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Samsung is eager to show it can do GSM as well as it does CDMA. The South Korean manufacturer, which is already dominating the young 3G market in the United States, just launched the first Korean-made, EDGE-capable phone—the Samsung P777—and made it available exclusively for Cingular customers.

It’s a solid first effort. I’ve been using the P777 for several weeks, and have been impressed with its versatility and quality. Most impressive is the phone’s 100 megabytes of storage capacity. Despite the tiny footprint—the 777 is the latest in a long line of Samsung slider phones—the phone can store up to an hour of video on-board, or scores of MP3s for use on its built-in MP3 player. Samsung is positioning the P777 as a multimedia phone, and it doesn’t disappoint. The integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, which can zoom in considerably, thanks to the high-quality lens, takes great pictures—on par with Sony Ericsson’s S710, which takes arguably the best pictures of any camera phone available in the US right now. The tri-band GSM phone also offered speedy access on Cingular’s EDGE network—regularly hitting speeds of around 80 Kbps—making it a breeze to download ringtones and surf the web. Continue »

Many thought it was not possible, but looks like HDTV over plain vanilla copper, and not fiber is finally beginning to happen. British broadband provider, NTL says it is experimenting with HDTV services over copper lines using the ADSL2+ technologies. The trials of ADSL2+ started in February in hope to provide 18 Mbps downstream Internet access. ADSL2+ runs over the copper wires that accompany NTL’s co-axial cables. NTL had initially sunk copper because it wanted to sell POTS on those lines, but now is finding new use for those lines. This combo solution is known as Siamese in networking lingo, and its pretty unique to NTL. (Here is a link to the presentation, in PDF)

Only last week we were predicting that VoIP ATAs would do a Houdini and vanish right in front of our eyes. Well set-top box maker Digeo has just added VoIP functions right into its box and will be selling it to customers like Charter Communications. Their set-top box is called Moxi, and and the VoIP service is called Moxi Phone Link. It allows folks who use the service to see incoming call info on their screens, while a small icon shows if there are any voice mails pending. (Right now the same old ATA stuff is going to be the way to go but next version of the box, which bundles the cable modem right into the box will not require an ATA and customers can simply plug their phones into a plain old phone jack, without having to bother with routers and ATAs etc!) Doesn’t look like company has any customers as yet. It is working with cable telephony start-up Cedar Point Communications, which provides the backend mojo. Cedar makes Safari VoIP/Media switching platform that allows VoIP calls over the HFC networks.

Business 2.0 wireless writer Matt Maier writes, that “While music labels, handset vendors, and wireless carriers are experimenting in their quest to figure out if and how consumers will use their phones as music devices, they’ve left the door open for aggregators like Melodeo and Musiwave to develop services that make it more enjoyable to find and download music on your cell phone.” In other words, who’s your mobile music daddy. Excellent piece by the way because it also tells you how clueless record labels really are about the whole wireless mobile opportunity and why their lack of risk taking nature is the sole reason they are becoming irrelevant!

Looks like media and consumer lover affair with Vonage might be on the rocks. Today there is a lot of buzz about Vonage being sued by Texas, the state, because the company “failed to clearly inform customers they cannot automatically dial 911 when they sign up.” The lawsuit stems from an incident last month, where a 17-year-old Houston girl could not call 911 on the Vonage phone, during an armed robbery when her parents were shot and wounded. She had to run next door to get some help. Look most of us geeks talk about e911 and all that crap, but average people don’t have a clue. Many times I have argued that if you are going to sell a PSTN replacement, you got to make it better than PSTN, and deliver on similar expectations. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told AP, “No one who signs up for this service will get the same kind of 911 service they get with a regular land line. Vonage needs to be clear up front about that and not mislead their consumers about the quality of service.”

Eleven states are currently considering anti-muni broadband legislations of various types. These include Texas, Florida, Oregon, Ohio and Virginia. (Technorati Cosmos)The states are being close minded at a time, when even the Senate has realized the importance of broadband to the US economy. And typically these guys are the last ones to know.

Guest Post by Robert Young: What happens when you have 100 megabits per second connections on the edge of the network? In your homes, or in your pockets, or in your cars – an always-on 100 megabit per second pipe that wirelessly networks your life. No, we are not talking about fast pipes to the Internet, but simple easy networks all around you.

Starting next year (2006), millions of people will begin to equip themselves with computers and portable devices capable of swapping files at a speed of 100Mbps, all wirelessly (WiFi/802.11n and UWB). Think about that… 100Mbps!! That’s about a hundred times faster than what the average broadband user in the U.S. is accustomed to today.

More specifically, what I’m talking about here is short-range computer2computer, device2device connectivity directly between people in close proximity of one another (think: Rendezvous).

This is different than peer2peer that goes through the Internet… unfortunately, the “last mile” bottleneck will continue to limit such high bandwidth connectivity for any activity that requires an Internet gateway for at least a few more years. Even so, off the network, truly “on the edge” direct connections will start to emerge.

To make the picture more complete, let’s also include the next generation of mobile phones that will be capable of direct phone2phone connections via lower-bandwidth Bluetooth, as well as wireless home networks and consumer electronics (e.g. UWB-enabled plasma TVs) that are coming to market that allow people to easily transfer any digital media directly from one device to another.

So what does this all mean? Put another way, what are the implications when millions of people start creating ad-hoc wireless networks among themselves? Well, if you zoom out to look at the big picture, the most obvious implication is the rise of truly distributed peer2peer networks randomly and serendipitously popping up in meet space that have absolutely no central points of control.

Imagine high school kids and college students all over the world sharing anything and everything that is digital every time they meet up, directly with one another. And as we know, whatever the kids do first is likely to be the future for the nearly billion others who will be similarly equipped.

What we’re talking about here is a bandwidth explosion on the edge, where the infrastructure will be funded and built by the people, for the people… all without any central planning or capital outlays by the Internet access duopoly of cable and telcos. And the realization of such bandwidth nirvana by way of grass-roots deployment will lead to “social computing” in the truest sense.

Until the Internet came along, PCs were not much more than isolated, glorified typewriters, calculators and filing cabinets. Then with the Internet, we turned our PCs into a portal connected to a vast new world of communications, communities, media, and shopping. Now, with the advent of people-powered wireless bandwidth on the horizon, our computers and electronic devices will open up to a new digital dimension of social interaction among groups of intimates, as well as strangers, but this time to facilitate us in our atom-based lives.

You see, to a large extent, individuals equipped with an abundance of bandwidth will “route around” the last-mile bottleneck perpetuated by the incumbents. So hang on to your hats (and copyrights), the ultimate “world of ends” is right around corner. Now, if you were an entrepreneur, how would you surf this monster wave?

Guest column by Robert Young, strategic adviser to WeedShare, a p2p mobile music distribution start-up

In the most recent issue of Business 2.0, my colleague Paul Sloan has done a fantastic story on what next could come out of Apple’s dream (gizmo) factory. Here is a link to the photo gallery which showcases stuff that might be on cards from Apple. These are not Apple products, but this is Paul’s analysis of what could be it. The product images accompanying this story were created for Business 2.0 by award-winning design firm Pentagram. The project was led by Robert Brunner, who was Apple’s chief designer from 1989 to 1996 and who oversaw the design of the PowerBook line, among many other hit products. I love this home phone set-up the best. You can read the story here.