By PHIL BAKER , Daily Transcript Technology Correspondent Monday, October 17, 2011 Advertisement
This past week, the wireless trade organization, CTIA, held its semiannual trade show in San Diego. The show is a shadow of what it once was, mostly because the annual Consumer Electronics show has increased its focus on mobile. nevertheless, the show provided a venue for a number of new product introductions.
This comes the week after the simultaneous introduction of Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4S that’s now carried by AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. (I’ll have a review in a few weeks.) The phone officially went on sale Friday, with reports of lines at AT&T stores forming Thursday night. More than 50 people were in line Friday morning when the San Diego Mission Valley store opened at 8 a.m.
At the show, AT&T introduced five new Android smartphones: the Motorola Atrix 2, the Samsung DoubleTime and Captivate glide, and the AT&T Avail and the Pantech Pocket, bringing AT&T’s total count of new Android devices this year to 19. Combine this with those from the other carriers, and there are about 50 new Androids since January. I suspect all of that clutter makes more people pick an iPhone, because even reviewers have trouble figuring out which Android phone to recommend.
Sprint announced the expansion of its Sprint ID service, which allows customers to personalize their Sprint Android phones by downloading ID packs that tailor their phones to one of about four dozen areas of interest, such as sports, entertainment, fitness, music and so forth. when you make a selection, you get apps, widgets, ringtones and wallpapers that match your interest. ID packs allow users to easily switch between English or Spanish and can be specifically tailored to the user’s line of work. Sprint customers can download up to five ID packs on their device. this seems like a great way to get up to speed quickly with the enormous selection of apps available (sprint.com).
A roundup of some of the other products introduced include a software phone called Line2 from the cleverly named Toktumi of San Francisco that lets you make calls from the iPad. It adds a phone line to place and receive calls and to send and receive text messages over the device’s Wi-Fi or 3G data connections. you can place calls using a wired headset, Bluetooth headset or over the iPad’s speakerphone. Its Wi-Fi capabilities also allow international travelers to place and receive calls while overseas without incurring any additional charges. The company positions itself as Skype for businesses. Line2 offers a free seven-day trial; service costs $10/month for the basic plan with unlimited U.S./Canada calling and texting and $99.50 for a one-year pre-paid plan (line2.com).
I’m open to trying it because I lost my $25 of credits I purchased from Skype last year. The company told me someone used my Skype ID and password to make dozens of calls between two African nations. The company took no responsibility and told me to change my password and then buy more credits. No, thanks.
Motorola introduced its new Lapdock 100, which turns a number of its phones, including the Atrix 2, Photon 4G and Droid Bionic, into a lightweight 10-inch laptop with a full-size keyboard and five-hour battery that can also be used to charge the phone. It comes loaded with a Firefox browser, Google Docs and Quickoffice. Might this turn into a Google Chrome notebook someday?
Plantronics announced a new Voyager PRO HD that contains sensors that are used to detect when you are wearing it. It’s essentially the same product I reviewed last week, but without the USB dongle. It comes in all black and costs $100. Based on last week’s tests, it ranks, along with the Jabra Supreme, as the best available headsets for talk quality, battery life and comfort (plantronics.com).
X1 Technologies announced an advanced version of its X1 Mobile Search for iPhones and iPads, which lets you remotely search your PC or Mac for any document or file. X1 Mobile Search is available free from the Apple App Store. It’s compatible with both Mac’s Spotlight and Windows search. In a demo, it retrieved a 10-year-old PowerPoint presentation from among 25,000 files with just a half-dozen keystrokes (x1.com).
Snaptracs, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, announced its Tagg pet tracking system that uses GPS and Verizon’s cellular network to monitor your pet’s location. Owners are notified if their pet wanders off beyond a defined boundary and then sends you an alert. you then can check online to locate your pet. The product consists of a battery-powered device that clips onto the pet’s collar and a charging dock. Tagg is designed for dogs and cats weighing more than 10 pounds, and costs $200 for the device, which includes the first year of service. Subsequent years are $60 per year (pettracker.com).
Cadillac demoed CUE, its in-car technology system for managing information and entertainment data, essentially its version of Ford’s Sync. CUE, which stands for "Cadillac User Experience," will debut in the 2012 XTS and ATS sedans, and the SRX crossover. It’s able to pair entertainment and information data from up to 10 Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices, USBs, SD cards and MP3 players. It utilizes voice commands and relies on fewer buttons and larger icons than the Sync and gets online using your smartphone. CUE relies on an 8-inch LCD touch screen in the center of the instrument panel; it has multi-touch capabilities such as zooming and scrolling, as on an iPad.
The wireless industry has been one of the bright spots in the economy, with phone ownership now averaging more than one per person in the United States. The quarter is off to a strong start with the iPhone 4S and other new phones coming that run both Android and Microsoft Mobile.
Baker is the author of "From Concept to Consumer" published by Financial Times Press and available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and other booksellers. He has developed and marketed consumer and computer products for Polaroid, Apple, Seiko and others; holds 30 patents; and is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Baker can be heard on KOGO AM the first Sunday of each month. Send comments to . Comments may be published as Letters to the Editor. Baker's blog is blog.philipgbaker.com, and his website is philipgbaker.com.
Sony launches a Personal 3D Viewer
I previewed Sony’s new HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer, a head-mounted display that lets you view both 2-D and 3-D video. Wearable displays to watch movies have been around for years but have been mediocre at best. not so with this device; its brilliant and sharp image quality is like no other. With two full HD resolution OLED displays only 0.7-inch in size, one in front of each eye, I watched a "Harry Potter" movie in 3-D and tried a race-car-driving game. It was a totally immersive experience.
It’s designed for use at home, not for traveling, as it needs to be plugged into a 110-volt connection and into a computer or other device with an HDMI connection and the source content. It’s available now to try at Sony Entertainment stores, including the one in San Diego’s Fashion Valley ($800, sony.com).
