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As we enter into yet another new year, major events will be scheduled to take place throughout 2012 in order to show off new exciting devices. In January we have the Consumer Electronics Show to look forward to, as well as the Mobile World Congress the following month, and it’s this that we wanted to…
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Wireless in 2011 might be summed up in a word — growth. In 2011 wireless phones and tablets became the dominant internet access technology, eclipsing desktop and laptop computers. Smartphone sales surpassed PC sales in 2011 with global smartphone penetration now running 10%.
1. Year of 4G:
Lead by Verizon, LTE became THE access technology, eclipsing WiMAX first introduced some 2 years earlier. Verizon introduced LTE network on Dec. 5, 2010. By Oct. 20, 2011, their 4G LTE network reached more than 186 million Americans. AT&T began offering their competitive 700 MHz LTE service this September and is now in 15 markets reaching approximately 70 million Americans. The real growth is expected in the next few years, with LTE serving 6% of the population by 2016.
Related Dailywireless stories: Details on AT&T’s LTE Rollout, LTE Service in NYC Soon from AT&T?, Cricket Fires Up LTE in Tuscon, Leap Wireless Announces LTE, First LTE Phone from Verizon, AT&T Expands LTE with 4G Phones, T-Mobile Expands HSPA+ 42, AT&T and Verizon: No 700 MHz Interoperability For You!, LTE: 6% By 2016, Global Smartphone Penetration: 10%, Data Subs: 5 Billion by 2016, ITU Global Stats, Motorola Launches Public Safety LTE Solutions, Sprint: We’re Going LTE-Advanced, Too, AT&T LTE Launch: Sep 15, World’s First TD-LTE Service Launched by Mobily, Deloitte: 4G Impact on U.S. $100B , LTE Market Projections, Clearwire Chooses LTE Advanced, Sprint: We’re Going LTE-Advanced, Too , Wireless Routers Go to 4G, LTE Vrs WiMAX: It’s a Wrap!.
2. Mergers (or not):
The death of the $39 billion AT&T/T-Mobile merger this December may have been the biggest story of the year but Google buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion, Qualcomm Buys Atheros, Microsoft buying Skype and Sony Buys Out Ericsson were big deals, too.
Related Dailywireless stories: AT&T Merger Officially Dead , FCC Releases Critical Report on AT&T Merger, Sony Buys Out Ericsson’s 50 Percent Stake, DOJ Blocking AT&T/T-Mobile Merger, Google to Buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion, Google Looses Nortel Patents, Microsoft Buys Skype, Consumer Groups Fight AT&T Merger, AT&T Files for T-Mobile Merger, AT&T Gets Heat on MediaFLO Spectrum, AT&T Buying T-Mobile USA, Qualcomm Buys Atheros, Motorola Splits
3. Satellite Spectrum War:
Phillip Falcone’s Lightsquared has had a year of grief. Lightsquared proposed to use terrestrial towers to transmit LTE using his 57 MHz of satphone spectrum (near 1.6 GHz). It was green lighted by the FCC (pending testing) at the beginning of the year, but objections surrounding GPS interference problems has caused the company to be in the fight for its life all year. Enter Charlie Ergen. His Dish Network bought up the bankrupt ICO and then Terrestar to offer some 40 MHz in interference-free 2.1 (MSS) band. Everybody is now Charlie’s friend.
Related Dailywireless stories: Lightsquared Short on Cash , Lightsquared: A Hardware Solution, LightSquared & Sprint Announce Sharing Agreement, LightSquared Report Card: “F”, Lighsquared Plan B: 2012, Lightsquared: What GPS Interference?, FCC Green Lights Lightsquared, Dish LTE-Advanced Called “Ollo”, Dish Talks Up Terrestrial LTE, Dish Network’s 700 MHz Spectrum, Dish Applies for Terrestrial TD-LTE, Ergen Likely Got TerreStar, EchoStar Closes $2B Hughes Deal, EchoStar to Buy Hughes
4. Social Networks:
The impact of Twitter and Facebook have been huge. Revolutionary, even. From Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street to the economic impact of nearly one billion Facebook users, it was the year of social media. Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other website. Facebook has 800 million total users and 350 million mobile users, the company announced at the end of September. This year, Facebook is expected to bring in $4.05 billion in advertising revenues worldwide, $2.19 billion of which will come from the US.
Related Dailywireless stories: Facebook Mobile Timeline for Android, Facebook iPad App, Facebook Adds Timeline & Streaming, Google+ Open to the Public, Nielsen Social Media Report, Social Media Under Attack, Facebook Unstoppable?, Inside the Libyan Uprising, Al Jazeera & Social Networking, Twitter Turns Five, Facebook Ad Revenue Goes “Bing”
5. Apple and Google Dominate Phones and Tablets:
If the world is going mobile, then there are two clear winners; Apple and Google. Android captured 53% of smartphone sales from January-October 2011, while Apple’s iOS increased their market share to a 29%. Apple’s latest iPhone4S set a sales record while Google’s Android OS became the dominate smartphone operating system. Tablets, pioneered by Apple last year, are still dominated by Apple and its iPad2, but Honeycomb and Android 4 tablets are coming on strong, with Amazon breaking the $200 barrier.
Related Dailywireless stories: iPhone 4S Sales Set Record, Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0, Adobe Kills Flash for Mobile, IOS-5 Vs Android 4.0, Amazon Opens Android App Store, Tablets and Phones Transform to Netbooks, Apple Announces iPad2, Google Books for Honeycomb, Xoom Arrives, iPad Vrs Xoom, Nokia/Microsoft Nokia Ships 2nd Windows Phone, Nokia Dumps Symbian for Microsoft, Android Topples Nokia for Top Spot
6. App Stores:
A million apps, a billion downloads. And most of it free. Is there anything more exciting or empowering? Direct access to the world’s most creative talent is enabling a dramatic shift from the old way of doing business. Is there a better time to be alive?
Related Dailywireless stories: App Stores One Million Apps — And Growing Fast, Pocket Supercomputer, Top iPhone App Creator is 14 Years Old, Amanda Hocking: e-Book Sensation, Top 10 Wireless Apps for Android and iPhone, New Twitter, Facebook and Google Apps and Features , Halloween Apps, Netflix New Mobile App Google Goggles 1.6, Amazon Opens Appstore, Apps Enter the Twilight Zone, Medical Devices Mobilize , Social Bikes
7. White Spaces:
Unused television frequencies became a hot potato at year end. They promise inexpensive, unlicensed, WiFi-like access over blocks in urban areas and miles in rural areas. Broadcasters and cellular providers are opposed to the idea for those very same reasons. “Free” access is opposed by some in Congress who want to sell off the spectrum to the highest bidder (large telecom companies). Most tech companies and consumers welcome cheaper, more ubiquitous connections.
Related Dailywireless stories: FCC Authorizes White Space Service in Wilmington , White Space Trialed, Bills to Kill Unlicensed White Space?, White Space Trial Completed, Huawei to Trial White Space, Ofcom: White Spaces by 2013, White Space: Now With TD-LTE?, White Space To Go, White Space War, White Spaces Get IEEE Standard,
8. Security Threats:
Proof that The End is near seemed to be coming from The Chinese, The Russians, The US Government, Google, Apple, Anonymous, Stuxnet and WiFi which seemed to know Everything About You.
Related Dailywireless stories: SCADA: How Big a Threat?, Chinese Telecoms Investigated As Security Threat, Google Adds Opt Out to WiFi Mapping, Communications Law: Net Neutrality & Surveillance, Behavioral Targeting: Kill/Capture, Retention Times of Your Cell Info, Stuxnet: Year One, Google: Opt-Out of WiFi Location Going Global, Android Owners Least Prepared for Security Threats, Street View Cars Captured WiFi Devices, How Your Location & Preferences are Recorded, Do Wireless Devices Cause Cancer?, Phone Tracking: Hot Button Issue, Stealth UAV Relays Video to White House, Zombie Satellite Under Control, Japan Tsunami & Quake
9. Public Service Radio:
At first the issue was whether the public would be better served with commecial LTE providers bidding on the 700 MHz “D Block” to deliver shared public/private service – especially in the rural areas. Then the Obama administration did a flip-flop, supporting a dedicated, nationwide LTE network exclusively for first responders. Now the issue is how to pay for the $15 billion network.
Related Dailywireless stories: First Responders Get Bills for D-Block, D-Block Legislation Stalled, Seybold: Furgetabout Video on LTE Public Safety Band, Broadband Disability Act, Public Safety Net Removed from Debt Ceiling Bill, D-Block Gets a Hearing, Oregon’s $600M Public Safety Network Likely Killed, Colorado’s State-Wide Radio Net Underperforming, Oregon’s $600M Public Safety Network Likely Killed, National Wireless Initiative, White House: D-Block to Police/Fire
10. Birth of TD-LTE Advanced and Satellite Broadband:
The ITU initially defined “4G” as 100 Mbps speed – something only available using Advanced LTE. Clearwire was the first carrier to publicly support the standard, dumping WiMAX in the process for Time Division LTE as early as next year. TD-LTE won a huge victory with support from China and India, with other countries expected to support the standard in the 2.3 and 2.6 GHz band. Meanwhile, the first practical broadband internet satellites were launched by ViaSat, delivering real speed – up to 10 Mbps uncapped – made possible by the latest generation of High Throughput Satellites.
Related Dailywireless stories: WiMAX to TD-LTE: Everybody’s Doin’ It, Clearwire Chooses LTE Advanced , Sprint’s Network Vision Detailed , Sprint’s LTE Rollout Detailed, China Mobile Talks Up TD-LTE iPhone, China Mobile + Clearwire + Apple?, India: TD-LTE Next Year?, TD-LTE: It’s Alive!, Will Sprint Go TD-LTE?, Cisco Router in Space Goes Commercial, ViaSat-1 Launched, New High Capacity Satellites for North America, Inmarsat Readies Ka-band for Aeronautical Service, High Throughput Satellite Goes Live, Eutelsat + Russia Grow Satellite Neighborhood
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Samsung has announced their two new Galaxy-branded Android smartphones. The two of them will features dual-SIM function. Introducing the Samsung Y Duos and Y Duos Pro.
The Y Duos is a slab-style device with a 3.14-inch display and 832MHz processor. On the other hand, the Y Duos Pro is a monoblock QWERTY device with a 2.6-inch touch screen. Both of the handsets packed with 3-megapixel cameras with video capture; Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, and GPS; accelerometer, compass, and proximity sensors; and support for microSD cards up to 32GB. Also, those two devices runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS. As for the availability, the Y Duos and Y Duos Pro to hit African, Asian, and South American markets in 2012.
[via PhoneScoop]
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Christmas has ended and with just a matter of days left until the start of a brand new year, we ask ourselves what the next twelve months will offer in terms of new devices. So far on the horizon, Apple are rumored to be bringing out a new iPhone 5 as well as a new…
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Ball Aerospace is working on a key component of a demonstration telescope under a DARPA program to develop full-motion video surveillance from satellites in geosynchronous orbit, reports Graham Warwick at Aviation Week’s Ares Blog.
DARPA’s Membrane Optic Imager Real-Time Exploitation (MOIRE) program would give a geosynchronous satellite the ability to unfurl a micro-thin diffractive-optics membrane, forming a massive segmented lens. Ball plans to demonstrate the manufacturability of a 20 meter telescope, using the technology.
The goal is the development of a large, lightweight, geosynchronous space-based telescope using advanced diffractive optics membrane to provide persistent, real-time, tactical video to the war fighter. A 20-meter-diameter lens would be able to image an area greater than 100 x 100 km with a video update rate of at least one frame a second, reports Aviation Week.
Other key technologies needed for the program are lightweight structures able to stabilize the membrane optics, secondary optical elements that can turn the diffraction lenses into an imaging device, and image stabilization and geolocation.
The KH-9 (Hexagon) was the early 1960s replacement for the earlier Corona spy satellites that delivered sub-2 meter resolution from an orbit of 100 miles by 150 miles. It used a f/3.0 folded Wright Camera, with a focal length of 60 in (1.5 m).
Bio-Rad offers world’s largest collection of IR spectra that might be handy for interpretation, identification, verification, and classification of hyper-spectral data. But live, two meter resolution from geosynchronous space (pdf) might be a lofty goal — especially if it’s cloudy.
Large antennas planned for space include the James Webb Space Telescope, Single Aperture Far-Infrared Observatory, Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, International X-ray Observatory and NRO’s geosynchronous satellites with 328 ft antennas.
Iran may have captured Lockheed Martin’s RQ-170 drone, which uses full-motion video on a single-channel — but that’s considered passe by CIA hipsters. The single-sensor capability is now being multiplied by 65 times, with a compound eye.
The BAS-developed, Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (Argus-IS or Gorgon Stare) combines wide-area coverage (40 sq. km) and 15-cm-resolution detail and may soon be on sentry duty in Afghanistan.
The A-160 drone helicopter can track people and vehicles from altitudes above 20,000 feet equipped with the 1.8 gigapixel Argus sensor, and scan almost 25 square miles.
TacSat-4 flies in a highly elliptical 4-hour orbit, allowing 1 to 2-hour dwells on each pass. Handheld satphone radios don’t need antennas pointed directly at a satellite. If you need real-time sensor data from buoys a couple hundred miles off the coast, that kind of loitering could fill a niche.
Three wideband Cisco Space Routers in polar Molniya orbit might tie the Northern hemisphere together (simulation).
Meanwhile, Canada’s Radarsat 2 satellite was successfully launched more than a year ago while high resolution sat photos can be ordered from GeoEye, DigitalGlobe and Spot and are used on Google Maps and Microsoft Live.
Related DailyWireless stories include; Stealth UAV Relays Video to White House, UAV Spy Platforms, Highly Elliptical Com Satellite Launched, UAV Spy Platforms, Satellite with 328 ft Antenna to Launch, F.I.A. FUBAR, Space Cold War, Chinese Destroy Satellite – Create Space Debris Field, Space Radar Launch, Satellite Jam, Lockheed CEO: Space is Broken, NRO Rides Again, T-Minus 10 for Space X, Routers in Space, Fiber Crosses the Pond, Canaveral Double Header for DOD, Space Capsule, Another Billion for WIN-T, Small Satellite Conference, SkyNet Satellite Hacked?, Russian Satellite Zapped?, Satellites from Subs, Advanced EHF – Wait for It, EELV Rocket Program Merges, Space Mist, Tracking the NRO, Rocket Welfare, Mapping Santa, GOES-N Launched, Crisis at NOAA, Pacific Satellites Fail and Unwired in Maui.
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White HTC Radar 4G was spotted on Microsoft’s website. This quite a little surprise since typically when the device first launch, it will come in black variant. However, in this case it seems the device striking the market with many’s fav color, white.
The funny thing is there’s no official words on the device black version. On top of that, we have not hear much regarding the Radar 4G specs.
[via Phonedog]
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So whether or not you have managed to get hold of the Asus Transformer Prime Android tablet or you are still waiting to snap it up or have it on pre-order, when you do get to play the your Tegra 3 Asus Transformer Prime, you’ll need some Tegra 3 games to spend your downtime playing,…
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On Tuesday, the organization, known as US-CERT, (U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team), issued a warning about a security hole in the Wi-Fi Protected Set-up protocol often used on Wi-Fi routers.
The Wi-Fi Protected Set-up or WPS protocol is designed to allow home users to easily set up the encryption method WPA without much hassle, explains C/Net. Using the protocol, users type in a shortened PIN, which frees them from entering a long pass-phrase, when adding a new device to the secure network.
But the simplified PIN may also make it easier for hackers to break, using brute force techniques.
“When the PIN authentication fails the access point will send an EAP-NACK message back to the client. The EAP-NACK messages are sent in a way that an attacker is able to determine if the first half of the PIN is correct. Also, the last digit of the PIN is known because it is a checksum for the PIN. This design greatly reduces the number of attempts needed to brute force the PIN. The number of attempts goes from 108 to 104 + 103 which is 11,000 attempts in total,” the US-CERT advisory says.
The warning lists several wireless router vendors affected by the security hole, including: Buffalo, D-Link, Cisco Linksys, Netgear, Technicolor, TP-Link, and ZyXEL. US-CERT said in its warning that there is no known fix to the security problem. Instead, the group suggests that users disable the WPS function on their routers.
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Samsung has just announced that the Galaxy S won’t be getting Android 4.0 OS aka Ice Cream Sandwich update. This surely an unfortunate announcement by Samsung for the Galaxy S’ users. However, Samsung has their own reason for this sad news.
The main reason was due to hardware limitations that would not be able to run the new Android platform alongside Samsung’s custom TouchWiz user interface. But, we are looking closely, something is up. Since the Android 4.0 OS update is available for the Samsung Nexus S which pretty much similar to the Galaxy S. The device packed with 1GHz Hummingbird processor and enough memory for ICS.
[via SlashGear]
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Thinner, faster, smarter Milestone™ 3 offers unprecedented mobile power
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