Sony’s new DR-BT140Q A2DP cans look to be Japan-only for the moment, but that won’t stop us from pausing a moment to take a peek. Apparently they get about 12 hours battery life, and their 30mm drivers have a frequency response of 16Hz - 24KHz. White, pink, black, or silver, which will it be?
In case you couldn’t tell, Sony’s getting down at CommunicAsia. Next up from Singapore is a fresh pair of HSPA USB modems, the MD400 and GPS-packin’ MD400g. Both sticks pull double duty as a M2 / microSD card reader, but it’s not like we haven’t seen that functionality tossed into similar units already. Nevertheless, these buggers support 7.2Mb/s download and 2.0M/bs upload speeds and feature a swiveling antenna to complement the built-in one, a retractable USB connector and compatibility with Windows and OS X-based machines. SE tells us that the currently unpriced duo will be available worldwide in Q4, with the biggest decision to come when choosing between Exquisite Ebony and Lustrous White.
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment
The last Switched On discussed the traffic-fighting prowess of the Dash Express, now available for only $299. Its leading ad hoc local information querying and traffic-finding capabilities represent the best potential to transform the portable navigation device from a product used primarily for unfamiliar terrain, to an everyday tool to expedite getting to point B.
When it debuted online at Amazon, it shared prime real estate with another transparently-connected consumer electronics device: the Amazon Kindle. But besides their completely divergent uses, the Dash carries more than the weight of a couple of extra radios in its cranium. The unfortunate part of the Dash Express is that the device’s unusual size takes up a good chunk of windshield real estate and, of course, serves as an even larger advertisement to thieves.
Dash has the ability to remotely kill stolen Dash Expresses, but there is still the risk of a break-in. In many ways, Dash’s service is a better match for an in-dash navigation unit such as the Pioneer AVIC series, but these expensive devices represent a small fraction of the navigation aftermarket.
However, Dash is not just competing with sleeker and cheaper unconnected devices or those using one-way information broadcast systems like MSN Direct. On one hand, it is also competing against GPS-enabled cell phones – inherently connected, omnipresent, and generally less expensive devices that often have their navigation features available on a per-diem basis. The user experience of smartphone navigation still isn’t as good as it is on portable navigation devices, but feature phones with touch user interfaces on larger screens – such as the LG Voyager, Samsung Instinct and, of course, the iPhone 3G — promise to narrow the gap. Wireless carriers could easily achieve the kinds of high volumes necessary to create a highly accurate traffic probe network.
The idea of a pioneering company playing right into the hands of subscription service providers conjures thoughts of a certain digital video recorder with an animated black tube-TV mascot. Both TiVo and Dash have drawn raves from early customers for their clean, easy user interfaces and functionality — but also like TiVo, Dash’s enemy is the “good enough” alternative. And while TiVo primarily competes against cable monopolies and captive suppliers, Dash could be kept up at night by wireless developers who can’t turn on a location-aware smartphone these days without a fund springing up to create the next world-beating — or world-mapping — application.
That’s not to say that Dash is heading for a crash. The company has a clear head start in delivering a valuable service, and it acknowledges that its larger play is as a service provider to other devices. If it can make its economics more appealing to a broad customer base, it could steer past what will surely become a heavily-trafficked space.
3G is so Monday. Today, NXP Semiconductors is getting down with the “world’s fastest high-bandwidth cellular soft modem,” which will obviously be aimed at smartphones, MIDs and other handhelds thirsting for WWAN. Notably, the PNX6910 supports multi-mode LTE / HSPA / UMTS / EDGE / GPRS / GSM capability, and it’s reportedly capable of achieving data transfer rates of 150Mbits down and 50Mbits up. To put things in perspective, NXP suggests that users could download an “entire HD movie in less than 7 minutes,” though we’re not sure what constitutes an “entire movie.” Oh, and before you get too excited in here, you should probably know that the chip won’t even be available until Q2 2009 at the earliest.
Anyone who lives in an crowded city apartment building can tell you that wireless networking on the 2.4GHz band is almost useless — but the 5GHz band is wide-open, so those of us who’ve switched over are wire-free and living it up once again. The only problem is that most devices don’t support 5GHz, particularly game consoles and other entertainment devices that could benefit from streaming data at high speeds, but Buffalo’s got you covered with the new Nfiniti Ethernet Converter. The black box bridges four Ethernet ports onto a 2.4GHz or 5GHz 802.11 network, which’ll let you add legacy devices onto your hot new network at full speed, and it’s all managed by a simple web interface. Available in July for £55 ($109).
Just when we thought things were kosher between Starbucks, T-Mobile, and AT&T over the Wi-Fi switchover, it turns out that T-Mobile isn’t so happy with how the deal is playing out. They claimed Starbucks secretly colluded with AT&T to offer free WiFi access and left T-Mobile in the lurch. The lawsuit, filed last week in New York state court, alleges that AT&T and Starbucks weren’t sticking to the terms of the original agreement, which would have allowed T-Mobile customers to freely roam on the new AT&T service. Now, it seems, they’ve all entered into a “memorandum of understanding to resolve their disputes and are committed to providing a high quality WiFi experience for customers.” So far, though, we don’t know any details as to what this agreement will mean for T-Mobile WiFi subscribers, but we’ll keep an eye on this.
As WiMax-powered 4G networks remain the stuff of holding companies and litigation, a group of providers have gotten together to form an (evil?) alliance that they say will help speed up both development and deployment. In other words, they want Qualcomm on board, which holds the juiciest 4G patents. The Open Patent Alliance (OPA) includes Intel, the recently-formed Clearwire, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Samsung, and Sprint. Similar to the Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NextWave Wireless, Nokia Siemens Networks, Sony Ericsson coalition that is backing Long Term Evolution, this WiMAX group looks poised to take on Qualcomm with some serious collective patents, boardroom politics, and investor cash. Meanwhile, Qualcomm is sitting in the corner saying, “We already have 4G, and it’s very nice.” This should be interesting. Stay tuned.
Nary a week after JetBlue expanded its in-flight internet services on BetaBlue comes news that the airline’s LiveTV unit will be picking up Verizon’s Airfone network. As you can glean, the purchase is being made in order to further “develop in-flight email and internet services,” and while no purchase price was disclosed by either outfit, we are told that LiveTV will receive “100 air-to-ground US communications towers and Airfone’s corporate and government aviation clients on January 1st.” That’s nice and all, but can’t we get something out of this sooner?