Into your home, work place, car and everywhere else, that’s where.  ABI Research company has forecasted over 81 million USB wireless modems will be sold in 2010.  Currently over 50% of those sales figures are from cellular companies pushing their services for hotspots and instant wifi connection when out-n-about.

The biggest reason for the USB modem is lack of required drivers, as it’s either preinstalled on the device or installs directly from the device.  In addition, the USB modem is portable and easily swapped between work and home locations.

ABI asks whether embedded modem modules in new computers or the recent interest in personal hotspot routers (a la MiFi) can overtake the popularity of USB dongles. Research associate Khin Sandi Lynn points out that, “In the long run, more devices are looking for a network to connect to. The wireless modem market can solve this in many ways – different form-factors, air interface protocols, and increased attention to style and cultural interests.”

ABI webpage.

With microSD cards getting so large, we have seen some create uses.  This years CES 2010 is no exception.  Take for example, the new data backup service from Clickfree.  Clickfree now offers the ability for you to backup PC files directly to your Blackberry smartphone.

The new Clickfree Traveler Micro-SD card for BlackBerry comes with pre-installed Clickfree software.  This enables you to easily backup important files to your BlackBerry.  The Traveler is tailor made for the business users who are constantly on the go and searching for a better way to backup their data.

Once Clickfree is installed your BlackBerry will automatically backup your files every time you connect to the computer via USB cable.  It also keeps files secure with password protection which is encrypted.  The Clickfree Traveler works with Windows 7, Vista, XP and Mac OS X 10.5+.  It will release in February for a price of $89.99 (16GB) and $149.99 (32GB).

Elan is launching an adapter to connect any USB stick to your mobile device via the microSD slot.

Elan is a UK based company who developed the “Mobidapter” for mobile power users.  The connector does not require drivers and will allow any USB device to be seen by the mobile host.  Further, the Mobidapter doesn’t require a PC, so important tasks like backup, sync or accessing files will be much easier.

Unfortunately, there is no word on price and expected ship date is mid June 2009.

The highly anticipated Blackberry Storm is shipping with an 8GB microSD flash memory card - but there’s only one problem.  The phone has gotten horrible reviews and lacks the functionality most require for a quality MP3 experience.  So now the problem - what to do with 8GBs of flash memory.  Sure you could find something to store up that card, like snaps shots from the 3.2mpix camera or store the entire yellow pages of phone numbers and address,  but the reality is - without a good MP3 player mechanism the storage isn’t all that necessary.

Sorry for the rant, but to boost the value of the phone with a $20 8GB microSD card isn’t all that impressive.

Interested to hear more about the Blackberry Storm?  You can read the following reviews:

• CNET
• Engadget
• Gizmodo
• Time

Phone spec: Verizon Storm.

So we did flips for the open source Neo1973, now we’ve got a simplified software platform. Trolltech has introduced the Qtopia Phone Edition for the Neo1973.

The Qtopia Phone Edition is fully accessible under the open source GPL verison 2 license and supports the Greenphone reference platform for mobile development.

Up until now, Qtopia has been ported onto 90 different devices, including 25 phones. There are over 9 million Qtopia-based handsets in the market that also includes mobile devices from Motorola, ZTE and Cellon.

Source: TechGadgets photo via Flickr

Update: More info here

The other day (literally) a fellow blogger and I where talking about why cell phones are so damn proprietary and if someone could develop a phone with the same open-source mindset as say WordPress (this blogging platform) than our world would be much better off. Well apparently I’ve been living under a rock.

From OpenMoko comes the Neo 1973 open-source cell phone based off the Linux kernel.

We selected chips that have complete documentation publicly available, such as the ARM-based Samsung S3C2410 SOC. We added a debug port with complete access to JTAG and a serial console. This phone is designed for open-source development.

With a sporty 640×480 LCD that holds a beautiful 283 dpi the visual from the Neo 1973 should be amazing.

Unlike the first version of the iPhone the Neo 1973 will have 128MB RAM with 64MB NAND flash and an expandable microSD slot (bonus 512MB card ships with the phone).

So hackers, gadget hounds and side project guru’s I think this is worth a closer look. At just $300 - what a deal.

This first run of release units is more geared towards developers so don’t expect any retail phones to hit BestBuy just yet.

OpenMoko Neo 1973 home page

We tried to escape the iPhone buzz, but recent information came to light after some folks unscrewed the iPhone to see what’s inside. This is what flash memory they found.

The Apple iPhone flash memory is comprised of two technologies. NAND flash and NOR flash. Without knowing how Apple used these technologies we can easily conclude (without certainty) how the flash memory is being used.

Since NAND flash memory is best suited for re-write and allows an operating system to view the flash memory as a hard drive type storage space, the iPhone most likely uses NAND memory to store MP3 files, photo’s, video and other ‘come-n-go’ files.

The NOR flash memory is best suited for storing code where re-writes aren’t as frequent. NOR would be used for storing application information, such as web browser, OS, Viewer files and other ’stable’ code which wouldn’t change too often.

It was also reveled that Samsung is supplying Apple’s iPhone with the main microprocessor chip and NAND flash memory. Intel is supplying the NOR flash memory to the iPhone.

Currently the Nokia E61 SmartPhone has a flash memory capacity of 2GBs. The firmware of the E61 limits the use of anything over the 2GB memory capacity from external memory.

You can check for updates on the support page for Nokia E61.

In the event you have a mobile phone or PDA which uses a miniSD card, you might want to install a .exe file from flash. To do this, it’s fairly simple. Since .exe files must be installed from the PC, simply connect the device to the computer and run the executable file. During installation you should have the option on where to install the program, from there select the flash memory. (more…)

The Samsung skinny Ultra Edition II went on sale in France. The U600 went on display at the 3GSM show, but little was known about it. Well, other then it’s the skinniest phone around at just 10.9mm. Now, we’ve learned there is a Bang & Olufsen digital power amplifier along with an intelligent power system to make sure this little guy can supply the juice.

The Samsung U600 is available in beige, blue, red, silver, white, black and brown.