Look out, Bluetooth -- Ozmo Devices has its eyes set squarely on you. Okay, so maybe this whole thing isn't as adversarial as advertised, but there's no denying that the aforesaid company's latest initiative will target the exact same devices that BT is embedded within now. Ozmo has announced a partnership with Intel at Computex that will extend the latter company's Cliffside WiFi Personal Area Network (PAN) technology to "low-power devices." Essentially, WiFi radios that suck less juice nowadays would take on dual roles -- accessing WLAN networks and doing the duties typically reserved for Bluetooth -- which would enable devices to have one less component stuffed within bulking things up. As of now, there's been no takers on the design, but word on the street has Belkin already testing the approach out for kicks and giggles (or maybe something way more serious).

[Via DailyWireless]

Read - Ozmo Devices' press release
Read - WiFI PAN explained

As if things weren't confusing enough in the world of tiny computers, Qualcomm went and blurted off news about a $299 machine that will run Windows Mobile 7 on its Snapdragon mobile chip set. Qualcomm's senior veep Luis Pineda boasted that the machine will run WinMo7 and is more efficient than its competitors from the likes of Intel, AMD, and Via. When pressed, he wouldn't give up any additional hardware specs, but he promises a "big presence in Snapdragon-based devices at CES 2009". This isn't the first time we've seen mention of Windows Mobile 7, but it's quite possibly the first tie-in with a specific product group. We look forward to the Snapdragon-Intel-AMD-Via mobile computing war in the coming year, indeed.

As unlikely as this sounds, rivals Time Warner Cable and Comcast are apparently in talks with Sprint and Clearwire over establishing a nationwide WiMAX network. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the companies are scrambling to get a deal wrapped up by CTIA -- which takes place at the beginning of April -- and could see an influx of cash from both Google and Intel in excess of $1 billion. It seems the odd-couple partners are keen to cut into heavyweights Verizon and AT&T's ever-expanding range of at-home and mobile services by offering their own take on a high-speed data and voice system to consumers. Clearly this combination would deflate AT&T and Verizon's big FCC bandwidth-nabs a little (and it explains why the cable players weren't interested in the 700MHz auction), but it's questionable whether this rag-tag team of wild card players would seriously court the public's eye. They say America loves an underdog -- even if it's a gigantic, super-rich, corporate underdog.

[Via mocoNews]

We suppose it was always inevitable, but things are about to get quite interesting at the intersection of cellphone and laptop processors. According to Intel, Apple has apparently committed to using the company's 45nm Silverthorne chip in multiple products slated for 2008. The chip offers the processing power of second-generation Pentium M processors, with the power consumption of a cellphone chip. Of course, it's not just the processor. Apple is expected to emerge as a major supporter of Intel's whole "Menlow" Mobile Internet Device platform, which packages processor, graphics and connectivity into a small enough bundle to give iPhone-powering Samsung a run for its money in ultra mobile products -- and Intel has made it clear that it has its sights set on that very member of Apple's lineup wit. The best news for dreamers that've been holding out for a true Newton successor all this time is that the chips provide plenty of juice for a UMPC-type device should Apple choose to go down that path.

[Thanks, Mark]

After buddying up with IBM earlier this year on a 32-nanometer semiconductor, Infineon is now teaming with none other than Intel to produce high-density (HD) SIM cards. Announced today at the Cartes Trade Show in Paris, the agreement will spark a "strategic technology collaboration" which will see Infineon producing modular chip solutions while Intel offers up memory capacities from 4MB to 64MB. More specifically, a 32-bit security microcontroller will be provided by Infineon, while the partnership's other half throws in its "leading-edge flash memory technologies, capabilities and manufacturing." Apparently, the HD SIM will play nice with "data-intensive mobile applications, services and over-the-air downloads" which are likely to become more pervasive in the coming years, and current market research shows that these very devices will account for "six- to eight-percent of the total SIM card market in 2010." As for availability, look for samples to land in Q2 of next year, but don't expect 'em to be manufactured en masse until the first half of 2009.

[Via EETimes]

As ARM continues its quest to become the record holder for partnerships created in one month, now we're seeing that the firm is getting cozy with Intel. Apparently, the duo is looking to instill ARM's TrustZone technology into mobiles, PDAs, set-top-boxes or other devices running "open operating systems such as Symbian OS, Linux and Windows CE." Essentially, the process involves wedding ARM's security solutions with Intel's Authenticated Memory, which purportedly "provides a solution that is stronger than either technology working independently," and moreover, the combination of technologies "can help reduce SoC cost." For the geeks who dig this stuff, feel free to hit the read link for a way-too-detailed eight page PDF. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via TheInquirer]

It sounds a bit odd that Apple would have to "consider" Intel for anything -- you know, considering that it provides the processors for the Mac lineup and all -- but according to DigiTimes, Cupertino could be looking Intel's way for a future iPhone platform. Granted, this rumor is indeed one of the weaker ones we've seen, and it's no secret that Apple tends to shift from vendor to vendor in order to keep costs down, but it's being reported that the firm could be "considering developing an iPhone" based on the Moorestown platform. Make of that what you will, but at least we know it's not likely to be called the iPhone Extreme if it does indeed materialize in due time.

[Via TGDaily]

It's hard not to love the promise of the White Space Coalition, which includes players like Google, Microsoft, Dell, Earthlink, HP, Intel and Philips. Those crazy kids want to bring us wireless internet over the "white space" bandwidth in between TV broadcast channels, and we say let 'em. One little problem though, FCC says the concept doesn't work. The prototype that the Coalition submitted for review was designed to sense existing TV signals and transmit around them, but the FCC found it inconsistent in this aim, and won't be giving its stamp approval to a device that interferes with existing broadcasts. The FCC does say that it's open to looking at the next generation of the technology, since better performance is certainly possible, and the White Space Coalition wasn't too downhearted: the group is "encouraged that FCC engineers did not find fault with our operating parameters and remain confident that unlicensed television spectrum can be used without interference." Between this fledgling technology and that upcoming 700MHz auction, things are really looking up for WiFi-jilted mobile internet users across the States.

While having a flavor of Linux on one's smartphone isn't unheard of, it could become at least somewhat more popular now that a common variety is scheduled to make its mobile debut. After years of Linux-on-a-handset talk from just about every direction imaginable, the developers of Ubuntu are hoping to "extend its open-source software development to handheld internet-enabled devices." Reportedly dubbed the Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded project, the operating system could be headed to your mobile device thanks to a collaborative effort between Ubuntu programmers and Intel, which shouldn't come as any surprise considering its recent infatuation with the open-sourced OS. Of course, Ubuntu is a surefire candidate for OS of the month given all the press its meandered into of late, but developers did note that designing a mobile GUI and configuring the power management capabilities would be quite a challenge. The best part, however, is how quickly the mobile rendition will be rolled out, as we can all mark our calendars for a simultaneous release with Ubuntu 7.10 this October.

With Apple scaring the heebie-jeebies out of most major wireless handset manufacturers (to a point) with the upcoming iPhone, some apparently think they can get a competing handset out to duke it out with Apple's new icon soon. With that notion, chip giant Intel wants iPhone competitors to feast at its house o'chips, as the chipmaker is readying a "low-power chip" that it is targeting at manufacturers that want to put out an iPhone competitor. Although Intel CEO Paul Otellini assumes that a power / performance angle on a new Intel chip would position an iPhone competitor's hardware cost to benefit ratio correctly, we suspect that it will take more than that to get under Apple's thick iPhone skin -- some sort of revolutionary UI for starters (and that cool, automatic orientation sensor can't hurt either). Any scrappy operations out there (put your hand down, Meizu) care to take a stab at it?

We'll admit, we're a bit envious of this one, as it seems one lucky soul has got his / her palms around an HTC Athena, and thankfully, hasn't kept it all bottled up. In a rather nice preview of the unit, we find an (expected) 624MHz Intel PXA270 processor, 128MB of RAM, 256MB of Flash ROM, 8GB hard drive, TV-out, five-inch 640 x 480 resolution backlit screen, three-megapixel camera, VGA mode for video telephony, rechargeable Li-ion battery, built-in microphone, GPS receiver, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, USB, and of course, a bevy of communication options including GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA. Yeah, we know you're burning through this text just to find out about the photos, so if you've hung in there this far, be sure to click on through for a few more shots, and hit the read link for even more pictorial delight.

[Thanks, KC]

Managing one smartphone operating system can bring even the most technically competent folks among us to their knees -- but how about two? Intel and NTT DoCoMo have put their noggins together to draw up a standard for dual-booting two platforms on a handset: one of the manufacturer's / carrier's choosing, and another at the user's discretion. Apparently, the standard will ensure that if one OS crashes, the other will still be usable, and calls will be able to be placed and received regardless how badly the user fubars the installation. While we'd like this to ultimately lead to Treo 750s with multiple personality disorder, we suspect the whole initiative will ultimately be restricted to a handful of NTT DoCoMo specials.

[Via The Inquirer and WM247]

The rumors of Intel searching for a buyer were circulating, and it looks like they were true: Intel is selling off their mobile chip arm -- responsible for the quite successful XScale group of processors -- to Marvell Technology Group for $600 million. With chips making notable appearances in Treo, Blackberry and HTC devices, and pulling in a reported $250 million in revenue last year, we're still scratching our heads as to why exactly Intel would want to get rid of such a successful portion of their business. We'd think powering smartphones would be a priority for Intel right now, but the word is that Intel will have an option to receive $100 million of the purchase price in Marvell stock, so they might not be out of the game entirely. The chip unit currently employs 1,400 people, and Marvell plans to retain the "vast majority" of them, so this move shouldn't be too traumatic for most parties involved. We just hope they keep up with the R&D to get us smaller, faster, cooler and cheaper chips on the regular.

Nvidia has taken the wraps of its MobileMedia platform for Windows Mobile 5.0-based devices at Taiwan's big Computex trade show, promising to bring high-quality digital TV and video, 3D graphics, and high fidelity audio to PDAs and smartphones. At the heart of the MobileMedia platform is Nvidia's GeForce 5500 chip, which supposedly delivers "console-class 3D gaming," although they convienently don't specify which console -- we're guessing it falls somewhere below an Xbox 360 but above a Sega Genesis. As it turns out, we've actually already seen a couple of the smartphones based on the Nvidia platform, although no one was spilling deets at the time. Modeo's DVB-H smartphone (seen here) is just one of the devices already announced that has Nvidia tech on the inside, as is Samsung's i310 smartphone, as well as an unnamed device from ReignCom. Nvidia also announced that they've hooked up with Intel and Freescale to develop reference designs for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices currently in development that should be unveiled later this year.