AT&T's ARMZ: An Emergency Cellular Tower in a SuitcaseAT&T Just started selling the ARMZ, a cellular tower that fits into a suitcase. It's meant to fill the air with cellular signals in the case of a disaster where existing towers cease to work or, well, exist. There are fixed location and vehicle mounted ARMZ kits, but the fly away set up is the most interesting because of its portable nature—Even if by "portable" we mean well over 100 pounds and powered by generator. The kit has a dish for satellite uplink, 2 radios that support up to 28 callers and an antenna. And the ARMZ, which stands for AT&T Remote Mobility Zone, runs off a generator. Sat uplink occurs in under 30 minutes, and the system has a range of half a mile, claims AT&T. ARMZ costs between $15,000 and $45,000, depending on the configuration, plus a service plan of $2700 a month. Not that you'd be able to get one to patch in during a camping trip, even if you had the cash—The setup
RIM or Research In Motion Ltd. announced the first BlackBerry that folds up, BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220. It will be available from T-Mobile USA later this year for an undisclosed price. The Pearl Flip coming in three color schemes: black, red and silver (gray). BlackBerry flip phone weighing just 3.6-ounces and boasting a 320 x 240 internal display, Bluetooth 2.0, built-in multimedia player, 802.11b/g WiFi and a SureType keypad. The battery promises four hours of talk time / over a fortnight of standby life.
