A company called Ting has this week launched its cellular phone service using Sprint’s CDMA and WiMax networks. Ting, which is operated by Tucows, provides inexpensive, no-contract access to mobile services. Potential customers will need to buy a Ting-branded phone from Ting, which range from the Samsung Reclaim for $45 to the Motorola Photon for $545. Phone prices are subsidized only slightly. Voice minutes, messages, and data can be each be ordered separately so that customers get the services they want at the cost they need. Voice plans range from “XS” at $0 per month for zero minutes to “XXL” at $52 per month for 3,000 minutes. Text messaging plans range from $0 to $14 and data plans range from $0 to $60 per month, depending on amounts. Users must pay $6 per handset per month at a bare minimum to keep the service active. The service includes voicemail, picture and video messaging, three-way calling, caller ID, tethering, hotspot at no extra cost. Ting is available anywhere Sprint services is provided.

more info at Ting »

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Mozilla is developing a push notification system for the Firefox Web browser. It will allow users to receive notifications from websites without having to keep those sites open in their browser. The system will also be able to relay push notifications to mobile devices.

The project is part of Mozilla’s broader effort to ensure that the Web is a competitive platform that can match the capabilities of native applications. Introducing support for push notifications will help to close the gap, because the feature is one of the major advantages that native mobile clients have historically offered over the browser for accessing Web services.

Mozilla developer Jeff Balogh described the new push notification system in a recent blog entry. The post sketched out a high-level overview of how the system might work and provided some sample JavaScript code.

“Push notifications are a way for websites to send small messages to users when the user is not on the site. iOS and Android devices already support their own push notification services, but we want to make notifications available to the whole web,” he wrote.

The way that the system works is relatively simple. Mozilla or some other party would host a notification service that is capable of delivering messages to the browser. The service would have a unique URL endpoint for every active user.

The Web browser would provide a JavaScript API that websites can use to request permission from the user to send push notifications (such a prompt would be necessary to minimize spam). When the user grants permission, the browser hands the website the URL of the notification service endpoint associated with the user.

When a Web application sends a POST request with notification data to that endpoint, the notification service passes the message to the user. An instance of Firefox running on the user’s desktop would likely maintain some kind of persistent connection to the notification service so that it could receive notifications instantly.

In addition, the notification service would hypothetically be able to relay messages to mobile devices. It could use Google’s Cloud-to-Device messaging to send push notifications to mobile Firefox on the user’s Android handset. Or it could use the Apple Push Notification Service to send notifications to users of Firefox Home, Mozilla’s iOS application.

It’s important to note that this push notification system is distinct from the existing desktop notification mechanisms that are already defined in pending standards. The desktop notifications that websites like GMail and Seesmic Web display to Chrome users, for example, will only work when the website is left open in a tab. Mozilla’s push notification system moves beyond that limitation.

The push system is still at a relatively early stage of planning and isn’t available to test yet. Balogh has defined the JavaScript APIs that the browser will use to enable the functionality and ask the user for permission to send notifications. He has also proposed the set of properties that will be associated with each individual notification that gets transmitted to the notification server.

Mozilla’s push system will be especially useful for websites that want to send notifications to their users’ smartphones without having to build a native mobile application. If the concept evolves into a standard, mobile browsers could someday potentially have the feature built in.

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Proximiant expects its RFID-enabled solution to be used by 1,000 stores by late spring, allowing a retailer’s customers to download receipts and discount offers on their mobile phones, thereby eliminating the need for paper receipts and coupons.

California startup Proximiant reports that a dozen San Francisco Bay Area stores are piloting its Near Field Communication (NFC)-based system at the point of sale (POS), enabling shoppers to receive receipts, coupons, loyalty points and store credits on their mobile phones. By late spring 2012, approximately 1,000 stores are expected to participate, according to Fang Cheng, the company’s cofounder and CEO. Since the pilots began in December 2011, stores’ customers have been able to use an NFC-enabled phone—or an NFC-based Proximiant RFID card paired with a non-NFC phone—to download purchase receipts or discount coupons. After installing the Proximiant application on the phone, a customer can tap the NFC phone or card against a transceiver at the point of sale, thereby eliminating the need for paper receipts, coupons or loyalty cards.

Cheng says she conceived the idea in 2010, while traveling for business. She typically traveled between the Bay Area and New York every two weeks, and managed an expense account to pay for the various costs incurred during the trips. However, she says, collecting and storing all of the receipts became so cumbersome that she had a tendency to simply pay for the expenses herself, rather than be bothered with keeping receipts. She began to investigate whether NFC could provide a solution. Not only could an electronic receipt system based on NFC technology save time and trouble for consumers, she explains, but it could also make it easier for merchants to offer customers discounts or loyalty programs. In addition, Cheng notes, there was also the green aspect of using an electronic solution to consider: If she could offer a service for delivering receipts electronically, she could eliminate the need for all of the paper collected and then discarded by shoppers.

Customers can use an NFC-enabled phone, or a Proximiant RFID card paired with a non-NFC phone, to download receipts for purchases or coupons for discounts.

Cheng launched the company in March of last year with two other cofounders, and the trio then focused on developing a solution. The partners outsourced the design of the NFC POS device and NFC cards to a third-party contractor, and built the software to manage the read data, as well as a phone app for storing and displaying receipts, coupons and loyalty points.

To utilize the system, a merchant can visit Proximiant’s Web site and request the service, which is currently free for those businesses piloting the technology. Beginning next month, the cost will be $50 for the device with a built-in RFID reader (developed for Proximiant) and 500 consumer NFC cards (made with NXP Semiconductors‘ 13.56 MHz passive RFID NFC chips) in the form factor of a key fob. There will also be a $14.99 monthly fee to manage read data, including the storage of each transaction, with a lower fee for every additional device used. The reading device can be plugged directly into the POS terminal, similarly to a receipt printer, and the store can then download Proximiant’s driver software.

Most consumers do not yet have NFC-enabled phones, Cheng notes. Therefore, stores can provide customers with a Proximiant key fob with a built-in passive NFC RFID inlay, at no cost. Users who have a cell phone can then download the Proximiant app to their phone for free, by visiting the iTunes or Android Market app store. After installing the app, the user inputs the six-digit serial number on the back of the key fob, which then pairs the phone to the fob in Proximiant’s server. A participant need not provide any personal information, since the data is simply linked to the phone rather than to a specific individual using it. When a purchase is made at any participating store, once the transaction is complete, the screen on the POS device lists the items purchased, along with their cost and the total amount due, and invites the customer to tap his or her phone or card against the device in order to receive a receipt. The patron can tap the key fob or NFC-enabled phone within 5 centimeters (2 inches) of the reader—the fob’s RFID inlay can be read through a wallet, so the fob can be kept in a wallet if the consumer so chooses—and the transaction data will then be stored on the phone.

For those with NFC-enabled mobile phones, the data is now stored on their phones, and they can simply scroll through the records to view their receipts. For those using the fob, the information is sent to the phone via an SMS connection. In either case, the phone must be powered on to receive receipts.

The consumer can utilize the Proximiant phone app to later retrieve a receipt by entering the store’s name or the date, or simply scroll through the receipts listed. To return an item for exchange or refund, the shopper can present the receipt on the phone to the merchant, who can employ a bar-code scanner to read the bar code displayed on the electronic receipt. In the event that the store offers incentives, such as a discount for future purchases at that location, this data is also forwarded to the phone at the time of a transaction, and a user can redeem the discount at the point of sale, by presenting his or her phone to the merchant. The system also works for those who lack a mobile phone, Cheng says. For example, a consumer can still receive the NFC key fob, visit Proximiant’s Web site and input the card’s six-digit serial number to view an online record of receipts.

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When HP kinda, sorta killed webOS as a money making endeavor, they promised to keep it alive as an open source project, but offered little in the way of concrete details. According to The Verge they’ve partially pulled back the curtain, revealing that Open webOS 1.0 should arrive in September. Along with news of the OS’ rebirth, they also released the 1.0 version of their Javascript-based Enyo framework for Javascript app, and it contains parts of what will come in the 2.0 release. The 2.0 components will allow apps developed for webOS to run on other platforms and browsers.

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Clearwire said WiMax data use by subscribers of Sprint and other partners grew at twice the rate of customer growth

Clearwire exceeded 10 million subscribers in the fourth quarter but still needs to raise more money to build its planned LTE network, a task that could be funded in part by an upcoming $300 million stock offering.

The U.S. WiMax operator, which powers Sprint Nextel’s 4G services, released selected preliminary fourth-quarter results on Tuesday before posting final results in the coming weeks. Wholesale and retail customers reached 10.4 million, most of those from wholesale partners, primarily Sprint.

While Clearwire estimated it had a net gain of 900,000 wholesale customers in the quarter, an 11 percent gain from the third quarter, it said aggregate WiMax network use by wholesale subscribers grew at twice that rate. Heavier data use on smartphones led the trend, with customers using 30 percent more data compared with the previous quarter. In the full year 2011, total data use by wholesale and retail customers grew 165 percent.

Sprint is the only major national carrier still offering unlimited monthly data use on smartphones, without throttling. But like other operators, Sprint continues to look for more capacity to meet continuing rapid growth in demand. It will continue to sell WiMax devices with two-year contracts at least until the end of this year and expects to use Clearwire’s WiMax network at least for the next few years. But both Sprint and Clearwire also plan to build LTE (Long-Term Evolution) networks to further expand their capacity and be able to tap into a large expected market for LTE phones, tablets and other devices.

During the fourth quarter, Clearwire and Sprint announced a long-awaited plan for coordination on LTE, in which Sprint invested more in its partner and said it had deals to buy capacity on Clearwire’s LTE network. Sprint also hopes to use LightSquared’s planned LTE network as part of a complex 15-year plan to host that network on its Network Vision infrastructure, but that partnership is on hold pending regulatory approval for LightSquared’s network. Sprint plans to offer LTE in the first half of this year.

For the fourth quarter, Clearwire estimated it achieved positive adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the first time, though including those factors, it expects to post net losses “for the foreseeable future.”

The company estimated it had $1.11 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2011, up from $711 million at the end of the third quarter. During the quarter, it raised $716 million through the sale of new shares. But the company said it still needs to raise more capital to build its LTE network, which it would operate alongside the WiMax system.

Clearwire also said Tuesday it is planning an offering of first-priority senior secured notes, to be offered by subsidiary Clearwire Communications, to raise $300 million. It did not give a date for the offering. That money could be invested in the future LTE network, company spokesman Mike DiGioia said.

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A new technology that could save your phone from getting water damaged could be included the next wave of smartphones about to be made by Samsung and Apple.

Called HZO, the technology creates a nano-scale film barrier which has special water repelling properties once applied to the inside of electronic gadgets.

Done during the manufacturing process rather than by you once you’ve bought your phone, this isn’t a clumsy case or a sealant but a way of protecting gadgets from getting wet.

To help show off the capabilities of the technology, the company has already applied the tech to a number of different devices like the iPhone, as well as other phones from Samsung and Motorola. At this year’s CES in Las Vegas Pocket-lint witnessed what looked like an ordinary iPhone being repeatedly dunked into a fish tank full of water.

The company is hoping to sign big deals with all leading manufacturers. A spokesman for the company told Pocket-lint that it is in the process of signing up a major smartphone partner and a headphones maker in the very near future.

The plan for headphones is that they wouldn’t be damaged by sweat when running or water when swimming.

“We showed the Samsung Chairman the technology with a Samsung Galaxy S that we had coated with HZO and he couldn’t believe his eyes,” a representative of the company told us. “Samsung is really excited by the tech.”

The company has told us that they are also talking to Apple as well, hoping to be able to let Apple make the iPhone 5 waterproof.

“We expect HZO to be in next season’s phones,” HZO told Pocket-lint rather confidently.

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Sprint to move phones wholesale to 4G and NFC

Sprint in commentary during CES confrimed that it was dropping WiMAX on smartphones. The initial LTE smartphones were ultimately representing a full-scale switch to the technology for 4G phones, PCMag was told. The carrier was being more aggressive than it had suggested before and, when promising LTE in mid-year, had meant between January and June, Owens explained.

Simultaneously, consumer product marketing VP Trevor Van Norman mentioned to Light Reading that the company planned for NFC (near-field communication) to be a standard feature in every smartphone. While there would be some edge case free or low-end phones tat wouldn’t have it, every other smartphone would get it from now onwards.

The planned switch may have given clues as to future iPhone releases. Sprint has committed to a multi-year deal with Apple to carry the iPhone and would have to either make a special exception for a 3G phone or else knows to expect LTE, NFC, or both. Both technologies have usually been left to Android, where Google takes a piece of Google Offers discounts.

Sprint regularly adopts basic technology first. It picked 4G well before other carriers were ready to deploy. Google helped it become the first to ship with a full NFC payment system in place through Google Wallet on the Nexus S 4G and now the Galaxy Nexus.

On Windows Phone, Owens said the HTC Arrive had sold poorly enough to reduce reasons to “jump back into the fire.” A return might come in August or September, although with who wasnt mentioned.

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The WiGig Alliance is moving full steam ahead with its plan to enable devices to communicate wirelessly at mulit-gigabit speeds using unlicensed 60GHz spectrum. WiGig Alliance President and Chairman Dr. Ali Sadri sat down with Ars at CES to explain where WiGig fits among various wireless standards, and when we can expect the technology to become widely implemented.

The WiGig MAC specification was published in June 2011, and the standard is currently in draft stage with the IEEE as 802.11ad. WiGig operates on unlicensed 60GHz spectrum; it won’t propagate through walls and has a range of about 10 meters. As such, isn’t necessarily meant as a replacement for 2.4GHz or 5GHz WiFi. However, operating at 60GHz offers advantages in terms of power consumption and data rates, particularly for mobile devices.

“The wavelength at 60GHz is about 5mm, and antenna elements are half a wavelength, so we’re talking roughly 2.5mm,” Dr. Sadri told Ars. “When you compare antenna elements for Wi-Fi, those are 5cm versus 2.5mm. So I can actually, in the same device, put multiple 2.5mm antenna elements for the same one antenna for Wi-Fi. I can get a lot of gain from the 60GHz antenna, which allows me to do beam forming—I can direct transmission in a specific direction,” he explained.

WiGig also uses time division multiplexing, so a device can transmit multiple data streams to different devices, each in a specific direction using a specific time slot. To get an idea of how this works, imagine a WiGig-enabled smartphone sends a video stream to three WiGig-enabled displays in the same room. In the first time slot, it sends a chunk of the video stream to the first display. In the second time slot, it sends a chunk of the video stream to the second display. Then, in the third time slot, a chunk is sent to the third display. The next slot will transmit more video data to display 1, then next to display 2, then display 3, etc.

The combination of TDMA and directional transmission offers significant power savings, particularly important for mobile devices. WiGig has 2GHz of bandwidth per channel, which allows simpler modulation techniques, which in turn saves power. WiGig’s multiple antennas also have significant gain, requiring fewer radio elements and conserving more power.

“If Wi-Fi wants to get to 2Gbps, you need at least 3×3 antennas, and much wider bandwidth, maybe consuming 3 watts,” Sadri said. “2Gbps using WiGig in a handheld device will consume about 500 to 600 milliwatts. That’s five times the efficiency of Wi-Fi.”

Trying to shoehorn such a configuration into a handheld device would also be physically limiting. “You cannot imagine in handheld devices having three or four 5cm antennas; maximum one, or maybe two if you are lucky,” Sadri explained. “But you could certainly have multiple arrays of 2.5mm 60GHz antennas, giving you 2Gbps.”

WiGig also presents a protocol-agnostic transport layer to send data between devices. So USB, HDMI, DisplayPort, PCI Express protocols can be used to communicate with various peripherals. One scenario where this could be useful is completely wireless “docking” between a tablet and an external display, keyboard, and mouse. Imagine having a tablet that, while at home, operates like a traditional desktop. On the go, however, it works like a touchscreen tablet. Take it to work, and you could again “dock” the device with peripherals in your office.

“Form factors of laptops and other mobile devices are getting smaller and smaller,” Sadri told Ars. “The industry has taken a first step towards addressing that with Thunderbolt—a single compact port that provides a transport layer for various connection protocols. But you’re still leashed by wires; you’re still constrained by the physical size of the port. WiGig takes that one step further by getting rid of the wire altogether.”

With all its advantages, will WiGig supplant Wi-Fi? In some cases, it may be possible, even advantageous. Access points could operate at 60GHz, for instance, but operating distance would be limited. Multiple low-power access points could be strategically arranged around larger spaces. Since the range is lower but directional, each access point could connect to, say, the ten nearest devices. This makes it possible to avoid the congestion typical when hundreds of devices try to connect to a Wi-Fi access point in a large office, lecture hall, or CES press room.

In most scenarios, however, the wider range of Wi-Fi will be more practical. Sadri said that he sees WiGig and Wi-Fi as being complementary, rather than competing, technologies. Devices can use WiGig to communicate with each other at shorter ranges, and Wi-Fi for Internet access or longer-range connections.

Sadri told Ars to expect wide availability of WiGig-enabled devices in 2013. The spec is still undergoing some fine tuning at IEEE, but a few companies have already announced “draft” spec devices. The WiGig Alliance is working towards having a full testing and certification program ready by then end of this year. “Mass production and deployment of certified products will happen in 2013,” Sadri said.

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CompanionLink Software announces two-way synchronization of contacts, calendars, tasks, and memos between popular CRMsolutions and the latest smartphones and tablets announced at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. Over 25 new devices on both the Android and Windows Phone platforms were announced, including the Samsung Galaxy Note, Sony Xperia S, EeePad Memo 7″ tablet, Motorola DROID 4, Nokia Lumia 900, and many others. “The months that follow CES are a busy time for us as we update our products to ensure compatibility with the latest mobile devices”

CompanionLink offers four sync options: USB, Wi-Fi, Hosted Wireless, and via Google®. New smartphones and tablets can sync with a variety of CRM platforms such as Microsoft Outlook, Salesforce.com, Sage ACT!, Google, Zoho CRM, SugarCRM, Lotus Notes, Palm Desktop, Highrise, GoldMine, and more. “The months that follow CES are a busy time for us as we update our products to ensure compatibility with the latest mobile devices,” said Rushang Shah, Director of Marketing at CompanionLink.

CompanionLink licenses start at $49.95. A 14-day free trial is also available. Free phone support, free updates, and a 90-day money back guarantee are included with every license. To learn more about CompanionLink, visit www.companionlink.com/.

About CompanionLink Software
CompanionLink Software, Inc. is a pioneering developer of data synchronization solutions for mobile phones and CRM software and services. They also develop a business-class CRM app called DejaOffice for Android, iPhone, and iPad devices. For over 15 years, CompanionLink has helped mobilize information across devices, computers, applications, and web-based services. For more information, please visit www.companionlink.com or www.dejaoffice.com. To watch a video explaining CompanionLink, visit www.companionlink.com/videos.

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Despite repeated industry attempts to build a buzz, buzz, buzz around NFC, growth of the promising communication tech has only been stilted by limited, real-world implementation — not to mention a dearth of enabled devices. This stunted consumer adoption hasn’t put a damper on Visa’s stride towards a contactless payment future, as the company’s just announced a list of smartphones, both here and in Europe, that officially support its payWave system. Owners of the Samsung Galaxy S II, LG Optimus NET NFC, BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9790 and BlackBerry Curve 9360 / 9380 can now count themselves among the privileged few that can swipe to pay with the application. If you happen to be rocking any of the phones listed above and are keen to propel your preferred method of payment into the future, you can now pass GO.

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