This blog is sponsored by Digi-Key and will bring you the latest information on wireless technologies in the marketplace, plus an occasional off-topic post that's just plain interesting. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx It's increasingly likely that Google will bid on that 700MHz wireless spectrum when it goes for auction next year. Whether they'll become their own carrier, and whether they'll design their own phones, are unknown variables. But we know they'll design the operating system. Options they could include are numerous... http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#gphone2 I've been looking forward to the Asus Eee PC 701 subnotebook computer. It was supposed to have a great Linux implementation, all-day battery life, and a lightning-fast solid-state disk. Instead, says Reg Hardware, it's more like a Microsoft product -- over-promised and under-delivered... http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#asus Up and down, up and down -- and not just from phones to cells to satellites and back again. The adventures of the Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access system took a recent turn upstream with news of standardization from the ITU. But now Sprint, the biggest carrier that favored this communications system, is separating from its technology partner Clearwire and insiders are asking what's it mean for the future of this otherwise very good techology...? http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#wima The studies which insist (in your best Ah-nold voice please) that "It's not a tumor!" are wrong, reports the UK's Personal Computing World. Most such studies are pointless because they don't measure people who used cell phones long enough -- only small samples of these people exist to be surveyed. Of those who are surveyed, there is a consistent pattern of tumor risk, the controversial report states. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#celltumor Today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnick. I wrote about the satellite's hardware design over at ECN, but here at WDD it's all about the wireless aspect. And there is some exceptional data on the web! Look here amateur radio's role in the launch and here for a related article about a civilian ham in space. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#sputnik Last week I attended the Digital Life show in New York City. It's an ancestor of the old PC Expo, still held in the massive Javits Center, but now down to just one hall. There were plenty of wireless products and two caught my attention: Palm's Centro and Zipit Wireless' Z2. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#diglife Sprint-Nextel announced the Airave which is a gadget you plug into a broadband connection to improve in-building wireless reception. Some people cleverly call this a "femtocell". They plan to roll this out nationwide by 2009, costing $50 (or less) for the hardware plus a monthly fee of $15 or $30 for unlimited calling. The gadget picks up your cell signal when you enter its vicinity, and drops you back to regular cellular when you're back outside. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#airave A couple of weeks ago I wrote a quick blurb about treoantenna.com's extra-short replacement antenna for the Treo 650 and 700 smartphones. This week the company sent me a demo unit. Technically it's for the 650. They explained that since I have a 700, "Please note that I will send you a Treo 650 version. I’m going to modify it a bit so it will also fit the Treo 700 but it is not the Treo 700 final version. The 700 version will be available in a few weeks and will have a much better fit." With that in mind, I tempered my expectations... http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#treo2 This just in: the Cellphone Consumer Empowerment Act (couldn't they have brainstormed for a name spelling "CEL"...?), as explained in the Washington Post, aims to http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#ccea Citizens' Band radio, most popular in the 1970s, is still used by many groups of people. Most folks in my car club use CBs to communicate while on club drives -- we go through places where FRS and handheld CBs just don't work, and communicating via cell phones just isn't feasible nor safe. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#cb Stumbled onto treoantenna.com last night. The proprietor, Zoti, make a replacement extra-short antenna for Treo smartphones. If it's so easily do-able, and it works as well as the full-size antenna, and it's not so expensive, then why does Palm ship the big ones? I definitely plan to order one of these. Looks easy to install and even includes the correct torx driver. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#treoant Windows and "other" -- that's how Microsoft would like the mobile phone OS war to turn out. But this isn't an anti-Microsoft post, instead, it's just a note on the state of the alternatives. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#gphone This story falls into the category of "completely off-topic but still interesting" -- Apple Inc. co-founder and legendary hacker Steve Wozniak is building an energy-efficient home, he's really jazzed about it, and when the Woz talks, we techies should listen. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#woz At our sister magazine, Wireless Week, technology editor Brad Smith wrote about the top ten wireless technologies of the last 25 years. Here is my own top-five version on the same topic. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#topfive I went to the Apple store at lunchtime today to check out the new iPhone. The reviews so far are not glowing but I can't resist the urge to personally paw over new gadgets. So off I ventured into Jobsville... http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#070507 Something that Ben Franklin nor Nikola Tesla ever fully understood is how to transmit controllable power without using wires. Franklin knew that lightning was wireless power, and Tesla understood inductive current. Modern researchers know how to control very modest amounts of power in short distances, in the range of milliwatts over a few inches, using radio frequency. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#062607 Today I read the IET’s (slightly old) discussion thread about who deserves to be called an engineer. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#130407 Thermionic emissions, triodes, and transistors were world-changing events upon their initial exposition, even if the world population didn’t immediately know it. All three technologies still apply to modern design and development of electronic communications, but how often do we really ponder their significance? A good time to do so is this April 28 – International Marconi Day – for it was 100 years ago that Marconi’s earlier experiments in wireless technology culminated in the public opening of trans-Atlantic wireless telegraphy. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#032707 In our last blog post, we asked you about coolness versus practicality when you’re converging wireless technologies. This morning I found another example originally published in InfoWorld. It’s the concept of using OpenWRT software on a low-end consumer wireless router, thereby turning the router into your personal VoIP PBX. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#031607 Hello world! We here at Wireless Design & Development decided to revamp our weblog. We think you’ll like it, and we invite you to help. http://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog.aspx#030507