Qualcomm has lots of friends, but Nokia is not one of them. In fact, Nokia is almost an arch enemy; this club includes Texas Instruments (TI), who with Nokia, was trying to develop CDMA chips for Nokia phones (mostly), but this didn’t work out because Qualcomm apparently was charging too much to license its patents [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Gadgets category.
Qualcomm to settle 3G Patent Dispute with Broadcom?
Earlier this week, Qualcomm’s General Counsel Lou Lupin resigned in the face of mounting legal battles related to Intellectual Property in 3rd Generation Wireless systems. Rightfully so, because Qualcomm has had several setbacks in its patent disputes with Broadcom and Lou was responsible for directing these battles. Moreover, for a company like Qualcomm that has [...]
Ooma to Raise Prices
Ooma just announced that it is taking pre-sales orders for the ooma Hub™ and ooma Scout™ in advance of the company’s consumer release slated for September 2007. Pre-sales orders will have for first priority fulfillment next month when the company opens up the online store. Pre-sale Ooma systems come at the introductory pricing of $399 [...]
Amp’d customers keep getting screw’d
It was a sad fate for Amp’d. On the other hand, the future for Prexar Mobile looks brighter than ever. Here’s why; Prexar Mobile, a small mobile virtual network operator managed by a nationwide CLEC, says it has signed a deal to acquire Amp’d Mobile’s customers. Prexar is hoping this move will help its nationwide [...]
Why Skype is Better than Ooma
Ooma has a lot of buzz and hype around it, despite still being in private beta. But let’s look beyond the hype and compare Ooma with other telephony services. I’m specifically choosing Skype although there are other players to consider. This will give a good idea how Ooma stacks up against Skype and for who [...]
Verizon Wireless Enables YouTube Video Uploads
Verizon Wireless is now the first U.S. Wireless Service Provider (WSP) to enable YouTube Video. Now you can record videos on your mobile phone and upload the videos directly to YouTube using the shortcode YTUBE (98823) using MMS. This is a pretty easy to remember shortcode, but UTUBE would’ve been easier to remember (perhaps that [...]
AT&T Video Calling service goes Nationwide
AT&T/Cingular started with a limited commercial rollout of the Video Share service in June 2007. Now, AT&T Video Share goes “nationwide” in nearly 160 Markets. While Europe has seen video calling services earlier (albeit with limited success), this is the first-ever service in the U.S. that enables mobile subscribers to share live video over their [...]
Amp’d Mobile Shutting Down Today
It’s been almost 2 months since Amp’d Mobile went bankrupt (Amp’d is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that runs on the Verizon Wireless network). Since then, it has been slowly but surely limping into the deathbed. Amp’d Mobile has sent a text message to customers announcing it will shut down today (Tuesday, 24 July). [...]
Concerns about Ooma
I haven’t tried Ooma yet, but it sure feels like the greatest thing since sliced bread, given all the hype and buzz surrounding it. And it’s just started private beta. You can find some of the greatest reviews at GigaOm, Crunch, Engadget, Mossberg, – some of the writing are pretty clear indications that Ooma reached [...]
Verizon Wireless does U-turn and pays Broadcom to import EV-DO mobile devices
The unending patent saga between Broadcom and Qualcomm takes yet another twist as Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay Broadcom $6 per handset, up to a maximum $40 million per quarter and a lifetime maximum of $200 million in order to be able to import EV-DO handsets into the USA. Verizon Wireless had previously supported [...]
