I figured with all the hype surrounding the launch of the Apple Mobile, now’s the time – I’ve put together a marketing proposal and gone out in search of venture capital for a new mobile phone company. Our first project, code-named “The Phone of Next Tuesday” (TPoNT for short) would use or connect to everything I saw at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2007. Great idea, huh?
Not just a phone
There’s lots of embedded technology to choose from at CES; you just have to look for it carefully amid all the excitement. Here are a few of the great things I saw and touched that might show up in TPoNT (but I can’t let on too much, our competitors are probably reading this).
Of course, every great phone starts with a great 3G chipset. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon combines a Scorpion 1 GHz core with a 600 MHz DSP to give connectivity to CDMA2000, WCDMA, HSDPA, and HSUPA networks, along with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. It also has broadcast modem capability for DVB-H and other standards.
For the operating system, we’ll run a Linux-based open source platform first appearing in the FIC Neo1973 called OpenMoko. The features will be unlocked via bio-metrics using a Validity Sensors VFS201. This sensor is rugged enough to hit with a hammer due to its chip-on-flex packaging, yet highly accurate and small enough to fit. To add GPS, Global Locate has their new Hammerhead A-GPS chipset, providing much better indoor location capability at a really low cost, so we’ll never be lost again.
With all the stuff to connect to, we’ll need Ultra Wide band (UWB). WiLinx gets us connections from 3-10 Ghz from a low-power CMOS chipset. And we’ll need WiMax, so we’ll add the Beceem Communications BCS200 chipset. For near field communication, we’ll go with the Innovision chipset, which will give TPoNT the ability to read short-distance RFID tags from about an inch for applications like smart ticketing and e-wallet uses.
Got great content on the phone, but want to view it on your HDTV? We’ve got an answer that uses Wi-Fi capability. TPoNT will stream content from our device to a TV in HD using the PC2TV solution from Quartics. With just a simple driver, content is sent to a Wi-Fi box that does the heavy decoding work for HD formats.
Speaking of viewing our display, it will always be right side up and we’ll know how fast it’s moving because we’ll have the ADXL 330MEMS sensor from Analog Devices, the same one used in the Nintendo Wii-mote. And for an even bigger experience, we’ll hook up the Icuiti AV920 video eyewear for an equivalent 62" screen.
We’ll also have a battery with two charging options. We’ll use the WildCharger and set TPoNT on the pad to charge it – no cables. For road use, we’ll connect a longer-life fuel cell – the Medis Technologies “24/7” Power Pack, enough power to recharge for three months.
More work to do
A few more details will have to be hammered out before TPoNT is launched. With all this stuff inside, TPoNT will probably retail in the range of the Bang & Olufsen Serene at $1,275. We’ll need to make sure the carriers don’t give it away for $20 with a two-year contract.
Let’s see, what else is on the to-do list? Our CEO says to do a trademark search on “Cacophone.” And great, I’ve been waiting for this e-mail with the customer focus group results – they say they want something easy to use, like that funny-looking broach they tap and say “Picard to Riker” on Star Trek. That’s odd, I would have thought folks wanted more features like these packed into a small phone.
We’ve got our work cut out for us. I trust engineering can make all this stuff work together. I’ve got to run – John Kricfalusi is calling; he probably wants to invest in the company. As always, e-mail your thoughts and ideas to ddingee@opensystems-publishing.com.
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