Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications

Wireless Wonderland

Posted: 03/28/11 by Jonathan Spalter

I am truly amazed by the mobile technology that has been unveiled at this year's CTIA Wireless show in Orlando, Florida. It seems only fitting that in such close proximity to the Magic Kingdom, the innovation on display in the convention center has made a trip around the exhibit floor a futuristic and magical experience.

Check out some of our team's favorite emerging wireless technologies and apps:

• Software technology that recognizes faces and automatically tags your friends.


• A wireless fertility monitor that indicates optimal fertility based on body temperature.


• An app that promotes safe driving by automatically silencing cell phones when the car is moving over 10mph.


• Remote physiological monitoring that measures key vitals and sends to the cloud for medical monitoring via cell phone or computer.

Augmented reality is the new reality for next generation mobility. This is just taking-off, and it is an exciting moment for the future of mobile user experience and interface. Ericsson's "Connected Tree" -- a live, mobilized orange tree which is now turbo-charged with augmented reality pop-ups viewable on your handset.

Speaking of taking off, Key Ring Reward Cards by Mobestream Media won first place at the CTIA Emerging Technology Awards in the Mobile Applications -- Mobile Commerce category. Key Ring is a handy app that consolidates consumers' plastic loyalty cards onto their smartphone to make saving more convenient and it helps retailers communicate real-time with their customers.

Bill2Mobile received second place honors in the Mobile Applications -- Mobile Commerce category. Its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch app allows customers to opt for paperless bills and makes it more convenient to monitor statements and accounts with a mobile device.

In addition to perusing a seemingly endless exhibit floor hosting infinite apps, smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices -- one very hot topic weighing on everyone's mind is spectrum.

In the conference keynote, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski explained:

"This explosion in demand for mobile services places unsustainable demands on our invisible infrastructure -- spectrum. Spectrum is the oxygen that allows all of these mobile innovations to breathe. Whether or not most Americans know the physics of spectrum, they know what it feels like to have a dropped call or a slow connection or cranky Wi Fi...

It is essential that we move quickly -- not because of the benefits of action, but because of the costs of inaction. If we do nothing in the face of the looming spectrum crunch, many consumers will face higher prices -- as the market is forced to respond to supply and demand -- and frustrating service -- connections that drop, apps that run unreliably or too slowly."

As we continue to take huge leaps forward into the exciting and futuristic realm of mobile, the message is clear: we must have more spectrum in order to keep pace with innovation and consumer demand for the products we just can't live without.

This article was originally posted on Huffington Post.

The Future…Your Phone in Two Years

Posted: 11/05/09 by Mobile Future Team

Ever wondered what the place where you are standing looked like 200 years ago? Ever wonder what a far away object looks like up-close?

In just a couple of years our smartphones may be able to answer these questions for us. Technologists are developing "augmented reality" applications that can take visual information from the web and infer what our surroundings looked like in the past or give us more detailed views of distant objects.

Experts say smartphones of the near future may physically resemble the smartphones of today, but their capabilities will better resemble our computers. Designers and technologists predict that many phones will have foldable screens similar to e-readers of today. Researchers are even experimenting with virtual keyboards, which will allow users to type over an imaginary keyboard while sensors pick up the keystrokes.

A recent article in the New York Times details the exciting developments in smartphone technology. 

Today's smartphones can do almost anything a PC could do in 2007, but in a couple of years smartphones may have enough computing power to enable much more sophisticated applications that truly take advantage of the device's portability.

This is good news for smartphone users. If you love your phone, but prefer your laptop keyboard and all its capabilities, it may not be too long before you've got the best of both worlds in one portable device.