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Thermoacoustics behind all-in-one cooker, fridge, and generator
Sure, building up a campfire in order to roast some eats in the wilderness could be fun for awhile, but for the reported "two billion people that use open fires as their primary cooking method," we're sure it loses its luster somewhere along the line. The University of Nottingham is hoping to change all that, however, by attempting to develop an all-in-one gizmo that acts as a "cooker, a fridge, and a generator," and relies on biomass fuels for energy. The £2 million ($3.96 million) SCORE (Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity) project seeks to create a "wood-powered generator capable of both cooking and cooling food," and it will purportedly rely on thermoacoustics to cut down on pollutants, increase efficiency, and be more reliable to future consumers in Africa and Asia. No word just yet on when this newfangled kitchen appliance will be ready to ship, but a portable version would probably do quite well in the camping market.[Via CNET]
Nokia busts out new low-end fleet
Avert your eyes if you're married to S60 -- you'll find nary a smartphone here -- but Nokia's mustered a new slew of devices for emerging markets today that cover the full spectrum of form factors and radio technologies. Starting from the upper left, the lowly 1200 keeps things about as simple as they possibly could be with a throwback monochrome display, 32-chord ringtones, a "dust-resistant" keypad, and an integrated flashlight. The 1208 takes a small step up, swapping out the monochrome screen for a color one but otherwise keeping specs the same. The 1650 moves yet a little more upmarket with a considerably larger screen, though the keypad apparently loses dust resistance in the process. The 2505 is a CDMA (!) flip that maintains the integrated flashlight and rocks downloadable ringtones and wallpapers, a speakerphone, and a handful of integrated games and tools. Onto the second row starting at the left, the 2630 re-ups the 1650's formula and adds Bluetooth, GPRS data, and a VGA cam (heck, this seems like a perfectly decent handset for... uh, emerged markets, let alone emerging ones) -- and get this -- it becomes Nokia's thinnest phone, period, at 9.9 millimeters. The 2660 does the 2630's features in flip form, but loses the cam in the conversion -- but no worries, you can get it back with the 2760. Did ya get all that? Look for all of 'em to launch in the middle of this year in "select markets" for between €35 and €90 ($48 and $123) -- not bad at all, considering those are unsubsidized prices.
$10 cellphone may be coming in two years
With Motorola not making a heckuva lot of profit these days, can it and the other handset makers really get a $10 handset to market? Some at UC Berkeley's Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) say that it may be possible to get a $10 cellphone -- likely targeted at emerging markets -- on the streets. Still, can it be done from a cost and logistics perspective? CITRIS in California (no pun intended) believes such a handset could be on the global market within a few years if any Taiwanese contract manufacturers care to sign up to the vision. With Taiwan's Quanta being the top maker of the $100 OLPC laptop computer system that is shipping, perhaps a $10 cellphone can, in fact, be done. After all, the MOTOFONE ain't that far away.
Intel developing software hack for long-range WiFi
The idea of extended range WiFi has been around the block before, but amidst all the talk of mass WiMAX deployments comes a swank new idea to get vanilla WiFi out to more people without breaking any laws or relying on expensive hardware upgrades. Apparently, researchers at Intel have "created a system that lets WiFi signals, which ordinarily carry a few hundred feet, instead travel 100 kilometers, or more than 60 miles." Interestingly enough, the system supposedly relies on "modified software" running on regular WiFi equipment, and wireless access points with the newfangled software can seemingly daisy-chain directional network traffic through "several carefully aligned steerable antennas in order to eventually reach a fiber link connected to the internet." Unfortunately (for us, at least), Intel has emerging markets on the brain rather than rolling this out in the US or UK, as it reckons the "$700 to $800 long range WiFi towers" would do quite well in locales that balk at $15,000 WiMAX towers. So if you're currently stealing some dignitary's WiFi in Uganda in order to read this, fret not, as Intel's looking your way for testing "later this year."
Low-cost MOTOFONE hits India
We knew Motorola had something (really) skinny up its sleeve way back in July, and after it got the ole thumbs-up from our constituents over at the FCC, we knew a whiz-bang release couldn't be too far out. Thankfully (at least for India), today's the day, and the MOTOFONE will finally find its way into (and surely out of) slim fit pockets everywhere. Moto announced immediate availability of the GSM-based F3 within India today at a dedicated event held in New Delhi, and stated that "international markets" could expect to get their palms on one "in the coming weeks." Furthermore, the CDMA sibling (F3c) is slated to hit shelves "before the end of 2006." While pricing details were cleverly omitted, we're sure they'll surface soon when local carriers jump on the bandwagon.[Via Mobiledia]
CDMA phones to get ultra cheap, too
Anyone else notice that most of the fanfare surrounding the concept of the almost-free unsubsidized handset has been largely restricted to the GSM camp? Sure, we have occasional CDMA examples like Kyocera's K122 and K132 -- but with all due respect to Kyocera, cooler looking GSM goodies like the MOTOFONE have been generating just a bit more buzz. No worries, though; a handful of scrappy Korean startups are looking to correct the imbalance, committing to deliver $30 handsets utilizing CDMA2000 1x radios (no EV-DO, we're guessing) to India starting in December of this year with other Southeast Asian countries hopping on the bandwagon in '07. According to Rose Telecom, one of the startups involved in the initiative, the phones should take another dive to the $20 mark in 2008. We can almost sense American prepaid MVNOs expressing interest already.Update: A resourceful reader has pointed out that Motorola's also offering a CDMA variant of the MOTOFONE, which clearly raises the bar for style in the CDMA emerging markets segment. The Korean folks still look to have a slight edge on pricing here -- but with Motorola having suggested that we'll be seeing $15 handsets by '08, they may not for long. [Thanks, Rich]
Motorola chairman predicts ultra-cheap mobiles by '08
$15 contract-free cellphones might just be a reality by 2008. David Brown, Chairman of the Board for Motorola's British outpost, delivered the good news during a speech to the UK's Institute of Engineering and Technology, saying that agreements with suppliers are largely to thank for the development. Of course, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves -- 2008 is still a little ways off yet -- but coming from the company that brings us the ultra-low-cost (yet still reasonably fashionable) MOTOFONE, we'd like to believe the statement carries some weight. If it all goes down, Mr. Brown believes it'll lead to another 100 million people investing in their first cellphone each and every year, and if that's not motivation for the manufacturers to make it a reality, we don't know what is.
Intel announces specs, production dates for Classmate PC
More news is coming from the Intel Developers Conference: yesterday we found that wireless USB was launching for realz, and now Intel is supposedly ready to drop its sub-$400 notebook for "emerging markets" across the globe. While it seems the company is flaunting one of these every few months, the Classmate PC has actually grown some roots (and a production schedule to boot) from its Edu-Wise beginnings. The ultraportable will house an (unspecified) Intel Celeron M processor, 7-inch 800 x 480 LCD, 256MB of DDR2 RAM, 1GB of NAND goodness, and a (hopefully non-explosive) 6-cell Li-ion battery. No details were revealed regarding the ports or connectivity options, but at least this unit isn't powered by a pull-string, right? Packing a Windows XP embedded OS, the machines are slated to hit full scale production in "Q1 2007," and orders have reportedly already been placed by governments in Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria and India (they've found a winner, apparently). Manufacturing is supposed to be handled by Taiwan's Uniwill Computer, but considering its about to undergo a takeover by Elitegroup Computer Systems, and how sketchy these foreign "order commitments" can become, we're not exactly holding our collective breath for things to roll out without a few setbacks.[Via TGDaily]
Motorola shows variety of entry-level phones
With the exception of the Q, it's been a while since we've had the good fortune of being able to talk about some genuinely new Moto handsets in the pipeline -- not counting the endless array of RAZR, SLVR, and PEBL variants, of course. That looks to have changed thanks to this week's CommunicAsia expo in Singapore, where Motorola's dropped a handful of clever-looking handsets for emerging markets (Nokia, pay attention here). First up is the W170, a roundish ultra low-end candybar sporting a 128 x 128 black and white display with blue backlight, 32 tone polyphony, speakerphone, and FM radio. Next up in the pecking order is the W208, which trades the black and white display for color at the same resolution and a slightly different case design. Finally, arguably the most interesting of the bunch, the W375 clamshell borrows design cues from its pricier cousins in the V3 line but eliminates the external display in favor of a series of status icons. Look for all of these to drop in Q3 and Q4, and if you ask politely, Moto might even drop some of 'em in the States thanks to GSM 850/1900 support.[Via Phone Scoop and Mobilewhack]
Nokia announces 1110i for "first time users"
Apparently there exists a market somewhere for bargain-basement phones, devoid of even the most basic features, that look like they've been sitting in a warehouse somewhere since 1999. Wherever you folks are, Nokia's got you covered with their latest ultra low-end offering, the 1110i. A modest update for the similarly-designed 1110, the 1110i rocks a freshly updated version of S30, 96 x 68 1-bit display with green backlight, 20-tone polyphony with "MP3-grade tones," EGSM 900 / 1800 support, and that's about it. At just €45 ($57) unsubsidized, what's there not to love? Available starting Q3 in areas friendly to dual-band coverage. [Warning: PDF link][Thanks, Donald]
GSMA wants 3G for developing countries
Sure, the OLPC project's connectivity options are all well and good with the promise of WiFi and mesh networking, but how's about tethering that $100 $130 laptop up to some high-speed WWAN action? The GSM Association has announced its "3G for all" initiative to bring UMTS access well beyond its current user base of 72 million people, most of whom reside in industrialized nations. Although OLPC is not specifically mentioned, the synergy is pretty obvious -- we suspect these laptops could find themselves in a few places where WiFi is hard to come by. Besides challenging carriers to build out the network, GSMA is asking manufacturers to develop 3G handsets with the needs of emerging markets in mind, something they've done in the past for 2G handsets with the goal of mass production at the $30 price point. UMTS has a long way to go in some industrialized nations before we see this all happening, but dare to dream, guys -- we're all about $130 laptops tethered to $30 3G-capable phones.
