Media phone - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The media phone represents a new category of broadband multimedia

Multimedia

Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...

device that has the potential to become the 4th screen in the home, complementing the PC

Personal computer

A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

, TV, and mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

handset.

Features

Media phone combines the functionality of a VoIP phone and home networking controller with an expansive touch screen for web browsing, photo viewing and interacting with connected widgets.

Typically available features:

Internet phone (IP-based voice and video calls)
Web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
Digital photo frame
Digital photo frame
A digital photo frame is a picture frame that displays digital photos without the need to print them or use a computer.- Features :...
Organizer
mp3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

and wmv player
FM and internet radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
SMS
Short message service
Short Message Service is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices...

/MMS
Multimedia Messaging Service
Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones. It extends the core SMS capability that allowed exchange of text messages only up to 160 characters in length.The most popular use is to send photographs from...

device
Built-in camera
Widget
Widget (computing)
In computer programming, a widget is an element of a graphical user interface that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box. The defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given...

s

The device can be controlled through the touchscreen with a finger or accompanying stylus

Stylus (computing)

In computing, a stylus is a small pen-shaped instrument that is used to input commands to a computer screen, mobile device or graphics tablet...

and can have a SD card slot, USB and flash memory

Flash memory

Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...

.
It comes with a wireless

Wireless

Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...

handset for phone calls.

What is inside

Application processor (Intel Atom
Intel Atom
Intel Atom is the brand name for a line of ultra-low-voltage x86 and x86-64 CPUs from Intel, designed in 45 nm CMOS and used mainly in netbooks, nettops, embedded application ranging from health care to advanced robotics and Mobile Internet devices...

, ARM
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...

, etc.)
High level operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

(HLOS), widget based
VoIP software for IP calls

Examples

The media phone can be used by wireline telecom operators for value-added IP services delivery. Several major carriers have introduced media phones, for example iriver

Iriver

iriver is a consumer electronics company headquartered in South Korea and widely known for its digital audio players and other portable media devices....

Wave Home by Korea Telecom

Korea Telecom

KT Corporation is a South Korean integrated wired/wireless telecommunication service provider. KT has an information & communications business, and has the largest portion of the South Korean local telephone and high-speed Internet business...

, Home Manager, by AT&T

AT&T

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...

and Verizon Hub

Verizon Hub

The Verizon Hub was a media phone available from Verizon Wireless. It features a 7 inch LCD screen at 16-bit color. The hub could sync the user's calendar, contact, maps, traffic, and weather reports. The Verizon Hub did not require the owner to have Verizon Fios. The hub connected to a...

.
Bittel Hotel integration solution by Bittel Electronics
Others are expected to follow the trend.

Video

Media phone is basically a replacement for a traditional home cordless telephone

Cordless telephone

A cordless telephone or portable telephone is a telephone with a wireless handset that communicates via radio waves with a base station connected to a fixed telephone line, usually within a limited range of its base station...

. All calls (voice only by Verizon Hub, AT&T Home Manager and voice&video by Korea Telecom Wave Home) are IP based. The call functionality is provided by embedded software – by a voice engine for voice-only calls and by a voice&video engine for video calls. The voice&video engine is required to compensate for the commonly known IP-related issues (delays, packet loss

Packet loss

Packet loss occurs when one or more packets of data travelling across a computer network fail to reach their destination. Packet loss is distinguished as one of the three main error types encountered in digital communications; the other two being bit error and spurious packets caused due to noise.-...

, jitter

Jitter

Jitter is the undesired deviation from true periodicity of an assumed periodic signal in electronics and telecommunications, often in relation to a reference clock source. Jitter may be observed in characteristics such as the frequency of successive pulses, the signal amplitude, or phase of...

, congestion, etc.) and to make IP calls as reliable and convenient as conventional PSTN calls.

Features

What is inside

Examples

Video

See also