Jawbone noise shield, headset with background noise reduction
January 31, 2008
Jawbone is the world’s first adaptive Bluetooth headset for mobile phones. Its revolutionary Noise Shield technology combines the latest innovations in acoustics, audio processing and product design to produce a quantum leap in headset performance.
Not only does the Jawbone technology virtually eliminate all background noise from your call, but as your background changes it also seamlessly adjusts the speaker output so you can hear your caller’s voice better. Jawbone’s intelligent system of sensors, software, and ergonomic features allows you to use your mobile phone in any environment without shouting or straining to hear. The result is a clear, uninterrupted, and productive conversation.
Jawbone Technology Breakthroughs
Jawbone identifies your speech: A proprietary voice activity sensor identifies precisely when you are speaking, in any noise environment. Unlike other headsets, Jawbone can easily separate your speech from other sound nearby.
Jawbone eliminates noise: Jawbone uses highly directional microphones and powerful signal processing algorithms to remove background noise from your ongoing speech signal. This allows you to be heard clearly in any environment without the need to shout and disturb others around you.
Jawbone automatically enhances incoming audio: The volume and frequency content of the incoming speech is dynamically adjusted to maximize intelligibility in any noise environment. No matter where you are, Jawbone will adapt to your environment.
Video: Demonstrating Motorola Z8’s “firmware over the air” feature
January 31, 2008
Motorola’s Z8 – a Symbian device running the UIQ user interface – has the ability to download and install firmware upgrades over the air, aka FOTA. That means you won’t need any USB cables, special PC softwares or anything else. There’s no need for backups and there’s no problem running out of batteries during the update process, the phone will pick up from where it ended next time you’ll switch it on.
FOTA is an acronym for Firmware Over-the-Air. It is used for upgrades to mobile phones and PDAs. Normally you have to go to a specific service center (every mobile brand has their own) to get a firmware upgrade. Or some phone models can be upgraded by connecting your phone via a cable to your PC. But both methods are considered inconvenient by consumers and also depend heavily on consumers to seek out the upgrade, and therefore the majority of mobile phone manufacturers and operators have now adopted FOTA technology for their handsets. If the mobile phone has FOTA capability, you can instead download the firmware upgrade directly from your mobile phone. It also allows manufacturers and operators to "push out" firmware upgrades to ensure that mobile consumers have the latest software improvements, which helps reduce customer support costs and increase consumer satisfaction. The process typically takes between 3 and 10 minutes, depending on the size of the upgrade file and the speed of your wireless connection. – Wikipedia
ShakeSMS & Motion Input, two new innovative N95 applications
January 31, 2008
Found two new cool accelerometer applications, ShakeSMS and Keynetik Motion Input.
ShakeSMS allows the user to read an SMS just by tilting the phone, even when the keys are locked. Another tilt takes your phone back to idle screen and the keys are locked once again. There’s still no beta’s available, but the official homepage is here (i think?).
KEYnetik Motion input is very much like Samir’s NokMote and simply lets the user control the phones input by tilting the phone. Basically it replaces the joypad. More info hopefully coming on their website.
[Via: Symbian-freak.com]
Fring – free VoIP calls, update due next Tuesday?
January 31, 2008
Ben from Intomobile reports that a new version of the Fring software is due to next Tuesday, the 5th of February. It sounds likely Fring will release a new version in time for 3GSM GSMA Mobile World Congress, a huge mobile event that takes place in Barcelona 11 – 14th of February.
Fring is an application which allows users to connect with eachother using IM services such as MSN, Gtalk, AOL, ICQ etc and VoIP services such as Gizmo or Skype. The users can chat and/or call each other free if they have unlimited data plans or use free WiFi connections.
Read more about Fring and download it for free at fring.com.
Dataportability – your identity, contacts & content wherever you go
January 31, 2008
Alright so this is not a pure Symbian related post, but still very much interesting for all users of the web and online services. Dataportability is a project which aims to make us the users, our photos, videos and other forms of personal data discoverable by and shared between our chosen tools and vendors. That means no more registering and adding details to YouTube, Facebook, Gmail, Hotmail, Flickr etc. Once you’ve entered the data, uploaded your photos or videos it’s there, available and ready to be recycled. Don’t waste your time adding friends or content, spend your time creating content.
Video: Dataportability, connect, control, share, remix
The technologies already exist, we simply need a complete reference design to put the pieces together. Sounds like one of those nice internet ideas that never end up in anything real huh? No not really, just take a look at the things that have been achieved so far:
| 10 Nov 2007 | Dataportability project is founded |
| 8 Jan 2008 | Google, Plaxo and Facebook announce membership DataPortability Workgroup |
| 10 Jan 2008 | LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr and Six Apart join the DataPortability Workgroup |
| 5 Jan 2008 | Mozilla CEO indicates interest in joining DataPortability |
| 24 Jan 2008 | Microsoft Joins Data Portability Project |
| 29 Jan 2008 | Digg Joins the DataPortability Project |
Things are looking good. If Nokia is to establish themselves as a Internet Service company they need to start thinking data portabilty and make things right from the beginning. Read more about the Dataportability project on the official webpage, dataportability.org.
