Stories about: Cell Network

With the iPhone 3G's banner opening weekend and newsstands looking like a rack of brochures for the device, a review of the iPhone 3G at this point might be pro forma, except for one thing: Much of the iPhone 3G and the new iPhone 2.0 software remains an enigma to professionals and enterprises, users set apart by, among other things, their tendency to use punctuation in their e-mail. These users demand more from a handset than a cellular browser and YouTube.

Anybody who has spent any amount of time working on the road has probably witnessed their share of notebook disasters: dropped from a hotel desk, shaken beyond repair in the trunk of a rental car or doused by a knocked-over cup of coffee. Too often, the result is a worthless chunk of plastic, glass and metal.

While universities don't tend to shout as loudly about their latest tech innovations as do Google, Cisco and other big vendors, their results are no less impressive in what they could mean for faster, more secure and more useful networking. Here's a roundup, in no particular order, of some of the most amazing and colorful projects in the works.

Its petite size, light weight and silvery skin made the Apple MacBook Air this year's must-have laptop. However, amid all the hoopla and hype, Lenovo has quietly introduced its ThinkPad X300, a travel-friendly notebook that may not be as seductively thin, but provides more of the creature comforts that travelers expect.

The wireless access service is a US first, according to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which oversees the state's commuter rail services. It will be available starting January 30 on at least one coach on every train traversing the 45-mile run between Worcester, in central Massachusetts, and Boston.

AppleWednesday confirmed rumors that it will release a mobile software development kit (SDK) for developers in February so that third parties can create applications for the iPhone and the iPod touch.

For all the speed mobile operators are building into their networks, a lot of it doesn't reach subscribers trying to make calls or surf the Web indoors. While some carriers look to Wi-Fi and dual-mode phones to bridge the gap, another technology is coming along that could work with the handsets customers have today.

A project unveiled this week at DEMO 07 by Alcatel-Lucent will let enterprise network administrators reach out and touch corporate laptops anytime, anywhere.

I love The Village. Where else can I work and sip a US$6 tea while watching: great-looking NYU girls who are too young for me; a guy jumping up every five minutes because he's got more gadgets on his belt than Batman and doesn't know which one is vibrating; and another guy apparently dressed as a pirate from the waist down arguing with a food-challenged model about who has dibs on the bathroom. The model just accused Blackbeard 0.5 of not having any class. Meanwhile, she's wearing a t-shirt three sizes too small that appears to say "Too drunk to [#$%@]" for which she probably paid $300. You can't beat that.

Motorola and Cisco Systems have stopped development of a planned dual-mode cellular and Wi-Fi phone in favour of allowing multiple devices to work with any vendor's enterprise IP (Internet Protocol) phone switch, a Motorola executive said Wednesday.

The big news from the CTIA Wireless 2006 show in Las Vegas is convergence -- for the providers and for the networks -- that will first benefit consumers and ultimately enterprises.