Zoinger

April 03, 2005

Two New PocketPC-based QWERTY Mobiles

09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1) ~ Biz - Mobile

There’s a couple of new QWERTY-keyboard equipped PocketPC-based mobiles out in the market (or will be soon).

The Orange SPV M2000 has pretty much everything… WiFi, Bluetooth and a side-out QWERTY keyboard. Unfortunately, it’s not as small as the HTC Magician. Since this is an Orange phone, it’s only available in Europe (or maybe you’ll be able to gray market it someday from sites like this).

HP’s iPaq Mobile Messenger h6500 is due out in April. It’s got an integrated QWERTY keyboard similar to the Treo. It trades built-in WiFi for GPS which seems like an odd trade off to me. However, you will be able to add a WiFi card through the SD/IO slot (it as another slot for miniSD), and you’ll have the benefit of being able to break the antenna end of the card off. Add-in WiFi-card solutions suck… like so 1999. Additionally, the screen is fairly low resolution at 240×240. It’s mostly smaller than the M2000, but not close to the Magician.

Product	Length	Width	Thickness
M2000	4.92”	3.00”	0.74”
h6500	4.65”	2.80”	0.83”
Magician	4.25”	2.28”	0.71”
Audiovox SMT5600*	4.25”	1.81”	0.63”
Treo**	4.40”	2.30”	0.90”
*MS SmartPhone
**Dimensions not including external antenna

I’m still waiting for a PocketPC mobile the size of the Magician that has a built-in QWERTY keyboard, WiFi and Bluetooth. GPS is highly optional for me.

Update: 2005_04_05
To partially solve the problem of SD WiFi cards sticking out of the slot, here’s a stubby one from Spectec.

March 26, 2005

Russell Beattie's Video Review of the PSP UI

06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2) ~ Biz - Mobile

Check out Russell Beattie’s post reviewing the PSP’s XMB (“xross media bar”) UI.

Sony has plans to use XMB across their line of consumer electronics products (such as some of their newer TVs) to hopefully create differentiation and hence product margin improvement in an increasingly hyper-competitive consumer electronics market. Can you imagine trying to sell your products at BestBuy? Here’s a row of 20 LCD TVs which all look pretty much the same. Take your pick… as the eye searches to find the cheapest one.

However, buy the Sony because it has XMB.

“XMB” (xross media bar) user interface system

To allow viewers to enjoy various content from various devices, Sony’s “XMB” user interface enables viewers to switch channels easily via easy-to-recognize icons and to select their favorite programs and inputs from DVD or digital video camera quickly.

First introduced in the popular PSX computer entertainment systems, it operates via the high-speed processing of CPU “Emotion Engine” and a drawing processor “Graphics Synthesizer.”

Or so says Sony. I guess lots of emotively synthesized buzzwords are worth paying more for? Anyway Russell thinks pretty highly of Sony’s XMB UI efforts.

Neat - I love that Sony really made an effort here to perfect this UI and didn’t just throw Yet Another UI out there. This is what separates companies like Apple and Sony from the iRivers and Creative’s out there. Yeah, a gadget is a gadget, but the other companies willingness to launch products with insanely user-hostile UIs really shows, especially when you compare it to something so well thought out as the XMB.

Be sure to check out Russell’s XMB demonstration video too. He did it on his Nokia 6630 (oh, and btw, why are all Nokia phones now too big and just plain ugly?). The video runs about a MB a minute — roughly that of a decent MP3 recording. Hum… 7 minutes of audio (good audio) and video (it looks sort of ok) for 7 MBs. Not bad for a BUP.

P.S. I figure that Sony is not doing a very good job of branding XMB. I search on A9 (which uses Google results) for XMB, and I can’t find Sony anywhere in the top 10. Sony XMB gives slightly better results. Jeez, just try Microsoft Smartphone as a comparison. No wonder Sony needed a new boss.

March 19, 2005

Reducing Queues at Starbucks via SMS

11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3) ~ Biz - Mobile

Starbucks is a lot like McDonald’s in that you trade quality for a consistent experience. That is, you’re not going to get great coffee at Starbucks, but you’re probably not going to get terrible coffee there either. Mediocrity for the masses.

One thing that isn’t mediocre about Starbucks is their queues — especially during the morning rush. I suspect that most Starbucks regulars go through the same ritual every morning. Get up, drive to Starbucks, see the queue streaming out the door, wait in the seemingly endless queue, get to the counter and explain in excruciating detail your custom drink order — the same damn order you give every single day. Of course, you have to repeat your order, because when you say “Venti, tipple, extra-foam latte,” the reply back is, “Would you like anything else with that short, no-whip mocha?” And to add insult to injury, you’re forced to shuffle to the back of the store where there is never enough room (in a scene straight out of a Tokyo subway) only to wait in yet another seemingly endless queue to pick up your drink.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Wouldn’t it be nice if all you had to do was send your local Starbucks a SMS message, so that when you arrived your drink would be ready at the “regular’s counter?” No waiting to pay for your coffee either, since it’d be automagically deducted from your Starbucks Card account.

The SMS used to place your order could be generated via a form on Starbucks website. The form would generate an SMS that would encode your Starbucks Card number, your local store location and your drink order. Once the form was completed, a SMS message would be sent to your mobile that you’d save and forward back to Starbucks anytime you wanted your coffee.

Obviously, there are lots of ways you could improve this process flow, but regardless, the end result would be a lot less waiting around by Starbucks customers. Heck Starbucks could even do some cool promotions with the carriers who’d love for their customers to be sending more SMS messages.

Tom's Hardware Reviews Skype via PocketPC PDA (WiFi & Bluetooth)

10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (8) ~ Biz - Mobile

Tom’s Hardware recently reviewed placing Skype calls through a WiFi-connected PocketPC PDA using a Bluetooth headset… I guess you’d call that mouthful of techno jargon cutting edge.

Skype offers a special client specifically designed for Microsoft’s PocketPC operating system. Most high-end PocketPC devices now integrate both WiFi and Bluetooth support, so theoretically one should be able to complete a Skype call via a PDA completely wireless (i.e., using WiFi to connect the PocketPC to the internet and a Bluetooth headset to connect the caller to the PDA). Indeed, Tom’s Hardware finds that this is the case.

Our Skype for Pocket PC operational trial revealed that a high-performing Pocket PC equipped with wireless functions can indeed be used as a device for Internet telephony. The voice quality obtainable is perfectly satisfactory for personal use, and the method offers the big advantage of the extremely low calling cost: frequent or long-distance callers will quickly notice the positive impact on their phone bills.

In a business environment, this solution is not yet mature, due to the limitations we described regarding voice quality for intercontinental calls, and the sometimes variable quality when calling fixed line and wireless numbers

The review also offers a lot of detail on how to set up your PDA to connect via WiFi and pairing the PDA with a Bluetooth headset.

Definitely a sign of telecommunications to come.

Update: 2005_03_22
Check out The techADDICTION Show #3 for an audio demo (part of their podcast) of Skype on a Pocket PC with a Bluetooth headset.

March 16, 2005

730 Million Mobiles Will Be Sold in 2005

07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (62) ~ Biz - Mobile

From this News.com article on Motorola’s recent success with the Razor:

More than a million of the slim handsets have been sold.

But that’s not really the point. This is:

Overall, 674 million cell phones were sold worldwide in 2004, a 30 percent increase from the year before. Gartner credited the increase in part to emerging cell phone markets in Latin America. Growth is expected to remain robust in 2005, with Gartner predicting 730 million cell phone sales.

730 MILLON phones. That’s just a damn big lot of anything. All I have to say about that is this (well actually, it’s not me, it’s the Economist):

In the early 1980s AT&T asked McKinsey to estimate how many cellular phones would be in use in the world at the turn of the century. The consultancy noted all the problems with the new devices—the handsets were absurdly heavy, the batteries kept running out, the coverage was patchy and the cost per minute was exorbitant—and concluded that the total market would be about 900,000. At the time this persuaded AT&T to pull out of the market, although it changed its mind later.

March 15, 2005

Kodak Keynote at CTIA — No Stinkin' Niche Application

09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (178) ~ Biz - Mobile

If we’re not careful, imaging could fade to a niche application in phones. Some think it’s happening already.

Or so said Kodak Chief Executive Dan Carp during a keynote address at the CTIA wireless show on March 14th.

Aloha Dan. Of course camera phones suck right now! Friggin’ current state of the art in camera phones is 1998 in stand-alone digital camera years. Like that’s so 640×480. But no worries, pretty soon you’ll be able to purchase a seven megapixel camera phone. And I am sure that users complain about the ease difficultly of use, but that’ll be fixed too. Probably not anytime soon, but eventually.

Dan, this I do know; camera phones are gonna suck less this year and the next and the next, so that pretty soon they’re not gonna suck. Combine this with with the fact that humans inherently visual creatures and you won’t ever have a “niche application.”

P.S. Also in the News.com article linked to above is this:

Last year, 180 million camera phones were sold worldwide, a 130 percent increase over 2003. Most analysts believe the growth will continue, with about 280 million camera phones sold by the end of the year, and there may be one billion camera phones in circulation by year’s end.

ONE BILLION camera phones. Deeeaaamn. Far from being a niche application, imaging via phones is about to explode. Think about how that will effect societies and politics… especially local politics (just go take some pictures of the potholes in your neighborhood and send them to your local representative).

March 14, 2005

Lots of New Mobiles from CEBIT and CTIA

04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (56) ~ Biz - Mobile

With both CeBIT (“world’s leading event for information technology, telecommunications, software and services”) and CTIA (the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association) taking place recently you just knew that some ground-breaking mobile phones where going to be announced. Indeed some were! I’ve summarized some of mobiles I found interesting below:

Microsoft PocketPC Phones
Samsung i730 PocketPC mini form factor (with QWERTY keyboard)
Samsung SGH-i750 PocketPC mini form factor (with “normal” phone keypad)
T-Mobile MDA IV “communicator” style phone

Music Phones (iPod killas)
Samsung SGH-i300 with a three gig hard drive!
T-Mobile SDA II and SDA II add more music with a miniSD card
Sony Ericsson W800 featuring MemoryShit flash memory card

Other Phones of Note
Samsung SCH-V770 seven megapixel cameraphone
Firefly kids emergency phone
Nokia 2115i featuring a built-in flashlight
Siemens M75 rugged phone
Samsung WIP-6050M WiFi Phone

It’s good to see handset manufacturers trying out new form factors and adding features like dedicated music playback buttons, hard drives, QWERTY keypads, sliding keypads, “real” cameras, flashlights, etc. Clearly mobiles are becoming more personal (load ALL of your music on ‘em) and more of a always-on-ya necessity.

Damn, the power went out again! Where’s my flashlight… erh, I mean my mobile?

Update 2005_03_17
I’m kind of impressed with Motorola’s new offerings. I left a few off the list above. Here they are…

PEBL V6 Compact little flip phone. Nice!
MS400 Small, light CDMA/EVDO handset
MS550 Trick design on this 3-megapixel cameraphone
SLVR V8 and the V280 Candybar-style Razor-ish handsets

Update: 2005_03_22
Pantech PH-S8000T Trick, hinged flip-phone.

March 07, 2005

Bluetooth — TechWorld Bluetooth Article Series

08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (3) ~ Biz - Mobile

TechWorld, ‘The UK’s Infrastructure & Networking Knowledge Centre,’ recently published a series of articles on Bluetooth. I’ve put some links below to the articles for easy access.

The nuts and bolts of Bluetooth
Why Bluetooth version 2 matters
What do Bluetooth profiles do?
Bluetooth better than WLAN in mobile phones

Here’s an interesting quote from the WLAN article:

…a recent report from ARC Group, which says that shipments of Bluetooth smart phones will reach 87.5 million units - about 70 percent of the smart phone market - by 2009. This compares to WLAN smart phone shipments, which the group predicts will only reach 18.75 million units by the same year.

Some good reading. With the large number of Bluetooth devices shipping some interesting Bluetooth-enabled applications may finally be coming… but don’t hold your breath, because everything in the mobile world takes time.

I think a good metric for the true ‘arrival’ of Bluetooth will be things like: all iPods ship with Bluetooth, it becomes hard to purchase a desktop/laptop that doesn’t have Bluetooth (as it’s currently hard to purchase a motherboard without a built-in LAN chipset), aftermarket car stereos start shipping with Bluetooth, most automobiles ship with Bluetooth… oh, and of course, there’s some useful applications and peripherals that take advantage of Bluetooth.

P.S. Here’s a link to the Bluetooth specifications page, and here’s a link to PaloWireless’ page on Bluetooth protocol (it’s a bit more user friendly).

March 06, 2005

The Real Universal Remote — Bluetooth-enabled mobiles?

09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1) ~ Biz - Mobile

Several applications are starting to show up that turn your Bluetooth-enabled mobile into a remote control for your PC/Mac/Linux box. For example, Bemused is an application that:

…is a system which allows you to control your music collection from your phone, using Bluetooth. It requires a Series 60 or UIQ phone (e.g. Nokia 7650/3650, or Sony Ericsson P800/P900), and a PC with a Bluetooth adapter.

and some of the things you can do with Bemused:

* Browse your music collection on your phone
* Play files in any format supported by Winamp - including MP3s, CDs, MIDIs, etc.
* Control Winamp versions 2, 3 and 5, Windows Media Player and PowerPoint Viewer
* Pause, stop, rewind, fast-forward etc.
* Add songs to the playlist and use shuffle and repeat
* Browse and select songs in your playlist
* Download songs to your phone (supported formats: WAV and MIDI; plus MP3 for UIQ)
* Customise the look of the system with skins

For the Mac you can purchase Salling Software’s Clicker application. Clicker is a Bluetooth remote control application that among other things allows you to control iTunes from a number of mobiles as well as Bluetooth Palm devices.

For Microsoft Smartphone owners, there’s a number of applications like RuttenSoft’s Media Remote 2004. At Microsoft’s Techfest (Seattle Times pain-in-the-ass registration required) Microsoft demonstrated a remote photo slide show application using Windows Media Center.

Of course, my PC doesn’t have Bluetooth, so I’m going to have to purchase a Bluetooth adapter for it. Someday ALL computers will be wirelessly enabled from the get-go (WiFi and Bluetooth or whatever the wireless standards du jour become)… as will all mobiles.

February 27, 2005

Bluetooth Is like Bacon

06:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1) ~ Biz - Mobile

Andy Ihnatko, The Chicago Sun-Times’ technology columnist, talks about how Bluetooth is like bacon. His full — and hilarious — talk can be found here. It’s part of ITConversations’ full series of talks from the recent Mac OS X Conference.

Ok, to be a little more pragmatic, here’s a link to a Microsoft’s Channel 9 video demonstrating a trick little Bluetooth application (Anil Dhawan of Microsoft uses his Bluetooth-enabled phone to control a PowerPoint presentation on his PC).

February 18, 2005

More on the New Smaller PocketPC Phone

08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) ~ Biz - Mobile

I wrote about a new, smaller PocketPC phone a couple of days ago here. Since then, I have found another in-depth review on it and a place where you can actually buy one now for about $600.

It’s just a matter of time before they build-in WiFi and add a keyboard (a front-facing one like this or, better yet, a slide-out keyboard like LG’s F1900). With native WiFi support you could use Skype’s PocketPC client, while a keyboard would make messaging, web surfing and email much easier. As soon as a small PocketPC product comes out with these features, I’m on it.

Regarding carriers’ data packages, T-Mobile is pretty much your only choice for a reasonable data package, since they offer an unlimited GPRS-based Internet package for about $30/month. Cingular is NOT an option. Their data service plans are a joke… like $30 a month for 10 Mbs of download. Forgetaboutit. I’m not even going to link to Verizon since their phones suck and all have external antennas, and, of course, their data rates are too high (I think it’s about $80/month for unlimited access). Surprisingly, Sprint’s data plans are expensive too.

Some carriers need a reality check… if you build it and charge too much, they won’t come.

February 17, 2005

802.11n is Here (sort of)

01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) ~ Biz - Mobile

802.11n is here… well, at least 802.11pre-N is here. 802.11n promises greater throughput (a minimum of 100 Mbit/s) and — probably more important — greater range than 802.11a/b/g devices.

CNet has a review of Belkin’s wireless pre-N router which they give pretty high marks. Of course, as with most pre-specification-finalization devices, you have to use Belkin’s Pre-N adapter in combination with the router to enjoy 802.11pre-N benefits. That said, the Belkin router is backwards compatible with 802.11b/g gear.

The 802.11n specification is due to be finalized by the end of 2005. EETimes has a pretty good article on this process.

Interesting Wireless Infrastructure Articles and Audio

12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) ~ Biz - Mobile

Recently, I’ve been reading about and listening to (i.e., podcasts) a lot of conversations on wireless infrastructure. The topics discussed have been more ‘WiFi-ish’ (i.e., WiFi, WiMax, et al.) than ‘cellular’ (e.g., GSM, Edge, 3G, etc.) for lack of better terms.

The Economist had a recent article discussing the closed nature of wireless chipsets. Here’s the quote that counts.

Openness is coming to the wireless world, too. Cheap and powerful devices that use unlicensed and lightly regulated parts of the radio spectrum are proliferating. But there is a problem. Though the spectrum is open, the microprocessor chips that drive the devices which use it are not. The interface information—the technical data needed to write software that would allow those chips to be used in novel ways—is normally kept secret by manufacturers. The result could be a lot less innovation in the open wireless world than in the open wired one.

Dana Blankenhorn at Accelerating Change 2004 talks about this lack of openness or lack of a ‘wireless platform.’ By platform he means something you can write to and change (he says we are currently stuck in a world of point solutions… that is, access points). Of course, I am paraphrasing, so it’s probably best to listen to him directly here.¹

Also on IT Conversations and also from Accelerating Change is Dewayne Hendricks’ talk on the history of wireless, various non-traditional forms of creating wireless infrastructure (e.g., Amateur Packet Radio) and California’s Gigabit or Bust initiative among other topics. Here’s the audio clip of his talk. Information on the full panel discussion can be found here.

And today in the New York Times, there is an article on the City of Philadelphia’s efforts to blanket the city in WiFi. Philadelphia is hoping that ubiquitous WiFi coverage will attract business and enable Internet access for disadvantaged groups. Naysayers — such as the local DSL and cable companies — argue that the City should not be in this (i.e., their) business. Regardless of the arguments for or against this project, I see it as a great, large-scale experiment in pervasive Internet access. Even if it doesn’t work out as the city would like, I am sure that a lot of useful information will come from this.

¹ This link is to a MP3 audio clip of IT Conversations’ recording of Mr. Blankenhorn on the Pervasive Computing Panel at the Accelerating Change held in early November 2004. I used IT Conversations “clipping service”: to excerpt Mr. Blankenhorn’s discussion from the full panel talk. You can make audio clips on IT Conversations by clicking on the Clip link on the detail page that describes the audio. Then simply put in the start time and end time to create a URL of the clip you are interested in. Very cool.

February 15, 2005

Interesting New Microsoft Phone Form Factor

01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) ~ Biz - Mobile

Most PDA/phone combinations (e.g., the Treo 600 or Siemens SX66) tend to be on the large size — large enough not to fit in your pocket very comfortably. Microsoft smartphones like the Audiovox SMT5600 are much smaller and easily fit into your pocket, but run Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Smartphone software instead of Windows Mobile Pocket PC software (nice, confusing naming scheme Microsoft). This means that there currently is a lot less software support for Microsoft Smartphones (since they are relatively new) when compared to Microsoft Pocket PC phones.

However, as reported in The Register, a new much-smaller PDA-based form factor called the Magician has just been released by HTC. The Magician is iPod sized, and is almost as small as the Audiovox smartphones.

Product	Length	Width	Height
Magician	4.25”	2.28”	0.71”
Audiovox SMT5600	4.25”	1.81”	0.63”
Treo*	4.4”	2.3”	0.9”

*Note that the Treo has an external antenna (specifically designed to jab you when in your pocket) not represented in this sizing chart.

Another plus of the Magician is its external SD/MMC slot supporting SDIO (Secure Digital Input/Output), so you could add a Wi-Fi card to the device. The Audiovox only has an internal (you have to remove the battery cover and battery to get at the slot) MiniSD slot… no input/output capability.

Here’s a couple more links on this phone.
MSMobile’s round-up of latest HTC rumors.
Mobile Review’s look at the Magician.

Update: 2005_02_15
Check out this new GPS-enabled, QWERTY-keyboard equipped iPaq Mobile Messenger h6500 at MSMobiles.

January 24, 2005

What My Mobile Is

03:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (4) ~ Biz - Mobile

It's surprising to think back to the early-to-mid '90s when almost no one owned a cell phone. I remember giving a friend of mine a hard time about purchasing one back then. "It's too expensive... it's just a status symbol... you'll never use it... it's just a trend," I told him. Times have changed.

Now I don't even have a landline (I have cable for high-speed access). My cellphone is so valuable to me it goes with me where ever I go. I couldn't live without it because it's my:

• Alarm Clock - Since my clock radio died a few years ago, I've used my cellphone as my alarm clock.
• Flashlight - The backlight makes a great emergency flashlight. Use it all the time.
• Phonelist - I've got most of my important numbers programmed into the address book.
• Reminder - I have reminders sent to me via SMS from Yahoo! Calendar to notify me of upcoming appointments.
• Navigation Device - For example, you don't need detailed directions to get to a friend's house for the first time. Just get close, give them a call and have them talk you in.
• Notepad - I just type in an SMS message, and save it instead of sending it.

I'm sure there's some other stuff I am forgetting, but that's the main list. However, the really surprising thing is that my phone is completely out of date. It's an old AT&T Wireless TDMA Nokia 8260 (or a very similar model). No web access, no fancy QWERTY keyboard, no color screen, no PC synchronization funtionality... pretty much just a straight-up phone. Perhaps mobiles are here to stay?