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New Sprint Nextel will focus on 3rd screen.    Credit: By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY

     RESTON, Va. — Sprint and Nextel have a game plan for the future, and it's not what you might think. The playbook goes like this: Merge the two companies to create a wireless giant, then transform the combined company — yet again — into a broadband Bigfoot that can compete head-on with Verizon and SBC Communications. "It's all about the third screen," says Sprint CEO Gary Forsee, referring to the pint-sized video screens on wireless phones that are fast becoming ubiquitous.

     The first two screens, of course, would be the TV and the PC. Forsee thinks the wireless screen, which is rapidly evolving into a mobile media center for millions of users, is the next great broadband opportunity. Tim Donahue, Nextel's CEO, nods his head at that. "We will be able to build a new high-capacity, high-quality broadband network that can carry any content that any consumer wants to have," he says, adding: "(Wireless) broadband is coming, and it's coming fast."

     Forsee and Donahue talked about the future of the combined company in an interview with USA TODAY, their first joint interview since the Sprint-Nextel merger was announced in December. The $70 billion merger, which received regulators' blessing last week, is expected to close Friday.

Saving the World With Cell Phones    Credit: By Rachel Metz

   

     As cell phones evolve to include souped-up games, streaming video and MP3 players, some University of California at Berkeley professors and graduate students want to slip a pollution detector into the mix. They are working to develop cheap wireless sensors that, once fitted inside cell phones, could sniff out anything from biological weapons to traffic patterns. While the sensors might not be a typical cell-phone add-on, those involved in the research claim the sheer number of mobile phones in use could make such a system a boon for worldwide data collection and problem solving.

     Wireless sensors are already used throughout the world to track things like landslides and pollution. These can be expensive, though, thanks to costs for batteries and radios. R.J. Honicky, a computer science Ph.D. student working on the software components of the project, estimates a single sensor with battery and radio costs about $70. As a result, the costs of deploying wireless sensors can be prohibitive in cash-strapped developing countries, where pollution and traffic are rising and changing -- and arguably most in need of measurement.

     Enter cell phones, which already come equipped with a radio mechanism and battery, and increasingly include GPS capabilities. According to accounting and consulting company Deloitte & Touche, about 2 billion people will be cell-phone subscribers by 2006.

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Jerk-O-Meter Rates Phone Chatter Credit: Associated Press

 

     CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- Ever wonder if that spouse, friend or co-worker on the other end of the phone is really paying attention? The "Jerk-O-Meter" may hold the answer. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing software for cell phones that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people -- on a scale of 0 percent to 100 percent -- on how engaged they are in a conversation.

     Anmol Madan, who led the project while he pursued a master's degree at MIT, sees the Jerk-O-Meter as a tool for improving relationships, not ending them. Or it might assist telephone sales and marketing efforts. "Think of a situation where you could actually prevent an argument," he said. "Just having this device can make people more attentive because they know they're being monitored."

     The program, which Madan said is nearing completion, uses mathematical algorithms to measure levels of stress and empathy in a person's voice. It also keeps track of how often someone is speaking. "It's an academically proven thing," Madan said of the math behind those measurements. "There are a bunch of academic papers published about this."

For now, the Jerk-O-Meter is set up to monitor the user's end of the conversation. If his attention is straying, a message pops up on the phone that warns, "Don't be a jerk!" or "Be a little nicer now." A score closer to 100 percent would prompt, "Wow, you're a smooth talker." However, the Jerk-O-Meter also could be set up to test the voice on the other end of the line. Then it could send the tester such reports as: "This person is acting like a jerk. Do you want to hang up?"  To test the program, Madan and his MIT colleagues recruited 10 men and 10 women -- all strangers to each other -- and brought them into the lab. The researchers paired off the test subjects, with men only talking to men and women only talking to women, and monitored 200 three-minute conversations about randomly selected topics.

Combo Cellular/Wi-Fi Phones To Boost VoIP   Credit: By TechWeb News

     Internet phoning subscribers with combo cellular/Wi-Fi handsets are in the vanguard of a phenomenon that will pump up VoIP markets, according to a new study from In-Stat. Such users currently represent just two percent of the VoIP market.
The high tech market research firm predicted, in a report released Tuesday, that VoIP subscribers with wireless IP phones will represent 73 percent of the VoIP market in 2009. In-Stat said the first widespread rollouts of the dual-mode cellular/Wi-Fi phones will be in Europe from mobile telephone service providers that have no wireline operations.

     Most U.S. cell phone service providers are owned at least partially by telecommunications providers who won’t be anxious to encourage competition between their wireline and cell-phone operations. In-Stat predicted that more than 66 million cellular/Wi-Fi phones will be in use by 2009. "While mass production of dual-mode sets is not scheduled until 2007," In-Stat stated, "(Our) survey found that over 80 percent of businesses have an interest in the technology."

Mobile Users Are Less Mobile, Survey Finds   Credit: By Mobile Pipeline Staff

     Mobility has a new, more static, meaning according to a study released Tuesday by market research firm Strategy Analytics.
The study found that, in Western Europe, almost two-thirds of all wireless voice and data minutes are used either at work or at home. In addition, the study by Strategy Analytics found an increasing reliance on use of mobile phones for all manner of information, particularly among business users.

     "The business user is more than twice as likely to carry the mobile phone than a notebook when away from the desk," David Kerr, vice president of Strategy Analytics' Global Wireless Practice, said in a statement. "Naturally, these mobile workers are keenly interested in expanding both voice and e-mail/PIM access to their preferred device." Kerr noted, however, that the study found frustration among users involving a the complexity of dealing with wireless access. "Accessing the full range of an application's utility remains a frustration," Kerr said.

     The survey found that two-thirds of those with laptops have built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, but one-third of those rarely or never use Wi-Fi. The survey also found that one-third of the respondents regularly use their mobile phone in the office. Overall, the survey found extremely strong interest in mobile data with particularly strong demand from some users, according to Cliff Raskind, Strategy Analytics' director of Wireless Enterprise Strategies.

How Smartphones Work   Credit: by Dave Coustan

     Think of a daily task, any daily task, and it's likely there's a specialized, pocket-sized device designed to help you accomplish it. You can get a separate, tiny and powerful machine to make phone calls, keep your calendar and address book, entertain you, play your music, give directions, take pictures, check your e-mail and do countless other things. But how many pockets do you have? Handheld devices become as clunky as a room-sized supercomputer when you have to carry four of them around with you every day.

     A smartphone is one device that can take care of all of your handheld computing and communication needs in a single, small package. It's not so much a distinct class of products as it is a different set of standards for cell phones to live up to. This HowStuffWorks article explores what makes a cell phone a smartphone, how the idea came about and what you can do with it.