GPS system threatened by signal interference

Bruce Buls

Bruce Buls

The battle between makers and users of GPS equipment and a proposed wireless broadband system has heated up. The controversy stems from a conditional waiver granted by the Federal Communication Commission in January to LightSquared, a privately held company, for the terrestrial use of the mobile satellite spectrum (MMS) immediately adjacent to the frequency band used by GPS receivers.

LightSquared wants to establish a network of 40,000 ground stations to broadcast extremely powerful broadband wireless signals that could severely disrupt GPS signals, according to the Coalition to Save Our GPS, which represents a wide variety of industries and companies. In a statement on its website, the coalition states: “LightSquared plans to transmit ground-based radio signals that would be one billion or more times more powerful as received on earth than GPS’s low-powered satellite-based signals, potentially causing severe interference impacting millions of GPS receivers — including those used by the federal agencies, state and local governments, first responders, airlines, mariners, civil engineering, construction and surveying, agriculture, and everyday consumers in their cars and on handheld devices.”

A Technical Working Group including representatives from LightSquared and GPS manufacturers ran a series of tests with more than 100 GPS devices over a five-month period following the FCC’s action in January. The TWG’s report was filed with the FCC on June 30. The official comment period ended Aug. 15.

According to the coalition, “TWG’s test results conclusively demonstrate that LightSquared’s initial proposal would cause harmful interference to all types of GPS receivers tested.”

The Coalition also disputed LightSquared’s claims that using only the lower portion of its proposed MMS band and the use of filters on GPS equipment would solve any potential interference problems.

 

Workboat.com

 

Quick Review: BlackBerry Protect

[ youtube video link for mobile viewing ]

While there are tons of security/backup apps out there for BlackBerry, RIM has finally decided to make the choice easier for most users and release their free BlackBerry Protect application. The app is a simple tool with a good amount of features, although it could stand to pack in a bit more. The basis of BlackBerry Protect is that of a backup utility. You can backup your contacts, calendars, tasks, memos, browser bookmarks and text messages. Seems like a bit of an arbitrary mix and we would definitely like to see more options for email messages, profile settings and options among other things. Secondly, BlackBerry Protect has a great web utility in case your device is lost or stolen. You can locate your device via GPS, sound a loud ringtone, send a message to be displayed on the screen as well as lock and wipe the device. Again, some things that would be good here would be more features to protect your SIM card as well (a thief could easily remove your SIM rendering the location features useless). All in all I really like BlackBerry Protect but I do think there is a lot of room for improvement. If you’re on a BIS you can grab it free from BlackBerry App World.

More information/download of BlackBerry Protect

 

thanks CB

Free Weather App From The Weather Network – Replaces WeatherEye?

The Weather Network used to call their BlackBerry App WeatherEye for years and still seems to on App World. On the other hand Don let us know that they have released a new app that is very similar called “The Weather Network” which has been updated to v2.5 compared to WeatherEye which is sitting at 2.4.6.

 

Both were updated in August which further confuses things.

Coming Soon: BlackBerry Messenger + Location = Who’s Around? By Smarter Apps

This screen would look much cleaner if the font size wasn’t set so high.When we announced the BBM Hackathon winner for BlackBerryCool was Smarter Apps, we didn’t mention what the app actually was. Well the app was hacked together at the hackathon and will be going live in App World soon. The app is called Who’s Around and the concept is really awesome and simple. The app duplicates the BBM experience but uses the BBM Social APIs on top of location to make BBM location aware. This is just like what Wikitude does for Augmented Reality but instead of needing OS 7 and Augmented Reality, you get a similar experience on a wide range of devices.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Caught on Camera & Video Again

More and more about the unannounced BlackBerry Curve 9380 is coming to light. This is the full touch version of the BlackBerry Curve and it looks hot. Now we have MacBerry.de following up with pictures and a nice video of the device. They also got some of the specs along with the video they captured below:

RIM’s Upcoming BlackBerry Curve Apollo Is Leaked

Following the unveiling of its latest BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Torch smartphones earlier this week, RIM’s U.K. chief revealed that the company is working on a budget device that will make the BlackBerry 7 OS available to fans of its entry-level Curve smartphone. No details were given on its availability or its technical specs, but we do know what it will look like, courtesy of some leaked images published by OneMobileRing.

The device is called the BlackBerry Curve 9360, or the BlackBerry Curve Apollo. While its specifications are yet to be confirmed, it seems the device will feature a HVGA 480×360 display, the trademark BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera with flash, and NFC capabilities; all powered by a Tavor MG-1 800 MHz CPU and 512MB of RAM.

A Closer Look at the NFC antenna battery door on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 (and reasoning why the new Torches do not have NFC)

Of the new BlackBerry 7 devices announced to date, the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 is the first and only one to offer NFC support. I did ask around at the BlackBerry 7 Fan Night as to why NFC didn’t also make an appearance in the Torch 9810, 9850, 9860, and while I didn’t get a 100% straight answer, between the partial answers and a closer look at the battery door on the Bold 9900, I feel there’s an explanation here.

Back at BlackBerry World, when we first went hands-on with the BlackBerry Bold 9900, we weren’t allowed to take off the device’s battery door. It turns out there’s more to the new Bold’s battery door than just good looks. As you can see in the picture above, the Bold 9900’s battery door actually contains the NFC antenna. When you clip the battery door onto the 9900, the antenna leads connect back to internal circuitry. Cool stuff. And not only does the Bold 9900’s battery door look cool and weigh next to nothing, but the carbon weave glass also allows for the signals (both radio and NFC) to pass through easily.

So when it comes back to the new Torches not having NFC, I think part of the explanation here is simply that to enable NFC you need to ensure the overall hardware design supports it (not just the chipset/software) and that likely the 9810 and 9850/9860 designs were finalized without considertion for this (or it was considered, but the ultimate design they wanted to go with didn’t allow for a well-placed NFC antenna and/or thin battery door without doing some structural redesign). You need to be able to get the NFC antenna in a good place where it’s going to work. In other words, RIM could have put NFC into the Torch 9850/9860, but it would have meant altering the shape of the device to get it all working 100%, which they didn’t want to do with these devices, especially on a device like the 9850/9860 where you can tell design and feel are paramount.

Historically RIM has often rolled out new features (WiFi, GPS, Camera, etc.) only on one device model first, so putting it only on one of the new BB7 devices announced isn’t a total surprise. And if they are going to put it on one device first, it makes sense RIM would first introduce it on the BlackBerry Bold. Though we were told all future devices will have NFC. But with NFC really still in its infancy, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal not to have it on the Torch 9810 or Torch 9850/9860.

What do you all think? It is a huge deal that the new Torches don’t have NFC? Or not that big of a deal?? Let us know in the comments. And PS. If you read this post and don’t know what NFC is, click here.

 

via:cb

Clearwire adding 120Mbps 'LTE Advanced-ready' technology to its holdings, restates commitment to WiMAX

Is it really fall? We can’t say for certain that this is what Dan Hesse was referring to when he told us face-to-face that something spectacular would be coming our way a bit later in the year, but Clearwire definitely just announced its intent to add “LTE Advanced-ready” technology to its 4G network. In what’ll likely go down as the most shocking mobile news this side of the proposed T-Mobile / AT&T merger, America’s biggest WiMAX fan has finally caved to the realities of the next-gen wireless war: LTE’s winning, and it’s picking up all sorts of steam. Verizon Wireless has been building out LTE at a breakneck pace, and soon enough, Ma Bell (and presumably, T-Mob) will be following suit. According to the bizarrely worded release, Clearwire will be leveraging “deep spectrum resources and an all-IP network to meet long-term mobile broadband demands.” Translation? An “unmatched LTE network” capable of serving current and future wholesale / retail customers.

We’re told that the initial LTE rollout will target “high-demand areas of current 4G markets,” taking advantage of existing 4G infrastructure in order to reduce expenditures. For those curious about transmission rates, you can look forward to download speeds exceeding 120Mbps (or so it says). In a telling quote, Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s Chief Technology Officer, confesses:

“This is the future of mobile broadband. Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our ‘LTE Advanced-ready’ network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States. In addition, the 2.5GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won’t present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands.”

No doubt, that closer there is a direct shot at the dilemmas faced by LightSquared — a company that Sprint curiously just inked a partnership deal with. It’s hard to envision how this unholy love triangle’s going to play out, but the company’s making it quite clear that its LTE network will be “LTE-Advanced-ready,” enabling it to have a leg-up on the laggards here in the States. The dirty little secret in all of this is that Clearwire’s still waiting on “additional funding” to fully implement its LTE desires, which involve the use of multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier aggregation capable. As you’d likely expect, the company closed with a restatement of its support to the existing WiMAX network, but it’s practically a guarantee that you’ve seen the last expansion effort on that one. In case you’ve been looking the other way, Clearwire hasn’t produced plans for a new WiMAX market in all of 2011. Now you know why.

 

Clearwire Announces Intent to Add LTE to Its Network to Accelerate Wholesale Business

* Company Will Leverage Deep Spectrum Resources and All-IP Network to Meet Long-Term Mobile Broadband Demands
* Unmatched LTE Network Capable of Serving Current and Future Wholesale and Retail Customers
* Initial LTE Rollout Will Target High-Demand Areas of Current 4G Markets, Leverage Existing 4G Infrastructure for Minimal Capital Expense
* Download Speeds Exceed 120 Mbps in Successful Network Technology Trial
* Support for WiMAX 4G Network Technology to ContinueKIRKLAND, Wash, Aug. 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR), a leading provider of 4G wireless broadband services in the United States, today announced its intent to add “LTE Advanced-ready” technology to its 4G network. The announcement follows the successful completion of 4G technology trials that achieved download speeds exceeding 120 Mbps and demonstrated the potential of Clearwire’s unmatched spectrum advantage.

The initial implementation of Clearwire’s LTE network would target densely populated, urban areas of Clearwire’s existing 4G markets where current 4G usage demands are high. The robust all-IP infrastructure already deployed in these markets can be leveraged to serve the company’s LTE needs, delivering significant capital cost savings compared to a similar overlay by other carriers of an existing 3G architecture.

“Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.”

“This is the future of mobile broadband,” said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s Chief Technology Officer. “Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our ‘LTE Advanced-ready’ network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States.”

“In addition, the 2.5 GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices,” Saw added. “We anticipate that the economies of scale derived from this global ecosystem will act as a catalyst for the development of thousands of low-cost devices and applications. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won’t present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands.”

Clearwire also noted that since launching its first 4G market in 2009, video has become the largest component of the company’s overall data traffic and video traffic itself has increased more than tenfold since 2009. The company believes that as more video-intensive smartphones and services rise, so will the needs for Clearwire’s high-capacity 4G wholesale network.

LTE Advanced is a 4G technical standard that calls for peak download mobile speeds of at least 100 Mbps, which far exceeds today’s commercial networks. Clearwire’s LTE network will be “LTE Advanced-ready” meaning that it will use an ultra-high-capacity spectrum configuration that is superior to the typical configuration of the slower, more capacity-constrained commercial LTE network designs in the United States of today.

Clearwire’s LTE implementation plan, which is subject to additional funding, contemplates deploying Time Division Duplex (TDD) LTE technology and reusing its flexible all-IP network architecture and upgrading base station radios and some core network elements, which offers significant capital savings. This will include the use of multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier aggregation capable. Carrier aggregation is a key feature of LTE Advanced that will enable Clearwire to further leverage its vast spectrum depth to create larger “fat pipes” for deploying mobile broadband service. The network would position Clearwire as the clear leader in 4G mobile broadband technology, capable of serving the current and anticipated future demands of wholesale and retail customers.

Clearwire, together with some of the largest wireless carriers in the world, is a founding member of the Global TDD LTE Initiative (GTI) which aims to bring together leading industry partners to steer the TDD LTE ecosystem as a major standard in mobile broadband technology and drive the development of next generation mobile broadband networks. Member companies that currently support more than a billion subscribers on their networks believe that a global LTE standard has the potential to achieve significant economies of scale and serve hundreds of millions of customers worldwide.

Clearwire also restated its commitment to its existing 4G WiMAX network, which covers approximately 132 million people while serving 7.65 million retail and wholesale customers and an ecosystem of nearly 110 WiMAX enabled devices, including all 4G phones currently offered by Sprint. Clearwire expects to end 2011 with approximately 10 million 4G customers.

Clearwire

via: engagdet

BlackBerry Torch 9810 Features and Specifications

The BlackBerry 9810 Torch 2 has now been officially announced and we now have a a full specs list of the device. If this is a device you are considering to purchase, you might want to take a look at the full list of specs. Here is a sneak peak on the Blackberry:

BlackBerry Torch 9810 Features and Specifications:

• Size (LxWxD):
  Closed: 111mm x 62mm x 14.6mm
  Open: 147.6mm x 62mm x 14.6mm
• Display:
  3.2″ high-resoultion touch display
• Software:
  BlackBerry7 OS
• Battery Life:
  GSM talk time: Up to 6.5 hours
  GSM standby time: up to 12.8 days
  UMTS talk time: up to 5.9 hours
  UMTS standby time: up to 12.3 days
  Audio playback time: up to 54 hours
  Video playback time: up to 7 hours

BlackBerry Torch 9860 and 9850 Features and Specifications

The BlackBerry 9850/60 has now been officially announced and we now have a a full specs list of the device. If this is a device you are considering to purchase, you might want to take a look at the full list of specs. Here is a sneak peak on the Blackberry:

BlackBerry Torch 9860 and 9850 Features and Specifications:

• Size (LxWxD):
  120mm x 62mm x 11.5mm
• Display:
  3.7″ 253ppi high-resoultion touch display powered by Liquid Graphics Technology
• Software:
  BlackBerry7 OS
• Battery Life:
  CDMA talk time: Up to 6.8 hours
  CDMA standby time: up to 13.4 days
  GSM talk time: 6.2 hours
  GSM standby time: 11.6 hours
  UMTS talk time: up to 6.1 hours
  UMTS standby time: up to 11.8 days
  Audio playback time: up to 50.2 hours
  Video playback time: up to 6.6 hours