Internet is a big phenomenon, but of the 7.1 billion people living in the world just 39% are using it. The lowest usage is from Africa and parts of Asia. So what can Google do if they want more people to access the internet?

In an attempt to connect more people to the internet Google is reportedly working to introduce wireless networks for countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. But the problem with these remote parts is the lack of infrastructure for high-speed wireless networks. Google’s solution: “high-altitude platforms”.

Their plan is to use airborne balloons and blimps for creating wireless networks that could allow roughly a billion more people to access the Internet. The signal from the blimps can apparently reach areas of hundreds of square miles. Google’s Android, running on low-cost smartphones, is expected to play a big part in the campaign. And the search giant is also said to be thinking about a satellite-based wireless system, and testing other wireless frequencies.

Google has been working on such systems for a while, it seems. The above figure is from a Google patent application in the year 2000 called the “High altitude platform control system“. So what do you think about Google’s idea?

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The post Google Wants More People To Connect To the Internet in Emerging Markets appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

In July of last year, Google unveiled Fiber, an experimental internet service based on fiber optics. Now, Google may be taking their internet service provider role one step further.

It has now become official that just over 2 weeks ago, Google Inc. employees signed FCC forms with the purpose of experimenting on the 2524 to 2546 MHz range and 2567 to 2625 MHz range. Steve Crowley, a consulting wireless engineer, reports that “These are bands allocated to the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) and the Broadband Radio Service (BRS), which are used by Clearwire for its mobile broadband service.”

Exhibit 1, found on the FCC website, details exactly how Google plans to use the frequency over their experimental license term (24 months). Deployment of the base stations will start inside the buildings of Google’s Mountain View campus and continue to the outdoors of Googleplex with additional base stations.

It is currently unclear what Google plans to do with the 24 month testing license. The rumor mill points to an operation similar to that of Google Fiber. More specifically, something along the lines of Google Wireless. Given that Google already put out the Nexus 4 unlocked, this hypothesis is not completely unbelievable. However, the spectrum ranges mentioned above do not work with current consumer devices.

What do you think Google is cooking up in Mountain View? Should Google continue to roll out more free internet spots across America? Let us know in the comments below.

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The Misfit Shine looks like a smoothed-out river rock and it’s about the size of a quarter. It’s designed to track your activity over the course of the day, making sure that you’re being active enough. You can wear it with the wristband, a clasp or a brooch. The Shine is made from strong aluminum and should be able to withstand daily abuse, including being waterproof.

The cool thing is that if you just tap on the Shine, it’ll display your progress by lighting up a series of LEDs. What’s more, it syncs with your iPhone without using any cables or wires. Just put the Shine on your iPhone with the app running and it does the rest. You don’t even need to pair it. I’m not at all sure how that works, but that’s awfully cool. The battery lasts about six months.

The Indiegogo campaign had a funding goal of $100,000, but as of this writing, they’ve already well exceeded $350,000 in support with nearly a whole month to go. You can secure your own with a minimum contribution of $79 with delivery expected for March 2013.

The post Video: Misfit Shine Wireless Activity Tracker appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This is great for the coffee-drinking public, to be sure, but it’s also pretty great for Bell Canada. Remember that Bell is already serving up the free Wi-Fi at Starbucks, McDonald’s, Indigo and Chapters locations. Adding Tim Hortons to the mix with its over 2,000 locations has got to be a pretty fantastic contract. Tim Hortons underwent a “rigorous six-month testing process with multiple service providers,” finding that Bell “delivered a fast and reliable service.”

The high-speed Wi-Fi rollout at Timmy’s has already started and they expect to cover more than 90 percent of Tim Hortons locations by September. That’s just in time for all the college kids going back to school, returning to the routine of constant caffeination and studying.

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The Boost Speaker from iFrogz utilizes something called NearFA technology. This is not the same as Bluetooth. Instead, all you do is put your iPhone, iPod, or other portable device onto the Boost and it will “sync the audio signal.” It can then boost it out through its pair of two-watt speakers.

This almost makes me think of the SurfaceSound tech used in products like the Tunebug Shake, but this is an entirely different beast altogether. iFrogz says that it isn’t using a microphone to “detect” the sound either, so this has us scratching our heads. It’s got to be psychic.

In any case, you can expect up to 15 hours of tunes from three AA batteries. The Boost sells for $40.

The post iFrogz Boost iPhone Speaker Uses NearFA for Psychic Connection appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

As early as 2009, we’ve been promised a potentially game-changing short-range wireless technology, called WiGig. This amazing mult-gigabit speed wireless technology sounds great, but its has taken a while to really see any major devices that take advantage of the possible technology.

This is all changing as Panasonic has developed a prototype system that has WiGig embedded in a tablet that can wirelessly transmit data like photos and videos to displays mounted in the passenger seats of a car. The receiver must be within 1-3m of the tablet to work, though.

Interesting technology, and as you can see from the video above it only took 60 seconds to trasmit a full DVD video.

If automobile companies and even TV makers can come up with innovative ways to use this, I could certainly see some major potential in the future.

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In areas with Verizon Wireless LTE service, the Sleek 4G-V is aimed to give you a strong LTE signal, as well as conventional 3G or 2G signals. Benefits include fewer dropped connections and no-service “dead zones,” faster data transfer rates and improved battery life for wireless devices.

The Sleek 4G-V is on display at the Wilson Electronics booth #35219 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, level 2, through Jan. 13.

The $149.95 4G booster will be available in the second quarter of 2012. It links up with Verizon Wireless’ 700 MHz LTE, as well as all carriers’ 3G and 2G cellular signals on 800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency bands.  It provides up to 20 times amplification of an ordinary cell phone signal, device is also designed for use in a vehicle, and can be used indoors with the purchase of an optional accessory kit. That makes it perfect for boosting signal to 4G wireless hotspots like the Verizon JetPack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4510L.

I’m not on Verizon, I didn’t experience any of its outages. But as long as it boosts 2G/3G signals, too, it might be a good gadget for me, too.

The post Sleek 4G-V Signal Booster appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Tamaggo Inc., a consumer technology company based in Montreal, Canada, has previewed what will be the first consumer picture-taking device with fully integrated, built-in panomorph technology that lets users capture 360° high-resolution, navigable images with just one click.

What this egg-shaped gizmo can do to your 360° world is create stunning panoramas much better morphed than, say, your ordinary StreetView imaging. You need to go to Tamaggo to experience it.

Tamagoo is also not your ordinary rotating Web cam on Googlemobile. Its specs are quite spectacular, too:

Tamaggo Founder and President Jean-Claude Artonne, calls the products of Tamaggo action as Tamaggraphs and tells “that the Tamaggo can freeze the action taking place within the entire 360°-imaging environment, unlike a standard stitching solution that needs multiple snapshots taken over a few seconds, such as required by Microsoft Photosynth and other stitching applications.”

Artonne, also the author of many imaging patents, noted that Tamaggraphs can be taken from distances between 0 (zero) and infinity, no focus required. He also noted that the Tamaggo captures images in four automatic orientations: Sky 360°, Ground 360°, horizontal panoramic and vertical panoramic.

The Tamaggo 360-imager is a 2012 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards honoree in the digital imaging category.

For availability and pricing pop on over to Tamaggo.

The post Tamaggo Reveals 360° High-Resolution 14MP Panomorph Digital Camera appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

What’s interesting about this keyboard and mouse is that they are made fully of bamboo; there is “almost no plastic” here and the bamboo goes more than skin deep. Because bamboo grows in a tropical environment, it is particularly hardy against humidity. It’s also sustainable, since it grows relatively quickly.

The actual keyboard and mouse aren’t all that exciting with the usual set of keys and buttons. The keyboard has 108 keys, including some shortcuts, while the mouse has a rubber scroll wheel between its two bamboo buttons. Find it on Brando for $82.

The post Getting Eco With Bamboo Wireless Keyboard And Mouse appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Since the International Telecommunications buckled under pressure from cell-phone companies and redefined their definition of 4G to include any technology faster than what they had in 2009, cellular providers across the U.S. have been taking advantage of pretty words and undeserved titles to class up what is in fact not 4G. And it’s not just one or two companies.

According to testing done by PC Mag, 4G on AT&T’s network is actually slower than their 3G – which in turn is faster than what MetroPCS LTE 4G, which is focussed on low cost rather than high speed. On the other hand, Verizon’s LTE is faster than the majority of in-home broadband connections.

T-Mobile has already admitted that two of their 4G phones, the myTouch 4G and T-Mobile G2, are not 4G at all.

AT&T also confessed to “crippling the upload speeds” of both the Motorola Atrix and HTC Inspire, according to PC Mag, although the cause or reason is still unknown.

The patchwork of technologies covered by the collective label of “4G” is making the term more or less meaningless. Though Verizon’s earned the title with their ultra-fast LTE, AT&T seems to be doing all it can to discredit the notion that the technology is superior to 3G.

It may be better off to wait until 5G to upgrade your phone. Or at least until there’s a more universal, results-based definition of 4G.

Until then, if your phone takes more than a couple of seconds to load the next Mobile Mag article, just remember that the signal from your cell phone is going to space and back. That fact in itself is deserving of a little patience – if not awe.

[PC Mag]

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