Mobile TV: The Next Killer-App

Amid the flurry of activity and hype surrounding mobile TV, various network models and technology platforms have emerged to offer their services

There is presently a great deal of industry hype surrounding 'mobile television'. Noted by some to be the next 'killer app' of the mobile sector, and dismissed by others as having no sustainable business model, mobile TV is a conjure of possibilities. It lies at the eye of a maelstrom of technologies, network models and frequency bands, waiting for many trials to end and the manifestation of a clue as to the most practical and commercially viable direction.
Experiencing TV on handheld devices raises a whole new set of issues that have spawned several new broadcast technology platforms. Attracting the most attention globally is the digital video broadcast to handhelds (DVB-H) standard, which is derived from digital video broadcast terrestrial (DVB-T). The important difference is that DVB-H transmits the signal in bursts in order to conserve handset battery life. It also incorporates greater forward error correction, essential for boosting handheld reception.Another significant difference is the data encapsulation technique. The DVB-H stream is an IP datacast at 200 to 500kbps/program, yielding up to 50 programs in an 8MHz channel. This resolution is sufficient for the tiny handset screen. In contrast, standard-definition DVB-T uses MPEG-2 (or MPEG-4) encoding at 4 to 5Mbps/program, yielding up to five 'standard resolution' programs per channel.
DVB-H is not the only mobile TV platform finding favor. Korea and China are the first to embrace terrestrial digital multimedia broadcast (T-DMB), derived from the Eureka 147 digital audio broadcast (DAB) standard. Moreover, Qualcomm has developed the forward link only (FLO) technology for the delivery of multimedia content. T-DMB, FLO and DVB-H have each addressed the same handset-related issues-battery life, reception and screen resolution-albeit in different ways.
It Starts with Delivery
The choice of technology platform is just one element of delivery-and delivery just one consideration-in the riddle that is mobile TV. Commercial imperatives drive all, and are also dependent on such aspects as consumer viewing habits, handset development, content licensing and government regulatory environment. Yet it is with delivery that the whole mobile TV enterprise gets moving, and delivery infrastructure that represents a significant proportion of capital outlay. Consequently, the question of which delivery model proves best, and most cost-effective, is one of high interest.
Speculation is compounded by the existence of several different industry players. On the one hand, there are the mobile communications carriers. These have an existing subscriber base and perceive mobile TV as a means of extending and differentiating their service. Many have introduced third-generation (3G) mobile TV services based on universal mobile telecommunications service (UMTS) in recent months, while at the same time partnering broadcast-based mobile TV trials.
It is generally well accepted that UMTS-based mobile TV has limitations. The service is here and available now, but the unicast (one-to-one) nature of UMTS means that as the viewer base grows, mobile TV will not be sustainable on this platform-even as UMTS heads towards '3G long term evolution' (3G LTE) or in-band cellular broadcast techniques such as multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS). Recent reports have suggested that it makes more sense to use the spectrum for wireless data services that can be charged at a higher rate than can television.
Mobile carriers are therefore turning to broadcast models for mobile TV. Their quest to utilize existing base station sites has led to the 'cellular overlay' model for mobile TV, where broadcast infrastructure is deployed at mobile base stations to provide mobile TV coverage in a similar way to a cell-based mobile network.

Source- ciol.com

Nokia phones may use smell, solar power

Phones with 100 gigabyte hard disks, high-definition video cameras, high-detail displays, surround sound and a built-in movie-projectors are all possible by 2009

Shooting video with a mobile phone may seem cool today, but imagine a phone that could capture the smell of a foreign country to bring home and release to your friends. Or what about a mobile that never needs to be charged because of solar cells hidden under its surface.
Don't expect such phones to be in the shops next week, or even next year, but these are some of the ideas Nokia, the world's biggest handset maker, is researching. "Sensors will be big. Sensors that will detect movement, location, altitude," Tero Ojanpera, Nokia's chief technology officer said in an interview on the fringes of two conferences in Hongkong. And smell is a feature that could one day be part of a mobile phone. "As a mass-market application it's pretty far out, but there are certain ways of releasing a smell. I believe this is possible," Ojanpera said.
Nokia is not packing features into its phones for the sake of it, he said, in response to the endless debate as to whether or not consumers really want the telecommunications equivalent of a multi-purpose Swiss army knife. "It's not just about packing in features, like a screw driver and scissors that have nothing to do with each other." "Fundamentally, I think the concept of a Swiss army knife is wrong. It's how we combine (related) capabilities. You can play music as an MP3 player, but you can also download music and embed it with video that you just took. How they will interact we don't even know today," he said.

BETTER, NOT BIGGER
In the more immediate future, consumers can expect better versions of the phones they are already familiar with, Ojanpera said. 100 gigabyte hard disks, high-definition video cameras, high-detail displays, surround sound and a built-in movie-projectors are all possible by 2009, he said. Those features will first appear on the most expensive handsets which will cost more than desktop computers.
However, Nokia is not just aiming its technology at the wealthy, Ojanpera said. This year another 500 million people will become mobile phone users, and most of them live in emerging economies where there is not always electricity from a socket in the wall to charge a phone. "The next billion subscribers after the 3 billion subscribers this year will probably come from areas where electricity is not a given, he said." As an alternative, Nokia looked at fuel cells, which generate electricity from liquid in cartridges through an electro-chemical process, but decided this was impractical. "We looked at fuel cells, but we've come to the conclusion that usability is not really there. It's not so much a technology issue but a usability problem," he said. "Then there's solar energy, but I don't think it will fly until it's integrated into the phone, in some way under the surface. We're studying how to do that," Ojanpera said.
Nokia is also looking at the energy consumption of the various applications on phones. "We need to focus on total energy management. When do you power up the chip for video processing, the radio," he said. And all consumers looking for standby times longer than the current maximum of around two weeks can expect to be able to charge their phone less frequently in future. "They (standby times) will improve," he said. Nokia is working on practical solutions for practical problems, Ojanpera said. "I'm telling the researchers: 'Don't sit in Helsinki. Go do things with people'."

Source- ciol.com

Nokia launches its E62 smartphone

The Nokia E62 comes with inbuilt memory of 90MB and supports multiple email solution

Nokia announced the launch of its E62 smartphone in the country, making India the second nation in the world after US to sell the Nokia E62 Smartphone. The Nokia E62 comes with inbuilt memory of 90MB. It supports multiple email solutions and provides advanced voice functions including conference calling with up to six callers.
In addition, it offers superior web experience with large Active Matrix Display of up to 16 million colors. With the growing mobility demands of a business traveler, the Nokia E62 smartphone has been packed with quad-band support for GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE 850/ 900/1800/1900.
It has enhanced security features like Remote Device Lock and device wipe, SSL 3.0/TSL 1.0, OMA DRM Forward-lock and third party add-ons like PointSec Data Protection and Symantec Firewall, Nokia said in a statement.Chakrapani GK, country general manager, Nokia Enterprise Solutions, said, “According to InStat, a leading market research firm, 18.8 million smartphones were sold in APAC in 2006 and this number is expected to increase to 64.2 million by 2010. We have introduced the Nokia E62 smartphone to catalyze this growing need for enterprise mobility.”
Nokia E62 has a full messaging keyboard and supports the Nokia PC Suite. Imported business attachments received via e-mail, such as document presentations and spreadsheets, can be easily accessed via the Quickoffice viewer. It supports multiple audio formats that include MP3, MPEG4 (ACC), RealAudio and MIDI formats.
The phone has a number of connectivity options that include Bluetooth, Infrared, USB data cable and the Nokia PC Suite.It also supports Adobe Reader and WinZip Manager. The phone supports multiple e-mail solutions like Intellisync Wireless Email, GoodLink, Seven Always-On Mail, Blackberry Connect, and ConstantSync Mail for Exchange.