Fouth Screen : Thinking outside the box

Fourth Screen: Thinking Outside the Box

Posted by Sam Churchill on April 20th, 2009

OpenPeak has created a ‘fourth screen’ (after tv, computer and cell) for the home. It’s a hub that combines features of the telephone, TV, PC and cell phone into a compact, communications center.

The intuitive navigation menu on the 7″ touchscreen makes it easy to make calls, play music, share photos, and organize your household. The device, powered by an Intel Atom processor, features 1GB of built-in storage, WiFi connectivity, an ethernet port, an audio out jack, and USB socket. It runs a cellular-branded version of the OpenFrame software, which appears to be based on Ubuntu linux. It is a wired device (no battery operation).

O2, a large cellular carrier in the UK is offering it to subscribers for £149.99 or free if taken instead of a handset when upgrading or signing a new 18 or 24 month contract. Mobile Industry News has a review:

Overall I found the Joggler to be a bit of a disappointment. I’m familiar with the OpenFrame platform this is based on and was expecting to find the same Flickr, YouTube and RSS content included. Unfortunately the only place the Joggler can show photos from is the built-in 1GB of storage or a USB stick.

O2 Joggler first look from Dan Lane on Vimeo.

I think it’s safe to assume that any family that’s tech-savvy enough to buy one of these on launch has someone in it that already uses an online calendar such as that provided by Exchange or Google and it would make sense to sync with that calendar. The kids might not need to know that Daddy is in a meeting with his boss but at least some availability information would be useful. The biggest disappointment of all is that I know the OpenFrame platform has a Dominos Pizza button and the Joggler does not!

I think the Joggler is a good start to what is essentially a new market for MNOs but I can’t help but think that an untouched OpenFrame device would be more appealing to a wider audience. I certainly know of some other MNOs that are working on similar device offerings so this should be a very interesting market to watch over the next 12 months.

Looks like a “4G” device to me. The Verizon Hub is a home phone with an internet-connected base that offers users access to V Cast entertainment services, messaging, and email among other features. It will link up to an Application Store.

GiiNii plans to ship its Android-based portable media player and picture frame in October and January, respectively, according to a spokesperson. Archos announced an Android portable media player for mobile telephony.

BTW, Intel is finally selling their mini PCI based 5350 WiMAX / WiFi card. One might consider the three MIMO antennas, generally baked into the device, as a baseline since more gain is needed when inside buildings. The 5350 adapter delivers up to 13 Mbps+ downlink and 3 Mbps+ uplink using WiMAX and up to 450 Mbps over WiFi.

Apple’s iPhone first arrived in June 2007. However, the iPhone 3G — and the App Store — has only been available since July, 2008, giving it only a few months’ head start on its Android rival. The first Android handset — T-Mobile’s G1 — launched in October, 2008. A second handset, the Magic, is expected to arrive next month.

Nearly 162 million smartphones were sold last year, surpassing laptop sales for the first time, according to Informa. Gartner says there were 139.3 million smartphone sales in 2008, up 14% compared to 2007.

Informa predicts smartphone penetration of 13.5 percent this year, reaching 38 percent by 2013. Last year, just under half of smartphones sold were based on Symbian — a drop of 16 percentage points from the year before.

source : dailywireless.org