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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Show-starters at ShowStoppers

Mark Bridge writes:

“Hot products. Cool companies. Meet the press.”

That was the tagline for ShowStoppers, a showcase event that took place last night before today’s opening of Mobile World Congress. As you probably heard in today’s podcast, I went along and met a few of the participants.

Although the overall impression was of start-up businesses, there were also new product from well-established companies. Alcatel-Lucent was there with the lightRadio antenna it announced last week. This promises to replace conventional antennas and base stations… and it was much smaller than I imagined. To describe is as a ‘box’ would be an exaggeration; it’s the size of your fist!

Another well-known name there was touchscreen text input application Swype. Its director of business development, Brian Lysak, talked to me about the company’s existing technology – currently preloaded by 12 OEMs worldwide and distributed on 20 million devices last year – and its plans for the future.

A couple of conversations that didn’t make it into the podcast were my chats with SnapKeys and Wolfhound. In many ways, SnapKeys is a rival to Swype… and in many ways it’s from a different planet. In a nutshell, you use an invisible keyboard to type on-screen. Yes, invisible. How do you know where the keys are?  You don’t really need to know, because there are just four keys. Yes, four. It’s certainly impressive when demonstrated.

Also impressive – and much easier to comprehend – was the Wolfhound-PRO from Berkeley Varitronics Systems. Imagine a mobile phone detector with design by Star Trek. You’ve got it. Rather like a geiger counter for cellphones, it let you know when you’re heading or pointing in the right direction. Ideal for prisons… or even exam halls. The latest version can also detect DECT 6.0 phones, which are approved for use in the US and Canada but are illegal in the EU.

The overwhelming impression at ShowStoppers was that the mobile industry is innovating in pretty much every area. Much as you’d hope, really.

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Opinion Articles

Review: BeeWi BBS020 solar-powered hands-free Bluetooth car kit

Mark Bridge writes:

Persuading mobile phone users not to hold their phone when they’re driving should be a simple task. It’s dangerous, it’s against the law and the penalties include a fine plus points on your licence.

But even then, there’s often an excuse about convenience and usability. Some people don’t like wearing headsets, some don’t like wires and some simply forget to charge the batteries.

That’s why a new hands-free Bluetooth loudspeaker from French company BeeWi caught my eye.

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The simple case of the disguised iPhone 4

Mark Bridge writes:

I remember the launch of Carweek back in the 1990s. It was a motoring magazine produced as a weekly glossy newspaper; a novel format, although one that probably led to its demise. 'Spy shots' of prototype cars seemed then – as now – to be much sought-after, despite them often not showing much resemblance to the finished product. Indeed, I often wondered how you could possibly road-test the handling of a new car when it was covered with unflattering body parts that served to disguise its shape.

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Maria Sharapova and the 'geek porn' of unboxing

Mark Bridge writes:

'Unboxing' is - or was - the new geek porn. We know this because The Register told us so in 2006, when the practice of video recording the unpacking of new consumer electronics products started to become popular. Just over two years later The Independent tried to tell us that unboxing was still the new geek porn but, by then, conventional porn had probably returned to... er... pole position.

Why do I mention this?  Well, Sony Ericsson has just published its own unboxing video featuring tennis player, model, charity worker and Sony Ericsson brand ambassador Maria Sharapova.

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Scaremongering news stories? There's an app for that

Mark Bridge writes:

Here’s a news headline that caught my eye.

Shotgun certificate up for renewal?  There's an app for that

Or, if you prefer…

Police to allow gun users renew licences with iPhone app

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Mobile payments: solutions get dumber while cards get smarter?

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week I spotted a couple of mobile-related news stories that involved payment company MasterCard. One came from CPI Card Group, which had introduced a “next-generation, MasterCard-approved payment tag” (a.k.a. 'sticker') that enabled “any mobile device to be used to make payments anywhere using the worldwide contactless MasterCard PayPass standard” (by sticking it on the back).

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