Youd think that the major players in the wireless industry would be thoughtful enough to announce everything at once, so that we could do this in one story, and that would be it. But no. Taking no pity on us, they keep announcing new products and deals and so forth. So heres whats happened since yesterdays Feb. 12 edition of Waynes Wireless Wire.
- HP announces a new smart phone—Hewlett-Packard announced the new iPaq 500 series smart phone, which the company describes as sleek and small. It handles VOIP (voice over IP) and push e-mail as well as regular GSM and EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution) capability and Bluetooth. The device supports over 20 voice commands and is designed to work with Wi-Fi corporate networks. The new device supports Windows Mobile 6, which includes features designed to ease the transition between cell phone service and Wi-Fi. The iPaq 500 series smart phones will be available in the United States in spring of 2007. International availability has yet to be determined, and pricing has not been set.
- Samsung unveils WiMax and phones—Samsung announced that its Mobile WiMax Wave 2 deployment will start with Sprint Nextel in the United States. The company demonstrated the technology in Barcelona during 3GSM.
In addition, the company announced its new line of Ultra Multimedia phones. The F700 includes a 5 megapixel camera with 7.2M-bps download speeds using HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access). The companys F510, F300 and F500 have dual-face LCD screens. The F300 is designed for music lovers, the F500 for television and the F510 for digital television reception. Other phones announced by Samsung include the Ultra Edition U600 and U700 sliding phones and the U100, which the company said is the slimmest handset available anywhere.
- HTC unveils three smart phones—Taiwan-based High Tech Computer is announcing three new smart phones aimed at different market segments. The HTC Advantage X7500 is designed to be a mobile office device. It supports Windows Mobile 6 and the Mobile Office software package, works with HSDPA and supports quad-band GSM services. The HTC S710 is a compact device featuring a sliding keyboard and is, according to the company, “sleek.” The HTC P3350 is a multimedia and entertainment smart phone. T-Mobile will release the X7500 as the Ameo, but it will appear everywhere except the United States initially. As usual, we get the good stuff last.
- Optimi announces new wireless planning tools—Atlanta-based Optimi announced its new x-Wizard product, which is designed to assist operators in designing and planning WiMax and HSDPA networks. The company also announced tools for automatic cell planning and radio access parameter planning.
- Symbian ships lots of smart phones—Symbian announced that 51.7 million smart phones containing its software were shipped in 2006. The company says that number is made up of 108 smart phone models supported through 250 network operators. The company also said nearly 7,000 applications are currently available for the Symbian operating system.
- Novatel Wireless introduces new wireless cards—Novatel Wireless is showing its new Merlin X950D high-speed wireless card. The new device, which is offered either as a PC card or USB device, supports HSDPA and HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) as well as EDGE and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). The device can support download speeds of up to 7.2M bps. The device supports multiple bands and is designed to work nearly anywhere in the world.
- Nuance announces speech support for Pearl—Nuance Communications announced that the company has a speech application for the BlackBerry Pearl that lets users dictate text and control the device by voice. The voice control includes speech-based Web searching, an MP3 player and GPS Navigation application, and readers for e-mail and SMS (Short Message Service). This will be a real benefit for people who need reading glasses to use the tiny Pearl otherwise.
The show goes on in Barcelona. There are still more announcements scheduled for Feb. 14, so if they look interesting, therell be another Wireless Wire to tell you all about it. Perhaps well luck out and find out about a mobile device thats not described as “sleek.”
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