MTNL launches Mobile TV

MTNL subscribers in Delhi having unlimited plan with GPRS enabled handsets will now be able to  watch live TV on their mobile handsets.

Initially, MTNL customers will be able to watch seven TV channels till the commercial launch of the service, which is slated for April this year.

Five of the seven TV channels are free channels; users will have to pay a minimum of Rs 50 per month to access these on their mobile handsets. As regards the remaining ‘paid’ TV channels, customers will have to pay the necessary amount per channel.

MTNL Executive Director, A K Arora, said out of the 15 lakh-odd MTNL users in Delhi, nearly 25,000 have GPRS-enabled mobile phones.

For customers to be able to watch live TV on their mobile handsets, the handsets must be GPRS-enabled; supported by Symbian operating system (OS); having a minimum phone memory of 2MB; along with Real Player application

With NOKIA in your hands….no need to ask for instructions while you Drive or Walk!!

NOKIA has launched Nokia Maps 2.0 beta

Drive – is NOKIA’s new and beautiful car navigation feature.

Walk – It lets you find your way in the city when you are on foot

I can see some other killer application of these Maps 2.0 for example location based & relevant marketing.

HTC unveils affordable P3470 smartphone in MWC

HTC has showcased P3470 smartphone at World Mobile congress in Barcelona, Spain.

• It is quad-band smartphone which comes with a trendy 2.8 inch QVGA LCD touch screen.
• The smartphone which will be available in some parts of Europe within a month will cost around Euro 440 -470.
• The company claims that the phone has a long battery life offering around 350 minutes of talk time and 10 days of standby time.
• The Smartphone will be powered by Windows 6 Mobile and offers better navigation with TomTom Navigator 6.
• HTC P3470 comes with a 256 MB Flash memory, 1GB microSD memory card and 2 MP camera. The phone supports Bluetooth 2.0 but doesn’t have Wi-Fi or 3G.
• The stylish and practical PDA phone weighs 122 gm with battery. HTC P3470 is powered by TI’s OMAP 850 201.5 MHz processor. The phone offers an easy navigation with 4-way Navigation wheel with an enter button in the middle. 
• HTC plans to boost the sales of the new P3470 by selling it through Orange Cellular services dealership network.

Rollable LCD screen for mobile handsets

Polymer Vision Ltd (www.polymervision.com) has developed a rollable electronic display. Please visit the above link to peep into the future of mobile & laptop displays. A nice video showcases this innovative technology.

Polymervision was founded in 2003 and has 26 employees.

The display can be rolled out to a greater size than the actual mobile device itself. It has lower power requirements than an LCD with backlight and is easy to use giving a paper-like viewing comfort.

Once the user has finished, the display can simply be rolled back into the device. For example, a 5 inch display can be fully rolled up within the thickness of a standard mobile phone

This innovative technology can give big boost to Mobile TV and other such applications requiring bigger screens.

Aricent Develops High-Definition Video/Audio Encoders and Decoders for Texas Instruments Latest Mobile Technology

Aricent, a full-service, full-spectrum communications software company, announced that it has developed high-definition video and audio encoders and decoders (codecs) for Texas Instruments’ OMAP3430 processor-based mobile phones. Aricent’s high-definition software enables a new class of applications for the mobile consumer. The consumer will be able to use their mobile phone as a HD quality player and download high resolution HD content (720p) on their phone for playback on an HDTV screen or use the mobile phone as a DVD-quality camcorder recording in high resolution (720p). By decoding 720p MPEG-4 Simple Profile video in real-time, Aricent has become one of the first companies to offer DVD-quality record and playback capabilities for a range of mobile devices such as mobile handsets, portable media players and automotive entertainment systems.Aricent’s multimedia codecs were designed specifically for TI’s OMAP3430 processor, the latest in a line of mobile platforms that combine PC- and consumer entertainment system-comparable performance with low power consumption. Aricent’s multimedia software on the OMAP3430 processor is designed for multiple mobile platforms like Linux, Symbian and Windows Mobile.

“The next generation of mobile phones will support multimedia features previously available only with high-end consumer electronics,” said Markus Tremmel, worldwide wireless ecosystem manager Texas Instruments. “Using the processing power of the OMAP3430 processor, for the first time companies like Aricent are delivering better-than DVD-quality record and playback capabilities for mobile handsets.”

Aricent is a member of TI’s OMAP Developer Network, a group of leading software developers porting advanced applications to TI’s high performance, power-efficient OMAP processors. Handset manufacturers adopting OMAP devices enjoy the rapid deployment of compelling wireless applications – including streaming audio and video, multimedia messaging, gaming, security, speech recognition, location based services and mobile commerce – across all leading operating systems. Systems level integration services are also provided worldwide by independent OMAP Technology Centers. The OMAP platform has been selected by leading manufacturers, such as Nokia, Palm, NEC, Fujitsu, LG Electronics, Hewlett-Packard, HTC and many more, for their 2.5 and 3G wireless devices.

Now LG Viewty with DivX support

LG announces that new Viewty models will come with the ability to record videos at 120 frames per second and save in DivX format.This is a first for a mobile phone and will make your videos compatible with a wider range of media players. Current Viewty owners can get this upgraded feature via a software update which, unfortunately, is still undetermined as to its release date.

All the folks waiting to buy this beauty from LG hold on and the ones who already bought wait for the software update.

Nokia showcasing phone made of recycled phone

Nokia has released a short video showing a new concept from their design team exploring how recycled materials could be used to make mobiles in the future.

The idea behind the “remade” concept was to see if it was possible to create a device made from nothing new. It has been designed using recycled materials that avoid the need for natural resources, reduce landfill, and allow for more energy efficient production.

It is made out of metals from upcycled aluminum cans, plastics from drink bottles form the chassis, and its rubber key mats are provided by old car tyres. Inside the phone are new more environmentally friendly technologies such as printed electronics, and the graphics used on the display save energy without compromising on style.

Remade is a concept that explores potential new ideas for the future, and is part of Nokia’s ongoing work looking at how it can help people make more sustainable choices. It is designed to help inspire and stimulate discussion on how mobile devices might be made in the future.

Sooon there would be ‘mobile trash’ collectors !!!

InfoGin connecting Internet world to Mobile world

 

I personally thought of developing such a product myself which could reformat internet pages automatically so that it can be viewed on any mobile easily without compromising the web’s richness or the mobile device functionality. And here I found this company which has been trying to do and has done it already.

Infogin’s IMP (Intelligent Mobile Platform) uses a format that supports all mobile devices.

 Web editing tools, powered by InfoGin Markup Language, lets providers create new mobile web content optimised for any mobile device.

The user can view Web content which is designed for the small screen. The technology also provides easy navigation and the ability to browse quickly.

InfoGin has been reciepient of several prestigious awards such as -

Deloitte Technology Fast 50, 2007 most promising Israeli startup etc.

www.infogin.com

Solutions and services applications.

Founded in 2000 (Israel)

Number of employees: 60

Investors: Argoquest Inc.

Televison Reporter reporting through Mobile

How dramatically can this application simlify lives of ‘television reports’ who has to carry along so many eqquipments, a vehicle with satelite connection etc. 3G Mobile Studio is a software application which lets you, via a 3G handset, to become a ‘television reporter’.

You can send the images that you are recording to a studio and the application lets these images appear in a television programme live!

The 3G Mobile Studio can receive up to 6 streams at a time, saving them to a hard disc so that they can be used at a later stage if required.

It can also publish the content sent by the 3G handsets on the internet

www.createcna.com

Founded in Spain (2003)

No. of Employees (13)

Nvidia jumping on Smartphone handset bandwagon

Nvidia utilized Mobile World Congress opportunity at Barcelona for announcing its intentions to have a pie of mobile handset chip business.

Why Nvidia is attracted towards this market?

The future belongs to smartphones which can offer futuristic convergence technologies, high end computing expereicne supporting rich multimedia & high data speeds. ISuppli forecasts that 250 million phones will be smartphones out of 1.2 billion that would be shipped this year. But the market trackers expect this number to be 450 million, about 30% of the total 1.5 billion to be shipped in 2011. Apple iPhone’s stuepndous success has attracted other traditional handset producers to offer high end smart phones.

Microsoft’s Windows Mobile will get some support from this Nvidia move in a market dominated by Symbian. Nvidia has worked very closely with internet monster Microsoft to ensure that the new chip APX 2500 would run Windows Mobile.

Few feature of this new chip from No1 graphics chip seller -

1. It is the first chip to bring high-definition video to mobile phones. It has capacity to run 10 hours of high-definition video.

2. It has raised the bar for mobile screen resolution from 400p to 720 p

Mike Hara, vice president of investor relations and communications for Nvidia, says “they are looking at Apple or any other company who want to rival iPhone as their customer”