Hasta La Gadget!

Japanese researchers at KDDI have spliced two technologies that didn’t seem to have much of a future in the wireless realm — USB and Infrared — and come up with a method for achieving transmission speeds of up to 1Gbps. Their innovation is in overcoming a latency problem that until now prevented USB 2.0 transmissions from being converted into Infrared signals and then back into electronic form. While still very early in the development and standardization process, this is a tantalizing premise, especially with ever-increasing storage capacities in portable devices. The new communication medium, which admittedly sounds a lot like irSimple, will be demonstrated for the first time at the Wireless Japan 2009 exhibition later this month, but we wouldn’t hold out hope for an imminent release.

Filed under: Wireless

Wireless USB 2.0 to dawn on the Japanese horizon? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wirefly‘s latest cell phone survey reveals that, at least when it comes to mobile phones, size matters. It turns out 64 percent of consumers surveyed are only concerned with the basics, as opposed to enhanced features like Web browsers, music players, or video streaming.

In fact, 59 percent of cell phone buyers surveyed cited size and form factor as the most important feature of a phone. That makes perfect sense to me. Otherwise you wouldn’t see so many flips, horizontal sliders, vertical sliders, slabs, and so on. The more jarring piece of data was color: 16 percent cite the color of the device as most important, which blows my mind. (Really? They don’t care if it drops calls all the time, as long as it’s red?)

Those were the two most popular single choices. About one quarter of respondents (25 percent) picked a range of other features, such as ease of use, keypad size, a large LCD screen, and affordability, as being the most important factor. Moving on to required features in general, sometimes the choices themselves are unimportant. For example, 94 percent buy a camera phone even if just 25 percent considered it a requirement. That’s probably because it’s pretty tough to avoid getting a camera these days, now that almost every handset comes with one.

One final, unsurprising turn of events: 57 percent of people over 50 claim to use their phone only for calls, while just 5 percent of people under the age of 25 say the same thing.

BT Broadband customers and O2 iPhone owners, rejoice — some 2,500 ATM machines near you will soon be converted to serve as free WiFi hotspots, courtesy of BT Openzone and Cashbox, perhaps the most mismatched pair of commercial metaphors ever put together. The initial rollout starts with 10 machines this week and numbers are expected to steadily increase. Non-BT users and iPhone heretics wanting to join in the fun will have to shell out £5.88 ($10) for 90 minutes or a more reasonable £9.79 ($16) for 24 hours.

[Via Tech Digest]

Filed under: Wireless

UK ATMs set to offer WiFi access, free for BT and iPhone users originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maybe it’s just the disco-inspired wallpaper that has our motors all revved up, but whatever the case, we’re pretty jazzed about LG‘s newest 55-inch duo. The 55LH95 and 55LH93 are the company’s latest ultrathin LED-backlit sets, both of which slim down to 24.8 millimeters and pack a grand total of 3,360 LEDs — a number that LG claims is around seven times that used in most edge-lit LED TVs. There’s also a 5,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, a 240Hz refresh rate and — potentially most intriguing — a mysterious wireless feature that enables DVD and game consoles to transmit information sans an HDMI cable. There’s no mention of what technology is baked in (AMIMON’s WHDI, perhaps?), but either way, we’re hoping the same stuff remains once these get announced for North America. Estimated pricing on the July-bound (in South Korea) sets is pegged for $5,500 and $5,900, respectively, and LG is apparently planning to issue 42- and 47-inchers with the same amenities here soon.

Update: SiBEAM pinged us to confirm that it’s WirelessHD included here.

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

LG slides out 55LH95 and 55LH93 wireless LCD HDTVs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T’s contribution to the improved overall speed of the iPhone 3GS—their upgraded 7.2Mbps network—is nearly as important as Apple’s. But 7.2 is just a number, and AT&T’s network is just one of many. Here’s where it actually stands.

First, a direct translation: AT&T’s upgraded (or more accurately, upgrading) 3G network claims data download rates of 7.2 megabits per second. Though that’s the lingo used to describe bandwidth, it’s important to remember that those are not megabytes. AT&T’s impressive-sounding 7.2 megabits would yield somewhere closer to .9 megabytes (900 kilobytes) per second, and that’s only if you’re getting peak performance, which you never will because…

That 7.2Mbps is theoretical, and due to technical overhead, network business, device speed and overzealous marketing, real world speeds are significantly lower. UPDATEDEven looking at the old hardware on the current 3G network—the networking guts in your iPhone 3G is technically capable of reaching the 3.6Mbps downstream that AT&T’s network is technically capable of pushing. There are lots of reasons you don’t ever see that. For one, it’s limited to 1.4Mbps to preserve battery life—the faster you download, the faster you burn that battery. Another is congestion—all the a-holes watching YouTubes around you—and backhaul—the amount of pipe running to a tower, or more English-y still, the total bandwidth the tower has available. Another is proximity—the closer to the tower you are, the faster your phone is gonna fly. So for top speeds, you should sit under a deserted tower with plenty of backhaul.

As you can see on our chart above, our tested speeds for everything from EV-DO Rev. A to WiMax ran at anywhere from one half to one sixth their potential speed. Accordingly, Jason found AT&T’s network to run at about 1.6Mbps with the iPhone 3G S—about a third faster than with the 3G, though he was probably still connecting at 3.6Mbps rates—the 7.2 rollout won’t be complete until 2011, according to AT&T.

AT&T-style HSDPA is expected to reach out to an eventual theoretical speed of 14Mbps, which will undoubtedly make the current 3G networks feel slow, but won’t necessarily blow them out of the water. That’s the thing: the iPhone, and indeed just about all high-end handsets on the market today, operate at speeds that are reasonably close to the limits of 3G technology. In a funny sort of way, the iPhone 3GS is already a bit out of date.

So what’s next? And what the hell are those really long green bars up there? Those are the so-called 4G (fourth generation) wireless technologies. Americans can ignore HSPA+ and EV-DO Rev B. for the most part, and given that they’re the slowest of the next-gen bunch, shouldn’t feel too bad. And anyway, as Matt explained, WiMax and LTE are what’s next for us.

Both Verizon and AT&T are within a couple of years of deploying LTE in their networks, and WiMax is already out there in some cities. Our own WiMax tests on Clearwire’s network peaked at an astounding 12Mbps—nearly eight times faster than the iPhone 3GS on AT&T. And even if WiMax is shaping up to be more of a general broadband protocol than a cellular one, this is the kind of thing that’ll be in your phones in a few years, and the promises are mind-boggling: earlier this year, Verizon’s LTE were breaking 60Mbps.

So in short, your brand-new, “S”-for-speed iPhone is pretty speedy—as long as you only look to the past.