McDonald’s in Korea is toying with the idea of a cell phone based ordering in a partnership with SK Telecom (You know the other half of Helio). When a customer enter McDonalds they plug in a RFID fob on the end of their cellphone, and with a touch a button they can see the menu (Doesn’t everyone just get a #2?) another button push orders the items. To finish things off when the food is ready, customers are notified with an SMS message.
Remember MetroPCS making a $5 billion offer to buy Leap Wireless. Well MetroPCS said that the $5 is not in the companies best interest because MetroPCS is worth more then $5 billion
But the real fun is when CEO’s mudsling, such as the case with Leaps Douglas Hutcheson:
“Therefore, given our broad and repeated efforts, we were surprised by your sudden offer and the fact that you decided to make the offer publicly before even attempting to enter into substantive discussions with us,” Hutcheson said in the letter. “We can only conclude that you recognize Leap’s compelling long-term growth prospects and that your aggressive approach is intended to try to opportunistically capture a disproportionate share of this value for your shareholders prior to an increase in our relative valuation.”
Ouch!
Sprint today announced the limited launch of their HotSpot at home product that will support the use of 3 calls at once. They are selling the device at $50, and charging $15 a month per person. The service will let ANY Sprint use the repeater.
Initially the device will be available in Denver and Indianapolis, but will roll out nationwide in early 2008.
Did you know that the iPhone wasn’t Apple’s first step into the wireless world? They had several devices that were designed for mobile communications.
First up was Newton. The Newton was originally conceived as a wireless communicator using RISC chips from AT&T ironically and designed for the RadioMail wireless system. Although the whole Apple branded wireless handheld never saw the light of day, Motorola licensed the Newton technology to make the Marco. Apple later provided the option to add a wireless radio card to all Newton handhelds to receive wireless email via RadioMail.
Apple’s other attempt in jumping in the wireless world was with the PowerBop computer (Yes, PowerBop – named after the network technology). The BOP network (deployed in France) was supposed to provide voice, internet and network access to all French Telecom customers. Apple retrofitted a PowerBook 100 series with an wireless radio and antenna system stuffed where the floppy drive used to be. Unfortunately, the PowerBop never left the working prototype phase since networks in Paris failed. The BOP service (9,600bps) was VERY expensive, hard to deploy and extremely inefficient in handing off data connections from one antenna to another.
Well slap me silly and call me a monkies uncle – Packard Bell is making computers again. Their target? Ultra portables. Now you may think that the ultra portable market is kinda flooded at the moment, but Packard Bell is pushing forward with this 2 pound device.
Powered by a VIA processor, this little guy will eek out three hours of battery life even with its WiFi connection on. Comes with the usual complements of I/O, 30GB HDD and webcam. To separate itself from the pack Unlike the Fooleo Foleo, the Packard Bell unit will ship with a full version of Windows XP instead of Linux.
Google, ever encroaching on PayPal, has filed a patent that apparently shows how to use a cellphone to make a payment via Google Payments. Now as Google payments stands it is not really popular at the moment, I can imagine the user base for GPay will be even smaller – my gut says Google may have some real promotions happening real soon to push the product.
Today in London Nokia dropped a handful of new products and services on the mobile industry today. Besides some shiny new devices, Nokia has entered the online services world by offering an online music and game store.
First off the N95 (Silver) is heading to the US. The new US model will sport HSDPA and come with its Europeans brothers GPS and WiFi abilities.
Nokia is also offering a N95 in a black shell that packs the same feature set as its silver brother but packs 8GB of USABLE memory. Will ship sometime in October for $761.
The Nokia N81 is a N-Gage device and this is no side talking taco phone. This baby sports HSDPA (but unfortunately won’t work on US networks) that will help facilitate on-line gaming. But besides games the N81 features integrated speakers and a standard sized non recessed 3.5-mm headphone jack and 8GB of memory.
The Nokia XpressMusic 5310 ais Nokia’s latest entry into the music world by releasing a microSD slot sporting, 18 hour battery toting, headphone jack carrying candybar. The 5310, which will be available Q4 will be available for $307 when it ships in the fourth quarter.
The Nokia XpressMusic 5610 is a slider that shares a similar feature set as the 5310 but adds a 2.2 inch QVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, and a longer battery for about $410. Will ship in the fourth quarter.
Nokia also dropped an online music service that (for the time being) is only available in Europe. The Nokia store will allow over-the-air music purchases and downloads. The store will sell 192Kbps DRM ridden WMA tracks.
Is it a leak, or is it an opportunity for Palm to get some more PR – whatever the reason it seems we have an official leaked press photo of Palms new more affordable PDA.
As opposed to the other leaked blurry test photos the device actually looks good. It is rumored the device will be available for $99 in early October with Sprint having a 90 exclusive on the device. [via]
