Sony Ericsson Satio 

 Satio, a Sony Ericsson product, launched in market on 7^th Oct, 2009 will definitely leave you amazed with it’s the startling features. You might call it a perfect blend of a whooping cyber shot 12.1 megapixel camera, a walkman music player and of course a touch screen mobile phone. It has all the multi media features you can think a phone can have. This phone was first introduced in Barcelona with a name ‘Idou’. Now to substantiate on the above claims, let’s have a brief overview of its tech specs: 

1. Camera:

• 12.1 Megapixel Camera
• Upto 12x digital zoom
• Auto focus, intuitive touch focus
• Xenon Flash
• Face and smile detection.
• Geotagging
• VGA 30 f/s Video recording
• Photo Editing
• Best Pic 

1. Dimension : 112 x 55 x 13.3 mm
2. Weight : 126 gm
3. Screen: 3.5 inches, 16:9 widescreen, TFT Screen, Accelerometer Sensor
4. Resolution : 640 x 360 pixels
5. Internal Memory: 128 MB, 256 MB RAM
6. Card Slot : MicroSD, expandable up to 32 GB
7. Colours : Black, Blue, Bordeaux
8. OS : Symbian Series 60, 5^th edition
9. CPU : ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz
10. Connectivity :

• In-Built Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth : v2.0 with A2DP
• USB : v2.0
• 3G : HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 3.6 Mbps
• TV Out

1. Keyboard : Onscreen QWERTY Keyboard
2. Battery Life :
3. Miscellaneous :

• Stand By : Up to 360 h (2G) / Up to 340 h (3G)
• Talk time : Up to 11 h (2G) / Up to 4h 50 Min (3G)

• HD and 3D Games
• FM Radio with RDS
• Facebook Application
• YouTube
• Google Maps
• Media Player, Bluetooth Stereo ( A2DP), Music Tones ( MP3/AAC)
• Web Feeds
• Document Readers/Editors
• GPS Positioning 

Satio comes with many other basic functionality along with the above mentioned ones. One striking change is the customization of the OS, as a result of which Satio features a tabbed homescreen with tabs that link to favourite app, gallery, contacts, network services etc. It comes with colour-matched Wireless stereo hands free. 

Satio provides you with ultimate multimedia experience, from HD Games to smooth High Definition video viewing, from GPS positioning to photo and document editing to a rich experience of a Digi Cam. What else do you want from a mobile phone? 

Last, but definitely not the least, its price – Rs 35,500 (Approx). Now, It’s for you to decide if Satio deserves to be your handset or not.

Light peak: Gen-X of high speed connectivity

On 23^rd Sept 2009, Intel, in its Intel Developer Forum (IDF) unveiled a new high speed optical cable technology devised to connect electronic devices to each other, the technology being code named as ‘Light Peak’. Bundles of copper wires to connect your computer to peripherals, disk drives, displays, workstations etc will soon be a matter of past. Let’s find out:

Why is Light Peak necessary?

As of now we only use electrical cable technology in most of the computing devices, but due to electro-magnetic interference and various other issues this technology is reaching its limits in terms of speed and length.  This limiting factor (EMI) is overcome with the use of optical fibres, which uses light to transfer data instead of electricity.

Technology Behind Light Peak:

From the little that has been revealed about the technology: All the devices and platforms supporting light peak will consist of a controller chip and an optical module. The optical module, using miniature lasers and photo detectors, converts electricity to light and vice versa.

Why is Light Peak considered as a revolution in device connectivity?

• Its bandwidth start with 10 Gbps and can be scaled up to 100 Gbps
• It can run multiple protocols simultaneously over one cable. This feature makes it possible to connect multiple devices through one port.
• It provides thinner, longer and more flexible cables.
• Intel is working on bundling the optical cables with copper wires so that Light Peak can be used to power devices plugged into PC.
• In near future, it is seen as a replacement to USB, Firewire and HDMI.

Light Peak in is expected to make its way to the market by 2010. Its pricing is still to be decided. There still exists a massive task to standardize this method of device communication and to have ports in devices that support this technology.

Light peak is going to redefine the way we connect to devices, definitely until Intel comes up with something solid from the research it has taken up on Ultra Wideband Technology (UWB) that will enable wireless communication between various devices.

More to come on this technology area … keep reading & commenting!

WiMax Technology

WiMax (Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access) is the latest technology which enables  high speed and reliable internet access anywhere and everywhere. It is seen as the alternative to DSL, Cable modem, T1, T3 lines Wi-Fi, and dial up connection.  To understand more about it lets discuss:

Why is it important to have a WiMax?

• It overcomes the problem of small coverage area and high cost associated with Wi-Fi and broadband. It comes with high speed of broadband, ‘Wirelessness’ of Wi-Fi and broad coverage area like a cell phone network.
• Keeping in mind the increasing demand and use of high bandwidth application, WiMax is seen as the only solution that is 3-5 times faster and 5 times more cost effective than present 3G technologies.

• WiMax is going to make ‘Internet on the go’ a reality, a scenario where you can just connect a device, connectable to internet and enabled with WiMax(Like Wi-Fi), anywhere. You can experience connectivity to its max, which is going to become on of the basic necessities in near future (very similar to mobile phones today).

How WiMax works?

The operation of WiMax is quite similar to Wi-Fi but at a higher speed and encompassing a large coverage area.

A WiMax system is composed of two parts:

1. A WiMax tower: Providing a coverage area of around 3000 sq. miles ( 8000 km²)
2. A WiMax receiver: The receiver and antenna can be a PCMCIA card small box, a laptop or any device built-in with WiMax.

A WiMax tower and receiver communicate via radio signals and a device equipped with WiMax would receive encrypted data keys to prevent any unauthorized access. This communication is done in two ways:

1. The Non-line-of-sight way: Using this we can connect an antenna on a computer directly to the transmitting tower but it uses a lower frequency range of 2 GHz to 11 GHz.
2. The line-of-sight service: A dish antenna from a rooftop or pole points and connects straight to WiMax tower. This uses a higher frequency of around 66 GHz with very less interference and more bandwidth.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) provides efficient support for many users using the service simultaneously.

To support a huge data traffic WiMax uses multiple, Multiple Input/Multiple Output(MIMO) smart antenna.

This 4G wireless technology, built on IEEE 802.16e-2005 air interface standard, provides:

• high data transfer rates
• Low cost
• Based on all-IP network architecture, it is more scalable and efficient network for video, voice and data (This is called Quality of Service).
• Reduced Network complexity
• Backward compatibility with existing 2G and 3G cellular network deployment, making it easier to deploy WiMax.
• Holds equally good for fixed environment very similar to DSL or cable modem service.

With Giants like Intel and service provider, Clear coming into play, it is definitely going to revolutionize the broadband access like cell phones did it for phone access.