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If you thought location-aware search and other mobile mapping technologies were cool, hold onto your hat. A new wave of innovation in the mobile market will bring augmented reality to smartphones, allowing users to interact virtually with their surroundings.

Augmented reality, or AR, is a term that refers to technology that superimposes computer-generated content over live images viewed through cameras. The technology, which has been used in gaming and in military applications on computers, has been around for years. But thanks to more sophisticated devices, faster wireless broadband networks, and new developments at the chip level by companies like Qualcomm, it has become inexpensive enough to put into smartphones and tablets.

Even though these are still the early days for the technology--chip vendors like Qualcomm are just now giving demonstrations--augmented reality could have a major impact on smartphones in the coming years.

"The idea that a mobile device knows where I am and can access, manipulate, and overlay that information on real images that are right in front of me really gets my science fiction juices flowing," said Mark Donovan, senior analyst at ComScore. "It's just beginning now, and it will likely be one of the most interesting trends in mobile in the next few years."

Just as location-based services have begun to change how wireless subscribers use their cell phones and marketers reach an increasingly mobile audience, augmented reality will go a step further, bringing a wealth of collected data to users' fingertips.

Today, GPS and other location-based technologies allow people to track and find friends on the go. It allows them to "check in" at particular locations. In other words, wireless subscribers provide information about their surroundings, such as where they are, and that information is stored and shared with others via the Internet cloud. That information can be used so friends can locate you, or it can be used by marketers to send you coupons and other promotions.… Read more

The iPhone 5 will support both 3G and 4G services as Apple switches suppliers for critical silicon, an analyst said Monday. The report also said a new iPad is expected.

Following earlier iPhone 5 rumors, Ashok Kumar, a managing director and analyst at Rodman & Renshaw, chimed in with a report Monday saying Apple's iPhone 5 "will be Apple's first phone to support LTE," or Long Term Evolution, which is being marketed as a 4G technology.

And Kumar echoed other reports, saying that Qualcomm is the expected chip supplier for both a future Verizon-based iPhone, based … Read more

Qualcomm is said to be putting more muscle behind its planned Mirasol color e-reader technology.

According to Taiwan's Digitimes, the company is ready to spend up to $2 billion on a Taiwan plant to produce the screens, which use tiny microelectronic machines to produce an e-reader screen that not only can display color, but video as well.

Qualcomm, which has been showing Mirasol for some time, won't produce the actual e-reader devices, hoping instead to license its technology broadly. A representative told CNET in June that e-readers using Mirasol should be out early next year, if not by … Read more

Rumor has it that Apple is buying millions of CDMA chipsets for a Verizon iPhone launch, according to TechCrunch.

The tech blog published a story Sunday citing unnamed sources that said Apple ordered millions of CDMA chips from Qualcomm in what looks like preparation for a Verizon Wireless iPhone. TechCrunch said that the chipset order is due for December, which could mean a January launch for a Verizon iPhone.

AT&T and all the other carriers around the world that are selling the iPhone use a network technology called GSM. Verizon Wireless uses a competing technology called CDMA. The main supplier of CDMA chips is Qualcomm. So if Apple is indeed buying CDMA chipsets, then it would make sense that it might be developing a Verizon iPhone.

Speculation about a potential Verizon iPhone has popped up periodically since the iPhone's runaway success began in 2007. It's been reported that Verizon originally turned down the exclusive rights to offer the phone due to unappealing demands from Apple. Recently, there's been much talk about Verizon possibly offering the iPhone in January.

Whether Verizon will get an iPhone has never really been in question--rather it's been a question of when. I've said in the past that I believe such an iPhone wouldn't be available until next summer at the earliest, since a Verizon iPhone would likely support Verizon's new 4G technology, LTE.… Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--One of the technologies that always catches my eye is a screen technology called Mirasol, which aims to marry the best of e-reader and traditional liquid crystal displays.

Mirasol uses tiny mirrors, known as microelectronic machines, to create its display, which has the low power characteristics of E-Ink displays and the video-playing and color abilities of LCDs. Qualcomm isn't making devices itself, but said e-readers using Mirasol should be out early next year, if not by the end of this year.

I got a chance to see the demo up close, and shot a quick … Read more

Both Intel and Qualcomm are announcing new dual-core processors for small devices, upping the performance potential for ultra-mobile computing.

Intel said Tuesday at the Computex conference in Taiwan that it has begun producing dual-core Atom processors for Netbooks, a product first for Intel. New Intel technology will enable "very, very thin form factors with dual-core Atom," Matthew Parker, general manager of Intel's Atom client division, said in a phone interview Friday. Parker said future Netbooks will get as thin as a half an inch (see photo).

Netbooks are small laptops that weigh less than 3 pounds and have screens that typically top out at about 10-inches diagonally. Parker said Intel specification guidelines will remain the same and have not been modified to accommodate larger designs, such as 12-inch Netbooks, as some have speculated.

Dual-core is all about better performance. "What dual core will bring is the ability to have a more responsive experience. You can video conference with our single-core product, but with the dual-core product you'll have better multiparty video conferencing," he said, citing one example. Intel is not yet revealing the product name for the chip but expects Netbooks using these procossors to be available by winter holiday season.

At Computex, Intel is also unveiling its "Oak Trail" technology, which is a system-on-a-chip Atom design optimized for thin tablets… Read more

It's never too late to revisit two smartphones with some of the hottest hardware specs on the market. iFixit's side-by-side breakdown of the internals of the Google Nexus One and Apple iPhone 3GS makes a compelling cost and feature argument for the Nexus One.

iFixit's CEO Kyle Wiens sums it up nicely: "The Nexus One deserves more attention. Its hardware is really quite impressive, and yet no one seems to be buying it!" he said in a note sent out Thursday morning. (Though CNET's Tom Krazit makes the case here that it's not quite that simple.)

On the downside, if something goes awry internally, the Nexus One is up against a formidable infrastructure of Apple stores. "Our biggest beef with the Nexus One? There isn't a parts supply chain for it yet, meaning all repairs have to go through HTC's overpriced mail-in service," Wiens said.

And a quick look at the silicon inside these phones shows how utterly absent Intel is in this space. In short, Samsung rules.

What follows below are two graphics excerpts from iFixit's teardown. Also, see this CNET Reviews camera showdown.

… Read more

The newest 4G marvel from Sprint and HTC joins a growing list of high-end smartphones that tap into the speed of Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor.

The dual-branded Sprint HTC phone announced Tuesday at CTIA 2010 in Las Vegas joins other Snapdragon-based phones, including the Google Nexus One (also made by HTC), the HTC HD2, Acer Liquid, and Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. All, except the HD2, are upscale phones that run the Android operating system.

The Sprint Evo 4G is representative of a category of high-end Android-based phones that pack extra processing punch to power large screens (in the case of … Read more

Qualcomm is adding 4G technology to its Gobi laptop modems and expanding its chip offerings that support 3G technologies.

The San Diego-based company announced at CTIA in Las Vegas Tuesday that it will add, for the first time, LTE, or Long Term Evolution 4G technology to the roster of 3G technologies that the Gobi modem supports. 4G technology is expected to offer much greater data throughput than current 3G technologies (see chart below).

Gobi modem technology is significant because it supports more than one type of 3G service. In effect, Gobi allows switching to a different 3G provider in software. The integrated Gobi modem on HP EliteBook business laptops, for example, supports Verizon's EV-DO and AT&T's HSPA 3G services. Before, a user would have to replace the internal modem to switch providers.

And Gobi modems will now be future-proofed by supporting LTE, too. Michael Concannon, senior vice president of connectivity and wireless modules at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, explained how this could play out for PC makers. "A PC supplier, for example, may go with a 3.6 megabit-per-second module on a very low-end laptop, while in the mid-range they may want to go with a 14.4 (Mbps), and at the very high end… Read more