devices

What Intel, Nokia gain in mobile reboot

Intel and Nokia have more than a few holes in their respective collections of mobile technologies. How far will the collaboration announced Tuesday go to plug the holes and take them to the next technology plane?

A platitude easily missed in the announcement may be the most revealing statement. Simply, that the two companies create the opportunity to take advantage of each other's expertise.

Nokia makes mobile phones. Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, can't get its chips into mobile phones. On the other hand, Intel makes the silicon that powers the world's PCs. Nokia doesn't have a clue about PCs.

The announcement won't necessarily inspire confidence with its lack of product particulars, but that's not what it's about. "Today is a relationship announcement," said Jeff Orr, senior analyst for mobile devices at ABI Research.

Intel and Nokia are simply agreeing at this stage to collaborate rather than be direct competitors, according to Orr.

Nokia was clear--in a cryptic sort of way--on one point, however: "Today's collaboration is not about smartphones but creating a new class of devices," Kai Oistamo, executive vice president for devices at Nokia, said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Beyond those future devices--presumably powered by Intel silicon--what does Intel get? Initially, the most concrete thing is 3G. "This is a gap for Intel, which has focused on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and WiMax," Orr said. "As a result, when future architectures like an Atom platform are developed for MIDs (mobile Internet devices), Netbooks, smartphones, that means vendors will have more flexibility for connectivity."

In short, Intel can build 3G into its chipsets and Intel can compete more effectively in the future with products like the iPhone and Palm Pre that include 3G as standard. Intel-based notebooks and Netbooks, until recently, were rarely offered with 3G as a standard option.

"We're not talking about specific products today but certainly we would not have taken a license (from Nokia) if we didn't have the intention to build a product," Anand Chandrasekher, Intel senior vice president and general manager at the Ultra Mobility Group, said in a phone interview Tuesday, referring to Intel's licensing of Nokia's HSPA/3G modem technology.

And it may be too soon for 4G technologies like WiMax. There are many countries (ABI Research's Orr counts about 100) where 3G is just emerging, so talking about WiMax (a 4G technology) is "very premature for most countries," he said. … Read more

Intel, Nokia announce mobile pact

Updated at 8:20 a.m. PDT: Added Intel-Nokia announcement and Intel discussion.

Intel and Nokia announced on Tuesday a wide-ranging deal covering chips, hardware, and software for mobile devices.

The companies said their new "long-term relationship" will focus on developing new chip architectures and software and a new class of Intel-based mobile computing devices. The move is part of a major shift for Intel, which is a giant in PC chips but not a player in cell phones.

Among other aspects, the agreement covers mobile applications and wireless Internet access "in a user-friendly pocketable form factor.&… Read more

Four years later: Why did Apple drop PowerPC?

Updated on Monday, June 15 at 2:20 p.m. PDT: adding multi-core discussion to earlier Windows update.

It's been four years this month since Apple announced it would drop the PowerPC architecture and switch to Intel's x86 design. One person involved in the back-and-forth between Apple and IBM at the time provides some insight into why it happened.

When Apple made the watershed announcement in June 2005 ending its longstanding relationship with IBM and Motorola, Apple CEO Steve Jobs attributed the switch to a superior Intel roadmap.

"Looking ahead Intel has the strongest processor roadmap by far," Jobs said in a statement at the time. "It's been ten years since our transition to the PowerPC, and we think Intel's technology will help us create the best personal computers for the next ten years."

One oft-cited reason was that Apple didn't believe it could get the requisite performance per watt from processors being supplied by IBM and Freescale--formerly Motorola's chipmaking arm. Translation: Apple was worried about IBM's and Motorola's ability to deliver competitive processors for laptops. (Update: Another reason often put forward is that Apple simply wanted to be able to run Windows.)

A former IBM executive, who worked at IBM at the time and was involved in discussions with Apple, offered his perspective in a conversation we had during dinner at a recent technology conference. Let me emphasize that this is one person's opinion, not necessarily the gospel truth. I will not publish his name or title.

While he acknowledged the public reasons put forward by Apple, there was more to it--not surprisingly--than that. The upshot: Apple wanted better pricing, according to this person.

Apple was paying a premium for IBM silicon, he said, creating a Catch-22. IBM had to charge more because it didn't have the economies of scale of Intel, but Apple didn't want to pay more, even though it supposedly derived more from an inherently superior RISC design as manifested in the PowerPC architecture.

Here's what Jobs said in 2003: "The PowerPC G5 changes all the rules. This 64-bit race car is the heart of our new Power Mac G5, now the world's fastest desktop computer," Jobs said in a statement. "IBM offers the most advanced processor design and manufacturing expertise on earth, and this is just the beginning of a long and productive relationship." (Sounds suspiciously similar to what Jobs said about Intel after Apple made the switch.)

Despite the praise heaped on IBM's technology in 2003, Apple believed, by 2005, that it couldn't compete on cost, according to this person. … Read more

Blanket provides protection against dirty bombs

The first instinct when confronted with a radiological explosive device may be to turn tail and run, but the new Demron-W Nuclear/Ballistic Shield affords the opportunity to stick around and save the day.

The Demron suppression blanket provides total protection against ballistics, improvised explosive devices, dirty bombs, spills, and all types of radiological and nuclear incidents, according to Miami-based manufacturer Radiation Shield Technologies (RST).

It acts as a portable shield, tailored to reduce emissions from contained high-energy sources such as Cesium-137, and neutron sources and Americium-Beryllium. It's perfect for covering undetonated radiological dispersal devices, RST says.

The material, … Read more

Charging gadget redefines power-walking

The nPower PEG (Personal Energy Generator) from a company called Tremont Electric harnesses personal kinetic energy as a person walks, transferring it into electricity to the portable electronic device plugged into it.

Using this method, the PEG can charge the average portable device up to 80 percent in about an hour.

Aaron LeMiex, the inventor and founder of Tremont Electric, came up with the idea for the device while hiking 1,500 miles of the Appalachian Trail more than 10 years ago.

The PEG is 9 inches by 1.5 inches, weighs about 9 ounces, and is made of recycled materials. The PEG isn't a battery, so users can not store their kinetic energy to be used for charging later. Instead, it's more of a kinetic energy real-time converter that must be plugged in to the device as it's moving for the kinetic energy to be transferred as electricity immediately to the device.

The PEG, which has a standard USB 2.0 output, is compatible with 90 percent of portable electronic devices including MP3 players, GPS units, and digital cameras, according to Tremont Electric. (The compatibility list includes BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod, LG Chocolate, Magellan GPS, Nintendo DS Lite, Palm Treo, and most cell phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sanyo, and Sony.)

There's no need to wear the device, as with some other kinetic energy harvesting devices. Simply carrying the PEG in a backpack, purse, or briefcase while walking provides the opportunity to harvest enough kinetic energy for the electricity.… Read more

Motorola turns to consumer electronics

Motorola is turning to the consumer electronics market as it looks to expand its troubled wireless business in new directions.

On Tuesday morning, the company will announce plans to sell wireless broadband modules that device makers can use to put into consumer electronics products or monitoring devices to provide broadband wireless connectivity. Specifically, Motorola is putting its homegrown wireless technology into embedded modules so that laptops, Netbooks, digital cameras, and other devices can connect to the Internet using 3G HSPA networks, as well as 4G wireless networks using WiMax and LTE technologies.

Motorola's entree into this market is significant … Read more

Mom puts GPS on teenage son

There is nothing like a mother's love. Save, some kids say, for a mother's nagging, a mother's nosiness, oh, and a mother's constant worry, of course.

Perhaps this might explain why 53-year-old Rachel Wilder reportedly put a Traakit GPS device on her son.

Harry Wilder is not a 7-year-old who is prone to chase passing dogs and cars.

Harry is 19 and will soon start a business management degree course at Oxford Brookes University in England.

Before he does, he's going on a long trip to Australia, Thailand, and South Africa. In fact, he's … Read more

Presenting to presenters: Hitachi StarBoard WT-1 wireless tablet

Personally, I'm completely happy with my USB keyboard and optical mouse. But if you're a fan of alternative input devices, such as the PaperShow, you now have another choice.

Hitachi Software announced Tuesday its new StarBoard WT-1 interactive wireless tablet. Basically, it's a mouse and keyboard replacement that lets presenters in educational facilities and corporate environments interact with their audiences.

The device has a range up to 30 feet thanks to RF wireless technology, and a battery life of up to 16 hours of continuous use. This seems nice as the PaperShow offer only a few hours … Read more

Lacks direction

DeviceIOView is supposed to give you the ability to watch data transfers between software and device drivers. Besides producing several error messages, its overall lack of direction left a lot to be desired.

The user interface is plain and seemingly straightforward, with menu and command buttons at the top, and two panels at the bottom. We clicked on the Start button since it was the only active button. A separate window appeared with a list of active processes to choose from. But no matter which process we chose, the program became unresponsive and produced an error message. Once the program … Read more

Which smartphone maker isn't Verizon talking to?

In the past 36 hours, rumors have been flying around that Verizon Wireless is in talks with Apple, Microsoft, and a Google Android phone maker. So who's next?

Just in case you are having trouble keeping up, here's a summary to get you up to speed:

Late Sunday, USA Today reported that Verizon was planning to offer an iPhone on Verizon's current CDMA-based wireless network. Business Week followed on Monday with its own story that Verizon is talking to Apple about a new "iPhone-lite" phone and a tablet-Netbook-type device. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal … Read more