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Innovators Shine At CTIA Wireless Conference
CWmike writes "The CTIA Wireless conference this week brought in larger crowds and more vendors than last year's event, but that probably isn't saying much, considering the recession had begun to hit hard in early 2009, Matt Hamblen reports from Vegas. The uptick pleased vendors exhibiting at the event, especially some of the smaller, lesser-known companies that sometimes offer the most interesting products, even if they never go gangbusters with the public. Matt highlights top innovative firms and products from the show, including W PhoneWatch (yes, a GSM phone watch for $199; see video), AT&T's Zero Charger (ends 'vampire draw'), Connectify (turns your laptop into a hotspot), and Line2, a Wi-Fi calling app for iPhones and iPod Touches (look out cellular voice service revenues)."
Android made quite a strong showing at the conference as well.
Just like the last round of VOIP apps for the iPhone, AT&T said "no" so Apple pulled them from the app store sticking the developer with the rebate expenses.
Then again, Apple has been less then consistant with the app store so far. So perhaps this one is OK while the last ones where "bad".
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Connectify (turns your laptop into a hotspot)
I thought it was /. that turned my laptop into a hotspot ... oh wait, not /., p0rn.
Looks really, really, really tempting... but for even less I can get an unlocked HTC G1.... Hmm.. I don't wear watches anyway.
The only way I know of cor the so-called "vampire draw" to be "100% eliminated" is through a mechanical switch. Any circuit that detects the presence of a device on the other end must necessarily draw power from somewhere, and the device sure isn't going to provide it over USB. That's a violation of the spec. AFAIK, the USB device doesn't output any signal on the wire until interrogated by the host.
And even if you got past that somehow, you would still have some sort of trickle power available to power the power-switching circuit itself.
So basically the only way I can imagine this working is if they did something like putting a microswitch inside the USB connector, which is fine as long as you remember to unplug the cable at night, but that's hardly any different than unplugging the charger. You're just moving the problem a little farther down.
Am I missing something, or are these claims exaggerated somewhat?
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Seriously, Skype already offers WiFi calls for a lot less, and works well. I used it recently overseas via free hotel WiFi and it worked great. It's a lot cheaper if you don't want a Skype in number. Vonage has a plan as well but costs a lot more. Both are Wifi only, unless you have a jailbroken iPhone. The question is will Apple allow VOIP via 3G; if so I think the current crop of VOIP apps will quickly add that feature, making Line2Talk yet another me too app without the name recognition of the bigger players.
Of course, once Apple and ATT sort out the issue (which they seem to be doing) I expect one (probably Apple) to bring out their own VOIP via 3G app. Apple could easily integrate that into its phone App, if they could do so in a way that lets the phone know it's making a VOIP call then ATT could even add that as an extra cost feature. Being able to ID when an app wants to do VOIP would be, for ATT, a double win - more money for them as well as a way to block other VOIP calls via 3G unless they are paid for them. I don't like that idea, but ATT must be looking at ways to monetize VOIP using their phones. I realize many calls are already VOIP, but that's at ATT's end where tehy decide how to haul the traffic; this would put a meter on the consumer end.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
I assumed that the device detected not only the absence of a phone, but also its reattachment. A latch circuit occurred to pretty much all of us; the idea of the consumer manually tripping it didn't. I suppose pushing a button to start is slightly better than pushing a button to start and stop (a mechanical switch), though not a lot, and certainly not a lot when you consider how much less efficient it is. It doesn't really solve the problem. Well, it does, but only if you don't care how much more current it drains when not idle.
Assuming you can even find an electronic relay circuit that can handle 110VAC, the lowest-current 5V electronic relay circuits I've seen (which still can't handle the switched voltage required) draw on the order of 2 mA+ for the "coil" current (not counting any dissipation from the 110VAC lines you're switching). That's 10 mW, which is equal to the maximum total power that the new EU rules allow for cell phone charger standby power when plugged in and unused. Thus, for most people (who unplug their cell phones when they leave for work and plug them in when they get home), this actually is worse than a normal charger.
If you use a mechanical relay (e.g. a reed relay) instead, you're looking at about 10 mA coil current minimum, 50 mW power minimum, which means that the average person is more than 5x worse off than with a standard charger.
Now maybe they've found a way to do the switching more efficiently, but even if they did, this is still a pointless gimmick. Even if it were perfectly efficient (e.g. a mechanical switch), it would save a mere 10 mW of idle power when compared with a new charger that complies with the new EU rules. If you left such a charger plugged in 24x365, you would save a whopping 0.0876 kWh, which is less than three cents annually even at our exorbitant $0.33/kWh PG&E rates, or 0.85 cents ($0.0085) at the national average power cost. Thus, this circuit, even if it used precisely zero additional power, cannot realistically pay for itself over the expected lifetime of the product or even over the lifetime of the end user even in the most expensive retail power markets in the world.
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One other problem. You would have to use a 110VAC mechanical switch to drive an additional transformer-based power circuit to provide the initial control voltage. You can't use a low-voltage switch because then you would have a power supply generating that low voltage constantly, so you would have so-called "vampire draw". A 110VAC switch is large, expensive, and failure-prone, a mechanical relay doubly so.
The electronics industry moved away from mechanical switches for very good reasons.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.