As a Steve McQueen fan you can just dream away on the wonderful 60’s tunes from the soundtrack of Bullit (’68) by famous Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin. Schifrin has also been responsible for the soundtracks of Dirty Harry, and Mission Impossible among many others.
The chances of me being genuinely amazed at something I see a Belgian tech company achieve are rather slim. But occasionally, it happens. Last week Robin Wauters from TechCrunch went to a local entrepreneur meetup BetaGroup and saw five startups pitch their stuff to the 200-person audience.
The last one to get its five minutes of fame was Cherry, a new mobile operator that promised to “revolutionize the telecom world”. Needless to say, I was as curious as I was skeptical.
Then the company’s CEO got up on stage, introduced himself, took out his Nokia smartphone, called some random guy in the audience and had him call him back on his phone afterwards. Projecting his mobile phone screen on a bigger screen for everyone to see, he demonstrated how he didn’t need to launch an application and just browsed his contact list to call the other person. Standard functionality, sure, but the cool part of it was the fact that the phone was lacking the presence of a SIM card, which is supposed to identify you as a subscriber of a telephony service.
I was intrigued. By now you’ll have guessed that the calling was done over Wi-Fi, which I suppose isn’t really unique even if it made me wonder how they did it without launching a third-party app like Skype. Looking to learn more, I went to their official coming-out event the evening after, when they presented the newly founded company to a host of local geeks in more detail, giving them the chance to beta-test the service for a couple of weeks to iron out bugs before launching publicly.
Here’s how it works: Cherry - which is essentially an MVNO - pre-installs software (so yes, in the demo there was actually an application running in the background) on smartphones which it will sell as a packaged product, starting with a Symbian version for Nokia E-Series phones and expanding to other platforms later. Once activated, Cherry lets you call your contacts either over Wi-Fi or the GSM network when you insert a SIM card. Take out the card, and you can only call over a wireless Internet connection.
The funky part? Cherry automatically switches you from one to the other. This process, called a handover, can seriously cut into your current calling and roaming costs when you’re a frequent traveler or on the road often, and it doesn’t even require you to change numbers. You could easily dial your office number from your home over Wi-Fi, leave the house and have the software automatically have Cherry switch you over to a carrier’s cellular network once you’re out of range. There’s no interruption of service during the handover, which means you won’t even notice - until you receive your bill, since it’s obviously cheaper to call over Wi-Fi than the GSM network. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this automatic handover is a quite unique value proposition.
The new line of THINERGY Micro-Energy Cells from Infinite Power Solutions Inc (IPS) could soon be powering small devices such as autonomous wireless sensors, powered smart cards, active RFID applications, and implantable medical devices. The manufacturer says these tiny, rechargeable, thin-film batteries combine the energy density of traditional batteries with the high discharge current of supercapacitors. With some models measuring just 0.5 inches square (12.7mm) and less than 0.01 inches thick (0.17mm), IPS claims these are the most powerful batteries for their size.
While the free-market works pretty well when, uh, left alone to be free, sometimes it needs a push from a visible hand. Case in point, phone chargers; at the moment some 30 different types of chargers are used with handsets throughout Europe. Today, the European Commission received industry backing of its phone charger standard that relies on a micro-USB socket. The standard is now backed by all the majors (representing 90% of the European mobile market) including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments with compatible devices starting to appear in Europe next year. Or course, the micro-USB charger standard already has the blessings of CTIA, OMTP, and GSM Association which implies a broader adoption beyond Europe, someday
 
From version to version, it always gets rewarded as the most functional, the best of its segment, but Aliph, the creators, always find new edges and concerns to further enhance the most acclaimed headset, the Jawbone. The successor is proudly and firmly dubbed Prime and appears on the scene in a variety of colors such as black, platinum, green or orange with the task to add a smile to your gear. Prime’s improved Noise Assassin technology is ready to sneak through 10mph fast walls of wind, a readjusted fit and sensitized voice activity conception ensures a fail-safe and merciless function, and the subtle textured surface further refines the minimalistic styling. Further features are composed of added Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR and offers a talk time of 4 hours and up to 8 days standby.
Alberto, who was vacationing in Mexico must have expected nothing but a good relaxing time away from all the hassles of the world. During this holiday, I think he assumed he could finally catch one of the best animated flicks, Wall-E. He must have thought the fastest way is to download it over his wireless carrier’s network. Little did he know that this would result in a sky high bill of $62,000. Even Wall-E and Eva’s love isn’t worth that much money! Obviously, he complained to the carrier about this and they decided to bring down the cost. They only charged him bandwidth costs which still amount to a whopping $17,000. Hmm I like Wall-E but just the DVD for me!
There was a time when one microphone was enough then that predictable doubling happens, and those advanced system was touted as the most refined audio experience ever. No Surprise that they’ve introduced a headset that is able to simultaneously use three microphones to almost totally exclude any unwanted noise or echoes. LG is proud to pioneer its tri-mic audio solution in a slender prolonged form factor that just weights a mere 12 grams and serves a hands-free conversation for up to 4 hours of talk time and 150 stand-by hours. Apart, it further features voice activated dialing, a multi-directional power slide switch and auto-volume function.
 
Announced a while back, the Tag Heuer Meridiist mobile phone is one step closer to reality for those few people willing to lay down the dough for one - with the launch of it’s new interactive website: www.tagheuer.com/meridiist. The new site shows the luxury Meridiist mobile phones in their full glory. In a world where watch makers try to convince certain stubborn members of the public that wrist watches make better time tellers than mobile phones, some compies like Tag Heuer are adopting an “if you can’t beat em, join ‘em” mentality.
The concept of a luxury mobile phone is spurious to some - but for others, even the limited technological shelf life of these masterful creations is too much to resist. The Meridiist will be constructed with the same quality as watches and with many of the same materials including sapphire crystal screens, high quality steel cases, and crocodile or rubber covers on parts of the watch. The watch is available also in PVD covered titanium, and in a variety of color choices. The phone itself is an unlocked 3G GSM worldphone with a basic (non-smart phone) operating system. Still, it is said to have Internet connectivity, basic office productivity functions, and Bluetooth.
The phone features two screens. The upper one (on the top of the phone) being an OLED screen that is meant to show the time, or for the stopwatch feature. Available with the Meridiist is a matching Tag Heuer Bluetooth headset. Tag Heuer is proud of the “mechanical” shutter on the camera that is pretty basic at 2MP. Overall it is a sweetly made case for just a decent phone. It will remain looking like a sweetly made phone, even after it is technologically obsolete. Prices vary and I imagine will be about $4,000 - $6,000. Look for them in select high end watch stores.
 Driving remote-controlled toy cars with a BlackBerry Storm is cool enough, but the McLaren team takes that idea way beyond that, using the smartphone to control an actual car. Look what happens when Formula 1 champion driver Lewis Hamilton drives a $4 million McLaren F1 racecar with his cell phone.
Famed Swiss watchmaker Ulysse Nardin has partnered with European firm SCI Innovations to create what’s being billed as the world’s first hybrid smartphone, blending a high-tech communications tool with a classic and elegant timepiece. Dubbed the Chairman, the luxurious limited edition phone pairs cutting-edge kinetic technology with the pedigree of Ulysse Nardin, founded in 1846. The Chairman will be launched at the Ulysse Nardin booth at BaselWorld in Switzerland at the end of the month, and will go on sale later this year.
While details are limited, we can tell you that the phone will be able to use any mobile phone service provider in the world and includes several components never seen before in a smartphone. A Ulysse Nardin kinetic rotor system has been incorporated into the Chairman’s mechanical and aesthetic design. The blue and rose gold phone is hand-assembled under the watchmaker’s strictest guidelines, and each bears a numbered plaque.