Telecom or all

Move over texting, “social mapping” is taking over as the latest hot mobile phone trend for the not-quite-old-enough-to-rent-a-car set. Telecom startup Loopt Mobile will start offering its new GPS enabled, people tracking service to Boost Mobile customers starting on November 20th. The service will be free until the end of the year, and [...]

The ZigBee Alliance, a worldwide collection of wireless solution companies, and a sort of Wi-Fi Alliance for the 802.15.4 set, is putting its ZigBee Certified stamp on products for the first time. ZigBee’s global wireless communication standard will be public in 2007, but for now is available only to the 200 current Alliance members [...]

In the wake of fierce market pressure after falling sales, Kai-Uwe Ricke, the head of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom resigned early this week. Rene Obermann was named as the new chief in his place. According to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine, other key players in the firm are expected to step down before [...]

The new Samsung BlackJack, approved in early October by the FCC and released this week, is the latest smartphone in a series of feature-rich phones designed for both business users and the average consumer. The device features a QWERTY keyboard, streaming video from providers such as HBO, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, and a [...]

Hwan Woo Chung, VP of Samsung’s Mobile WiMax Group, is feeling mysterious. At a conference in Singapore, Chung announced that Samsung WiMAX equipment has been shipped to, well, someone somewhere in China. Chung would only say that he could not disclose any names. Adding to the enigma, the customer doesn’t have intentions of rolling out [...]

As credit-card issuers broaden the availability of contactless cards that emit a wireless signal so you can pay for goods by just waving the card near a reader, rather than swiping it, some people are concerned that thieves could charge your credit card without you ever knowing, right from your pocket or purse. Although cards [...]

Although Research in Motion’s BlackBerry device and service are known for strong protection of the data they transmit over the air, SMobile Systems has found one potential vulnerability: virus infestation on the device itself. Just as computers are vulnerable to viruses, typically attached to e-mails or downloaded content or applications, the BlackBerry could be hijacked [...]

Beginning October 1, 2007, any wireless equipment designed for home use in California must have printed instructions on how to secure it and/or how to protect their data privacy, thanks to a bill signed by the governor on Sept. 30, 2006. According to California House speaker Fabian Nuñez, who sponsored the bill, most purchasers of [...]

Sprint has announced its Sprint Mobility Services for medium and large businesses. In addition to tracking cell phones and wireless modems and billing information for them, the service lets businesses remotely disable a stolen device, to stop a thief from accessing its data. Other capabilities include enforcing the use of passwords on devices so unauthorized [...]

While many Wi-Fi hot spot providers let you take advantage of your company’s virtual private network (VPN) security to safeguard data transmitted from your laptop over both wireless and wired connections, many smaller companies and individuals don’t have VPNs set up, and even those that do may find they don’t work in all public hot [...]