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Bluetooth update could turn wearables into COVID-19 trackers
Could your smartwatch join a global network of contact tracing devices?
LG C900 due to bring Windows Phone 7 to market near September 28th, according to Bluetooth SIG
The Bluetooth SIG has a long history of promoting its members' "special interests" by leaking valuable tidbits about their handsets before they're announced. The recently unearthed LG C900 is the latest of these, being pegged for a launch date "around" September 28th by the SIG's detail page on the phone. The QWERTY slider, which is referred to in C900N, C900k, and C900B versions, will be available in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Phone Arena conjectures that the launch date lines up with AT&T's marketing materials timing and the slated Q4 launch of Windows Phone 7, so the C900 probably has a decent chance of being the first Windows Phone 7 phones to market if LG's own GW910 or some more secretive set doesn't beat it to the punch. Still, September is a bit earlier than any of the launch windows Microsoft has managed to let slip, and as far as we know Microsoft won't even be accepting apps in the Marketplace before October.
Samsung GT-S8500 is first with Bluetooth 3.0
And here we have it: what's likely to be the world's first Bluetooth 3.0 phone courtesy of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). According to the filing's description, the "compact and slim" Samsung GT-S8500 is a touchscreen slate phone with a "high resolution" 3.1-inch OLED sporting a TouchWIZ UI and quad-band GSM/EDGE radios. The advantages of the 3.0 Bluetooth spec approved in April are faster throughput (up to 24Mbps) and more frugal power usage -- both welcome advances in modern media-playing handsets. Although it's not stated we can assume an official launch in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress.
GamerDNA's new WAR signature generator
We've been hearing quite a bit about gamerDNA lately, and for good reason. Following our interview with their CEO, Jon Radoff, during PAX this year, they've been steadily making headlines everywhere. In fact, just last week they surpassed 500,000 sign-ups for the quizzes on their site, and now they've announced their very own Warhammer Online Signature Generator.This handy little generator isn't a separate downloadable app, like others, but instead is done straight through the gamerDNA site itself. It displays your class, rank, reknown rank, server name and guild name. Check out their press release for complete info on getting one for yourself. Also, don't forget about their 60-day WAR game card contest still going on! Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Turbine opens dynamic forum sigs for LotRO players
The integration from game client to browser-based media is becoming more popular and accessible these days, so Turbine decided to implement a recent update to their Lord of the Rings Online account-linked forum sigs for all players. Any LotRO player can now generate a graphical signature with information about any of their characters over level five. This is for characters on any server, PvE and PvMP characters included.This is very similar to browser-based character information available in other games, but of course there are some limitations currently. The portrait displayed in the sig is a general representation of race and gender only, so at the moment, it's not highly customizable. Also, there's a known issue regarding officer and member ranks not displaying correctly. It seems like this could be a step in the right direction towards getting more detailed character or kinship information in a web-based format, much like we have already in World of Warcraft, Dungeon Runners and more.
Bluetooth SIG looks at Bluetooth-WiFi to hasten transfers
If you'll recall, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group already had plans laid out to speed up Bluetooth by teaming it up with UWB, but needless to say, that didn't exactly take the world by storm. Thankfully, it seems the crew is trying something else in an effort to speed up BT transfers, and judging by the ubiquity of WiFi, we reckon this endeavor has a much better chance at gaining traction. According to Michael Foley, director of the Bluetooth SIG, these so-called Bluetooth-WiFi (just a temporary name, folks) devices will "use the regular low-power Bluetooth radios to recognize each other and establish connections, and if they need to transfer a large file, they will be able to turn on their WiFi radios, then turn them off to save power after finishing the transfer." For whatever reason, Foley also noted that it wouldn't be letting the dream go with regard to Bluetooth-UWB -- we're sure consumers will adore the confusion.
Bluetooth SIG adopts core version 2.1 +EDR
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has signed off on the Core Specification Version 2.1+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). What does this mean for the average Bluetooth user? Delightful things, of course. The shiny new spec includes enhancements to pairing where the steps to pair devices are reduced with the task only taking seconds -- not a few fiddly minutes -- with some devices, like headsets, even supporting auto-pairing. There is also potential for the addition of near field communication (NFC) where devices are simply tapped together to automagically pair -- we're stoked to see this in Bluetooth-enabled photo frames, for example. Also on the table was an improvement to security to prevent various types of attacks and improved power management which will see battery life -- for some devices -- extended up to fives times the current performance. Not a bad day out, now let's get those 2.1 enabled devices rolling.[Via PhoneScoop]
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR unveiled
The Bluetooth SIG used CTIA this week as its stage to officially unveil its 2.1 + EDR standard, offering a number of improvements that should reduce the frustration factor commonly associated with device pairing while simultaneously kicking security up a notch. It'll be fully backward compatible (whew) while kicking in a few goodies for new devices that manage to support it; besides the aforementioned security gains, power consumption should be lower and pairing is almost totally automatic (in fact, for devices taking advantage of the new NFC support, it's as simple as touching them together). Look for the standard to become available to interested manufacturers "soon," which means we'll see devices in the pipeline in the late 2011 to early 2012 time frame. We kid, we kid![Via PhoneMag]
Armory + Signature Generator = AWESOME!
Now that everyone you know is looking at your stats in the Armory anyway, isn't it time you showed off your character in whatever online forum you happen to take part in? From guild forums to public bulletin boards, there's always room for a fun, graphical signature. Just look at mine, above. It has my mean Draenei face, some lightning bolts, and even my awesomely hardcore (ha ha ha ha ha) stats. Head on over to http://jebus.geek.nz/WoW/armory/ to get your very own signature image, which you can download to your desktop, then upload to your favorite forum hangout. You can get it in PvP and PvE flavors, in a variety of colors and backgrounds. It's not perfect, as Skew was complaining to me earlier that the Shaman tag doesn't show stats meaningful to enhancement shammies. Any other stats it's not showing that you'd like to see? What are you using as a signature in the forums now, and do you see a little tool like this to be as handy as I found it?
