As the world’s first mobile phone with PDA and WLAN capability, T-Mobile’s MDA III sets the standard.Pocket PC and mobile phone in one: The T-Mobile MDA III.August 25, “We’ve had enough of compromises… (the MDA III is) about the same size with more inside,” German technology magazine Connect enthused about the newest installment of the T-Mobile MDA. The device which weighs in at just 210 grams and is not much larger than its predecessor, the MDA II, offers a range of new features: Most notably, an extendable keyboard that allows users to comfortably write text messages or longer documents.Whether you want to make calls, administer your calendar, surf the web using a variety of standards including WLAN, or send and receive emails - the MDA III puts it all in the palm of your hand. The device, which includes the email push function known from Blackberry handhelds, also offers a variety of entertainment options such as taking and sending photos or short video sequences and listening to MP3 music files.The MDA III will be launched in Germany and the UK in September, followed by other T-Mobile countries afterwards.

In a move that is intended to deliver benefits for the mobile industry and for mobile customers, Nokia and Vodafone today announce the formation of a mobile service architecture initiative. The aim of the initiative is to simplify mobile Java standards by defining the next generation, open standards-based mobile Java services architecture specifications. It will serve and represent the mobile value chain, including other leading mobile device manufacturers, mobile operators and IT companies.

The initiative will function and create its specifications within the Java Community Process(SM) (JCP(SM). Earlier this month, the J2ME(TM)Executive Committee approved the first Java Specification Requests (JSRs) from this initiative. These JSRs, 248 and 249, will not introduce any new API specifications but will include a number of new component JSRs and clarifications to existing specifications to define a consistent Java API services architecture. This will enable application compatibility across multi-vendor mobile devices.The initiative will further seek to harmonise the licensing terms of the component JSRs to be open, fair and predictable. As specifications leads Nokia and Vodafone, in conjunction with Sun Microsystems, will define the licensing framework of the initiative, while the role of creating and licensing the Technology Compatibility Kits (TCKs) for JSR 248 and 249 will be undertaken by Sun Microsystems.

The initiative has received widespread support from leading representatives of the mobile industry, including Orange, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Sun Microsystems and T-Mobile International. It is expected that a number of these companies will join Nokia and Vodafone to become members of the Expert Group for the specifications created by this initiative.By using the specifications, developers can create software that is easily portable from one Java-enabled mobile device to another. This will ultimately provide mobile customers with a wide choice of feature rich Java-based applications.

The management framework of the mobile Java services architecture also includes security enhancements. It will support advanced remote platform and application management for enterprises and service providers by enabling delivery and management of software components to mobile devices over-the-air. This is expected to result in cost savings for mobile software maintenance.

Furthermore, it will offer business users and consumers an easy way to have the latest applications and services available on their mobile devices. The application platforms built on these specifications will enable new business opportunities for operators, enterprises, service providers, and device manufacturers. The objectives and responsibilities of the initiative will be aligned and coordinated with organisations such as the OSGi Alliance, the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to specify the requirements and the capabilities of the platform. The specifications will also offer smooth backward compatibility with the highly successful MIDP environment. John Jackson, Senior Analyst, Wireless/Mobile Technologies, The Yankee Group commented, “This initiative extends the foundation of JTWI, taking important steps to align the CLDC and CDC platform specifications and their future evolution under a simplified licensing structure. With the support of leading industry players in the mobile Java value-chain, this initiative should offer greater consistency and continuity to developers and end-users.

It’s a significant step toward accelerating the development and distribution of more robust mobile applications.”"This initiative will significantly strengthen Java’s leading position as the environment for powerful, state-of-the-art mobility solutions for both consumers and enterprises in the era of 3G,” said Pertti Korhonen, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia. “It provides enterprises and service providers with unparalleled end-to-end management capabilities. In addition, it offers application developers the best and fastest opportunity to leverage their Java-based solutions in volumes and also lets them fully exploit the great performance of Java-enabled smart phones.”Alan Harper, Group Strategy Director at Vodafone, said: “The mobile industry is aware of the need for standardisation and a lot of work has been undertaken towards achieving that aim.

It will build upon the JTWI vision, and output from other industry groups, to create an open and evolving platform roadmap to enable consistent and predictable implementation on a wide range of mobile devices.”
“As the inventor of Java Technologies, Sun welcomes the leadership of Vodafone and Nokia to spearhead such an important effort within the JCP”, said Alan Brenner, Vice President of Sun Microsystems. “Sun will develop and deliver the underlying Technology Compatibility Kits and Reference Implementations for these new specifications. Together, we will build on the widely adopted Java Technology for the Wireless Industry (JTWI) specification and streamline the advancement of mobile Java technologies.”
The participants of the initiative have committed to deploy the platform, and the first reference implementations are scheduled for next year.

ZTE, a global supplier of advanced telecommunications infrastructure, is to unveil innovative solutions across the mobile, fixed network and data arenas at next month’s ITU Telecom Asia exhibition in Busan, South Korea (September 7-11). With a theme of “Global Solutions, Local Services”, ZTE will be showing WCDMA, NGN (Next Generation Network), GoTa (Global open Trunking architecture), CDMA2000 1x EVDO and a range of value-added services.The exhibition comes at a time when ZTE’s ongoing commitment to Research and Development is paying off in terms of fast growth at home and abroad (the corporation spends about 10% of revenues annually on investment for future developments). With an accurate and in-depth perception of the market, ZTE has introduced multi-level product systems to meet the individual requirements of various customers by leveraging its diversified products and customized market strategies. As a result, in addition to consolidating the market presence of traditional switching and access products, ZTE has made significant gains in new product markets, including PHS, CDMA and handsets.alone, ZTE’s products successfully entered 13 new markets. Ten new maintenance offices were established worldwide, and the number of overseas employees increased by 100%. ZTE’s core products, including mobile, switching, transport and data communication products achieved large-scale sales in India, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria. After years of research and development, ZTE’s GSM cellular mobile systems have also made great progress in international markets. The total capacity of ZTE’s CDMA equipment now exceeds 15 million lines and has been widely deployed in more than 30 countries all over the world.The Asian telecoms market has continued to grow steadily in recent years, and it is now a broad market with vast potential. In the first half of 2004, ZTE achieved the following significant breakthroughs:

• In Vietnam, ZTE signed a framework agreement with Vietnam Railways for its railway communication network project.

• In the Philippines, ZTE won the contract for a Next-Generation Network (NGN) tandem switch project from leading telecom players.

• In Uzbekistan, ZTE deployed a national IP backbone Network.
• In Indonesia, home to the world’s fourth largest population, ZTE will to supply one of the world’s most advanced access network system.

• In Saudi Arabia, ZTE’s BAVO videoconferencing network will initially focus on Riyadh and five other major cities before going national. The BAVO system is the leading videoconferencing system in China and now more than 20,000 units have been supplied overseas.

“ZTE has a mission to be the leading supplier to the Asian region and visitors to our stand will be able to see for themselves that we have the products, the solutions and the people to make that mission successful,” said Mr Shi Lirong, SVP of ZTE Corporation.

Sarantel, a leading innovator in the design and manufacture of miniature antennas for portable and mobile wireless devices, has been chosen by Precisa to supply its global positioning system (GPS) antenna. Precisa, a leading Swiss company specialising in wireless technologies and measuring instruments, has integrated Sarantel’s GeoHelix GPS antenna into the Secufone, a mobile phone with a personal alarm and service button. The Secufone is aimed at a cross-section of the community including care associations, nursing homes, the elderly and the infirm. In addition, the Secufone offers a number of solutions for security applications. This innovative new GPS/GSM device will enable care organisations to provide people with an easy-to-use mobile phone that has a simple to use and operable alarm system. The Secufone will also be targeted at rescue organisations and security firms who rely on the superior GPS quality that Sarantel antennas offer.With its GPS/GSM functionality and personal alarm system, the Secufone is an easy-to-use tri-band mobile phone. By pressing the red alarm button, users of the Secufone are connected to an associated call-centre. A hands-free speech connection is then available so the user can explain their situation; the call-centre can take the appropriate action to arrange assistance. The Sarantel antenna enables the call centre to pinpoint the user to within 5 metres of their location.The Secufone has an interactive full colour screen, which can be easily operated with the very light touch of a finger, plus it only uses four large buttons. Produced in Switzerland, the Secufone will be available for sale in Europe and the US from August 2004 in leading telecoms shops. Secufone opted for the Sarantel antenna because of its unparalleled performance and accurate positioning. Precisa’s CEO Rudolf Huber said: “The GPS functionality of the Secufone, is a key feature of the mobile phone. The Sarantel antenna offers excellent GPS reception in difficult and harsh environments and is the only GPS antenna on the market we found that integrated with a GSM mobile phone without loss of performance.”David Wither, Chief Executive at Sarantel said: “There is huge potential for GPS in GSM mobile products and this is why we are seeing extraordinarily high demand for our products at the moment. By choosing to embed our GeoHelix antenna to work in a multiple antenna system, Precisa has created a versatile mobile phone with guaranteed GPS/GSM functionality that inexperienced users will be able to use easily.”Sarantel’s success with Precisa was supported by Secos, a distributor for telecommunications modules and devices for industrial application and the M2M market and a key partner of Sarantel’s in Switzerland.

Radioplan, the leading independent vendor of 3G radio network optimisation and simulation solutions, today announced the world’s first commercial simulation and optimisation toolset for WCDMA’s High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA). As part of the newly released feature set of WiNeS 3.1, the latest version of Radioplan’s widely used 3G optimisation solution, HSDPA simulation and optimisation capabilities put the WiNeS toolset at the forefront of current technology.”We are happy that Radioplan is able to continually lead the way in the field of network optimisation”, said Dietrich Hunold, Radioplan’s Technical Director. “Our innovations are primarily driven by customer feedback on future needs, and that means we are ready to serve those needs in a timely fashion, ensuring that commercial objectives can be achieved”.Radioplan’s WiNeS optimisation solution, which is currently in commercial use both within operator groups and major vendors, is also used as part of several professional services projects currently supplied directly to mobile operators by Radioplan. This broad experience has allowed Radioplan’s engineers to understand the challenges facing network engineers in practical environments. “Practical thinking and customer focus is at the heart of everything we do at Radioplan,” said Hunold, “and exposure to the real problems of the end user feeds naturally into our development process, ensuring that the WiNeS toolset addresses highly complex tasks in an easy-to-use fashion”.WiNeS 3.1 also includes the latest versions of several vendor specific RRM algorithms, import and export capabilities for both Motorola’s Netplan and Xenicom’s Odyssey planning tools, advanced support for neighbour list optimisation, support for a variety of languages, and many additional analysis functions.

Nokia today announced that X-Men(TM) Legends, the first 3D action-RPG based on the popular Marvel characters, the X-Men, will be released for the N-Gage platform under agreement with Activision. X-Men Legends challenges players to create, customize and control their favorite X-Men Super Heroes in teams of four in their ongoing battle to protect humanity from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and other Marvel Super Villains.
Gamers can train their X-Men squad through a variety of single player missions, as well as up to four player multiplayer missions via Bluetooth wireless technology. On the N-Gage Arena, players will be able to post high scores and download new missions and games.
“X-Men Legends gives fans the chance to develop their favorite X-Men and take them into battle wherever they go as well as connect and compete with fellow X-Man fans via Bluetooth and the N-Gage Arena,” said Pasi Pölönen, Director, Games Publishing, Nokia. “It’s a fantastic game that utilizes the mobile multiplayer features of the N-Gage platform.”"Combining the fast-paced action of an epic X-Men saga and the strategy, depth, and story of an immersive role-playing adventure, X-Men Legends on the N-Gage allows fans to experience the X-Men like never before,” said Dave Anderson, Senior Director of Business Development and Licensing for Activision, Inc. “By working with our partners at N-Gage, fans can now enjoy this experience on the go.” Players can build a squad of four X-Men characters from favorites, including Wolverineä, Gambitä and Stormä from the ground up and command them through an engaging story that spans the Marvel mutant universe, bringing in elements familiar to fans of the X-Men franchise.

Nokia and Land Rover have jointly developed the Personal Telephone Integration (PTI) System, an integrated automotive communications solution especially for Land Rover vehicles such as the All-New Discovery 3 and Range Rover. The system offers a range of sophisticated features such as connection either via Bluetooth wireless technology* or via wired connection by using a compatible mobile phone holder. The PTI System can be used with a wide range of mobile phones from different manufacturers**. With the PTI System, users can conveniently access key mobile phone functions such as viewing and selecting phonebook entries, initiating and receiving incoming calls, viewing call logs and managing text messages - all via the vehicle’s central infotainment display***. The PTI System delivers a superior communications experience by integrating with the vehicles’ high quality audio system. Voice dialling and other key phone functions can be activated using the vehicles’ steering wheel controls. The state-of-the art voice function enables speaker independent number dialling and access to voice tags. “Today’s drivers demand more advanced technology than ever before in their vehicles. We are confident the PTI System we developed for Land Rover will meet with the expectations of Land Rover customers by seamlessly integrating some of todays leading-edge technologies such as voice recognition and wireless connectivity to name but a few,” said Marcus Stahl, General Manager Automotive Accounts, Nokia Smart Traffic Products.

Intel Corporation, Nokia Corporation  announced today a collaboration to bring smartphones based on the Nokia Series 60 Platform to market using Intel technology, as part of Intel’s recent membership in the Nokia Series 60 Product Creation Community. Also, Intel and Symbian have agreed to invest in the joint development of a reference platform to enable a new class of 3G devices based on Symbian OS(TM) and
The Series 60 Platform, built on Symbian OS, is one of the world’s leading smartphone platforms. It is licensed by some of the foremost mobile phones manufacturers including Lenovo, LG Electronics, Nokia, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens. Support for a large color screen, easy-to-use interface and extensive suite of applications make this software platform ideally suited to support new mobile services such as email, browsing and streaming.As part of its new role as a member of the Series 60 Product Creation Community, Intel will complement the Series 60 Platform by providing high performance, low power processing to enable mobile browsing, multimedia messaging and content downloading, as well as a host of personal information management and telephony applications. The Series 60 Platform is the latest smartphone user interface to be supported by Intel technology. Also, Intel and Symbian are investing in the co-development of a reference platform. The development agreement focuses on building the first 3G reference platform that utilizes both Intel’s and Symbian’s expertise in smartphone technology.

The reference platform will enable mobile phone manufacturers to create differentiated handsets while significantly reducing development time - speeding the delivery of new phones to market.”The next generation of handsets for 3G networks will require a platform approach that couples low power and high performance with robust application development,” said Sam Arditi, Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Cellular and Handheld Group. “Intel’s wireless platforms combine leading edge hardware with Intel’s decades of experience in creating application ecosystems for data networks. Working with Nokia and Symbian to help bring Series 60-based devices to market means that developers and phone manufacturers will have new compelling tools to deliver on the promise of 3G.”"We are delighted that Intel is joining the Series 60 Product Creation Community. The wide adoption of Series 60 Platform and Symbian OS by key wireless technology providers like Intel is essential for providing competitive solutions for the smartphone market,” said Antti Vasara, Vice President, Nokia Technology Marketing and Sales. “By joining forces with Intel, Nokia has an additional compelling Series 60 3G offering for handset manufacturers, operators and developers around the world.”
“We are delighted with the collaboration between Nokia, Intel and Symbian to develop a 3G reference platform,” said David Levin, Chief Executive Officer, Symbian, Ltd. “This co-development marks a deepening of the relationship between Intel and Symbian. By utilizing reference platforms from semiconductor technology providers such as Intel, Symbian OS licensees will be able to focus their energies to develop an even wider variety of differentiated, competitively priced Symbian OS products that meet the specific needs of the market and their network operator customers.”

SSL VPN product company Aventail today announced the market’s first Smart SSL VPN, built on the new Aventail Secure Access Policy (ASAPTM) Platform, Version 8.0. The Aventail Smart SSL VPN sets a new standard for ease of administration and use, extending Aventail’s market leadership in policy management, application access and End Point Control. The Aventail Smart SSL VPN platform will be available later this month on Aventail’s family of SSL VPN appliances and managed services. “The Aventail Smart SSL VPN raises the competitive stakes in the secure remote access market,” said Jim Slaby, senior analyst at the Yankee Group. “It addresses the genuine but conflicting demands of two distinct constituencies in the enterprise space: IT managers seeking highly granular access controls with stringent security, and end users who need absolute ease of access.” With Aventail Smart Technology, the SSL VPN automatically does more, so the end user and administrator do less, translating into higher productivity and lower costs. The main new feature benefits of the Aventail Smart SSL VPN are:

• Aventail Smart Access: Automatically and transparently determines and deploys the most appropriate access method for a wide range of resources.

• Aventail Unified Policy: Just one rule set for all resource types and access methods.
• Aventail Policy Zones: Granular access control rules based on the level of trust for an end point. Aventail Smart Access makes access easier, faster and more transparent for end users, because it automatically determines the right level of access and deploys the most appropriate access method. The end user needs only to click on the desired application link, whether Web-based or client/server, and the method needed to access that application is launched behind the scenes in real time. Aventail Unified Policy reduces the time and work for administrators by providing centralised administration with just one rule set for all resources and access methods. Aventail Unified Policy is three times or more faster than other SSL VPNs, because defining rules for multiple access methods and types of resources is just one policy model versus three or more models with competing products. Aventail Policy Zones extend Aventail’s market leadership in End Point Control by allowing administrators to create multiple zones of trust based on the security of an end device. Unlike competing models that allow only ‘on’ or ‘off’ options of access control, Aventail Policy Zones allow three or more zones to be created, such as Trusted, Semi-trusted, and Un-Trusted. For example, a user may only receive access to Web email from a Semi-Trusted home PC, while receiving access to a full range of resources from a Trusted corporate laptop. With the wide array of use cases and access requirements in today’s enterprises, three or more zones are needed to create the appropriate access policies that maximize both productivity and security. The Aventail Smart SSL VPN will be available later this month via Aventail’s global partner network of value added resellers and service providers.

“Mobile workers want wireless solutions that are easy to use and rich in function, even when disconnected. Companies want security, simple deployment, low-cost and broad application support,” said Warren Wilson, analyst with Summit Strategies. “Sproqit’s new thin-client offering meets all of these needs — and may well shake up the mobile business-solutions market.”“Sproqit looked at the current solutions and found that they were very limited in terms of functionality, performance and expansion into new applications. We also found that the main bottleneck was the anitquated store and forward architectures they are all using ,” said Peter Mansour, founder and CEO of Sproqit Technologies. “We decided to work from a clean slate to create the next generation architecture that would give users what they’ve been looking for - a reason to leave their laptops at home. If you compare Sproqit, feature-for-feature, with other solutions, you’ll see that it is faster, offers more features and has better usuability.”With features like complete network browsing, sending and receiving attachments, contacts, calendar, tasks and notes, Sproqit provides a complete solution for those users who don’t want to spend thousands of pounds on an enterprise server solution. In less than 10 minutes, end-users can install the Sproqit software on their desktop computers and mobile devices and get all the functionality and flexibility they need, both online and offline, regardless of the size of the deployment. With a secure 128-bit SSL connection, users have with the following key capabilities:

• Complete Outlook functionality
• Ability to remotely access the desktop or corporate network from handheld devices
• Interactive streaming data
• End-to-send security
• Best of breed email and PIM including push functionality
• Unmatched performance over any network
• Complete online and offline functionality
• Ability to extend access to an unlimited number of rich applications with Sproqit’s software developer kit