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US Army considering Mobile WiMax for military use
Fresh from showing off its Mobile WiMax wares at the recent 3GSM conference, Samsung's now providing some of its gear to the U.S. Army, who's apparently considering the speedy wireless technology for possible military use. Unsurprisingly, neither party is spilling a whole lot of details on the arrangement, with Samsung only saying that the Army's Communications Electronics Research & Development Engineering Center (or CERDEC) will spend several months evaluating the equipment, measuring the performance of both mobile users and mobile base stations in a military environment, among other undisclosed things. What is fairly clear is how eagerly Samsung will be anticipating the results, as Korea's Hankook newspaper speculates that a deal with the U.S. military could be worth as much as $3 billion for the company.
Fujitsu wants WiMAX handsets to last longer
Although WiMAX handsets have not made it out into the wild yet, Fujitsu wants to make sure those mobile WiMAX batteries don't die so quickly. To that end, the Japanese company has developed some tech to enhance the power transmission efficiency of upcoming WiMAX handset amplifiers. With WiMAX transmitters needing large amounts of power to transmit data, any gain in the power efficiency of amp design is going to be welcome, we suppose. Fujitsu claims a power output gain of one and a half times what normal transmission amps get now in mobile WiMAX-equipped handsets. WiMAX networks are probably hitting en masse in 2008 -- if not before -- and conveniently, that's the date Fujitsu has set to commercialize this new tech. Perfect timing, eh?
Samsung's Mobile WiMax MITs devices go live in S.Korea
As if you weren't already feeling cheated by your data plan, Samsung comes along and launches a few Mobile WiMax MITs (Mobile Intelligent Terminal) devices in S.Korea: their SPH-M8100 WinMo 6.0 cellphone and SPH-P9000 (pictured) all-out convergence thingamajig. That's right, 12Mbps or about 2-3Mbps when traveling up 120-KPH (75-MPH). While the Mobile WiMax (or WiBro as it's hailed in its Korean home) service isn't country-wide yet, Korea Telecom's offering does cover the 10M+ people scooting about Seoul and its southern suburbs including 17 universities and 4 subway lines. How S.Korea pulled a 19 ranking on the technology superpower list still has us scratching our heads.
Samsung's SPH-M8100: another hi-spec MITs WiBro handheld
This isn't the first time we've seen Samsung's SPH-M8100. Remember, this is that crazy WiBro (mobile WiMax) phone sporting a dedicated RSS key (upper-right button on that Korean keypad). Only now, it's been slightly retooled for its official Korean launch. Besides the facelift, it appears unchanged spec-wise as a member of Sammy's elite MITs (Mobile Intelligent Terminal) family of devices. So it still packs the latest CDMA and EV-DO radios and DMB mobile television only now wrapped up in a pretty Windows Mobile 6.0 interface. Bluetooth, 2.8-inch display, and 2 megapixel camera still come standard. With any luck, we might see this rollout on Sprint's WiMAX network someday, somewhere. Yeah, right.
Samsung shows off Mobile WiMAX wares at 3GSM
Sprint has apparently gotten a few of its disparate Mobile WiMax partners to play nice with each other at least for a little while, with Samsung, Intel, Motorola, and Nokia all sharing a booth at this week's 3GSM conference to help spread the WiMax word. For its part, Samsung has trotted out three WiMax-ready devices, including two handsets we've seen before and a new USB dongle to bring some of that wireless broadband goodness to your laptop (or desktop, if you choose). Likely to attract the most attention is the company's SPH-P9000 "UMPC-like" device, running on Windows XP and packing a 5-inch display, 1GHz Transmeta CPU, 30GB hard drive, a foldable QWERTY keyboard and, of course, those integrated Mobile WiMax capabilities, with some good 'ol EV-DO to back it up. The also-on-display SPH-M8100 wraps that Mobile WiMax into a more traditional form factor, running on Windows Mobile 5.0 and packing a 2.8-inch display, 2 megapixel camera, and T-DMB mobile TV capabilities. Rounding out the WiMax lineup, Samsung's USB dongle is about as straightforward as you'd expect it to be, with a UICC slot to accommodate your phone's SIM card and a handy LED to let you know that it's working. Mac users are apparently out of luck with this one, however, as it's strictly Windows-only for the time being. In addition to showing off its wares, Samsung also confirmed that it's currently conducting seven Mobile WiMax trials with various partners, with more planned for later this year, though there's no indication exactly when or where.
Hands-on with SPH-P9000 Deluxe MIT
The Samsung SPH-P9000 Deluxe MIT is just that: deluxe. We had the chance to go hands-on with this Korea-only device during one of those rare opportunities only CES can provide. With a mini Mobile WiMax network setup here at the show, we had the opportunity to test that (supposed) ultra-fast access for ourselves. More on that in a bit. Based on the pictures previously published, we had our doubts as to the rigidity of the unit. So we were easily impressed by the fact that it actually felt solid in our hands. However, without constant tender loving care, we're pretty sure we'd snap a hinge under sustained use. The keyboard is small, the touchpad is small, the power switch and screen are small -- everything that requires interaction is just really, really small. Still, it's usable and maybe with prolonged used, we'd get comfortable with it -- we doubt it though. Anyway, what you're really wondering about is the Mobile WiMax speed right? Well, sorry to say, it was slow. Like 56kbps dial-up slow. But this is day 3 of the show and well, everything is just a bit slower today. Besides, it's just on a demonstration network, Las Vegas is a long way from South Korea. All in all, it's an impressive piece of engineering that we can live without. Hands on with the SPH-P9000 Deluxe MIT
Intel shows off WiMAX Connection 2300 chipset
Intel has had some decent success with its "kitchen sink" approach to WiFi ubiquity and integrated graphics dominance, and it doesn't look like they're taking any chances with WiMAX. Hardly more than a month after busting out its first WiFi-integrated WiMAX Connection chipset, the 2250, Intel is testing out a new 2300 version which supports mobile WiMAX and MIMO functionality. The the new all-in-one chip also claims lower power requirements and less heat generation than its predecessor, making adoption of the newly improved chips a relatively painless one. The whole shebang is still managed by the same unified software, and Intel is supporting "over-the-air provisioning" to allow for easy configuration and consumer activation of services, as opposed to the traditional service provider-based way of doing things. Hard to tell how that PR-speak will end up playing out for actual consumers, but it at least sounds promising. With the design finalized, Intel still has some more testing to do, but hopes to start busting this thing out in card and module forms in late 2007.[Via Laptoping]
Mobile WiMAX, HSUPA get spotlight at ITU Telecom World
LG and Samsung are using Hong Kong's ITU Telecom World 2006 as a platform for highlighting a couple technologies that, frankly, can't get here soon enough. It seems somehow appropriate that the Korean crosstown rivals are fighting for their share of the spotlight, parading HSUPA and Mobile WiMAX equipment -- both of which have the potential to shatter upstream speeds offered by the latest live technologies (HSDPA and EV-DO rev. A), while Mobile WiMAX also offers the tantalizing opportunity to pull upwards of 10Mbps down to you. While this isn't the first time we've seen either of these technologies in the wild, they're obviously becoming more ubiquitous at each and every trade show around the globe -- which means our dream of some day hosting Engadget Mobile on a cellphone grows ever closer.Read - LGRead - Samsung
Samsung's SPH-8100 WinMo Pocket PC with Mobile WiMax, IMS, and DMB
It's not the dual-mode WiMax / GSM handset we're waiting for, but Samsung's SPH-M8100 Mobile WiMAX slider should force an optical interrupt nevertheless. Like the SPH-P9000 introduced yesterday, this device is part of Sammy's Mobile WiMAX MITs lineup only this time in a dedicated IMS lovin' handset. Come on, you remember IMS right? It's the IP Multimedia Subsystem we saw under global trial back in February which even Cingular has been known to dabble around with. IMS support means this not-a-cellphone handset will not only provide access to content over high-speed Mobile WiMAX (WiBro as it's known in Korea), but it'll also feature such SIP-based services as VoIP calls, video conferencing, and "Push-to-All" which we assume is just the push-to-talk, walkie-talkie service as it's known 'round here. The handset runs Windows Mobile 5.0 PocketPC and features a 2.8-inch 65k color, 240x320 touch-screen TFT display, MMCmicro expansion, and 2 megapixel camera with another 0.3 megapixel shooter up front for video conferences. It also features T-DMB mobile TV with both the antenna and stylus tucked neatly away in the case. Oh, and this handset will pull double-duty as a Mobile WiMAX modem for your laptop too. Now pardon us, we have to get back to banging our rocks together, there's mammoth for dinner tonight! Lots more pics after the break.
Adaptix new SX-300 and SX-500 Mobile WiMax base stations
They may be jumping the gun, oh, just a little, but Adaptix is launching two new Mobile WiMax base stations, the SX-500 and SX-300, intended for mobile and vehicular uses, respectively. But doing IEEE 802.16e-2005 compliant OFDMA WiMax isn't just all this thing does; these devices will be imminently updatable and upgradeable as they're equipped with software defined radios. For example, already plans are in place to shoehorn in MIMO capabilities and 802.22 Wireless Regional Area data networks over TV bands into these units; in theory they could even be hacked to be WiFi APs or WiMax Bluetooth DUN modems -- but we'll not get ahead of ourselves here. No, as always we'll patiently wait for Adaptix get these in the hands of the users before we start letting our imaginations run away with us in wireless flights of fancy.
