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NEW YORK--Vonage is targeting large and medium-size businesses with its new V-phone, a USB flash drive loaded with VoIP calling software.
Vonage's new product, the first major announcement since the company's disastrous IPO last month, lets users make phone calls from their PCs or laptops using software that is embedded on a 256MB memory drive that plugs into the USB port of their computer. The product also comes with a stereo earpiece/microphone. Bluetooth functionality will be added to the device in later release, said Jeffrey Citron, chairman and co-founder of the company.
Since its inception, Vonage has targeted the consumer market as a low-cost replacement to traditional phone service Small businesses have also become an important market for Vonage, making up more than 10 percent of its subscribers, according to Citron. The V-Phone builds on this success to address a new market, large and medium-size businesses, he said.
"The V-phone is designed to replace existing phone lines for large and medium businesses," Citron said during an interview at the press event here, where the product was launched. "We've spent a lot of time and money marketing our service to a particular subset of the market, and now we've expanded the capabilities to service a new demographic. Just like any other business, we are always looking for new market segments."
While other companies such as Cisco Systems, Alcatel and Avaya have already been selling Internet Protocol-based phone systems to large companies for several years, Citron believes that Vonage can greatly reduce the cost of operating a phone system from $100 per user per month to $35.
But voice over IP experts argue that large companies spread the cost of their private branch exchange (PBX) switching-system infrastructure over hundreds of thousands of users, greatly reducing the per-user cost of the system. What's more, similar so-called softphone products, which allow workers to take their office phones with them on the road, are already available from large IP PBX makers such as Cisco and Avaya.
While companies do like the convenience of softphones, most don't plan to get rid of their desk phones anytime soon. According to a study by Infonetics Research, 75 percent of companies transitioning to a VoIP phone system said they saw softphones as a complement to their IP office phone.
"Softphones are complementary. They don't replace desk phones," Matthias Machowinski, the directing analyst of enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research. "There might be some large companies that will use this product, but I think it's much better suited for the small-business market, where the per-user cost of a PBX is really expensive."
The V-phone will be available on Vonage's Web site beginning Thursday for $40 with an additional charge of $9 to activate each device. And it will be available in more than 11,000 retail locations in September.
In order to use the device, customers will have to sign up for one of Vonage's three voice plans. Residential users can subscribe to the 500-minute plan for $14.99 per month or to an unlimited U.S. calling plan for $24.99 per month. Business customers can subscribe to an unlimited U.S calling plan for $34.99.
Cell phone talking worse than driving drunk - study
Researchers at the University of Utah have published a study that claims drivers on cell phones are prone to more crashes than drunk drivers. Two psychology professors, David Strayer and Frank Drews, along with toxicology professor Dennis Crouch, conducted the study. 40 test subjects drove a simulated highway while undistracted, drunk and talking on a cellphone. The cell phone using drivers crashed three times, while the drunk drivers surprisingly did OK.
Researchers found that the drunk drivers were more aggressive and followed closer than the cell phone using drivers. They also discovered that cell phone users had significantly slower brake times at 849 ms versus 777 ms of the baseline group. Researchers suggest that cell phones make drivers more sluggish in perception and reaction.
Amazingly the drunk group's times did not significantly different from the baseline group. In addition, there were no crashes with the drunk group even though they had a tendancy to follow up to 2.5 meters (about 8 ft) closer than the cell phone group. The drunk group also had to brake much harder to avoid accidents.
The researchers simulated a 24-mile two-way highway on a "PatrolSim" driving simulator, commonly used by police officers for high-speed pursuit training. In 15-minute driving sessions, the test subjects had to follow and avoid hitting a pace car that would randomly brake. Passing vehicles were thrown is as distractions.
The volunteers had to do the same course four separate times. The first was a baseline test with no cellphone usage or alcohol consumption. Then handheld and hands-free cell phone usage were tested with the subjects maintaining a casual conversation with a research assistant. The final test was done after drinking a mixture of vodka and orange to get the subjects to a .08% blood alcohol level - the legal definition of driving while intoxicated in many states. Unfortunately, researchers didn't test drunk driving with cell phone usage.
There are two issues that can be raised about the study. The first is that crashing in a simulator does not have the same visceral and tragic consequences as crashing in real life. To be sure, there are some huge safety and legal problems with doing a live highway test, but perhaps the volunteers would have done better in a real environment.
Also, while .08% blood alcohol level is considered drunk, that level is usually on the low end for drunk drivers that have crashed. It's not uncommon to find drivers with double that level after an accident.
Plus: Who's Out What makes a company wired? We start by looking for the basics: strategic vision, global reach, killer technology. But that’s not enough. To land a spot on our annual Wired 40 list, a business also needs the X-factor – a hunger for new ideas and an impatience to put them into practice. Such companies inevitably become trendsetters, literally: As we debated and redebated the list this year, six major themes flickered into view. From the rise of peer production to the end of carbon pollution, they tell us where the world is heading. These are the companies leading the way.
01. GOOGLE 2005 Rank: 02 Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.
02. APPLE 2005 Rank: 01 In the drama of Apple’s resurgence, act one was forging the iTunes/iPod axis. Act two was bundling the iLife suite of creative tools with new computers. Adapting the Mac OS to run Windows apps natively would make a triumphant conclusion.
03. SAMSUNG 2005 Rank: 03 Smart design and rapid product development made Samsung tops in consumer electronics. What will the company do with its newly doubled research staff of 32,000 and a $40 billion budget? Next iPod, please!
04. GENENTECH 2005 Rank: 07 Will biotech kill the blockbuster? Rather than aiming drugs at broad populations with scattershot results, Genentech is developing treatments for specific patient groups. Its success has Big Pharma reaching for the smelling salts.
05. YAHOO 2005 Rank: 05 Who says portal is a dirty word? The McDonald’s of cyberspace serves up a staggering 3.5 billion Web pages a day. Its relentlessly expanding feature stack gives even Google a touch of envy. So how about some respect?
06. AMAZON.COM 2005 Rank: 04 Jeff Bezos has been pumping R&D money into projects like the A9 search engine and the Amazon Fishbowl webcast. But he’ll need a home run to offset shrinking margins. Music and video downloads may do the trick.
07. TOYOTA 2005 Rank: 08 Ford and Nissan are licensing Toyota’s hybrid technology – it doesn’t get any better than that. And if the green road becomes clogged with competition from nonlicensees like GM and its GMC Sierra Hybrid pickup, the Japanese innovator can fall back on being the best carmaker in the world.
08. GENERAL ELECTRIC 2005 Rank: 17 Is there a big clean business GE hasn’t jumped on? Windmills, hybrid railroad engines, water systems, coal gasification – with six divisions, from GE Healthcare to NBC Universal, the megaconglomerate could start a new green revolution.
09. NEWS CORP. New Rupert Murdoch’s legendary opportunism was made for the mayhem of today’s media landscape. He built the only truly global constellation of news, sports, and entertainment properties. Newly acquired MySpace gives it a digital heart.
10. SAP 2005 Rank: 11 CEOs like their business apps to be just like their cars: big, fast, and German. While archrival Oracle expands its product line at M&A sword point, SAP rolls its own code, crafting slick modules for everything from analytics to HR. Can it meet the audacious goal of doubling its market cap by 2011? Innovation, ho!
11. INFOSYS TECH 2005 Rank: 09 Infosys made Bangalore the software outsourcing capital of the world. But globalization is a two-way street, and now companies like IBM are descending on India, scooping up talent and cutting margins. CEO Nandan Nilekani’s response: Upgrade to full-service IT consulting.
12. CISCO 2005 Rank: 13 Cisco’s challenge is to keep dreaming up new uses for a commodity product: the IP router. CEO John Chambers’ latest focus is collaboration – knitting business apps together with megabandwidth audio and videoconferencing. Guess who sells the yarn.
13. ELECTRONIC ARTS 2005 Rank: 06 The game publisher has the muscle to survive while Sony and Nintendo delay their next-gen consoles. But the big money is in cyberspace. EA needs an online stronghold to avoid being caught in the platform crossfire.
14. NETFLIX 2005 Rank: 15 The top online DVD rental house got that way using the US Postal Service, not a bandwidth-challenged Net. But thanks to BitTorrent, iTunes, and Hollywood’s growing cooperation, movie downloads are finally becoming viable. CEO Reed Hastings promises a digital strategy by year-end.
15. SALESFORCE.COM 2005 Rankr: 20 CEO Marc Benioff is the high priest of software-as-service. Salesforce.com lets small businesses manage customers online, starting at $65 a month. Next: a Web-based business platform that offers 2,000 on-demand apps, from purchasing to recruiting.
16. MEDTRONIC 2005 Rank: 18 Wild-eyed extropians heralding the posthuman future have nothing on Medtronic. The company’s newest implantable defibrillator will track your heart’s rate, internal pressure, and temperature – and posts the stats on the Net for your doctor to see.
17. SUNPOWER CORP. New If solar energy’s first problem is price, its second is the number of panels it takes to chill a six-pack. That’s where SunPower shines: Its photovoltaic silicon puts out 50 percent more juice per square inch.
18. IBM 2005 Rank: 14 Why peddle technology when you can sell business transformation? Big Blue still designs white-hot chips and spearheads Linux development. But CEO Sam Palmisano is betting that IBM’s future lies in high-end IT consulting and outsourcing services.
19. EBAY 2005 Rank: 10 With $1.2 billion in profits last year, CEO Meg Whitman can afford costly fliers like buying Skype’s global phone system. But the challenge is closer to home: Social networks like MySpace could add buy/sell as just another feature.
20. INFOSPACE New Legal and technical complexities discourage wireless carriers from offering mobile games, news, sports, maps, etc. Enter InfoSpace, a dot-bust survivor that packages content for cell phones. Traffic is going one way: up.
The Wired 40: The Wired 40 Plus: Who's Out
21. NVIDIA 2005 Rank: 24 Few companies can say they build a reality synthesizer. Nvidia’s GeForce graphics processor paints photorealistic environments for Sony’s PlayStation 3. Open sourcers rage against the proprietary drivers, but Nvidia’s chipsets remain gaming’s gold standard.
22. VERIZON New What Americans call broadband would barely pass for dialup in South Korea. Delivering as much as 30 Mbps, Verizon’s pioneering fiber-to-the-curb service has the cable guys panicked. Bandwidth showdown! Everyone wins.
23. FLEXTRONICS 2005 Rank: 22 Singapore-based Flex-tronics pioneered outsourced electronics manufacturing for blue-chip customers like Motorola and Nortel. Now the sprawling company wants to own another link in the value chain: product design.
24. INTEL 2005 Rank: 19 Four out of five PCs ship with Intel inside, and now the company’s CPUs are even in Macs. But cheaper, cooler chips from AMD have the mothership of hardware spooked. CEO Paul Otellini’s damage control: overclock R&D and leapfrog a generation of processors.
25. MONSANTO 2005 Rank: 27 Frankenfood lives. Thanks mainly to Monsanto’s perseverance, the world’s farmers now plant more than a billion acres a year of genetically modified crops. Next up: drought-resistant corn, vitamin-supercharged nutraceuticals, and the no-mow lawn.
26. EMC 2005 Rank: 23 Hefty data storage rigs are a dime a dozen these days. EMC is preserving its lead by migrating from hardware to software that manages infor-mation “from creation to disposal.” Of course, the company still sells a $4 million disk array that holds 1 petabyte – a million gigs.
27. DUPONT New Never mind Kevlar and Tyvek. DuPont is blazing the trail for industrial biotech, replacing petroleum with plant extracts. Manufacturers get ecofriendly plastics and chemicals, and the 200-year-old company unhitches itself from the price-per-barrel roller coaster.
28. JETBLUE 2005 Rank: 25 Low cost and high service are still the game to beat at 36,000 feet. Unfortunately, other carriers are finally figuring that out. With fuel prices headed for the stratosphere, there’s turbulence ahead for JetBlue.
29. LENOVO New The Chinese PC giant’s acquisition of IBM’s ThinkPad division opens a new chapter in globalization: a Chinese company headquartered in North Carolina! But can it compete in a market where price isn’t the last word?
30. TSMC 2005 Rank: 34 In semiconductors, smaller is better – or more precisely, faster. Contract chip foundry TSMC has busted the 65-nanometer barrier, formerly the province of heavyweights like Intel. That lets customers like Qualcomm push the digital frontier.
31. BP 2005 Rank: 40 Squaring off against environmentalists to build a liquefied natural gas terminal in New Jersey is one way to move “beyond petroleum,” but BP is also getting serious about hydrogen, solar, and wind. The company’s alt-energy goal – $6 billion annually by 2015 – is just 2 percent of this year’s revenue, but it’s a start.
32. LI & FUNG 2005 Rank: 33 The Hong Kong-based clothing firm owns no factories, stores, or brands, yet it has nearly $7 billion in annual revenue. How? By managing the entire industrial process, from design to distribution, for names like Levi’s. Its real product is global supply chains, made to order.
33. EXELON 2005 Rank: 39 Nukes may be the best hope for a warming planet. Exelon buys reactors from sleepy utility companies and turbocharges productivity. If the political stars align, the company might also build the first new US nuclear plant since the Carter administration.
34. COSTCO 2005 Rank: 30 So the Picassos were fakes – maybe a discount store isn’t the best place to buy art masterpieces. But Costco’s advantage is very real: Its marriage of eclectic merchandise and big-box economy produces industry-leading, double-digit sales growth.
35. GEN-PROBE 2005 Rank: 35 Infectious diseases would be even scarier without Gen-Probe’s DNA-based tests. They keep the inter-national blood supply clear of HIV and diagnose maladies like tuberculosis and West Nile virus. The next target is prostate cancer.
36. MICROSOFT 2005 Rank: 28 The desktop OS gold mine won’t last forever. What’s next? Redmond’s latest to-do list includes software-as-service, security, even VoIP. Or it could simply buy a piece of Yahoo. (Take that, Google!)
37. L-3 COMMUNICATIONS 2005 Rank: 37 War toys have lost some of their post-9/11 luster, but L-3’s ultrasecure communications gear, aerial drones, and spook tools retain an unfortunately bright future. Should peace break out, there’s always disaster recovery.
38. CITIGROUP 2005 Rank: 36 With $1.5 trillion in assets, Citigroup is practically a proxy for the global economy: unbelievably large, staggeringly efficient, and somewhat corrupt. No reason to mess with the first two, but the last could use a little work.
39. COMCAST 2005 Rank: 31 Hundreds of TV channels plus broadband plus VoIP are turning the tide in the cable monster’s war against satellite insurgents. Next battle: trench warfare with fiber-wielding telcos like Verizon.
40. PFIZER 2005 Rank: 32 Big Pharma may be looking wan on Wall Street, but it still has the clout to steer drugs past the FDA and into medicine cabinets. Pfizer does it best – the ideal partner for biotech boutiques out to reach the mass market.
Six companies that slid off the Wired 40.
DELL An ongoing slump in PC sales and consequent cost reductions have left this retailer with nothing left to cut.
FEDEX In less than a decade, overnight delivery has gone from specialty service to standard offering.
NOKIA What’s an innovator to do? Carriers, not handset makers, now dictate the cell phone feature set.
PIXAR Digital animation’s guiding light is now a division of Disney. Here’s hoping CEO Bob Iger doesn’t wreck it.
TD AMERITRADE The online broker still rules etrading, but what once was a disruptive technology is now a commodity service.
VODAFONE So much for 3G. The wireless champ fumbled next-gen services. Now it’s selling assets just to stay afloat.
Astro Max - Pause, rewind and record up to 60 hours of LIVE TV
Kuala Lumpur ~ Astro, the Direct-To-Home satellite television service provider, gave members of the media a special preview today of the first personal video recorder (PVR) in Malaysia – the Astro MAX - which promises to change the way Malaysians watch TV.
Malaysians can now record up to 60 hours of their favourite programmes without the need of any external devices. They can also pause and rewind “live” television so that they will never miss a moment of their favourite programmes or sports broadcasts. With the new Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), the Astro MAX allows for easy recordings of Astro programmes.
“With the Astro MAX, subscribers can now watch whatever they want, whenever they want. We are giving the chance to all Malaysians to finally be able to take control of their TV viewing,” said Rohana Rozhan, Chief Executive Officer of Astro TV. The Astro MAX offers the benefits of DVD recording and viewing – minus the needs for tapes and DVD-Rs.
“Astro MAX is a one-stop solution centre. Everything you need is found on the Astro MAX without the need of any other external devices. It is the latest evolution of Astro services,” she added.
ED: Yes, they gave us one to play around with - look out for more live photos and an exclusive review later today!
Build quality: 9/10 Applications: 8/10 Interface: 9/10 Value-for-money: 8/10 Overall rating: 8/10 + Cheapest in L’Amour series + Alarm rings even when phone is off + High quality finish of the exterior - Regular 300KB CMOS camera - Only 4MB of memory - No Memory expansion
This one is the standard candybar model in the L’Amour collection, Nokia’s second set of fashion-themed phones. It is also the cheapest among the three, probably because it only sports a 65K colour screen and a 0.3 megapixel CMOS camera.
This one, surprisingly, is still on the 2nd generation of the Series-40 OS, and the memory count is really bad at only 4MB, which is what the Nokia 7650 had a couple of years ago.
In the box # Handset Transceiver # Battery (standard battery) # Charger # Headset # Carry Case # User manual
Exterior The Nokia 7360 is a candybar phone, and the battery cover is of the pick-and-pull type which I really have a dislike for. Anyway, as with all the other phones in this L’Amour series, the exterior is really something to shout about.
The unit we got for review is the one in the colour tone called Warm Amber. The screen is flanked by gold and silver metallic plates that also wrap around the earpiece and the keypad. The centre piece is brown and camouflages an infrared window on the right side of the screen. A plate with the Nokia logo is found on the left side of the phone.
The battery cover has a piece of leather-like covering over a part of it, which appears to be removable, but with great difficulty. The camera lens is set into a gold-coloured plate and the volume toggle button is chromed silver in colour.
There was a small tab of orange cloth on the right side of the phone just like in the 7370, while the intricately woven macramé strap shows that Nokia did put a lot of effort into making this phone look good.
Buttons/Screen The keys are white with black text, and the keypad is backlit in orange. The central button on the navigation pad is translucent amber, and the surrounding navigator is chrome and set between the four softkeys.
Again, the keys are a little small, but the tactile response was rather good. The issue with the ‘8’ button on the 7370, which misses some keystrokes when typing in messages, does not exist here. The screen is a 65K screen, and the 128 x 160 resolution is not as good as the higher resolution on the 7370. On the whole, the device looks pretty god and reflects light like a mirror when you flash it around.
Software/Messaging Unlike the 7370 which runs on the third edition, the 7360 runs on the 2nd Edition of the Series-40 interface. That might explain why the price for this phone is substantially lower than that of its sister model.
The messaging is fast enough, just like most Nokia devices, and I think that this is a really important part of why Nokia is doing quite well in both the local and global markets. Yes, it may seem incongruous but you might be surprised if you ask around and listen to what real consumers actually have to say.
PIM The contacts section is very straight forward. You can add the usual picture for caller ID, make some notes about the person’s birthday and even assign a special tone to each entry in your address book. The phone contains only 4 MBs of storage space, which is even less than the 10MB which is found in the 7370.
The alarm clock can now be set to repeat itself, and both the 7370 and 7360 phones will play the alarm reminder even when the phone is switched off. You can even choose the sound the phone makes when your alarm goes off. The Calendar, To-do List and Notes applications are also found in the Organiser submenu.
Camera/Video The camera here is a regular 300KB CMOS type, and the resulting photos are saved in the JPEG format at resolutions of 640 x 480 or 80 x 96 pixels.
There is no camera hotkey for this phone, so you will have to go the Media submenu and select camera there. Needless to say, the video function is activated thorough the same application as the camera is. The Radio and Voice Recorder applications are also found here.
Multimedia/Voice The 7360 has a radio function, and as usual, the headset must be plugged in to act as the antenna for FM reception. As mentioned earlier, the 7360 supports voice recording too.
This device supports MP3 and AAC audio tracks, and there is a little more space for songs this time around, but a card slot would have been just perfect here.
Connectivity The Nokia 7360 has infrared in addition to built-in Bluetooth connectivity. A Pop-Port connector is located at the bottom of the phone. There is no USB to Pop-Port data cable inside the box and you will have to buy it separately if you need to use it. The usual applications are there – WAP 2.0, Java MIDP 2.0 and an xHTML browser.
Games There are two games in the phone. The first one is called Nature Park and is a game similar to the jewel version of Tetris where various blocks fall from the top of the screen and must be arranged to fall into patterns at the bottom of the screen for points.
The second game is called Space Mahjong and is probably the first time a full four-sided mahjong game is found in a phone. If only they made the three-sided Mahjong variant as well.
The game handles quite well and is a nice and surprising inclusion into the phone. The tiles are a little small, but once you get the hang of not tossing away unintended tiles, then it is pretty simple to win at this game. This could well be a must for also those compulsive gamblers out there.
Editor's Opinion
The 7360 is the most affordable one of the three phones on offer in Nokia’s L’Amour fashion collection. I would say that RM 1,299 is a rather fair price for this device. The device is quite sufficient for basic telephony needs.
Of course, the low price is because you do not get a megapixel camera, and the screen is only a 65K TFT one, which is considered as medium-end right now. If you can live without the latest imaging capabilities (which also cost a bomb), then this would be a good buy.
I just wish they had included the data cable and a memory expansion slot. The most disappointing thing would be the miniscule 4 MBs of memory. However, we are still giving it a rating of eight, because Nokia really has perfected the art of making a standard candybar phone.
UK - As England beat Ecuador in the heat of Stuttgart on Sunday with what was widely accepted to be their best (although still far from perfect) performance of the tournament, evidence is growing that mobile operators are also raising their game.
Two operators - T Mobile and Vodafone - delivered their SMS alerts of Beckham's winning goal within a minute of his free kick strike, the fastest performance by far of the whole tournament.
T Mobile, a sponsor of the tournament, has consistently led the pack in terms of SMS delivery speed. But when the SMS services of all five UK operators were measured following England's opening World Cup game against Paraguay two weeks ago, T Mobile's SMS notification of England's goal (a Paraguay own goal) took more than three minutes to arrive, some two minutes slower than Sunday's effort. And Vodafone - the slowest operator during both of England's first two games by a considerable margin - improved significantly on Sunday and is, together with T Mobile, providing the fastest service.
Rather like the England team itself, however, one of the five operators continues to labour, delivering its goal notification more than 10 minutes after Beckham had scored (ironically around the time he was seen being violently sick on the field).
The tests are the fourth in a series being conducted by Argogroup, the mobile data services testing company, during every England game at the World Cup. The tests took place between 4.00pm and 6.00pm on Sunday 25 June, using a variety of phones from different manufacturers.
Consumers want more
Despite the improved performance, the public seems to want more, and not just from the England team. Argogroup also conducted a poll last Friday among 50 randomly selected mobile phone users and asked what an acceptable time for delivery of an SMS was for something like a World Cup goal. More than 60 per cent said that 30 seconds would be acceptable.
The group was also asked about MMS. 60 per cent did not know what an MMS was. Of the remaining 40 per cent, three quarters understood what an MMS was but had never tried an MMS service. The remaining 25 per cent had tried to use an MMS service from an operator but had not been satisfied with it. T Mobile is the only one of the five UK operators to offer an MMS of goals scored. Sunday, this took almost 12 minutes to arrive.
Video performance
Two operators - 3UK and T Mobile offer a video clips service. One again, 3, was fastest, delivering its shorter clip within six minutes. T Mobile's effort required closer to 13 minutes.
"What our tests have shown is that operators are beginning to get to grips with providing services like these to a mass audience," said David Frodsham, Argogroup's CEO. "But they are still having teething troubles that significantly affect the user experience and their revenues."
Nokia Launches China's first NFC Mobile Payment Trial in Xiamen
Xiamen, China - Today, Nokia and its collaborators, China Fujian Mobile Communications Co., Ltd., Xiamen Branch, Xiamen E-Tong Card Company Ltd., and Philips, announced the first NFC Mobile Payment Field Trial in China at Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China.
During the trial, one hundred of volunteer consumers of China Mobile in Xiamen will experience first hand the conviniences of mobile payment enabled by NFC technology. The consumers will use the NFC enabled Nokia 3220 mobile phones to make mobile payment through any point-of-sales covered by Xiamen E-Tong Card, including locations such as on the public transportation buses, ferry boats or at restaurants, movie theaters in Xiamen City.
E-Tong Card is a contactless transportation card, conforms to ISO 14443 Type A, compatible with Mifare. It has a volume of issuance of 800,000 in Xiamen City.
In addition to the standard E-Tong Card function, consumers can check their card balance and the last nine transaction records on their mobile phone display. They can also use their Nokia mobile phone to access a built-in, WAP-based website, to find out stores and venues that accept E-Tong Card and the interesting product or service information.
Mobile payment is one of the most welcomed emerging mobile applications. Market research in Shanghai, China by AC- Nielson in 2006 showed that over 80% of consumers are interested in the functional integration of city transportation cards and bank payment cards into mobile phone.
Nokia has launched the world first NFC enabled mobile phone, Nokia 3220, in April 2005. And the commercial trials using Nokia 3220 for mobile payment have been completed successfully in the U. S. A., Germany, and Malaysia.
Mr. Joseph Zheng, Director of NFC Consumer Solutions in China at Nokia Ventures Organization Asia, said: "Nokia is dedicated to innovations from technologies to applications and business models. The successful kick-off of the first NFC Mobile Payment Field Trial is very encouraging to all of us participating in the mobile payment value chain. It also demonstrates our confidence in the NFC technology and the new business model it enables. With the progress of NFC Mobile Payment Field Trial, there would be more types of mobile payment available, which will bring totally new user experiences for the mobile phone users in China, and create values for the whole mobile application ecosystem."
Mr. Xu, volunteer consumer of China Mobile in Xiamen said: "With the integration of E-Tong Card to my mobile phone, I feel so convenient to make payment. It is cool! I hope it will be put into commercial use soon"
NFC is a contactless technology based on open interface and standard platform. Nokia is actively participated in the development of NFC Standards, and co-founded the NFC Forum with Philips and SONY.
With the development of NFC technology, mobile phone becomes a safe, convenient, speedy and fashionable payment instrument. NFC technology is compatible with current contactless smart card infrastructure, so there is no need for significant upfront investment on NFC technology.
NFC device can work under both active and passive mode. For active mode, NFC device can work as a reader and generate its own radio frequency field to identify and read smart card and tag. For passive mode, NFC device can emulate as a card or tag to be read. In this trial, NFC phones work under this passive mode. In addition, two NFC devices can set up communication very conveniently as long as they are close to each other (within 10cm).
Espoo, Finland - Nokia today announced that the Nokia N70 multimedia computer has been awarded 'Best Mobile Entertainment Handset' at the annual Mobile Entertainment Awards, the Meffys. The device beat off stiff competition to take the top spot at this industry awards ceremony held in London.
The Nokia N70 perfectly illustrates Nokia's commitment to offering powerful, all-inclusive handsets that aid people in their daily lives. In addition to a range of smartphone features including web browsing and email, it is also a pocketable entertainment device. Users can take high quality photos with its 2 megapixel camera, listen to music on the integrated digital music player and stream video over 3G.
The Meffys, organised by the Mobile Entertainment Forum, are the industry's official benchmark for measuring success and rewarding innovating in mobile entertainment. The top entries in each category were chosen by a panel of independent industry, media and analyst experts and the winners were announced by top DJ Pete Tong at a ceremony coinciding with the Mobile Entertainment Market (MEM) 2006 in London in May.
Patrick Parodi, MEF Global Chair, commented: "The 2006 Meffys have been a fiercely contested event with a wealth of high quality entries. The winners reflect the hot trends which will be shaping and driving the mobile entertainment industry forward in the coming year."
"This award is a fantastic endorsement for the underlining strategy behind the Nokia Nseries in terms of offering one single device for consumers to enjoy entertainment whenever and wherever they want," commented Tapio Hedman, senior vice president, marketing, Multimedia, Nokia. "The Nokia N70 is the top seller within the Nokia Nseries range of multimedia computers and we are delighted that the industry has recognised the full range of entertainment features it offers consumers."
For further information on the Mobile Entertainment Awards 2006, please visit www.m-e-f.org
Logitech introduced yet another member of its growing mouse army today, the V450 Laser Cordless Mouse, intended primarily for laptop users -- or people with really small hands, we suppose. Available in silver or black, the V450 looks to be a fairly run-of-the-mill laptop mouse, although it does promise an impressive one year of battery life on two AA batteries (we'll need to see that to believe it -- see you in 2007!). Logitech also says the mouse should be immune to delays and dropouts in even the busiest wireless environment thanks to its 2.4GHz micro receiver (see above skepticism, as certainly no one else uses the 2.4GHz band). Look for this one early next month for $49.99 and, yes, it's both Mac and Windows compatible.
Logitech introduced yet another member of its growing mouse army today, the V450 Laser Cordless Mouse, intended primarily for laptop users -- or people with really small hands, we suppose. Available in silver or black, the V450 looks to be a fairly run-of-the-mill laptop mouse, although it does promise an impressive one year of battery life on two AA batteries (we'll need to see that to believe it -- see you in 2007!). Logitech also says the mouse should be immune to delays and dropouts in even the busiest wireless environment thanks to its 2.4GHz micro receiver (see above skepticism, as certainly no one else uses the 2.4GHz band). Look for this one early next month for $49.99 and, yes, it's both Mac and Windows compatible.
What's the average of 1100 and 1300? Yep, it's 1200. Philips figured as much, so after the introduction of their rather generic SA1100 and SA1300 DAPs they've now come up with the SA1200. Which, again, isn't too groundbreaking or breathtaking.
The SA1200 runs on an AAA battery, but only for 8 hours continuously (according to Philips, that's "an entire day"). It comes with a small, 32 x 128 pixels LCD and a built-in microphone (records into ADPCM WAV), plays MP3/WMA/WAV files, weighs 30 grams (dimensions currently unknown) and will be available in two flavors: 512MB and 1GB.
Specs say that it also acts as an UMS device. Not sure if that bottom part houses a USB pendrive, which would come in handy. The overall design job looks okay, but we're used to that from Philips.
This thing would have to be aimed at the low-end segment of the market again, we figure. Should be cheap enough in the long run. Still, we'd rather see the SA9x00 pop up anytime soon. We'll just glue two together and pretend it's 4GB, then.
Amy is a Keyport, New Jersey resident who commutes all the way to Manhattan. Her daily 3 hour ride frustrates and bores her. She thinks technology can help with both those problems, so I dispatch Jon Chase to Hook Her Up.
Jon is a tech journalist and a perfectionist when it comes to choosing the right gear to maximize both productivity and sloth. He'll outfit Amy with the right tools and toys to make her commute bearable.
Jon arrives on scene and sends the following report, "Amy would love to better occupy her commute time, but lacks the gear to do it. Currently she's trying to transition from her full-time job into working with her husband on their pet-photography business/web-site. She finds herself handwriting email responses to customer queries, which she then retypes later when at home. Obviously, that's absurd. She also wishes she could entertain herself with music or video or games."
Jon gets to work outfitting Amy with the right gear. First productivity: Amy needs to type up emails on the ride to Manhattan. The pet-photography biz is dog eat dog, but Amy doesn't need the extra monthly bills that an always-on, Internet-connected mobile device would mandate. Getting back to her clients each night would do the trick. For that reason, Jon chose a Palm LifeDrive PDA. This device syncs with Amy's computer at home so that she can type emails on her PDA, but they are actually sent through her computer when she syncs the two.
Jon also needs to update Amy's computer, here are his notes "Because space was an issue, and her computing needs meager, we went with a Mac Mini, with maxed out RAM, and plugged it into the CRT she already owned. This would be her computer, and hers alone. To make her mobile, we went with the highly underrated Palm LifeDrive, a sort of PDA/media player combo. It has a 3-4 inch LCD screen, a 4 Gig hard drive built in, Palm Desktop software, SD card slot (removable media), Bluetooth (a wireless connection to the computer and peripheral devices), Wi-Fi (wireless Internet), and it can read and work in Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader files."
To really maximize the LifeDrive, Jon bought Amy a Bluetooth wireless keyboard that folds out to nearly full size. Instead of using Graffiti or the stylus-based hunt and peck keyboard, Amy could actually type out her emails. In order to easily sync her mobile device with her home computer, Jon purchased and installed The Missing Sync software for Palm OS.
On to the fun stuff, Jon wanted Amy to be able to listen to music, but not lug around a separate audio device. The neat thing about many current PDAs, they can store and play audio/video files, so Jon loaded Amy's Palm LifeDrive with songs and purchased a pair of Bluetooth wireless headphones that worked with the device.
In my next post, more info on Bluetooth and how it can make your life clutter-free.
The Full List of Products Used in the Segment Pulsar Bluetooth Stereo Headphones Universal Wireless Keyboard Mac Mini LifeDrive PDA The Missing Sync for Palm OS v 5.1 Softick Audio Gateway
Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America's Presentation Products Division, known for its award-winning, high-quality presentation and display products, has added a third projector to its new family of business and education projectors. Mitsubishi's new Mitsubishi XD435U-G lets users make rapid exits after a presentation, using a quick power-down feature to accommodate tight classroom or conference room schedules. The Mitsubishi XD435U-G projector accelerates setup and closedown times even more by providing a USB flash memory reader slot for instant presentations. The Mitsubishi XD435U-G projector is the first Mitsubishi projector to offer a USB flash memory reader to facilitate collaboration.
Mitsubishi XD435U - USB flash memory Users simply connect a USB thumb drive and display saved .jpeg or .mpeg files such as photos or short video clips without the need of a computer. "Presenters now have more flexibility and can quickly display their presentations with the use of the USB flash memory slot," said Frank Anzures, product manager for Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America's Presentation Products Division. "The rapid cool-down also helps presenters get back on the road quickly."
Mitsubishi XD435U Projector - Performance Along with its XD430U and SD430U, Mitsubishi's new XD435U-G boasts 2500 ANSI lumens, high brightness that is perfect for most lighting situations, including windowed boardrooms and brightly lit classrooms. For ceiling, tabletop or cart-mounted installations, this line of projectors comes with a security hook for easy tethering and mounting to thwart potential thefts in higher-risk environments. The XD435U-G, available at a suggested retail price of $2,495, is aggressively priced to deliver great performance and value. The XD430U and SD430U projectors are available at suggested retail prices of $1,795 and $1,495 respectively. The new projectors also offer two PC inputs with a monitor loop-through for display flexibility, and are RS232c controllable for easy integration in environments using third-party control systems.
Mitsubishi XD435U - Digital Light Processing technology Each projector uses Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing technology for exceptional image quality. Their advanced filter-free construction makes them resistant to dust, dirt and other particles for maintenance-free operation and image clarity. "Our customers have been asking for projectors to be easier to use, quicker to set up and shut down," said James Chan, director, product marketing, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America's Presentation Products Division. "Our new line meets and exceeds their expectations."
Mitsubishi XD435U Projector - Waranty The XD430U and SD430U are currently available; the XD435U-G will be available in August. All three projectors come with Mitsubishi's three-year limited warranty on parts and labor plus a 90-day limited warranty on the lamp. Like all Mitsubishi XGA projectors, the XD435U-G and XD430U are covered by the Express Replacement Assistance (ERA) Program, a nationwide comprehensive service that offers next-business-day replacement for down units under warranty.
About Mitsubishi About Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America Presentation Products Division Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America's Presentation Products Division markets an extensive line of professional presentation and front-projection home entertainment display systems and is known for its award-winning, high-quality, accurate color reproduction technology. Products are sold through authorized distributors, resellers, retailers, dealers and system integrators throughout the United States. Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America is located at 9351 Jeronimo Road, Irvine, CA 92618.
Since they don't release these products in the US, you might not know that Acer's got quite the little digital camera business going on overseas, and now they've announced three more new models to join the 8.28 megapixel CP 8660 we spotted earlier. If you were hoping for some of the retro styling or compelling features we saw on the CP-8660, though, you'll probably be disappointed, as there's not much noteworthy about the 5.05 megapixel CE 5430 and 6.36 megapixel CE 6430 point-and-shoots or the 5.05 megapixel CL 5300 (pictured), other than the fact that this latter model seems to be Acer's first foray into ultracompacts. Both new members of the CE line feature those standard 3x optical zooms that have become so tiresome along with 2.36-inch TFT LCDs (no viewfinder here), while the 5300 sports a 2.0-inch LCD and seemingly no optical zoom. Rounding out the ho-hum specs for all three devices are a USB 1.1 connection, SD slot, PictBridge support, and that old standby, QVGA video capture (thankfully it's at least 30fps), although so far pricing remains a mystery. Keep reading to check out the two new CE models, although we should warn you that they look like a thousand other cameras you've seen before.
The Toshiba Satellite M105-S3011 ($1049 list) has a lot of horsepower. It's got more than enough to get you started on your first video-editing project and casually play with your latest batch of home photos. This capable laptop comes with an Intel Core Duo processor and a 100GB hard drive—not bad for a system just over $1,000. Better yet, though the S3011 is more expensive bought directly from Toshiba, odds are good you'll be able to find it for a lot less in retail stores.
Tipping the scales at 5.2 pounds, the M105-S3011 is one of the lightest budget Core Duo notebooks on the market. It weighs 1.5 pounds less than the current Editors' Choice, the Dell Inspiron E1505, thanks to its smaller display. Its 14.1-inch TruBrite widescreen is bright and crisp and provides plenty of room for watching a full-length DVD movie. It gives great color depth to photos.
The notebook's speakers support SRS TruSurround sound technology, which makes music and movies sound especially good for a laptop. The M105-S3011 has several media buttons for DVD playback, including buttons for play/pause, stop, rewind, and fast forward. There are also two more buttons to access a preboot application, which plays your movies and music without needing to load Microsoft Windows.
The M105-S3011 even has a FireWire port, so you can transfer digital video and images to and from your camcorder. At 100GB, the hard drive is nice and roomy, even adequate for storing any big video files you may create. In addition, you get four USB ports (yeah!), an S-Video port, and a 4-in-1 card reader (xD, SD, MS, MS Pro). There's a dual-layer DVD drive to archive important files onto a DVD (you don't want to lose those graduation pics in a hard-drive crash, do you?). If you use dual-layer media, you can fit up to 8.5GB of material on one disc.
Sub $1000 Notebooks with Surprising Power The M105-S3011 carries the same 1.67-GHz Intel Core Duo T2300 processor as the Dell E1505 and the Acer 4202WLMi. Even in this budget price range, this dual-core CPU is what you should want. The system also comes with 512MB of RAM, and though that may be okay today, I strongly suggest getting 1GB. The integrated graphics will need some of that to run, and when you upgrade to Windows Vista, perhaps next year, you'll be happy you have the extra memory.
Though the Satellite doesn't have the longest battery life of the value laptops (Acer wins that award), it ran for 3 hours 38 minutes, which isn't too shabby either. On my multimedia tests, its Adobe Photoshop scores were about 40 seconds slower because of its smaller memory, but its Microsoft Windows Media encoder tests were on a par with the other two comparable systems.
All in all, I would have liked to have seen the Toshiba Satellite M105-S3011 ship with more RAM. Even with this deficiency, however, it's a great inexpensive notebook, with a lot of horsepower and not a lot of carrying weight. You can feel comfortable parting with your hard-earned cash for it.
See how the Toshiba Satellite M105-S3011 measures up to similar systems in our side-by-side laptop comparison chart.
Another day, another random way to keep the juice flowing to your stash of electronics. This time around we have the myPower ALL charger from Tekkeon. They seem to be pretty serious about the "ALL" part, since they offer up power adapters for an incredible amount of cameras, laptops, music players, phones and other devices. They're offering two versions of the device, the MP3300 with up to 14V of power and the MP3400 with 19V and 40% more capacity. The units go for $120 and $160 respectively, with most adapters going for $3 to $5.
After several years of unsuccessfully attempting to coax people into surfing the Internet for a fee instead of sleeping during their international flights, it looks like Boeing has finally given up and started seeking buyers for its Connexion service, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal (subscription required, as usual). While the company had high hopes for the pricey offering (it costs $27 to stay connected for a full flight) when it was announced in April 2000, the lack of adoption by US carriers -- only a handful of foreign airlines such as Lufthansa, Air China, and El Al have installed the necessary equipment -- combined with the lukewarm reception from passengers have convinced Boeing to ditch the service at all costs. The Journal reports that three satellite firms are negotiating to either buy the division outright or become major partners, but if the parties involved are unable to come to an agreement, Boeing is apparently willing to simply dump the service altogether, according to someone familiar with the talks. Still, even if Boeing does decide to drop the ax, this certainly won't be the last you'll hear about in-flight broadband, as airlines have shown that they'll do whatever they can to squeeze a few more bucks out of you after you've already shelled out for your ticket. Headphone rental fee, anyone?
Wireless Freeloader Charged Because He Never Bought Coffee
A Vancouver, Wash. coffee shop tired of seeing a 20-year-old man mooch off their free wireless Internet access called the police, who charged him with "theft of services."
Brewed Awakenings employees dialed 911 after Alexander Eric Smith of Battle Ground, Wash. piggybacked off the shop's wireless Internet service for more than three months.
"He doesn't buy anything," Emily Pranger, the shop's manager, told KATU, a Portland, Ore. television station. "It's not right for him to come and use it."
Smith allegedly parked his truck in the parking lot to use Brewed Awakenings' wireless access.
County deputies charged Smith with theft of services after returning to the parking lot after they told him to stop. The crime, which covers such crimes as bypassing a utility meter, stealing cable, and leaving a restaurant without paying, has been used in the past to prosecute hackers who have accessed a computer or network without paying for it. "It's something that is borderline creepy," Pranger said to KATU.
The Clark County sheriff's office and its prosecutors are reviewing the case, the television station's Web site noted.
While the PSP's loading of UMD may be unmercifully slow, Sandisk is trying to improve Memory Stick Duo transfer with its Rapid GX Memory Stick Pro Duo. The Rapid GX includes Sandisk's MicroMate high-speed card reader, which—surprise!&mda sh;increases transfer speeds to and from the PSP by as many as three times. That's almost five times as fast! Look for the Rapid GX sometime in July. While you're at it, be sure to look for the increased storage capacity Memory Stick Duos that Sandisk is also launching. A 4-GB Duo will set you back about $200. Still no word on the Rapid GX's price, however.
A USB flash drive is a NAND-type flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB 1.1 or 2.0 interface. It is small, lightweight, removable and rewritable. The most economical drives in terms of cost per unit of storage space are in the range of 512 megabytes to 2 gigabytes, with cost per megabyte increasing as one moves outside that range. Drives of up to 64 gigabytes (and possibly higher) exist, but are difficult to obtain and are expensive.
USB flash drives are faster, generally hold more data, and are more reliable than floppy disks, which were previously used for relatively quick portable storage. These types of drives use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by operating systems such as Linux (since the 2.4 kernel series[1]), Mac OS X, Mac OS Version 9, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Me.
Earlier versions of Microsoft Windows (from Windows 95 OSR2.1 through Windows 98 SE)[2] do not natively support USB mass storage devices, though they do support USB; in order to use a USB flash drive with these versions of Windows, a driver from the manufacturer (generally available for Windows 98 but not for Windows 95) must be installed. Also, Mac OS 8.5.1 and up to (but not including) Mac OS 9 supports USB mass storage devices through use of an optional driver.
Some recent USB flash drives act as two drives - as a removable disk device (the actual drive itself), and as a USB floppy drive (again, as the actual drive itself, but as another drive in Windows). This is likely intended to make it easier to use them as a bootable device.
USB flash drives are also known as "pen drives", "thumb drives", "jump drives", "USB keys", and a wide variety of other names. They are also sometimes called memory sticks, which can lead to confusion because memory stick is a Sony trademark for their proprietary memory card system.
A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board encased in a robust plastic[3] or metal casing[4], making the drive sturdy enough to be carried about in a pocket, as a keyfob, or on a lanyard. Only the USB connector protrudes from this protection, and is usually covered by a removable cap. Most flash drives feature the standard type-A USB connection allowing them to be connected directly to a port on a personal computer. Some small drives have been made with a thin plug designed to mate with a standard USB port[5] but these are very rare.
Most flash drives are active only when powered by a USB computer connection, and require no other external power source or battery power source; key drives are run off the limited supply afforded by the USB connection (5 volts and up to 500 mA). To access the data stored in a flash drive, the flash drive must be connected to a computer, either by direct connection to the computer's USB port or via a USB hub. Some need most of the power a standard USB port can supply and therefore cannot be used with a bus powered hub.
History
The flash drive was first invented in 1998 by Dov Moran, President & CEO of M-Systems Flash Pioneers (Israel). Dan Harkabi, who is now a Vice President at SanDisk led the development and marketing team at M-Systems. His most significant contribution was that the product be self reliant and free of the need to install drivers. Nearly simultaneous development of similar products was undertaken at Netac (China) and at Trek 2000, Ltd. (Singapore), and all three companies have similar and disputed patents. IBM was the first North American seller of a USB Flash Drive, and marketed an 8 Mbyte version of the product in 2001 under "Memory Key" moniker. IBM later introduced a 16 Mbyte version manufactured by Trek 2000, and returned to M-Systems for the 64 Mbyte version in 2003. Lexar can also lay claim to a USB Flash Drive product. In 2000 they introduced a Compact Flash (CF) card having an internal USB function. Lexar offered a companion card reader / USB cable that eliminated the need to a USB hub. In essence it functioned identically to the M-Systems, Trek 2000 and Netac products. An original 16 megabyte "disgo"; considered to be the first USB flash drive Enlarge An original 16 megabyte "disgo"; considered to be the first USB flash drive
The first flash drives were made by M-Systems and distributed in Europe under the "disgo" [6] brand in sizes of 8MB, 16MB, 32MB and 64MB. These were marketed as "a true floppy-killer," and this design was continued up to 256MB. Asian manufacturers soon started making their own flash drives cheaper than the Disgo series.
Modern flash drives have USB 2.0 connectivity. However, they do not currently use the full 480Mbit/s the specification supports due to technical limitations inherent in NAND flash.
Although originally conceived for individuals to share data, today's flash drives are becoming more than utilitarian in nature. Like iPod headphones in the ear, a flash drive around the neck with a lanyard has been claimed to be a fashion statement (NY Times, "From Storage, a New Fashion", 23 Sep. 2004 [7]). [edit]
Components
The internal components of a typical flash drive 1 USB connector 2 USB mass storage controller device 3 Test points 4 Flash memory chip 5 Crystal oscillator 6 LED 7 Write-protect switch 8 Unpopulated space for second flash memory chip
This photograph shows both sides of the printed circuit board (PCB) inside a typical flash drive (circa 2004). The flash drive in this photograph is a 64 MB USB 2.0 device with its plastic case removed.
One end of the device is fitted with a single male type-A USB connector. Inside the plastic casing is a small, highly cost-engineered, printed circuit board. Mounted on this board is some simple power circuitry and a small number of surface-mounted integrated circuits (ICs). Typically, one of these ICs provides an interface to the USB port, another drives the onboard memory, and the other is the flash memory. [edit]
Essential components
The parts of a typical flash drive are as follows:
* Male type-A USB connector - provides an interface to the host computer. (item 1 in the diagram) * USB mass storage controller - implements the USB host controller and provides a seamless linear interface to block-oriented serial flash devices while hiding the complexities of block-orientation, block erasure, and wear balancing (Also known as wear levelling, although drives that actually perform this in hardware are rare). The controller contains a small RISC microprocessor and a small amount of on-chip ROM and RAM. (item 2 in the diagram) * A NAND flash memory chip - stores data. NAND flash is typically also used in digital cameras. (item 4 in the diagram) * Crystal oscillator - produces the device's main 12 MHz clock signal and controls the device's data output through a phase-locked loop (the crystal itself is item 5 in the diagram)
[edit]
Additional components
The typical device may also include:
* Jumpers and test pins - for testing during the flash drive's manufacturing or loading code into the microprocessor. (item 3 in the diagram) * LEDs - indicates data transfers or data reads and writes. (item 6 in the diagram) * Write-protect switch - indicates whether the device should be in "write-protection&qu ot; mode. (item 7 in the diagram) * Unpopulated space - provides space to include a second memory chip. Having this second space allows the manufacturer to develop only one PCB that can be used for more than one storage size device, to meet the needs of the market. (item 8 in the diagram) * USB connector cover or cap - reduces the risk of damage due to static electricity, improves overall device appearance. Some flash drives do not feature a cap, but instead have retractable USB connectors. Other flash drives have a "swivel" cap that is permanently connected to the drive itself and eliminates the chance of losing the cap. * Transport aid - In some cases, the cap contains the hole suitable for connection to a key chain or lanyard or to otherwise aid transport and storage of the USB flash device. However, this increases the risk of the device being lost during transport. For this reason, most devices now have the hole on the main device body, though this requires the entire keychain to be attached to the computer. Some, therefore, have holes in both places.
[edit]
Strengths and weaknesses
Flash drives are impervious to the scratches and dust that plagued previous forms of portable storage like compact discs and floppy disks, and their durable solid-state design means they often survive casual abuse (impacts, being dropped or crushed, run through a washing machine, or even dropped in coffee). This makes them ideal for transporting personal data or work files from one location to another (such as from home to school or office) or for carrying around personal data that the user typically wants to access in a variety of places. The near-ubiquity of USB support on modern computers means that such a drive will work in most places. However, Windows 98 does not support generic USB mass storage devices out of the box; a separate driver for each manufacturer's USB drive used on the machine must be installed. Versions of Windows 95 with USB support are even worse, with drivers being almost totally unavailable.
Flash drives are also a relatively dense form of storage - even the cheapest will store dozens of floppy disks worth of data, and a moderately priced one can hold more data than a CD. Historically, flash drive capacity has ranged from several megabytes in size up to a few gigabytes. In 2003, most flash drives ran at the USB 1.0/1.1 speeds of 1.5 Mbit/s or 12 Mbit/s. A read speed of 8MB/s is common in older flash drives, newer ones reaching 18-28 MB/s and writing at 7MB/s in older ones, 11.5-18MB/s. 2004 saw the release of newer flash drives featuring USB 2.0 interfaces. Although USB 2.0 can deliver 480 Mbit/s, these flash drives are limited by the bandwidth of the underlying flash memory device, with maximum read speeds of around 100 Mbit/s and write speeds a little slower. In ideal conditions, the flash memory in the drives can retain data for 10 years.
Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class, meaning that most modern operating systems can read and write to flash drives without any additional device drivers. Instead of exposing the complex technical detail of the underlying flash memory devices, the flash drives export a simple block-structured logical unit to the host operating system. The operating system can use whatever type of filesystem or block addressing scheme it wants. Some computers have the ability to boot up from flash drives, but that capability must be supported in the computer's BIOS, and (like other mass storage devices) the flash drive must be set up to do so and loaded with a bootable disk image (rather than a conventional filesystem image).
Like all flash memory devices, flash drives can sustain only a limited number of write/erase cycles before failure. In normal use, mid-range flash drives currently on the market will support several million cycles, although write operations will gradually slow as the device ages. This should be a consideration when using a flash drive as a hard drive to run application software or an operating system. To address this (and the space limitations common on flash drives), some developers have produced versions of operating systems (such as Linux) or commonplace applications (such as Mozilla Firefox) designed to run from flash drives. These are typically optimized for size and set up so as to place temporary or intermediate files in memory rather than nonvolatile storage (to avoid excessive writing to the flash memory in the flash drive).
A few cheaper USB flash drives have been found to use unsuitable flash memory chips labelled as 'ROM USE ONLY' - these are intended for tasks such as Flash BIOS for routers rather than for continual rewrite use, and fail after a very small number of cycles. [8]
When compared to a floppy drive, most USB flash drives do not employ a write-protect mechanism. Such a switch on the housing of the drive itself would keep the host computer from writing or modifying data on the drive. A write-protect switch would make the devices suitable for repairing virus contaminated host computers without infecting the USB flash drive itself.
Flash drives are more tolerant of abuse than mechanical drives, but can still be damaged or have data corrupted if impact loosens circuit connections. Flash drives come in various, sometimes bulky or novelty, shapes and sizes Enlarge Flash drives come in various, sometimes bulky or novelty, shapes and sizes [edit]
Size and style of packaging
When selecting a flash drive for purchase, the size and shape of the casing should be considered. Some manufacturers, in an attempt to differentiate themselves, such as Lexar's Jumpdrives for example, use a stylised and bulky shell which may not allow the flash drive to be inserted into some USB ports or USB extension hubs, due to limited space around the port. This is particularly an issue with laptops, and computers with front USB ports that are deeply recessed or too close to neighboring ports that are also in use. Most manufacturers supply a USB extension cable, which may be slimmer than a normal cable, to work around this problem; however, this is far less convenient to carry than just the flash drive itself. Many users prefer the novelty-sized flash drives since they are slimmer, and have rectangular casings that do not obstruct the extension hubs or make USB ports unusable... Some flash drives are as small as 3.4x1.2x0.2 cm [9] [edit]
Common uses [edit]
Computer repair
Flash drives enjoy notable success in the field of PC repair as a means to transfer recovery and antivirus software to infected PCs while allowing a portion of the hosts machines data to be backed up in case of emergency. The usability and ease of flash drives greatly outweight the now (2006) low costs of relatively high capacity devices and are considered by many hobbyists and professionals to be a required tool. [edit]
Network administration
Flash drives are particularly popular among system and network administrators, who load them with configuration information and software used for system maintenance, troubleshooting, and recovery. The external write protect switch on some flash drives is particularly useful, as it allows the system administrator to plug a flash drive containing anti-virus, spyware-removal, or trouble diagnosis software into a suspect machine without risking the transmission of a virus or worm. [edit]
Flash drive for applications
Flash drives are used to carry applications that run on the host computer without requiring installation. U3, backed by flash drive vendors, offers an API to flash drive-specific functions. airWRX is an application framework that runs from a flash drive and turns its PC host and other nearby PCs into a multi-screen, web-like work environment. A range of applications can be found at PortableApps.com. The Mozilla Firefox browser has a configuration for flash drives, as does Opera (Opera@USB). A Creative MuVo, a small solid-state digital audio player in a flash drive form-factor. Enlarge A Creative MuVo, a small solid-state digital audio player in a flash drive form-factor. [edit]
Flash drives as audio players
Many companies make solid state digital audio players (MP3 players) in a small form factor, essentially producing flash drives with sound output and a simple user interface. The most successful of these have been Apple Computer's iPod shuffle, and the Creative Labs MuVo. [edit]
Flash drives to boot operating systems
In a way similar to that used in LiveCD, one can launch any operating system from a bootable flash drive, known as a LiveUSB [edit]
Flash drives in arcades
In the arcade game In the Groove and more commonly In The Groove 2, flash drives are used to transfer high scores, screenshots, dance edits, and combos throughout sessions. While use of flash drives is common, the drive must be Linux compatible, making problems for some players. Data used can be uploaded to Groovestats.[10]
Uses like this of a flash drive are similar to the ones employed by the ill fated Sega Dreamcast VMU and the Naomi arcade system. [edit]
Security
Some flash drives feature encryption of the data stored on them, generally using an encrypted filesystem rather than a conventional one. This prevents an unauthorized person (who has found or stolen the drive) from accessing the data stored on it. The disadvantage of this is that the drive is accessible only in the minority of computers which have the same encryption software (for which no portable standard is widely deployed) unless the encryption software is stored unencrypted on the drive, and the user must carry the (large, and frequently impossible-to-remember) cryptographic key around by some other means.
Some encryption applications (such as TrueCrypt, CryptoBuddy, and Private Disk) allow running without installation. The executable files can be stored on the USB drive, together with the encrypted file-image. The encrypted partition can be accessed on any computer running Microsoft Windows. The newer Lexar JumpDrive Secureallows the user to configure secure and public partitions of different sizes. Executable files for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux are usually included on the drive.
Newer flash drives support biometric fingerprinting to confirm the user's identity. As of mid-2005, this was a relatively costly alternative to standard password protection offered on many new USB flash storage devices.
Some manufacturers deploy physical authentication tokens in the form of a flash drive. These are used to control access to a sensitive system by containing encryption keys or (more commonly) communicating with security software on the target machine. The system is designed so the target machine will not operate except when the flash drive device is plugged into it. Some of these "PC lock" devices also function as normal flash drives when plugged into other machines.
Flash drives present a significant security challenge for large organizations. Their small size and ease of use allows unsupervised visitors or unscrupulous employees to smuggle confidential data out with little chance of detection. Equally, corporate and public computers alike are vulnerable to attackers connecting a flash drive to a free USB port and uploading hacking software such as rootkits or packet sniffers. To prevent this some organizations (particularly government departments and larger corporations) forbid the use of flash drives, and some computers are configured to disable the mounting of USB mass storage devices by ordinary users (a feature introduced in Windows XP service pack 2). In a lower-tech security solution, some organizations disconnect USB ports inside the computer or fill the USB sockets with epoxy. Some system administrators use third-party software to control USB usage. [edit]
Etymology
No commonly recognized term for these devices has emerged. The resulting confusion makes them more difficult for manufacturers to market and for consumers to research. This problem may have slowed the adoption of this technology.
All of the following names (optionally prefixed with "USB") have been used:
* Bug - perhaps a reference to the size and appearance of some USB drives * Chip stick * Data key * Data stick * Disk on key * Dongle - regarded by some as an inaccurate use of this word * Finger drive * Flash disk * Flash drive * Flash memory drive * Geek stick - used by Geek Squad agents to refer to the special-use, branded USB flash drives with special diagnostic tools pre-loaded onto them. * Gigachip * Jump stick * Key * Keychain drive * Keydrive * Keyfob - widely used in the Seattle area * Magic key * Magic Stick - common in some Ohio towns
* Memory drive * Memory key * Memory stick * Micro hard drive * Mobile drive * Nerd bling * Nerd necklace - used when worn around the neck * Nerd stick - uncommon term * Pen - used in much of Portugal * Pen drive * Pocket drive * Stick * Thumb drive * Thumb key * Travel stick * USB disk/disc * USB drive * USB key * USB Pen * USB Stick * USB - sometimes used as a shorthand * USB zip drive - sometimes used, not often
[edit]
Localised names
* Memoria USB or simply USB - primarily in Mexican Spanish * Chubidubi or Llave or Memoria - primarily in Cuban Spanish * Maya Key - primarily in Costa Rican Spanish * Doofer - Commonly used in Northern Ireland. Is also used to describe various small electronic devices (Almost always prefixed with "USB"). * USB-pinne a (bad) translation of "USB Stick" used by some manufacturers in Norway and Sweden. * Flashka (флэшка) - used in Russian * Fleška - used in Slovakia * Gli-gli - used in Andalusia, Spain * 'Jon' - mainly used in Doylestown, Pennsylvania * Pene - used in some of the Canary Islands, Spain * Piripicho (primarily in South American Spanish) * U-disk - Commonly used within the Chinese/Asian Community * USB-minne "USB memory", used in Norway and Sweden * USB-nøkkel "USB key", used in Norway * flasha, used in Egypt * flasaki ('little flash'), in Greece * USB Stick or just Stick in German * Stick Drive - Commonly used in Klamath Falls, OR
[edit]
Brand names
* Attaché - a PNY trademark * Cruzer - a SanDisk trademark * Data Traveler - a Kingston trademark * Disgo - a Disgo trademark * FlashDisc - a brand of low-density flash drives introduced by Memorex * Intelligent Stick - a PQI trademark * JumpDrive - a Lexar trademark * Memory stick - inaccurate use of a Sony trademark (Memory Stick, capitalized) for a non-USB proprietary flash memory module * Micro Vault - a Sony trademark * Thumbdrive a Trek 2000 International Ltd trademark * TravelDrive - a Memorex trademark * Super stick - Kingmax's fast and small flash drive. [11] * MyFlash - trademark of A-Data * Max Drive/Evo Drive - a Datel trademark, primarily for use with their video game console peripherals, but useable as standard flash drives
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Comparison to other portable memory forms
Flash storage devices are best compared to other common, portable, swappable data storage devices: floppy disks, Zip disks, and CD-R/CD-RW discs. 3.5 inch floppy disks and Iomega Zip disks are still available as of late 2005, despite their declining popularity. While for many purposes it would be ideal to transport files between computers wirelessly, not all computers are equipped with wireless cards, and networks are not readily available.
Floppy disks were the first publicly-popular method of file transport, but have essentially become obsolete due to their low capacity (1.44 MB), low speed, and low durability. Virtually all new computers include USB ports, and many of them are now sold without a floppy drive (the Apple iMac being the first to ship this way). Floppy disks are still in use because of their low cost and ease of use with older systems (particularly Windows 98, which is still fairly common and cannot support USB flash drives without extra drivers from either the manufacturer, or using the Generic Windows 98 USB Mass Storage Drivers). Attempts to extend the floppy standard (such as the Imation SuperDisk) were not successful because of a reputation for unreliablity and the lack of a single standard for PC vendors to adopt.
The Iomega Zip drive enjoyed some popularity, but never reached the point of ubiquity in computers. Also, the larger sizes of Zip (now up to 750MB) cannot be read on older drives. Therefore, unless one were to carry around an external drive (and possibly drivers, cables, etc.), their usefulness as a means of moving data was rather limited. The cost per megabyte was fairly high (though admittedly cheaper than flash), with individual disks often priced at $10 USD or higher. Because the material used for creating the storage medium in Zip disks is similar to that used in floppy disks, Zip disks have a higher risk of failure (such as the click of death) and data loss. Larger removable storage media, like Iomega's Jaz drive, had even higher costs (both in drives and in media), and as such were never really feasible as a floppy alternative.
CD-R and CD-RW are swappable storage media alternatives. Unlike Zip and floppy drives, DVD and CD recorders are increasingly common in personal computer systems. CD-Rs can only be written to once (unless one creates multiple sessions, which cannot be read by some old CD-ROM drives), and the more expensive CD-RWs are only rated up to 1,000 erase/write cycles, whereas modern NAND-based flash drives often last for 500,000 or more erase/write cycles. Optical storage devices are also usually slower than their flash-based counterparts. Compact discs with an 11.5 cm diameter can also be inconveniently large and, unlike flash drives, cannot fit into a pocket or hang from a keychain. Smaller CDs are available; these are an exception. There is also no standard file system for rewriteable optical media; packet-writing utilities like DirectCD and InCD exist, but produce discs that are not universally readable, despite claiming to be based on the UDF standard. The upcoming Mount Rainier standard addresses this shortcoming in CD-RW media, but is still not supported by most DVD and CD recorders or major operating systems.
Flash storage devices, compared to other storage media, are fast, high-capacity, durable, and compact. Also, traditional removable media cannot make incremental improvements due to the need for drive/disk compatibility, instead improving in infrequent but large steps. Since flash drives have a generic USB interface (and no user separable parts beyond it), manufacturers can use technical improvements (such as larger and faster flash memory chips or controllers) as soon as they are available without compromising backwards compatibility. Furthermore, unlike Zip and floppies, flash memory lacks moving parts, making it ideal as a simple solution, requiring only a port to interact with a system. The popularity of flash storage devices may be attributed to their compact size, operating system compatibility, and their use of the standard USB interface. [edit]
Future developments
Semiconductors corporations have striven to radically reduce the cost of the components in a flash drive by integrating various flash drive functions in a single chip, thereby reducing the part-count and overall package cost. As of 2004, some manufacturers plan to include more ICs so that the storage and logic/communications functions are packaged in a single ultra-low-cost device.
In efforts to focus on increasing capacities, 64 MB and smaller capacity flash memory has been largely discontinued, and 128 MB capacity flash memory is being phased out. A company called "Kanguru" has recently released a 64 GB flash memory drive that utilizes USB 2.0 and claims 10 years worth of information writing. [12]
Lexar is attempting to introduce a USB Flash Card [13],[14], which would be a compact USB flash drive intended to replace various kinds of flash memory cards.
SanDisk has introduced a new technology to allow controlled storage and usage of copyrighted materials on flash drives, primarily for use by students. This technology is termed FlashCP. [edit]
Trivia
In 2004, the German punk band WIZO was the first artist to release music in MP3 format on a USB drive titled the "WIZO Stick-EP." [15]
Some flash drives can survive (with all memory intact) after being in water. [16] [edit]
Reliability
Reliability of flash drives is normally good, however in cheaper drives it is often not high.[17] [edit]
ROM-Only chips
Recently there has been the increasing emergence of low cost "ROM-only" chips in USB drives, instead of regular flash memory that is rated for use up to 100,000 write cycles, some even 100,000,000 cycles. ROM-only chips only last 5-10 cycles and are generally used for storing the Firmware in embedded devices. [edit]
See also
* List of portable applications * USB Flash Drive Alliance * Pocket hard drive * Category:USB distro * Sneakernet * USB Mass Storage Device * External hard drive
[edit]
External links
* USB Flash Drive Alliance * USB Flash Drive FAQ * 64 gig Flash drive
[edit]
Keydrive applications
* Feraga.com - Portable installation of GNU/Linux on USB Flash drives and other removable media. * LiveDistro.org - Operating systems and HOWTOs for LiveUSBs * Portable Freeware - The Portable Freeware Collection * PortableApps.com - Popular applications modified to run on USB flash drives * StandAlone - Standalone applications for a USB flash drive * TinyApps - Tiny applications for a USB flash drive * USBApps - Listing of USB flash drive applications * Web Server on a Stick Apache web server with Typo3 CMS, PHP and MySQL that runs entirely from a USB flash drive
[edit]
Security
* Dekart Private Disk - User-friendly disk encryption software for Windows XP/9x/2000 * Truecrypt - Free open-source disk encryption software for linux and Windows XP/2000/2003 * KeePass Password Safe - Password management utility (use the ZIP version). Requires Windows. * KeePassX Cross-platform Password Manager - Password management utility (GPL License). * WinEncrypt CryptArchiver - Creates 448 bit password protected encrypted virtual drives on the USB/Flash drive. Is bundled with some USB drives. Shareware, but free edition is available. * Defygo - Free encryption suite including password vault, random password generator, and file encryption. It also includes cryptograms and encrypted email driven by a buddy/pal system. Requires Windows 98 or higher. * Portable CE - An emulator for your USB, use your computer entirely from the USB thumb drive without affecting the computer being used. * PRO-Tector™ Flash USB Secure Drives - creates 'dongle-like' security on standard USB Flash or Thumb Drives. * AntiDuplicate - Transforms USB flash drives to software protection key dongles.
[edit]
HOWTO pages
* Howto Install GNU/Linux onto a USB Flash Drive - Simple howto. * Howto Install GNU/Linux onto a USB Flash Drive with the root partition encrypted - Relatively Simple howto. * Installing USB Flash Drives on Windows 98 - Generic driver download for Windows 98 and Windows 98SE to allow USB flash drives to work * Encrypted thumb drive and autoplay howto - Open source tools and a very clear walkthrough * Combining encryption and mobility howto - A guide on using Portable Firefox, Thunderbird, Instant Messenger in a secure way * Linux on a Stick! Simple, easy screenshot walkthroughs showing how to put Linux distributions onto USB sticks * Creating a RAID array with Apple Shuffle Flash units * Your Pocket OS On A Stick Simple steps to run a Linux desktop on a flash drive
Categories: Cleanup from April 2006 | Computer storage devices | Solid-state computer storage media | USB
Metal in objects such as phones can direct the current into the body
Next time you find yourself talking on your mobile phone in the middle of a thunderstorm you may want to cut the conversation short.
UK doctors have warned of the danger of lightning strikes when using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather.
In the British Medical Journal, they highlight the case of a teenager left with severe injuries after being struck by lightning when talking on her phone.
The metal in the phone directs the current into the body, they say.
A 15-year-old girl was struck by lightning while talking on her phone in a large park in London during stormy weather.
Children particularly won't realise the risk Dr Swinda Esprit
She has no recollection of the incident but suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated.
A year later, she is in wheelchair and has severe physical difficulties as well as brain damage which has led to emotional and cognitive problems.
In the ear where she was holding the phone, she has a burst eardrum and persistent hearing loss.
When a person is hit by lightning, the high resistance of human skin causes the lightning charge to flows over the body - often known as an 'external flashover'.
But some of the current can flow through the body. The more that flows through, the more internal damage it causes.
Conductive materials in direct contact with the skin such as liquid or metal objects increases the risk that the current will flow through the body and therefore cause internal injury.
LIGHTNING FACTS There are, on average, about 1,800 thunderstorms in progress at any one time around the world with 100 lightning strikes every second. A lightning bolt travels at about 14,000mph and heats up the air around it to 30,000°C - five times hotter than the surface of the sun. The chance of being hit by lightning is about one in three million.
Rare occurrence
The doctors at Northwick Park Hospital in London who treated the girl's hearing injuries found three other cases of people being hit by lightning while talking on a mobile phone - all of whom died of their injuries - in China, Korea and Malaysia.
They said although cases were rare it was a public health issue and people needed to understand the risks.
Swinda Esprit, a doctor in the ear, nose and throat department said: "It is obvious really but we all carry mobile phones and we don't think about it.
"If you're struck by lightning on its own it will flash over your body but if you're holding a phone it will internalise and cause much worse injuries.
"Children particularly won't realise the risk.
"In Australia they have guidelines, and one of the things they say is not to hold mobile phones outside during storms."
Dr Esprit said mobile phone manufacturers should warn consumers of the dangers.
Paul Taylor, a scientist at the Met Office said it could also be dangerous to carry a mobile in your pocket during a storm.
"It is well known within the thunderstorm detection community that wearing or carrying metallic objects can increase the likelihood of injury.
"It certainly adds to the intensity of the skin damage and the article certainly amplifies that here.
"I would treat a mobile phone as yet another piece of metal that people tend to carry on their persons like coins and rings"
I have watched the Nokia Digital Pen write 56 A5 pages and successfully transfer 42 of them through its cradle to my laptop. Problems with data transfer trace back to failing to press either the start square or the send square at the bottoms of the Esselte pages. My problems were further compounded by using the pen to record dozens of samples of student work--six of 52 pages went missing because the pen didn't know it should record tracings made in the A5 copy book.
To ensure I have the best chance of pulling in all the data, I extract material off the pen frequently. I do not permit more than 10 pages of work to be done before bringing the data onto my laptop. I have discovered that it pays to "start new notepad" when facing the prospect of forgetting to press an icon at the bottom of the page. This helps ensure that the pen is keeping pages inside separate files. So when you forget to "send" a page, you don't affect the integrity of all the data penned for the day. You corrupt only the multi-page session data. If you repeatedly revise a page by tracing over its content, your nib might come off the page. When that happens, the pen will not record the data under the pen point. I will upload a page about "Unwrapping Nokia Pen Set" that shows how it looks on screen.
The Nokia Digital Pen does not instill confidence for the uninitiated. During the first few days, you don't know if you have a good "take" of your writing. I spent 22 pages before I could predict solid information gathering by the subtle vibrations emitted by the pen. The overall results bear noting.
* Passing the pen from person to person invites problems. People drop pens and when this one hits tiles, its onboard camera may die. People don't press down on the special start and send icons, so either their work goes unrecorded or they corrupt the work of others before them in ther book. * Pen operators need to anticipate how the pen feels when it is set to retain strokes. You need to hold the barrel and try to sense the vibrations. If you fail to do this, you are using the digital pen on faith. * Sync often. Don't record more than 10 pages without backing them up. Know that if they do not sync, you still have the original work rendered in pen and ink. * Place the pen into its cradle, then gently press down on its top to ensure its gold ball connectors contact the sensors in the cradle. You can hear the connectors pop into place when the pen seats correctly. * The Nokia Digital Pen has facilitated four classroom sessions for me. The pen shaved a minimum of 30 minutes off each classroom session as we created "Christmas Drawings in Ireland." You can view the results online. * I will buy another Nokia Digital Pen for my briefcase since I want to have a replacement nearby when my original is damaged. * I will test the pen over Bluetooth after Christmas.
* Bluetooth wireless technology means that the sheer convenience of hands-free communication is enhanced with total freedom of movement. * Unfold the boom microphone, place the headset over the ear and a link will be established automatically. * This universal accessory encourages users to update, change and evolve because it is compatible with all other 1.1 compliant Bluetooth wireless technology phones by Motorola and other manufacturers. * Smaller Size, Bigger Power. This tiny powerhouse is less than 5 cm in diameter when folded and weighs just 20 grams. * Increased talk time of up to 8 hours and standby time of up to 200 hours.
Product Details
* Product Dimensions: 2.5 x 2.1 x 0.8 inches ; 3.2 ounces * Shipping Weight: 9.60 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) * Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues. * Note: Gift-wrapping is not available for this item.
Product Manuals
* User Guide: view 2MB PDF * Submit additional product manuals.
Accessories Buy this product and add any of the following... To add any of these additional products to your purchase, select the appropriate check boxes and click Add to Shopping Cart below. Motorola HS850 Bluetooth Headset $58.99
Accessories Motorola "Y" Charger Adapter $9.95
Motorola Car Charger for A630, T720, T730, V300, V330, V400, V600, V60, V710 $5.39
Universal IQ Pocket SHOX Phone and Headset Case $9.99 Ultra-Cord 9-Piece USB Cell Phone Charger Kit $19.99
Motorola H500 Bluetooth Headset - Pink $44.99
Product Description
The Motorola HS850 is the company's update to their HS810 headset, one of my personal favorites. The changes made to produce the new HS850 are few, but the effect is relatively substantial. But first, let's start with what is the same.
Like the HS810, the HS850 makes use of a body design that employs a folding microphone boom. The folding microphone boom acts as the on and off switch, as well as just providing a convenient way to make the headset smaller and more pocketable when not in use. When a call comes into your phone, you can turn on and answer the phone at the same time just by unfolding the microphone boom. You can end the call and turn it off by removing the headset and re-folding it. Using the headset in this way conserves battery power, since no battery juice is wasted on standby time - time where the headset sits around waiting to be contacted by a mobile phone or other compatible device. The physical design of the HS850 and the battery savings it imparts is my favorite aspect of the Motorola HS850.
Of course you don't have to remove and turn off the headset between calls. If the headset is already on when an inbound call comes, you will hear the ringing come through on the headset and can answer it by pressing on the main multi-function call control button. You can end the call with this same button, and adjust volume levels with the two volume buttons. If you are using a phone that supports the Hands Free Bluetooth profile, then you can also use the call control button to reject an inbound call or redial the last number.
The HS850's audio properties are also like those of the HS810 before it. The audio quality in both directions is very clear and understandable, but sounds a bit thin. You and the party on the other end of the call will both be able to understand each other easily, it just doesn't sound as full and natural as it might with some other headsets. The HS850 makes up for this small lacking by having great resistance to wind noise, though. That makes the headset perfect for people that enjoy driving with their windows down, or those that work outside. Most headsets are very susceptible to wind noise, the HS850 bucks that trend.
And now for the new stuff. First up, a more powerful battery. The HS850 I tested managed an amazing 7 hours and 50 minutes of talk time. That is a full two thirds improvement over the older model. The truly amazing part is that this new battery life didn't come at the expense of added weight. Like the HS810 before it, the HS850 weighs only .7oz (19.9g).
The next major change perhaps sounds more important than it worked out to be in reality. The HS850 supports the newer Bluetooth v1.2 spec, whereas most headsets support v1.1 only. Motorola claims that when used with a v1.2 compatible phone (there are still relatively few available at the time I write this), the HS850 will be able to connect faster, use less battery power, and offer improved audio quality. While I can see what appears to be a slight improvement in connection speed, I haven't really noticed much of a change in battery life or audio quality.
The last major change is purely cosmetic. The new HS850 headset is blue-gray in color, like a darker version of the HS810's color. I find it more attractive than the light silver found on the HS810.
But regardless of the color, you can't go wrong with Motorola's HS850, which I consider to be perhaps the best value on the market.
Pros:
* Small, light * Comfortable * Nearly 8 hours of talk time * No wind noise * Can be worn on both ears
Cons:
* A bit unusual looking * Audio lacks bass
What's in the box: Motorola HS850 Bluetooth Headset, User Manual, and Quick Start Guide.
Product Description No wires. No limits. Designed to enhance the experience of any Bluetooth technology enabled phone, the Motorola Wireless Headset HS850 also stores information and wirelessly interacts with up to eight different Bluetooth 1.1 and 1.2 compliant devices, including handsets, PDAs and computers.
Stay sporty wherever you roam with Nike Triax Swift women's analog watch, a helpful training timepiece as well as a great complement to your casual couture. The watch case and band form a unique S-shaped design that curves comfortably around your wrist, with the lavender case made of polyurethane and featuring a durable purple aluminum face shield. The clear-coated red polyurethane-protected strap has a high gloss finish that resists UV fading and black highlights.
The purple dial face offers quarter-hour Arabic numeral markers, luminous hands (with seconds hand), and a date display at 3 o'clock. Other features include Nike Electrolite one-touch backlighting, water resistance to 100 meters (330 feet), and a scratch-resistant mineral glass crystal.
About Nike Nike watches are built to endure extreme outdoor conditions without missing a beat and they adhere to the company's founding mission statement: to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. And as Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman would add--if you have a body, you're an athlete. Ever since the fateful day in 1971 when University of Oregon track coach Bowerman poured rubber into his wife's waffle iron, technological innovation has been the spark that lights Nike's fire. The Waffle outsole transformed the running world and soon after Nike Air evolved Nike's revolutionary impact on sports. Beyond shoes--from watches and eyewear to carry gear and even socks--Nike is committed to giving athletes of every make, model and body style, who compete and recreate in ways never before imagined, the very best performance product. Here are just a few important dates in Nike's journey:
* American record-holder Steve Prefontaine becomes the first major track athlete to wear Nike brand shoes in 1973. * At the 1976 Olympic Trials, Nike shoes are seen in abundance for the first time--worn by young, rising stars in both middle- and long-distance events. * The first athlete to win an Olympic medal wearing Nike shoes is British runner, Steve Ovett in the 1980 Moscow Games * The Just Do It advertising campaign began in 1988, and is now ensconced in the Americana exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum.
* 1 large main compartment * Organizer under front flap keeps essentials handy * Twin side pockets * Quick-access cell phone sleeve * Capacity: 1,450 Cubic Inches
Product Description
The Elefunk comes with a Life-time warranty, it also features a water bottle pocket and a padded shoulder strap which adjusts to fit.
My poor son got deprived of backpacks and bookbags because of being homeschooled, but now that he's a college student, he can carry books! This means the 5 star rating might be biased by the sheer pleasure of simply having something to feel like fitting in with the crowd, but to be fair and honest about this product...I admit it does look like a quality item.
It's built practical, looks good, and (having to guess) I'd say it's probably better suited for college use rather than high school. For some odd reason being in college doesn't require as many books to be carried in one day as I see what high school students have to carry.
If this bag was a dual set with each bag on opposite sides, it would seem to resemble the old-fashioned saddle bags (except it's not leather, is maybe a little bit larger in capacity, and has plenty of individual compartments and zippers).
I could not wait to get this bag. When I did I found out that it was not all that it was in for. I have to walk home and it really hurts my back. Plus, it does not hold much. I had the problem of having to much books. This does not help. It was a waste of $40. Plus, how do you clean it?
I've found the Messenger Bag to be well suited for the trials of Law School as it has 1450 Cubic Inches of space, a lot more than that Banana Republic bag and much more durable than the American Eagle or the Abercrombie bags i've owned. May not be the most fashionable bag ever but certainly is more functional and much much more durable.
Although I wouldn't suggest it for high school age kids. It does tend to put a lot more stress on the back than a backpack and since high school age kids have to carry more books at once I would recommend a backpack for them (Jansport of course).
Pros-Lifetime Warranty Cons-Uppity rich kids might frown on you
For years I've been buying JanSport bags for school and to use on trips. This bag I just got to help me through my Sophmore year of High School. I love JanSport because they have sturdy bags, that can last being packed to the brim with books, and shoved down bleachers, you know, typical high school stuff. It is also great for going up in the mountains, cause when you kick it down a cliff, it won't bust! YAY!!!!! This back rocks my socks, and you can decorate it with pins and patches and stuff to make it your own, I would recommend it everyone!
* At only 0.45 inches thin, you’ll be amazed at how much is in your Motorola Q * Listen to music, stream videos, surf the web, play games all rich in color and stereo sound * View documents, spreadsheets, presentations and PDFs while mobile * A full QWERTY keyboard makes emailing a breeze * Use Bluetooth®-enabled wireless head phones, stereo he
