PR News: SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- ZeroG Wireless, Inc., an innovator in low-power embedded Wi-Fi design, today announced the creation of the ZeroG Wireless Design Partner Program, an ecosystem of various embedded design experts. The Company designed the program to connect ZeroG customers with experienced design houses offering services in embedded wireless designs, accelerating customers' development process for embedded applications.

ZeroG's design partners have wireless experience with embedded system integration, radio-frequency (RF) design, computer networking and embedded software for ZeroG Wi-Fi modules. Design partners have experience in developing a wide array of embedded applications, including utility and smart energy, consumer electronics, industrial controls, remote device management, retail, medical, healthcare and fitness.

"We are committed to making it easy to build embedded applications with ZeroG Wireless Wi-Fi modules, creating an Internet of Things." said Tim Colleran, vice president of marketing of ZeroG Wireless. "Having this program will help our customers take their products to market easier and faster." ZeroG supports its design partners through training of the ZeroG Wi-Fi modules development process so designers can quickly build embedded applications. ZeroG design partners also have access to early-released software and system development tools.

"Arrayent builds networking and server software to Internet-connect products and Wi-Fi opens up a wide range of embedded applications. ZeroG has created a low-power Wi-Fi module that is focused on the ease-of-development for embedded Wi-Fi. Arrayent's partnership with ZeroG will help our customers reduce the overall design cycle of new embedded applications," said Shane Dyer, president of Arrayent Inc, one of ZeroG's design partners.

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PRWEB: Vancouver, B.C. (PRWEB) September 21, 2009 -- Rx Networks, Inc., a leading mobile location technology company, today announced its new XYBRID™ multi-mode positioning engine. XYBRID™ uniquely combines Cell-ID, WiFi signals with Assisted GPS ephemeris and coarse position aiding to yield fast and ubiquitous positioning for virtually any device.

"As a low-overhead, operator independent Assisted-GPS solution, XYBRID RT™, the first and real-time version of the solution, is optimized for service providers and device manufacturers - such as asset tracking companies - in need of fast global positioning, and for whom the lack of Assisted-GPS roaming or cost variances make it impractical to consider implementations across multiple operators", said Guylain Roy-MacHabee CEO of Rx Networks. "Also, in contrast with other GPS aiding solutions that can potentially expose user identity XYBRID RT™ contains no user identification mechanism and ensures security and privacy for applications that need it, such as tracking high value cargo."

"XYBRID RT™ is a perfect fit for Fastrax offerings and more importantly, for our customers. There is a continuous need to improve fix availability and TTFF in "impossible" environments in almost every asset tracking application. With our XYBRID RT™ based offering we serve our tracking customers as well as our GPS module customers even better than before and we expect this extended service to be greatly appreciated", said Fredrik Borgstrom, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Fastrax.

Rx Networks supports flexible business models and XYBRID RT™ can be licensed on a usage or a lifetime subscription basis. Rx Networks provides a XYBRID RT™ mobile client compatible with most mobile operating systems and most GPS chipsets. XYBRID RT™ will be available for commercial use in December 2009.

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US PR Wire: [USPRwire, Thu Sep 10 2009] PINC Solutions, the leader in cost-effective real-time asset visibility technology, announced today that Transfreight has implemented PINC Solutions’ Yard Hound at its Toyota-dedicated crossdocking facility and the adjacent manufacturing plant located in Woodstock, Ontario. Yard Hound added automated real-time visibility for asset tracking to an existing yard management and shunt control solution.

PINC’s innovative real-time location system utilizes passive RFID and other wireless and sensor technologies to locate and track the positions of assets in the yard in real time, ensuring the visibility information for the yard is always up-to-date.

“We are pleased to enable Transfreight to monitor and track their yard assets in real-time utilizing our patented RTLS technology,” said Aleks Gollu, CEO of PINC Solutions. “As a well-recognized expert in the Toyota Production System (TPS), Erlanger, Kentucky-based Transfreight engineers lean supply chains for top manufacturers across North America. Our system helps further streamline the yard operation by providing real-time, accurate information about all activities associated with the assets while in the yard.”

With PINC’s Yard Hound, users have access to the yard information remotely anytime through secure web portals. Electronic records, automated alerts and notifications, and customized reports about our customer’s assets are also available. PINC’s customers realize many benefits from the system such as:

• Increased yard operation efficiency

• Improved yard truck and driver productivity and retention

• Reduced manual yard checks

• Increased yard velocity and throughput

• Improved equipment utilization

• Reduced late, demurrage and detention fees

• Enhanced customer and vendor services

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Reuters (PRNewswire): LOS GATOS, Calif., Sept 10 /PRNewswire/ -- GainSpan((R)) Corporation, a leader in low power Wi-Fi semiconductor solutions, announced a strategic investment and technology development agreement with In-Q-Tel, the independent strategic investment firm that identifies innovative technology solutions to support the mission of the broader U.S. Intelligence Community. GainSpan provides the lowest power consuming Wi-Fi single chip solution for wireless sensor networks and other embedded applications, enabling devices to run for up to ten years on a single AA battery.

"GainSpan's innovative technology helps address critical technology needs of the U.S. Intelligence Community," said Troy M. Pearsall, Executive Vice President of Architecture and Engineering at In-Q-Tel. "The power requirements of Wi-Fi have traditionally limited its application in sensor networks, but GainSpan's low power Wi-Fi devices enable new classes of solutions that will provide key technology capabilities to both the government and commercial markets."

"Our strategic agreement with In-Q-Tel ensures that the U.S. Intelligence Community has easy access to GainSpan technology," said Vijay Parmar, President and CEO, GainSpan. "Also, as a member of In-Q-Tel's technology partner portfolio, In-Q-Tel provides us introduction to other portfolio companies where there are opportunities for knowledge-sharing and co-development."

GainSpan's low power technology applied to ubiquitous Wi-Fi allows its customers to leverage the very large installed base of Wi-Fi access points and devices, as well as existing tools and knowledge investments, to create many new products for security and access control, temperature and occupancy monitoring, and asset and people tracking.

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giga om: Atheros, a Wi-Fi chipmaker, said today it’s agreed to buy Intellon, a maker of chips that turn the home’s electrical network into a conduit for broadband, for $244 million. While most of us use Wi-Fi for our home network, it needs a stronger — and more reliable — wired infrastructure to aggregate and move the ever-increasing amount of HD video streams, music and telephony around. Which is why Atheros CEO Craig Barratt, while discussing his company’s proposed acquisition of Intellon on a call with financial analysts, described powerline networking technology as the backbone of the home network.

Indeed, today’s announcement makes clear that Wi-Fi is not everything to everyone. Of course, Intellon’s strong gross margins and talk of sequential quarterly growth helped endear it to Atheros (and to the analysts on today’s call) as well. Intellon said in July that gross margins for its most recent quarter had exceeded 50 percent, and that revenues had increased 14 percent on a sequential basis. Intellon has done well selling its powerline chips into the European IPTV market, and has seen increasing interest in them for smart grid applications. It’s also been hawking Ethernet over coax solutions into China, and has been investing in the upcoming G.hn wired home networking standard.

Given all this, the combined company will be positioned strongly for the future, as more carriers in the U.S. and in other markets look for both wired and wireless network capabilities to integrate into their residential gateways and set-top boxes in order to move digital content throughout the home.

So what does this acquisition mean for other Wi-Fi providers? Most will need a wired solution to leverage in-home wiring, such as coax or powerline. While Broadcom has already made a big strategic acquisition of MoCA (coax-networking) provider Octalica, this move by Atheros might pressure the company to shore up its powerline technology, especially given that MoCA is largely a U.S.-centric play. Other HomePlug players include Gigle Semiconductor and Coppergate (which acquired the HomePlug assets of Conexant), while Spain’s DS2 offers a competing powerline technology in UPA.

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FOX Business: LAKE FOREST, Calif., Sep 08, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----GETAC Inc., a leading innovator and manufacturer of rugged computers that meet the demands of field-based applications, is adding to its extensive line of rugged mobile computing solutions with its introduction of the PS236 -- most portable handheld device with GPS, WWAN communication, and WiFi with Bluetooth capabilities, on the market. Offering a variety of features including a built-in 3 megapixel auto-focus camera, altimeter, E-compass, extended battery life, real-time voice and data communications*, and up to 12 Gigabytes of storage**, the Getac PS236 portable GPS PDA could very well be the only companion field professionals will need, even in the most extreme environments.

For field-based personnel, real-time communications in all forms is the most critical aspect of their job and the Getac PS236 provides it all in one handheld device. The built-in GPS gives exact location coordinates to within 5 meters and its built-in camera allows users to capture critical data and transmit with description tags specifying details of the photos. Using Getac's proprietary Geo-Tagging application, users can quickly tag a variety of geographic information including GPS, E-Compass, and Altimeter, into the JPEG file.

"The Getac PS236 offers users fast, reliable, and consistently accurate real-time communications solutions which are critical to anyone working in the field," said Jim Rimay, president, Getac. "Our customers work in some of the most extreme environments and need a communications tool that can handle severe climate changes and perform flawlessly. By extending the battery life and increasing the storage capacity in the PS236, our customers can spend more time in the field and increase overall productivity anywhere in the world," Mr. Rimay added.

In addition to its GPS system, the product's built-in altimeter and E-compass provide advanced accurate positioning features such as latitude and longitude, and altitude, as well as the ability to provide directional relations between the targeted subject and the user's position. The PS236 also features comprehensive wireless connectivity options, including HSDPA wireless WAN communication, integrated Bluetooth V2.0 and WLAN b/g WiFi. Users can connect the PS236 to a GIS server and instantly transmit or process data in the field using its built-in real-time voice function or a Getac Bluetooth modem.

The PS236 handheld PDA is perfectly suited for GIS surveying applications across different sectors including utilities, oil and gas, forest patrol, and surveying and mapping of geology and mineral resources. The built-in camera enables instant visual data capture on-site. The high resolution, 3.5" VGA touch screen display with sunlight readability and Transflective Panel technology dramatically enhances the viewing quality of graphic-intensive files and detailed maps in bright sunlight or snowy conditions.

*Combined 4GB built-in memory and up to 8GB SDHC memory card

The Getac PS236 features Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. Measuring a mere 7.0 x 3.5 x 1.5-inches, the PS236 can operate at full capacity for up to 10-hours on a fully-charged battery. The unit is MIL-STD 810G compliant and IP67 rated for dust and water resistance. The Getac PS236 makes it easy to transfer data and does not require the need to learn the system.

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Reuters (PRNewswire): SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- ZeroG Wireless, Inc., an innovator in low-power embedded Wi-Fi design, today announced that it has joined the U-SNAP (Utility Smart Network Access Port) Alliance and has early availability of U-SNAP modules, simplifying the process for smart-grid customers to "just add Wi-Fi" to their applications. U-SNAP's modular form factor, coupled with ZeroG Wireless' low-power embedded Wi-Fi, enables a whole new class of connected thermostats, appliances, power meters and many other home automation products to be brought to market with seamless Internet connectivity.

"ZeroG's Wi-Fi I/O products provide a secure, cost-effective, and mature IP solution for our smart grid customers," said David Friedman, senior director, strategic marketing, ZeroG Wireless. "Joining the U-SNAP Alliance and developing U-SNAP modules was a natural fit for us because it offers another simple means for our customers to just add Wi-Fi to their products."

"We are very pleased to have ZeroG as a U-SNAP member," noted Jon Rappaport, Chairman of the U-SNAP Alliance. "A compelling array of U-SNAP enabled products will be coming to market later this year and next, creating a broad ecosystem of Smart Grid ready, Energy Aware devices. ZeroG's Wi-Fi modules provide a perfect example of the future-proof flexibility of the U-SNAP standard, while simplifying Internet connectivity and device integration."ZeroG is currently engaged with alpha customers using its U-SNAP modules.

First products using these modules will be available in Q4'09, after which the Company will announce availability and marketing plans around the U-SNAP modules. For more information and to be considered for ZeroG's U-SNAP alpha program, please contact zgsales@zerogwireless.com.

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Austin Business Journals: RF Code Inc. has received $6 million of a planned $12 million Series C round of financing.

Austin-based RF Code, which develops radio-frequency identification, or RFID, devices, received the capital from seven investors, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

RF Code was launched in Arizona in 1998.

In 2005, the company closed a $20 million Series A round of funding from Maryland-based QuestMark Partners and California-based Intel Capital coupled with Dallas-based angel investors Moshe Azoulay and Travis Hunt.

In late 2006, RF Code won an Innovator of the Year award at the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation in Arizona. The following year, it raised a $13 million Series B round of financing, enlisted a new senior management team, and moved to Austin.

At the time, CEO Mitch Medford said the company was poised to reach profitability by 2009.

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Reuters: SAN JOSE, Calif.--(Business Wire)-- Verayo, a security and authentication solutions provider, today announced it has partnered with Bartronics India Limited (Bartronics), one of India`s largest bar code and RFID technology companies, to provide cost-effective RFID offerings to the Indian market. The strategic partnership not only strengthens the long-term cooperation between the two companies, but also addresses the need for differentiated solutions targeting anti-counterfeiting and low-cost authentication. With the partnership, Verayo brings its unclonable RFID chip to India. Verayo`s RFID chip is based on a breakthrough "silicon" biometric technology called Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF). PUF technology is a type of electronic DNA or fingerprinting technology for silicon chips that renders the chips unclonable. Working together, Bartronics` RFID tags will incorporate Verayo`s unclonable RFID chip, and can be used in applications such as consumer product anti-counterfeiting, mass transit tickets, secure IDs and access cards.

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Amazon (Murtuza Attarwala): Would recommend this book to anyone who is actively working with Location Based Services, or is planning on working with Location Based Services. The initial sections of the book gives comprehensive use cases, where location based services are/can be used. The author then goes into the details of different technologies that are out there in the market that can be used to implement these services. For each technology, the author first describes the technology and then discusses the pros/cons of using that technology to implement the solution. These gives a very good idea, of what technology should be used from the cost/technical perspective for a particular solution. For e.g. what is the expected responsiveness of RTLS for your particular solution, what is the accuracy that you desire, is it room-level or is zone-level good enough, how big a tag is acceptable for your solution, what is the expected battery life of the tag. This book is a must read for anyone interested in Location based services.

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