How to access counters from Nokia Netact?
2 hours ago
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Friday, 3 September 2010
Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) launches Qi
The WPC has chosen the Qi logo as the international symbol of wireless charging compatibility. Qi—pronounced “chee”, meaning “vital energy” in Asian philosophy—represents an intangible flow of power. Qi is the sign of interoperability between power transmitters and power receivers. All Qi receivers will work with any Qi transmitter. Every electronic device bearing the Qi symbol can be charged on any charging pad or surface marked with the same Qi logo.
In a post last year I mentioned about the wireless chargers. There were few that were released but they are expensive and not sure about the reliability.
The following is from eWeek:
The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has launched version 1.0 of its specification for charging handsets and other devices wirelessly, to be marketed under the name “Qi”, and has certified initial products for Blackberry and iPhone devices.
The product announcements come a year after the consortium announced version .95 of the spec. The products, including chargers for iPhone and BlackBerry devices, are to be demonstrated at a WPC meeting later this month.
Qi is based on inductive power transmission, already used in products such as the Touchstone charging dock used by the Palm Pre and the charging station for the Wii gaming console remote control. Such chargers allow a device to charge when placed on a flat surface or in a sleeve or dock. They eliminate the need for the connection of a metal contact connection, such as is found in standard cordless phone chargers.
The consortium, which includes Samsung, Sanyo, Olympus, Philips and Texas Instruments, aims to standardise inductive power charging technology so that chargers can be used with any device bearing the Qi logo. The specification is suitable for devices using up to 5 Watts of power, which the WPC said should cover “the majority of handheld mobile devices”.
“Qi can now be integrated into products. All ingredients for growing the market are now on the table,” said WPC chair Menno Treffers, in a statement.
Initial Qi-certified products are to include a charging sleeve for the iPhone 3GS and 3G and a charger for the Blackberry Curve 8900, both to be launched by Energizer this autumn. Sanyo, ST-Ericsson, National Semiconductor and others said they are working on Qi products.
Prototypes are to be demonstrated at a WPC meeting in Eindhoven, Belgium, from 15 to 16 September. The WPC said it has now begun work on a wireless charging specification for devices requiring more power, including netbooks, laptops, tablet computers and power tools.
The consortium said it chose the brand Qi (pronounced “chee”) to refer to the concept of energy flow in traditional Chinese medicine, not the cult quiz show QI (for “quite interesting”) hosted by Stephen Fry on British TV.
The technology is less ambitious than the system demonstrated this summer by Witricity, which operates at a distance of a few metres, using resonance, which the company claims has green benefits through replacing disposable batteries
From ZDNet:
"It took us only 18 months to develop the Qi standard, and less than one month to see the first products certified. Qi is now the industry's choice for wireless power," said Menno Treffers, chairman of the WPC, in a statement.
Three sets of specifications — for interface definition, performance requirements and test procedure — were handed over to consortium members in July. The only standard released publicly as Qi 1.0 is the interface definition, with the others being restricted to consortium members. The WPC has grown from 27 members in July to over 55 members, including Nokia, LG, Research In Motion, Duracell, Energiser and Texas Instruments.
Wireless charging has great potential to make charging easier for consumers", said Petri Vuori, Nokia's director of mobile solutions research, in the WPC announcement statement. "For full user benefit, a standard ensuring cross-compatibility between different manufacturers' products is required. Qi low-power standard specification release 1.0 is a significant milestone into this direction."
The Qi standard uses inductive charging to transfer up to 5W of power between devices and chargers. There are already products on the market that support inductive charging, but these are tied to particular products, rather than being universal.
The WPC said that it now plans to begin work on a wireless power standard for medium power devices such as netbooks, laptops, tablet computers and power tools.
The group expects the technology to boost the market for wireless battery charging from 100,000 units to 100,000,000 units annually. "Qi can now be integrated into products. All ingredients for growing the market are now on the table." said Treffers.
You may also be interested in the video below:
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
On Twitter!
I am finally on twitter @zahidtgThere are so many news, etc which are worth sharing but don't deserve a separate post so I am going to tweet them.
You are most welcome to follow me on twitter or alternatively a widget displaying the latest tweets are on the left hand side of this blog. Please feel free to check them out and feel free to share your feedback or opinions.
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
EDGE evolution to REDHOT
EDGE is more than three times as efficient as GSM/GPRS in handling packet-switched data. Using EDGE, operators can support 3x more subscribers than GPRS, either by increasing the data rate per subscriber to 300 kbps, according to network & device capabilities, or adding voice capacity. EDGE uses the same TDMA frame structure, logic channel and 200 kHz carrier as GSM; existing cell plans remain intact. No change is needed in the core network. Neither new spectrum nor a new operating licence is needed. EDGE is a mature, mainstream global technology which allows operators to compete, to protect investments/assets, and stimulate growth of mobile multimedia services. Upgrading to EDGE is a natural step for operators to offer high performance mobile data services over GSM.
The performance of EDGE has improved steadily since its introduction in the market in 2003, and today offers users the possibility of data speeds up to 250kbps, with a latency of less than 150ms. This is sufficient for any current data service to be attractive to customers. According to GSA’s latest EDGE Fact Sheet (August 19, 2010 and available as a free download from www.gsacom.com) over 80% of GSM/GPRS operators globally have committed to deploying EDGE in their networks. 531 GSM/EDGE networks are in commercial service in 196 countries, and thousands of EDGE-capable user devices are launched.
A key part of the evolution is the opportunity to deploy more than a single RF carrier. Downlink Dual Carrier (DLDC) is the first step in evolving EDGE, doubling data rates to 592 kbps on existing EDGE-capable networks.
Downlink speed quadrupled:
up to 1.2 Mbps per user initially
(the standard enables up to 1.9 Mbps per user)
• Dual Carrier first phase implementation 10 timeslots per user; standard enables up to 16 timeslots per user
• EGPRS-2 DL (REDHOT) level B maximum 118.4 kbps per timeslot
Uplink speed up to 474 kbps per user
(the standard enables up to 947 kbps per user)
• EGPRS-2 UL (HUGE) level B with maximum 118.4 kbps per timeslot
• Peak implementation today 4 timeslots per user (standard enables up to 8 timeslots per user)
The EGPRS-2 feature is expected in the market in 2012.
More information is available in the GSA Report 'EDGE Evolution' released on Aug 23 2010. Available to download from GSACOM here.
Monday, 30 August 2010
100+ LTE Commitments, 22 commercial networks planned for 2010
The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has published an update to its Evolution to LTE report which confirms that 101 firm LTE network deployments are in progress or planned in 41 countries. The number of network commitments is 71% higher than GSA reported in a similar survey six months ago.
This figure includes three LTE systems which have launched commercial service – in Sweden, Norway, and Uzbekistan. GSA anticipates up to 22 LTE networks will be in commercial service by end 2010.
Another 31 operators are engaged in various LTE pilot trials and technology tests (these are referred to as pre-commitment trials). Taken together, it means that 132 operators are now investing in LTE in 56 countries.
The GSA Evolution to LTE report covers both LTE FDD and LTE TDD modes, and provides a summary of the market situation in each country, including operator activities and plans, spectrum requirements and developments, information on the growing eco-system including device and platforms availability, performance and interoperability trials results, key industry trends and forecasts.
LTE networks are now being deployed for commercial service or planned in Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, The Philippines, UAE, UK, USA, and Uzbekistan.
Governments around the world are preparing the way to ensure the availability of spectrum to support delivery of next generation mobile broadband services for the mass market, by allocating or preparing for the release of new spectrum such as 2.6 GHz, and in the digital dividend (700 MHz, 800 MHz) bands, or re-farming existing spectrum e.g. 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, etc. or facilitating a combination of new and re-farmed bands. The report notes that several trials licenses have been granted in many countries to allow operators to familiarize with the technology, capabilities and performance aspects. A number of tenders for spectrum licenses have been announced or confirmed in recent weeks for the granting of spectrum suitable for LTE deployments, including in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Poland, and the UK. Several auctions are scheduled for completion in the next few months.
LTE is the next generation mobile broadband technology of choice and the natural evolutionary step for GSM/WCDMA-HSPA operators and also for many leading CDMA operators around the world. A leading WiMAX operator has also recently announced the company has decided to shift to LTE.
While the majority of LTE deployments today are using the FDD mode, the report confirms significant operator interest in the TDD mode. LTE FDD and LTE TDD are complementary technologies and standardized by 3GPP. A number of key technology milestones have been demonstrated in recent weeks which confirm how the LTE TDD system is maturing towards commercialization. The recently concluded BWA spectrum auction in India has paved the way for early and large scale introduction of TDD LTE into the world’s fastest developing market.
Alan Hadden, President, GSA said: “Our latest Evolution to LTE report shows how the pace towards LTE has quickened, which is easy to see from the increasing numbers of operator trials and announcements, and positive actions by several regulatory bodies around the world”.
The GSA Evolution to LTE report (August 26, 2010) is available as a free download to registered site users at http://www.gsacom.com/gsm_3g/info_papers.php4 and is embedded below
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Friday, 27 August 2010
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Phone(y) Detectives!
Too many Apps are being developed that will turn people into ametuer detectives.
A new mobile application called Recognizr can identify a person’s face via your phone camera and deliver not only profile information about that person but also show you their latest status updates.
Swedish computer vision specialists Polar Rose combined forces with interface designers TAT (The Astonishing Tribe) to create the Recognizr as a prototype application for Android phones to show off Polar Rose’s mobile face recognition library. Polar Rose’s software recognizes individuals, while TAT’s interface uses augmented reality to show profile information from sites like Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn and the latest status updates from the recognized person.
Recognizr uses FaceLib, a mobile face recognition library from Polar Rose, which is available for Android and iPhone. FaceLib can recognize faces in photo or video but, in common with other facial recognition products, is more accurate for photos. Recognizr also uses Polar Rose’s server-side solution FaceCloud because you can’t store profiles of all potential matches in the phone — although recognizing people who are already in the phone’s address book can be handled locally on the device.
In a presentation at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, David Petrou, a project lead of Google Goggles, described the future of Goggles.
Google Goggles, as Petrou reminded the audience, includes the ability for the mobile Android application to take a picture of the object ad send it back to Google's cloud services. Petrou demonstrated the app with a picture of a beer can with an Android smart phone, which identified the can as a can of Boddington's. A results page showed an icon of the result, with some results from the Web. He also showed a videocassette of the movie Breakin', and Goggles identified it correctly.
The basic design principle of Goggles, Petrou said, was that it has to be universal: queries can't be processed within a single finite context, such as a bottle of wine. Petrou showed off a book that contained an image of a manual transmission linkage: Goggle returned both a link to the book on a shopping site, but also linked to a search on manual transmissions.
Goggles returns a specific result about a third of the time, Petrou said, and the internal CONGAS recognition engine matches images to aa database of about 150,000 landmarks by finding "interest points" within an image. New photos compared to the database can be correctly identified about 50 to 60 percent of the time, with a false positive rate of about one in 10,000, he said.
Goggles' strong suits? Packaged goods, such as movies. But with generic objects, such as an image of a red car, Goggles still struggles.
Goggles can also work with bar codes. A recent addition has been the inclusion of machine translation, which can recognize text and translate it on the fly.
Unfortunately, Goggles has to work as a client application, as Google needs as much of a fine-grained control of the camera as possible, such as the white balance.
Petrou said that Google was considering opening up Goggles to third-party applications, so that a stamp collector could upload an image of a stamp with annotation describing what it is. An open API may also be released, so that a picture could be taken of a foreign currency, and an app could be opened to automatically convert that bill's value into dollars.
Google also plans to fuse the camera with Goggles, so that augmented reality may be the future of visual search, Petrou said. "We'll use it where it's the right user interface," he said.
Goggles does have the capability to recognize faces, although that functionality hasn't been implemented in the app as yet. That might change as more and more people begin uploading data to the Web: if 17 different images of your face appeared on the Web, a picture take of you with Google Goggles would rank "you" in the top ten results about half the time. If there were 50 results, your face would be ranked in the top 5 results abour half the time, he said
Facial Recognition along with Geo-tagging is also available in Picasa web albums. You can already find who is connected to someone in facebook when you search for the people. Once all these information would start working together then you can identify the person where they have been on holidays (based on Geo-tagging of photos) and when they have gone there. Who else in their friends/family had gone with them, etc.
In fact FBI/CIA/MI5 may make their own app to "report potential terrorists" where if you see any suspicious person you can open one of their apps and click the photo of some person and the secret service will quickly check if this person is potentially a problem.
Of course we are not discussing the privacy concerns yet but looks like Scary future to me.
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