MATLAB available (with purchase)

On Wednesday of this week, Agilent Technologies and The MathWorks announced the availability of MATLAB with the purchase of Agilent's EXA, MXA, or PSA signal analyzers.

Hmmmmm.... what does this mean? Are they giving away a seat of MATLAB with the purchase of one of these high-performance analyzers? Well, no. One has to read this press release very closely to figure out what is being offered.

Agilent and The MathWorks are making MATLAB available as a purchase option when buying one of these signal analyzers. I don't know how difficult it was to purchase MATLAB in the past, but I suppose this has the benefit of reducing the number of purchase requests you need to submit to your evil purchasing department. In that sense it is good news.

It's also good news to see two big companies we rely on for our product development collaborating at any level. So while our wishful thinking was for a free copy of MATLAB, we will still be grateful that Agilent and The MathWorks see the benefits of working together for the sake of their customers.

Citing that ,"The combination of Agilent signal analyzers and MATLAB data analysis software enables engineers to confidently analyze, visualize, demodulate, and filter signals that would otherwise be very difficult or impossible to do. ", the two companies felt the agreement would provide high-quality instrumentation and data analysis software from a single source.

Here are the details:


* The MATLAB Basic Signal Analysis Package provides an introductory software package for configuring and controlling Agilent instruments and performing basic signal and visualization tasks from the MATLAB environment.

* The MATLAB Standard Signal Analysis Package adds functionality for filtering signals and analyzing modulation schemes.

* The MATLAB Advanced Signal Analysis Package adds functionality for advanced filter design methods and radio frequency (RF) component analysis.


For additional information or to purchase MATLAB software with Agilent EXA, MXA, and PSA signal analyzers, visit www.agilent.com/find/N6171A. and don't forget to tell them the Journal sent you!!!

G1 Versus iPhone 3G - The Great Cell Phone Fight Has Begun!

It this corner, we have the champion, Apple's iPhone 3G, and in the other corner we have the new contender, Google's (and its partner's) Android phone. Well, everyone is buzzing now after the release of the first Android phone with T-Mobile's G1. The initial reviews are in and they seemed to be mixed. The G1 has a lot of nice features and great potential with its open platform. But the G1 does not have some key features like Exchange support so that counts it out of the corporate board room (for now). One key to Apple's success is its great music integration with iTunes, so I believe the key for Android is its alliance with Amazon to provide DRM free music. Could be the weapon that wins or loses the war!

I purposely left out the Blackberry which in its own right is a very functional device but it is not intended for the same audience as the iPhone and G1, in my opinion. For us in the wireless industry, it all means that we have to keep cramming more and more into the ever shrinking phone. What do you think?