All Phone and communications Feeds

Could the next iPhone be free?

Gareth Beavis — 1210948260

The new 3G iPhone could be available for nothing in the UK through O2, as the operator plans to offer heavy subsidies in a bid to win more customers.

The company saw sales of the iPhone climb significantly when it knocked £100 off the price of the 8GB model earlier this year, and looks set to repeat the trick if / when the new iPhone is released.

Both sides of the pond

O2’s iPhone US counterpart AT&T is also rumoured to be considering a similar scheme in a bid to boost subscriber numbers.

Apparently, despite decent sales after the release, some customers baulked at the lack of subsidy being offered, so AT&T looks set to change its policy.

However, it will only be offered through AT&T outlets, so some incentive might need to be offered for those choosing to buy through the Apple store.

Encouraging new iPhone customers could be difficult should a new model be released only a year after the first iteration, with many still locked into 18- or 24-month contracts.

The companies mentioned could choose to offer a subsidised upgrade in order to appease the hordes of iPhone-lovers who will feel cheated after supporting the device from the outset.

The CSI stick: phones to grass you up

Gareth Beavis — 1210946820

A thumb-sized drive to gather data from mobile phones has been unveiled by Paraben Corporation in the US, the Cell Seizure Investigator Stick (CSI Stick).

It allows street patrol level officers to capture data from mobile phones, presumably used in crimes or present at the scene, using a one button procedure.

Apparently police officers will be able “to view media quickly and at the same time the stick maintains a forensic image for full exam by forensic lab personnel,” according to Jay Poupard of the Michigan State Police.

Unprotected texts

It seems a little intrusive to be able to capture all the data off the phone, or even things like SMS messages, phonebooks and call logs, or multimedia messages. Admittedly it can be crucial as evidence, but strict guidelines will have to be put in place to ensure privacy is protected.

The CSI Stick supports 330 models of Motorola and Samsung phones, with adaptors for other manufacturers released later in 2008.

Google's Android: embraced by designers?

Gareth Beavis — 1210945440

You’ve got to love a bit of conceptuality in mobile telephony, even if it does shun some of the principles of physics(-ish).

The Mimique concept phone, by RKS design in the US, is described as “playful and engaging”. Of more interest is the notion it will use the new open source mobile phone software, believed to be Google’s Android.

The phone itself looks like a fusion of both the iPhone and the antenna-sporting phones of five years ago (was it really that recent?), so clearly has ‘I am a phone, look at me’ concept leanings.

Have it your own way

RKS intends to make the devise as customisable as possible for the user, with downloadable ‘skins’ and features.

The company also says users won’t need to buy a new phone to get new features, as these can be downloaded. Does this mean The Mimique already comes packed with every kind of hardware known to man? Otherwise it might struggle to be properly future-proof.

It seems bizarre to develop a concept phone, with no set date for release or price, but still to include the OS it may use.

It is likely the ideology of open source programming on the mobile platform is inspiring more than mobile phone developers; artists and designers are seeing it as a form of expression too.

Though it seems unlikely a screen could be made that wide with conventional LCD technology without a frame. OLED anyone?

Electronic payment by phone being held back?

J Mark Lytle — 1210920863

It had to happen - mere hours after we explain why the inexorable mobile e-cash juggernaut can't be stopped, we get naysayers piping up to say unlucky tech fans in the West will have to wait several more years to get started paying for things with their phones.

According to Reuters, various gloomy analysts have been predicting that - even though the technology is clearly available - stick-in-the mud companies that control the infrastructure aren't ready at all.

Four more years

The consensus seems to be that it'll be 2012 before even one phone in five comes with a chip for RFID e-cash payments. An R&D manager at TeliaSonera explained: "When the 20 per cent level is reached it starts to feed itself. That is the critical point."

That may be true, especially considering the mark was something like 30 per cent for SMS messaging, but a little vision could help companies bring adoption forward.

The report leans heavily towards cost being a barrier for transport firms, retailers and phone companies, citing the example of phone retailers charging extra for handsets with e-cash chips.

We predict that will change quickly once all concerned realise how much they can cream off e-cash transactions by simply giving away the extra technology and encouraging people to start using it. Until then, we're stuck with grubby, old cash.

Sharp reveals mobile fuel cell progress

Gareth Beavis — 1210868340

Sharp has developed a prototype of its direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that delivers a higher power to size ratio than any of its competitors.

DMFC technology uses the reaction produced between methanol, air and water to produce electricity, producing only water vapour and a small amount of carbon dioxide. This means the technology can be greener than much of that available now.

Using a DMFC means recharging can be completed almost instantly by simply refilling the cartridge with methanol, rather than lengthy charging.

Sharp, like its competitors, is intending to use the technology in small devices like mobile phones, and to help power laptops too.

However, the devices are still at the prototyping stage at the moment, and won’t be ready to compete with the incumbent lithium-ion technology for the foreseeable future.

Puny power

Sharp’s DMFC prototype is reportedly able to produce 0.3W of power per cubic centimetre, though no word has been given on the size of the device the company has created.

Many other technology companies are interested in developing the DMFC technology, including Toshiba, which plans to mass-produce the technology during 2009.

Sony has also shown off a prototype hybrid fuel cell, which uses both DMFCs and a lithium-ion battery. Using this combination of technologies it can power 14 hours of mobile TV viewing using just 10ml of methanol.

Japan report: previewing the phones of the future

J Mark Lytle — 1210865338

NTT DoCoMo is Japan’s market-leading mobile phone provider. And where DoCoMo excels is in its uncanny ability to stay ahead of the technology curve.

Just look at the mess China has itself in as it struggles to introduce a 3G mobile network in time for this summer’s Olympics.

While Beijing struggles to set up even a trial 3G network using its own TD-SCDMA standard, DoCoMo has had a commercial service called FOMA (using W-CDMA) in place since 2001.

Not only that, but it has concrete plans for the next step on the road already – Super 3G wireless networking with download speeds of up to 300Mbit/s.

Doing mobile communications

First, a quick backgrounder – DoCoMo, whose name comes from the slightly daft phrase ‘Do Communications Over the Mobile Network,’ was founded in 1991 and reported revenues of ¥4.7 trillion, or £23 billion last year.

That 53 million-strong cadre of customers represents 52 per cent of Japan’s entire mobile phone market – next best is KDDI with 29 per cent, followed by Softbank Mobile on 18 per cent.

DoCoMo’s success story began in earnest when it launched the i-mode-branded mobile internet service in 1999. Since then, not only have customer numbers been growing almost constantly, but so – significantly - has the company’s reliance on income from data traffic.

More recently, the introduction of the RFID-based Osaifu Keitai (Wallet Mobile) technology in 2004 has increased the importance of data fees to the company.

Want to know more? We've already covered Osaifu Keitai in our article: The next big thing for your mobile phone.

It’s about the data

Moving forward to 2008, DoCoMo and its competitors are currently engaged in a fierce and costly battle to offer new handsets packed with everything from TV tuners to news tickers, barcode readers and plenty more just to appeal to a wavering, near-saturated market.

Consequently, customers like me have frequently been disappointed with phones that are plain unwieldy because of the amount of electronics they contain simply to keep up with the Joneses.

This is because leading wireless carriers like DoCoMo need to find ways to get customers using their phones for more than just talking and for longer periods. But the problem is, not every new bell and whistle generates profits, or even any income at all.

Which is precisely what the company explained to us when we visited for a briefing earlier this week. PR manager Shuichiro Ichikoshi told us, “Adding such extra services, like 1-seg [the digital TV service tailored for mobile phones], is quite controversial, as it just costs us money.

“Also, it has a tendency to make phones bulkier, especially some of the big ones, such as Panasonic’s recent Viera phone. But is possible to find a balance if makers build them with lower-resolution screens. Still, we’re always looking for a way to monetise these ‘lifestyle’ services.”

And there, from the horse’s mouth, is the core of the problem facing all modern carriers struggling to maintain the bottom line – so-called lifestyle services. But what are they going to be, if TV and the like aren’t bringing home the bacon?

The Japanese future imperfect

To answer that question, DoCoMo’s crack squad of powder-blue-suited spokesmodels ushered us off to see the company's vision of the future in a specially constructed facility on the 29th floor of a Tokyo skyscraper.

First stop was a mini cinema showing two of those ‘vision of the future’ corporate films that tend to have precisely the wrong effect. These didn’t disappoint. You can watch them yourself.

DoCoMo’s vision of the year 201X centres on an unnaturally cheery boy with a broken foot who appears to interact with his parents mostly by remote video-conferencing. He talks to his doctor via a rehab robot that checks on his ailing leg and beams data back to a hospital, somewhere unknown.

Once better, young Hiroki Tanigawa, gets to travel to the airport for a solo flight, accompanied only by an intelligent wireless device strung round his neck. The ‘Kids’ Concierge’ keeps him on the straight and narrow and even reminds him to do a little airport shopping.

Nightmare Orwellian vision?

Maybe we’re being cynical, but it all sounds Orwellian, rather than Utopian. Nevertheless, NTT DoCoMo's videos do outline a clear vision.

The message revolves around networking – that beaming large amounts of data around some kind of personal or family network, instead of relying on simple voice calls, is where things are headed.

That’s one possible vision of the future – what about the technology companies like DoCoMo will almost certainly bring to the West more imminently?

To demonstrate, next stop was a dummy McDonald’s counter – we got to order a Big Mac and pay for it not using boring old e-cash, but with DoCoMo’s phone-bound credit card called DCMX.

Using the same RFID chip as Osaifu Keitai, DCMX purchases end up on next month’s phone bill, so there’s no need to charge the chip up with cash. Should you prefer to pay now, there’s always the option to do, such as we did at the real Coca Cola vending machine in the same showroom.

As we recently reported, FeliCa, the base technology behind RFID phones and the like is already spreading to the US, so it’s nailed on that similar phone-based payment options will go global.

But it’s DoCoMo’s next project that really intrigues...

Feeding the dog of the future

The final stop on the tour was a mock-up of a living room of the future. Naturally, you enter using a wrist-mounted wireless terminal (what else?) that doubles as an identity checker.

Once inside, everything from feeding the dog to setting the floor-cleaning robot in motion happens through instructions barked at the wrist device. Then things get decidedly Minority Report.

Again an example of the value of finding more ways to use wireless data, the most impressive demo of the day saw us don 3D glasses and step into an immersive representation of ancient Tokyo.

Virtual Edo, as it’s called, allows visitors to walk around and explore the old city, which is painted on the walls and floor by a high-definition projector. Although slightly hard on the eyes, we were clearly able to find our way to an art shop.

Inside, a selection of scrolls on the wall can be examined using a gesture interface that draws them forward in 3D or moves on to the next set of artworks.

As you might have guessed, all this data arrives courtesy of DoCoMo’s theoretical high-speed network, with commands and transaction information flowing back the other way. Yes – we were even able to buy the scrolls and have them downloaded to that wrist dongle. (It has a projector for beaming your art onto a wall or table, by the way.)

E-commerce is (or will be) everything

The point of all this talk of data traffic and e-commerce should illuminate the reason why phone companies are continually planning to build faster and faster networks. After all, it might not seem particularly useful to have high-speed downloads on current phones with their relatively limiting screens.

Back to DoCoMo’s Shuichiro Ichikoshi: “When we were building FOMA, we were like a construction company – installing masts everywhere. Now, however, we can add a software upgrade to it and use that network for the next stage, Super 3G. In fact, we’ll have it ready by 2009 or 2010.”

In other words, the mobile bandwidth to facilitate the scenarios we described above should be here (in Japan, anyway) within a couple of years.

And DoCoMo’s talk of Super 3G is not the measly 7.2Mbit/s of current HSPA connections. Instead, the company is ready to roll out wireless downloads at up to 300Mbit/s, with uploads at 80Mbit/s. Even fibre-optic connections can’t compete with that.

Better still – if you’re hesitating over that ticket to Japan – a 4G network running in Gigabit territory won't be more than a year or two behind it. Just remember to pack your credit card and prepare for some serious retail therapy.

We’ve seen the future.

Apple to 'sell' 5 million 3G iPhones in June and July

Rob Mead — 1210865241

A Taiwanese camera lens maker is banking on boom times ahead - thanks an to order it's received from Apple for the 'second version' of the iPhone.

Largen Precision Co. 'projects sales of the products to reach up to 5 million in June and July', according to Taiwanese economic news site CENS.com

The report says component suppliers like Largen Precision Co. started delivery of components and parts for the iPhone earlier this month, with shipments increasing rapidly in June. That makes sense.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected to announce the 3G iPhone during his keynote speech on Monday 9 June - the opening day of Apple's World Wide Developers Conference.

Lucky Largen Precision Co. is also banking on a big order for camera lenses from Nokia, according to Insanely Great Mac.

Will the 3G iPhone have Intel's Atom inside?

Rob Mead — 1210850195

iPhone owners are are used to having deep pockets - but it turns out they may need longer and wider ones too. That's because the boss of Intel Germany reckons that a future iPhone will have a much bigger display. Oh and it'll also be sporting Intel's ultra-mobile Atom CPU inside it too.

Hannes Schwaderer, managing director of Intel Germany, says that future iPhones will be slightly bigger than we're used to, chiefly because they'll boast bigger 720 x 480 pixel displays than the 480 x 320 version in current iPhones.

Of course the timing of Schwaderer's comments couldn't be more perfect - the 'future' 3G iPhone is surely a matter of weeks away, and his comments have reignited old - no, make that ancient - rumours surrounding the Mac Tablet, Apple's so far non-existent take on Wintel's Tablet PC.

Intel Atom

The presence of an Intel Atom processor would seem to be a shoe-in too. It's been specifically targeted at mobile internet devices or MIDs, with the aim being to usurp the current encumbent ARM, whose processors can currently be found in the iPhone.

At 24mm, the Atom is the smallest processor Intel has ever made, yet it packs in 47 million transistors with clock speeds ranging from 800MHz to 1.88GHz - ideal for a device that needs to play movies, music and surf the web.

Intel's naked ambition to be inside the iPhone has already led to some rather surprising results - for example the MID concept it showed off at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai was so iPhone-like Apple's lawyers probably should have sued.

Intel issues denial

Of course, Schwaderer may have just been drinking way too much Apple Kool-Aid. Intel Germany has already denied that he made specific comments about the iPhone, while Apple has taken its highly usual step (sic) of not commenting on rumour or speculation. We'll soon know the truth for sure.

At 10am on Monday 9 June Apple CEO Steve Jobs will walk onto the stage at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) and reveal his iPhone plans. And there's certainly enough evidence kicking around to suggest that a 'future iPhone' is definitely on the cards.

US operator limits iPhone sales

Gareth Beavis — 1210848600

AT&T, the exclusive operator for the iPhone in the US, has had a memo leaked stating customers will only be allowed to buy one of Apple's devices per person in the coming weeks.

It looks likely the stock-control is to keep supplies fresh for the release of the 3G iPhone, tipped to hit shelves at the end of June 2008.

The memo said: "Effective May 14, 2008, customers can only purchase one iPhone at AT&T stores. The prior limit of three iPhones is no longer in effect."

According to the document, requests to buy any more have to be approved by a director or general manager.

There can be only one

Intriguingly, cash or cheque payment is also no longer allowed, though it’s unknown why this block would be put in place, perhaps to allow even tighter stock management.

O2 in the UK has also reported running out of the 8GB version of the iPhone, though still has a number of the 16GB models still in stock and available for purchase.

The company is said to be “reviewing the situation” regarding re-stocking of the 8GB version, but has no plans to change its limit of two per customer, which has been in place since launch.

The memo, leaked to the retail department yesterday, also began new iPhone sales policies, so something will have to shift soon, as customers will become disgruntled with only being able to purchase one phone.

Especially those buying in bulk and apparently selling them overseas to countries where the device is not yet available…

London underground: no mobile trials imminent

Gareth Beavis — 1210846920

The long-awaited trials to use your mobile phone on London’s underground tube network will not start in the near future according to a source at Transport for London.

The trials, which were set to start April 2008 at the earliest, have been delayed due to talks continuing with infrastructure providers.

“The trials are due to take place,” confirmed the source. “We haven’t got a definite date though, as discussions are still ongoing with regards to the mobile phone coverage.

“The basis of the trials was to see if the technology was out there to work at a deep level, as 60 per cent of the tube network is overground already.”

Mystery players

Among those rumoured to be involved in the project were BT and O2, the former especially likely as they are the communications partner for the London 2012 Olympics.

However, a call to BT yielded nothing more than a bland "We can’t comment on rumours.”

O2 also said they had no current involvement, despite being part of the network deployment of Airwave, designed for emergency radio connectivity on the underground, and were involved in similar trials in Scotland.

“We have no concrete plans to get involved in this trial, though we would be open to talks,” confirmed the mobile phone network provider.

Hang on… I’m going into a tunnel…

The trials were initially meant to be just on the platforms to help remove the chance of someone next to you screeching “I’m just on the tube, nearly home” on their phone.

However, users coming in and out of signal would overload the networks, so a constant connection needs to be maintained, which has contributed to the delays.

“The tunnels are quite confined with a lot of equipment, such as signalling devices, already in there,” confirmed the TfL source.