Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

We’ve all seen it happen time and time again. What was hot and happening even six months ago, is suddenly a dinosaur. It’s the nature of the ever-evolving technology game. Which is why industry giant Intel may just be well served by sitting up and taking note that the maker of cell-phone chips Qualcomm, just may be a major force to be reckoned with these days. 

With a latest innovation, the Snapdragon, Qualcomm packs a rather mighty punch in a tiny package. An engineer for the company demonstrated a palm-sized circuit board capable of displaying high-definition video. While a fairly high quality video image is nothing new to write home about, what did make it pretty special was it’s microprocessor chip, the Snapdragon. This micro-chip drives the display with less than half the power of a similar chip recently introduced by Intel. Qualcomm designers further sweeten the deal by saying that it will also cost less.

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Dell has announced that it will soon be rolling out new-generation laptops that will enable users to connect online through mobile broadband running on multiple 3G cellular networks. The new Dell laptops will be equipped with the new GOBI Mobile Broadband Technology from Qualcomm. GOBI is a software-configurable technology that enables users to connect online using both UMTS and CDMA networks.

The new-generation laptops which are currently on Dell’s drawing board will have the capability to connect via HSPA carrier networks, a wireless standard commonly used in Europe, even if the user is US based and typically connects to the web using an EV-DO connection. The EV-DO carrier network is used by US mobile providers Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

Dell has not released specific models yet for these new laptops but the press release said that GOBI technology will be employed across Dell’s various laptop model series – Latitude, Precision and consumer laptops. 

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There were plenty of talks about Verizon adding Rev. A to their EVDO network all over the blogosphere the past few weeks. With that (and the added speeds that Rev. A would deliver to your handset), now there is talk of how Verizon will capitalize on the increased speeds—besides serving ads to your phone.

According to the image above from Howard Forums, Verizon is planning to release “Mobile TV” on January 30th in correspondence with Qualcomm’s MediaFLO. While this could be a project name for a handset with a large screen or TV capability (ala the Nokia N93), I would suspect that the company that has brought you VCast will soon be delivering TV.

(Other releases for Verizon in Q1 listed on this calendar include the Palm Treo 700wx, Samsung i760, and four other handsets.)

Read [Howard Forums] Via [Engadget Mobile]

Competition in the mobile chip industry is tough these days with costs coming down, and companies such as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and Samsung ruling the market.  That’s why Intel has just decided to sell off its XScale processor to Marvell for $600 million in cash.  Companies such as Dell, palmOne, and HP have PDAs and Smartphones built off of the XScale technology.  Intel will continue to produce the XScale for up to two years, and Mavell will absorb the 1,400 people in the Intel XScale division.

Via [phoneArena]

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]