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GSM Association gets everyone together for phone e-wallets
With services like NTT DoCoMo's FeliCa-based Osaifu-Keitai in Japan and Mifare deployed through much of Europe, perhaps one of the last great hurdles to widespread acceptance of phone-based e-wallets is a lack of standardization. Either that, or most people don't feel the need to pay for things by tapping their phone on various devices, but we digress; the point is that the GSM Association has now taken up the cause of getting everyone on the same page with its global "Pay-Buy Mobile" initiative. We really mean global, too -- among a slew of carriers, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Vodafone, and KTF are on board, representing the US, Japan, Europe, and South Korea, respectively, and the manufacturer camp counts Nokia, Samsung, and LG as its members. The first Pay-Buy Mobile trials are schedule to kick off this October, a schedule that is probably helped along by the availability of existing software and chips from Sony and NXP and the GSMA's pledge to build off financial institutions' existing NFC initiatives. We can't promise we'll use it -- but yeah, if it's secure, go ahead and build it into our phones, folks.[Via Phone Scoop]
NXP delivers the next "world's smallest" WiFi chip: BGM220
Sheesh, this race for the "world's smallest" anything is seriously getting out of hand, but if it'll make our future handsets and wireless routers a tenth of a cubic centimeter smaller than before, we suppose we'll have to digress. NXP Semiconductors is reportedly ready to "start sampling a single-package 81-pin TFBGA WiFi chip that it says is the smallest device yet for 802.11 b/g connectivity." The GBM220 is, of course, eying the lucrative mobile handset market first and foremost, but handheld gaming systems and PDAs will certainly be in the mix as well. The chip itself comes in at a wee five- x five-millimeters, supports SDIO / SPI host interfaces, handles WPA2 / WMM, features an "ultra-low power drain," and should play nice with Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Symbian, and Linux. NXP's minuscule WiFi chip is slated to reach "volume production" by Q4 of this year, but you probably won't even notice the difference when planted in your forthcoming gizmo.[Via WiFi-Planet]
NPX and Mango team up for Mango Research Magic 380 portable GPS unit
NPX's swGPS tech isn't just for making photo location tagging easier, it's also powering Mango's 380 portable navigation unit, claiming to provide better performance and accuracy through software location processing, eliminating the traditional GPS baseband processing chip. Otherwise, the 380 sounds pretty traditional, with a Samsung touchscreen, stereo audio and an optional external RDS/TMC module for real-time traffic and data services. Supposedly the swGPS tech allows the unit to be slimmer than your average device, but we don't have the dimensions on hand to confirm that. No word on price or availability either, but Mango was showing this off at CeBIT, so it shouldn't be too far off.
NXP Software's swGPS SnapSpot tech for GPS photo tagging
Sony got a good jump on the industry with its proprietary GPS-CS1 device for geotagging Cybershot pics, but NXP Software's new SnapShot is playing catch-up at PMA this week, and it looks like the company has a compelling offer. SnapShot reduces power consumption of GPS tagging by separating the capture and the processing of GPS signals, allowing the chip to be only turned on for a short time while obtaining a signal, and then having that data processed by your computer to be imbedded in your photos as they download. Of course, this means you'll have to run your pics through the swGPS software, which can be a bit of a hassle, but no more a hassle than having a GPS module half your battery life. Unfortunately, what NXP doesn't have is a product: they're showing of a credit card-sized accessory module, which could also be easily embedded into a camera, but they're leaving it up to other manufacturers to take the ball and run with it. Until then, we always have our hacks.
Sony, NXP to cooperate on NFC standard
Using cellphones to pay for stuff via NFC (near-field communications) is certainly nothing new; Sony, for one, has been doing it for years with its FeliCa system in Japan. Regardless of how dominant FeliCa or NXP's Mifare are, though, standardization is always a welcome move in an industry that hasn't quite taken off yet on a global scale. Sony and NXP have committed to putting their noggins together to come up with a unified standard for NFC payments that will ultimately support both FeliCa and Mifare-based equipment, while also bringing together two of the most widely-deployed systems to date. Given that both Sony and NXP parent Philips are members of the NFC Forum, we have hope that this announcement lines up nicely with that group's efforts, too, rather than going against the grain with a parallel effort. Not to say we'd put that kind of buffoonery past Sony, of course.
