Intel and Nokia Announce Long-Term Relationship

In a deal intended to strengthen Intel's push into the mobile computing arena, the Santa Clara chip maker and Finnish cell phone giant Nokia on Tuesday announced what they called a long-term relationship to develop new mobile devices.

Under the arrangement, the companies said they will work together on chip design and open-source software. Intel recently has entered that field with its Linux-based operating system called Moblin, designed to function on portable devices, and Nokia has a Linux-based operating system, dubbed Maemo. In addition, Intel will license some modem technology from Nokia.

However, executives with the two companies repeatedly declined during a conference call and a later interview to discuss what type of devices they might make and to what extent Nokia might use Intel's chips.

"We will talk about products when we are ready to talk about products, but that is not for today's discussion," said Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's ultra mobility group.

"There is a lot of room for innovation here, to really define what mobile can do," said Kai Öistämö, Nokia's executive vice president for devices. "It's a future full of different possibilities." After the announcement, Intel's stock rose 13 cents to $15.81 at the close of trading.

No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, and the two executives were evasive about when their collaborative discussions began. They said only that their companies have been doing joint research for several years. In May, Intel, Nokia and a number of other companies formed an association to promote rapid new wireless technology for shuttling data among computers, high-definition television sets and other devices in homes.

Although details about the agreement announced Tuesday remain vague, the deal suggests intriguing possibilities for Intel. Although the company's x86 microprocessors serve as the brains in most personal computers and servers, it sees the rapidly expanding market for mobile computing devices as one of its biggest growth opportunities. And the cell phone business, where Nokia is the world's biggest manufacturer, is an area Intel is especially keen to enter.

Intel, whose chips are not used in Nokia products, has so far been shut out of the cell phone market. That's largely because Intel's microprocessors use too much power to enable the phones to maintain sufficient battery life. Instead, cell phones use low-power chips based on technology developed by ARM, a small company in the United Kingdom.

Öistämö said Nokia plans to continue working with ARM-based chip makers. But Intel hopes to break into the cell phone market with future versions of a chip it introduced in March last year, called Atom, which uses less power than other Intel microprocessors and is relatively inexpensive. Moblin, one of the open-source software systems that Intel and Nokia will collaborate on, works well with the Atom chip, the companies noted in their joint press release.

What sort of devices the two companies might develop remains unclear. Nokia has been rumored this year to be considering making netbooks, which are smaller than laptops. Intel, whose microprocessors already are in laptops and netbooks, is promoting its chips for even tinier gadgets, including phones.

In their press release, the companies said they hoped to "define a new mobile platform beyond today's smart-phones, notebooks and netbooks." The deal drew mixed reviews from analysts.

"This is a compelling partnership," Jack Gold, founder of technology research firm J. Gold Associates, based in Massachusetts, said in a note to his clients. "We do not envision Nokia abandoning its core dependence on the ARM architecture in the short term, but longer term (two to three years) we expect Nokia to offer devices based on Atom." Gold added that "this collaboration could limit the impact Google's Android operating system will have on the netbook market."

But J.P. Morgan analyst Christopher Danely was less enthusiastic about the partnership, writing to his clients that "we don't expect much to come out of it."

While the deal "should help Intel in its quest to generate wireless design wins for its Atom processor," Danely concluded, "we continue to believe the deficiencies of Atom in power consumption, cost and software relative to other applications processors render it an uncompetitive product."

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_12672076?source=email

Tags: Intel, Nokia, Strategic Partnership, Jack Gold, Atom, ARM chips, Google Android, Christopher Danley, JP Morgan, Silicon Valley, Moblin, Santa Clara, Netbooks, Maemo, Global IT News,

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Virgin, Universal Launch Music Download Service

LONDON — Virgin Media, the cable TV operator owned by entrepreneur Richard Branson, launched a new kind of music download subscription service today with Universal, the world's largest music company.

The service, described by the companies as a world first, will allow Virgin Media's broadband customers in Britain to stream and download as many songs and albums as they like from Universal's catalog for a fee. But entertainment lawyers said the service was unlikely to solve the global music industry's problem of billions of dollars lost to music piracy, and would need to offer content from big-name entertainers to be attractive to consumers.

Universal, by far the biggest industry player, has a roster of talent that includes U2, Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse, Duffy and James Morrison. Virgin said it was continuing talks with other British major and independent music labels and publishers about including their artists in the new service. The music will be available to download in an MP3 format, giving buyers the ability to listen on a range of devices, including iPods, mobile phones and PCs as well as other MP3 players.

The subscription service, due to be available later this year, builds on mobile phone unlimited download services such as Nokia's "Comes With Music," — allowing for a massive range of music to be downloaded — as the industry fights a losing battle against illegal downloading.

Revenue from digital music sales rose 25 percent last year to $3.7 billion, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. But those legitimate music sales did not come close to offsetting the billions of dollars being lost to music piracy — an estimated 95 percent of music downloads are still unauthorized.

IFPI Chairman John Kennedy said the new Virgin-Universal deal was "the kind of partnership" between a music company and an internet service provider (ISP) that he expects to shape the future of the music business internationally.

The IFPI has been harshly critical of ISPs in the past for exploiting loopholes in copyright laws to allow them to avoid clamping down on people who illegally download music using their services. "It epitomizes the way in which the music business is adapting to the digital world, embracing new business models and responding to the changing needs of consumers," Kennedy said of the new service.

"It also marks new ground in ISPs' willingness to take steps to protect copyrighted content on their networks, and that sets a very encouraging example to the whole industry," he added. Virgin and Universal said they expected the new service to "drive a material reduction in the unauthorized distribution of its repertoire across Virgin Media's network."

They said they will also attempt educate file sharers about online piracy, temporarily suspending Internet access for persistent offenders. Virgin did not release details of the anticipated monthly subscription costs Monday, but said an "entry level" offer would also be available for customers who download music regularly, but may not want an unlimited service.

"Britain has a world-class reputation for artists and music," said Lucian Grainge, Chairman and Chief Executive of Universal Music Group International. "Now British consumers will have access to a world-class digital music service. I believe this puts all of us at the forefront of a new era." But Jerry Reisman, a partner at U.S. law firm Reisman, Peirez and Reisman said that the Virgin-Universal deal will not make a big dent in the piracy market.

"The Virgin Media platform may add options for the over 30 crowd but the under 20 segment will still pirate the music for free," said Reisman.

Cliff Fluet, a partner at London law firm Lewis Silkin, said that the price of Virgin's service could not be determined until it was clear if artists other than in Universal's stable were on board. Potential customers would also want to know if the service would offer tracks free of "digital rights management," or DRM, technology that limits people's ability to copy songs or move them to multiple computers, he added.

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_12593874?source=email

Tags: Universal, Virgin, Richard Branson, ISP’s, DRM, Virgin Media, Lewis Silkin, Lucian Grainge, Cliff Fluet, Jerry Resiman, IFPI, Nokia, Elton John, U2, Rolling Stones, Global Economic News,

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A Cell Phone That Never Needs Charging

Nokia hopes to create a device that could harvest enough power to keep a cell phone topped up.

A cell phone that never needs recharging might sound too good to be true, but Nokia says it's developing technology that could draw enough power from ambient radio waves to keep a cell-phone handset topped up.

Ambient electromagnetic radiation--emitted from Wi-Fi transmitters, cell-phone antennas, TV masts, and other sources--could be converted into enough electrical current to keep a battery topped up, says Markku Rouvala, a researcher from the Nokia Research Centre, in Cambridge, U.K.

Rouvala says that his group is working towards a prototype that could harvest up to 50 milliwatts of power--enough to slowly recharge a phone that is switched off. He says current prototypes can harvest 3 to 5 milliwatts.

The Nokia device will work on the same principles as a crystal radio set or radio frequency identification (RFID) tag: by converting electromagnetic waves into an electrical signal. This requires two passive circuits. "Even if you are only getting microwatts, you can still harvest energy, provided your circuit is not using more power than it's receiving," Rouvala says.

To increase the amount of power that can be harvested and the range at which it works, Nokia is focusing on harvesting many different frequencies. "It needs a wideband receiver," says Rouvala, to capture signals from between 500 megahertz and 10 gigahertz--a range that encompasses many different radio communication signals.

Historically, energy-harvesting technologies have only been found in niche markets, powering wireless sensors and RFID tags in particular. If Nokia's claims stand up, then it could push energy harvesting into mainstream consumer devices.

Earlier this year, Joshua Smith at Intel and Alanson Sample at the University of Washington, in Seattle, developed a temperature-and-humidity sensor that draws its power from the signal emitted by a 1.0-megawatt TV antenna 4.1 kilometers away.

This only involved generating 60 microwatts, however. Smith says that 50 milliwatts could require around 1,000 strong signals and that an antenna capable of picking up such a wide range of frequencies would cause efficiency losses along the way.

"To get 50 milliwatts seems like a lot," adds Harry Ostaffe, head of marketing for Pittsburgh-based company Powercast, which sells a system for recharging sensors from about 15 meters away with a dedicated radio signal.

Steve Beeby, an engineer and physicist at the University of Southampton, U.K., who has researched harvesting vibrational energy, adds, "If they can get 50 milliwatts out of ambient RF, that would put me out of business." He says that the potential could be huge because MP3 players typically use only about 100 milliwatts of power and spend most of their time in lower-power mode.

Nokia is being cagey with the details of the project, but Rouvala is confident about its future: "I would say it is possible to put this into a product within three to four years." Ultimately, though, he says that Nokia plans to use the technology in conjunction with other energy-harvesting approaches, such as solar cells embedded into the outer casing of the handset.

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/22764/

Tags: Nokia, Ambient power, Intel, University of Washington, Vibrational energy, ambient cell phone charging, RFID, Powercast, Global IT News, MP3, MIT, Wifi, Nokia Research Centre,

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Samsung To Sell 12-Megapixel Cameraphone

New Pixon12 model to go on sale in Europe later this month

HELSINKI - Samsung Electronics unveiled on Monday the world's first cellphone model with a 12-megapixel camera, a higher resolution than most digital cameras.

The roll-out of cellphones with high-resolution cameras has hurt the camera industry badly in recent years. The world's top cellphone maker Nokia says it is also the largest maker of digital cameras.

Samsung said the new Pixon12 model would go on sale in Europe later this month, a blow to struggling rival Sony Ericsson, who has been touting a 12-megapixel model since February but will sell it only in the fourth quarter.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31043590/

Tags: Samsung, Samsung Electronics, cellphone, cellphone cameras, Nokia, Pixon12, Sony Ericsson, megapixel, 12 megapixel

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