The Wireless World - NEWS & VIEWS

MIAMI—Prepaid wireless provider TracFone Wireless Inc. said it added 374,000 net additions during the fourth quarter of 2003 and passed the 3-million-customer mark less than one year after surpassing the 2-million-customer milestone.

“Achieving 3 million active subscribers clearly reflects the significance customers place on our prepaid wireless service and our continuing commitment to improve our price and value proposition,” explained F.J. Pollak, TracFone chief executive officer and president.

As part of those price improvements, TracFone also announced lower airtime rates and added a $150 Double Minute Prepaid Plan card that includes 300 minutes, one year of wireless service and double minutes on future airtime card redemptions for one year. The company is also expanding its handset lineup for this year with the addition of the Nokia Corp.’s 1221P TDMA handset, 2285P CDMA handset and 1100P GSM handset as well as Motorola Inc.’s v60 TDMA and CDMA handsets.

TracFone’s parent company, America Movil, also reported TracFone’s fourth-quarter revenues increased from $91 million in 2002 to $166 million last year, while full-year revenues increased more than 45 percent year-over-year to $547 million



-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

Owners of the popular Pocketop infrared keyboard beware: upgrade your device, and you could find yourself facing $20 USD to download new drivers compatible with your unit.
As the maker of the first widely popular infrared keyboard moves to a new web site, owners of the Pocketop keyboard have suddenly found downloads of new drivers come at a price. Stepping away from the company's previous policy, drivers for numerous devices based on the Palm OS and Pocket PC platforms which were previously available as free downloads now sell for up to $20 USD each.

In an open letter to its customers, Pocketop explains why the company has found it necessary to reconsider its policy of making drivers available for free. Apologizing for delays in processing users' requests for drivers for new devices, Pocketop says the very rapid pace of development in the hand-held market, including portable keyboards, has forced the manufacturer to change its policy on issuing drivers.

Part of the company's letter reads: "Unlike Windows devices, where typically only three or four drivers are sufficient to service every PC on the market, there is a huge and growing variety of hand-held devices. We have now developed in excess of 100 drivers that enable our keyboard to be used with hundreds of different PDA/Pocket PC/and cellphone devices. This trend is escalating with the need to provide drivers for devices using the Symbian operating system. The cost to develop drivers is very high."

Additionally, the company's letter also says it has been brought to its attention that users of portable keyboards purchased from its competitors download and use Pocketop's free drivers, a further incentive for the company to introduce a registration and payment policy for drivers.

Owners of Pocketop keyboards must now register with the manufacturer and pay from $10 to $20 USD for each set of drivers, a price Pocketop said it believes is modest compared with its costs. Lastly, the company also claimed its new policy would aid the company in providing new drivers in a timely fashion to meet customers' needs as new devices enter the market.


-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

The following are some companies/WEB Sites that can provide you with an EMAIL address or a method of notifying you that you have a message , on your EasySpeak phone. TMOBILE has removed the feature that gave their PrePaid phones an email address which was xxxxxxxxxx@tmomail.net ( x's were the phones mobile number) I have spent some serious time with my buddy Google looking for alternatives, hoping TMOBILE will figure something out eventually. The first is BigFoot. They have a FREE SMS notification feature available on their FREE Basic acct. While limited (it only notifies you that you have an EMAIL from SENDER SENDER being whatever the sending party puts in their EMAIL programs FROM: section) I have included a link for BigFoot.

Next is IPIPI, a good service, while not free, it is full featured and as cheap as any. Basically you will spend +/- .10 USD to send/or recive a SMS from your phone, or the desktop application (included) They also give you an email address (you pick) that will send up to 160 Characters to your phone.

I will continue to look for alternatives. One of the biggest problems is that most FREE services used TMOBILES EMAIL2SMS gateway to issue a email address to a TMOBILE phone (or their features) Since TMOBILE has removed that feature on the PrepAids, you cant use any system that utilizes the phones email address to get the message to the phone. Biggest problem to most is MSN and/or YAHOO for starters. If anyone knows of a FREE alternative to get an EMAIL address to send to a PrePaid SMS number, let me know PLEASE. salesdept@comcast.net is best email for me.

Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

The worldwide market for handheld devices grew slightly in the fourth quarter of 2003. While this is the second quarter in a row to see growth, the latter part of the year couldn't make up for earlier weakness, so the handheld market overall decreased once again.

According to a new IDC report, handheld device shipments rose 3.2% year-on-year in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2002, while the number of handhelds shipped grew by 52.7% to 3.4 million units. For the full year, however, the handheld market decreased to 10.4 million units; a drop of 17.9% from the previous year's shipments of 12.6 million units.

IDC does not include handhelds with telephony (smartphones) in its statistics. Smartphones are seen by many as a major growth area in the mobile device market.


"With a growing number of vendors and products that combine both personal information management (PIM) capability and telephony, consumers are moving away from devices that offer only PIM capability. HP and palmOne enjoyed particular success during the holiday buying season by offering handheld devices with features beyond PIM that cannot be found in a mobile phone," said David Linsalata, analyst in IDC's Mobile Devices program. "Going forward, handheld device vendors must continue to differentiate and expand into hot product categories, such as media players and digital cameras, to renew growth in their market."

Top Five Handheld Vendors

On the strength of the newly released Zire 21, Tungsten E, and Tungsten T3 handhelds, palmOne posted sequential growth of 56.7% and a corresponding increase in market share from 37.5% to 38.5%.

Although HP's market share declined from 25.9% in the previous quarter to 25.1% in the fourth quarter due to a significantly larger handheld market, HP continued its momentum from the previous quarter and grew its shipments by 101.5% from 2002. By building upon a range of products introduced during the summer that covers all price points, HP found itself well-positioned to continue its growth through the end of the calendar year.

As for Sony, holiday sales in the U.S. helped Sony to sequential growth of 99.8% for the quarter. But Sony was caught between product cycles and experienced weak growth in other regions, bringing its year-over-year shipments down by 2.8% to 13.9%.

Dell's introduction of the new Axim X3 line helped up its sales by 21% over the previous quarter and 167.4% from 2002. With both products being pushed in tandem throughout the world, IDC thinks Dell will get back on the growth track it experienced with the introduction of its Axim X5 devices last year.

Medion, which doesn't even have a product in the United States, entered the top 5 vendor list for the first time, displacing Toshiba for the number 5 position in the fourth quarter with shipments of almost 100,000 devices, representing sequential growth of 104.2%. With sales coming largely from Europe, Medion has grown on the strength of its low-cost handhelds.

So here is how the worldwide handheld market stands at the beginning of 2004. You've got palmOne still in the top spot with 38.1% of the market, not as much as it had in the past but still strong. HP maintained its number two position with 22%, while Sony lands in third with 13.4%, Dell in fourth with 5.9% and Toshiba in fifth with 3.0%. All other handheld vendors, including Medion, took up the remaining 17.6% of the 2003 market.


-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

PDA Portal Links Content Formatted for Handhelds with Users
PDAPortal is a directory of PDA-friendly web sites that can be accessed from the browser of any mobile device. It is kind of a mini Yahoo! for the mobile set.

Since its inception during the spring of last year, PDAPortal.us has added close to 300 PDA-friendly sites in 10 languages, bringing its total up to 480 from an original count of around 200.

According to PDAPortal, the PDA-friendly sites can be accessed by category, popularity, alphabetical order, language, or via a keyword search.

In addition, users can search the Web, check stock prices and check the weather for any U.S. ZIP code.

-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

U.K. based Surerange Analysis' MobileClipper is an Internet service that allows users to create personalized clips of web pages and view the live version on a mobile phone or PDA.

MobileClipper clips information such as news, weather, live sports results, lottery results, flight arrivals, live train departure times, TV listings, travel information and stock quotes. The results are viewable on any phone or PDA with a WAP or mobile web browser.

According to the company, MobileClipper has been designed to detects the type of device requesting the clip and then creating the appropriate type of web page - WAP, XHTML, cHTML or HTML. If the device only supports small page sizes, as in the case of WAP, the output is split across multiple pages.

Surerange Analysis said MobileClipper isn't just for personal use. Companies can clip address books, jobs, deliveries, information, advice or any instant and timely information. It is also possible to use MobileClipper to create mobile versions of Web pages for suppliers and customers.

Individual users can sign up for a Personal Subscription at $19.99 per year. Business subscriptions are also available.


-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

MyDoom E-Mail Worm Spreading Quickly
January 26, 2004
A fast-moving Windows worm known as MyDoom on Monday began spreading at a furious rate on the Internet.

MyDoom arrives via e-mail and has a randomized sender's address and subject line. The body of the message varies, but purports to be an error message, such as: "The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII and has been sent as a binary attachment."

The file attachment is often in a ZIP archive format and can have any one of a number of file extensions, including .exe, .pif and .scr. The icon for the attachment looks like the one used for text messages in Windows.

Once the user runs the attached file, the worm copies itself to the machine in the following manner:


c:\Program Files\KaZaA\My Shared Folder\activation_crack.scr

c:\WINDOWS\Desktop\Document.scr

c:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\taskmon.exe
One IT manager said he was now blocking all ZIP attachements to limit the spread of MyDoom.

MyDoom also copies itself to the registry in Windows so that it executes at startup, according to a preliminary analysis by Network Associates Inc.'s McAfee Security unit. The worm also opens Port 3127 and begins listening for instructions from a remote host.

Much of the data in the worm's code is encrypted, anti-virus experts said, making analysis of the worm much more difficult. Some users reported receiving as many as 100 copies of the worm in a 30-minute span on Monday afternoon.

-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

Reports of exploding mobile-phone batteries finally hit a high note with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announcing a voluntary recall of 140,000 of Kyocera Wireless Corp.’s 7135 smart-phone batteries. The federal agency said the faulty batteries can short circuit and “erupt with force or emit excessive heat, posing a burn hazard to consumers.”
For its part, Kyocera said it has ended its relationship with the Hong Kong-based vendor of the battery in question, and it is considering legal action against the company.
The news comes after several reports of exploding batteries from Nokia Corp., Kyocera and others. However, the recall is perhaps the first instance in which a mobile-phone manufacturer has admitted to selling faulty, exploding batteries.
According to the U.S. safety commission, Kyocera reported four battery failures, including one user who suffered a minor burn. The recall covers Kyocera 7135 phones with the “-05” battery sold through Verizon Wireless, U.S. Cellular and Alltel Corp. between September and December 2003. Kyocera’s CDMA 7135 smart phone features the Palm operating system, 16 MB of onboard RAM and an MMC/SD expansion card slot. The phone sells for about $500. Hong Kong-based Coslight International Group built the batteries, which were manufactured in China. The batteries sold separately for $21.
Kyocera said it immediately halted sales of its 7135 device following reports of a faulty battery. The company said that only about 40,000 of the phones in question made it to end users, and the rest were still in the distribution channel. Kyocera said Coslight has built batteries for other Kyocera phones, but the company designed a custom battery for the 7135. Kyocera said it uses batteries from a variety of vendors.
“We’ve been extremely above the board with this,” said Kyocera spokesman John Chier. “We are considering legal action against this company.”
The U.S. safety commission said Kyocera would contact the phone’s owners and would arrange for the delivery of free replacement batteries.
The news comes just a few months after Kyocera temporarily halted shipments of its KE400/KX400 series mobile phones following a TV news report of a Kyocera phone apparently exploding just days after a Nebraska family purchased it. The company conducted a swift investigation into the incident and determined that the apparent explosion was actually caused by a safety feature built into the phone's battery. The company said the phone's battery short-circuited, causing heat and pressure to build up inside of the battery. To prevent a more serious failure, the company said the battery “vented” the heat and pressure by expelling graphite dust. The graphite dust might have led to reports of a smoky explosion, the company said, but the release of graphite dust is a safety feature common to cell-phone batteries, and the dust itself is harmless.
“This is a very unique incident,” said Kyocera’s Chier at the time. “We're very confident in the safety of the battery and the phone.”
Nokia too has been hounded by reports of exploding mobile-phone batteries, but the company has repeatedly stated the batteries in question are actually faulty counterfeit batteries.
The U.S. CPSC works to protect the public from “unreasonable risks of serious injury or death” from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction.


-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

Phone-mad Steven has 578 handsets

By Richard Smith


HERE'S one way of making sure you get the right mobile.

Phone-mad Steven Cable has collected 578 handsets over the years - at
a cost of more than £40,000.

It's a hobby the shop manager began when he was 14. Among his stock
are three rare 1984 BT Cellnet 8950 BA models which were used in a
Malibu TV advert and given to him free by the drinks firm.

Steven, 29, said yesterday: "Some people like collecting football
stickers or antiques but I've always been fascinated by buttons and
technology. I get a real buzz out of collecting them and I am always
on the lookout for more, especially the old ones which are rare to
find." Steven, from Glasgow, is marrying 26-year-old medical
researcher Sarah Cavendish in July, but she isn't too impressed with
his hobby.

He said: "She thinks it's daft and if she knew how many I've really
got I think she'd go ballistic. But I let her buy shoes and she knows
mobiles make me happy."

No guessing what you want for a wedding present then, Steven.

-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

Sprint Delves Into The Funny Papers
PCS Vision customers no longer need to wait for the Sunday comics to
get their Dilbert fix, thanks to a new deal forged between Sprint and
FunMail Inc.

To read more, go to above listed URL Link

-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World


Get new EXCLUSIVE specials on Best Selling Palm accessories at the Official Palm Store!

Motorola nearly tripled its fourth-quarter earnings of a year ago, beating Wall Street's estimates with a $489 million profit and an unexpected increase in sales to cap off another year of mixed results. Now if they could just get products out the door more quickly. Read the story
-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

AT&T Wireless Services Inc. reported fourth-quarter and year-end 2003 results this morning ahead of its previously stated release date of Jan. 27 and formally announced that its board of directors is looking at “strategic alternatives” for the company, having received “significant interest” from a number of potential suitors.

The carrier said it added 128,000 net subscribers during the fourth quarter of last year, which was well below the 705,000 customers the carrier added during the fourth quarter of 2002 though generally in line with reduced analysts’ estimates. For the full-year, AT&T Wireless added just more than 1 million subscribers ending 2003 with 22 million total customers.

Analysts noted a number of factors contributed to AT&T Wireless’ customer growth shortfall, including an increase in customer churn from 2.4 percent during the fourth quarter of 2002 to 3.3 percent in 2003, backoffice technical issues during the fourth quarter of 2003 and local number portability. The carrier noted it expected customer churn to remain “elevated” during the first half of this year.

“We did hit some operational rough spots in the fourth quarter, but the good news is that those issues are largely behind us,” said John Zeglis, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Wireless. “And we understand the challenges, such as churn, that we must continue to focus on this year.”

Average revenue per user also dropped from $60 during the fourth quarter of 2002 to $58.70 last year, while the cost per gross addition increased from $383 to $392.

Total revenues during the fourth quarter increased more than 4 percent from $4 billion in 2002 to $4.2 billion last year, while full-year revenues increased nearly 7 percent from $15.6 billion in 2002 to $16.7 billion last year. Net losses during the fourth quarter fell from $136 million in 2002, a loss of 5 cents per share, to $84 million in 2003, a loss of 3 cents per share. Full-year net income increased from a loss of $2.3 billion in 2002, a loss of 87 cents per share, to a return of $429 million last year, a return of 16 cents per share.

AT&T Wireless also said it has retained Merrill Lynch & Co. and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz as advisors to its board of directors in the evaluation of its strategic alternatives, adding it would consider its options and “determine the course of action that is in the best interests of its shareholders.”

-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

AT&T Wireless today reported a fourth-quarter loss, disappointing analysts who had predicted a small profit. The company blamed wireless number portability and lingering problems with its CRM system for its poor fourth-quarter results. AT&T Wireless reported a loss of $84 million, or 3 cents per share, compared with a loss of $131 million, or 5 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2002. Analysts had predicted the carrier would post a small profit of around 1 cent per share. Despite the loss, AT&T Wireless reported revenue of $4.2 billion, up from $4.04 billion a year before. The carrier added 128,000 new subscribers last quarter, raising its customer base to 22 million. AT&T Wireless reported a noticeable increase in churn, with a turnover rate of 3.3 percent for the quarter. The carrier claims 14.7 percent of the U.S. wireless market.

AT&T Wireless also said it is looking at bids to acquire the company. Thus far, only two companies -- Cingular Wireless and NTT DoCoMo -- have made offers for the U.S. carrier. Cingular's bid is reported to be worth $11 per share. Analysts predict that DoCoMo will withdraw its bid for AT&T Wireless and that it will exit the $30 billion auction. They claim DoCoMo could face a shareholder revolt if it tries to acquire AT&T Wireless, due mainly to DoCoMo's recent failures at trying to run wireless operations outside of Japan. Insiders now expect competing bids from Vodafone, Nextel Communications, and possibly T-Mobile and AT&T.

For more on AT&T Wireless' Q4 results:
- read this article from Reuters



-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT The US Government has lowered the Homeland Security Alert today from HIGH to ELEVATED. I have found a FREE ALERT service that can be combined with your Wireless device, whether it be PALM or Wireless Phone, anything capable of receiving TEXT messages, that can utilize these alert services. In case of a national emergency they will alert you with any news of utmost importance. EMERGENCY EMAIL will provide you links to the local service provider in your area. It can bring you Weather Information-Homeland Security-Local Emergency Management- Health Alert to your Wireless Device.
-Ron Pendleton Associate Writer, Palm Place and Wireless World

National Homeland Security Knowledgebase

GN Netcom is well known for its hands-free communications solutions. The group consists of two divisions: Mobile Division, which manufactures, markets and distributes the Jabra brand of hands-free products for the mobile consumer market; and Contact Center and Office Division, which manufactures, markets and distributes the GN Netcom brand of hands-free communications products to the contact center, office and PC applications markets.

The company announced during the Consumer Electronics Show 2004 (CES) a new line of dual-use Bluetooth headsets that allow the use of a single headset with both desktop and mobile phones - eliminating the hassle of juggling multiple headsets for different phones.

The first two headsets in the new product line are the GN 6110 (available Q1 2004), which uses a tiny and light fold-out form factor and the GN 6210 (available Q2 2004), which uses the comfortable over-the-ear form factor first made popular by GN Netcom’s Jabra FreeSpeak headset.

The company developed the dual-use technology at its R&D facilities in its world headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. This technology builds upon the Bluetooth wireless protocol – previously only capable of linking a headset to single device at a time – by adding an additional software layer to the headset.

The extra layer allows the headset to pair concurrently with both a desk phone and a mobile phone. An included base station, which incorporates a Bluetooth transceiver as well as the headset’s charger, is connected to the landline phone. Users can then simply press the “answer/call” button on the GN 6110 or GN 6210 headset if either the mobile phone OR the desk phone rings – no awkward wires, no fumbling with two headsets.

Similarly, users can initiate an outgoing call by simply pressing the same button. If the headset detects the base station in proximity, it will initiate a connection to the desk phone, ready for dialing. If not, it opens a connection to the mobile phone, which can be dialled manually, or if supported by the phone, by voice command.

GN Netcom’s market research illustrated that today’s business professional has dramatically increased the percentage of work calls outside of his or her office. Whether travelling, commuting or working from home, today’s professional doesn’t stop working at the office door. The result is an increasing dependence on both an office phone and a mobile phone. GN Netcom is meeting a market need by allowing the same headset to be used for all calls, whether through a mobile phone, or a landline phone, simplifying communications for today’s professional. Since the base station is attached to the phone through the standard handset, the GN 6110 and GN 6210 can work with literally any landline phone on the market – whether digital or analog.

Both headsets provide the Bluetooth-standard 30 feet of range. The headsets are fully compatible with GN Netcom’s optional GN 1000 remote handset lifter, providing the ultimate in flexibility by raising and lowering a desktop telephone’s handset automatically. A travel charger is bundled with the headsets allowing users to conveniently recharge their headset when on the road, without needing to unplug the transceiver from the landline phone.

The GN 6110 (images right and below) boasts an incredibly tiny form factor weighing under one ounce and with a diameter of only 50 mm (under two inches) when closed - perfect for dropping into a shirt pocket. The unit features a talk time of four hours with a standby time of one week. Also, the headset features a reversible earhook allowing it to work on either ear – but an imbedded tilt sensor ensures that the button orientation remains the same regardless of which way the headset is worn.
The GN 6210 uses an “over-the-ear” form factor already popularized by GN Netcom’s hugely successful Jabra FreeSpeak Bluetooth headset. The headset is made of a soft, sound-absorbing elastomer material that reduces distortions, resulting in crisp sound quality. The earpiece and microphone boom fit behind either ear for a comfortable, secure fit. The earpiece also features the JABRA MiniGel. This soft, ergonomic gel tip channels sound directly into the user’s ear for better reception and improved ability to hear conversations clearly even in noisy environments. It features a talk time up to four hours with a standby time of up to 100 hours.


-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World



Visit the GEEKZONE excellent source for Bluetooth and Wireless Info. Thanks to them for this article

The software maker also plans to launch MSN Premium and MSN Plus at the show, which are updates to its MSN Internet Software for broadband Internet users, and is expected to outline planned improvements to the Media Center Edition of Windows XP.

SPOT uses a portion of the FM broadcast radio networks to deliver snippets of information about weather, news, stock prices and sports scores to wrist watches equipped with the technology.

It was first announced at CES in January 2003, and SPOT watches were originally supposed to go on sale from Fossil Inc. and other watchmakers in time for the holiday shopping season. Last minute tweaks to a radio chip in the watches delayed their introduction, according to a source familiar with the effort.

The problem has now been fixed and Fossil has manufactured ''many thousands'' of SPOT watches that are ready for retail next month, the source said. Microsoft's MSN Direct Service, which will deliver information to the watches, will also be available at that time. Plans are priced at $9.95 per month or $59 per year while watches start at $129, Microsoft has said.


A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that SPOT watches will be available at Fossil stores in Las Vegas during CES, and then at retail stores nationwide the following week.

The service will be available initially only in U.S. metropolitan areas and parts of southern Canada, but testing has already begun in Europe, the source said.

''Europe presents some interesting challenges. In Italy, for example, radio broadcasting is like the Wild West, it's almost unregulated. You get stations jammed on top of each other,'' the source said. Still, the service should be available in Europe ''very soon'' the source said.

Whether anyone besides computer geeks will embrace the technology remains to be seen. Past attempts at Dick Tracy-type watches, such as Seiko's MessageWatch, which sold in the mid-to-late nineties, have floundered. Microsoft is betting that consumers are more ready nowadays to embrace such devices, and that technologies have evolved sufficiently to make them attractive.


-Ron Pendleton WebMaster, Palm Place and Wireless World

-Ron Pendleton Associate Writer, Palm Place and Wireless World