/GPRS as well as Nextels iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) infrastructure, according to Barry West, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Nextel. The phone will allow users to make calls over a home or office Wi-Fi network and use the same phone to call over the iDEN network while on the road, West said. Although it couldnt truly roam from one type of network to the other, this phone could allow customers to replace a cordless phone or a wired PBX (private branch exchange) with a wireless LAN, West said.
Read the full story on: IDG
IXI Readies Personal Area Networking
The PMG (Personal Mobile Gateway) software developed by IXI Mobile creates your own personal area network that connects not only your laptop and PDA (personal digital assistant) but also an array of other devices like a wristwatch with caller ID and digital camera, all at once and with a bunch of applications. PMG adds two main functions to Bluetooth-enabled phones, according to Edgar Auslander, senior vice president of marketing and strategy at IXI Mobile. First, the software has a router capability, allowing users to connect multiple wireless devices to their cell phone and share the same Internet connection. Second, it has a server capability, enabling other devices to operate as thin clients without the need for additional operating system software, power devices and more.
Read the full story on: InfoWorld
Orange, Voda Invest in Phone OS
Orange and Vodafone invested $3 million in Java phone company SavaJe. SavaJe is writing a MIDP Java-based platform and says devices will be on the market by the end of the year. The UI reference specifies 220×176 screen devices with no touch screen, an alternative to Nokias Series 60. The company has received $29.5 million in funding with the recent Series B round raising $17.5 million.
Read the full story on: The Register