Metue.com

Shortly after a new car hits the market, there are a few gearheads who’ve looked under the hood, kicked the tires and are ready to report on the innards.   The same is true in technology.  The iPhone has been on the market but three days, it’s spawned long lines and moved upwards of several hundred thousand units (300k to 500k phones sold by most estimates)…and a few iPhones have already been intentionally disfigured in the name of curiosity.

Here’s recap of what they’ve found, and a listing of which hardware suppliers won the iPhone lottery:

   The screen – the impressive touch screen used on the phone is believed to be made by German company, Balda which specializes in scratch-resistant touch screens.  It is deemed “believed to be made” because the screen lacks specific markings that confirm the origin.  It’s estimated to cost about $30 per screen.

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After a month of rumors, it was officially confirmed Monday that Google is acquiring consumer telephony/internet integration company Grand Central Communications.  Official terms have not been disclosed but widespread speculation is that the price was surprisingly high; above $50m.  That’s hard to believe, improbable seeming but not impossible.  Reports are the  two year old company had raised approximately $4m in venture funding from investors including Micro Ventures.

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Palm reported Q4 earnings after the close of market Thursday.  The numbers easily beat Wall Street analyst consensus expectations but overall were poor year over year; and especially dim in comparison to very positive results from competitor Research in Motion.

For the quarter ending June 1, Palm earned $15.4m (15c/share) on revenue of $401.3 compared to $27.2m (25c/share) for the same period last year.  Excluding one-time charges Palm said it would have earned $17.8m (17c/share) this quarter.   Analyst consensus estimates (Thompson) were for earnings of $14.43m (15c/share).

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With a day and a few hours until the iPhone launch, added bits of information are trickling out that may add more credibility to speculation about a Beatles announcement being revealed alongside the iPhone – as was first theorized here on Metue (The full text of the Metue article from two days ago is here)

In addition to all the previously noted information.  Add the following two pieces, with a heavy weighting for the first:

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It’s the week of the iPhone and that means, for carrier AT&T, it is top billing and headlines galore.  Likely lost amidst all the hype, likely below the radar, reports are that competitor T-Mobile is today rolling out a unique launch of its own.

As of today, T-Mobile will be the first major U.S. carrier to launch a national UMA  (Unlicensed Mobile Access) service.  UMA, though it sounds like just another acronym for buzz-word bingo, is a technology already widely used in Europe and worth noting.  Bypassing technical detail, UMA is a wireless telephony technology that works over wireless (WiFi) Internet networks.  That means in areas of weak signals a UMA equipped cell phone can act like a cordless wire-line phone using a local internet connection instead of a cellular tower.  Distinct from other Internet telephony technologies like Voice-over-IP,  UMA phones can hand-off between a wireless internet connection (on a private network or a public Hotspot) and a cellular connection depending on which signal is stronger; and they can do so almost seamlessly. (Dropped calls are reported to be no more likely do to the handoff, than they are in every day usage of cell phone network).

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The world is sitting in wait for the impending iPhone release.  Gadget lust is running full throttle.  I’ve got it (gadget lust that is, not the iphone).  I won’t be waiting in line, and I won’t be switching my cell phone service – but I wouldn’t mind having the phone to play with.  That’s not going to happen, not unless someone with better connections is feeling generous, but it’s nice to dream.

Of similar dreams, I’ve speculated as far back as early May about a possible roll out of the Beatles music alongside the iPhone launch.  The most coveted online music catalog released alongside the most anticipated consumer product of the decade is just the kind of three-ring circus marketing Steve Jobs and his Apple cohorts love to put together.  Click to Read More

If only a cellular earpiece was small enough to not look like an appendage growing from my ear….
If only a bike computer could tell you a call was coming in on your cell phone while your phone was safely stowed away….
If only a small sensor could monitor a diabetic’s glucose levels and wirelessly alert him/her of dangerous levels on his or her watch, or cell phone…
If only video game controllers could wirelessly interact with each other to trigger changes in game play….

Increasingly, instrumental technology seems to be finding its way out of Scandinavia and into the open source world.  First there was Linux, the operating system developed from the work of Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki  in the early 90s. Then, there was Bluetooth, the low power, low frequency wireless technology we now find powering everything from cellular earpieces, and stereo headphones to wireless computer mice.  Now it’s Wibree, a Nokia development, that’s poised to bring a new round of changes and evolution.  Wibree, in fact,  may be technology to make all of the above “If Only’s” possible and a lot more beyond them.

(Bluetooth was originally developed by Ericsson in Sweden and then expanded with the help of Intel, Microsoft, Nokia and Toshiba before its management was passed to the non-profit Bluetooth Special Interest Group that oversees the licensing and trademark management.)

So what is Wibree? –   For starters, Wibree is a wireless communications technology like Bluetooth.  In fact, it’s sometimes been referred to as Ultra-Low Power Bluetooth – making it a derivative technology that can both stand alone or integrate with existing Bluetooth standards.  

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