ACCESS announced today that their NetFront mobile browser has been ported over for embedded use on Analog Device’s Blackfin processor, allowing for on-the-go internet meandering without as much strain on the battery.

The NetFin browser has already made its way onto over 500 million devices, including Samsung’s recently launched Glyde. The browser can be pretty featured pack (depending on the hardware it’s running on), managing a couple things its competitors haven’t managed yet: AJAX for all of those Web 2.0 sites that break in most mobile browsers, and Flash support capable of handling things like Youtube.

Toru Arakawa, CEO of ACCESS, stated “NetFront Browser embedded on ADI’s Blackfin is the ideal solution for OEMs who want to make it possible for their customers to access and interact with content-rich multimedia Internet sites.”

A survey conducted by research firm IDC and sponsored by Nortel Networks asked 2,367 people what item would they choose to take with them if they had to be absent from their homes for 24 hours. More than 38% chose their mobile phone over things like keys, a laptop or music player. Less than 30% thought their wallet was the most important item. It looks as though many of us have bought into the mobile lifestyle and fear withdrawal symptoms if separated from our cell phones.

Nortel paid for the survey to determine how many people around the world can be defined as “hyperconnected.” Someone hyperconnected uses at least seven devices for work and personal access, in addition to at least nine applications like instant messaging, text messaging or web conferencing. Cell phones and laptops are examples of devices, while things like e-mail or Facebook count as applications.

I fell short in both categories to be considered hyperconnected, but 16% of those surveyed made the cut. China led the world with the highest percentage of those hyperconnected, followed by the United States. Canada and the United Arab Emirates had the fewest number among the 17 countries surveyed.

The survey had a subset of people it called “increasingly connected.” These are people who use a minimum of four devices and six applications. The survey found that 36% of those questioned fell into this category.

Within five years the survey predicts that those categorized as hyperconnected will rise to 40%. If the trend continues as predicted, it is good news for companies like Nortel. There will be an increased need for network technologies and other mobile gear to get the hyperconnected out the door and into the world, without them worrying about where they put their wallets.

If you are curious about this phenomenon, see Nortel’s Hyperconnectivity site.

It took me a few passes to realize that the “Mobile” part of LonerMobile should be read like it would in “mobile phone”, not “Batmobile”. I thought they had announced the Lonermobile, the ultimate car for people with no friends. Having a down day? Lonermobile thinks you look amazing. Stuck alone in traffic, and the carpool lane is wide-open? Activate the inflatable friends in the seats.

Alas, it’s not a car. LonerMobile is a new Blackberry application by GPS developers BlackLine, announced today at WES. While it might not provide transportation for those in need of social assistance, it could very well save some lives. LonerMobile is intended to keep lone workers safe when they’re out in the field by transmitting status messages and GPS coordinates back to their employers. If the worker doesn’t respond to a check-in request or suddenly loses device communication, their employer is alerted and can pull up their last known locations for the rescue party.

BlackLine hasn’t updated their site yet, but information should be up soon.

Schmap, publisher of over 200 free online travel guides, has opened access to their guides for iPhone and iPod Touch users by way of a remarkably nifty web application. The guides cover cities throughout the US, Europe, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and provide information on everything from the city’s historical background to the best places to get your drink on.

As portrayed in the image above, the web app utilizes the iPhone’s gyro sensors and a Safari specific Javascript function to determine how the device is currently oriented, and swaps between two display modes accordingly. If the device is oriented vertically, points of interest are displayed as a simple list; if horizontal, the points are overlaid on a map of the area. This allows the user to jump back and forth between modes without having to dig through menus, and is an ingenious way to make the most of the available screen real estate.

In addition to the city guides available for many major cities, Schmap is working on implementing a local search feature to provide similar functionality for cities they haven’t charted out yet. While local search results obviously won’t be as in-depth as the custom written city guide entries, it provides enough to get by: the business name, street address, and phone number. It did a good job of finding coffee shops in my area, even pointing out a few I’d somehow managed to ignore. I was unable to get the local search to recognize any zip codes, so you may need to type out the city’s name for the time being.

My only dislike with the service thus far is the tiny size of some of the buttons. I definitely don’t have sausage fingers, yet I constantly found myself tapping just outside of the detection areas. This was especially true of the arrows at the top and bottom of the interface.

Overall, Schmap for iPhone/iPod Touch is an incredibly handy application, especially while traveling or getting to know a new area. I’d expect to pay a few bucks a month for the service; that it’s free is just the mega delicious icing on the cake.

To check it out, just head over to http://www.schmap.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Last week, CrunchGear reported on a rumor that Helio and Virgin Mobile had gone to the table to discuss the possibility of a merger.

SK Telecom, one of Helio’s two parent companies (the other being Earthlink), is calling shenanigans. According to a spokesperson for SK Telecom, there had not been “any sort of talks” between Helio and Virgin, saying all rumors as such were “groundless” and that they remained “committed to Helio.” In the vaguest statement of the century, she also added that SK Telecom was actively seeking opportunities to expand in the US.

Being a huge fan of Helio, I’m relieved to hear that SK Telecom is sticking with’em. SK Telecom certainly has deep enough pockets, and Helio’s got the right idea - they’ve just gotta figure out a way to get their devices onto more shelves, in more places.

[Via mocoNews.net]

Whether you believe in evolution or creationism, it is hard for technology to beat the natural world when it comes to design and function. Often it is best to study nature and try to emulate its wonders. That’s what Audience has been doing for its voice processor that can be found in NTT DoCoMo’s new mobile phone, Sharp SH705iII. Audience created the A1010 Voice Processor and based it on the intelligence of the human hearing system.

The Audience A1010 supports Sharp’s Triple Kukkiri Talk by providing noise suppression, voice equalization, and voice stretch performance. It doesn’t matter if annoying noise comes from the caller’s environment, or over the network from the other end of the call, Voice Processor reduces multiple noise sources to make for a clearer call.

The Audience Voice Processor is the first custom IC to be modeled on the human hearing system. By understanding the auditory pathway, from the cochlea to the brainstem to the thalamus and cortex, Audience is the first company to create a commercial product based on the science of Auditory Scene Analysis (ASA). The Audience Voice Processor is able to deal with a complex mixture of sounds and handle the signals the way the human brain actually perceives specific sounds. This allows the technology to identify and suppress noise sources that would otherwise interfere with a call.

There is similar technology out there, but it makes sense to start with how we hear and tailor the technology to that, instead of ignoring the human hearing system and focusing simply on the electronics.

Audience

Last week Sprint Nextel announced that it was partnered with Clearwire to build a high-speed WiMax network in major U.S. markets. Investors like Intel, Google, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have agreed to invest $3.2 billion in the Sprint and Clearwater partnership. The new company, called Clearwire, is slated to have over $15 billion in assets. But lawsuits filed in Illinois by iPCS subsidiaries may put the brakes on Clearwire’s plans.

Sprint is affiliated with iPCS. iPCS has 640,000 subscribers in seven states. Three of iPCS’s subsidiaries have filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois, claiming a Clearwire service would compete with iPCS within its markets and violate an exclusivity agreement between Sprint and iPCS that goes back to 1999.

An Illinois appellate court upheld a lower court ruling that found Sprint’s 2005 purchase of Nextel Communications violated its exclusivity agreement with iPCS. The court ordered Sprint to divest itself of all Nextel assets in iPCS territory. Sprint is currently appealing that decision, but unless the appellate court is overturned by a higher court, it looks as though Clearwater’s move may be blocked in iPCS coverage areas subject to the exclusivity agreement.

Last week, Sprint filed a preemptive lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court. Sprint is asking the Delaware court for a declaratory judgment ruling that Sprint’s affiliate agreement with iPCS doesn’t prevent the new Clearwire company from competing in iPCS territory because of Clearwire’s association with Sprint.

There are a lot of juicy legal issues to sort out in all of this but unless you are a legal scholar you probably don’t care. All this may end up in some sort of billion dollar settlement between Sprint and iPCS, or it could languish in the courts for years, stunting the growth of the Clearwire project.

Umm… looks like the car won. Reader Meir ran over his iPhone with a Mercedes — if you’re going to destroy your phone, do it in style, people — and quickly hopped out to retrieve the device, now artfully crazed like a 18th century glazed ceramic chamber pot. His story:

A couple of days ago, due to a series of very unfortunate events my iPhone
found itself being driven over by the back wheel of a big mercedes. The
amazing thing is that my iPhone still works perfectly. The screen has been
shattered to countless pieces, and they keep falling off daily. To tell you
the truth, I have a hard time deciding what to do, keep risking my life with
the iPhone or go back to my older primitive cell phone, not an easy
choice… Almost everyone I showed the iPhone to had the same first
reaction; “It’s amazing this thing still works”

Meir, use the iPhone. Even a shattered, potentially life-threatening Apple cell is better than a brand new, in box Anything Else at the AT&T Store (TM). Friends don’t let friends use sub-standard UIs.

Check out CrunchGear for more iPhone coverage.

RIM has finally made the Blackberry Bold official. No exact release date yet, but the press release does mention that the Bold should be available “around the world beginning this summer. ”

Key points from the announcement:

• 624MHz CPU
• 802.11 a/b/g and GPS
• Half-VGA screen (480 x 320)
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support
• microSDHC support up to 16 GB
• Quad-band EDGE, Tri-band HSDPA
• 2MP camera w/ flash and 5x digital zoom
• Replaceable “leather-like” backplates

Check CrunchGear for more Bold coverage.

Did I miss something? When did Microsoft and RIM become all buddy-buddy? While there were empty rumors that Microsoft was looking to purchase RIM back in September of ‘07, I don’t think we’ve seen the two companies in a headline together since.

Putting aside the whole matter of being competitors and all, the two have announced that they are collaborating to bring Windows Live services to the Blackberry platform. Support for both Hotmail and Messenger should go live sometime this summer.

Amongst the standard stuff, Hotmail for Blackberry will feature Push e-mail support, and integrated support for links and contact photos. Messenger for Blackberry will feature IM and group chats, conversation saving, and file/picture transfers.