Newsletter Archive 15

Newsletter 15 - 2000

1. WAP Compendium 1.5
2. BMW starts using wireless office
3. Who releases the first GPRS phone ?
4. RestaurantRow.com goes wireless
5. Mobile Office - Professional and Corporate Version
6. Psion WAP Portal
7. Buy.com and WAP
8. Nokia and Compaq
9. Booking hotels world-wide
10. Use your mobile as a remote control for just about anything
11. WAP in Guatemala
12. Fox TV launches European WAP-site for children
13. German company protesting the high UMTS prices
14. Is CDPD the American answer to GPRS ?
15. Turn any server into a WAP-server
16. WAP and the Olympics

1. WAP Compendium 1.5

The entire knowledge about WAP on 150 pages: The new free WAP Compendium includes over 150 pages of information with a detailed introduction to WAP, WML- and WMLscript-programming, WAP almanach, WAP abbreviations, GRPS special, UMTS special and much more. Additionally, the Compendium also includes a WML-page editor. (www.bmw.com )

3. Who releases the first GPRS phone ?

The major players Nokia, Motorola, Siemens, Alcatel and Ericsson in the mobile market are battling about the first place in the GPRS-race. As of now, it looks like Motorola might be ahead of the crowd; they recently announced that the Motorola Timeport p7389i will be released still in time before Christmas. Ericsson has the R520, which is also equipped for Bluetooth. This phone looks at a release in the early part of 2001. Despite being the WAP-pioneer, Nokia seems to be behind these two companies in matters of GPRS. The big question though is, which countries will be ready for GPRS by the end of this year ?
(www.ericsson.com , www.nokia.com )

4. RestaurantRow.com goes wireless

RestaurantRow.com offers information on over 100'000 restaurants in more than 7'000 cities world-wide. Now, the popular service also starts a wireless site, on which the customers can get the same information but on the go. The services of RestaurantRow.com offer directions, menues and even reservations for a table in any featured restaurant. The wireless service
has been created by a Californian WAP-solutions provider. (www.ccwap.com

6. Psion WAP Portal

The Psion Revo has been one of the most serious competitors of the Palm handheld computers. Psion is now launching their own WAP-Portal site with the help of their partners Fonedata and the media group UNM. Altogether these 3 organizations make up the joint venture Trivanti. The timing of the launch of the new WAP-portal couldn't be better: Psion will be introducing a
new Revo soon. (www.psion.com )

7. Buy.com and WAP

Buy.com has started a WAP-eShop . The internet giant is shipping most wireless orders for free in the first 2 months. The WAP-eShop offers a search function as well many other options for the mobile customer. Buy.com offers videos, books, CD's, DVD's and much more. The WAP-site can be accessed with the regular buy.com address. (www.buy.com )

8. Nokia and Compaq

Two of the world's most hyped companies of the last decade are joining forces. Nokia will provide the server software, while Compaq will provide the servers to create a WAP infrastructure for a company of any size. (www.compaq.com )

9. Booking hotels world-wide

Tourisline has been maintaining one of the biggest travel guides on the internet. The German company has just signed with many of Europe's biggest WAP-portals to exclusively provide maps and comprehensive hotel guides. Tourisline will also provide some Japanese car manufacturers -such as Nissan, Honda and Toyota- with the information and software for a navigational system. (www.tourisline.com )

10. Use your mobile as a remote control for just about anything

HongKong, China: A revolutionary chipset has been introduced at a congress of the international WAP-Forum which could be some kind of a universal remote control. The chipset is based on Bluetooth and can remotely control anything from CD players, TV's and even light switches. ST Microelectronics and Digital Mobility are the companies which have co-created the new chip.
(http://us.st.com/stonline/index.shtml )

11. WAP in Guatemala

Guatemala's second largest bank Banco G&T is now introducing a WAP-service to their customers. The WAP-service has been set up by Telefonica, a Spanish telecommunications company. Banco's customers can pay bills and check balances right with their mobile phone. This service is still a rarety in entire South America. (http://www.gyt.com.gt/ )

12. Fox TV launches European WAP-site for children

Fox Kids TV has increased its internet budget tremendously during the last year. The TV company is launching a WAP-site for kids with news, information, games and other tools only for young people. This service will be introduced in over 10 European nations at first and then expand to other European and Asian countries. ( www.mobilcom.de )

14. Is CDPD the American answer to GPRS ?

While GPRS is just about ready to start in Europe, the US already do have a packet-based kind of data transmission. CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) might just be a transmission technology, which could give the American wireless web a big push. Unlike GPRS, CDPD is an open specification which uses the TCP/IP and CNLP protocols. The big advantage of CDPD is it's "always-online" technology, which makes the slow dial-up a thing of the past. Unfortunately, CDPD has transmission rates of a mere 19.5 kb/s (compared to the +100 kb/s of GPRS) and will not be very successful, if there are no big improvements within the next years.

15. Turn any server into a WAP-server

Publish your WAP-pages with any server: ccMagic Server turns almost any server into a WAP-server. Big fees for WAP-hosts are a thing of the past. The new software is easy to use and can be installed from anyplace in the world.

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