Driven primarily by the success of digital TVs, satellite STBs, video game consoles, and Blu-ray disc players and recorders, new NPD In-Stat research forecasts that the connected device installed base will grow from 256.8 million units in 2011 to 1.34 billion units in 2016.

“CE is no longer about ‘dumb’ devices that exist at the edge of the network to provide specific functions, but rather about ‘intelligent’ devices at the edge of the network that can connect consumers to new stores of content and engage them in new digital experiences,” says Norm Bogen, VP of Research.”This simple fact is having a profound impact on the development of the digital media and entertainment industry, which clings to the old practices of using networks to control the user viewing experience.”

Recent findings include:

• The global installed base of “smart devices” will have a CAGR of 52.6% from 2011 to 2016.
• Video game consoles will lead the market in “smart devices” rising to 36.7 million units in 2016.
• The installed base of connected media devices shipped to Eastern Europe will reach 79.2 million devices in 2016.
• Asia Pacific will account for 37.1% of CE devices shipped worldwide over the forecast period.

As a result, the SDOs, meeting over the course of the past several months, have also identified the need for a cooperative M2M community standards activity, and have agreed to jointly address the challenge of common standardized solutions. The SDOs have taken initial steps to form a global initiative for M2M Standardization.

This global initiative will seek to develop globally agreed M2M end to end specifications and reports with initial focus on the Service Layer using common use cases and architecture principles across multiple M2M applications. The initiative will develop specifications that will help drive multiple industries towards the goals of lowering operating and capital expenses, shortening time-to-market, creating mass-market economies of scale, simplifying the development of applications, leveraging the worldwide network for enhanced potential of services, expanding and accelerating global business opportunities, and avoiding standardization overlap.  In addition, the initiative will focus on cooperative efforts with other standards organizations and fora, including those representing specific aspects of M2M applications.

The SDOs agree that participation in the global initiative will be open to interested organizations and parties to provide opportunities for various levels of participation and provide flexibility for inputs from all market segments. The SDOs will establish a simple and effective operational structure which is responsive to the needs of the various stakeholders. The initiative will seek to balance regional requirements and differences, and to address their respective timeframes, with the primary goal to support global harmonization and consolidation.
The SDOs have agreed that the global initiative will be established early in 2012 and will then initiate the technical work to meet the challenges of rapidly evolving industries.

The following SDOs were involved in this standard:

• the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) of Japan;
• the Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) of Japan;
• the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) of the USA;
• the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) of the USA;
• the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA);
• the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI);
• the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of Korea.

This certification program tests devices on protocol compliancy, on radio frequency and on audio quality, which is one of the most distinctive features of CAT-iq v2.

CAT-iq 2.0 technology (Cordless Advanced technology – Internet and Quality) delivers the full potential of IP networks and offers wideband voice, multi-line telephony, three- party conferencing, call transfer and phonebook synchronization as well as several other innovative features. The DECT Forum is the globally acting industry association embracing suppliers and operators of DECT based terminals, systems, and networks.

IH 250 handset implements state of the art HD voice (High Definition voice) from swissvoice, including wideband audio, high quality full duplex hands-free mode, high quality polyphonic ringing and an excellent natural audio quality for customer conversations.

Swissvoice has a long history of developing and marketing ISDN multiline phones, and has implemented the best of its multiline management capabilities in this CAT-iq v2 handset.

Swissvoice IH250 handset implements SUOTA (Software Upgrade Over the Air) which allows to seamlessly upgrade a new software of handset through the air. This robust process allows IH250 handset to be future proof and allows service evolutions on the field.

The IH 250 is interoperable with other CAT-iq 2-0 certified handsets, base stations or gateways. The IH 250 handset is expected to be launched first quarter 2012.

Swissvoice, established in Switzerland since 1893, is a manufacturer of communication products for demanding consumers. Swissvoice signature is health and environment consciousness, product design and audio performance.

Designed to provide small, compact, on-the-go computing with great battery life at an affordable price, the latest platform adds several new features to netbook computers made popular by students, families, and those looking for light productivity and Internet browsing. These devices will be available in early 2012 from major OEMs including: Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, and Toshiba.

The new design’s dedicated media engine enables full 1080p high-definition playback of videos and Blu-Ray content and includes additional digital display and output options including HDMI and DisplayPort. The integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3600/3650 combined with the integrated memory controller provides enhanced performance and system responsiveness, including an improvement in graphics performance up to 2X compared to the previous generation platform.

Systems based on the new Intel Atom processors may have up to 10 hours of battery life and weeks of standby, allowing for all-day use between charges. Additionally, Intel increased processor and overall system performance while reducing power consumption up to 20 percent compared to the previous platform.

Based on Intel’s leading-edge 32nm process technology, Intel incorporated several new features into the platform such as Intel Wireless Display and Intel Wireless Music. With these new features and wireless enabled devices, people can share videos or photos wirelessly from their netbooks to a television, or stream music through their home stereo speakers.

Additional features such as Intel Smart Connect Technology allows users to have an instant Internet connection as soon as they open their netbook, and have email, Twitter and RSS feeds automatically updated even in sleep mode. Intel Rapid Start Technology enables fast resume from standby mode and helps conserve battery life.

The dual-core Intel Atom processor N2600 and Intel Atom processor N2800 are paired with the Intel NM10 Express Chipset and feature a small form factor package size that saves system board real estate and enables thinner netbook designs. In addition to the mobile processors, Intel offers the Intel Atom processor D2500 and D2700 for entry-level desktop and all-in-one designs, as well as intelligent system solutions. The platform supports a range of operating systems including: Windows, MeeGo, and Tizen.

Because of a tough economy and the emergence of new competitors, calbe operators have to find new ways to keep subscribers plugged in.

Cable companies already have a pipeline to a customer base. New wireless technology has made entry into the home-security business fairly inexpensive for them.

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Source: LA Times

Over the years, utilities have promised consumers savings of energy and cash from smart meters. These gadgets, which would be installed in every home and business, would let people monitor and control energy use much more closely.

But officials in some states have balked at the high price tag of installing the devices. And consumers in other states where smart meters have been installed have complained the devices haven’t lived up to their billing.

Now tech companies are trying to succeed where the utilities have so far failed. They’re looking to sell off-the-shelf energy-monitoring products to cash-strapped consumers looking to lower their bills. For the most part, the devices don’t do everything smart meters can, but they promise to better control the appliances and devices that use the most juice.

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Source: The Wall Street Journal

The Irvine, Calif.-based chip maker joins Qualcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments and Marvell as one of the top five suppliers of smartphone applications processors in the third quarter. That’s a powerful group, since the apps processor market grew 59 percent from a year ago to $2.24 billion in sales in the third quarter.

Broadcom has been trying to break into the market for a while and replaced Nvidia in the top five. Broadcom’s share grew because of the ramp up of Android products at a major customer.

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Source: venturebeat.com

The validated drivers provide a rapid porting platform enabling significantly shorter time to market for operators or OEMs deploying OpenTV 5 on any class of set-top box featuring ST’s current STi7105 andSTi7108 and also imminently on Orly, the latest-generation most-powerful broadband system-on-chip IC. Fast and customized network integration can be achieved easily with minimal customization, enabling rapid project completion taking advantage of OpenTV’s open architecture and ecosystem plus support for advanced user interfaces.

The OpenTV 5 set-top box middleware provides the core functions needed to support services from basic television to on-demand content and over-the-top (OTT) Internet video. Functions include support for standard television services, video/audio controls, PVR (Personal Video Recorder), security, home networking, advanced program guides and IP based services. Middlewares such as OpenTV 5, which fully leverages Linux, open standards and the latest chipset developments, reduce time to market while allowing service providers to control and rapidly customize the look and feel of their services and so remain independent of their equipment vendors.

OpenTV 5 significantly extends the role of the set-top box as the central home appliance for accessing TV, Internet and personal content. By taking maximum advantage of the hardware features of ST’s current and upcoming generation chipsets, OpenTV 5 enables developers to create highly differentiated end products. The ST chipset’s features include powerful video processing, 3D graphics for advanced user interfaces and gaming, hard-disk and USB connectivity, and are compatible with standards such as HTML5 and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) for content sharing supported by OpenTV 5.

The ST chipsets validated with drivers for OpenTV 5 are available with embedded NAGRA On-Chip Security (NOCS) which ensures the integrity of customer equipment by utilizing a hardware root of trust. ST’s NOCS-certified chips can be used with NAGRA Conditional Access (CA) and NAGRA Digital Rights Management (DRM) software to create a strong content-protection environment.

Using ST’s porting platform the two companies will provide the OpenTV 5 middleware pre-integrated with ST silicon early in 2012, allowing operators and set-top box OEMs to realize a significant reduction in overall time to market. ST Drivers source code are available free of charge, and can be deployed to legacy platforms by Over-The-Air (OTA) upgrade.

A massive amount of speech and video content is stored on servers run by video-sharing sites, broadcast stations, call centers, e-learning host services, and other such organizations.

Spoken Term Detection (STD), which the enables search for a keyword on the speech/video database  is one of the essential technologies for effectively utilizing such information. Kouichi Katsurada and Tsuneo Nitta at the Toyohashi University of Technology (Toyohashi Tech) have developed a rapid STD method that outputs the most reliable search results in a few milliseconds. The search speed is at least 10 times faster than existing methods.

Opera Software and MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, announced that Opera Mini, the world’s most popular mobile browser, will be included into MediaTek’s Runtime Environment (MRE).

MRE is MediaTek’s innovative middleware technology designed for mobile developers and application providers to deploy services and content for “smart-feature-phones”. The MRE solution provides millions of users in emerging markets with the ability to enjoy rich mobile Internet experiences previously available only on smartphones. This partnership will allow users of handsets powered by MediaTek’s MRE platform to enjoy the best and most affordable Internet experience.

Opera Mini has an impressive user base, with more than 140 million users each month and growing. It offers cloud-assisted browsing, where its renowned compression technology reduces data load by up to 90% before sending it to phones. This results in a much faster page-loading speed on a limited bandwidth connection, as well as lower data costs.