Nokia: First Mobile Phone Network On The Moon?

After winning a contract from NASA in the wake of Project Artemis, could Finnish mobile phone company Nokia be the first one to provide mobile phone coverage on the Moon?

By: Ringo Bones

After winning a contract bid and granted by NASA $14.1-million to build the first ever 4G mobile phone networks on the Moon, it seems that the Finnish mobile phone company Nokia could be the first ever to establish a working 4G mobile phone network on the Moon that would be used by astronauts. In the wake of NASA’s Artemis Project that aims to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024 (and about time, given that the last time NASA sent a men to the Moon was back in 1972). By 2028, NASA hopes to have the beginnings of a working lunar base and, ultimately, a sustainable human presence.

If NASA’s current timetable goes as planned, Nokia says that their Lunar 4G Network will be completed by late 2022, with humans due to arrive shortly after in 2024 as part of NASA’s Project Artemis. Nokia decided to choose to establish a 4G network first because given its long track record has proven reliability and robustness in the previous years, although Nokia says that it already has plans for 5G purpose built for space applications in the near future.

Nokia says the proposed 4G network will provide connectivity for any activity that astronauts need to carry out on the Moon, including using the network for transmitting biometric data, remotely controlling autonomous exploratory lunar rovers, streaming high-definition video in order to allay the concerns of “Moon Landing Hoax Conspiracy Theorists”, and enabling voice and video communications. Although how all of this will work with the expected one and a quarter second travel time delay of the radio waves between the Earth and the Moon is yet to be determined given that the 186,000 miles per second speed of the radio waves still have to travel a quarter of a million miles to the Moon and back to Earth again. And let us also hope that the “roaming charges” does not carry an astronomical price tag - as what often happens to a British tourist making a mobile call in Ibiza during the summer vacation season. 

Google Pixel 5 Smartphone: Economic Downturn Ready Smartphone?

Given that Google’s hardware chief said that its new flagship model was designed to be sold during an economic downturn, does the Google Pixel  5 Smartphone qualifies as such?

By: Ringo Bones

At US$699 MSRP, it is not exactly cheap and it will be facing stiff competition from comparable entry-level  smartphones made by Samsung and a plethora of Mainland Chinese made ones, but why was the Google Pixel 5 smartphone hyped as a smartphone specifically designed for an economic downturn? Given that it is way cheaper than its predecessor – the US$999 4XL, as a result, the Pixel  5 has given up some of the main features of its predecessor and runs on a slower chip that allows it to be sold at a lower price. However, the Pixel 5 still gets 5G connectivity and some new picture taking related features.

It is a given in our current state of affairs that smartphone designs are usually fixed many months before the products are sold to the general public in order to secure the necessary components and to conduct tests. Google’s senior vice president of devices and services also admitted that the Pixel  5’s features were set way before the COVID 19 pandemic began, however, he said, that a conscious decision was made to offer a 5G-enabled smartphone at an “affordable price”.

Novel features of the Pixel 5 include the capability to allow it to wirelessly charge some accessories on the back. Last year’s “face unlock” sensors have also been discontinued to be replaced instead by a fingerprint sensor used on the Pixel  3. The Pixel  5 uses the Snapdragon 765 G graphics processing chip – a slower version than last year’s Snapdragon 855. One of the reversing cameras is now equipped with a wide-angle lens and also features various video stabilization modes to choose from. In addition, the RAM memory has been increased to 8GB, which allows the phone to move from task to task faster. And what makes the Pixel 5 much better than competing Mainland Chinese smartphones costing half as much that offers similar capabilities is that the Pixel 5 offers premium Android experience with super-fast updates.