Broadcom is expected to show off silicon that offers 1.8 gigabit per second Wi-Fi at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The technology will help prepare home networks for the era of whole-home video streaming. To promote the chips, which will use the 802.11ac standard, Broadcom has highjacked the G used by cellular networks, calling the new standard 5G Wi-Fi.

Terminology aside, here’s why this latest iteration of Wi-Fi is so cool:

1. It’s fast. The standard can deliver up to 3.6 Gbps around the home, although initial chips offer 1.8 Gbps. The current top-of-the-line Wi-Fi chips (802.11n) top out at 600 Mbps.
2. It’s designed for video. The technology uses the 5 gigaherz band as opposed to the 2.4 gigaherz band. The gigahertz band has wider channels to deliver more capacity and competes with fewer other wireless devices, which means the channels can carry more data such as fat high-definition and maybe even 3-D video streams.
3. It’s designed for multiple devices and concurrent streams. Those wider channels also mean a home can support more devices trying to send lots of data, such as sending multiple, concurrent HD video streams around the home, while someone else plays a game or video conferences. So while you might not think you need a gigabit home network without a gigabit pipe leading to your home, if you’re streaming cached content from a hard drive or another device, this helps.
4. It’s more power efficient. The wider channels allow for more data to travel over the network, which means downloads take less time. At that point the radio powers down to save on battery life or power. This doesn’t help when streaming, but would be good for keeping devices and hard drives synced.
5. It goes the distance. The physics of transmitting data using airwaves over distances and through certain materials doesn’t change, but because the standard can deliver faster speeds from the router, folks will get proportionately faster speeds as they move away from the router in their homes and offices. It also uses beamforming technology (basically it compresses the signal like a laser compresses light to make it more powerful) to better pass through buildings, especially through those made of concrete. The end result is a better signal even if it must pass through a few walls — and a decent end-user experience.

Broadcom expects to start shipping chips in the middle of this year and appearing in a wide variety of products from phones and laptops to set-top-boxes and home routers that will ship in the second half of the year. In November Quantenna, a chipmaker startup that has raised more than million, announced its own 802.11 ac chips, and in September I spoke with Craig Barratt, president of Qualcomm Atheros about that chipmaker’s vision for the next generation of Wi-Fi.

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Nowadays, nearly everybody has a cell phone. Surprisingly, people who attested the uselessness of a cell phone have acquiesced to the convenience mobile phones and technology allow. What other way would you explain the trend of the pay as you go cell phone? Google’s Android phone is ranking high as one of the crowd-pleasing cell phone models available on the market. Its smart phone technology gives the competition a lot to keep up with. With such a huge selection of Android Phones, how do you know which phones are the leading Android Phones? Here are some of the phones that got the best reviews. Take out the time to go visit some of the other topics which have been explored by this author who is willing to aid his readers get one of the most out of their efforts – cell phone accessories. Ensure that you go by means of this extremely useful info as there’s surely something new that you simply are going to be able to find out.

The Motorola Quench is a highly rated Android phone. A later model Motorola that has been enhanced with the Android operation system is the Quench. This is one of eight Motorola phone models, which utilizes the Android system. The phone has a screen that is only slightly larger than three inches, however the screen has high definition (320 x 480). By using Motoblur technology, this phone was designed specifically to enhance the experience had by social network users. It uses the Android 1.5 operating system and comes with Wi-Fi capability, GPS, a camera that is five megapixels and a bunch of apps that users will love. One Motorola phone that functions with the Android operating system is the Motorola Cliq. This phone is for sale thought T-Mobile. It has a keyboard that slides out. One of the things that makes this phone so popular is that it allows the user to keep long logs of e-mails, text messages and social networking updates. You can use this phone for managing your Twitter and Facebook accounts. It also allows you to access the data on the phone remotely.

One crowd-pleasing model of the Android phone is the Samsung Beam i8520. As the phone runs on Android technology as its operating system, it has a pico projector. This means the owner of this phone can use it to project just about anything in their phone onto a wall. It makes bringing a portable projector a simple convenience. It also has smart phone technology in it—the aforementioned Android operating system as well as the Touch Wiz skin that was created by Samsung. The camera this phone features is 8-megapixels, which makes it even better than a majority of handheld digital cameras!

It is a wise idea to consider what you will be using your cell phone for, when choosing among the top Android phones. If your main goal is being able to make phone calls, you probably don’t need a phone with so many bells and whistles. If, however, you plan on using your phone for all of your mobile entertainment and contacts you will need smart phone technology to keep you in touch with your friends, family and hobbies. Choose carefully!

This week, I got my hands on what may the hottest new Android handset; at least for now. I bought an unlocked Google Nexus at full price from a U.K. retailer and it arrived late in the week.

The phone includes a pentaband radio, meaning it works fully on both AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s networks. I haven’t tested it on AT&T yet, but a popping a T-Mobile SIM card in has already provided download speeds of 9.4 Mbps.

I shared a brief video overview of the Galaxy Nexus within 24 hours of it arriving, so I was still learning the ropes of Android 4.0. It impressed me then and continues to do so with more usage. The phone has very capable hardware to power Google’s mobile operating system: a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of memory, fast mobile broadband and a gorgeous 4.65-inch Super AMOLED display with 1280 x 720 resolution. See for yourself:

But no phone is perfect and some may not care for the 5 megapixel camera sensor Samsung used for the Galaxy Nexus. With limited use, I find it to be more than adequate for still images in good light and also for high-definition video capture up to 1080p resolution. During the next week, I’ll try to connect the phone to my HDTV to see the output on a larger screen.

Where there may be gaps in the hardware, the software is excellent. Android 4.0 is the best attempt yet for any company to compete against Apple’s iOS 5 operating system. Google has refined the user interface by bringing the most positive aspects of Android 3.x (aka: Honeycomb) to the smartphone screen. Gmail’s revamp is superb as is the overall consistency of the entire user interface.

It’s not all peaches and cream though: There’s an issue with Facebook integration and I’m seeing some strange text formatting problems in the otherwise very impressive stock browser. And I love how my Google Chrome bookmarks on the desktop are kept in sync with the Galaxy Nexus. In fact, I like Android 4.0 so much, I’m going to install it on my old Nexus One smartphone when time allows.

This week wasn’t all good news though. A demonstration of software called Carrier IQ showed the service to be collecting data from smartphones; mainly on Android devices. The story continues to develop, but some are concerned — rightly so — about Carrier IQ’s lack of transparency. The service is apparently installed at carrier’s requests and consumers aren’t aware of this. Nor is there a choice to opt-out or shut down the service; it simply runs silently in the background.

This type of practice is one of the several reasons I’d rather have a Nexus phone, which doesn’t include any carrier software. My bigger reasons were faster Android updates and the ability to easily customize the phone with other Android software, but diagnostic tools that are hidden in the background got added to my list this week.

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You can’t buy the Galaxy Nexus from a U.S. carrier just yet, but that’s isn’t stopping early adopters from getting their hands on Samsung’s hottest new phone. Debuting in October, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the first handset to run Ice Cream Sandwich, otherwise known as Android 4.0. An LTE version is expected in Verizon stores within a few weeks, although the carrier hasn’t yet announced official news. And GSM versions are already available overseas, causing some to order the Galaxy Nexus and have it shipped here.

As someone who jumped on the original Nexus One — at the full 9 price — the day it became available nearly two years ago, you’d think I’d be all over the Galaxy Nexus. Quite frankly, I’ve been enjoying my iPhone 4S so much that the new Nexus has taken a backseat to my iOS interest of late. But then I started to see the early reviews and happy tweets from new Galaxy Nexus owners.

Early reviews rock

The Verge gives the new Nexus an 8.6 out of 10, saying, “The Galaxy Nexus is the best Android phone ever made. It’s one of the best smartphones ever made, and with a couple of minor tweaks (particularly to the camera), it could be the best smartphone ever produced.” Chris Ziegler, a senior mobile editor at the site, didn’t write the review, but like I often do, he put his money where his mouth is and ordered an unlocked GSM version. Not long after receiving his own personal Galaxy Nexus, Ziegler tweeted this:

Follow @zpower@zpower
Chris Ziegler

just to be clear, the galaxy nexus is the best smartphone I've ever used. no asterisk.

November 25, 2011 10:56 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

Andy Abramson, a long-time friend who travels more than anyone I know, has very positive thoughts on his own Galaxy Nexus experience. By way of email, he pointed out that the software pairs nicely with the high-definition display dual-core processor, telling me: “Simply put, what Android always promised to be.” Since he travels so much, Abramson focused on how well the Galaxy Nexus can enable modern-day globe-trotters and has excellent VoIP support in his blog post discussing his new phone.

These are just two examples of happy Galaxy Nexus owners. Search the web or social networks and you’ll see even more. No phone is perfect, of course, but between the high-end Samsung hardware and Google’s newest mobile operating system, it already sounds like the Galaxy Nexus will be a hit. Now I can’t wait.

So I bought one

After some online research, I pulled the trigger on my own unlocked GSM Galaxy Nexus which works on both T-Mobile and AT&T’s fast mobile broadband networks. And for my rare overseas trips, I can use the phone on any GSM network. Instead of buying from an importer here in the U.S., I opted to buy direct from a U.K. retailer that will ship me the phone via 3-day FedEx. Some are selling the handset for near 0 — without shipping — but my total ended up being £439.98, which works out to 2.24 U.S. I’m hearing that an unlocked U.S. version could run 9, so the premium to get an early unit isn’t too bad of a deal.

Aside from the positive feedback about the phone, my activities this holiday weekend also influenced my purchase decision. Both kids have a T-Mobile Sidekick 4G, which earned a solid review from us. But over time, both handsets have shown instability, lagginess and freezing; sometimes to the point of having to pull the battery. Samsung may be working on updates to address these problems, but I took matters into my own hands. I rooted both phones and installed a custom ROM on each. Guess what: All of the problems are gone and the phones are running faster than ever.

I like Android’s freedom to play

As I fixed both phones, I looked down at the faithful old Nexus One on my desk and thought back to the number of times I flashed custom software on the device these past two years. I’d guess I’ve done so well over a hundred times. And I had fun each and every time. I also installed the latest Android versions months before most phones saw them; if they ever did, that is.

Being a Nexus device, the new Galaxy will allow me to do the same: have fun by taking control of my phone. Based on the high praise for Android 4.0, I may not have to do so, but at least I’ll have the option to keep tinkering like a little kid with a new toy at Christmas. And of course, I’ll share my own hands-on thoughts with both the new phone and Google’s updated platform along the way.

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Continue reading Biscotti TV dunked in the FCC’s latte, still a bit hard

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