Filed under: Messaging, Misc

Using little more than book knowledge, experience from previous projects, and a healthy shot of elbow grease, a Kenyan kid has constructed a nifty (and perhaps just a little scary) box that attaches to your car to provide a number of very special remote-control features that you’re not going to find on your average OnStar setup. The flagship function seems to be the real-time lockout, which can call you as the automobile is being started; only if you confirm that it’s not some baddie trying to jack your ride will the ignition request be granted. That’s not all, though — it’ll also let you dial into the vehicle and listen in on any conversations going on within. The young man states he’s seeking additional funding to take his project to the next level, but in the meantime, don’t even think about making off with a white Mitsubishi the next time you’re in Mombasa. Follow the break for a video of the system in action.

[Via AfriGadget]

Continue reading Teenager hacks together hardware for controlling your vehicle via phone

Filed under: Alltel, Verizon Wireless

You’ve got to give a tiny to get a little, as they state, and giant, multinational joint ventures apparently aren’t exempt from the mantra. In buttering up the ladies and gentlemen of the FCC enough to approve the takeover of Alltel, Verizon Wireless has agreed to spin off 85 markets’ worth of Alltel subscribers in 18 states, which tallies up to about 15 percent of its 13 million-strong base. The move is designed to preserve competition, particularly in rural areas where some customers could suddenly find themselves with just a single carrier in town with enough signal strength to get the job done. There’s still no telling whether the FCC will ultimately approve the move — it could demand additional concessions or strike it down outright — but it’s a start.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Filed under: Software, Nokia, Symbian, Android

According to the oracle-like superbrains at J. Gold Associates, Google’s Android OS and Nokia’s Symbian will “combine to provide a single open source OS,” sometime in the very near future… state, three to six months. Sure, Android is just about to launch on devices in late 2008, and Nokia just announced in June that it will be moving Symbian towards open source — and of course the two companies have no formal relationship that would come close to permitting such a collaboration. Still, J. Gold assures us this is happening, stating, “A combination of the Android and Symbian efforts would be good for the industry, good for Google and good for Symbian.” In related news, we understand a handful of similar mergers are in the offing: Linksys and Belkin, Red Hat and Ubuntu, Engadget and Gizmodo, and the inevitable one-two punch of Coke and Pepsi.

Update: Craziest thing, it turns out that Google, Nokia, and Symbian are all dismissing the platform merger talk as utter nonsense. And for once, we believe those trusty souls; who knows, maybe it’s the complete lack of technical synergy between them?

Filed under: LTE

The International Telecommunication Union’s wireless division is getting ready to seal the deal on formal approval of its own official standard for 4G communication, officially dubbed IMT-Advanced, and the usual suspects are in the running to take the top prize. The folks behind LTE are submitting a altered version, LTE-Advanced (get it? because the ITU standard is IMT-Advanced!), while the WiMAX camp will come storming in with 802.16m. Pundits are looking at the standardization process as a clutch opportunity for the two to make nice and combine into a unified 4G force, but considering their relatively divergent development paths thus far, it seems like a pretty remote possibility — not to mention the metal-on-metal clashing of corporate egos that’d undobutedly tie things up into oblivion.

[Via dailywireless.org]

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Filed under: Handsets, RIM, GSM, EDGE

The Bold is still stealing the overwhelming majority of RIM’s spotlight at the moment for a handful of pretty good reasons: one, it’s actually been announced; two, it’s 3G; and three, it falls in line with the traditional (and loved) BlackBerry form factor. Lurking in the shadows, though, is the KickStart, RIM’s very first flip phone, and a device that could end up making a massive splash if it actually manages to launch at the sub-$50 price point that’s been making the rounds on the rumor circuit. CrackBerry got a way-early peek at the 8220 version of the device, which follows RIM’s typical naming convention by packing WiFi while an 8210 will hold up the GPS side of things (seriously, RIM, how hard can it be to do both?), and overall it seems that the R&D team did its homework from the quick impressions. The SureType keyboard is huge and apparently quite simple to use without making the phone excessively big, though the trackball rests deeper in the shell making it a bit trickier to operate — you win some, you lose some. The QVGA display is said to be just shy of Bold quality (which is a compliment, considering the killer screen on the Bold), and it’s always hard to argue with a 3.5mm headphone jack. Come on, T-Mobile, let’s make this happen.

Filed under: Sprint, EV-DO, CDMA, Misc

Details are scarce right now, but you can make of it what you’ll. Sprint hasn’t been in the ideal of situations since it acquired Nextel in 2005, and while this move may not be seen by everyone as definitively negative, it certainly is worth noting. The flagging carrier sold off “nearly all” (around 3,300) of its wireless communication towers to TowerCo for some $670 million in cash. According to Sprint Nextel’s Bob Azzi, the move to lease rather than own these network facilities will enable it to “better focus on its core business of providing communications services to consumers, businesses and government customers.” He continued by noting that the transaction “provides Sprint Nextel with additional liquidity [for] greater flexibility in managing the company.” Whatever you say, sir.

[Via InformationWeek]

Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

Happy 3rd birthday mister Walkman phone. To celebrate, Sony Ericsson is getting official with its W902 “Patti” (pictured), W595 slider, and W302 candybar Walkman handsets. We knew the celebration was coming with the exception of Patti making a last minute substitution for Alicia. SE’s quad-band GSM/EDGE W902 is the all-singing, all-media workhorse with UMTS/HSDPA 2100 data, 5 megapixel camera, 8GB of M2 memory, and 2.2-inch, 240 x 320 pixel display. It comes bundled with a pair of premium HPM-77 headphones and the promise of a clear audio, bass-thumpin’ experience similar to that offered by SE’s W980. The W595 shares the same radios but packs in stereo speakers, 2GB of M2 memory, a 3.2 megapixel camera, motion sensing Shake control, and a stereo Share jack to split the music with a friend. The quad-band GSM/EDGE W302 neglects 3G entirely in favor of a low price tag and dreams of mass adoption. As such, it offers a number of middling specs like a 2 megapixel camera, 512MB of M2 memory, FM radio, and stereo Bluetooth. All three Walkmans will hit select markets in Q4.

Filed under: Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility

The rumors are certainly nothing new, but rumblings over official announcements from both Bell and Telus regarding their newfound love for all things GSM have reached a rolling boil in the past few days. The latest little tidbit comes from UBS, whose fortune tellers say that both Canadian carriers should be outing some transition plans in the near future in the hope of superior positioning themselves to compete with rival Rogers, get cooler handsets on board, and realize some synergy with the overwhelming majority of carriers around the world. Bell and Telus are both staying absolutely tightlipped for the moment, but one remaining question is whether they’ll be going with HSPA or moving straight to LTE — a distinct possibility, taking into account that the 4G tech should be ramping up right around the time that the carriers could realistically put the gears in motion. You ready to cry uncle yet over there, UMB?

[Thanks, Mario and Jay]

Filed under: LTE

We didn’t think it was possible to fit any more nails into the CDMA2000 evolution path’s coffin, but Aircell managed to find some space. The company, whose in-flight WiFi service Gogo presently uses EV-DO Rev. A, has now committed to moving to LTE to support a 4G-based service down the road to deliver, among other things, high-def multimedia and more advanced in-cockpit weather data. With LTE yet to be commercially deployed anywhere — let alone on a scale massive enough to be useful to aircraft — Aircell has a while to ramp up and get ready for a 4G launch, but it says that it’s already engaged with the appropriate standards bodies to be sure that everyone’s on the same page. Looks like our dream of someday torrenting from six miles in the air is still alive, thank goodness.

[Via MobileBurn]

Filed under: Software, China Mobile

Okay, it’s not really a secret weapon, per se — China Mobile’s smack at the top of the Open Handset Alliance’s member list, after all — but In-Stat’s predicting that Android has a chance of absolutely dominating the iPhone’s sales figures next year if it can get a huge ol’ helping of love from China’s hundreds of millions of wireless subscribers. Diving into the numbers, the analysis firm predicts that Apple will push some 9.5 million iPhones globally next year, compared to 17.1 million Android-equipped pieces, based largely on the assumption that China will end up throwing its weight behind the more open (read: cheaper) Linux-based platform. That being said, China Mobile is also still in discussions (as far as we can tell, anyway) to bring the iPhone to its network, so the battle could ultimately be about pricing and marketing. Google has done a solid job of building name recognition over there lately, and there’s tiny doubt that manufacturers crafting Android sets will be able to undercut the iPhone, so In-Stat’s little spat of fortune telling seems downright plausible.