ITS News

Filed under: None

YouTube has somewhat surreptitiously launched its Mobile site at m.youtube.com. The site is xHTML-optimized for mobile phones, which must have built-in video streaming capabilities (RTSP/3GP with H263/AMR) to take advantage of the site. It also supports video uploading from mobile phones via MMS.

The guys at Gizmodo just spent some time testing out the new site using two 3G phones over Sprint’s EVDO network. Among their findings (which they chronicled in their own video that’s now live on their site):

–Videos must still be uploaded from the phone via SMS, not the site itself

–Streamed videos can’t be downloaded and saved

–The large video files will be both a big drain on battery life and too big for the iPhone’s EDGE network.

Filed under: None

Score another one for AMD.

Reuters (and InfoWorld news) is reporting that Toshiba plans to use AMD processors in up to 20 percent of laptops that it sells throughout Europe and the U.S.

The company will incorporate AMD chips in its “moderate-priced standard models,” as opposed to its top-of-the-line systems. Read: Toshiba’s not necessarily acquiescing that AMD chips outperform Intel’s, hard as AMD tries.

Still, the switch has to hurt for Intel, which recently saw long-time loyal Dell and now Toshiba breaking rank. With its newly announced Santa Rosa laptops showing merely modest performance gains (surprise), now is not the best time for Intel to start sharing its closest customers.

Filed under: None

Many laptop manufacturers originally intended Wednesday, May 9, to be a momentous day, due to their announcement of new Santa Rosa systems. But in light of leaks on almost all of the new notebooks, that day now promises to be a lot like any other.

You name the vendor — Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony, Fujitsu, Asus — and details about its system are probably already circulating ’round the vast mobile blogosphere. Here’s the short list:

Asus W7S, F3SV, A8SC, A7S: Thin-and-light, three mid-sizers, and a desktop replacement

Dell Latitude D630 and D830: Thin-and-light and midsize business laptop lines

Fujitsu LifeBook E8410/8490 and A6030: Thin-and-light and midsize lines

HP Pavilion HDX: Enormous new 12-pound notebook with a 20-inch LCD that runs Media Center

Lenovo ThinkPad T61 and R61: Thin-and-light and midsize lines

Sony VAIO FZ19: Midsize series

Filed under: None

RIM’s just released a new fix for all of the CrackBerry addicts out there: the new BlackBerry 8300 “Curve.” A far cry from the boring black device of prior generations, the new edition has the same QWERTY keyboard but now a sleek silver face and rounded edges that RIM hopes will make the device more appealing to mobile hipsters.

The upgrades go well beyond aesthetics, including a 2 megapixel camera with 5x zoom; a media player and 3.5mm headphone jack; and a microSD card slot. Noticeable absences include a lack of Wi-Fi and 3G support and no video recording capability in the digicam.

Still, reviewers around the Web are giving it their thumbs-up as one of the best all-around smartphones for both business and pleasure. Are they right? You tell me at techtreks@gmail.com.

Filed under: None

The Webby awards were announced this week, and among the winners was a Greenpeace site calling for Apple to make its products more environmentally friendly. In classic Steve Jobs fashion, the Apple mastermind fired back, posting an open letter on Apple’s own site. It’s hard to imagine how Apple could not respond to something like this, since it’s built its whole image around being one of the most forward-thinking companies out there. Yet in responding, Jobs was forced to give at least a few details about future product plans–undoubtedly taking some of the wind out of the sails that are Apple’s super-secretive product announcements.

Among Jobs’ announcements was that it will ship its first Macs with light-emitting diode (LED) display technology this year. The move will enable the company to incorporate less arsenic and mercury in its products by reducing its use of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). This news likely corroborates rumors that have been circulating for the past few months which claim that the 13.3- or 15.4-inch MacBook will be refreshed with an LED in 2007.

Jobs also claims that starting this summer, customers can return their old iPods to any Apple retail store in the world for free recycling. He also pledges to continue Apple’s efforts to reduce its use of other toxic substances like cadmium, hexavalent chromium (which may ring a bell as the deadly carcinogen that Erin Brokovich fought against), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic.

Jobs ends by promising to continue to “openly discuss plans to become a greener Apple.” Note the conspicuous absence of the word “product” before “plans.” While Jobs surely wants to minimize the need to discuss product details before the products themselves are announced, his letter feels like an open door that’s too late to close.

Filed under: None

Intel’s been attaching code names to its mobile products for a long time, but the company’s penchant for code seems to have reached a fever pitch of late. Take last week at IDF. The announcements flying out of Beijing had so many associated code names, I felt like I was reading roll-call in a classroom full of preschoolers named by bougie parents. It’s getting hard for anyone to follow, let alone someone who doesn’t regularly track the industry.

Here’s the gist:

– Santa Rosa: Just over four years ago, Intel introduced a new mobile CPU, chipset, and wireless card all bundled under one code name–Centrino. Since then, the company has refreshed Centrino, but in the true spirit of confusion, each refresh has its own code name as well. Santa Rosa is the latest Centrino refresh. It includes a 65 nanometer, Core 2 Duo processor (Merom); a new chipset with an 800MHz front-side bus (Crestline); and an 802.11n wireless card (Kedron). The refresh is expected next month.

A couple other intriguing Santa Rosa details: it supports Intel Turbo Memory (Robson)–the flash memory that stores enough data that the CPU doesn’t need to tap the hard drive to boot up or access many applications, letting you boot or open apps in a few seconds. Also, it doesn’t support 3G; instead, Intel’s said it’ll be a WiMax-only operation going forward.

– Montevina: Speaking of WiMax, Intel will build support for the technology into Montevina, the refresh of Santa Rosa, which will show up in 2008. The Montevina components will be a Core 2 processor manufactured under a more efficient, 45nm process (Penryn); a chipset that supports a 1,067MHz bus and 800MHz DDR 3 memory (Cantiga); and a WiMax card that shares the same name as Brangelina’s baby (Shiloh).

– McCaslin: Though their overall usefulness is still up in the air, Intel is officially saying “I do” to Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs) with McCaslin, which incorporates one of two Intel processors (Steeley) running at either 600MHz or 800MHz specifically for UMPCs. Devices based on this 2007 version will run Windows Vista, but in 2008, we’ll see the first UMPCs running Linux (Menlow).

Filed under: None

It’s not exactly a mobile-tech topic, but being that I’m one of InfoWorld’s only female bloggers, I couldn’t resist.

Several major research firms are reporting that when it comes to the total number of U.S. web surfers in 2007, females will edge out males, 51.7 percent to 48.3 percent. But as with all surveys, you have to read between the lines to get a sense of what’s really being measured here: many of these firms take into account the Internet habits of females and males as young as two years old.

In another disheartening qualifier, it appears that more and more females are NOT flocking to the web to learn about rocket science–at least if you believe the comments of one eMarketer (female) analyst, who states that ‘the rise of activities that are particularly appealing to young females, such as social networking, will result in even greater usage.’ Ouch.

Firms that stick strictly to adults are still finding that about 3-6 percent more men surf the web than women.

Filed under: None

With the current-generation Toshiba Qosmio G30 barely out of the gate, plans for the next refresh, the G40, have already been leaked.

The big G40 news is that the laptop will come with an HD DVD burner, which you can use to burn discs and then export the video to HDTV using the portable’s HDMI 1.3 port. The new Qosmio will also sport new 512MB GeForce 8600 GT graphics and two 200GB hard drives, along with the same 2GHz Core 2 Duo chip and 17-inch display.

In light of its $3,000 price tag, the new Qosmio still won’t be showing up in many employees’ hands–but that doesn’t mean we can’t dream about it.

Filed under: None

It’s official (insofar as Apple’s cryptic plans surrounding a new product are ever official until you’re actually holding the thing in your hand): the iPhone will arrive this June.

AppleInsider reports that the company spilled the beans in an email to an iPhone-fan subscriber list.

“You’ll be the first to hear the latest about the iPhone–coming this June,” stated said email, which went on to quip “that gives you just enough time to think of ways to break the news to your current phone.”

Here’s hoping that the iPhone lives up to the big attitude Apple’s using to market it.

Filed under: None

Former Microsoft exec Juha Christensen, who played key roles both in lauching MS’s wireless software and founding Symbian, is starting a new company called Sonopia–the goal of which is to let any group become an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator).

It’s the same concept as a branded credit card. After signing up (for free) through Sonopia, groups can provide wireless service (compliments of Verizon Wireless) via various calling packages and even branded handsets. These new-breed MVNOs can also offer photo-sharing, blogging, and personalized content.

Groups get 5 percent of their service’s revenue, and Verizon Wireless also gets a cut.

Those who stand to benefit most are the nonprofits. For example, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF)–which currently has 5 million members–is planning to join, and signing up for the group’s branded wireless service will likely be a no-brainer for many of those members.

With untold numbers of nonprofits starting to offer their own cell service, it’s not hard to conclude who’ll take a hit: the carriers. BusinessWeek.com reports that one Forrester analyst expects Sonopia will draw 10 million users within the next few years. That amounts to 5 percent of cell phone users in the U.S.

It’s cool to think that Sonopia will give nonprofits like the NWF another source of revenue. But this also marks another step in the march toward slapping a brand on anything even remotely sell-able. Living in the Bay Area, maybe I’m more sensitive to this, since every building I drive by these days seems to have someone’s name on it, and our ballparks/sports arenas change names more often than Liz Taylor. Is there a line that branding shouldn’t cross? You tell me at techtreks@gmail.com.