The quest for connectivity continues to drive Consumer Electronics (CE) manufacturers to enable their products with Wi-Fi technology. The next 5 years will see an increase in the number of Wi-Fi-enabled devices, from over 500 million in 2009 to nearly 2 billion in 2014, according to In-Stat. Devices leading the pace of adoption include Blu-ray players/recorders, e-readers, and digital televisions.
 
Some of the research findings include:

• Mobile devices with Wi-Fi will still dominate shipments.  In 2013, shipments of mobile phones with embedded Wi-Fi are projected to exceed ¾ of a billion units.
• E-readers Wi-Fi attach rates will increase from 3% in 2009 to 88% by 2014. 
• 29 million digital picture frames will be shipped in 2014; 53% will be Wi-Fi-enabled.

Specifically, this research provides a five-year forecast for Wi-Fi CE devices, and CE device shipments and Wi-Fi attach rates, segmented for: 
Gaming Consoles 
DTVs
Set-Top Boxes
Personal Video Recorders
DVD and Blu-ray Players 
Media Adapters 
Printers 
Multifunction Peripherals 
Handheld Games 
PMPs
Digital Cameras 
Portable Camcorders and IP Network Cameras
PDAs
Mobile PCs 
Portable CE Devices 
Cellular Handsets 
Routers, Residential Gateways, and Standalone Access Points

Konftel announced the new Konftel 300M, the world’s first 3G conference phone for businesses. Scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2010, the Konftel 300M will be the first conference phone to accommodate a SIM card for full-on adaptation to today’s rapidly growing number of Mobile offices.

To compete in an increasingly mobile work environment, business professionals need the ability to communicate clearly from wherever they happen to be. No wonder so many companies are opting for mobile solutions instead of traditional switchboards with fixed-line phones. And no wonder wireless offices are a strongly growing trend in the global business community. Business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan predicts the Mobile office market will see substantial growth—up to 300 percent—from 2009 through 2015 (revenue 2009: $1.7 billion. Forecast 2015: $6.8 billion).

Trend-setting features based on sound values
Konftel 300M delivers 3G-network communications with the same sophisticated features as Konftel’s award-winning fixed-line 300 series phones—including OmniSound2.0. OmniSound’s impressive audio performance delivers superior sound quality for maximum teleconferencing efficiency. Other innovative Konftel 300M features include memory-card recording, text messaging, and a conference guide for quick and convenient multi-party dialling. The Konftel 300M comes with a rechargeable battery giving you up to 48 hours of talk time and a charging cradle.

The Konftel 300M is indispensible in situations that call for flexibility coupled with uncompromising sound quality. It also offers a USB connection to computers, making the Konftel 300M ideal for companies with unified communications (UC) solutions.

Improved silicon and firmware from Ozmo Devices will turn a Wi-Fi-equipped Windows 7 laptop into a local hotspot for peripherals such as a keyboard and mouse.

To do this, peripherals makers embed the Ozmo2000 radio chip and firmware into their devices. The chip now can exploit the laptop's built-in Wi-Fi adapter, with a new Ozmo driver that supports the Windows 7 SoftAP (Access Point) feature. The laptop's radio can simultaneously support regular Internet connectivity and a kind of wireless personal area network of local devices, with a data rate of 9Mbps.

Though Bluetooth is the leading technology today for such personal networks, not all laptops have this short-range, low-power radio (Ozmo executives say only about half do). But nearly every laptop sold today has built-in Wi-Fi.

Ozmo was launched to leverage this, and made Network World's 2008 list of wireless companies to watch. The company offers a driver that runs on a Windows laptop, and the radio chip for the peripheral devices. The company created a "TDMA-like" extension to the IEEE 802.11 protocol, making it possible for the laptop and devices to exchange information on a predictable schedule, instead of using the protocol's customary contention technique.

Read the complete article in networkworld.com

Pierre Yves Plaza Tron of Telefónica I+D, and Project Coordinator at Beywatch will speak about BeyWatch, the project on energy efficiency for the Home environment and Neighborhoods, related to technical issues like wireless vs wired, system requirements around smart grid for home appliances/consumer electronics, OS platforms, role of the operator etc.

About Telefónica I+D
Founded in 1988, it contributes to the Group's competitiveness and modernity through technological innovation. To achieve this aim, the company applies new ideas, concepts and practices in addition to developing advanced products and services.

It is the largest private R+D centre in Spain as regards activity and resources, and is the most active company in Europe in terms of European research projects in the ICT sector (Information and Communication Technology).

It currently collaborates with technological leaders and numerous organizations in 42 different countries - among which figure more than 150 universities located in different parts of the world. It also participates in the most important international forums on technological know-how, thus creating one of the largest innovation ecosystems in the ICT sector.

Products such as the public phones in the booths currently used by Telefónica (1990), the large fixed and mobile network management systems (1990), data switches (1991), Internet access services (1996), developments for digital homes and connected cars (2000), the prepaid system for mobile phones (1999), interactive a la carte digital television (Imagenio) (2004), new services for television and the new business models on Internet (2006)... are just some of the projects the company has worked on.

Over the last few years, within the global market Telefónica I+D has grown to become a network of centres of technological excellence that stretches far beyond the Spanish borders, extending its R+D activities to offices situated in Barcelona, Granada, Huesca, Madrid, Valladolid, São Paulo (Brazil) and Mexico.

about Beywatch
BeyWatch is a 30-month research project supported by the European Commission (DG Information Society and Media) aiming at ICT tools for environmental management and energy efficiency. BeyWatch will develop an energy-aware and user-centric  solution, able to provide intelligent energy monitoring/control and power demand balancing at home/building & neighbourhood level.

To reach its objectives, BeyWatch has undertaken the following:

• Design ultra-low energy-consumption white-goods

• Implement methods, techniques and services to reduce the power consumption in smart/green homes/blocks/neighbours by intelligent control of electrical devices

• Generate hot water and electricity from renewable energy sources at building level,

• Elaborate business plans and business support system (BSS) applications that will help the users and providers to reach beneficiary contracts

• Motivate user's awareness, towards less CO2 emissions on the whole energy value chain (production, transportation, distribution, supply) and cleaner environment.

An interesting article published in connectedplanedonline.com by Rich Karpinski

Cisco is continuing down the path toward a major consumer products launch. Karpinski suggests five guesses what Cisco is up to:

1. Better looking, more functional consumer routers and Wi-Fi boxes. A
2. Telepresence for the home.
3. Remote energy automation solution.
4. A home automation uber remote control.
5. An over-the-top video box.

Read the complete article.

picoChip announced recently that it has passed the milestone of one million chips sold and is on track to achieve over 50% quarter-on-quarter sequential revenue growth this calendar quarter. To support expansion plans and strengthen the company’s balance sheet during this period of exceptional growth the company has secured $20m of additional equity funding.

The growth in demand for the company’s products is driven by the picoXcell(TM) product family that is powering the global deployments of 3G femtocells. With the growth in mobile data traffic, these low-cost plug-and-play infrastructure devices are increasingly viewed as the key to the architecture of all future cellular networks, and have created a multi-million-unit opportunity for picoChip products. picoChip is the only company today shipping large volumes of femtocell silicon, with 25 femtocell customers and products supporting the HSPA+, LTE and TD-SCDMA cellular standards.

As part of its growth plans, picoChip is adding engineers at its development centers in Bath and Beijing, and will move to a new headquarters in Bath, UK. The plans also include accelerated product development in key areas such as LTE, HSPA+ and self-organizing networks.

In a heavily over-subscribed funding round, picoChip’s existing investors Atlas Venture, Highland Capital Partners, Intel Capital, Pond Ventures, Rothschild, Samsung, and Scottish Equity Partners all participated.

In addition to residential and enterprise applications, femtocells’ plug-and-play self organizing network technology is also being applied to extend high speed 3G/4G services into buildings and public spaces and to expand coverage and capacity in metro and rural areas.

Twelve cellular network operators, including Vodafone, Softbank and AT&T, have launched femtocell offerings. Of these, the majority use picoChip silicon. picoChip has secured over twenty-five femtocell customers including Alcatel Lucent, Sagem, Ubiquisys and ip.access.

Research from industry analyst ABI indicates that over 60 carriers around the world are engaged in femtocell trials and evaluations, that more than 50% of US households are interested in femtocell products, and that femtocell shipments will exceed 40M units by 2014.

The attendance fee for the two day conference on 19/20 october 2010, High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, The Netherlands is for:

DECT Forum members
€ 599,- (19% VAT excluded)

Others
€ 699,- (19% VAT excluded)

You can register online and pay online.

Crestron bolstering entry-level Prodigy with two-way ZigBee Pro touchscreen remote, PMC3 controller, on-screen display, video switching, support for 100 wireless dimmers.

Prodigy featured a rather small suite of products with limited functionality when it debuted in 2009. Even so, dealers had purchased more than $5 million of the stuff by May of this year, according to Crestron. And that was before the company debuted its new PTX3 Prodigy remote, and just after the release of the PAMP-4X100 six-source/four-zone amplifier.

When it debuted, the Prodigy line was built around the ZigBee-enabled PMC2 media controller (still current) and the PLX2 monochrome soft-key remote – a combo that currently retails for about $700. With that, dealers could offer an affordable two-way RF controller for the home theater. Add the P-MNETGW gateway and you’ve got a whole-house ZigBee automation system for multiple 100 RF devices including Prodigy remotes, lights and thermostats.

Arjen Noorbergen, CTO, Home Automation Europe will speak about Cat-IQ and Home Automation Applications at the CAT-iq deverlopers conference, 19-20 October 2010, High Tech Campus, Eindhoven The Netherlands.

Contents:
- Home Automation vs. Home Entertainment applications
- Nature of Home Automation applications
- Examples of Home Automation applications and -services
    o Security
    o Climate control
    o Energy
- Cat-IQ in its competitive RF landscape: the pro’s and cons of
    o Cat-IQ
    o Zigbee
    o Z-Wave
    o WiFi
    o Bluetooth
- Opportunities for integrating Cat-IQ in Home Automation applications

Visit the site for the complete seminar programm

Today, Microsoft and Nokia launched the first application from their alliance around mobile productivity, Microsoft Communicator Mobile for Nokia devices. This new unified communications client connects directly with a company's communications systems to streamline mobile collaboration. Owners of a number of Symbian based Nokia Eseries smartphones can download the English version today from Nokia's Ovi Store, the easiest place to get content on their Nokia device.

Communicator Mobile enables people to see their colleagues' availability, and click to communicate with them using the best method, from IM to email, text to phone call. The names and status of colleagues are embedded directly into the devices' contacts application, enabling people to update their own presence, start and join instant messaging sessions, and begin calls directly from the contact card.

The launch is the first product from the alliance - announced last August - which was the first time either company had embarked on an agreement of this scope and nature. Since then, the two companies have been collaborating on the design and development of new solutions, as well as embarking on joint marketing efforts around others they already share.

This new application, available initially for Nokia E72 and Nokia E52, adds to the work Nokia is already doing in optimizing direct access to email and other personal information with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. The companies plan to deliver Communicator Mobile for Nokia pre-installed on select Nokia smartphones in the future and plan to support additional devices, including the recently announced Nokia E5.