Rogers has just announced that their 21Mbps HSPA+ network is now live in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. There will be a USB modem which supports this speed that you can pre-order for as low as $75.
The 21Mbps stick the ZTE 668, a triband HSPA (850/1900/2100Mhz) USB modem that can do 21.6Mbps down 5.76Mbps up. It has a retractable USB connector and a micro SDHC card slot. You have to remove the SIM card slot cover to access the SDHC card slot.
At 21Mbps it would take just under 40 minutes to go through Rogers 6GB data plan. No word on whether there will be any special data plans for the 21Mbps USB modem.
I’m at the launch right now and am observing speeds of around 16Mbps down and 2.8Mbps up from speedtest.net – nice. Keep in mind these modems aren’t widely available so it remains to be seen what speed will be like later.
Apple has released its most revolutionary iPhone to date, say hello to the iPhone 3GI. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the 3GI in front of a packed auditorium earlier today. Jobs describes the 3GI as the “lightest and slimmest model ever” and the “most handsome product” Apple has ever designed.
The newest iPhone boasts significant software and hardware upgrades, multi-touch interface, and superior processing speeds. The updated wide-screen display has the finest resolution and most the brilliant colors. Senior vice president Philip Schiller says the 3GI is “as light as air” and is so thin “it’s like it’s not even there.”
At $599 the iPhone 3GI sports a HD video camera, one-tap editing with Final Cut Pro, and cut/copy/paste. The feature list is never ending, just imagine what you want your 3GI to do and it will obey your command. The 3GI is so innovative that it can only be seen by the company’s hippest and most dedicated customers.
Although the vTech LS6245 is not a cellphone it does solve the problem of dropped calls and poor call quality when using your mobile phone within the home. The DECT 6.0 Digital based expandable cordless phone system uses Bluetooth technology to sync up to two devices at a time while saving connection profiles for another two.
When a mobile phone is connected to the phone system all incoming calls from the cellphone are automatically forwarded to the system handsets. This features allows you to centrally locate the base station an area with good coverage but make and receive calls using the handsets throughout your home, even if you do not normally have cell coverage there.
The LS6245 is currently available from the vTech website and at BestBuy USA stores for $79.99. Addition handsets can be purchased for $39.99.
Thousands of at a European rock festival, featuring Coldplay, Metallica, and Kings of Leon, were tacked using the Bluetooth feature on their mobile phones. Researches that conducted the test hope to launch new tracking applications for security and retail sectors.
The team from the University of Ghent in Belgium installed a total of 36 Bluetooth scanners most of which were located on the grounds of the rock festive with a few on surrounding roads and nearby bus stops. The scanners, each with a 30 meter radius, were able to track users with a Bluetooth enabled device in real time. Researchers assure festive-goers that no identifying was collected as only the MAC address of each device was used for tracking.
Read how HowardForum member desertbunny caught an iPhone thief. It’s a twisted story that involves iPhones, Blackberries, Google mobile sync and Active sync.
check the whole story out here and kudos to desertbunny.
The Google Mobile Search team announced on its official blog Wednesday that Google Search is now optimized for all mobile devices, smartphones or feature (regular/dumb) phones, in 38 languages.
One of our top goals on the mobile search team is to bring you the comprehensiveness of Google’s web search while optimizing the search experience for your mobile device and in your language. Whether you have a smartphone or a feature phone, if you have mobile internet access you can get the new mobile-optimized Google Search results pages on your phone just about anywhere in the world. Just go to Google.com in your browser and do a search.
The optimized search will look just like Google Search does on your computer. News, images, blog, video and product search results will appear on your mobile device when available. The team is still optimizing mobile specific results, for example a search for Hotels in Toronto will return an easy to read list complete with phone numbers.
Head over to Google to read the complete blog post.
This will probably go into effect sometime after fall. If you don’t already own one, make sure you get a Bluetooth headset or speakerphone before then. Also, make sure you familiarize yourself with your phone’s voice dialing feature (if you have it).
Fines will be up to $500 with no demerits points. If you get fined I’m not sure if the province will notify your insurance company.
According to a post on the Windows Mobile Team Blog Windows Mobile 6.5 is ready to launch on May 11th. Look for the announcement at the Tech Ed 2009 event between the hours of 1:00 PM and 2:15 PM.
With Earth Day next week, April 22, all the major retailers are getting involved in one way or another.
Bring in your old cellphone to Best Buy next week and get $25 off the purchase of a new phone. If you are buying a phone priced at $0 you will receive a $25 store credit for accessories. The $25 accessory credit must be used at the time of purchase and no cash will be given back if the accessory is less than $25.
The trade-in program is only available for new contracts, contract renewals, and upgrades. Thus prepaid phones are not eligible. Trade-in incentives are only valid from April 17, 2009 – April 23, 2009 and must be done in-store.
F-Secure has detected the first worm for mobile phones spread through SMS service. The worm know as “Sexy View” relies on contact information, specifically phone numbers, stored on your smartphone to spread itself.
The worm works by sending SMS messages to your contracts containing a link to a malicious website with the promise of “hot pictures”. If the receiver of the SMS clicks on the link they are prompted to install an application which in turn will infect their smartphone with the worm. The information that the worm harvests is then sent back to its creators who most likely will use the information for SMS spam.
