Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Portable Video

Movies on flash drives aren’t looking like the next big thing, but Gemalto reckons its approach to getting DVD content on smaller surfaces is different enough to get noticed. In an admittedly bizarre release, the digital security firm has announced a new Smart Video Card for Italian carrier WIND, which “embeds a DVD-compliant optical disc into the card body of a regular SIM card.” The card can store practically any digital content (including video, software or URLs) and can reportedly be played back on any DVD drive. So what, we buy a new SIM card each time we’re looking for a new batch of miniaturized content? Fabulous!

[Via FashionFunky, thanks Bob]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

It looks like all that shouting AT&T has been doing lately about its “openness” is starting to manifest itself in the way the company does business. It’s come to our attention that the mobile telco has started offering a SIM-only plan, thus providing the ultimate in open options. The idea being, of course, that you can bring any random / crappy / salvaged GSM-compatible handset the provider’s way, and it’ll let you hook a towline onto its satellites. Of course, you could just get one of those cheapo giveaways and pop out the card, but this is so much more open and free, like San Francisco in ‘69, a car-less road, some land of your own, and a good old-fashioned whiskey on the rocks. Oh, you still have a sign a two-year agreement… enjoy your freedom!

[Via The Boy Genius Report]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Wireless

There’s not a whole lot to go on here, but according to France’s Challenges magazine, Archos is set to further expand its linup-up of players next year with some new SIM card-equipped models. While there’s no indication that the devices will actually double as a phone, you will apparently be able to at least get in some 3G-enhanced web browsing, which would certainly be more convenient (albeit pricier) than tracking down WiFi hotspots each time you’re out and about. Also according to Challenges, it seems that both France’s SFR and Neuf-Cegetel are “starting to look very closely” at Archos’ gear, although that’s obviously still as up in the air as the rumored device itself.

[Via Archos Lounge, thanks JohnBe]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

After buddying up with IBM earlier this year on a 32-nanometer semiconductor, Infineon is now teaming with none other than Intel to produce high-density (HD) SIM cards. Announced today at the Cartes Trade Show in Paris, the agreement will spark a “strategic technology collaboration” which will see Infineon producing modular chip solutions while Intel offers up memory capacities from 4MB to 64MB. More specifically, a 32-bit security microcontroller will be provided by Infineon, while the partnership’s other half throws in its “leading-edge flash memory technologies, capabilities and manufacturing.” Apparently, the HD SIM will play nice with “data-intensive mobile applications, services and over-the-air downloads” which are likely to become more pervasive in the coming years, and current market research shows that these very devices will account for “six- to eight-percent of the total SIM card market in 2010.” As for availability, look for samples to land in Q2 of next year, but don’t expect ‘em to be manufactured en masse until the first half of 2009.

[Via EETimes]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It looks like Eastbourne in East Sussex, UK is the latest town to ditch its old school parking meters in favor of some decidedly more high-tech options, with the county’s council even going so far as to boast that their new meters are among the most “secure and intelligent” in the country. Costing a hefty £3,000 (or over $6,000) apiece, the meters pack a few more options than other newfangled meters, including their own SIM card that can be used to call for help if anyone attempts to bust one open. As with some similar meters, these ones, dubbed the Alfia 300 CI, are solar powered, and each is also covered by a CCTV system to catch vandals or would-be pocket change thieves in the act. While 150 of the meters are reportedly already in place in the town, they’re apparently being kept under wraps until the big unveiling on Monday, when the whole lot is set to go into service.

[Via textually.org, photo courtesy of Eastbourne Today]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!