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Archive for August, 2005

Hamster Powered Phone

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 26th, 2005

Boing Boing notes that Peter Ash, a 16-year-old from from Somerset, England, made a hamster-wheel-powered phone charger.
Created as a school project, he attached a generator to his hamster’s exercise wheel and connected it to his phone charger.

He came up with the idea after his sister Sarah complained [...]

Portland Cloud Evaluation

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 25th, 2005

Portland’s News 4 Neighbors says Unwire Portland is seeking 1-3 additional Citizen Representatives to serve on the Evaluation Committee:

The City of Portland will release a Request for Proposal (RFP) in late August of this year in an attempt to recruit a private provider to deploy and operate a citywide [...]

Any Failed MuniWireless Projects?

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 25th, 2005

We just got this email from Joe Canavan in Boston:
I am a grad student at Boston College and I am doing research on Municipal WiFi networks. I have found tons of data on successful projects, but I was curious if any of them fail. The only things I can find [...]

China + Japan = 4G?

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 25th, 2005

China and Japan are developing a “4G” standard, reports Silicon.com.
An agreement to that effect will be signed on 26 August in Tokyo between state representatives, a spokesman for the Japanese ministry for interior affairs and communication told AFP. “During the meeting, we expect to sign an agreement regarding co-operation in [...]

Intel Readies Wireless USB

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 25th, 2005

Tom’s Networking reports:
Intel today announced two initiatives aimed at speeding deployment of certified, interoperable Wireless USB devices sometime next year.
The company said it is developing a Wireless Host Controller Interface (WHCI) specification to provide a standardized method for hardware-software communication. The spec will allow [...]

GPS Blogging Phones

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 25th, 2005

Engadget says The Register scored some advance pics of the Mio A701, a new powerhouse of a Pocket PC Phone Phone that runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 and has a built-in GPS, tri-band GSM/GPRS a 520MHz processor, 192MB of memory, a 2.7-inch LCD touch screen, a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 1.2, and an [...]

WiMax Vrs WiFi

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 25th, 2005

How does the 802.16 WiMAX standard compare to the 802.11 WLAN standard? An article in CommsDesign explains:
To start, both are based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), use multiple pilot tones, and support modulations ranging from BPSK to 64 QAM.
But there are some major differences as [...]

Sirius Portable Radio

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 25th, 2005

Sirius Satellite Radio unveiled a long-awaited handheld radio in time for a holiday sales showdown with rival models from XM. Orbitcast has more details.
The new radio, called the S50, is about the size of a cell phone and can play up to 50 hours of recorded Sirius satellite radio feeds as well [...]

Nokia Expands WiFi/Cell Roaming

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 25th, 2005

Nokia and Kineto Wireless today announced an agreement to provide a WiFi/Cellular convergence solution . The companies are currently engaged in UMA trials with major operators and will continue to collaborate on future network trials.
Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) is a wireless-networking infrastructure effort intended to allow call roaming between GSM cellular networks and Wi-Fi networks. [...]

Unwired Australia + Intel

Posted by Sam Churchill on August 24th, 2005

“Unwired Australia, the Navini-based broadband wireless service in Australia, announced today that Intel Capital has agreed to invest some AUD$37 million (approximately US$27.9 million).
The investment is part of both companies efforts to deploy WiMAX services. Unwired will use the proceeds primarily to expand in other major Australian cities. Unwired plans to adopt future Intel [...]