Carmen Nobel

Although widely considered geek chic, wearable computing systems are steadily gaining ground in vertical and consumer arenas alike. At the center of the movement is wearable computing pioneer Xybernaut Corp., which, at its annual wearable computing conference in McLean, Va., at the end of the month will announce its latest product, the Mobile Assistant V. […]

Microsoft Corp. is continuing to embed itself in the embedded systems market. Earlier this month, the Redmond, Wash., software company announced the first beta of Talisker, the code name for Version 3.1 of the Windows CE operating system, which runs in handheld devices and Internet appliances. Talisker is slated for wide release by the end […]

Erich Berman has spent six months scouring the Las Vegas trade shows in search of elusive quarry: a hands-on experience with the wireless technology known as Bluetooth. At events such as the CTIA Wireless show, Berman went right to the belly of the beast—the Bluetooth Pavilion—to ask a dwindling number of vendors point- blank when […]

Compaq Computer Corp.s decision to extend mobile Internet services on foundering Metricom Inc.s Ricochet wireless network is raising questions about the offering and fueling speculation that Metricom may be ripe for a takeover. Compaqs new iPaq Mobile Internet extension was announced last week and is designed for “on-the-go businesspeople.” Under the initiative and through a […]

Faced with slowing demand for products and a slowing economy, the major cell phone and handheld computer makers spent the end of last month cleaning house. Telefon Ericsson AB, Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and Palm Inc. have laid off employees and shuttered facilities in an effort to ride out what some are calling the wireless […]

The CTIA wireless show may have been staged here in the glitz capital of the country, but the focus was far from flashy. Where just one year ago the conference, sponsored by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, was a no-holds-barred celebration of new technology, this year the mood was cautious as industry giants debated the […]

Commercial satellites may be more than just pies in the sky. A year after Iridium LLC shut down its satellite phone service because operating costs outweighed customer interest, a reincarnation, Iridium Satellite LLC, is giving it another shot. The Tempe, Ariz., company last week began commercial phone service using the network of satellites it acquired […]

Having gained a loyal following of corporate users for its BlackBerry wireless message devices, Research In Motion Ltd. is ready to move beyond e-mail. The Waterloo, Ontario, company this week will announce plans to support wireless calendar synchronization; wireless downloads from GoAmerica Communications Corp., in Hackensack, N.J.; and Web content from AvantGo Inc. on its […]

Handspring Inc., Palm Inc. and Compaq Computer Corp. are playing the slots. All three have developed a bevy of handheld devices featuring expansion slots for holding a variety of add-on modules—from gaming applications to digital cameras—that will give users new choices in the form and function of their PDAs (personal digital assistants). Leading the charge […]

A year after several hundred companies including Sun Microsystems Inc. and America Online Inc. converged on New Orleans and the CTIA Wireless show to predict that new killer applications would soon make wireless devices overtake PCs, much of that promise is still unfulfilled. In particular, over the course of the last 12 months, wireless carriers […]

Wanting to mean as much to CIOs as it does to average Joes, Palm Inc. last week announced plans to reorganize and acquire mobile middleware company Extended Systems Inc. The move makes Palm one of a growing number of wireless hardware and software vendors eager to show they have the goods and the support necessary […]

With the grand hope of making the wireless data experience more productive and less cumbersome, Sprint PCS Group and Compuware Corp. are working together to develop customized business applications for use on the Sprint Wireless Web. But the new tools, which will include a variety of vertical and general business applications such as ERP (enterprise […]