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Telecommunications
Review: iXpand 3G iPhone and iPod Touch charger
By Jeff Salton
15:04 February 3, 2010 PST
A new snap-on battery that can extend the talk time and power on an iPhone 3G, 3GS or iPod Touch 2G device by around three hours (up to 100 hours standby) has been released by Ethereal Home Theater. "No bulky or clumsy cords, and designed to look like an extension to a 3G iPhone, this is one of the better-looking spare batteries going around," says Gizmag's Jeff Salton, who's been putting the unit to the test. Read More
Wireless optical system offers one gigabit per second transmission
By Paul Ridden
19:31 January 28, 2010 PST
Sending and receiving data over a wireless network is generally undertaken via radio waves. But that's not the only method. Using the optical spectrum offers the advantage of better security and blisteringly fast transfer rates to boot. Engineers from Pennsylvania State University have now succeeded in moving data outside the usual line of sight restrictions at speeds of over one gigabit per second, more than double that achieved by Siemens recently. Read More
i-mate 810F - the 'Chuck Norris' of handsets
By Jeff Salton
18:57 January 26, 2010 PST
Handset manufacturer i-mate’s 810-F is so tough the company has given it a lifetime year-on-year warranty. That’s because it has already put the 810-F through a grueling set of tests and trials, including running a car over it, immersing it in all kinds of fluids, kicking it, dropping it, baking it, freezing it and even calling it bad names – and yet the device continues to work. I-mate says the 810-F has even passed the rigors of US Military toughness specifications (standards as referenced for impact resistance, crush force, submersion, rain/mist/salt, fog, dust ingress, and vibration). Follow the link for some video evidence. Read More
Synaptics debuts Fuse next-generation mobile phone concept
By Ben Coxworth
23:22 January 24, 2010 PST
Last December, the world was introduced to the Synaptics Fuse, a new concept in mobile communications. The prototype smartphone is the result of a collaboration between Synaptics, Texas Instruments, Immersion, TheAlloy and The Astonishing Tribe (TAT). What makes this phone so special is its user/phone interface. It takes Synaptics’ pioneering touchscreen technology to a whole new level, allowing people to use the phone one-handed, and without having to even see the screen. Read More
WiGig Alliance: ten times faster wireless on the way
By Mick Webb
17:21 December 13, 2009 PST
It seems our already speedy wireless connections are set to get a whole lot faster with the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) announcing the completion of its unified wireless specification. Using the currently unlicensed 60GHz spectrum, the technology is set to provide data transmission rates of up to 7Gbps – more than ten times that of current 802.11n Wi-Fi. Read More
Shape shifting alloy antennas promise new applications
By Darren Quick
19:31 December 1, 2009 PST
The shift to wireless communication using ever-smaller devices has necessitated the need for smaller and smaller antennas. Thankfully, the days of extendable antennas on mobile phones are a thing of the past with manufacturers now able conceal them inside the casing. Now scientists have created shape-shifting antennas that, while not likely to appear in consumer devices like mobile phones any time soon, could open the door to a host of uses in fields ranging from bridge safety monitoring to military deployment. Read More
November 2, 1936 - the beginning of television
By Darren Quick
15:22 November 19, 2009 PST
Although computers and the Internet have eaten away at the dominance of television, it remains the most popular form of entertainment and source of information in the world. And with the line between TV and computers blurring with the advent of Home Theater PCs (HTPCs) and devices like Apple TV it’s likely that television in one form or another will retain its crown for some time to come. Television is no longer limited to a big box sitting in the corner of the living room. It can be accessed on sexy, slim panels hung on a wall or on mobile phones while sitting on a train. In fact television is so pervasive today it can be hard to imagine life before it existed – but there was such a time, and it wasn’t even that long ago. Read More
Video - The HMV type 905: pre-war television packs a killer punch
By Gizmag Team
21:33 November 2, 2009 PST
In the latest installment of our video series looking at Michael Bennett-Levy’s collection of early technology, Laurence Fisher from Bonham's introduces us to a 1938 HMV type 905 table model television and wireless that was a wonder of engineering for its time. The exterior of the HMV model 905 television is a three-quarter figured burr walnut veneered case with molded edge housing a 7-inch screen. Click through for a closer look at this fascinating slice of history which has been restored with authentic pre-war era components and is in complete working order... and there's also a word of warning to those interested in dabbling in pre-war televisons - TV repair can be a lethal occupation. Read More
GPS satellites tell us where we are, but what tells them where they are?
By Jeff Salton
18:00 November 1, 2009 PST
Global Positioning System (GPS) devices have permeated society to the point where millions of us rely on them daily for directions, locations and traffic avoidance (if only they could tell me where I left my car keys). GPS satellites send signals to a receiver in your handheld or car-based GPS navigator, which calculates your position on the planet based on the location of the satellites and your distance from them. The distance is determined by how long it took the signals from various satellites to reach your receiver. But have you ever thought what tells the GPS satellites where they are in the first place? Read More
Google to feature Twitter updates in search
17:35 October 26, 2009 PDT
Since it was founded three years ago, Twitter has quickly grown into a social phenomenon used by presidents and bloggers alike for breaking news, political protests, marketing and personal blogging, offering a unique real-time cross-section of today's society. In a recent announcement made by Google's VP of search products and user experience, Melissa Mayer, the search giant said it had reached an agreement with the microblogging service and would soon be able to integrate status updates with its standard search results. Read More
Unused TV channels bring broadband to rural U.S.
By Jeff Salton
07:23 October 23, 2009 PDT
Discarded and left-for-dead, old TV broadcast channels (called “white spaces”) that have been freed up by the transition to digital TV in the U.S. are being given new life and used to wirelessly deliver high-speed Internet connectivity to business, education and community users. Under an experimental license granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Spectrum Bridge designed and deployed a wireless TV white spaces network to distribute broadband Internet connectivity in Claudville, Virginia. To ensure the local residents make the most of this new high-speed connectivity, Dell, Microsoft and the TDF Foundation have contributed software and hardware to the local school and the town’s new computer center. Read More
A cheap way to increase capacity and improve download speeds of strained broadband networks
By Darren Quick
23:19 October 18, 2009 PDT
A new technology that applies the same principles used by ADSL to improve the capacity of data transfer over copper and wireless broadband could potentially increase the data capacity of optical fiber cables tenfold. It’s creators say the technology, known as optical Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (oOFDM), offers an inexpensive way drastically boost the capacity of increasingly strained broadband networks and improve download times around the world. Read More
EU launches free EGNOS satnav system
By Darren Quick
20:49 October 5, 2009 PDT
The European Commission has announced the official start of operations of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), a satellite based augmentation system (SBAS) that improves the accuracy of the current US Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russian GLONASS system signals from about ten meters to two meters. Like the U.S. GPS, the EGNOS Open Service is accessible free of charge to any user equipped with a GPS/SBAS compatible receiver within the EGNOS coverage area, which includes most European states and has the built-in capability to be extended to other regions, such as North Africa and EU neighboring countries. Most receivers sold today in Europe meet that requirement. Read More
Motorola and China Mobile demonstrate wireless 100Mbps downlink with TD-LTE
By Gizmag Team
14:26 October 5, 2009 PDT
Motorola is demonstrating a TD-LTE mobile networking solution on behalf of China Mobile at ITU Telecom World in Geneva that delivers high-definition video, GPS navigation, video conferencing and high-speed Internet browsing to a moving vehicle. In addition to the world’s first live 2.6GHz TD-LTE (Time Division Duplex Long-Term Evolution ) drive demonstration, the technology will be showcased at the China Mobile booth with a downlink speed up to 112 megabits per second (Mbps). Read More
Teleavia type P111 - high definition TV circa 1958
By Gizmag Team
14:49 October 4, 2009 PDT
Michael Bennett-Levy's extraordinary collection of early technologies went under the hammer at Bonhams in London on Wednesday with 90% of the 758 lots on offer sold for a total of £683,384. A tidy sum no doubt, but having had the opportunity to examine the treasure trove closely, and the benefit of speaking at length to Bennett-Levy about the significance of key items, we can't help but conclude that many pieces were a steal for shrewd investors. The largest privately held collection of early televisions in the world - including 26 pre-war sets - made up a large slice of the auction and in the first of a series of interviews, Michael Bennett-Levy talks to Gizmag about outstanding items in his collection, starting with the much sought after Teleavia type P111, a rare 1958 console-stand television by Citroën DS designer Flaminio Bertroni that was not only a hallmark in style, but also one of the earliest examples of high-definition TV. Read More
HP’s SkyRoom makes videoconferencing easy (and cheap)
By Jude Garvey
01:57 September 30, 2009 PDT
At the risk of sounding antiquated, it doesn’t seem so long ago that a face-to-face business meeting involved one or both parties having to jump on an airplane. Teleconferencing helped a little but video conferencing certainly changed the way we do business - although the expense often meant that it was used sparingly. HP has just introduced new videoconferencing software that it claims is not only high-definition and offers live-real-time collaboration, it is also affordable and has no subscription fees. Read More
Facevsion's FXexpress Pro brings 1080p video conferencing to the mass market
By Gizmag Team
06:37 September 13, 2009 PDT
Full HD video conferencing has been available for some time - provided you can afford to spend over $20,000 on a product like Cisco's TelePresence 500. Until now that is. FaceVsion's FXexpress Pro is an ExpressCard-based hardware accelerator with an HDMI input, capable of encoding and decoding 1080p H.264 video at 30 frames per second in real-time for 1080p video conferencing - and it's available for under $200. Gizmag's Tim Hanlon talked to Facevsion at IFA 2009 - click through for the video. Read More
LRO - a giant leap for data transfer from the moon
By Jeff Salton
22:52 August 27, 2009 PDT
How is it that my cell phone still loses connection in the city and my laptop barely gets the Internet in the mountains, yet NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) can keep in touch with Earth from 238,800 miles away, 24 hours a day? Additionally, LRO can transmit 461GB of data per day (the equivalent amount of information found in a huge library), sending this information at a rate of up to 100Mb/s, while my so-called high-speed Internet service struggles to provide about 1-3Mb/s. Obviously, it’s not what you know but who you know! Read More
Licensing issues threaten to shut Skype down for good
By Loz Blain
03:02 July 31, 2009 PDT
When eBay bought Skype from Joltid in 2005, the whopping US$2.6 billion price tag didn't include the Global Index peer-to-peer software that the world's biggest Internet Telephony system is based on. And now, Joltid is trying to cancel Skype's license on the Global Index technology in a move that threatens to shut Skype down once and for all. Is it just a canny commercial chess move to force eBay to sell Skype back to Joltid at a huge discount - or is it the end of Skype as we know it? Read More
Mobile Exchange on Wheels to bolster telecommunications in disaster areas
By Jeff Salton
19:42 July 27, 2009 PDT
Devastating wildfires are burning around the Mediterranean this summer and down south, Australia is still recovering from its worst wildfire season in history in which more than 150 lives and 1800 homes were lost on ‘Black Saturday’. Telecommunications are paramount to helping save lives and direct fire-fighting efforts in wildfires but unfortunately, infrastructure such as mobile and fixed line phones and Internet services are often early casualties in fire ravaged areas. The country’s major telco, Telstra, has launched a portable solution to this issue with the unveiling of a AUD$200,000 Mobile Exchange on Wheels (MEOW) which can be quickly deployed to provide temporary fixed-line communications including broadband. Read More
Archerfish mobile video surveillance sees what you want to see
By Paul Best
01:01 June 11, 2009 PDT
We’re both a watched and watchful society. In spite of the Big Brother overtones, the reality is many like the comfort and sense of secureness that video surveillance brings. And where would reality TV be without security cameras posted on just about every street corner. In a similar fashion, the Archerfish Mobile Video Intelligence surveillance system empowers us to keep a close eye – some might say, spy – on what we value whether it’s our kids, home, business. The difference with the Archerfish system is that alerts you only when you decide something’s up. Read More
Hands on with HTC Touch Pro2
04:19 April 1, 2009 PDT
Live from CTIA. Dave Weinstein is on the scene at CTIA in Las Vegas, and was able to get some hands-on time with HTC's latest flagship device, the Touch Pro2. Click through to see the photo gallery of this groundbreaking device. Read More
Plastic Logic eReader to be used by Detroit newspapers
By Darren Quick
20:32 March 31, 2009 PDT
Many have predicted that the rise of the internet and the free availability of online news resources would sound the death knell of the humble newspaper. While that hasn’t happened yet the industry realizes it must adapt or indeed face extinction. The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News have seen the writing on the wall and think the time is right to go digital by partnering with Plastic Logic to offer digital content delivery and distribution with the forthcoming Plastic Logic Reader. Read More
Follow Gizmag on Twitter
By Tim Hanlon
06:07 March 26, 2009 PDT
If you're looking for a way to keep up to date with Gizmag, but our RSS feed and e-mail newsletter aren't doing the trick, we've recently added another option that might interest you - a Twitter feed at @gizmag. Read More
Ericsson claiming a major breakthrough in broadband - 500Mbit/s over copper lines
By Paul Evans
17:19 March 22, 2009 PDT
The next generation of Super Broadband DSL is just around the corner. Swedish Telecommunications giant Ericsson has demonstrated 500-Mbits/s transmission rates over copper cabling by using new crosstalk cancellation or "vectorized" VDSL2 based modems. The data rate is over 20 times faster than the fastest ADSL2 services currently on offer in most countries. With products using the technology likely to be available by the end of the year, this will open up the possibility of broadband services such as video-on-demand over IPTV networks. Read More
dariusvons
- February 10, 2010 @ 00:56 UTC
