Wireless

With all the apps and functions today’s phones can perform, we often tend to forget that their main purpose and basic function is to make actual phone calls.

While Smartphones are mostly snagging the headlines thanks to their enormous growth in market share, feature phones which run a non-smart OS and are Java enabled seem to be fading further and further from public consciousness.

If you live in a remote community, it’s not always easy to stay connected to the rest of the world, but backhaul and wireless broadband firm Radwin is doing its utmost to try and change that.

As a foreigner living in another country – be it Korea or Timbuktu – those little everyday necessities become a little more necessary, and the mobile phone is certainly up there in the top five list, along with foreign currency, a map, a dictionary and mosquito spray.

CERRITOS, Calif. — The line has been tempered here as the grand opening for a new Apple Inc. store gets underway.

Last week RCR spent some time in Singapore, sniffing around the expo center for wireless whisperings and network news. We weren’t disappointed.

You know what I’d actually pay to see on the Android app store? An app that combines a USB Host type setup, with Flickr capabilities, but as a single downloadable app. Any of you aspiring Android developers out there reading this, can have this idea free

Walk in closets have always been a much coveted luxury, but at CommunicAsia in Singapore last week, end-to-end wireless coverage company, Powerwave Technologies, took the term to a whole new level with its Walk-In MicroFlex cabinet, a multi-purpose cell site enclosure which can be expanded and compressed at will.

Heavyweight in the end-to-end wireless coverage market, Powerwave Technologies, used Communicasia 2010 in Singapore last week to announce and show off its new DAS and WiFi Performance Boost offering, which the firm says supports 2G, 3G, 4G and WiFi a/b/g/n protocols.

Ever lost the TV remote and wondered why on earth the TV makers can’t just make it big enough not to slip down the side of the couch? Ever wished you could watch something on TV, but browse other channels at the same time? Ericsson may have a fix for both of those problems with its cool tablet remote concept, live on display in Singapore’s CommunicAsia.

Max, Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, Lemon, Spice – the world is not yet familiar with these names which have recently cropped up in the Indian telecom league. But these local manufacturers with completely indigenous marketing strategies added up to 14% market share by revenue in India’s mobile handset market in 2009-10, according to the Voice & Data (V&D) 100 Indian Telecom Survey.

Although CommunicAsia in Singapore was a bit more low key to shows like Mobile World Congress in both Asia and Europe, the event still managed to draw the crowds and the vendors, although some big names like Nokia and Sony Ericsson decided to stay out of show and exhibit in neighboring hotels instead.

A recent study by Forrester claims that in two years time tablets will surpass the sales of netbooks.

It seems that after a decade of traveling, itinerary management app maker WorldMate may finally be arriving at a rather lucrative destination in the shape of a buyout by either Travelport or American Express.

Australian telco Telstra and equipment supplier Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) reveal they have achieved a world first in their quest to roll out LTE.

Nokia is doing a bit of early morning house cleaning, it seems, closing down its Ovi store for an indeterminable period of time.