Mobile Technology News

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Last Week, the future of Qualcomm’s FLO TV mobile TV business came into question after CEO Paul Jacobs said the chipmaker was “engaged in discussions with a number of partners,” about what to do with the asset-rich service. The company recently gave Betanews some further information on what to expect from MediaFLO and FLO TV moving forward.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Earlier today, HTC said its Android-powered Desire smartphone would be coming to select regional operators in August without naming who they would be.

Now, Cellular South has announced that it will be getting the device, which sports a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and Android 2.1 with the HTC Sense UI. The regional carrier did not announce pricing or exactly when the Desire would launch.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Qualcomm’s mobile broadcast television service called FLO TV existed for about five years under different wireless carrier brand names: Sprint TV, Verizon V Cast TV, and AT&T MediaFLO TV. But the carriers didn’t push it very hard, so it did not break through into the public’s consciousness.

But then Qualcomm began advertising FLO TV on its own, with its own smartphone-sized pocket TVs made by HTC, and it looks like it is finally beginning to stick.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

What is so fascinating about the display technology being developed for e-readers is that it gives us a long-range peek into the possible, and even likely, functionality of PCs several years down the road. Today, Amazon’s Kindle series, Sony’s Reader series, and Barnes & Noble’s two readers all utilize electrophoretic “E-paper” displays, and we’ve found plenty of other screen technologies being employed in e-readers on the show floor at CES 2010. Some companies, like Jetbook makers Ectaco, favor technologies like passive TFT in their screens because they consume less power but supply color and support higher-frame rate animations.

The battle of the e-readers is really heating up with the addition of yet another contender. The new reader, the Irex DR800SG hails from IREX Technologies. According to the press release, 8.1-inch touchscreen e-reader uses electronic paper display technology that will give users the feeling that they’re reading a traditional paper better than tablets and netbooks, It also boast faster page turning speeds and customizable read settings.

If the HTC Hero made you happy, just hang on until you see its hotstepper sibling – the HTC Tattoo. The Tattoo has just been announced and should we say, the specs are quite impressive too.