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The Aliph Jawbone has an appropriately striking name to go with the striking Yves Behar bluetooth headset design. The Jawbone is the first adaptive Bluetooth headset with military-grade noise-canceling Noise Shield technology, in an effort to virtually eliminate background noise. The headset continuously adapts to users’ changing environments (500 times per second to be exact), originally developed by Aliph for DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to enhance communications hostile and rugged environments (like NYC streets on the way to work).

The Jawbone is able to determine precisely when you are speaking and separates your speech from other sounds nearby and then subtracts external environmental sounds from your speech signal. The headset comes in at 14 grams and can be worn on either ear. Earloops are included in four different sizes and shapes to ensure a customized fit and feel.

The Jawbone Bluetooth headset was awarded an CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award and an iF Product Design Award. The first version of Jawbone has been exhibited at both the New York Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Jawbone is currently available exclusively at select Cingular Wireless retail stores nationwide for $119.99 and is compatible with all Bluetooth handsets.

Read [Jawbone] Via [Slashphone]
Read [Gizmodo Review]

Best Buy has begun to launch cell-phone-only stores in Manhattan via a partnership with U.K. retailer Carphone Warehouse. The stores, called Best Buy Mobile, carry more than 80 cell phones from manufacturers like Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Samsung. Shoppers also have the option to choose from seven mobile phone service carriers, including Cingular, Verizon, Sprint, Amp’d Mobile and pay-as-you-go plans from Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, Verizon InPulse and Cingular GoPhone.

“What we’ve seen over time is no one out there is offering customers both choice and service in one location,” said David Sprosty, chief executive officer of Best Buy Mobile, in an interview. “Our hypothesis is that by offering the level of care that they get from a carrier store with a better choice of phones, ultimately we can create something that will hopefully meet the needs of the customer that are underserved today.”

RadioShack has recently started selling Cingular Wireless phones and cut ties with Verizon Wireless to try to revive its wireless sales. It has also signed a new 11-year deal with Sprint Nextel.

The Best Buy Mobile stores operate either as small stand-alone stores or as “stores-within-a-store.” Employees will not work on commission and will not be pushing one wireless brand over another—they will just stop at no end to make a sale.

New York stores are at the following locations:

• 360 Madison Ave.


• 2233 Broadway


• 2 Union Square East


• 750 Seventh Ave.


• 1186 Third Ave.


• 1280 Lexington Ave.


• 622 Broadway


• 60 W 23rd Street


• 529 5th Ave.

Read [Best Buy] Read [Yahoo] Via [Engadget]

The ThinkPad T60 notebook, is the first Lenovo PC in the U.S. to feature built-in Cingular UMTS/HSDPA-based technology, and is now available to business users across America.

With the Cingular-enabled ThinkPad T60, users in the U.S. have mobile high-speed access nationwide with supercharged, UMTS/HSDPA-based Cingular BroadbandConnect service. While abroad, Lenovo customers can use their ThinkPad T60 notebooks wirelessly in conjunction with EDGE or GPRS data services in more than 100 countries worldwide.

BroadbandConnect uses UMTS/HSDPA technology—the global standard and natural 3G evolutionary path for GSM providers. In the U.S., it provides average download speeds between 400-700 kilobits per second (kbps), with bursts to more than one megabit per second (mbps).

Unlimited monthly BroadbandConnect service is $59.99 per month with a two-year contract and qualified voice contract. Customers also now can sign-up for Cingular Data Connect international plans. These offer two international wireless data monthly usage plans—a North American plan ($109.99 for 100MB) for travel within Canada and Mexico and an Overseas plan ($139.99 for 100MB)—both include unlimited domestic usage on Cingular’s domestic data networks. The Overseas plan provides access in more than two dozen countries, with service offered in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain and other major areas in Asia and Europe.

Read [CrunchGear]
Read [Product Page]

Third generation cellular wireless technology is still in its infancy and the CEO of Sprint could not spot talking about the next generation. Don’t get me wrong, 20 Mbps download speeds, compared to 3G’s 400-700 Kbps is nothing to cry about, but isn’t it a little early? I guess Gary Forsee doesn’t think so.

Sprint has spent billions of dollars building its 3G network, which is based on EV-DO, technology. The company started offering the service only a year ago, and has spent the latter half of 2005 and the first half of 2006 expanding the network. WiMax seems to be the front runner for the next gen wireless highway, delivering speeds equal to your in-home cable or DSL connection--but straight to your handset. 4G is required for mobile TV and streaming of other large content over networks both quickly and without crashing the servers.

All three of the big U.S. cell phone carriers--Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless--already offer mobile video today, but only about 1 percent to 2 percent of the cell phone market is using the service. Sprint isn’t the only mobile carrier investing in new network technologies to handle broadcast TV on mobile phones. Verizon Wireless has already agreed to work with Qualcomm, which is developing a network especially for mobile TV using a technology it calls MediaFlo.

Read [News.com]

While Verizon is eliminating Airfone in the sky, Carnival is adding cellphone access on the water. Carnival will ‘raise the bar’ on all 21 ships early next year in a deal with Wireless Maritime Services, a joint venture of Cingular Wireless and Maritime Telecommunications Network. The Triumph ship, currently offers the service.

Utilizing WMS’ high-bandwidth technology, the service is compatible with any cell phone and allows guests to make and receive calls anywhere in the world from any cruising region. The new cell phone service requires no additional software or special dialing procedures - guests simply make and receive calls as well as transmit text and multimedia messages as they would on land using their personal cell phone. International roaming fees apply to all shipboard cell phone calls.

Both Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean plan to implement cellphone access on their ships as well. Next up...cellphone service in space.

Read [Mobiledia]