Source: gigaom.com

Source: www.theregister.co.uk

It’s not just mobile phones that are getting more features than you can possibly use, Motorola’s latest barcode scanner has a VoIP client built in to allow shelf-stackers to chat while they’re working.

The CA50 isn’t a fully-fledged Windows Mobile device, as it only utilises Windows CE and is designed to use web-hosted applications over Wi-Fi connections, but the use of CE does make bundling VoIP easy from a software point of view at least. The real question is why one would want to.

Motorola suggests the device can be used to communicate with shop floor staff, where Wi-Fi infrastructure has been deployed. SIP is supported, as well as one to one and one to many communications managed by the supporting servers.

It could be argued that this is a mobile phone with a barcode reader slapped on the back*: but VoIP has become so ubiquitous as to cease to be the defining characteristic of a mobile phone. The major barrier to implementing voice on any device is now bandwidth, and with support for 802.11a, b and g that’s not a problem here (though, of course, you wouldn’t be using 802.11a in the UK where the 5GHz frequency is licensed).

As a Wi-Fi barcode reader the CA50 is reasonably priced, at £270, but VoIP is likely to be a killer feature for that (perhaps tiny) demographic that really needs a barcode reader they can talk to. ®

* Yes, S60 devices do now come with software to read barcodes using the camera, but it’s hardly comparable to a laser reader for utility and speed.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Motorola Inc. today announced the CA50, a lightweight handheld with voice over IP (VoIP) over Wi-Fi and a bar code scanner. The device is targeted for retail, hospitality and health care where inventory, product management and record management takes place.

Workers would be able to check prices and inventory in stores or to request immediate delivery of equipment at hospitals, said Tom Esposito, senior director of advanced data capture at Motorola’s enterprise mobility unit. The CA50 fills a gap in handheld products, since it is light and inexpensive in comparison with the ruggedized scanners on the market, Esposito said.It is 4.37 by 1.81 by 1.01 inches in size and includes a five-line monochrome display, according to Motorola. The device runs the Windows CE 5.0 mobile operating system, has 64MB of RAM and 32MB of flash memory. An internal antenna connects to 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi networks

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

While big bad wolves of mobile business’ like AT&T and Verizon watched from distance, Other US Cell Phone companies are buzzing around Google like those bees in Jerry Seinfeld’s movie, Bee Movie. Current supporters of OHA include, include Motorola, Qualcomm, Sprint Nextel and Deutsche Telekom, parent of wireless operator T-Mobile, among many others.
"We’ve been one of the most vocal (companies) in developing on open platforms, and this is an accelerator to what we’re doing," said Motorola CEO Ed Zander on a call with reporters Monday. Bu I only thing I saw so far open about Motorola are those clam shell phones that you have to open to dial! But it is nice to see these people singing the "Open Source" song!
Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs not to be out done selected current green buzzword to explain it’s business plans, "The wireless ecosystem is constantly changing, and we’re enabling a new ecosystems of partners like Google and others to go mobile."
Inspiration from "Going gaga over Google mobile" by Stephanie N. Mehta

Source: goebel.net

So the Google Phone is out and the first reactions are not too good. At least at GigaOM there is more criticism than kudos. Nobody wants to hype the new product, nearly everyone is nagging. Since Google’s shares are worth more than 700 dollars it’s not cool anymore to be a Google fanboy.

I got an invitation to the same press call like Om, but unfortunately it started when my workday ended. May other journalist cover the story. Also it seems that the press call was not very much of a pleasure. “They completely dodged my question about how does it reconcile with other mobile linux efforts which are backed by none other than partners like Motorola“, writes Om Malik.

Personally I like very much what he tells about Android, Google’s new mobile phone plattform:

What is Android? A fully integrated mobile software stack that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. It will be made available under one of the most progressive, developer-friendly open-source licenses, which gives mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products. Next week, the Alliance will release an early access software development kit to provide developers with the tools necessary to create innovative and compelling applications for the platform.

Does anybody know if this has something to do with OpenMOKO, the other open Linux cell phone platform? Maybe Android is just the same?

How open is Android compared to OpenMOKO?

The latter let’s you manipulate everything to the very core of the mobile phone functions. Yet now there are thousands of great free Linux programs running on the OpenMOKO devices. I would love to see this kind of openness backed by heavy weights like Google and the other mentioned companies.

I hope that Android is as open as the Open Handset Alliance’s website says:

Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer. It is built to be truly open. For example, an application could call upon any of the phone’s core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users. Android is built on the open Linux Kernel. Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that has been designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment. Android will be open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge. The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications.All applications are created equal

Android does not differentiate between the phone’s core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone’s capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. With devices built on the Android Platform, users will be able to fully tailor the phone to their interests. They can swap out the phone’s homescreen, the style of the dialer, or any of the applications. They can even instruct their phones to use their favorite photo viewing application to handle the viewing of all photos.

I think GigaOM’s reader rohit understands it right:

i think this is a much bigger potential play at replacing the whole mobile phone software stack and aimed at making it truly an information appliance. think of it as an IP-services led phone design, not a telco-call based device.

It’s a Linux for phones! You can do everything with it, if it’s really open. I already wonder how it cooperates with Google’s Ubiquisys femtocells. It annoys very much that my cell phone is not as open and flexible as my PC. Give me a command line to my cell phone and I will be happy!

Or, as commentator David Jacobs puts it:

Being an open system, hackers will have a field day with this and it could get some serious traction among the geek community who are so frustrated with the iPhone limitations.

Here you can get more quotes from Android’s developers:

“Even A teenager in the basement and a senior designer in a big company - they have the same chance”, says the film. That would be great because I dont want just a Google Phone. I want many different of them for different purposes. Thats why I think the OS approach is great. The iPhone just isnt enough anymore. Its so 2007.

I got the offer to do interviews to John Wang, Chief Marketing Officer of Google’s hardware producer HTC, and Florian Seiche, Vice President Europe of HTC, tomorrow. Let’s see if that will answer my open questions.

Source: gigaom.com

Source: voipcentral.org

Leading broadband wireless Internet access supplier, Ice Broadband, has selected Motorola Inc. technology to expand its high-speed wireless broadband services to customers and businesses in Ireland.

The company has selected Motorola’s MOTOwi4 solutions, which includes wi4 Fixed Canopy and point-to-point backhaul products to maintain the company’s momentum of its rapid network roll out. Motorola is offering the high quality VoIP communication to its Ireland customers. Ireland customers are increasingly choosing the Internet to handle their telephone calls.

The company has selected Motorola due to its technology innovations like industry-leading interference mitigation techniques and excellent VoIP quality. Motorola’s solution is easy to install, reliable and offers excellent range of high quality data and voice transmission to its customers.

The founder of Ice Broadband, Fran Rooney, said,

Wireless technology gives us the means to quickly and efficiently create a network that will reach customers across the entire country, regardless of the quality of fixed line infrastructure.

While according to Ian Bayly, MOTOwi4 sales director Europe, Motorola Networks & Enterprise, Ice Broadbands is planning to invest in wireless broadband technology. Company’s MOTOwi4 solutions delivers the reliability and connectivity to deliver the high quality of service that wireless operators and their customers expect.

Image Credit: Loadza & Network

Via: BBW Exchange

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

I first saw Vocera a few years back at one of the expertly produced Chris Shipley Demo events in San Diego.

Their Star Trek communicator badge like voice device has always captured my imagination, and now with Motorola in the WiFi Canopy business I’m not surprised to see them make an investment.

Imagine wandering around town with a Vocera device and having smart technology like iotum or GrandCentral route calls to that device only if they are essential. Or using IVR technology like Communikate or TellMe offers. Now those are hardware/software/network mashups just waiting to happen.

Source: voipcentral.org

Vonage and Motorola have developed a co-branded WiFi router, which provides VoIP, fax, telephone and Internet services all at the same time. It comes with a 4-port wired and 802.11 b/g wireless access point for home networking connectivity.

Dubbed as Motorola VT2542 Internet Phone Adopter & Wireless Router, the device connects two Vonage lines, telephone and fax through a high-speed Cable or DSL Internet connection. It has four Ethernet Local Area Network (LAN) ports and an 802.11b/g Wireless port to support additional computers or other network devices.

Using the WiFi router, the Vonage customers can use their Internet connection for the computer and the phone simultaneously. It means, they can enjoy VoIP services along with fax, telephone and other Internet services.

In addition to these, the router also provides Virtual Private Network (VPN) pass-through support, a secure web based user interface and full support of standard Vonage features, such as conference calling, call forwarding, call transfer, and call waiting.

Mike Snyder, CEO of Vonage says,

Vonages successful relationship with Motorola has produced ground-breaking devices that help our customers communicate, when, where and how they choose.

It is now available for $59.99 after a $40 instant rebate.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

At the CES conference in Las Vegas today, Nokia introduced its next generation widescreen Nokia Nseries multimedia computer, the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.

Nokia said its new N800 Internet Tablet will permit wireless phone connections through eBay Inc.’s Skype service. The model is available immediately in the United States and selected European countries, and Nokia said the Skype features will be available for download by June.
"Working with the leading mobile handset manufacturer puts us in a unique position to get Skype to the mobile masses," said Eric Lagier, head of Skype’s business development in hardware and mobile operations.
Voice minutes over Wi-Fi networks are far cheaper than minutes on cellular networks because they use free radio spectrum and the Internet and do not require large cell towers. Skype has a variety of calling plans, including a $30 annual subscription to make unlimited calls to any regular or mobile phone number within the United States and Canada.
Like its predecessor, the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is based on Nokia’s desktop Linux based Operating System. The Maemo development platform was launched in 2005 to provide Open Source developers with the tools and opportunities to create innovative applications for use on Nokia’s Internet Tablets. Users of the Nokia N800 will be able to benefit from a wide range of third party applications.

Nokia, meanwhile, unveiled the N76, a light, clamshell model that includes a 2-megapixel camera and 2 gigabytes of expandable memory. But, at a half-inch thick, it is only slightly thinner than Motorola Inc.’s popular Razr model and is nearly twice as thick as Samsung Electronics Co.’s X820, which the South Korean company claims to be the thinnest on the market.
The Finnish company, which makes one in three phones sold globally, has suffered from a lack of thin models in the last two years as consumers sought slimmer phones following the success of Motorola’s RAZR and Samsung Electronics Co.’s X820

Links;
More about nokiaN800

Source: voipcentral.org

For the millions of Symbian phone users, I have some good news today. The Sunnyvale-based mobile services company MINO Wireless has brought them VoIP services.

The company has developed a new mobile application to enable customers to make cheap or very inexpensive international calls using their Symbian supported phones like Nokia, Sony Erickson and Motorola.

By downloading MINO applications, these mobile phones can bring VoIP calls for customers who can call any phone anywhere in the world at rates starting from 2.2 cents per minute.

Jing Liu, CEO and Founder of MINO Wireless said,

Though affordable international calling options like Vonage and SkypeOut are present in the market, MINO is the first company to extend VoIP calls to mobile phones.

Mr Lie continued,

Business and other users of high-end handsets supported by Symbian, have welcomed this convenience, which allows them to enjoy the low cost of PC and VoIP phones.

MINO hit the market with over 10,000 downloads by Symbian phone users in the first few months of its launch. Now, the company has more than 90,000 registered users in more than 50 countries for this new mobile application.

Source: voipcentral.org

In line with its VoIP product suite, Motorola has launched SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) based VoIP Cable modems SBV5100 Series.

The company claims that the new modems will expand cable operators options for applications they can layer on top of their high-speed-Internet and voice services supporting full-featured primary VoIP services for up to two telephone lines that are terminated in two RJ-11 connectors.

Charles Dougherty, vice president of Motorolas Connected Home business said,

By providing a voice-enabled cable modem with the SIP protocol, Motorola enables cable operators to not only expand their offerings with voice today, but to lay the foundation for new feature-rich voice and multimedia services, such as fixed-mobile convergence.

The companys website highlights the following features of SBV5100 Series

1.One infrastructure for communication services

2.One bill for voice and data services

3.Simultaneous use of phone line and high-speed data services

4.Support for a variety of CLASS features provided today by the telephone company (Caller ID, Call waiting, Call forwarding, etc.)

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