Our international editor, Richard Mumford, attended Mobile World Congress last week. According to the official figures, the organisers claim more than 47,000 visitors (including delegates, exhibitors, contractors and media) from 189 countries attended the four-day conference and exhibition at the Fira de Barcelona from 16 to 19 February, which compares with 55,000 visitors in 2008. The number of exhibiting companies remained the same at 1,300.
The event has a longstanding reputation for being a dynamic showcase for the mobile industry, a hotspot for innovation and a springboard for new technologies, but was that still the case at a time when market confidence and perception are key factors? Richard's perception was that although the event may have lacked the flamboyance of previous years and that the mood was more subdued there was no denying the continued determination to innovate and benefit from a market where the potential to profit from the right product at the right time remains substantial.
To read his full review, visit our web site here.
How Many of Your Visits are from iPhones?
(Cross-posted with Google Analytics Blog)
Advanced Segmentation is one of Google Analytics' most powerful features - you can use it to slice and dice your Google Analytics data by, well, pretty much anything. We've made it a little easier to see what your iPhone visitors are doing on your site by adding a default Advanced Segment showing just visits from iPhones.
Enabling the new iPhone segment is easy: click on the drop down menu at the top right of any report next to the text "Advanced Segments", and select "Visits from iPhones" in the list of default segments. You might want to turn off "All Visits" when viewing your iPhone segment; if the percentage of total visits to your site from the iPhone is small, it will be difficult to visualize the two sets on numbers on the same graph.
Like any Advanced Segment, all of Google Analytics' reports are available; this includes AdWords performance, of course. If you use AdWords, you can now use Analytics to better analyze the performance of any campaigns that use our new iPhone and high-end mobile targeting feature. We've added the iPhone segment to get you started, but you can always create a custom Advanced Segment to compare or combine iPhone visits with other mobile operating systems; for instance, if you're targeting ads in AdWords to iPhone & high end mobile devices (which currently includes Android devices), you can create a new segment for iPhone & Android.
From the Advanced Segments drop-down, click on "Create a new advanced segment", and create a segment with 2 criteria. Drag "Operating System" under the "Systems" dimension into the target area with the dotted-line border, and type "iPhone" into the "Value" field. Click "Add 'or' statement" to get a second target area, and do the same for Android. Then, you can name your segment "High-end mobile" and see that traffic in Analytics.
Advanced Segmentation is one of Google Analytics' most powerful features - you can use it to slice and dice your Google Analytics data by, well, pretty much anything. We've made it a little easier to see what your iPhone visitors are doing on your site by adding a default Advanced Segment showing just visits from iPhones.
Enabling the new iPhone segment is easy: click on the drop down menu at the top right of any report next to the text "Advanced Segments", and select "Visits from iPhones" in the list of default segments. You might want to turn off "All Visits" when viewing your iPhone segment; if the percentage of total visits to your site from the iPhone is small, it will be difficult to visualize the two sets on numbers on the same graph.
Like any Advanced Segment, all of Google Analytics' reports are available; this includes AdWords performance, of course. If you use AdWords, you can now use Analytics to better analyze the performance of any campaigns that use our new iPhone and high-end mobile targeting feature. We've added the iPhone segment to get you started, but you can always create a custom Advanced Segment to compare or combine iPhone visits with other mobile operating systems; for instance, if you're targeting ads in AdWords to iPhone & high end mobile devices (which currently includes Android devices), you can create a new segment for iPhone & Android.
From the Advanced Segments drop-down, click on "Create a new advanced segment", and create a segment with 2 criteria. Drag "Operating System" under the "Systems" dimension into the target area with the dotted-line border, and type "iPhone" into the "Value" field. Click "Add 'or' statement" to get a second target area, and do the same for Android. Then, you can name your segment "High-end mobile" and see that traffic in Analytics.
New! Grow your app beyond the free quotas!
We're psyched to announce that developers can now purchase additional computing resources on App Engine, enabling apps to scale beyond our free quotas. This has been our most requested improvement to App Engine and we're thrilled to deliver it, as promised.
When we released App Engine last April, it was completely free to use, but each application was limited to a set of fixed resource usage quotas. The free quotas are still there, but now you can grow beyond them.
You can now set a daily budget for your app that represents the maximum amount you're willing to pay for computing resources each day. You allocate this budget across CPU, bandwidth, storage, and email, and you pay for only what your app consumes beyond the free thresholds -- prorated up to the nearest penny. We've put together a handy screencast to help explain the process:
App Engine remains free to get started. However, along with many performance improvements over the past ten months, we've learned that we overestimated our initial free quota values. Therefore, in 90 days we will be reducing the free quota resources. We believe these new levels will continue to support a reasonably efficient application serving around 5 million page views per month, completely free.
The pricing for resources beyond those free quotas is:
- $0.10 per CPU core hour. This covers the actual CPU time an application uses to process a given request, as well as the CPU used for any Datastore usage.
- $0.10 per GB bandwidth incoming, $0.12 per GB bandwidth outgoing. This covers traffic directly to/from users, traffic between the app and any external servers accessed using the URLFetch API, and data sent via the Email API.
- $0.15 per GB of data stored by the application per month.
- $0.0001 per email recipient for emails sent by the application
Data stored in the datastore incurs additional overhead, depending on the number of indexes, as well as the number (and size) of associated properties. This overhead can be significant in some cases, and it's something that we have been underreporting up until now. Thus, you may notice an increase in the amount of data stored by your application that is listed in the Admin Console.
To decrease the impact of this change in the way we calculate storage usage, we've doubled the free storage quota to 1GB. To learn more about how our quotas work, upcoming changes to our quota levels, how they relate to billing, and overall resource consumption limitations, see the Quotas section of the docs. The Purchasing Additional Quota section has more detail about how to purchase additional computational resources for your app, and there's also a Billing FAQ. We've also made some changes to our terms of service to include language around payments, fees, and disallowing the use of multiple applications to avoid incurring fees.
As always, we welcome feedback in our discussion group, and don't forget to check out the App Engine sessions at our upcoming developer conference, Google I/O!
ZigBee and Now RuBee!
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has approved RuBee�, a long-wavelength, packet-based, magnetic transceiver protocol, as a new international standard designated IEEE 1902.1. RuBee overcomes many of the problems seen with RFID and other wireless asset visibility solutions in harsh environments through its ability to work on steel and in liquids. RuBee tags and antennas are volumetric in harsh environments, not line-of-sight as is typically the case with other wireless technologies (and bar codes). RuBee tags work over a range of 1 to 50 feet depending on antenna configuration, and can be powered by a single coin-size lithium battery with battery life from 5 to 15 years. RuBee tags and systems can easily be combined with sensors, buttons, displays, and LEDs.
IEEE 1902.1 has been used to ensure the visibility and safety of government owned firearms, high valued evidence, military weapons, patient visibility and optimal patient flow in hospitals, hospital disposable and implantable inventories, livestock, disaster recovery equipment and safety systems, mission-critical tools, aircraft maintenance tools, and many other categories of highly valued goods and services. RuBee wireless asset visibility networks seem to be cost-competitive with other wireless networking solutions, including RFID so they could have a good future for these harsh environment applications.
IEEE 1902.1 has been used to ensure the visibility and safety of government owned firearms, high valued evidence, military weapons, patient visibility and optimal patient flow in hospitals, hospital disposable and implantable inventories, livestock, disaster recovery equipment and safety systems, mission-critical tools, aircraft maintenance tools, and many other categories of highly valued goods and services. RuBee wireless asset visibility networks seem to be cost-competitive with other wireless networking solutions, including RFID so they could have a good future for these harsh environment applications.
Back to the Future for Data Storage
Building a massive, distributed datastore which can service requests at an extremely high throughput is something that we've focused on at Google. We created something called Bigtable that underlies the datastore in App Engine. The design for Bigtable focused on scalability across a distributed system so it may operate a bit differently than databases you've worked with before, such as not supporting joins. This isn't an accident -- when you build a system that can scale to the size that Bigtable can there's no way to do a general purpose join on data sets that size and still have them be performant.
Google isn't alone in offering an non-Relational datastore to enable scaling. For example, Amazon has SimpleDB:
A traditional, clustered relational database requires a sizable upfront capital outlay, is complex to design, and often requires a DBA to maintain and administer. Amazon SimpleDB is dramatically simpler, requiring no schema, automatically indexing your data and providing a simple API for storage and access.
There are also a range of non-relational open source datastores now available such as CouchDB and Hypertable. Those are just two examples, there are many more.
While you might think this is all new, it's actually a bit of a return to the past. You see, there was a time when "RDBMS" wasn't always the answer regardless of what the question was. At the time Codd published his paper, "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks," there were many different approaches to datastores. It was only in the '80s that relational databases won the majority of the mindshare. Having settled on a single metaphor the industry has developed many tools and techniques to make developing on a relational database easier.
Unfortunately that majority mindshare is also a problem because while RDBMS' are useful in many situations, they are not useful in all situations. Their dominance in the mindshare means that useful alternatives aren't used, and huge amounts of time and money can be wasted trying to force non-relational problems into a relational model.
We are in the middle of a renaissance in data storage with the application of many new ideas and techniques; there's huge potential for breaking out of thinking about data storage in just one way. Michael Stonebraker pointed out in his paper, "One Size Fits All": An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone, that there are common datastore use cases, such as Data Warehousing and Stream Processing that are not well served by a general purpose RDBMS and that abandoning the general purpose RDBMS can give you a performance increase of one or two orders of magnitude.
It's an exciting time, and the takeaway here isn't to abandon the relational database, which is a very mature technology that works great in its domain, but instead to be willing to look outside the RDBMS box when looking for storage solutions.
GSMA Mobile World Congress Serves Up Latest Technology
You will get to digest fully what was on the menu at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week in my Wrap-up article that will be posted when the show comes to a close. For now though I can give you a tapas selection of the technology that has been whetting the appetites of the attendees this week.
To start, building on the past few years LTE is the key technology being discussed and although opinions vary as to the timescale for deployment it is a focus of activity and investment. The buzz though surrounds 4G TD-LTE, a time division duplex (TDD) version of LTE, which is the next evolution for TD-SCDMA. Although driven by the Chinese market this technology is envisaged as having global applications.
Femtocells came under the spotlight too in a special Femtozone featuring a programme highlighting research, business cases etc. If this tapas has given you food for thought, look out for my full report soon.
Richard Mumford (International Editor)
To start, building on the past few years LTE is the key technology being discussed and although opinions vary as to the timescale for deployment it is a focus of activity and investment. The buzz though surrounds 4G TD-LTE, a time division duplex (TDD) version of LTE, which is the next evolution for TD-SCDMA. Although driven by the Chinese market this technology is envisaged as having global applications.
Femtocells came under the spotlight too in a special Femtozone featuring a programme highlighting research, business cases etc. If this tapas has given you food for thought, look out for my full report soon.
Richard Mumford (International Editor)
Verizon 4G LTE Service Coming Soon!
Speed, speed and more speed -that is what I want. Verizon has answered this demand by announcing it will begin testing 4G wireless service using LTE this year and launch it in at least 25 to 30 markets in the U.S. in 2010. This is based on their roll-out of EV-DO, assuming they will get to about the same level in the first year of deploying LTE. Verizon will continue to build out the 4G wireless network and expects to blanket the continental U.S. and Hawaii with the new wireless network by 2015.
The new network will use the 700 MHz wireless spectrum that Verizon acquired in the Federal Communications Commission's auction last year. The company announced in 2007 that it had planned to use LTE for this market which will be available after the US broadcasters finish transitioning to digital TV signals. Several GSM operators around the world have also announced plans to use LTE which means that Verizon 4G wireless subscribers might eventually be able to roam globally.
Verizon has been testing the service in several areas in the U.S. including Minneapolis, Columbus, Ohio, and northern New Jersey. It's also been working with Vodafone (their co-parent) and China Mobile to test deployments in other parts of the world, including Budapest, Hungary, Dusseldorf, Germany, and Madrid. In its initial trials, Verizon says it has demonstrated peak download speeds of around 50- 60 Mbps. But average download speeds are likely to be lower since the wireless spectrum is a shared. The network will certainly be much faster than the average speed of Verizon's 3G EV-DO service which typically gets up to 400-700 Kbps.
The new network will use the 700 MHz wireless spectrum that Verizon acquired in the Federal Communications Commission's auction last year. The company announced in 2007 that it had planned to use LTE for this market which will be available after the US broadcasters finish transitioning to digital TV signals. Several GSM operators around the world have also announced plans to use LTE which means that Verizon 4G wireless subscribers might eventually be able to roam globally.
Verizon has been testing the service in several areas in the U.S. including Minneapolis, Columbus, Ohio, and northern New Jersey. It's also been working with Vodafone (their co-parent) and China Mobile to test deployments in other parts of the world, including Budapest, Hungary, Dusseldorf, Germany, and Madrid. In its initial trials, Verizon says it has demonstrated peak download speeds of around 50- 60 Mbps. But average download speeds are likely to be lower since the wireless spectrum is a shared. The network will certainly be much faster than the average speed of Verizon's 3G EV-DO service which typically gets up to 400-700 Kbps.
Google Mobile App now available on Windows Mobile
One of the most common questions we are asked on this blog is "When will this be available for my phone?". Well for all you Windows Mobile fans the answer is "now" for the Google Mobile App. Try it out by downloading it from http://m.google.com/search on your mobile phone.
Google Mobile App gives you faster searching on your Windows Mobile device, with easy access to your favorite Google applications from the Today screen. There's no need to wait for a browser to open to begin a search, and with search history available to reduce typing, you can get your search results with fewer clicks than before. For an even speedier experience, Pocket PC users can add the Google Mobile App to the start menu (Settings: Menus) or configure a hardware key (Settings: Buttons) to provide easy access from within any application on your phone.
How much faster is it? Well, our stopwatches show that Google Mobile App team members (who are mostly normal people, no superpowers were deployed during the timings) were able to get their search results for identical queries nearly 50% faster from Google Mobile App than from navigating to google.com in the mobile browser.
Check out more highlights of Google Mobile App on Windows Mobile in this video.
Google Mobile App is available for all devices running Windows Mobile in the US, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. (Check your phone model here to see if your phone is running Windows Mobile.) It is also available for iPhone, iPod touch and BlackBerry devices.
Posted by Craig Wilkinson, Google Mobile App engineer
Posted by Craig Wilkinson, Google Mobile App engineer
Google Maps on Verizon's BlackBerry Storm now uses GPS for My Location
If you own a BlackBerry Storm on Verizon Wireless, we encourage you to download a brand new version of Google Maps for mobile that utilizes the Storm's internal GPS. The Storm is the first Verizon BlackBerry that makes it possible for My Location to access GPS location. After you install the new version on your Storm, you will notice improved accuracy for My Location and Latitude. Based on interest in certain Google Mobile User Forum threads, this functionality should be a welcome addition.So if you have a Verizon BlackBerry Storm, just go to m.google.com/maps from your BlackBerry's browser to download the latest version of Google Maps to your device - and start getting hyper-accurate!
(Note: If you have an older BlackBerry on Verizon, even one with GPS like the BlackBerry 8130, this announcement unfortunately does not apply to you. The Storm is currently the only BlackBerry Verizon phone that makes GPS available to Google Maps. We hope you enjoy using My Location through network positioning or Wi-Fi, when available.)
Posted by Tom Dimopoulos, Consumer Operations Mobile
Moblie World Congress 2009 Kicks Off!
So what's hot this year at Mobile World Congress. It seems a little subdued because of the projections for handsets to decline by about 10% this year but there is always the next big thing coming down the road in technology. There seems to be a fair amount of green technology - mostly solar powered devices, etc. Android has picked up some support from a few applications providers and RFID/payment technologies are taking hold in handsets.
WiMAX was hot last year but this is the year of LTE (even as WiMAX is actually rolling out some implementations). With such a large installed base of infrastructure, LTE will come on strong even though WiMAX has a lead as far as timing is concerned. And Agilent came out strong at the show yesterday with some 9 or 10 news releases. Several of them surrounded LTE test solutions such as a complete end-to-end analysis and troubleshooting solution for LTE networks. The Signaling Analyzer Real Time (SART) for LTE provides comprehensive monitoring and network diagnostics by interpreting, correlating and analyzing protocol signaling messages produced by multiple network technologies at mobile network interfaces. They also announced the first LTE real-time signal generation and channel emulation solution for base station test, new commercial test products for TD-LTE: PC-based software for creating standards-based TD-LTE signals and vector signal analysis (VSA) software with TD-LTE modulation analysis capability plus a MIMO connectivity option and network conformance testing system for mobile WiMAX.
Agilent and Anite plc also announced they will demonstrate 3GPP LTE interoperability showing end-to-end streaming video with LTE UE devices from Signalion and Blue Wonder Communications plus Agilent will demonstrate LTE EVM, Tx power measurements and downlink transmit diversity for mobile device test using the E6620 wireless communications test set at Mobile World Congress so drop by to see them.
That is a large dose of test equipment! What have you seen at Mobile World Congress???
WiMAX was hot last year but this is the year of LTE (even as WiMAX is actually rolling out some implementations). With such a large installed base of infrastructure, LTE will come on strong even though WiMAX has a lead as far as timing is concerned. And Agilent came out strong at the show yesterday with some 9 or 10 news releases. Several of them surrounded LTE test solutions such as a complete end-to-end analysis and troubleshooting solution for LTE networks. The Signaling Analyzer Real Time (SART) for LTE provides comprehensive monitoring and network diagnostics by interpreting, correlating and analyzing protocol signaling messages produced by multiple network technologies at mobile network interfaces. They also announced the first LTE real-time signal generation and channel emulation solution for base station test, new commercial test products for TD-LTE: PC-based software for creating standards-based TD-LTE signals and vector signal analysis (VSA) software with TD-LTE modulation analysis capability plus a MIMO connectivity option and network conformance testing system for mobile WiMAX.
Agilent and Anite plc also announced they will demonstrate 3GPP LTE interoperability showing end-to-end streaming video with LTE UE devices from Signalion and Blue Wonder Communications plus Agilent will demonstrate LTE EVM, Tx power measurements and downlink transmit diversity for mobile device test using the E6620 wireless communications test set at Mobile World Congress so drop by to see them.
That is a large dose of test equipment! What have you seen at Mobile World Congress???
mmWave Scanners make the News
Doing a little business traveling this week and so I'm being treated to a copy of USA Today outside my hotel room door and I have to say it's nice to see microwave (in this case millimeter-wave) technology making the front page of a mainstream newspaper. The article in mention "Scanners replace detectors in tryout" refers to a new scanning technology being tested out by the Transportation Security Administration at the Tulsa International Airport.
An experimental program that begins today will test whether the $170,000 body scanners could replace $10,000 metal detectors that have screened airline passengers since 1973. The scanners should be capable of detecting non-metallic weapons such as plastic and liquid explosives, which the TSA considers a major threat. The scanners bounce harmless "millimeter waves" off passengers' bodies and use no radiation. The Journal had reported such technology several times over the past 2 years (see our cover story from October 2007 (A Radar-based Concealed Threat Detector) and our Executive Interview with Mark Hebeisen from Endwave Corp. (Endwave supplies the millimter-wave front-end that is part of the system from L3 Communications)
Airline passengers will skip metal detectors and instead be screened by body scanning machines that look through clothing for hidden weapons. Critics of the technology raise privacy concerns because the passenger's images reveal outlines of private body parts (these will be blurred for machine operators).Security analyst Bruce Schneier, a frequent critic of the TSA, said the scanners should improve security but warned that they take longer than metal detectors � 30 seconds vs. about 15 seconds per passenger. "There will be pressure to do the screening faster, which will be sloppier," Schneier said.
Airports in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City will join the test in the next two months, TSA spokesman Christopher White said. Hopefully, the trials will be a great succuss. I would love to be able to travel again without having to undress for security.
An experimental program that begins today will test whether the $170,000 body scanners could replace $10,000 metal detectors that have screened airline passengers since 1973. The scanners should be capable of detecting non-metallic weapons such as plastic and liquid explosives, which the TSA considers a major threat. The scanners bounce harmless "millimeter waves" off passengers' bodies and use no radiation. The Journal had reported such technology several times over the past 2 years (see our cover story from October 2007 (A Radar-based Concealed Threat Detector) and our Executive Interview with Mark Hebeisen from Endwave Corp. (Endwave supplies the millimter-wave front-end that is part of the system from L3 Communications)
Airline passengers will skip metal detectors and instead be screened by body scanning machines that look through clothing for hidden weapons. Critics of the technology raise privacy concerns because the passenger's images reveal outlines of private body parts (these will be blurred for machine operators).Security analyst Bruce Schneier, a frequent critic of the TSA, said the scanners should improve security but warned that they take longer than metal detectors � 30 seconds vs. about 15 seconds per passenger. "There will be pressure to do the screening faster, which will be sloppier," Schneier said.
Airports in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City will join the test in the next two months, TSA spokesman Christopher White said. Hopefully, the trials will be a great succuss. I would love to be able to travel again without having to undress for security.
Stimulus Package Opens Grant Funding for Wireless Broadband
The final passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill by Congress last week calls for over $6 billion in grants for the expansion of broadband areas across America. This funding will provide continued progress in the deployment and adoption of broadband technology that is vital to ensuring that the United States will remain competitive worldwide. As a platform capable of providing access everywhere, wireless broadband will be essential in bringing innovation and helping reach the Obama Administration�s goal of achieving universal broadband connectivity.
Commercial entities are clearly eligible for direct grants from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), go to http://www.ntia.doc.gov/. Commercial wireless hardware vendors and network providers stand ready to move forward with plans to bring wireless broadband to rural and underserved areas. Having direct access to grant funding will allow them to do so in a timely manner, helping create jobs fast, enable productivity, and should help jump-start our economy.
Commercial entities are clearly eligible for direct grants from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), go to http://www.ntia.doc.gov/. Commercial wireless hardware vendors and network providers stand ready to move forward with plans to bring wireless broadband to rural and underserved areas. Having direct access to grant funding will allow them to do so in a timely manner, helping create jobs fast, enable productivity, and should help jump-start our economy.
Web App Wednesday, Mashup, Backup, and Decay
Michael Bernstein is doing something I find very interesting. Not only is he creating applications on App Engine, he creates a new one every Wednesday. His site, appropriately named Web App Wednesday, is where he is creating a new web application every Wednesday, starting first with the site itself, followed by F/OSS License Info, a single-page site that displays information about the most common Open Source software licenses. Another recent app, LinQR , is a URL shortening service and QR code generator. Good luck to Michael and we look forward to seeing what he comes up with next Wednesday.
If you're doing something cool with App Engine please let us know! We'd love to highlight it here on the blog or even have you write up an article explaining what you've done, like this new article from Omar Abdelwahed on Creating a Facebook App with Google App Engine and Best Buy Remix.
Speaking of articles, Aral Balkan has written an article on his backup and restore utility and our own Joe Gregorio published an article on a design for popularity ranking using voting and time-based decay.
U of C, Berkeley Research Leads to Radio in Bug
Last month (January 28th), The University of California, Berkeley succeeded in controlling a live rhinoceros beetle by radio. A video of the experiment was previewed at the MEMS 2009 academic conference taking place in Sorrento, Italy. In the experiment, radio signals were sent to six electrodes attached to various locations of the beetles brain and muscles, thus allowing university researchers to control the movement of the beetle�s wings and some other parts. They equipped the beetle with a module incorporating a circuit to send signals to the electrodes, wireless circuit, microcontroller and battery. Controlling the movements of an insect is not a first for the university. This was the first time using a radio control system.
Rhinoceros beetles with a weight of up to 3g were used in this experiment because they can carry the controlling module (weighing about 1.3g) on their backs. And another reason is that they look cool, according to the university.
So what�s the point of this exercise? Considering that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding the research, military purposes are a likely contender. Commenting on this point, the university said that the technology can also be utilized for peaceful purposes. For instance, the radio-controlled beetle can be useful in places that are too narrow or dangerous for a human to enter and for many other purposes.
For that use, the university is planning to mount sensors including a camera on a beetle in the future. With the sensors, rhinoceros beetles will be able to work as surveillance robots in place of humans. As they can carry a weight of 3g, 1.7g of sensors, in addition to the 1.3g of the current module, can be mounted.
However, the ultimate goal of this research goes beyond just incorporating sensors. Beetles are already equipped with "sensors," such as their own eyes. In addition, they have a system to derive energy from food. So, the university is aiming to make the most of insects' own sensors while using their energy system as batteries.
I think we are on a slippery slope with this one. Attack of the Rhino Beetle? I might have trouble sleeping tonight.
Rhinoceros beetles with a weight of up to 3g were used in this experiment because they can carry the controlling module (weighing about 1.3g) on their backs. And another reason is that they look cool, according to the university.
So what�s the point of this exercise? Considering that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding the research, military purposes are a likely contender. Commenting on this point, the university said that the technology can also be utilized for peaceful purposes. For instance, the radio-controlled beetle can be useful in places that are too narrow or dangerous for a human to enter and for many other purposes.
For that use, the university is planning to mount sensors including a camera on a beetle in the future. With the sensors, rhinoceros beetles will be able to work as surveillance robots in place of humans. As they can carry a weight of 3g, 1.7g of sensors, in addition to the 1.3g of the current module, can be mounted.
However, the ultimate goal of this research goes beyond just incorporating sensors. Beetles are already equipped with "sensors," such as their own eyes. In addition, they have a system to derive energy from food. So, the university is aiming to make the most of insects' own sensors while using their energy system as batteries.
I think we are on a slippery slope with this one. Attack of the Rhino Beetle? I might have trouble sleeping tonight.
Edit Google Docs spreadsheets from your phone
Until today, you've only been able to view Google Docs spreadsheets on your mobile devices. Last night, we launched new capabilities to Google Docs for your phone that allow you to add new rows, edit existing cells, sort by columns, and filter by terms. Now you don't have to wait until you get to your computer to update a spreadsheet, whether it's your expense tracker, time sheet, or your wine rating spreadsheet.To check out these new capabilities, just go to m.google.com/docs in your mobile browser and log in. If you are a Google Apps user, go to docs.google.com/a/your-domain.
Enhanced mobile access to spreadsheets is available on Android, iPhone (and iPod touch), and Symbian S60. You can read more about these enhancements on the Google Docs blog.
EB Presents Wireless Device and Infrastructure Solutions
by MWJ European Editor, Richard Mumford
EB intends to demonstrate how it bends the limits of technology to design market-moving wireless device and infrastructure solutions to increase market competitiveness, revenue-potential and wireless portfolio.
In Hall 1, Stand 1F07 the company will reveal news for the highly-anticipated Mobile Internet Device (MID) market, as well as reference designs for integrated satellite-terrestrial communications. It will also demonstrate new infrastructure base station solutions for mobile WiMAX, including EB's next-generation radio channel emulator performing a live-replication of the mobile WiMAX environment.
EB intends to demonstrate how it bends the limits of technology to design market-moving wireless device and infrastructure solutions to increase market competitiveness, revenue-potential and wireless portfolio.
In Hall 1, Stand 1F07 the company will reveal news for the highly-anticipated Mobile Internet Device (MID) market, as well as reference designs for integrated satellite-terrestrial communications. It will also demonstrate new infrastructure base station solutions for mobile WiMAX, including EB's next-generation radio channel emulator performing a live-replication of the mobile WiMAX environment.
COMSYS Mobile Demonstrates Multimode Data Handover
by MWJ European Editor, Richard Mumford
Comsys Communication & Signal Processing Ltd will be demonstrating multimode data handover between Mobile WiMAX and cellular networks as well as a customer commercial handset running the company�s Mobile WiMAX/EDGE solution in Hall 2, Stand B73. The multimode data handover between Mobile WiMAX and GSM-EDGE networks will demonstrate how service continuity is achieved over Comsys Mobile�s ComMAX� CM1100 mobile WiMAX baseband processor in conjunction with any third-party legacy cellular baseband, or independently with the CM1125 WiMAX/EDGE processor, thus providing a multimode solution that enables the user to always be connected.
Comsys Mobile will also be showing commercial multimode devices supporting both mobile WiMAX and GSM-EDGE networks and visitors will be able to experience live demonstration of the CM1125 running in the ECS EliteGroup�s S370 Personal Internet Communicator.
�Our booth at Mobile World Congress will be a must-see attraction for industry stakeholders in the WiMAX community,� commented Ehud Reshef, director WiMAX product marketing at Comsys Mobile. �Visitors will be able to see a range of mobile WiMAX devices, supporting WiMAX and GSM/EDGE and incorporating Comsys Mobile�s unique baseband processors. Integrating them in customer devices highlights the maturity and uniqueness of our product offering, and demonstrates in an extremely tangible way the viability of WiMAX/EDGE service continuity.�
Comsys Communication & Signal Processing Ltd will be demonstrating multimode data handover between Mobile WiMAX and cellular networks as well as a customer commercial handset running the company�s Mobile WiMAX/EDGE solution in Hall 2, Stand B73. The multimode data handover between Mobile WiMAX and GSM-EDGE networks will demonstrate how service continuity is achieved over Comsys Mobile�s ComMAX� CM1100 mobile WiMAX baseband processor in conjunction with any third-party legacy cellular baseband, or independently with the CM1125 WiMAX/EDGE processor, thus providing a multimode solution that enables the user to always be connected.
Comsys Mobile will also be showing commercial multimode devices supporting both mobile WiMAX and GSM-EDGE networks and visitors will be able to experience live demonstration of the CM1125 running in the ECS EliteGroup�s S370 Personal Internet Communicator.
�Our booth at Mobile World Congress will be a must-see attraction for industry stakeholders in the WiMAX community,� commented Ehud Reshef, director WiMAX product marketing at Comsys Mobile. �Visitors will be able to see a range of mobile WiMAX devices, supporting WiMAX and GSM/EDGE and incorporating Comsys Mobile�s unique baseband processors. Integrating them in customer devices highlights the maturity and uniqueness of our product offering, and demonstrates in an extremely tangible way the viability of WiMAX/EDGE service continuity.�
SA Predicts Rapid WiMAX Growth in Asia
Strategy Analytics said the predict that consumer WiMAX subscriptions in the developing countries of Asia will grow from a few thousand now to almost 27 million by 2013. Their research predicts that the strongest growth will come outside the major cities of Asia. Subscriptions in villages and small towns are forecast to grow at almost 300% per year, three times the rate of major cities. Government policies aimed at closing the rural-urban �digital divide� are one reason for this rapid growth, but historic lack of broadband alternatives is at least as strong a factor.
�Big cities are the obvious place to start,� says Tom Elliott, Director of EMCS and the report�s principal author. �They have high concentrations of Internet-savvy young people. But they also have a lot of competition. The real WiMAX opportunity is outside of large cities.� Packet One, a WiMAX provider in Malaysia, appears to be following such a strategy. Its first deployments in were in Kuala Lumpur, but it has moved rapidly to launch in Johor and Penang, two less densely populated states outside the capital region.
�Incumbent broadband suppliers and cellular operators offering High-Speed Packet Access, HSPA, alternatives are formidable competitors in the big cities,� notes David Kerr, head of Strategy Analytics Global Wireless Practice. �There�s simply a lot more un-served demand in market towns and provincial business centers.�
WiMAX seems to be really catching on in areas that currently don't have much infrastructure and deployments are growing. LTE better hurry up!
�Big cities are the obvious place to start,� says Tom Elliott, Director of EMCS and the report�s principal author. �They have high concentrations of Internet-savvy young people. But they also have a lot of competition. The real WiMAX opportunity is outside of large cities.� Packet One, a WiMAX provider in Malaysia, appears to be following such a strategy. Its first deployments in were in Kuala Lumpur, but it has moved rapidly to launch in Johor and Penang, two less densely populated states outside the capital region.
�Incumbent broadband suppliers and cellular operators offering High-Speed Packet Access, HSPA, alternatives are formidable competitors in the big cities,� notes David Kerr, head of Strategy Analytics Global Wireless Practice. �There�s simply a lot more un-served demand in market towns and provincial business centers.�
WiMAX seems to be really catching on in areas that currently don't have much infrastructure and deployments are growing. LTE better hurry up!
The sky's (almost) the limit! "High CPU" is no more.
We're very excited today to announce that we've raised limits on several App Engine operations:
- No more "High CPU Requests"! App Engine Apps were once allowed no more than 2 CPU-intensive requests per minute. We've made some adjustments to the way we handle requests, and have eliminated this limitation altogether. To learn more about how this works and the implications for your app, see our documentation.
- Response deadline raised to 30 seconds. The amount of time an App Engine app can take to respond to an incoming request has been raised from 10 to 30 seconds! There are limits on the number of simultaneous active requests an application can process at any given moment--see our docs to learn more.
- Size limits on code files, static files, and requests/responses raised to 10MB! App Engine apps can now receive requests and send responses of up to 10MB in size, and users can upload 10MB code and static files as well. Note that API requests (e.g. memcache.set(), db.put()) are still limited to 1MB in size.
These changes were inspired and driven by a great deal of developer feedback, and we're not done! Please let us know what you'd like to see next on App Engine in our Google Group!
Highly Integrated Chip and Platform Solutions From Infineon
by MWJ European Editor, Richard Mumford
Infineon�s Wireless Solutions Division is a leading provider of semiconductors and system solutions to serve the growing trends in the mobile communication market. In Hall 1, Stand B19 the company will present its highly integrated semiconductor solutions, complete systems platforms and Software products. The focus will be on highlighting different �flavours� of ultra low-cost mobile phone platforms, ranging from 2G to 3G and something new in positioning technology, the A-GPS solution.
Experts will be on hand to discuss the company�s comprehensive cellphone semiconductor and system-level offering ranging from integrated single-chip GSM/GPRS/EDGE solutions to slim HSDPA/HSUPA modem platforms.
Other highlights include:
? Infineon's road to LTE
? Comprehensive cellular transceiver portfolio covering all bands and all modes from GPRS up to LTE and WiMAX
? Smallest HSPA+ RF solutions for best-in-class cellular talk time
? Smart modems for smart phones: HSPA modem platforms combining high performance and small footprint
? More voice: comprehensive ULC platforms with innovations for even lower costs
? Internet-for-all: entry phone platforms with a common architecture from GPRS to low-cost 3G
Infineon�s Wireless Solutions Division is a leading provider of semiconductors and system solutions to serve the growing trends in the mobile communication market. In Hall 1, Stand B19 the company will present its highly integrated semiconductor solutions, complete systems platforms and Software products. The focus will be on highlighting different �flavours� of ultra low-cost mobile phone platforms, ranging from 2G to 3G and something new in positioning technology, the A-GPS solution.
Experts will be on hand to discuss the company�s comprehensive cellphone semiconductor and system-level offering ranging from integrated single-chip GSM/GPRS/EDGE solutions to slim HSDPA/HSUPA modem platforms.
Other highlights include:
? Infineon's road to LTE
? Comprehensive cellular transceiver portfolio covering all bands and all modes from GPRS up to LTE and WiMAX
? Smallest HSPA+ RF solutions for best-in-class cellular talk time
? Smart modems for smart phones: HSPA modem platforms combining high performance and small footprint
? More voice: comprehensive ULC platforms with innovations for even lower costs
? Internet-for-all: entry phone platforms with a common architecture from GPRS to low-cost 3G
Record your training routes with the My Tracks Android App
Just a week ago we announced Google Latitude, a new feature of Google Maps for mobile that lets you see your friends' locations. Today Dylan Casey, a former professional cyclist, announced another location-based service from Google. My Tracks is a new Android application that makes it easy to record your routes when cycling, running, hiking, or doing pretty much any outdoor activity.Take a look at Dylan's post for some of the product details, and watch this demo:
Because the Android operating system supports background processes, you can run the My Tracks app while using other applications on your phone.
My Tracks also integrates with other Android applications to make it easy to share your routes. When you select "Share with friends," Android will allow you to share your track through other Android applications that can send messages. By default this is the Gmail application, but if you have installed other applications that can send messages, there will be more options. To demonstrate this we worked with the Twidroid team. It is now just as easy to tweet your tracks as it is to email them. Simply install the latest version of Twidroid available from Android market. Next time you share a track recorded with My Tracks, you can also tweet a link to your tracks!
To download My Tracks to your G1, go to Android Market and search for "My Tracks." And don't forget to check out the My Tracks website.
Posted by Leif Hendrik Wilden, Software Engineer
Google Starts "White Spaces" Group
It was recently announced that Google is teaming up with several technology companies, including Comsearch, Dell, HP, Microsoft, Motorola and Neustar, to form a new coalition called the White Spaces Database Group, which will provide and compile into a database technical specifications for devices that will use white space spectrum.
White spaces are unused slivers of spectrum in the 700 MHz band that sit between broadcast TV channels. Google and others successfully lobbied the FCC last year to open up that spectrum for unlicensed use so that new wireless devices could access that spectrum. In its ruling in November, the FCC said that devices using a combination of geolocation technology and spectrum-sensing technology could be approved for unlicensed white space use. Before sending or receiving data, devices will be required to access this database to determine available channels. And the device will not transmit in channels that are already known to be in use.
TV broadcasters and wireless microphone companies have long opposed the use of this spectrum fearing it will interfere with their services but Google believes that using geolocation technology used along with spectrum sensing technologies will offer complete protection to licensed signals from harmful interference. Do you think the TV broadcasters and wireless microphone companies have a legitimate complaint?
White spaces are unused slivers of spectrum in the 700 MHz band that sit between broadcast TV channels. Google and others successfully lobbied the FCC last year to open up that spectrum for unlicensed use so that new wireless devices could access that spectrum. In its ruling in November, the FCC said that devices using a combination of geolocation technology and spectrum-sensing technology could be approved for unlicensed white space use. Before sending or receiving data, devices will be required to access this database to determine available channels. And the device will not transmit in channels that are already known to be in use.
TV broadcasters and wireless microphone companies have long opposed the use of this spectrum fearing it will interfere with their services but Google believes that using geolocation technology used along with spectrum sensing technologies will offer complete protection to licensed signals from harmful interference. Do you think the TV broadcasters and wireless microphone companies have a legitimate complaint?
Garmin Gets into the Smartphone Game
Building up to Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona next week, several well known companies have been hinting about new smartphones offerings, each with a specific use case and no shortage of challenges to overcome.
Taiwanese PDA and computer-maker AsusTek Computer and personal navigation device (PND) company Garmin formally announced that the two companies will introduce a jointly branded line of smartphones, called Garmin-Asus nuvifone, the first of which will debut at MWC. Jonney Shih Chairmen of Asustek said that the Garmin-Asus phone will likely launch worldwide by next year and that the G60 will be announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The MWC is already pegged to be the launch pad for both Dell and Acer�s additions to the smartphone family. Garmin-Asus will also compete against popular devices such as the iPhone and T-Mobile's G1 Android-based handset by specializing in location-based services (LBS), executives from both companies said.
The location-centric smartphone could hypothetically take the place of a traditional PND and is optimized for communication and navigation. The first nuvifone also will feature Ciao, a social networking application that combines location-based social networks in the device and the same turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation as Garmin�s PNDs. It comes preloaded with maps and points of interest that are searchable by category, establishment name or destination.
In expanding beyond its core competency, Garmin will be hard-pressed to find distribution channels or carrier partners, said Neil Mawston, director of global wireless practice for Strategy Analytics. The brand is not associated with mobile devices, and it already attempted its first nuvifone device back in early 2008 with very little uptake. Teaming with Asus is a step in the right direction, but Mawston said they are far from success.
�Garmin is one of the world�s biggest players in [PND] and has a good reputation,� Mawston said. �If they were to come along with a good set of apps and a store that goes with it and prove to carriers there is a potential to grow revenue through new services like social location � if they could prove there is potential to raise ARPU � there is definitely potential to work with big players. But at the present time, you struggle to see how they are standing apart from the competition. They don�t have the brand strength, the brand isn�t exciting, and the services don�t stand out � they are good rather than great.�
Personal navigation, along with gaming devices, is a segment that many analysts believe would make prime candidates for app-specific mobile Internet devices (MIDs), pocketable computers optimized around mobile Web browsing. But the segment is still a few years off as vendors focus on the netbook and smartphone category.
Taiwanese PDA and computer-maker AsusTek Computer and personal navigation device (PND) company Garmin formally announced that the two companies will introduce a jointly branded line of smartphones, called Garmin-Asus nuvifone, the first of which will debut at MWC. Jonney Shih Chairmen of Asustek said that the Garmin-Asus phone will likely launch worldwide by next year and that the G60 will be announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The MWC is already pegged to be the launch pad for both Dell and Acer�s additions to the smartphone family. Garmin-Asus will also compete against popular devices such as the iPhone and T-Mobile's G1 Android-based handset by specializing in location-based services (LBS), executives from both companies said.
The location-centric smartphone could hypothetically take the place of a traditional PND and is optimized for communication and navigation. The first nuvifone also will feature Ciao, a social networking application that combines location-based social networks in the device and the same turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation as Garmin�s PNDs. It comes preloaded with maps and points of interest that are searchable by category, establishment name or destination.
In expanding beyond its core competency, Garmin will be hard-pressed to find distribution channels or carrier partners, said Neil Mawston, director of global wireless practice for Strategy Analytics. The brand is not associated with mobile devices, and it already attempted its first nuvifone device back in early 2008 with very little uptake. Teaming with Asus is a step in the right direction, but Mawston said they are far from success.
�Garmin is one of the world�s biggest players in [PND] and has a good reputation,� Mawston said. �If they were to come along with a good set of apps and a store that goes with it and prove to carriers there is a potential to grow revenue through new services like social location � if they could prove there is potential to raise ARPU � there is definitely potential to work with big players. But at the present time, you struggle to see how they are standing apart from the competition. They don�t have the brand strength, the brand isn�t exciting, and the services don�t stand out � they are good rather than great.�
Personal navigation, along with gaming devices, is a segment that many analysts believe would make prime candidates for app-specific mobile Internet devices (MIDs), pocketable computers optimized around mobile Web browsing. But the segment is still a few years off as vendors focus on the netbook and smartphone category.
Agilent Cover Mobile Communications T&M Spectrum
by Richard Mumford, MWJ European Editor
Agilent Technologies will showcase its measurement solutions for LTE, TD-LTE, HSPA+, E-EDGE (EDGE Evolution), WiMAXTM, UMA/GAN, 3GPP W-CDMA, GSM 3GPP Long Term Evolution, femtocells, mobile business analytics and VoIP for MSS.
Visitors to Hall 1, Stand D45 will see Agilent demonstrate:
? The Radio Digital Cross Domain (RDX) solution that provides a single test environment for MIPI Digital Radio Frequency (DigRF) v3 and v4 protocols.
? MIMO channel emulation and co-existence test, solved with the N5106A PXB MIMO receiver tester.
? Industry-leading mobile test solutions for HSPA+, HSDPA, E-EDGE, UMA/GAN and GPS.
? LTE RF measurements and LTE high-definition video streaming using an LTE device simulator.
? WiMAX RF, protocol and application test, including base station emulation, protocol logging, network conformance test, radiated performance test, pre-RF conformance test, and protocol conformance test (including TTCN3-scripting).
? The E6474A-645 LTE Receiver Measurements, together with W1314A measurement receivers, enable network equipment manufacturers and wireless operators' RF engineering teams to measure the coverage of LTE eNodeBs � identifying P-SCH and S-SCH RSSI and LTE Cell-ID and detect cell overlap.
? Signalling Analyzer Real-time (SART) LTE, which runs on the Distributed Network Analyzer platform to provide a high-performance test solution for end-to-end system verification, troubleshooting and optimization.
? Comprehensive assureME applications, which help operators accelerate deployment of VoIP for Mobile Soft Switch Networks.
? Agilent's Wireless Data Analytics solution, which helps to improve operational and business performance by transforming huge volumes of signalling and usage data (IuPS, Gn, Gb) into actionable information.
? Wireless installation and maintenance (I&M) with the FieldFox RF Analyzer.
Ron Nersesian, vice president of Agilent's Wireless Business Unit stated, "Our newest measurement solutions shown at this event demonstrate our ongoing commitment to empower engineers to stay at the forefront of dramatically evolving mobile-communications technologies."
Agilent Technologies will showcase its measurement solutions for LTE, TD-LTE, HSPA+, E-EDGE (EDGE Evolution), WiMAXTM, UMA/GAN, 3GPP W-CDMA, GSM 3GPP Long Term Evolution, femtocells, mobile business analytics and VoIP for MSS.
Visitors to Hall 1, Stand D45 will see Agilent demonstrate:
? The Radio Digital Cross Domain (RDX) solution that provides a single test environment for MIPI Digital Radio Frequency (DigRF) v3 and v4 protocols.
? MIMO channel emulation and co-existence test, solved with the N5106A PXB MIMO receiver tester.
? Industry-leading mobile test solutions for HSPA+, HSDPA, E-EDGE, UMA/GAN and GPS.
? LTE RF measurements and LTE high-definition video streaming using an LTE device simulator.
? WiMAX RF, protocol and application test, including base station emulation, protocol logging, network conformance test, radiated performance test, pre-RF conformance test, and protocol conformance test (including TTCN3-scripting).
? The E6474A-645 LTE Receiver Measurements, together with W1314A measurement receivers, enable network equipment manufacturers and wireless operators' RF engineering teams to measure the coverage of LTE eNodeBs � identifying P-SCH and S-SCH RSSI and LTE Cell-ID and detect cell overlap.
? Signalling Analyzer Real-time (SART) LTE, which runs on the Distributed Network Analyzer platform to provide a high-performance test solution for end-to-end system verification, troubleshooting and optimization.
? Comprehensive assureME applications, which help operators accelerate deployment of VoIP for Mobile Soft Switch Networks.
? Agilent's Wireless Data Analytics solution, which helps to improve operational and business performance by transforming huge volumes of signalling and usage data (IuPS, Gn, Gb) into actionable information.
? Wireless installation and maintenance (I&M) with the FieldFox RF Analyzer.
Ron Nersesian, vice president of Agilent's Wireless Business Unit stated, "Our newest measurement solutions shown at this event demonstrate our ongoing commitment to empower engineers to stay at the forefront of dramatically evolving mobile-communications technologies."
A TRIUMF FOR TRIQUINT
by Richard Mumford, MWJ European Editor
TriQuint Semiconductor will be showcasing the TriQuint Unified Mobile Front-end (TRIUMF) Module� family, convergence architecture for mobile device manufacturers designing next generation 3G/4G products. The family aims to offer manufacturers a streamlined radio frequency footprint combining GSM, EDGE, WCDMA and HSPA transmit functionality into one module. This convergence of functionality into one power amplifier module should offer up to a 50 percent size reduction over today�s multi-band module solutions.
Andreas Nitschke, product marketing manager for mobile handsets at TriQuint stated, �TriQuint set the industry standard for size and performance with its highly-integrated TRITIUM and QUANTUM Module families for 3G devices. We are using this expertise and ability to design both active and passive RF elements into one elegant RF system solution in the development of the TRIUMF Module family. TRIUMF will take integration to a whole new level, combining support for multiple frequency bands and modes into a single converged solution.�
He added, �We are working closely with our chipset partners and customers to implement the architecture for next generation 3G and 4G devices with world-class RF performance in an industry leading size.�
Those interested in finding out more about the TRUIMF and TriQuint�s large portfolio of products can visit Hall 1, Stand A62 and look out for the 3GSM Mobile World Congress Wrap-up Article that will be published here after the show.
TriQuint Semiconductor will be showcasing the TriQuint Unified Mobile Front-end (TRIUMF) Module� family, convergence architecture for mobile device manufacturers designing next generation 3G/4G products. The family aims to offer manufacturers a streamlined radio frequency footprint combining GSM, EDGE, WCDMA and HSPA transmit functionality into one module. This convergence of functionality into one power amplifier module should offer up to a 50 percent size reduction over today�s multi-band module solutions.
Andreas Nitschke, product marketing manager for mobile handsets at TriQuint stated, �TriQuint set the industry standard for size and performance with its highly-integrated TRITIUM and QUANTUM Module families for 3G devices. We are using this expertise and ability to design both active and passive RF elements into one elegant RF system solution in the development of the TRIUMF Module family. TRIUMF will take integration to a whole new level, combining support for multiple frequency bands and modes into a single converged solution.�
He added, �We are working closely with our chipset partners and customers to implement the architecture for next generation 3G and 4G devices with world-class RF performance in an industry leading size.�
Those interested in finding out more about the TRUIMF and TriQuint�s large portfolio of products can visit Hall 1, Stand A62 and look out for the 3GSM Mobile World Congress Wrap-up Article that will be published here after the show.
ROHDE & SCHWARZ GOES TOP SECRET
by Richard Mumford, MWJ European Editor
As a leading supplier of test and measurement solutions for wireless communications and with over 75 years of experience of driving innovation, Rohde & Schwarz will showcase its MIMO, 3GPP LTE, HSPA+, WiMAX� and Edge Evolution in Hall 1, Stand D59. A new addition to the portfolio is the R&S CMW500 test platform solution that performs all relevant wireless device tests, especially for LTE and HSPA+. When equipped with the appropriate hardware and software components, the R&S CMW500 can perform T&M tasks ranging from RF and protocol tests up to complex application tests.
The company will also highlight two new models of the recently launched R&S FSV family. These two combination signal and spectrum analyzers have been expanded for applications up to 13.6 GHz and 30 GHz, respectively.
In addition Rohde & Schwarz SIT GmbH, a leader in the German crypto market, will display the latest version of its compact mobile voice encryption device that protects confidential mobile phone calls. The TopSec Mobile can be used together with state-of-the-art mobile phones due to its plug & play functionality and Bluetooth� interface.
As a leading supplier of test and measurement solutions for wireless communications and with over 75 years of experience of driving innovation, Rohde & Schwarz will showcase its MIMO, 3GPP LTE, HSPA+, WiMAX� and Edge Evolution in Hall 1, Stand D59. A new addition to the portfolio is the R&S CMW500 test platform solution that performs all relevant wireless device tests, especially for LTE and HSPA+. When equipped with the appropriate hardware and software components, the R&S CMW500 can perform T&M tasks ranging from RF and protocol tests up to complex application tests.
The company will also highlight two new models of the recently launched R&S FSV family. These two combination signal and spectrum analyzers have been expanded for applications up to 13.6 GHz and 30 GHz, respectively.
In addition Rohde & Schwarz SIT GmbH, a leader in the German crypto market, will display the latest version of its compact mobile voice encryption device that protects confidential mobile phone calls. The TopSec Mobile can be used together with state-of-the-art mobile phones due to its plug & play functionality and Bluetooth� interface.
Calling all Carriers -- Introducing AdSense for mobile search
In September 2007, we launched Adsense for mobile content so that publishers could join our mobile content network and monetize their sites with Google text ads.Today, we're happy to announce a new AdSense product for both mobile network operators and mobile website owners across the globe. AdSense for mobile search is a quick and easy way for carriers and mobile publishers to embed a Google search box on their mobile portals and web sites. Whether they are day-dreaming of Hawaii or trying to find the perfect Valentine's day gift, mobile phone users will get instant access to Google search including comprehensive web search, local, image, and news results -- all formatted for their phones. Mobile operators and website owners share in the ad revenue generated by searches originating from their sites.
AdSense for mobile search is a Google-hosted solution, which means users will experience the same speed, reliability, and innovation that they've come to expect from Google. And even though the results pages are served by Google, the pages can be cobranded with publishers' logos and linked back to their sites. See the mock-up on the left.If you're interested in beta-testing AdSense for mobile search, please fill out this form. And if you are coming to Barcelona next week for the Mobile World Congress, make sure to fill out the form by Friday, February 13. We are inviting a limited number of carriers and publishers for a private information session about AdSense for mobile search and would love to meet you. Note that filling out the form does not guarantee participation in the program.
SDK version 1.1.9 Released
Today we released version 1.1.9 of our SDK. Here's what's new in this release:
- You can now use the Python standard libraries urllib, urllib2 or httplib to make HTTP requests. This has been a frequent request on our issue tracker.
- We've been working on a set of tools that will make the process of uploading and downloading data from App Engine applications easier. Today we're excited to announce an early release of our new bulk uploading client. You can try it out here. Let us know what you think in our Google Group!
- Several updates to our datastore, including the automatic generation of single property indexes and the addition of IN and != operators to db.Query. See the Datastore API docs for more details.
- A bunch of additional bugfixes and enhancements, listed in our Release Notes.
You can download version 1.1.9 of the SDK for Windows, Mac, and Linux now on our Downloads page. As always, we spend a lot of time reading (and posting!) on our Google Group, and we welcome your feedback!
Google Sync Beta for iPhone, WinMo and SyncML Phones
One of the hardest parts about switching phones is getting your address book and calendar to your new device. We're making that process a little easier by releasing a beta version of Google Sync for the iPhone and Windows Mobile phones as well as a contacts-only version for phones that support SyncML.
For iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, Google Sync allows you to get your Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar events to your phone. Once you set up Sync on your phone, it will automatically begin synchronizing your address book and calendar in the background, over-the-air, so you can attend to other tasks. Sync uses push technology so any changes or additions to your calendar or contacts are reflected on your device in minutes. The connection is always on so you don't have to manually sync your phone after Sync has been set up. This means that when your colleague changes the time of the TPS report cover sheets meeting, you'll know about it right away.
Since Sync is a two-way service, you can make changes on your phone or in your Google Account. Your calendar and contacts are always up-to-date, no matter where you are or what you're doing. Also, since your data is automatically backed up to your Google Account, it's securely stored even if you lose your phone.
For devices that support the open SyncML protocol, Google Sync will allow for two-way contacts synchronization. If you're a BlackBerry user, a version of Google Sync is already available.
Following the Google credo to launch early and iterate, we're introducing Sync in beta. We encourage you to visit our Help Center to review device specific instructions and known issues. Also, please keep in mind that Google Sync may remove all existing contacts and calendar events from your phone, so make sure to back up any important data before you set it up. You can find more information on backing up in the Help Center.
To try Sync out, visit m.google.com/sync
Posted by Bryan Mawhinney, Software Engineer, Google Mobile
For iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, Google Sync allows you to get your Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar events to your phone. Once you set up Sync on your phone, it will automatically begin synchronizing your address book and calendar in the background, over-the-air, so you can attend to other tasks. Sync uses push technology so any changes or additions to your calendar or contacts are reflected on your device in minutes. The connection is always on so you don't have to manually sync your phone after Sync has been set up. This means that when your colleague changes the time of the TPS report cover sheets meeting, you'll know about it right away.
Since Sync is a two-way service, you can make changes on your phone or in your Google Account. Your calendar and contacts are always up-to-date, no matter where you are or what you're doing. Also, since your data is automatically backed up to your Google Account, it's securely stored even if you lose your phone.
For devices that support the open SyncML protocol, Google Sync will allow for two-way contacts synchronization. If you're a BlackBerry user, a version of Google Sync is already available.
Following the Google credo to launch early and iterate, we're introducing Sync in beta. We encourage you to visit our Help Center to review device specific instructions and known issues. Also, please keep in mind that Google Sync may remove all existing contacts and calendar events from your phone, so make sure to back up any important data before you set it up. You can find more information on backing up in the Help Center.
To try Sync out, visit m.google.com/sync
Posted by Bryan Mawhinney, Software Engineer, Google Mobile
College Students Chat with Space Station Using Their Radio
Four Toronto college students from The Humber College have accomplished a technological feat by making contact with the International Space Station last week using a radio system they designed and built themselves. It was a scheduled event so they did not just call them out of the blue.
The project got off the ground about a year ago as the students looked for a way to apply knowledge gained from their radio communication courses. The first message got no response, but a second attempt reached astronaut Sandra Magnus. They had a 10-minute window to talk to her, during which they asked some technical questions and passed on a few other questions from contest winners at the school. One student asked how well the International Space Station is protected from debris, while another wanted to know how it feels to see Earth from space.
While school contacts with the space station are routinely made through the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station program, many of those contacts are made using a traditional ham radio. �It's an incredible feat of undertaking and technology, and I'd just like to say I'm really, really proud of this team,� said Humber instructor Mark Rector.
So on the next revolution around the Earth, dial up the power on your ham radio and see if you can reach them!
The project got off the ground about a year ago as the students looked for a way to apply knowledge gained from their radio communication courses. The first message got no response, but a second attempt reached astronaut Sandra Magnus. They had a 10-minute window to talk to her, during which they asked some technical questions and passed on a few other questions from contest winners at the school. One student asked how well the International Space Station is protected from debris, while another wanted to know how it feels to see Earth from space.
While school contacts with the space station are routinely made through the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station program, many of those contacts are made using a traditional ham radio. �It's an incredible feat of undertaking and technology, and I'd just like to say I'm really, really proud of this team,� said Humber instructor Mark Rector.
So on the next revolution around the Earth, dial up the power on your ham radio and see if you can reach them!
A roadmap update!
The App Engine team has been plugging away and we're excited about some pretty big announcements in the near future. In the meantime, we decided to refresh our App Engine roadmap for the next six months with some of the great new APIs in our pipeline:
- Support for running scheduled tasks
- Task queues for performing background processing
- Ability to receive and process incoming email
- Support for sending and receiving XMPP (Jabber) messages
As always, keep in mind that development schedules are notoriously difficult to predict, and release dates may change as work progresses. We'll do our best to update this roadmap as our engineers continue development and keep you abreast of any changes!
You'll have the opportunity to discuss this roadmap (and all things App Engine) with us and your fellow developers during Google I/O, coming up in May. Check out the App Engine sessions we've already announced and don't forget to discuss in our Google Group!
Happy 50th to the Integrated Circuit Patent
On this day (February 6th) in 1959, Jack Kilby (November 8, 1923 - June 20, 2005) filed a patent for a "Solid Circuit made of Germanium", the first integrated circuit. Along with Robert Noyce (who independently made a similar circuit a few months later), Kilby is generally credited as co-inventor of the integrated circuit. He was a Nobel Prize laureate in physics in 2000 for his invention of the integrated circuit.
The transistor, invented at Bell Labs in 1947 had stimulated engineers to design ever more complex electronic circuits and equipment containing hundreds or thousands of discrete components such as transistors, diodes, rectifiers and capacitors. But the problem was that these components still had to be interconnected to form electronic circuits, and hand-soldering thousands of components to thousands of bits of wire was expensive and time-consuming. It was also unreliable; every soldered joint was a potential source of trouble, complex circuit designs were hampered by the unreliability of using numerous discrete devices. This problem was commonly called the "tyranny of numbers".
Texas Instruments (TI) was working on this issue via the Micro-Module program when Kilby joined the company in 1958. In mid-1958, Kilby finally came to the conclusion that this approach would not work and that manufacturing the circuit components in mass in a single piece of semiconductor material could provide a solution.
On September 12 he presented his findings to the management, which included Mark Shepherd, of Texas Instruments: he showed them a sliver of germanium, with protruding wires, glued to a glass slide. It was a relatively simple device that Jack Kilby showed to a handful of co-workers gathered in TI�s semiconductor lab � only a transistor and other components on a slice of germanium, but when Kilby pressed the switch, an unending sine curve undulated across the oscilloscope screen.
In addition to the integrated circuit, Kilby also is noted for patenting the electronic portable calculator and the thermal printer used in data terminals. In total, he held about 60 patents.
Appropriately enough for the occasion of this anniversary, the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, the foremost forum for presentation of advances in solid-state circuits and systems-on-a-chip runs next week from February 8th to the 12th in San Fransisco. Of particular interest to our industry will be sessions held on Radios for health services; Things all RFIC designers should know (but are afraid to ask); RF building blocks; Wireless connectivity; mm-wave devices and a forum on 4G front-ends.
The advance program is available at:
http://www.isscc.org/isscc/2009/advprog.pdf
Google Book Search for iPhone and Android
Over 1.5 million public domain books in the US (and over half a million outside the US) are now available for perusing on iPhone and Android devices. Just go to books.google.com/m in your mobile browser. You can search for a title, author, or subject. Or you can browse the list of "Featured books" and various categories like business and economics, the classics, science and math, travel, and more. Once you've picked out a book or two, you can easily get back to your selections by clicking on the "Recently viewed books" under the "My books" section.
Read more about the launch and Optical Character Recognition from the Book Search team on the Inside Google Book Search blog.
Read more about the launch and Optical Character Recognition from the Book Search team on the Inside Google Book Search blog.
Wireless Charging Coming This Year
While I did not attend CES 2009, one of the hot emerging products was wireless charging. Powermat was there showing off its family of charging mats (using inductive coupling) for mobile devices like cell phones, PDAs, etc. They are very efficient (like 93%) so charging is relatively fast and they should be available soon (maybe Q2 this year). These mats would would cost about $100 so they are reasonably priced for a first to market, high tech product.
Fulton is taking a different approach with their wireless charging technology dubbed eCoupled. They are working with large consumer product companies to integrate their product into various consumer applications including automobiles where you could sit your device in a box in the dashboard of your car for charging.
Leggett & Platt is part of the Fulton Partnership and was displaying a system that it says is more flexible than others. It can charge larger devices, with power tools being an early target market. Image shelves that you could set your power tools on that would charge them automatically or having you kitchen counter top capable of charging your blender, toaster, etc. There could come a day when we have no more power outlets in our home, just walls that inductively charge our electronics and run our lights, appliancies, etc.
One big application is TV sets and with wireless HD starting to evolve (there are currently 3 different standards), there would be no need for wires on your nice new flat screen HDTV. That would really simplify mounting them to a wall with wireless power and have your set top box transmit wireless HD signals to it. We might finally be able to use our high tech toys without wires!
Fulton is taking a different approach with their wireless charging technology dubbed eCoupled. They are working with large consumer product companies to integrate their product into various consumer applications including automobiles where you could sit your device in a box in the dashboard of your car for charging.
Leggett & Platt is part of the Fulton Partnership and was displaying a system that it says is more flexible than others. It can charge larger devices, with power tools being an early target market. Image shelves that you could set your power tools on that would charge them automatically or having you kitchen counter top capable of charging your blender, toaster, etc. There could come a day when we have no more power outlets in our home, just walls that inductively charge our electronics and run our lights, appliancies, etc.
One big application is TV sets and with wireless HD starting to evolve (there are currently 3 different standards), there would be no need for wires on your nice new flat screen HDTV. That would really simplify mounting them to a wall with wireless power and have your set top box transmit wireless HD signals to it. We might finally be able to use our high tech toys without wires!
Eight is Enough?
Gartner, Inc. has identified eight mobile technologies that will evolve significantly through 2010, impacting short-term mobile strategies and policies.
�All mobile strategies embed assumptions about technology evolution so it�s important to identify the technologies that will evolve quickly in the life span of each strategy,� said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. �The eight mobile technologies that we have pinpointed as ones to watch in 2009 and 2010 will have broad effects and, as such, are likely to pose issues to be addressed by short-term strategies and policies.�
Gartner�s eight mobile technologies to watch in 2009 and 2010
Bluetooth 3.0 �The Bluetooth 3.0 specification will be released in 2009 (at which point its feature set will be frozen), with devices starting to arrive around 2010. Bluetooth 3.0 will likely include features such as ultra-low-power mode that will enable new devices, such as peripherals and sensors, and new applications, such as health monitoring. Bluetooth originated as a set of protocols operating over a single wireless bearer technology. Bluetooth 3.0 is intended to support three bearers: "classic" Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ultrawideband (UWB). It's possible that more bearers will be supported in the future. Wi-Fi is likely to be a more important supplementary bearer than UWB in the short term, because of its broad availability. Wi-Fi will allow high-end phones to rapidly transfer large volumes of data.
Mobile User Interfaces (UIs) � UIs have a major effect on device usability and supportability. They will also be an area of intense competition in 2009 and 2010, with manufacturers using UIs to differentiate their handsets and platforms. New and more-diverse UIs will complicate the development and support of business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) applications. Organizations should expect more user demands for support of specific device models driven by interface preferences. Companies should also expect consumer interfaces to drive new expectations of application behavior and performance. Better interfaces will make the mobile Web more accessible on small devices, and will be a better channel to customers and employees.
Location Sensing � Location awareness makes mobile applications more powerful and useful; in the future, location will be a key component of contextual applications. Location sensing will also enhance systems, such as mobile presence and mobile social networking. The growing maturity of on-campus location sensing using Wi-Fi opens up a range of new applications exploiting the location of equipment or people. Organizations delivering business or consumer applications should explore the potential of location sensing; however, exploiting it may create new privacy and security challenges.
802.11n � 802.11n boosts Wi-Fi data rates to between 100 Mbps and 300 Mbps, and the multiple-input, multiple-output technology used by 802.11n offers the potential for better coverage in some situations. 802.11n is likely to be a long-lived standard that will define Wi-Fi performance for several years. High-speed Wi-Fi is desirable to stream media around the home and office. From an organizational perspective, 802.11n is disruptive; it's complex to configure, and is a "rip and replace" technology that requires new access points, new client wireless interfaces, new backbone networks and a new power over Ethernet standard. However, 802.11n is the first Wi-Fi technology to offer performance on a par with the 100 Mbps Ethernet commonly used for wired connections to office PCs. It is, therefore, an enabler for the all-wireless office, and should be considered by companies equipping new offices or replacing older 802.11a/b/g systems in 2009 and 2010.
Display Technologies � Displays constrain many characteristics of both mobile devices and applications. During 2009 and 2010, several new display technologies will impact the marketplace, including active pixel displays, passive displays and pico projectors. Pico projectors enable new mobile use cases (for example, instant presentations projected on a desktop to display information in a brief, face-to-face sales meeting). Battery life improvements are welcome for any user. Good off-axis viewing enables images and information to be shared more easily. Passive displays in devices, such as e-book readers, offer new ways to distribute and consume documents. Display technology will also become an important differentiator and a user selection criterion.
Mobile Web and Widgets � The mobile Web is emerging as a low-cost way to deliver simple mobile applications to a range of devices. It has some limitations that will not be addressed by 2010 (for example, there will be no universal standards for browser access to handset services, such as the camera or GPS). However, the mobile Web offers a compelling total cost of ownership (TCO) advantage over thick-client applications. Widgets (small mobile Web applets) are supported by many mobile browsers, and provide a way to stream simple feeds to handsets and small screens. Mobile Web applications will be a part of most B2C mobile strategies. Thin-client applications are also emerging as a practical solution to on-campus enterprise applications using Wi-Fi or cellular connections.
Cellular Broadband � Wireless broadband exploded in 2008, driven by the availability of technologies such as high-speed downlink packet access and high-speed uplink packet access, combined with attractive pricing from cellular operators. The performance of high-speed packet access (HSPA) provides a megabit or two of bandwidth in uplink and downlink directions, and often more. In many regions, HSPA provides adequate connectivity to replace Wi-Fi "hot spots," and the availability of mature chipsets enables organizations to purchase laptops with built-in cellular modules that provide superior performance to add-on cards or dongles.
Near Field Communication (NFC) � NFC provides a simple and secure way for handsets to communicate over distances of a centimeter or two. NFC is emerging as a leading standard for applications such as mobile payment, with successful trials conducted in several countries. It also has wider applications, such as "touch to exchange information" (for example, to transfer an image from a handset to a digital photo frame, or for a handset to pick up a virtual discount voucher). Gartner does not expect much of the NFC payment or other activities to become common, even by 2010, in mature markets, such as Western Europe and the U.S. NFC is likely to become important sooner in emerging markets, with some deployments starting by 2010.
Additional information is available in the Gartner report �Eight Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2009 and 2010.� The report is available on Gartner�s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=828612&subref=simplesearch.
Mr. Jones will provide additional analysis on the mobile and wireless scenario for 2009 and beyond at the Gartner Wireless & Mobile Summit taking place February 23-25 in Chicago. This Summit offers new concepts and best practices to increase ROI on wireless investment, insights on the future of wireless, and unbiased perspectives on devices, systems, integration and the latest trends. Gartner analysts and solution providers will help unravel the tangle of multiple generations of wireless technologies, evaluate new approaches to teleworking, assess the role of core technologies such as MIDs, RFID, and IP telephony and make sense of the looming platform battles for smartphones, and more. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/us/wireless. Members of the media can register to attend the Summit by contacting Christy.pettey@gartner.com.
�All mobile strategies embed assumptions about technology evolution so it�s important to identify the technologies that will evolve quickly in the life span of each strategy,� said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. �The eight mobile technologies that we have pinpointed as ones to watch in 2009 and 2010 will have broad effects and, as such, are likely to pose issues to be addressed by short-term strategies and policies.�
Gartner�s eight mobile technologies to watch in 2009 and 2010
Bluetooth 3.0 �The Bluetooth 3.0 specification will be released in 2009 (at which point its feature set will be frozen), with devices starting to arrive around 2010. Bluetooth 3.0 will likely include features such as ultra-low-power mode that will enable new devices, such as peripherals and sensors, and new applications, such as health monitoring. Bluetooth originated as a set of protocols operating over a single wireless bearer technology. Bluetooth 3.0 is intended to support three bearers: "classic" Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ultrawideband (UWB). It's possible that more bearers will be supported in the future. Wi-Fi is likely to be a more important supplementary bearer than UWB in the short term, because of its broad availability. Wi-Fi will allow high-end phones to rapidly transfer large volumes of data.
Mobile User Interfaces (UIs) � UIs have a major effect on device usability and supportability. They will also be an area of intense competition in 2009 and 2010, with manufacturers using UIs to differentiate their handsets and platforms. New and more-diverse UIs will complicate the development and support of business-to-employee (B2E) and business-to-consumer (B2C) applications. Organizations should expect more user demands for support of specific device models driven by interface preferences. Companies should also expect consumer interfaces to drive new expectations of application behavior and performance. Better interfaces will make the mobile Web more accessible on small devices, and will be a better channel to customers and employees.
Location Sensing � Location awareness makes mobile applications more powerful and useful; in the future, location will be a key component of contextual applications. Location sensing will also enhance systems, such as mobile presence and mobile social networking. The growing maturity of on-campus location sensing using Wi-Fi opens up a range of new applications exploiting the location of equipment or people. Organizations delivering business or consumer applications should explore the potential of location sensing; however, exploiting it may create new privacy and security challenges.
802.11n � 802.11n boosts Wi-Fi data rates to between 100 Mbps and 300 Mbps, and the multiple-input, multiple-output technology used by 802.11n offers the potential for better coverage in some situations. 802.11n is likely to be a long-lived standard that will define Wi-Fi performance for several years. High-speed Wi-Fi is desirable to stream media around the home and office. From an organizational perspective, 802.11n is disruptive; it's complex to configure, and is a "rip and replace" technology that requires new access points, new client wireless interfaces, new backbone networks and a new power over Ethernet standard. However, 802.11n is the first Wi-Fi technology to offer performance on a par with the 100 Mbps Ethernet commonly used for wired connections to office PCs. It is, therefore, an enabler for the all-wireless office, and should be considered by companies equipping new offices or replacing older 802.11a/b/g systems in 2009 and 2010.
Display Technologies � Displays constrain many characteristics of both mobile devices and applications. During 2009 and 2010, several new display technologies will impact the marketplace, including active pixel displays, passive displays and pico projectors. Pico projectors enable new mobile use cases (for example, instant presentations projected on a desktop to display information in a brief, face-to-face sales meeting). Battery life improvements are welcome for any user. Good off-axis viewing enables images and information to be shared more easily. Passive displays in devices, such as e-book readers, offer new ways to distribute and consume documents. Display technology will also become an important differentiator and a user selection criterion.
Mobile Web and Widgets � The mobile Web is emerging as a low-cost way to deliver simple mobile applications to a range of devices. It has some limitations that will not be addressed by 2010 (for example, there will be no universal standards for browser access to handset services, such as the camera or GPS). However, the mobile Web offers a compelling total cost of ownership (TCO) advantage over thick-client applications. Widgets (small mobile Web applets) are supported by many mobile browsers, and provide a way to stream simple feeds to handsets and small screens. Mobile Web applications will be a part of most B2C mobile strategies. Thin-client applications are also emerging as a practical solution to on-campus enterprise applications using Wi-Fi or cellular connections.
Cellular Broadband � Wireless broadband exploded in 2008, driven by the availability of technologies such as high-speed downlink packet access and high-speed uplink packet access, combined with attractive pricing from cellular operators. The performance of high-speed packet access (HSPA) provides a megabit or two of bandwidth in uplink and downlink directions, and often more. In many regions, HSPA provides adequate connectivity to replace Wi-Fi "hot spots," and the availability of mature chipsets enables organizations to purchase laptops with built-in cellular modules that provide superior performance to add-on cards or dongles.
Near Field Communication (NFC) � NFC provides a simple and secure way for handsets to communicate over distances of a centimeter or two. NFC is emerging as a leading standard for applications such as mobile payment, with successful trials conducted in several countries. It also has wider applications, such as "touch to exchange information" (for example, to transfer an image from a handset to a digital photo frame, or for a handset to pick up a virtual discount voucher). Gartner does not expect much of the NFC payment or other activities to become common, even by 2010, in mature markets, such as Western Europe and the U.S. NFC is likely to become important sooner in emerging markets, with some deployments starting by 2010.
Additional information is available in the Gartner report �Eight Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2009 and 2010.� The report is available on Gartner�s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=828612&subref=simplesearch.
Mr. Jones will provide additional analysis on the mobile and wireless scenario for 2009 and beyond at the Gartner Wireless & Mobile Summit taking place February 23-25 in Chicago. This Summit offers new concepts and best practices to increase ROI on wireless investment, insights on the future of wireless, and unbiased perspectives on devices, systems, integration and the latest trends. Gartner analysts and solution providers will help unravel the tangle of multiple generations of wireless technologies, evaluate new approaches to teleworking, assess the role of core technologies such as MIDs, RFID, and IP telephony and make sense of the looming platform battles for smartphones, and more. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/us/wireless. Members of the media can register to attend the Summit by contacting Christy.pettey@gartner.com.
In Pursuit of Government Stimulus Dollars
While sales in technology have gotten off to a slow start this year, government spending may be the best hope for many in the communications industry. Federal spending by the US government is expected to be about $80.6 billion on information technology products and services this year, according to a December study released by Compass Intelligence. According to the report this is a 5.5% increase over last year. The report also noted that spending on software applications will be the fastest-growing segment, with an annual growth between 8.6% and 9.8%. Stephanie Atkinson, managing partner and principal analyst at Compass Intelligence offered the following tips when it comes to marketing to government agencies.
1. Register with the government. You can�t sell anything to a government entity without signing up in the Central Contractor Registration database (CCR.gov). But before you can do this, you�ll need a DUNS Number, a unique number assigned by Dun & Bradstreet Inc. Once you�re signed up, make your status known in e-mail marketing as well as paid search results. In fact, consider adding a new e-mail segment so you can disseminate government-specific deals and services.
2. Focus on the short-term return. Even though governments and government agencies are still spending, they must get approval and, most important, answer to constituents regarding their spending. Projects that show a quick ROI are most likely to happen first, since good ROI makes for good press, Atkinson said. This is where a strong, short-term case study or video customer testimonial can really help, she added.
3. Offer different purchase options. �In the past you bought equipment and paid a monthly services fee. Now we�re seeing monthly costs that include some of the equipment costs,� she said. Either way, be prepared to wait to get paid, Atkinson said, since government contract pay terms are definitely longer than your typical net 45 or net 60. �It�s very likely to see three- or six-month payment terms,� she said.
4. Consider marketing yourself as a subcontractor. There are plenty of companies already registered with the government that are getting contracts but may not have in-house expertise or products like the ones you sell. There are several sites that list the best sources to find such companies, and several firms that broker such partnerships, including FedSources, GovernmentBids.com, FindRFP, and BidNet. Sites like GovCB.com let you advertise your company by posting a vendor profile so other companies can seek you out.
1. Register with the government. You can�t sell anything to a government entity without signing up in the Central Contractor Registration database (CCR.gov). But before you can do this, you�ll need a DUNS Number, a unique number assigned by Dun & Bradstreet Inc. Once you�re signed up, make your status known in e-mail marketing as well as paid search results. In fact, consider adding a new e-mail segment so you can disseminate government-specific deals and services.
2. Focus on the short-term return. Even though governments and government agencies are still spending, they must get approval and, most important, answer to constituents regarding their spending. Projects that show a quick ROI are most likely to happen first, since good ROI makes for good press, Atkinson said. This is where a strong, short-term case study or video customer testimonial can really help, she added.
3. Offer different purchase options. �In the past you bought equipment and paid a monthly services fee. Now we�re seeing monthly costs that include some of the equipment costs,� she said. Either way, be prepared to wait to get paid, Atkinson said, since government contract pay terms are definitely longer than your typical net 45 or net 60. �It�s very likely to see three- or six-month payment terms,� she said.
4. Consider marketing yourself as a subcontractor. There are plenty of companies already registered with the government that are getting contracts but may not have in-house expertise or products like the ones you sell. There are several sites that list the best sources to find such companies, and several firms that broker such partnerships, including FedSources, GovernmentBids.com, FindRFP, and BidNet. Sites like GovCB.com let you advertise your company by posting a vendor profile so other companies can seek you out.
Locate your friends in real time with Google Latitude
Way back in November 2007, we location-enabled all of our Google Maps for mobile clients to bring location awareness to the masses and improve the local search experience. Using My Location, millions of you have been able to easily find yourselves on a map at the touch of a button. But what about finding other people? Lots of you have been requesting to see where your friends are on a map, too. Well now you can with Google Latitude. Latitude is a new feature of Google Maps for mobile, as well as an iGoogle gadget, that allows you to share your location with your friends and to see their approximate locations, if they choose to share them with you. You can use your Google account to sign in and easily invite friends to Latitude from your existing list of contacts or by entering their email addresses. Google Talk is integrated with Latitude, so you and your friends can update your status messages and profile photos on the go and see what everyone is up to. You can also call, SMS, IM, or email each other within the app. Check out the video below to see Latitude in action.
We've gone to great lengths to put this on as many smartphone devices as possible from day one so that most of the people you know will be able to use Latitude right away. There are two primary ways to use Latitude right now:
- On your mobile phone: visit google.com/latitude from your phone's mobile browser to download Google Maps for mobile with Latitude. We currently support most of the popular smartphone platforms: Android, Blackberry, Symbian S60, and Windows Mobile, and we are hoping to see Latitude on the iPhone soon. It will be available through Google Mobile App, and you'll just need to download or update the app from the App store to find Latitude in the Apps tab.
- On your computer: go to http://google.com/latitude from your browser and add the Latitude gadget to your iGoogle homepage. What's neat is that if you've installed Google Gears or if you're using Google Chrome, you can choose to automatically share your location from your laptop or desktop computer -- no smartphone required!
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention - it is available in 27 countries and 42 languages. See in which part of the world your friends are now!
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Search with your voice on Android
Don't want to type a long query, like "U.S. economic stimulus plan", on your T-Mobile G1? Just say it. Or, perhaps you'd like to browse the web without sliding out the keyboard? Well now you can. For those of you with a G1 in the US, the next time you get an Android update (which will gradually roll out starting this week), you'll be able to start searching -- and surfing -- with your voice. And you can use the feature quickly and easily because it's integrated in the Android browser and the home screen search widget.You can start searching by voice with just the touch of a button. On the home screen search widget, look for the microphone button right next to the search box and the search button. Press that button, wait for the "Speak now" prompt, and then say your query. You'll soon see search results formatted for the Android browser.
Also, whenever you're in the Android browser, just press the "Menu" button and tap "Search". You'll see the same microphone button there too.This makes doing successive voice-triggered searches -- and mobile web surfing -- easy and fast. Try speaking your favorite web sites, then tapping on the top search results to get to them.
Note that you can use the "Voice Dialer" app, which you can find on the main app menu, to search for your contacts with your voice to make a call. Or, simply long-press the green call button and follow the prompts on the splash screen.
Finally, if your speech is not interpreted correctly, try tapping the down arrow to the right of the search box and you'll see a drop down list of other suggested queries. Look for your query there. In the meantime, we're constantly working to improve our algorithms, so stay tuned for future improvements.
Star Trek Cloaking Device Becoming a Reality?
Metamaterials are a hot subject in microwave technology these days. Much of the work I see is going on with the design of antenna structures or substrate materials, but the researchers at Duke University have designed and tested a microwave cloaking device that can almost completely "hide" a small structure from microwaves. While this is not new news, they have more recent work going on to apply this technology to sound waves.
The Duke cloaking device is a structure made up of copper rings and wires patterned on a fiberglass composite. The structure is designed to route the microwaves around the hidden object inside and greatly reduces it reflection and shadow. The Duke team developed a small cloak (less than five inches across) that would provide invisibility in two dimensions, rather than three to simplify the design and prove out the concept. The cloak includes strips of metamaterial fashioned into concentric two-dimensional rings, a design that allows its use with a narrow beam of microwave radiation. The precise variations in the shape of copper elements patterned onto their surfaces determine their electromagnetic properties. The cloak design is unique among metamaterials in its circular geometry and internal structural variation, the researchers said. Up until that time all other metamaterials had been based on a cubic, or gridlike, design, and most of them have electromagnetic properties that are uniform throughout.
The researchers set out to prove the concept by aiming a microwave beam at a cloak positioned between two metal plates inside a test chamber, and used a detecting apparatus to measure the electromagnetic fields that developed both inside and outside the cloak. They first show a beam of microwaves hitting a 2 inch metal cylinder and then hide the cylinder within the cloaking structure. By examining an animated representation of the data, they found that the wave fronts of the beam separate and flow around the center of the cloak. Here is a video that demonstrates it:
So the Rumulans may have arrived on Earth but we may not be able to see them. What other interesting work have you seen using metamaterials???
The Duke cloaking device is a structure made up of copper rings and wires patterned on a fiberglass composite. The structure is designed to route the microwaves around the hidden object inside and greatly reduces it reflection and shadow. The Duke team developed a small cloak (less than five inches across) that would provide invisibility in two dimensions, rather than three to simplify the design and prove out the concept. The cloak includes strips of metamaterial fashioned into concentric two-dimensional rings, a design that allows its use with a narrow beam of microwave radiation. The precise variations in the shape of copper elements patterned onto their surfaces determine their electromagnetic properties. The cloak design is unique among metamaterials in its circular geometry and internal structural variation, the researchers said. Up until that time all other metamaterials had been based on a cubic, or gridlike, design, and most of them have electromagnetic properties that are uniform throughout.
The researchers set out to prove the concept by aiming a microwave beam at a cloak positioned between two metal plates inside a test chamber, and used a detecting apparatus to measure the electromagnetic fields that developed both inside and outside the cloak. They first show a beam of microwaves hitting a 2 inch metal cylinder and then hide the cylinder within the cloaking structure. By examining an animated representation of the data, they found that the wave fronts of the beam separate and flow around the center of the cloak. Here is a video that demonstrates it:
So the Rumulans may have arrived on Earth but we may not be able to see them. What other interesting work have you seen using metamaterials???
Tasks now available for your phone
A couple months ago, Tasks launched in Gmail Labs. Tasks lets you easily create and manage to-do lists right in Gmail. Now, you can access and manage your task lists from your phone, too. Just go to gmail.com/tasks in your mobile browser and log in. If you have a Google Apps account, you can go to mail.google.com/tasks/a/your-domain, replacing your-domain with your actual domain name.On most phones, you can view tasks, add tasks, and mark them as completed. The changes are automatically reflected in Gmail. If you have an iPhone or an Android-powered device, you can also add, edit, and delete entire lists as well.
Tasks for mobile is currently available in English (like the rest of Gmail Labs). Read more on the Gmail blog and check out the video below.
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