The DECT Forum, the international association of the wireless home and enterprise communication industry, is pleased to announce the availability of CAT-iq White Papers. The White Papers – part 1 “voice” and part 2 “data” – outline the current status and the future profile descriptions of CAT-iq – the technology of choice for voice and data applications.

CAT-iq stands for Cordless Advanced Technology, Internet and Quality, and is the global technology initiative from the DECT Forum, designed for IP-voice services in the next generation networks. CAT-iq focuses on high quality wideband Audio VoIP as well as low bit-rate data applications. The CAT-iq profiles are split between voice and data services, with CAT-iq 1.0 and CAT-iq 2.0 providing features to support key voice enhancements, and CAT-iq 3.0 and CAT-iq 4.0 providing features to support data.

CAT-iq is firmly positioned as a key broadband access technology. CAT-iq has the unique opportunity to continue cordless telephony’s conquest of huge segments of the world’s population, and introduce data services into homes complementing those offered by WLAN and Bluetooth. When reach, standby and talk time, cost and of course voice quality are paramount, CAT-iq is the technology of choice. The Certification process for CAT-iq 2.0 will start in September 2010, enabling market deployment of a new generation of products of various manufacturers before the end of this year.

“The White Papers – part 1 “Voice” and part 2 “data” – provide a comprehensive and detailed portray of the CAT-iq technology and its profiles. With first CAT-iq 2.0 products being available still in 2010, the White Papers will feed the growing interest in CAT-iq as a leading global wireless technology”, says Daniel Hartnett, Chairman of the CAT-iq Working Group within the DECT Forum.

The White Papers are publicly available on the DECT Forum’s CAT-iq website

Nagravision is partnering with Samsung Electronics America to provide TV applications that bring more interactive web services and video content to consumers. As a result of the partnership with Nagravision, consumers will have access to more interactive and compelling applications on Samsung Apps, the world’s first HDTV-based application store where users can download and purchase applications from select 2010 Samsung HDTVs, Blu-ray Players and Home Theater Systems via the upgraded Internet@TV – Content Service.

Part of a complete solution, Nagravision’s content publishing tools provide simple application templates for creating and publishing applications on Samsung Apps.

Nagravision developed applications using the content publishing tools to deliver video content from Fashion TV and Travel Wizard. Both applications were demonstrated on Samsung’s latest HDTVs at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and they will be available on select Samsung HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and Home Theater Systems that feature the Internet@TV – Content Service later this year.

The WHDI standard enables full 1080p/60Hz HD with Deep Color at a distance of 100 feet and through walls. No other wireless standard combines this level of quality and robustness with the ease of multi-room wireless. By doing so, WHDI enables consumers to build a wireless HD network in the home to take advantage of the latest content and interactive services.

WHDI is the leading standard for the wireless, multi-room distribution of HD video, enabling manufacturers to deliver higher value added devices that can connect the increasing number of HD sources (CE, PC and mobile devices) to TVs around the home. The WHDI standard ensures that by purchasing products with the WHDI logo, consumers will be able to bring home devices from different manufacturers that will simply and directly connect to one another and deliver HD content and services without the need for complicated and expensive wiring.

“WHDI is the only solution that meets consumers’ expectation and demand for a high-quality, multi-room HD wireless solution,” said Leslie Chard, president of WHDI LLC. Adding that: “WHDI further enables two of the strongest trends in the A/V universe: the proliferation of HD content sources (now including the PC and mobile devices) and the increasing number of inexpensive, high quality displays placed throughout the home.”

“WHDI fills an important need to provide connectivity in the home, offering flexibility, convenience and additional features. Robust wireless connectivity and switching means that more devices and more high quality content can reach the consumer's HD displays in a user friendly manner,” said Dr. Paul Moroney, a Motorola Fellow.

“Consumers want access to all of their HD content, whether on their laptop, mobile phone, STB or other device. WHDI enables manufacturers to create devices that easily deliver this value. No other wireless technology can provide this connectivity with the quality and robustness of WHDI,” said Dr. Yoav Nissan-Cohen, Chairman and CEO of AMIMON.

WHDI - Enabling the HD Wireless Connected Home

WHDI will enable manufacturers to bring HD connectivity from PCs, laptops, and mobile computing devices, to wireless TVs. With WHDI consumers can easily bring HD content from the STB in the living room to other HDTVs in the home - consumers will be able to easily add a TV to their bedroom, kitchen, playroom, etc. without having to worry about wiring.

WHDI – Brief Technical Overview

WHDI (Wireless Home Digital Interface) sets a new standard for wireless high-definition video connectivity. It provides a high-quality, uncompressed wireless link that supports the delivery of equivalent video data rates of up to 3Gbps (including 1080p/60Hz) in a 40MHz channel in the 5GHz unlicensed band, conforming to worldwide 5GHz spectrum regulations. Range is beyond 100 feet, through walls, and latency is less than one millisecond. Additionally, WHDI relies on HDCP revision 2.0 to provide superior Hollywood-approved security and digital content protection.

About WHDI

WHDI is a Consortium formed by leading CE manufacturers to develop a comprehensive new industry standard for multi-room audio, video and control connectivity utilizing Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI™) technology. The new standard aims to ensure that CE devices manufactured by different vendors will simply and directly connect to one another.

The WHDI Promoters are: AMIMON Inc., Hitachi, Ltd., LG Electronics, Inc., Motorola Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation and Sony Corporation. WHDI LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of AMIMON Inc., and is charged with licensing and promoting the WHDI standard. For more information visit: www.whdi.org.

The Wireless Power Consortium – a body dedicated to the development and promotion of an international wireless power standard – this week released the 0.95 technical specification for review by its members, suggesting that a version 1.0 release is not too far away.

The consortium said it will undertake prototype testing of wireless charging at a members’ interoperability test to be held in September.

Under the Consortium’s plans, all electronic devices bearing the ‘Qi’ symbol could be charged on any charging pad or surface marked with the same ‘Qi’ logo. The global wireless power charging standard is targeted at low power devices that are five watts and below, such as mobile phones and personal music players.

Members of the Consortium include ConvenientPower, Duracell, Hosiden, Fulton Innovation, Leggett & Platt, National Semiconductor, Olympus, Philips, Samsung, Sanyo, Shenzhen Sangfei Consumer Communications, ST-Ericsson, and Texas Instruments.

A solution to wireless power transfer has been sought since Nikola Tesla first revolutionised our understanding of electricity. Earlier this year, boffins at the Nokia Research Centre used the electromagnetic radiation emitted from wifi transmitters, mobile phone antennas, TV masts and the like (ambient radio waves) to harvest 3-5 milliwatts using current prototypes test circuits in the lab.

The target is to hit 50 milliwatts, which would be enough to eventually re-juice a phone with a flat battery.

Previously, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have focused on magnetically coupled resonance as a way of providing wireless electricity.

Read in telecoms.com 

Samsung is entering the South Korean e-book market with the introduction of the SNE-50K. This 5-inch e-book reader adds to the traditional book reading functions with the ability to write notes with a stylus.

Interestingly, indications have the screen being a touchscreen, with no confirmation about whether it uses e-Ink technology for the display.

The SNE-50K is launching in South Korea initially, with other countries possibly next year. The size of the reader makes it smaller than other e-book readers, thus making it more portable. Samsung is partnering the SNE-50K with the biggest bookseller in South Korea, Kyobo Bookstore. It has become standard practice for booksellers to introduce electronic readers of late.

The Samsung reader features no wireless capability, unlike Amazon’s Kindle.

Source : Mostreviews.com 

Yet another consortium for controlling products in the house. Consortia are great and will create new products, but there are so many. How should the consumer deal with this?

Texas Instruments Incorporated has joined the newly formed RF4CE (Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics) Consortium. This consortium is designed to create a new protocol that will enable development of radio frequency remote controls which replace IR remote controls, deliver richer communications, increase reliability and improve flexibility. As a key contributor to this technology, TI will provide both hardware and software solutions for the new RF4CE protocol.

"TI is excited to work with six other leading technology companies in the RF4CE Consortium to define and develop the future of RF remote controls for consumer electronics devices," said Laurent Giai-Miniet, general manager of TI's low-power RF products.

About RF4CE Consortium

The RF4CE (Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics) industry consortium has been formed to develop a new protocol that will further the adoption of radio frequency remote controls for audio visual devices. The consortium founding members - Panasonic, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Sony Corporation - will work together with Freescale Semiconductors, OKI and Texas Instruments to create a standardized specification for radio frequency-based remote controls that deliver richer communication, increased reliability and more flexible use.

Funny that both Philips and Panasonic, members of DECT Forum are in this consortium as well. Could CAT-iq not be a remote control, and even much more? 

Sony and Samsung are members of an electronics consortium to support a technology that could send high-definition video signals wirelessly from a single set-top box to screens placed around the home.

The consortium, which will be announced Wednesday, is an important development in the race to create a definitive way to replace tangles of video cables, but doesn't end it — both Sony and Samsung also are supporting a competing technology.

Apparently there are competing standards. This will become a competition like we have seen many times in the market.

See the complete article.

With the announcement of the Symbian foundation (see below), the open platform CAT-iq could profit from these developments.

Using existing platforms as OS for CAT-iq producs offers application developers to make applications not only for the mobile environment, but also for the home environment. This even could accelerate the fixed mobile convergence.

Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DOCOMO announced today their intent to unite Symbian OS™, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create one open mobile software platform. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone they plan to establish the Symbian Foundation to extend the appeal of this unified software platform. Membership of this non-profit Foundation will be open to all organizations. This initiative is supported by current shareholders and management of Symbian Limited, who have been actively involved in its development.

Plans for the Foundation have already received wide support from other industry leaders.To enable the Foundation, Nokia today announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that Nokia does not already own and then contribute the Symbian and S60 software to the Foundation. Sony Ericsson and Motorola today announced their intention to contribute technology from UIQ and DOCOMO has also indicated its willingness to contribute its MOAP(S) assets. From these contributions, the Foundation will provide a unified platform with common UI framework. A full platform will be available for all Foundation members under a royalty-free license, from the Foundation’s first day of operations.