Sharp’s Zaurus PDA can soon make telephone calls over Wi-Fi networks in Japan. Sharp’s Linux-based PDA will use NTT DoCoMo’s 300 public WLANs. Voice access will be made using dedicated software and a headset. Before its formal launch next April, Sharp will offer a free trial to 1,000 owners of its Linux-powered PDAs. Sharp is seeking other WLAN network providers to expand the service.
The Enterprise Edition Zaurus will allow mobile employees to easily access databases to check inventory and order supplies, as well as manage e-mail, address book entries and calendars while on the road using IBM software. It will also enable companies to access a wide range of applications from a variety of vendors. IBM’s WebSphere Everyplace Access, WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager and open source-based development tools from the WebSphere Studio family can be used with the Sharp Enterprise Edition.
Phones embedded with Java enable games (stand alone, networked, multi player), messaging (e-mail, instant messaging, chat), remote directory access, location-based services (maps, driving directions, yellow pages), financial applications (stock quotes, banking), field automation (customer relationship management, supply chain management, field force automation, telemetry), consumer applications (online auctions, news services with alerts, online reservation systems), etc. The Zelos Group predicts embedded Java will run on 450 million handsets by 2007, or three-quarters of those that ship that year.
Sun split off a separate version called Java 2 Micro Edition for mobile phones, cars, set-top boxes and other smaller computing devices. J2ME is further subdivided into different profiles, the one for cell phones called “mobile information device platform,” or MIDP. Sun’s new Mobile Information Device Platform 2.0 is platform independent. Microsoft’s Stinger, based on Windows CE, has been unsuccessful at winning support while Qualcomm’s BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) has a limited (CDMA) market.
IBM used Java-based Jabber Instant Messaging in their prototype Homeland Security wireless network in Washington DC. The Capital Wireless Integrated Network (CapWIN) is the first interoperable wireless system to span multi-state government jurisdictions. It will enable officials from more than 40 local, state and federal agencies to communicate with each other in real time and provide firefighters, police, transportation officials and other authorized emergency personnel with wireless access to multiple government data sources during critical incidents. Perhaps interoperability with national networks would be improved if Oregon’s Statewide Wireless Network used the WinCap model and Jabber clients.
Sharp and IBM plan to support speech recognition and multi-modal capabilities in future editions. Perhaps Sharp and IBM will work with Cometa Networks, the joint venture of AT&T Wireless, IBM and Intel for Wi-Fi everywhere.
Speaking of which, Intel is investing in Wi-Fi including companies like TeleSym, an IP telephony software company based in Bellevue, Washington. Their VoIP software can be used on mobile PCs and handheld devices. In a closed Wi-Fi-enabled workgroup environment such as hospitals and warehouses, workers can use their handhelds or notebooks as they would a regular phone. A push-to-talk capability gives users the ability to set up conference calls. With the addition of the SymPhone Connector on the server, TeleSym users can also connect over the Internet back to their corporate PBX system and place regular outbound calls. Intel and Microsoft worked with Intrinsyc on their newest PDA development platform. Voice, data, Internet and multimedia are integrated in the newest PDA designs.
VoIP PDAs can eliminate long-distance and air-time charges while Vivato’s Wi-Fi Switch can reportedly “beam” signals to stock 802.11b cards as far as 4 miles from a central access point.
Intel also announced today an investment in STSN, a Wi-Fi network access company used in hotels, conference centers, offices, airports, campus and multiple dwelling unit markets. STSN has a contract to “unwire” hotel giant Marriott. The project will involve 400 hotels in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, in what is described as “the lodging business’s largest Wi-Fi deployment”.
Intel has a $500 million slush fund for communications and has committed $150 million for Wi-Fi investment. So far their investments include Cometa Networks (with AT&T & IBM), iPass (roaming software), Nomadix (gateway developer), Bluesocket (security provider), Transat Technologies (GSM/Wi-Fi integrator), Interlink Networks (access manager), Radiant Networks (mesh networking) and Navini (phased array “wireless DSL”).
Theoredically, a handheld PDA could simultaneously be a GPS receiver, cell phone, Wi-Fi radio or miniature TV by downloading software programs. That’s what software defined radio and the GNU Radio project is all about.
.gif)
