Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been to this rodeo before (a few times, actually), but the smoke that leads to fire is getting far harder to ignore. Following a Bloomberg report in June that a Verizon iPhone was on track for a January 2011 release as well as independent confirmation from John Gruber, Yukari Iwatani Kane from The Wall Street Journal is now sounding mighty confident that the aforementioned plans are true. According to various people “briefed by Apple,” Jobs and Company will begin “mass producing a new iPhone by the end of 2010 that would allow Verizon Wireless to sell the smartphone early next year.” It’ll rely on a key Qualcomm chip as well as a CDMA radio, but curiously enough, there’s nary of a mention of LTE in this report. In closely related news, it’s bruited that Apple is also developing a separate iPhone model, though it’s unclear how soon VZW will be able to grab the fifth generation edition. ‘Course, it’s not exactly the shocker of the year to hear that Apple’s toiling on a new iPhone without a dubious antenna design, but the real question is this: will the Verizon iPhone beat AT&T’s elusive white iPhone 4 to market? Inquiring minds would love to know.

Update: The WSJ udated the story to be more clear, “Apple Inc. is making a version of its iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year.” So it’s not just a generic CDMA iPhone that may or may not end up on Verizon Wireless. The WSJ also added that the CDMA iPhone 4 variant will be built by Pegatron and would only work on a CDMA network (i.e., it’s not a dual-mode GSM/CDMA device). Also, according to one source, VZW has been working with Apple to test its network and adding additional capacity to avoid being overwhelmed a la AT&T.

WSJ: Verizon to sell iPhone in 2011, fifth generation iPhone is in the works (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sometimes even a Superbowl ad can’t save a product from death. Qualcomm is killing its mobile TV service called Flo TV that promised to bring popular TV channels and shows to handheld devices such as smartphones and in-car entertainment systems. It will also suspend sales of the dedicated gadgets that ran Flo TV.

“We are suspending our direct to consumer sales of new devices,” says Qualcomm in a statement. “We anticipate we will maintain the network so that current direct to consumer subscribers will continue to receive FLO programming into Spring 2011.”

Flo TV made its big debut on Super Bowl Sunday this year when about 116 million viewers watched a commercial for the service. Yet it struggled to catch on with consumers. The service faced competition from rivals such as MobiTV and Sling Media and a group called theOpen Mobile Video Coalition that is trying to bring free TV content to mobile devices.

As smartphones became more popular and consumers took to streaming their favorite shows from their laptop to the TV, companies bet the next big thing would be anywhere, anytime TV. That means fans could watch Monday night football games the next day on their way to work or catch up on an episode of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show while waiting at the DMV.

But the idea ran into a few glitches. Americans have never really taken to mobile TV with gusto. Analysts estimate just about one percent of mobile users in the U.S. watch mobile TV.

Qualcomm tried to change consumer habits by offering Flo–which stands for Forward Link Only–both on cellphones through carriers and as independent monthly service that would be available through dedicated devices.

Flo, they hoped, would triumph because of its technology. The service takes standard video signals and re-formats them for the mobile platform. Flo’s network operations center transcodes and compresses broadcast content into a single package that is sent to transmitters using satellite, microwave or optical fiber. The transmitters then send it to receiving devices over the 700-MHz spectrum.

And because it’s a push technology with one-way data transmission, from the tower to the device, it doesn’t overload the network. Video through Flo TV is relatively smooth and doesn’t stutter.

But consumers balked at the price of the service. A personal TV that runs Flo costs $250 and includes just six month of service. Users have to pay a monthly fee to keep it going. Subscription fees for Flo TV on cellphones from carriers such as AT&T ranged from $10 to $20 a month.

Despite waning consumer demand for Flo TV, Qualcomm found “strong interest” from carriers in using Flo’s network or spectrum.

“We are seeing strong interest in using the FLO TV network or spectrum to capitalize on the growing imbalance between mobile data supply and demand, the growth of tablets, and consumer demand for high quality video and print content, and a richer user experience,” says Qualcomm.

Photo: Flo TV

By now you would’ve come across at least a handful of inspiring augmented reality apps (with a few exceptions, perhaps), and if you fancy having a go at coding one yourself, Qualcomm may be able to assist. Today, the giant chip maker is pushing out a beta release of its Android AR SDK, which has produced interesting demos like the digital photo frame concept showcased in London last month, as well as the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots game pictured above. In fact, Mattel’s so confident with the latter app that it’s planning on commercializing it, so who knows — you could be the next Peter Molyneux of the AR scene, or at least a winner of up to $125,000 from Qualcomm’s AR Developer Challenge. More details in the press release after the break.

Continue reading Qualcomm launches augmented reality SDK in beta form, ready to rock your Android devices

Qualcomm launches augmented reality SDK in beta form, ready to rock your Android devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 06:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When we reported that the Mirasol low-power color displays were pushed back to early 2011, that wasn’t technically correct — Qualcomm just informed us that the company’s cranking out panels even as we speak, and will ship them to OEMs this fall. So what’s actually going to happen in Q1 2011? The formal release of Mirasol devices, of course. Representatives told us that the 5.7-inch, 220ppi XGA color display will appear in multiple products with multiple partners next year, and that they “will be in devices that are converged and look a lot more like a tablet PC than an e-reader.” Following that, they said, the company will turn its attention to developing Mirasol for smartphones. We couldn’t get Qualcomm to comment on a rumored $2b Mirasol plant, unfortunately, and there’s no word on that color Kindle, but we imagine all will be revealed at or shortly after CES next year.

Mirasol displays slated for ‘converged devices’ in Q1 2011, followed by low-power smartphones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Perhaps dissatisfied with the glacial pace of Wibree, Qualcomm’s working on an ultra-low-power, short-range wireless transfer tech of its own — it’s called Peanut, and executives claim it only needs “fractions of a milliwatt of power” to push data at several megabits per second. Computerworld got the scoop on the new low-power radio at EmTech@MIT 2010, and reports that Qualcomm’s had these goobers in the oven since 2006 and is looking to trump the likes of ZigBee and Bluetooth by this time next year. Assuming, of course, the Peanut standard doesn’t require a molasses-like committee of its own to attain formal approval.

Qualcomm’s Peanut challenges ZigBee, Bluetooth for control of your personal area network next year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 03:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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