Wireless giant Qualcomm has jumped into the electric vehicle market by acquiring the assets of a company, called HaloIPT, out of New Zealand that has developed wireless electric car charging tech. Read more »
Want to add Airplay-like functionality to your Android phone or tablet? Then take a look at Skifta, which just went out of beta, and utilizes DLNA to share media in your home. It’s part of Qualcomm’s strategy to make the connected home more appealing to consumers. Read more »
Consert, a startup that uses Verizon’s 3G network to curb energy consumption of homes, is in the process of raising $8.75 million in equity and debt, according to a filing. Read more »
Did you hear the iPhone 4S saw pre-bookings of a million devices on day one? That’s not only good news for Apple, but also for its carrier partners: AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. And they aren’t the only ones cashing in on the iPhone 4S bonanza. Read more »
Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon S4 chips are expected next year and will be the first to support all of the major 2G, 3G and 4G networks with a single integrated modem. It’s smaller, more powerful and should improve battery life on 4G smartphones, tablets and other devices. Read more »
Faster in-home Wi-Fi is only a year or two away, says Craig Barratt, president of Qualcomm Atheros, who said next generation Wi-Fi could deliver gigabit speeds making it better and faster. This is good because the technology is the work-horse of home networking. Read more »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The falling fortunes of Symbian, the chaos as WebOS withers, and hiccups at BlackBerry are pretty visible signs of the upheavals in the mobile operating systems. The change obviously is because of the rise of Internet and touch centric operating systems. Is Brew OS next? Read more »
Intel is very serious about low power chips, although it won’t have them until 2013. The company showed off the long-rumored Haswell chips at its developer forum on Tuesday, which it says can can run all day and offer a 20x reduction in power. Read more »
A look at some of the big stories in mobile today:
» Google agreed to pay 33 percent more — $3 billion — than it originally off… Read more at paidContent »
Microsoft and Intel unveiled initiatives Tuesday that show how the Wintel partners are trying to separately navigate a new post-PC world. Microsoft unveiled Windows 8, which will work on ARM-based tablets and computers while Intel announced a partnership with Google to optimize its chips for Android. Read more »
Millennial Media is one of the larger independent mobile ad companies around, and now there are signs that it could be looking to take its b… Read more at paidContent »
» Appia has appointed Craig Forman as its executive chairman. He joins the white label app store company from his position as chai… Read more at paidContent »
Mobile TV has for years been one of the great white hopes for mobile operators looking for new lines of revenue from their data networks –… Read more at paidContent »
A look at some of the big stories in mobile today:
» Apple and five warning signs to watch for at the company in the next stage o… Read more at paidContent »
WebKit technology is what powers some of the top browsers (especially mobile) today. While Apple and Google are its most visible champions, the support for WebKit and ancillary technologies is coming from unlikely quarters such as Amazon and Boxee. Here’s its new BFF. Read more »
Qualcomm demonstrated an Augmented Reality application that lets people point their smartphone camera at a DVD box and instantly pull up trailers for the movie inside. It’s a simple, easy to use application that shows off the practical power of Augmented Reality. Read more »
Some of us who covered wireless in the early days remember the Qualcomm van, the big bulky CDMA phones, Globestar and more. They are now sitting in a small museum at their headquarters. Here are some photos to take you down memory lane. Read more »
The Federal Communications Commission said it would combine the review of AT&T’s purchase of spectrum from Qualcomm with the agency’s review of Ma Bell’s $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile. Is the FCC worried about consolidating so much spectrum into the hands of one company? Read more »
When it comes to broadband, it seems Indians will increasingly use 3G wireless connections to access the Internet. At the end of the first quarter of 2011 there were 11.5 million wired broadband subscribers in India, a pittance versus the explosive growth in 3G connections. Read more »
Netflix certified more Android devices for its software, adding support for a number of handsets and tablets powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor. That brings the total number of Netflix-capable smartphones and tablets up to 22. Good, because consumers don’t care whose chip powers their device. Read more »
The Mobile Content Venture has unveiled the brand name and logo for its upcoming mobile broadcast venture, now dubbed Dyle.tv. But will this service succeed where FLO TV failed? To do so, it’ll need to be on many devices, and have content people want to watch. Read more »
Apple’s next iPhone will be thinner and lighter, with an 8 megapixel camera, according to a report on Thursday. The new article bears the hallmarks of an intentional leak, and it is the surest sign yet that we’ll see new iPhone hardware in September. Read more »
Mobile phone manufacturer HTC has purchased VIA Semiconductor’s graphics business. The deal is indicative of the need for compelling graphics on mobiles as well as an admission that mobile device makers may get an edge if they can bring some silicon capabilities in house. Read more »
Apple is joining the board of the Bluetooth standards organization as the group focuses the latest iteration of Bluetooth on the market for fitness and health sensor data from mobile devices. But can Bluetooth beat out a variety of other standards hoping win in bioinformatics? Read more »
For decades, innovation in the chip industry has largely been governed by the needs of personal computers. But thanks to the proliferation of connected mobile devices, the growth of the consumer web and services available online and on-demand, the PC’s influence on chip design is fading. Read more »
Qualcomm’s FLO TV may have flopped, but that doesn’t mean that consumers will ignore mobile TV forever: PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that mobile TV subscription revenue will double over the next four years. And that money could be an indicator for a much bigger trend. Read more »
More capable smartphones and tablets, combined with a growing number of online video services are heavily increasing mobile media consumption: Limelight’s data shows a 600-percent jump from the past year and that’s a bad sign for those hoping unlimited data plans will stick around. Read more »
Why do we need dual-core in smartphones? These peppy processors bring new functions when paired with smart software. One app helps take the perfect group picture, ensuring that nobody blinks, by taking multiple shots in succession and then stitching in the best face captures for each. Read more »
Stealthy startup SuVolta has pioneered an improvement in the chip-manufacturing process that will help cut the power usage of semiconductors by half while maintaining their performance. The process, which it plans to license, changes a few of the ingredients used to make chips. Read more »
Mobile video is here to stay whether it’s chatting with friends via Skype or streaming movies from Netflix. Even Adobe’s Flash player has a place in the Apple-definedpost-PC era judging by several announcements showing application providers and chipmakers marrying various video codecs to their silicon. Read more »
Qualcomm today launched a chip offering dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and fast wireless video transfers all on a single piece of silicon. With all TV sets expected to have integrated Wi-Fi in 5 years, the 6 Gbps chip speeds could help handhelds become a set-top box. Read more »
After weeks of anticipation, the HTC Sensation arrives in T-Mobile stores on June 15 for $199 after rebate and with a contract. The dual-core handset boasts a large 960×540 display, 1080p video capture and the newest version of HTC Sense with a time-saving active lockscreen feature. Read more »
Mobile hardware is progressing at a blistering pace, but to deliver the type of user experiences enabled by awesome hardware software must keep pace. This goes beyond the need for innovations in OSes and applications, to the underlying software that ties everything together. Read more »
If you didn’t think computing’s future was both visual and mobile, then Nvidia’s decision to buy wireless radio startup Icera clinches it. The $367 million cash deal is setting Nvidia up for a competitive battle with Qualcomm in the mobile application processor market. Read more »
LG, the South Korean makers of phones televisions, household appliances and a variety of other consumer devices has licensed the ARM-based chip cores that can be found in devices from handsets to set-top-boxes. Once again, a vendor has forgotten to invite Intel to the party. Read more »
Is the greentech industry headed for a breakout year or is it retrenching for hard times to come? The first three months of 2011 provided evidence that could support both assertions, with a big rise in venture capital investment and a big drop-off in global energy financing. Solar power remained the largest green technology sector in terms of venture capital investment, while in the world of electric vehicles, GM’s Chevy Volt hybrid and Nissan’s all-electric Leaf — the first two mainstream plug-in vehicles — hit the showroom floors in significant numbers. Meanwhile the smart grid sector’s relative dearth of VC investment was more than made up for by the massive round of acquisitions. Companies mentioned in this report include NRG Energy, Microsoft, Silver Spring Networks, Tesla and BrightSource Energy. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The mobile TV hype machine is up and running again thanks to the Open Mobile Video Coalition’s efforts surrounding mobile DTV. If a greater number of consumers are finally going to start watching video on their phones, though, at least three key challenges must be overcome. Read more »
The HTC Sensation 4G, just announced for T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network, seems to have it all: a dual-core CPU; large, high-resolution display; and high-end camera for 1080p video recording. Topping it off are two key software features in an updated HTC Sense and HTC Watch. Read more »
