Category: Wireless
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The next stage of the Wireless War: U.S. Cable companies – with Google – fund launch of WiMax
Continue Reading: The next stage of the Wireless War: U.S. Cable companies – with Google – fund launch of WiMaxOn tomorrow’s Squawk Box podcast, the other topic we’ll cover is the funding of WiMAX venture Clearwire by the major US cable companies – and Google and Intel! Om Malik again kicked off the discussion with “U.S. WiMAX Save by $3.2 Billion Infusion” which lays out the deal in simple terms. Other coverage:- Google provides a statement on its blog: “Investing in the future of the open Internet” (TechCrunch has commentary)
- Wall Street Journal
- AP: “Clearwire, Sprint Nextel to form $14.55B wireless company”
- Brough Turner thinks this is great for competition and US mobile Internet
- Larry Dignan at ZDNet says these folks are determined to make WiMax a reality
- Paul Kapustka lays out who are the winners and losers
- Clint Boulton at Google Watch ponders how this could drive Android along
- The Washington Post wonders about how this impacts net neutrality
- PC Magazine believes this deal hides even more delays for WiMAX
What do you think? Is this the cable companies attempt to get into the wireless world with a competitor to the telcos move toward LTE? Can they do it? What about Google’s role? Will this succeed?
Please join us on tomorrow’s Squawk Box[1] (May…
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Squawk Box: Is the Mobile Web Dead?
Continue Reading: Squawk Box: Is the Mobile Web Dead?Yesterday we had a fascinating conversation on Alec Saunders’ Squawk Box podcast/conf call about “Is the Mobile Web Dead?” This all came about because of Russell Beattie’s piece (and the resulting conversation) about shutting down Mowser and declaring that “the mobile web” is dead in light of new phones like the iPhone that allow users to see the web through a “regular” browser. Mowser was a company that existed to help companies make their websites work better on mobile devices/phones and he ultimately found that the market never really appeared.The discussion was a good one although I think the truth is that we are all violently in agreement that at the end of the day there is just “the Web” these days and there is no need for a separate “mobile” web as the devices we use continue to evolve. We also spent a chunk of time talking about the iPhone SDK, fring and the long-term prospects for apps that use the Jailbreak installer.
All in all I think you’ll find it an enjoyable conversation – give it a listen! And note that you are always welcome to join into the calls that happen most weekday mornings at…
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UK suggests carrying multiple mobile phones may make you a terrorist!
Continue Reading: UK suggests carrying multiple mobile phones may make you a terrorist!
two phone
Originally uploaded by Pat2001 Over the weekend, Pat Phelan posted about a sign in the UK that asks “What if someone with several (mobile phones) seems suspicious?” (Click on the image to the right to see the sign larger.) The paragraph then reads:Terrorists need communication. They often collect and use many anonymous pay-as-you-go phones, as well as swapping SIM cards and handsets. If you’re suspicious of the number of phones someone has, we need to know. Let experienced officers decide what action to take.
On one level, I do understand the point they are trying to make. But on another level, I just think of all the people I know who travel to trade shows and conferences with a whole range of cell phones!
Technorati Tags:
security, mobile phones, terrorism, UK
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Mobile World – Alec Saunders previews the new Nokia handsets
Continue Reading: Mobile World – Alec Saunders previews the new Nokia handsetsOver on his Saunderslog site, Alec Saunders previews the new phones announced by Nokia today over at the Mobile World Congress (formerly “3GSM”) in Barcelona:When you think of companies who really understand mobility and mobility use cases, there’s only one contender, and it’s Nokia. Even Apple’s iPhone, as pretty as it is, is a sophisticated expression of ideas that others pioneered first. If you want to know where mobile is going, the company to watch is Nokia.
So it was with a great deal of anticipation that I accepted the invitation to sit down with a few of Nokia’s product managers to preview their announcements for today – the Nokia 6210 Navigator, 6220 Classic, and the newest members of their multimedia computer line, the N78 and N96. These products are at the confluence of the two major mobile trends today – social networking and multimedia. They represent, in my opinion, both the future of mobility and the next logical expression of many trends that have been emerging for the last several years.
Alec goes on at some length explaining the new features of the various handsets and the new applications that are coming out along with the handsets.
Alec also…
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Wacky Telstra TV commercial about the shutdown of their CDMA network tomorrow…
Continue Reading: Wacky Telstra TV commercial about the shutdown of their CDMA network tomorrow…Courtesy of Pat Phelan, I learned of this TV commercial from Telstra about the shutdown of their CDMA network tomorrow:Obviously the intent is to make sure you have moved over to their NextG network. Being no fan of CDMA (and pretty much stuck with it where I live in Vermont), I just had to laugh. Kudos to Telstra for doing something “funny” in the world of telephony!
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A SIP phone for the iPod Touch! (Just add microphone…
Continue Reading: A SIP phone for the iPod Touch! (Just add microphone…Fascinating development on the Apple frontier… in late December some developers posted information about a SIP phone for the iPod Touch! They included this helpful demonstration video:The team has obviously received a lot of questions and has therefore released a lengthy FAQ list. If you have an iPod Touch, you can download the software. Of course, you really need a microphone to use it… which the Touchmods folks are building.
All in all an interesting development. I look forward to seeing how it moves along!
Technorati Tags: apple, ipod touch, sip
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“Tryphone” lets you try out various new mobile phones online
Continue Reading: “Tryphone” lets you try out various new mobile phones onlineBy way of a ZDNet blog, I learned of “Tryphone” a site that lets you “try out” various new mobile phones online. It currently just has the Apple iPhone, LG Muziq, Blackberry Pearl and Samsung Juke… but of course lets you buy the phone immediately after trying it if you wish. I don’t know that something like this can ever replace the experience of actually holding the phone in your hand, but it’s an interesting idea nonetheless.
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It’s about the platform – Google finally answers the “Gphone” speculation… with an Android!
Continue Reading: It’s about the platform – Google finally answers the “Gphone” speculation… with an Android!“It’s about an open platform, stupid!” While I didn’t include Google when I first wrote my post about how voice is really all about application platforms, I did note in the comments that I had intended to do so… and today’s announcement really shows that they should be in anyone’s list of telephony application platforms. As announced on the Google blog with “Where’s my Gphone?“, Google today announced the Open Handset Alliance and the associated set of forthcoming software called Android. The front page of the Open Handset Alliance provides a rather compelling (to me) statement:
What would it take to build a better mobile phone?
A commitment to openness, a shared vision for the future, and concrete plans to make the vision a reality.
Welcome to the Open Handset Alliance™, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies who have come together to accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience. Together we have developed Android™, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform.
We are committed to commercially deploy handsets and services using the Android Platform in the second half of 2008. An early… -
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Use Skype from anywhere (providing you have GSM coverage) – Skype releases “3Skypephone” and joins the mobile game
Continue Reading: Use Skype from anywhere (providing you have GSM coverage) – Skype releases “3Skypephone” and joins the mobile gameThe big news out today in the world of Skype is that Skype and the mobile carrier called “3” have released the “3 Skypephone” that lets Skype users take Skype truly mobile. Skype-to-Skype calls and IMs are “free” provided that you are on “3”‘s mobile network. I say “free” in quotes because of course you have to have a wireless plan through 3. There are actually two options in the UK, which is the only country in which it will initially be available:
- Monthly – With this plan, the 3 Skypephone hardware itself is free and the rates are 12-17 British pounds per month. Apparently you have unlimited data connectivity with this plan, so you can in fact make unlimited numbers of Skype calls or IMs.
- Pay-As-You-Go – With this plan, you pay 50 pounds for the 3Skypephone phone itself and then keep your account filled with credits. Apparently data usage decrements this account (but it’s not clear by how much), so you have to wonder how often people will need to recharge the account. (UPDATE: Julian Bond, who is in the UK and has a 3 Skypephone to experiment with, informs me that there is apparently…
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RIM *almost* gets it right with its Facebook app for Blackberries… (but it’s missing a good bit)
Continue Reading: RIM *almost* gets it right with its Facebook app for Blackberries… (but it’s missing a good bit)When I first heard from Jim Courtney and then Alec Saunders that RIM had released an official Blackberry application that let you use Facebook, I naturally went to look at the information and then downloaded the app (which you do on the Blackberry itself after you go to m.facebook.com).
I was initially extremely excited… and then almost immediately incredibly disappointed…
First, I have to say that I applaud RIM for putting this application out. I think this can be a great tool for those of us who use Facebook. I realize this is its initial deployment, so hopefully feedback like this can help the folks at RIM improve the app so that it is truly useful to us.
Before I get to the main screen, let me address the major source of my disappointment. After you have installed the app, you start getting notifications such as friend requests. Here’s the problem:
You MUST act on the friend request (Confirm or Ignore) before you can access the rest of the app!
So when I just wanted to zip into the app to change a status message, I was suddenly confronted by the fact that I had to act on a friend…
