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The Cell Phone Reaches Milestone 25th Birthday
The first commercial cell-phone call in the U.S. was made 25 years ago this week: Bob Barnett, then president of Ameritech Mobile Communications, placed the first commercial wireless call from inside a Chrysler convertible at Soldier Field in Chicago, to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell, who was in Berlin.The breakthrough had been a long time coming. Ten years earlier, Martin Cooper, widely regarded as the inventor of the cell phone, made a demonstration phone call to Joel Engel while walking the streets of New York. Cooper was then the general manager of Motorola's communications systems division; Engel was his counterpart at rival AT&T. But only in 1983 did the Federal Communications Commission approve mobile phones.The first cell phone on the market, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, weighed 28 ounces (thus its nickname, "the brick") and had a retail price of $3,995. Little wonder, then, that in his 1987 film "Wall Street," Oliver Stone illustrated corporate raider Gordon Gekko's wealth, freedom and power with a scene in which Gekko stands on a beach, phone in hand, giving a rapt description of the sunrise to his disciple, Bud Fox.In 1987, large numbers of the well-to-do had car phones, console-based affairs that gave one the unprecedented ability to conduct business while driving. But a phone that was not attached to anything at all -- well, in 1987 that was a billionaire's toy.Now, cell phones are ubiquitous, so much so that one might sometimes wish there were fewer of them. There are more than 262 million wireless users in the U.S. alone, and the industry's annual revenues have topped $140 billion. An entire generation has grown up using cell phones. An increasing number of consumers use them exclusively, going without a land line. Not even Superman bothers looking for a phone booth in which...
Mobile
PC World - Can a motley group of 24 global carriers play well together and create a gigantic, open marketplace for mobile applications--one that works as seamlessly for consumers as Apple's App Store? Certainly, skepticism is running high that Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), a just-announced alliance between, well, Everyone But Apple in the mobile phone space, can make its ambitious plan work.
D-Link DAP-1522 / DWA-160 Xtreme N Wireless products -Reviewed
By Martin RegtienContributing Writer, RealTechNewsThe need for wireless networking is almost a certainty given the amount of internet capable equipment is an average home. Just count the potential devices such as PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, TV, Blu-ray player, fridge, the list can go on and on. The speed of the wireless network needs [...]
Smartphones:
As smart phones increasingly appear alike, with high-end models mostly taking their cues from Apple Inc.'s iPhone, more and more it's the software they run that makes a difference.A growing number of operating systems are jostling for the attention of phone buyers and manufacturers. The winners will determine what our phones can do, which Web sites we're steered to, and which manufacturers will survive the next few years.The battle will be on display as wireless carriers and phone makers gather next week in Barcelona, Spain, for the industry's largest trade show, Mobile World Congress. The CEO of Google Inc., suddenly a strong contender in phone software, will address the show. Also hoping to make a splash is Microsoft Corp., which is struggling to revitalize its software.One in six U.S. adults had a smart phone last year, according to Forrester Research. That share is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years, as consumers warm to mobile devices that can run a wide range of applications and surf the Web nearly as well as computers.Analysts don't expect smart phones to settle on one kind of operating software, like the PC industry largely has with Microsoft's Windows. But analysts do expect the smart phone field to be winnowed down to two to four winners over the next few years.These are the contenders, starting with the largest worldwide market share:_ Symbian -- Nokia Corp.'s use of Symbian software has taken it to the top, but its perch is precarious. It's down from 56 percent worldwide share in 2008 to 44 percent in 2009, according to research firm In-Stat. Even though it's No. 1 in the world, it's nearly unknown in the U.S. One problem is that Nokia and Symbian have failed to keep up with the latest trends in the U.S. market,...
Almost Human: A Review of Google’s Android G1 Phone
"The T-Mobile G1 Google smartphone, designed by Google and made by HTC, remains firmly in the shadow of the iPhone-for now. The phone, which goes on sale next week in the US and next month in Britain, was released too early. The HTC hardware and Android OS that powers it lack the polish and depth of even the iPhone 1.0 in most respects. It's not a bad phone, but the software and hardware needed more time in the oven to bring them to a golden brown crispness." Full review at Arstechnica.
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