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Friday, May 7, 2010

iPad - Part 4: What You Can Not Do

There are many things you can do with the iPad and we are only at the beginning -- but there are some things you can't do. Although I have been accused in jest that my enthusiasm for the iPad makes some wonder if I am on the Apple payroll. I am indeed very bullish about the iPad but this story is to highlight some of the things that -- at this stage -- you can do or not do very well with the iPad. Will the iPad replace the laptop? At some point, yes, but at this point I am writing this post on my ThinkPad (running Ubuntu Linux with the Google Chrome browser and WordPress).

There is a reason why I am unable to write the story on the iPad. Inhiibitor #1 for the iPad is the browser. Steve Jobs has said that Safari is the world's best browser and the iPad was introduced with no other choice. Many people think that Internet Explorer is the #1 browser -- some think it is the only browser. Let's start with some facts. In 2005 IE had 65% market share -- even though many people, myself included, think it is the worst of all browsers. Fast forward to March 2010. IE8 had 15% share, IE7 had 11%, and IE6 was at 9%. The total for IE was 35%. Firefox was 46%. Google Chrome (my primary browser) has gained every month since it was introduced in 2008 and now stands with a 12% share. Apple Safari is at 4% and Opera Software at 2%. I think Safari is a good browser but not a great browser. Perhaps it will become great if Apple continues to invest in it but based on the numbers they have a long way to go. When it comes to the iPhone and iPad the Safari share is 100% since that is all that is offered. One exception is that Opera Mini is now available on the iPhone. If they can get an iPad specific version approved that would be nice. So one thing you can't do with the iPad is surf all the sites you can surf on the desktop. I have found a number of sites that do not work properly with Safari. That is what forced me to be writing this story on the ThinkPad.

Even if Safari worked flawlessly with WordPress and MovableType, writing any significant blog post (or other document) is not as productive as using a PC or laptop with a large flat screen. I typically have a dozen tabs open on my flat panel -- gmail, iGoogle, calendar, a few spreadsheet projects, WordPress, wikiPedia, etc. It is easy to copy paste links and info from other pages into the blog post. You could do it on iPad but it is a lot more tedius.

I also have discovered that a number of iPad apps that have come from the PC or Mac world are not inclusive. For example eBay on the iPad is very nice but there are things like adding a reputation or preparing an invoice for the buyer, etc. that are not there. The Apple calendar, contacts, and mail applications are very nice and freshly updated from the iPhone versions. They are a joy to use but they do not have the full functionality of the PC versions -- can't send to groups in gmail, can't add group designations in contacts, can't add text message reminders in calendar. I use usps.com to do a mailing and stamps.com to mail packages. They both require printing. The iPad can't print. Although it can handle pdf files in emails, it doesn't support creation of pdf's which is what both the mailing apps do. I did find one iPad app called PrintCentral that boasted that it enables the iPad to print without installing any printer software on the iPad. I bought the app ($9.99) and then found out that it does require software to be installed on your PC and then that enables the iPad to print to any printer on your LAN. Not even as easy as it sounds however, and to use it your PC or laptop has to be on and connected to the LAN. Handling of files, generally, is not a strong suit for the iPad. The file system is closed so you have no visible directories, you can not detach attachments and put them somewhere (except for pictures). Everything is handled through iTunes which is clearly not optimized for file sharing. I expect this to get easier as clever app developers find ways to get around the various impediments. GoodReader for example is a great tool for managing PDFs. You can access the GoodReader app from a PC, create folders on the iPad from your PC, and upload PDF files into the folders. This gives you a repository for documents to read offline on the iPad. I use it mostly for board papers and find it extremely valuable. Others at the conference tables are attracted to the idea -- I should get an Apple commission!

Meanwhile I finished reading The Great Bridge by David McCullough using the iPad iBook reader. What a great book. After reading a few books on the iPad I can confidently repeat my enthusiasm for the Kindle. The light weight really makes a difference. It is also superior when reading out in the sunny weather we have been having lately. For now at least the optimum reading for me is to use the Kindle app on the iPad while on the treadmill and x-trainer or at the reading stand in front of my easy chair, to use the Kindle on iPhone while in a supermarket line or killing a few minutes at the train station, and the Kindle while curled up in bed. Once the iPad iBook novelty and fascination of the curling page flips with text on the back of the pages wears off, one thinks about the reason you read books -- the content, not the page flips. the Kindle wins hands down -- for now. On Wings Of Eagles was recently released on Kindle and that has been my read this week. Ken Follett doesn't write much non-fiction and he did a spectacular job of taking a factual story of the EDS rescue in Iran in 1979 sound like a legitimate novel. One can't wonder how the mission would have gone differently if iPhones had existed back then.

Bottom line, the iPad is a great device and I love it. It can't do everything -- no camera, no phone, no usb keys, weak printing and file handling -- but it can do almost everything. And, it is very personal. You show it to friends and family but you don't let it out of your site. You let them play with it, but not much. It contains your personal information of all kinds. It knows where you are. In time, it will be watching you and you will be watching others with it.

iPad stories on patrickWeb

Gadgets, Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone, Personal Computing May 7, 2010 10:26 PM

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Supernova 2009

Ppeople at a conference Commercial Air travel is not a barrel of fun these days but leaving home at 4:30 in the morning enabled me to get an early flight and a smooth trip to San Francisco. The return trip two days later was a different story. Airlines can't control the weather and occasional maintenance issues are to be expected, but the frustrating part is the lack of good communications on the ground at the airports and the lack of integrated systems resulting in getting different information -- kiosk, overhead displays, ticket counter, at the gate, airline lounges -- for the same flight. The maintenance issue was fixed quickly but the "paperwork" to get approval for takeoff required a couple of hours. Most of us have similar stories -- there are a number of my airline stories here in the blog.

This was the eighth year for the Supernova conference -- run by Kevin Werbach who is a leading expert on the business, policy, and social implications of emerging Internet and communications technologies. Kevin has a good track record of anticipating key trends along the path to the Network Age. Supernova attracts CEOs, bloggers, entrepreneurs, academics, practitioners, visionaries, policy experts and industry thought leaders. Like all conferences, the best part is catching up with friends and colleagues and comparing points of view.

There are a couple of unique things about Supernova. It is the only conference that connects with one of the world's foremost business schools -- the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The other unique feature is how "connected" the attendees can become with the speakers and each other. Supernova offers a live video stream, a twitter feed, and live blogging to enable attendees and remote participants from all over the world -- there were 200+ people from numerous countries in San Francisco this year -- to all jump into the conversation.

It is very difficult to summarize what I learned at Supernova. Every year it is mind expanding. I feel fortunate to be there and participate in the dialogue and stay somewhat on the edge of what is evolving. The mobile Internet continues to gain momentum -- seemed that everyone there had an iPhone. Last year I reported that social computing was mushrooming. Not sure what word describes the current status -- maybe all-consuming. There are serious discussions going on in the development community about how (not whether) to standardize identity, authorization, and applications across the various social networks in some sensible way. Privacy has always been an issue but as storage cost approaches zero, everything we say or do will be saved. Twitter is the tip of the iceberg. The telecommunications operators continue to consolidate and continue to offer poor customer service and a lack of choice.

Kevin kicked things off at the Mission Bay Conference Center (UCSF Campus) with his view of the "changing world". The afternoon panels focused on how pervasive connectivity is altering everything from our social interactions to our cities and how the infrastructure of the Internet is quietly being transformed. The rise of cloud computing and broadband applications are shifting the landscape for both network operators and service providers. Anil Dash talked about how networking is beginning to make government more efficient and collaborative. Peter Gruber talked about the turmoil in the motion picture industry where it is becoming harder to predict what consumers will want. Avatar -- to be released in a couple of weeks -- cost $350 million to produce while Paranormal Activity is said to have cost $11,000. Which one will make more money? Chris Anderson, of Wired, talked about how a clever designer can use three-D software at home to design a physical object and then "manufacture" it on a $750 three-D printer in the basement.

Day two was at the Wharton San Francisco Campus. During the Opening Plenary Session, JP Rangaswami, John Hagel, Umair Haque, and Ellen Levy talked about the financial crisis and whether it is a permanent discontinuity in market economics or just a temporary bump in the road? The consensus was that the current recovery is temporary and there are big problems ahead. John Hagel cited that big business has had a steady decline in return on assets for decades and there is no sign that it will reverse. Not a pretty picture. I am more optimistic than any of the panelists.

Another interesting panel was about whether "There is a Media Business?". Their consensus was that the world doesn't need newspapers, record labels, and TV broadcasters as we know them but it does need journalism and distribution mechanisms for quality entertainment and information. The focus of the discussion was whether innovative new forms of online media will replace what is lost as traditional industries collapse? Most of us would say yes.

My friend and moderator Tim O'Reilly moderated a discussion about "Going with the Flow". We are moving from a world of web pages to a rich and continuous stream of information. Emails replaced by tweets. A web page about train schedules replaced by real-time data on where the trains are at the moment. Reading a review of something replaced by tweets of where someone is having a meal and what music they are listening too. For some, all of this is too much, even for some techies. One thing I can say for sure. The trend to more and more information about everything and everybody is not going to reverse any time soon. Hopefully kids will learn that posting things about their social activities today may prevent them getting a job or getting elected in the future. There is a lot of room for some common sense.

The panel about telecommunications was really good. Paul DeSa from the FCC gave a glimmer of hope. The FCC really wants to maintain an open Internet, deploy broadband throughout the country, and keep competition going to increase innovation. As I have written here many times, I am convinced that Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T do not share any vision that might reduce their monopoly power and profitability. I am all for profitability but only in a competitive marketplace. The lack of adequate competition is why prices are high, contracts lock us in, Internet speeds are exaggerated, and customer service is poor. I am not in favor of expanded government but in the area of telecommunications the government is our only hope in the short run. Looking forward to Supernova in 2010.

Other conference related patrickWeb stories

Conferences, Internet Technology, Media, Mobile, Public Policy, iPhone December 6, 2009 01:30 PM

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Google Voice (or is it Google Data?)

Telephone Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a general term for a family of technologies that enable voice communications over the Internet (and corporate intranets). Strong double-digit growth has placed VoIP into everyday life for many millions of people. In the early days I used Packet8. Then a VoIP system was created by entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, and a group of software engineers based in Tallinn, Estonia. I happened to be in Tallinn as part of a Baltic cruise a couple of years ago and wondered why the cobbled streets of a nearly thousand-year old small town on the Baltic Sea was lined with brand new high-end sedans. Later I realized that Tallinn was a mini Silicon Valley and home to the development of Skype. Skype became my "phone" for SMS messaging but especially for calling home from abroad for free. Skype was a game changer. A potentially even bigger game changer is Google Voice.

I have used a number of the VoIP services over the years but an impediment has always been that there was no way to use an existing contact list. With Google Voice you get instant synchronization with your Gmail contact list. When you start out you get a phone number -- you can pick most any area code you want. The new number then becomes your "universal" number. When someone calls it your cell phone, your office phone, you home phone, and vacation home phone all ring. You answer and hear who is calling and press 1 to accept the call. Or for some people that you designate, the call goes straight to voicemail. For others only your cell phone rings. You can add your contacts to different groups and have each group be treated differently. You can "ListenIn" on voicemails as they are being recorded and then decide to enter a conversation. When you receive a voicemail you get an email containing a machine transcription of the message. It is not perfect but good enough that you can tell who it is and what the call is about. You can block callers, record conversations, or add them into an ongoing conference call -- up to four callers can be added to the free conference call. The history tab in Google Voice shows all of your inbound and outbound calls. Needless to say you can search through the history of all your calls to refresh your memory about a conversation you had a year ago. SMS messages and all of your calls have shared inboxes, trash, history, and spam folders just like gmail.

The feature I like the most is that you can install X-Lite -- a free VoIP program that runs on your PC -- and add the associated SIP number as one of your Google Voice phone numbers. When a call comes in while you are at your PC, a dialogue box pops up on your display. You click "answer" and then the call can be handled with a headset (I use a Plantronics noise-canceling model) which provides hands-free high quality audio for me and the caller. Another nice feature is that you can make a Google Voice call from your iPhone (or any mobile phone). All U.S. calls are free. A call to Norway is two cents per minute. With free conference calls and a boatload of other free features, Google Voice is going to put the heat on the telephony monopolists. It will also put pressure on eBay's $2.5 billion acquisition of Skype for which they later took a $1.4 billion write-down.

Speaking of the telephony monopolists, there have been rumors -- denied by AT&T -- that the giant phone company told Apple not to approve Google mobile for the iPhone. Apple says it is looking into it. Apple's concern is that Google mobile is so tightly integrated and user-friendly that it takes away from the iPhone's branded look and feel as a phone. This is just the beginning of a clash between Apple and Google. As for AT&T, they like innovation as long as it is not at their expense. Google mobile would let people call Europe for free or close to free while AT&T charges $1.49 per minute unless you sign up for a monthly plan. Google Voice, Google mobile, Skype, and the many other innovative VoIP providers see a phone call as just another form of data and moving data around the Internet is very cost effective. AT&T sees a phone call as a voice service and they are trying desperately to protect their revenue by stifling progress.

The Wall Street Journal just published an excellent editorial on this subject called Why AT&T Killed Google Voice. The sub-title to the story is "Telecom operators are yesterday's business. It's time for a national data policy that encourages innovation". Author of the story Andy Kessler says the Federal Communications Commission is investigating wireless open access and handset exclusivity and that the result " may finally end the 135-year-old Alexander Graham Bell era. It's about time.".

Kessler says "AT&T is dying" and that they are "dragging down the rest of us by overcharging us for voice calls and stifling innovation in a mobile data market critical to the U.S. economy". The problem is a lack of competition. Unlike all other Internet and data-related companies where there are thousands of competitors, when it comes to ownership of the spectrum -- the wireless pipe to customers -- that is hardly the case. Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile joined AT&T in bidding some $70+ billion since the mid-1990s for spectrum. The cost gets passed on to us in the form of higher fees. They have not had to compete on price. Google Voice is the new competition offering voice service for free by leveraging their huge data handling systems resources and advertising revenue.

Kessler says we can live with overpaying for mobile but "it's inexcusable that new, feature-rich and productive applications like Google Voice are being held back, just to prop up AT&T while we wait for it to transition away from its legacy of voice communications". Now the FCC and its new Chairman Julius Genachowski are getting involved. Hopefully the outcome will be deregulation not regulation. Many will call for a new national communications policy. But even that's obsolete and Kessler comes at it differently. "There is no such thing as voice or text or music or TV shows or video. They are all just data. We need a national data policy". There are four parts to Kessler's idea.

End phone exclusivity. Any device should work on any network -- yes, including the iPhone. Data should flow freely.
Transition away from giant companies owning airwaves and move to a standards based unregulated model like WiFi.
End municipal exclusivity deals for cable companies -- yes, including Comcast. Recognize that "TV channels" are a thing of the past. Enable people to pay for what they want to watch and not have to pay for dozens of "channels" they don't watch.
Encourage much faster data connections to our homes and phones. Kessler says it should more than double every two years. To homes, five megabits today should be 10 megabits in 2011, 25 megabits in 2013 and 100 megabits in 2017. These data connection speeds are technically doable today but are being held back by obsolete voice and video policies made to satisfy the telecom giants and their legions of lobbyists.

I agree with Andy Kessler that technology doesn't wait around -- "so it's all going to happen anyway" -- but it will take years too long given the current course and speed. The best thing the new FCC could do would be to adopt the four pints above and then put itself out of business. New services like Twitter don't need to file with the FCC. Neither should new "voice" services. Voice is just another kind of data. Let's treat it that way.

Why AT&T Killed Google Voice

Internet Technology, Mobile, Public Policy, WiFi, iPhone August 22, 2009 06:46 PM

Sunday, June 21, 2009

iPhone - Update No. 17

Mobile phone I am sticking to my story -- the iPhone is fantastic. There are issues but Apple seems to be addressing them and has transformed the iPhone from a cool device to a major platform is just two years. The primary change in their strategy is that Apple came to realize that the iPhone is much more than a "cell phone" -- it is a developer platform where thousands of applications can be created that are fun to use and that drive demand for the iPhone. The six basic elements of the platform are the iPhone itself, the network (AT&T in the United States), iTunes, the "App Store", MobileMe and, most importantly, the applications.

With the announcement of more than 1,000 API's (application programming interfaces -- these are commands that programmers can use to cause the iPhone to do something; sense a GPS location, sense that the iPhone was shaken, etc., it is a certainty that there will be many thousands more applications for the iPhone. To get an app you go to the app store. To get the app on your iPhone you have to have iTunes. You are tied to Apple. It is what the industry calls a "lock in". It used to be that when you needed a new cell phone you would go to the store of one of the operators and pick from a multitude of brands and phones. Now that you are hooked on various applications and the data in them you need to have a phone that can work with iTunes which is where your apps and your data are stored. Guess how many brands work with iTunes? Just one.

Apple's new OS 3.0 offers 100 new features including a search capability across the entire phone contents, cut-copy-paste, multimedia email, and landscape mode for all the apps. The most stunning and useful for me is the ability to do gmail in a landscape view. The difference in productivity is huge. There will be a lot of smartphone competition from Palm, HTC, Dell, Nokia, Acer, and many others. The phones will all have great hardware features but it is the app store that ties things together. The other guys are building their own app stores but chances are that they won't do it as well as Apple. Apple knows how to make things easy and people seem willing to pay a premium for the ease of use and they don't seem to mind being locked in.

Crowds waited in line to get one of the new iPhones this week but I practiced what I preach and ordered mine online. I was on the road quite a bit as previously reported but when I got home on Friday afternoon, the little brown box from UPS with an iPhone 3GS in it was waiting for me. Every aspect of the iPhone is quite impressive. The packaging is discreet. No indication that it is a high value item from Apple. After opening the box and turning it on the iPhone showed an animated diagram that made it clear that the next thing to do was to plug the iPhone into a computer that was running iTunes. After doing that a dialogue appeared showing my mobile phone number and asking me for my zip code and last four of the social security number. After entering that information the dialogue said that it was contacting AT&T for activation. Then it said that contact had been made and that activation was underway. I looked over at the iPhone and it said it was activating. After a few seconds it said that activation was complete. I took the iPhone out of the cradle and called my home phone. It rang. I then put the phone back in the cradle and iTunes asked if I wanted to sync my data -- photos, music, email settings, home screen photo, dozens of applications, etc. It took an hour or so to restore all of these things from the latest backup of the iPhone 3G that was being replaced. After it completed, everything worked just fine including all the new goodies that come with the iPhone 3GS and OS 3.0. like voice dialing and platform wide search. It was a totally seamless experience. No technical expertise required. No dumb messages like we have been getting for years from Windoze. No phone calls to wait in a queue.

One of the few negative aspects of the new iPhone 3GS is the pricing. If you are a new customer you can get the 32 GB iPhone 3GS for $299 plus the normal (onerous) AT&T fees. If you are a long term loyal iPhone-AT&T customer (as I have been since the first iPhone two years ago) then you have to pay $499 instead of $299. How can this be? It is irritating millions of customers -- including me. The price gouging of more than 100% is being questioned as to whether it is ethical, sensible, reasonable or even legal. The FCC may be launching an inquiry as to the fairness of the "lock in".

The logic for the premium is that the iPhone 3G S does not really cost $200. The $200 is just a down payment and you pay the rest through the remaining months of your contract with AT&T. I have had an iPhone since day one and have paid the price of being an early adopter. But the arrangement between Apple and AT&T requires that i pay even more. If you haven't paid for enough months then you have to pay a premium to get the newest iPhone early. Most iPhone fans (including me) consider it gouging.

The next step was to sell the iPhone 3G on eBay. What to ask for it? A logical view would be to ask roughly $100 for it but looking at eBay listings it seemed people were asking and getting more. I looked at it from the perspective of a rational buyer and concluded that $169 was the ceiling. For $199 you could get a new 32 GB iPhone 3GS so I started the auction on my 16 GB iPhone 3G at $10 and set a "Buy Now" price of $169. Within less than 10 minutes my phone was sold. All things considered I am very happy with how things came out and now I have the latest and greatest features of the iPhone 3GS. I hope the lady in Minnesota who bought my iPhone 3G enjoys it as much as I have.

At some point Apple will be considered the "evil empire" -- they already are by some people. It goes in cycles. In the late seventies many thought IBM was taking over the world. Then in the eighties it was Microsoft. Then Google. Apple may be next and then probably someone we are not thinking about yet. For right now, Apple is on a major roll with a market capitalization of around $125 billion, just a tad less than GE. For me personally I have greatly enjoyed the many smart phones I have had over the years but at this point I can not imagine giving up my iPhone.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Gadgets, Mobile, iPhone June 21, 2009 08:54 AM

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

iPhone - Update No. 16

Mobile phone For quite a few years the Palm Pilot or Palm Treo were my productivity tool of choice. What I liked most was the availability of third party applications. After all these years, Apple has come from nowhere in the smartphone business to showing Palm how they should have done it -- the "app store". As written here quite a few times, the availability of third party applications is the key strength of the iPhone. With 25,000 applications and nearly one billion downloads, Apple is hitting their stride. Palm is positioning their new "Pre" smartphone as the "iPhone killer" but I have my doubts. I am betting on Apple. The market capitalization -- the value the stock market places on the company -- of Palm as of the market close yesterday was $900 million. Motorola's was $9 billion, Nokia's was $45 billion, and Apple's was $90 billion. The market is not always right but it usually is.

So I am sticking to my story -- the iPhone 3G is fantastic. There are some issues but Apple seems to be solving them. The primary change in their strategy is that Apple came to realize that the iPhone is much more than a "cell phone" -- it is a platform. The six basic elements of the platform are the iPhone itself, the network (AT&T in the United States), iTunes, the "App Store", MobileMe and, most importantly, the applications. With yesterday's announcement of more than 1,000 API's (application programming interfaces -- these are commands that programmers can use to cause the iPhone to do something; sense a GPS location, sense that the iPhone was shaken, etc., it is a certainty that there will be many thousands more applications for the iPhone. To get an app you go to the app store. To get the app on your iPhone you have to have iTunes. You are tied to Apple. It is what the industry calls a "lock in". It used to be that when you needed a new cell phone you would go to the store of one of the operators and pick from a multitude of brands and phones. Now that you are hooked on various applications and the data in them you need to have a phone that can work with iTunes which is where your apps and your data are stored. Guess how many brands work with iTunes? Just one.

Apple's new OS 3.0 coming in June will offer 100 new features including a search capability across the entire phone contents, cut-copy-paste, multimedia email, and landscape mode for all the apps. There will be a lot of smartphone competition from Palm, HTC, Dell, Nokia, Acer, and many others. The phones will all have great hardware features but it is the app store that ties things together. The other guys will be building their own app stores but chances are that they won't do it as well as Apple. Apple knows how to make things easy and people seem willing to pay a premium for the ease of use and they don't seem to mind being locked in. I will certainly take a hard look at the new Pre when it arrives but I doubt if I would give up my iPhone.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Mobile, iPhone March 18, 2009 12:21 PM

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The Universal Cell Phone Charger

Cell phone with charger How many cell phone chargers have you thrown away in the last ten years? Not sure myself but a French study says that 2-3 million cell phone chargers become obsolete every month. The GSM Association says discarded chargers currently generate more than 51,000 tons of waste per year. Closets and drawers are strewn with old chargers and worse yet some of us have chargers plugged in that don't need to be because the phone is already fully charged. Chargers, chargers everywhere, but relief may be on the way.

The mobile phone industry group has announced that 17 wireless operators and handset makers have agreed to standardize chargers by 2012 for most of the cell phones they sell. The chargers would be interchangeable, evenutally making it possible to charge any phone that you own and new phones that you buy with the same charger. Imagine one small efficient charger in the kitchen that all family members could use as needed.

The initial group of companies that have joined the initiative include 3 Group, AT&T Inc., KTF, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp., Orange, Qualcomm Inc., Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefonica SA, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone PLC. The new standardized chargers would use the micro USB interface -- which is smaller than the more commonly used mini USB connector but has already been adopted in a few handsets, including the BlackBerry Storm. The new chargers will also meet higher energy efficiency targets -- with up to 50% energy savings achieved by cutting back power use when on standby. That is the good news. The bad news is that the GSM Association -- which has limited authority over the vendors -- has set the goal to have "the majority of all new mobile phone models" supporting the new chargers by January 1, 2012. That would be triple or more of the product design cycle for introducing new phones. The other bad news is that although an impressive list of companies has commited to the new standard, some key players are noticeable by their absence -- namely Apple, which is clinging to the legacy iPod connector, RIM and Palm.

Why isn't the goal 100% and why can't we get there sooner than 2012? European countries would prefer to use regulation to get the job done and there is certainly an argument for it. It was that line of thinking that created GSM phones that now work in most countries of the world. Standards definitely work -- that is why the Internet is the great resource that it is. It has been the U.S. that has been behind thanks to lack of competition, far too many lobbyists, and an FCC which is a politicial entity. Nevertheless, when it comes to power chargers I prefer a market based approach to a government mandated approach. Some will argue -- probably Apple -- that being forced to have the same power connector as everyone else will eliminate innovation. Maybe they will find a way that by just placing your iPhone near your Mac that electrons will jump through the air and charge the iPhone -- no charger, no connector. Maybe someone will invent a picture that hangs on the wall that emits electrical energy and can charge any device in the room -- no chargers, no connectors. MIT has successfully moved energy wirelessly -- albeit not very much and not very far. In the meantime I think the market will work. Let's say Palm heldout and was the only mobile phone producer that did not use the standard connector and required a unique charger. I would think their market share would decline. I predict Apple will be the only holdout.

Other patrickWeb stories about mobile

Gadgets, Mobile, iPhone February 25, 2009 06:27 PM

Sunday, December 28, 2008

In The Clouds -- Part 3

Cloud One might properly conclude from prior stories that I have become a real believer in Cloud Computing. From a personal perspective, the vision is simple. All of my documents, contacts, calendar entries, photos, music, patrickWeb content, and backup files safely and securely kept in various clouds. All contacts, calendar entries, and selected songs and pictures, and email synchronized and accessible on the iPhone. Everything else accessible via the iPhone browser or any browser or any computer, anywhere, anytime. It is that simple. Oh, how I wish. The vision is attainable and I am confident that it will happen in 2009 -- but, there is a way to go.

Let's start with the easy parts. Effective and simple backup has been elusive for me for decades and much has been written here about the subject. Finally, a solution is in place that I am comfortable with. It has two parts to it. First is idrive.com. The service is free for up to 2 GB. You simply identify which files and folders are critical and it keeps them backed up in the idrive cloud. Very simple interface and you can't beat the price. I have been using the service on two Windows ThinkPads in the house and have been extremely pleased with how it works..

The other half of the solution is the Iomega one terabyte StorCenter. The six-pound marvel plugs right into the home LAN in the basement. Very inexpensive and easy to setup. I use it to back up really big files and Linux ThinkPads. It is set up as an I: drive and is accessible just like the C: drive. It is connected via gigabit ethernet so copying files to and from the box is lightning fast. Like the predecessor I had been using for years, it is RAID storage, so there are always redundant copies of everything. The box is smaller than half a shoe box and it uses roughly $3 per month in electricity. The predecessor used $30 per month, so the justification to spend $250 on the StorCenter was very simple.

There are two applications on my desktop that keep me chained to Windows and which I backup every time I use them. First is Quicken, which I I have been using since Release 1.0 back in the early 1980's. As I wrote in Net Attitude seven years ago, the web version is not a viable alternative. Unfortunately, that is still true today. In theory a web-based application like Mint.com and others could replace Quicken but they just are not up to it quite yet. The other workhorse for me is Dreamweaver, which I use to manage patrickWeb. In theory there are many web based alternatives but I have yet to find one that is as powerful and easy to use. Eventually, I expect both of these to be "in the clouds" but not quite yet.

Now, on to the more interesting things. Photos are all in the Picasa cloud and music is in iTunes. No particular issues with either of them. Next is email. I started using email in the early 1980's with a system at IBM called PROFS. In 1994 the company email system became Lotus Notes. I was an early adopter and in the beginning there was nobody to send email to! When I e-tired in 2001 I switched to Microsoft Outlook so I could be like everybody else that I attended tech conferences with. As with many people I know, it developed into a love-hate relationship. The Lotus and Microsoft mail solutions are great in many respects but in a way you are chained to someone's central infrastructure with them. I was looking for freedom. Along came gmail and, bingo, I was liberated. Or so I thought. The mail part of it was easy. Gmail is lightning fast and although it is a "cloud" application with all the user functionality appearing in the browser, it acts like a desktop application and I can use it on the Ubuntu Linux ThinkPad in the kitchen, a Windows PC in the workshop, or any computer anywhere. And freedom from Outlook -- almost, expect for contacts and calendar entries, my lifeblood.

Contacts and calendar entries were still in Outlook but they synchronized with MobileMe which in turn synchronized with the iPhone. Seems a bit convoluted but it worked. Some occasional glitches but it was acceptable. How to add a new contact or modify a calendar entry? Could do it with Outlook but that would defeat the purpose behind my strategy. MobileMe might actually be the perfect cloud application. It was awkward at first and Apple definitely had some problems as chronicled here before, but I began to get used to it. Apple appeared to have fixed the most serious bugs, and I actually began to like it. However, as I got to be really dependent on MobileMe I found a lot of shortcomings. Calendar invitations did not work. Contacts would at times "go missing". The MobileMe page would hang up in certain browsers under certain conditions. Bottom line -- MobileMe proved to be extremely slow and unreliable. It had to go. It became clear that the solution was Google contacts and Google calendar. I was getting sucked in -- just as Google no doubt hopes we all will. Quickly getting over the issue of having all my eggs in Google's basket, the bigger issue became how to get there from here.

MobileMe not only has huge performance problems it is also a closed proprietary system, just like iTunes and most everything Apple does. Some people fear Google but what gives me comfort is that they use Internet standards and they provide both import and export from any of their applications. Their only lock on you is that their stuff works really well and you get addicted. MobileMe is a one way system -- easy to import things to it but you can not export. Maybe you can if you have a Mac but not with the hodgepodge of Windows and Linux systems on my home LAN. No problem. I synched back to Outlook, exported from Outlook, and then imported to Google. Good riddance to MobileMe. Now everything is in Google. Calendar invitations work. Contacts are nicely integrated with the calendar and with email and with maps and documents that I choose to share. Microsoft has good reason to fear Google. Their cloud approach is far superior to the heavy-weight desktop approach of Outlook and Office. Google is not without faults, however. There are issues when importing and at one point I lost all the contacts and calendar entries and had to stitch everything back together from various snippets and backups. It was worth the pain.

Google Docs is still a work in progress but highly worth using. You can email documents to Google docs but not pdf files. You can upload pdfs but only one at a time. There are issues with printing certain things and various other shortcomings, but having documents in the cloud assures they are continuously backed up. You can share them with others and work on them anytime from anywhere.

The biggest gap with the Google cloud is that it doesn't synchronize contacts and calendar entries with the iPhone. Ooops. I am sure they want to offer synch and that it is not a technical issue. It is an Apple issue for sure. I found two third-party applications in the app store that not only work with Google but also provide extra functionality on the iPhone than the basic calendar and contact manager that comes with it. I can recommend them both -- SaiSuke calendar and Sync in a Blink for contacts. I am sure Google will soon offer their own iPhone synchronization soon.

If this all sounds complicated -- it is. I have spent many hours getting to this point but I am a happy camper. More importantly, I am confident it will get better and better and I am almost no longer chained to my PC. Almost everything is in the clouds!

Internet Technology, Mobile, Personal Computing, iPhone December 28, 2008 10:55 AM

Saturday, December 13, 2008

IBM Happenings: November 2008

The month of November was a busy month, as usual for IBM, filled with a slew of announcements in hardware, software, services, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. The list of announcements made during the month is here. Included was the third annual "IBM Next Five in Five" -- a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The Next Five in Five is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as innovations IBM is projecting will come from it’s research laboratories around the world.

These are some highlights of the five areas in which IBM sees our lives being impacted by technology innovations. For more, visit ibm.com.

Energy saving solar technology will be built into asphalt, paint and windows. There could be huge savings by having solar heat embedded in our sidewalks, driveways, siding, paint, rooftops, and windows. The cost of solar is going to drop with the creation of “thin-film” solar cells that can be 100 times thinner than today's materials. The new material can be “printed” and arranged on a flexible backing, suitable for not only the tops but also the sides of buildings.

What if you could foresee your health destiny and use that knowledge to modify your lifestyle? Our doctors will be able to provide a genetic map that tells you what health risks you are likely to face in your lifetime and the specific things you can do to prevent them, based on your specific DNA. Pharmaceutical companies will also be able to engineer new, more effective medications that are targeted for each of us as individual patients.

You will talk to the Web -- and the Web will talk back. You will be able to surf the web hands-free. Already, in parts of the world where the spoken word is more prominent than the written word in education, government and culture, “talking” to the Web is leapfrogging the PC because of the ubiquity of the mobile phone. We take voice for granted but soon we will just as easily use our voice to post to our blogs, scan and respond to e-mails and instant messages, and sort through the Web verbally to find what we are looking for and have the information read – as if you are having a conversation with the Web.

In the next five years, shoppers will increasingly rely on themselves - and the opinions of each other - in combination with technology "assistants" to make purchasing decisions rather than wait for help from in-store sales associates. Fitting rooms will be outfitted with digital shopping assistants - touch screen and voice activated kiosks that will allow you to choose clothing items and accessories to complement what you already selected. Once you make your selections, a sales associate is notified and will gather the items and bring them directly to you. You will also be able to snap photos of yourself and email or SMS them to your friends and family for the thumbs up -- or thumbs down. Shoppers can access product ratings and reviews from fellow consumers and will even be able to download money-saving coupons and instantly apply them to their purchases.

Forgetting will become a distant memory even as Information overload keeps you up at night. In the next five years, it will become much easier to remember what to buy at the grocery store, which errands need to be run, who you spoke with at a conference, where and when you agreed to meet a friend, or what product you saw advertised at the airport. Such details of everyday life will be recorded, stored, analyzed, and provided at the appropriate time and place by microphones and video cameras. Our mobile phones with GPS will remind us to pick up groceries or prescriptions if we are in the vicinity of the appropriate store. Strong privacy protection will have to be a key feature of these new technologies.

Complete index of IBM Happenings

Energy, Gadgets, IBM, Mobile December 13, 2008 05:03 PM

Monday, September 15, 2008

DEMOfall 2008 in San Diego

Gadget DEMO continues to be my favorite conference -- the semi-annual event took place this past week in San Diego, California. It was an uneventful trip from Palo Alto, where I had visited Mediazone, and on to San Francisco for a flight with Southwest (possibly the best airline in operation in the states) to San Diego to join the DEMO opening reception.

There were some key trends that were reinforced at DEMO again this year. Many companies in some way talked about mobile. Most companies either provide a web service or use web services as their platform. The term "cloud" is seeping into the vocabulary. Most companies were media related in some way or provided or used social networking. None of these things are new, by any means, but DEMO confirmed their strategic importance and demonstrated significant implementations. I don't think any of them have cracked the code so to speak but there were many that had exciting visions and demos. I visited the ones in which I had the most interest. Chris Shipley kicked off the conference with insightful comments about the industry. (See the Demo blog for more on her thoughts). She talked about how the web has evolved from banking and buying things to a social web with a lot of user generated content to a web that will create real market value. Only a small percent of Internet users actually take advantage of the potential of the social web. This next phase will bring down the barriers: syndication, distribution, constant connectivity, on demand and lead to the distributed web. There will be new devices, new protocols beyond the desktop and mobile. Collaboration will become purposeful, not just "social". All this will be accompanied with advances in usability, security, and authentication.

The Demo conference allows entrepreneurs to show off new gadgets, software, hardware and business ideas and enables the press, analysts, investors, and technology enthusiasts to assess what they see. The product introductions that take place reveal key technology trends over the coming 12 to 18 months. This year there were 72 companies showing off -- each getting six minutes on stage to tell their story. Chris screens the companies and introduces them to the audience. After the main tent sessions the attendees get to visit with the companies in the "Demo Hall". There isn't time to visit all of them so I try to be selective -- I visited 25 of the companies this time. Some of the ones I found interesting follow. They are in no particular order.

If you asked me which of the 72 launches I found most interesting I would have to say Telnic, Ltd., the "dot tel" company. Having yourname.tel will allow you to store, update and publish all your contact information and web links directly on the Internet. This is not a web service -- the data is actually stored in the infrastructure of the Internet. The heart of the Internet is the DNS -- the Domain Name System. Among other tasks, the DNS translates humanly-meaningful domain names (like amazon.com) to the numerical address (like 72.21.210.11). The names and numbers are stored in special purpose computers that are scattered around the world. With dot tel, companies or individuals will be able to have their contact information stored there too. It will be the one official place to have directories for people and companies. You will be able to choose how much information you want public (maybe just your name and your web site or blog address) and which data you want to be private.The private information will be encrypted and can be selectively shared with people or organizations that you authorize. People will be able to reach you on their mobile with the touch of a button through the dot tel directory. No web site or hosting is involved. I think this will be a big deal.

Plastic Logic, Ltd. showed an e-book that can display full-sized documents. It is like an 8.5 x 11 Kindle and will replace a briefcase full of documents. It was sort of a computer but not really a computer. I am a bit skeptical on this one.

A number of companies showed how the web is gradually replacing television as we know it. Use your favorite search engine and take a look at Awind Inc., RealNetworks, Inc., beeTV, RemoTV, Inc., Invision TV, LLC, and ffwd.com, Inc. Or just revisit the DEMO Conference Agenda for links to what Chris and team thought about them.

A handful of companies showed products that make creating, sharing, and consuming digital bits more enjoyable. See UGA Digital, Inc., Trinity Convergence, Inc., Blue Lava Technologies, Inc., Kadoo Inc., MixMatchMusic, Ltd., Photrade, LLC, MeDeploy, and
The Echo Nest Corp. Photrade is yet another company in the digital photography space. They will allow you to share and protect photos you take, purchase photos that others have taken, and make money from your photos. With the plummeting of high quality digital cameras and the availability of software that can make an amateur photo look professional there is a growing market here.

Mobile will become a bigger and bigger part of our lives. Maverick Mobile Solutions, Pvt. Ltd. has a solution that protects your phone in case you lose it. It sets off various bells and whistles. Not a bad idea as we put more and more personal data on our phones. G.ho.st lets you put your PC on your mobile phone. You have to see it to believe it. WebDiet claims to make losing weight and getting healthy easy by using your mobile phone to enter everything you eat and get an analysis that optimizes your diet. If you want to chat and share more with your friends take a look at Xumii.

There were more than a half-dozen companies showing off new ideas for protecting and managing digital assets. As we move more and more of our pictures, conversations, movies, notes, documents, etc. to the digital world, the security of them becomes more and more important. One of the companies I found quite interesting in this area is Usable Security Systems, Inc. UsableLogin is their product and what they are trying to do is make passwords as we know them obsolete and give us secure access to any web site. All you have to do is recognize a picture you have chosen and remember one simple codeword to log in securely. Some of us have more than 100 login/password pairs. I think Usable may have a problem getting some banking sites to cooperate but even if just 80% of the sites you visit could be handled with a single password that would be a very good thing. The Founder & CEO, Rachna Dhamija, did her PhD in security at Berkely and she gave a very good demo. See it here.

As a security aside, if you use Gmail, I highly recommend selecting the https option in the settings. This doesn't guarantee security but it does insure that the data going back and forth between your computer and Google is encrypted.

There were many more great demos. Browse your way through the DEMO Conference Agenda and see what catches your eye.

The flight back to New York on American Airlines offered an unexpected surprise. GoGoInflight offered broadband Internet service. The price was $12.95 and the performance was excellent. I ran a speedtest and found the results to be better than what I get from Comcast Cable at home. The WiFi connection works with both laptops and any mobile phone that has WiFi (like the iPhone).

Other patrickWeb stories about conferences

Conferences, Internet Technology, Mobile, Travels, WiFi, iPhone September 15, 2008 06:20 PM

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Greenland - Part 3 (The conference)

Fiber Optic Cable The Konference Sarfarissoq took place in Nuuk -- the capital of Greenland -- at the Katuaq cultural center. The conference began with a Greenlandic dinner at the Hotel Hans Egede (the only hotel in Nuuk) and included an A cappella singing performance by a group of natively dressed Inuit men and women. It was quite a treat. The food included Musk Ox, reindeer, shrimp, haddock and many other delicious foods. It was a very nice opportunity to get acquainted with Brian Pedersen, the conference host and CEO of Tele-Post Greenland, and the other speakers and spouses, and of course Anders Laesoe, Santa Claus’s chief helper..

Brian Pedersen kicked off the conference by describing how the Tele-Post vision of a "Global Greenland" continues but the mission is changing from “communication without borders” to "a global Greenland - in the middle of the world". He said the submarine cable would put Greenland on the net in a way that creates Safarissoq -- the name for the part of a stream where the speed accelerates. The result he said will be to strengthen the economy of the country and create new jobs.

Flemming Jensen then took the stage in his tuxedo and began an eloquent speech. It was in Danish and I did not understand a word of it but people began to laugh. At first I thought he was just a good speaker with some added humor but by the time the audience was nearly rolling on the floor in laughter I realized he was something much more. I later found out he is an actor, director, and comedian from Copenhagen. His multiple appearances on stage added a great deal to the conference.

Jesper Refiner had the toughest job at the conference. He was responsible for the overall program including the roles, rules, logistics, flow, support and administration. He did not a marvelous job of coordination and only one person let him down. A translator had been hired to enable non-Danish speaking attendees (like me) to listen through headsets. The headsets were available but due to ideal hunting conditions in the North and labor rules to the left, the translator called in "sick". I believe my wife and I were the only ones of 250 attendees that only understand one language, so although we enjoyed meeting many new friends and speaking with them in English, the conference was 99% in Danish.

Preben Mejer, a founder and distinguished technologist of innovationlab, set the technical stage with a broad view of consumers on the net to 3D printing to intelligent band aids. After lunch, yours truly gave a talk (unfortunately I could not do it in Danish) about "The Future of the Internet". I won't repeat my key messages which can be found throughout this blog. In a short TV interview afterward a reporter asked what impact the emergence of broadband in Greenland would have on the "remote" areas of the country. As she asked the question it came to me that the impact will be that there will be no such thing as "remote". A great idea from any part of Greenland will be shared with the rest of the world and vice versa. Tom Friedman had it right -- the world is flat.

Speaking of broadband, Lars Tofft -- president of Ericsson Denmark -- drilled down on what broadband is all about. He painted a vision of mobile broadband being much faster in the not too distant future than wired broadband is today. This will open up the possibilities that Preben and I had outlined earlier. Like the other presenters, I could not understand the words they said but I could tell from the slides that all the speakers were all on the same page.

Day 2 focused on applications: e-Home, e-Health, e-Ducation, e-Citizen, and e-Trade. The speakers were all superb and then there were buses to take people to local venus such as the hospital to see the applications in action. Søren Duus Østergaard from IBM Denmark did an excellent job of summarizing the day in his blog.

Throughout the conference there were demonstrations in the lobby of the Katuaq cultural center and the public was invited to visit. There were crowds throughout both days right up to the end. There were many school children who visited and they loved seeing and holding the Pleo baby dinosaur. One of the other big draws was 3D printing. It was amazing to see a nice vase "printed" each few hours. The most impressive demo to me was the haptic feedback device. It is a bit hard to describe -- one of those tings you need to "feel" to believe. You move the hand-held cursor over a "rough" object and you can "feel" it in the device you are holding on to. A lady described how she was planning to sell seal skin purses on the web by allowing people to be able to "feel" the texture of the skin on-line. The potential for engineering collaboration is quite evident.

The flight from Nuuk to Keflavik on the way home was uneventful and followed by a 45 minute ride to downtown Reykjavik. Unfortunately it was cold and raining but it was still a nice walk around the harbor and the city. Dinner at Laekjarkrekka was outstanding. I added it as a five-star in the favorites. The flight back to JFK was followed by a short flight to Mt. Pocono and then a half-hour drive back to the lake. It was nice to get back but we have fond memories of new friends and a place we had never before visited.

Greenland - Part 1 (Getting there)
Greenland - Part 2 (A unique place)
Greenland - Part 3 (The Conference)
Printable version of the combined stories
Gallery of pictures from Greenland
Other patrickWeb travel-related stories
patrickWeb Travel Photo Gallery

Favorites, Internet Technology, Mobile, Travels August 30, 2008 04:28 PM

Thursday, July 31, 2008

iPhone - Update No. 14 (Geocaching)

Geocaching I was sitting on the Sporster in the middle of a parking lot about ten miles from the lake when a man approached me with a troubled look on his face. He was late for an appointment and wanted to know if I knew where the Northeast Eye Institute was. Unfortunately, I had never hear of it but told him I would be glad to look it up in Google Maps for him. He said, "the Internet on a call phone?". In a few seconds I had the location and a phone number which I clicked on asked them where exactly their office was and I relayed to him how to get there. He shook my hand with a big thank you and a grin on his face. As he walked away, I grinned too. The iPhone is a very high utility device. The other lesson for me was confirmation that the mobile Internet is huge and has now grown to it's infancy.

The reason I was sitting in the parking lot was to look for a nearby geocache. Geopher Lite is a GPS based iPhone application which allows you to find geocaches "quickly and easily" on the go. It actually wasn't that quick and easy but when I got back to the lake a few hours later I checked for iPhone updates. Sure enough there was an update for Geopher Lite which incorporated some of the obvious deficiencies. This is the great thing -- apps are always brought up to date with a touch of the phonetop and developers are constantly going to be making improvements. I can see that tight integration with geocaching.com is just a, probably short, matter of time. If I was in the handheld GPS business I would be concerned. The iPhone is going to disintermediate a lot of businesses.

Epilogue: Speaking of gouaches, I found a very interesting one yesterday titled "William Howard Taft's Forefathers and Family". Finding it was not much of a challenge but seeing the small cemetery across the road from the Lake Wallenpaupack Observation Dike was quite a surprise. I have driven by it hundreds of times and did not even know it was there. The cemetery was built by the Taft family more than 150 years ago and holds the remains of the great, great, great, great grandfather of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States, along with about ten other family members.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Geocaching, Hiking, Mobile, People, iPhone July 31, 2008 05:50 PM

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

iPhone - Update No. 13

Mobile phone I am sticking to my story -- the iPhone 3G is fantastic. There are some issues however. The iPhone is much more than a "cell phone" -- it is a platform. The six basic elements of the platform are the iPhone itself, the network (AT&T in the United States), iTunes, the "App Store", MobileMe and, most importantly, the applications.

Some are saying that since the new iPhone 2.0 software is available for the original iPhone that there is no need to upgrade to the iPhone 3G. It is true that there is no need to but there are a number of good reasons to. The new iPhone uses the new "new AT&T" 3G network which is claimed to be twice as fast -- as something. Speed claims are rarely delivered upon but no doubt that the 3G network is faster. The receiver in the iphone is also better even when communicating with an AT&T non-3G tower. I have noticed at least one bar improvement here at the lake where there is no 3G tower. The WiFi implementation is better too. Not sure if it is the hardware or software that is improved but it is much more reliable and doesn't get confused about whether to use the cellular signal or the WiFi signal. I am getting ahead of myself but one of the neatest new applications is TruPhone. TruPhone allows you to make a phone call from your iPhone via WiFi even if there is *no* tower of any kind. This happens. I was visiting friends in New Hampshire last weekend and we had brunch at a nice place in a remote area. There was no AT&T or roaming partner signal. None. No service. The restaurant, however, had a very nice free WiFi signal. With TruPhone you can make calls to anywhere in the world at a very low price -- pennies per minute. If you are calling another TruPhone user, it is free. I made some calls with it today and the quality was quite good.

There are other reasons to get the new iPhone. It is a bit thinner and more rounded and feels really nice to hold. It is a joy to use. The 3G has a real GPS receiver so when you use maps it is not an estimate of where you are based on cell phone tower triangulations -- it is using satellites to pinpoint exactly where you are. This opens up a slew of "location based" applications -- where is the nearest pizza place? What are the nearest geocaches? How do I get from where I am to wherever? The battery life is claimed to be better but I am not so sure of that. The iPhone has so much more to offer that I think the usage will be higher and maybe effective battery life will actually be less -- that is the case for me so far. Good idea to have a car charger on hand. One of the irritating things about the original iPhone is that you can't plug your favorite headset into it without a special adapter. The new iPhone accepts any headset and does so without any adapter. Bottom line, it is a really great device. There are many iPhone killers out there and more coming but I don't think they will match the overall experience of the Apple iPhone.

The network is another story and I have written about it in not so glowing terms in each iPhone update. I do think they are getting better. As I have always said, it depends on where you live. In the Northeast, Verizon has better coverage but AT&T is putting up new towers -- one just came online two miles from where I live in Connecticut. Naturally, major cities are covered. I also detect that AT&T customer service is really trying hard to satisfy their customers. The overall model of the industry is bad -- limited choice, get locked into two year contracts, and penalties if you want to move to something better.

iTunes continues to dominate online digital music sales but is facing more and more competition. I have been buying my music from Amazon. They have a nice downloader that puts the mp3 music directly into iTunes and there are no digital rights management restrictions. I like this because I can put purchased music on the iTrike. One of the other great applications on the iPhone is Pandora. This has become my music of choice and I play it through the Squeezebox. The Music Genome Project is awesome. If you love music, I highly recommend it.

iTunes is is integrated tightly (as all things Apple are) with the App Store. Both present easy ways to spend your money from your iPhone. I see this as a huge emerging trend. Call it m-Commerce (mobile commerce) if you want. While sitting in the dentist office awaiting your turn you can buy music and applications from your iPhone. An eBay application let's you spend your money -- or monitor your auctions-- there too. On launch day earlier this month there 500+ applications available for the iPhone. There will be many thousands of applications. So far, about 25% of them are free and supported by various flavors of advertising. You click to find the nearest pizza place and Apple gets a slice of the pie. Some are expensive but add huge value. I bought an aviation application for $69.99 that does everything a pilot can imagine. You can file flight plans with the FAA, check weather radar, airport runway lengths, pilot advisories, and much more. I am not a gamer but millions of people are and the iPhone accelerometer allows you to shake or wave the iPhone as inputs to the game. I have to admit that the Phone Saber is fun, albeit a bit geeky -- lets you take on Darth Vader. The impressive part to me is that the applications are stored in the iPhone but also in iTunes. When you sync you are syncing calendar, email, contacts, and the applications. When you click the App Store icon on the phone it tells you if any of your apps have an update available. When you do a search at the iTunes Store, the search results are organized by artists, albums, movies, etc. and applications.

On the flip side, organization is an issue. So far I have 55 applications. I expect to get many more. The human mind is amazing in terms of icon recognition. You just know that the Phone Saber is at the upper left of the fourth page of applications. But at some point it is overwhelming. I expect Apple or perhaps a third party developer will soon introduce an "app launcher" that allows you to tag an application as news, weather, financial, aviation, game, etc. and let you drill down to what you want.

Last, and I hope not least is MobileMe. Apple says it is the "Simple way to keep everything in sync". The vision is great -- your photos, contacts, email, and calendar are all pushed to your iPhone from the "Cloud". You can make a change on the iPhone and it shows up in Outlook or you can make a change in Outlook and it shows up in your iPhone. Those that work for companies that have Microsoft Exchange or IBM's Lotus Notes already have this kind of capability but there are millions of us who are "independent" and have our own mail server or use gmail, or Yahoo! or any of numerous other services. With MobileMe we can be like the "corporate" world but we can set our own policies and practices. We can have Exchange or Notes without Exchange or Notes. The cloud approach is clearly the next big thing (see prior stories on this and also by Irving), but Apple has stubbed their toe big time on this. There are numerous analysts, bloggers, and experts who have ripped them apart about the failings. As previously reported, I struggled with MobileMe the first few days but then it began to work properly for a few days albeit with some hiccups. Beginning this week it is not working properly. Calendar entries get duplicated, synchronization is sluggish or doesn't work at all at times. It is not like Apple to fail big time like this and I am sure they are scrambling to straighten things out.

I got an email from MobileMe@InsideApple.Apple.com the other day asking if I would be interested in a trial of MobileMe! Seems they didn't check their subscriber list first. The MobileMe web site says that "1% of MobileMe members have limited access to MobileMe Mail. Full service will be restored to these accounts on a rolling basis over the next few days". 99% and in a few days were good in the old days but not these days. I decided to try the online chat support to see if they could help resolve my problems. After sending my initial "instant message" I got a reply saying "A MobileMe Support Representative will be with you in approximately 26 minutes. We look forward to answering your questions". I got a reply while I had stepped out of the room for a minute and then had to start over and wait another 26 minutes. After 3 hours and 14 minutes the support rep said he had to escalate the problem to a specialist who would contact me by email. More than two days have gone by and I have had no email from Apple.

This all reminds me of the Fall of 1995 when we were preparing ibm.com to host the Olympic Games of 1996. It turned out to be the largest web site ever built. We had 54 outstanding engineers working on it and it turned out to be successful. Fortunately, we were able to convince the company to make a large investment in the infrastructure. I remember saying that "we don't how many people will come to the web site, we don't know when they will come, nor do we know what they will do when they get there". It was "trial by fire". That was 13 years ago. The lessons learned in 1995 served IBM well and it is now the largest web hosting company in the world. IBM doesn't always call it cloud computing, but they have built the largest clouds on Earth -- in the clouds. Apple has a lot to learn. I am confident they will. Their brand loyalty depends on it.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone <

IBM, Internet Technology, Mobile, Personal Computing, iPhone July 30, 2008 08:53 PM

Sunday, July 13, 2008

iPhone - Update No. 12

Mobile phone It is now more than 84 hours since I got my hands on the iPhone 3g. The bottom line is that the phone itself is a masterpiece -- really great. As expected, there are many applications available in the "app store" and many thousands more to come. That is the good news. The bad news is that apple.com is failing big time.

The activation and iTunes problems are well documented in the media but I am surprised that there is not more coverage of the MobileMe issues. MobileMe is a key part of Apple's strategy. It is basically a "cloud computing" offering that enables you to put all your email, contacts, calendar items, and data files at me.com which is Apple's name for their cloud. Once in the cloud, you can then synchronize everything with Outlook. If you make a change in Outlook it goes to the cloud and then down to your iPhone. If you make a change on your iPhone it goes up to the cloud and down to Outlook. If you go to a kiosk at the airport or use a computer at a friend's house and make a change, both your iPhone and Outlook are updated automatically.

I took the bait -- hook, line, and sinker. After installing the MobileMe software on both my iPhone and PC, I synchronized with iTunes. This resulted in all my contacts and calendar items being removed from the iPhone -- they would now be replaced by an update from the cloud. One big assumption -- the cloud (Apple servers) has to be working -- and it wasn't. This is the problem I anticipated in the last post. Apple does not have their act together in maintaining their cloud. I called support today and they said "MobileMe is not working -- all the servers are down". Not good. The great thing about clouds is that you do not have to worry about Windows, your varivous PC issues, etc., but the bad news is that you become totally dependent on the cloud provider -- in this case, Apple -- and they are not a proven player. At this point, all my data is in the cloud and none of it is on my iPhone.

This all reminds me of the Fall of 1995 when we were preparing ibm.com to host the Olympic Games of 1996. It turned out to be the largest web site ever built. We had 54 outstanding engineers working on it and it turned out to be successful. Fortunately, we were able to convince the company to make a large investment in the infrastructure. I remember saying that "we don't how many people will come to the web site, we don't know when they will come, nor do we know what they will do when they get there". Dave Grossman, of our team, called it "trial by fire". That was 13 years ago. The lessons learned in 1995 served IBM well and it is now the largest web hosting company in the world. Apple has a lot to learn.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

IBM, Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone July 13, 2008 10:58 PM

Friday, July 11, 2008

iPhone - Update No. 11

Mobile phone On July 5 of last year I received the iPhone and wrote ten stories and updates about my experience with it. With today's release of the second mobile wave from Apple, a new set of stories begins. There is no Apple store within one hundred miles of where I am spending the summer but there is an AT&T store twenty-two miles away in Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania. I arrived at the store at 6:45 AM to get in line behind 16 people who were already camped out. I brought a beach chair and the Kindle so waiting was not so bad. The painful part was hearing them say that their systems were crashing and it was taking more than a half-hour per customer to get a phone and get it activated. With the original iPhone you could activate it yourself through iTunes but this time AT&T is taking no chances that you might hack the phone and activate it through one of their competitors. So much for the convenience of ordering and activating from home.

The store opened at 8am and people were let in by security five at a time. The manager of the store went down the line outside and asked each person what they wanted, explained their various rules on eligibility, etc. They treat it as quite an honor to be able to get an iPhone -- and they charge accordingly. The manager said it would take 15 minutes per batch of five people. The first person came out at around 9:30! The manager explained that they were having systems problems. That is an understatement. I would not want to be the CIO at Apple or AT&T today. A half-hour later the manager reported that the problem causing the delays was iTunes at Apple. "Everyone is trying to activate phones at the same time". What did they expect?

At 10:30 it was my turn. I asked for the 16GB Black iPhone 3G, the sales associate picked up the phone to ask for it, and seconds later someone put it on the counter. It turned out to be the last one. Lucky me. I handed over my AMEX card and driver license. Then the AT&T system crashed. A half-hour later, after I had signed an agreement and charge, the sales guy said that they had discovered a shortcut that would speed things up -- he could do a partial activation and then I could just sync up with iTunes to complete it. I got to the lake and discovered that the new iPhone did not yet work and the old iPhone did not either. The AT&T store had partly activated the new phone and in the process deactivated the old one. No problem. All I had to do was download the new version of iTunes and connect the new iPhone to the ThinkPad and activate with iTunes. For the next couple of hours I tried repeatedly but iTunes was not responding. The Apple servers were swamped. Bottom line after eight hours I had two iPhones that did not work. The "upgrade" cost $18 plus a new two-year commitment plus an upgrade to the monthly data plan of $15 -- a 75% increase. The data plan upcharge is justified because the 3G network is so much faster than the "Edge" network that has been criticized here many times. The only thing is that the new 3G network is not available in many places.

At the nine-hour mark I was able to connect to the iTunes server, activate the phone, and synchronize all my contacts, calendar, and email. This is Apple's strength -- making things easy by tightly integrating all the pieces. The downside is that you have to get locked into the "new" AT&T. I do think AT&T is improving and putting a lot of emphasis on customer service. The service question at this stage is with Apple. They have proved they are not flawless when it comes to systems management. Seamless integration of devices and software is one thing -- seamless integration of millions of users all trying to connect at the same time and making unpredictable demands of the "cloud" is something much more challenging. They are not off to a good start with iPhone 2.0 after all the hype.

In spite of the challenges, the iPhone 3G gives a great initial impression. There are a number of nice new features and, as predicted, a flood of new applications in the "app store" which is tightly integrated in iTunes. I am quite impressed with the first dozen or so that I have acquired. Some of them are expensive but many are actually free. I expect to see many thousands of highly useful applications that will drive millions of people to get iPhones.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Mobile, iPhone July 11, 2008 06:57 PM

Friday, June 27, 2008

Supernova 2008 - Part 3

Discussion about the mobile Internet is taking an increasing amount of the agenda at technology conferences. The scope is increasing dramatically with not just 3-6 billion mobile phones but with more and more of them having GPS, cameras, accelerometers, and other kinds of sensors to come. Nokia described a research project in which 150 students have been driving around and providing anonymous information about where they are and how fast they are going. The result is a centrally integrated traffic prediction database available to everybody who is driving. Other possibilities include tracking of influenza and hypertension through personal health monitoring and real-time weather monitoring.

Most of us in the U.S. grew up with the PC as our primary way to connect to the Internet. Mobile phones are already the primary networking device for hundreds of millions and soon billions of people. The mobile Internet will be a natural for many of those people and most of them will likely never own a PC. 80% of the world's population now has mobile coverage in 220 countries.

One major difference between the U.S. and developing countries is in the use of SMS text messaging. Africa, for example, is way ahead of us. They are using SMS as an integral part of their financial services infrastructure. At the end of the evening with Matimba Mbungela at Moyo's during a recent trip to South Africa, the server came to the table with a wireless credit card reader. After the card was swiped, Matimba's mobile phone received an SMS text message confirming that the charge had been made to his credit card account at the bank. South Africa has embraced mobile as a key part of their banking infrastructure. In fact any debit or credit to your bank account or credit card results in an SMS message. Not everyone in South Africa has an Internet connection but tens of millions have a mobile phone. The security is good because most people don't share their phone. In India, farmers use SMS to determine the market prices of various crops and weather information to assist in planning their activities. SMS has enormous potential for applications of all kinds. The New York Times, Fox News, and others are using SMS for news and election alerts but when it comes to SMS for data oriented applications, other countries are well ahead of the United States.

I envision SMS having broad applicability. There are so many places that people spend time waiting. At the hospital for an x-ray or blood sample, at restaurants, the auto garage, department of motor vehicles, and many others. A simple text messaging system could buzz your phone to let you know it is your turn. You could also be alerted about auctions that have been completed, checks that have cleared, stock prices that hit a target, a family member being discharged from the hospital, an elderly relative needing your assistance, and countless other applications. An SMS message from a service person that you requested to go to your house to fix the furnance could alert you that they have arrived and your reply could unlock the door to your house. SMS messages are "simple". They don't have the "baggage" of emails with all the headers and footers. They can contain text and data in an uncluttered way. There are many ways to send SMS messages from your PC also. I use ipipi.com which is an international Text Messaging Service that lets you send and receive SMS from your desktop.

Other mobile related patrickWeb stories

Conferences, Mobile June 27, 2008 11:32 AM

Monday, June 9, 2008

iPhone - Update 10

There was a lot of news from Apple today about the new iPhone 3G. Bottom line -- it is everything I predicted plus a lot more. Can't wait to get one. There will be plenty to say about the announcements and I will begin sharing thoughts soon.

Mobile, iPhone June 9, 2008 09:23 PM

Monday, May 19, 2008

Microcapital

Africa

The final speaker at IBM's Business Partner Leadership Conference in Los Angeles was Nick Donofrio, the company's Executive Vice President for Innovation and Technology. Always an emotional, enthusiastic and at times nostalgic speaker, little did the audience know that the next day IBM would announce that Nick will be retiring on October 1 after a fantastic career of forty-four years. I have no doubts that he will end up involved in many activities and will find that he may need to go back to work to regain some spare time.

One of Nick's many leadership roles at IBM has been with the Global Innovation Outlook program. One of the recent GIO events brought together a diverse group of global thought leaders for a series of brainstorming sessions about the future of innovation and economic advancement in Africa. One of the greatest needs identified was to provide access to capital and financing to more of the African population. It was clear that there could be significant growth and transformation if there was a more open, scalable, lower-cost microfinance hub serving the African continent.

IBM and CARE have announced plans to enable microfinance institutions to dramatically lower the costs of providing financial services to large populations in the region who have no access to banks. The goal of the new Africa Financial Grid is to help alleviate poverty and promote economic development in the Sub-Saharan Region. The two organizations plan to establish an Africa Financial Grid built around a shared services and infrastructure model designed to significantly reduce operating costs, streamline lending processes, scale rapidly, and integrate with other resources such as credit bureaus, financial institutions and international payment networks. The Grid will also eventually be able to link with mobile payment providers in Africa to enable customers to repay loans or transfer money via mobile phones. The project will initially target 11 countries with a combined population of more than 400 million people.

There are millions of people with business ideas and aptitudes but with incomes of less than $100 per month, it has been impossible to get financing. A small loan can make a big difference. For example, a loan of $50 enabled a mother of six to purchase fabric and sell embroidered products. Based on her success she was able to get subsequent loans and expand her business. Very small loans can have a big impact but it has been too costly for financial institutions to make the loans practical. The combination of technology and expertise that IBM and CARE bring to the table has the potential to change the model and have a huge impact. One more example of how the Internet continues to empower people.

IBM, Internet Technology, Mobile, People May 19, 2008 07:41 AM

Thursday, March 6, 2008

South Africa 2008 - Infrastructure

South African Food We met Matimba Mbungela at Moyo's for dinner. It was pleasantly warm at the table outside. It was the first time I had my face painted and the first time I had eaten oxtail. At the end of the evening there was another first. Matimba insisted on picking up the tab. The server came to the table with a wireless credit card reader. After the card was swiped, Matimba's mobile phone received an SMS text message. South Africa has embraced mobile as a key part of their banking infrastructure. After every credit card charge your cell phone receives a message confirming the charge. In fact any debit or credit to your bank account or credit card results in an SMS message. Not everyone in South Africa has an Internet connection but tens of millions have a mobile phone. The security is good because most people don't share their phone. SMS has enormous potential for applications of all kinds. The New York Times, Fox News, and others are using SMS for news and election alerts but when it comes to SMS for data oriented applications, South Africa is well ahead of the United States.

Other aspects of infrastructure in South Africa were a mixed bag. Broadband Internet access was available everywhere we visited including the MalaMala bushveld (via satellite). Even Zimbabwe had dial-up access in an Internet lounge. It was $4 for 15 minutes if you paid cash, or $8 if you put it on your hotel bill. According to the Internet World Stats, just over 10% of the population of South Africa had Internet access as of 2006. I suspect the number is much higher now, especially if you consider Internet Cafes. We saw many of these throughout Soweto. iBurst, one of South Africa's largest wireless broadband providers, is planning to roll out 20 000 Internet cafes by 2010.

Availability of electricity in Africa is a challenge -- even in major cities in South Africa. When we checked into our hotel in Johannesburg, there was a letter under the door from the hotel general manager saying that if elevators stopped working, the emergency power generator should kick in within eight minutes. There are rolling power outages throughout the country. People say it is due to poor planning by the government. Rolling blackouts are annoying but the bigger problem is total lack of electricity in many parts of Africa. Without electricity it is hard to move water. Without water it is hard to build an economy and grow food. The big potential is solar, as Africa is very well positioned geographically. The UN and non-profits such as SELF are trying to break down economic and governmental barriers to exploiting solar's potential.

Finally is mobile communications. I took my iPhone because that is where all my calendar and contact details are, but when it comes to phone calls and the mobile Internet, the Apple - AT&T team does not make it easy. Apple locks the iPhone so you can not put a Vodacom South Africa SIM card in it -- Apple wants to be sure to get their commission from AT&T. In South Africa, AT&T charges $2.49 per minute for inbound or outbound calls, fifty cents for a text message, and $20 per megabyte for data service. (Some modest discounts are available if you sign up for a monthly international plan). Some unwary travelers have forgotten to turn off automatic email retrieval in their iPhone and ended up with thousands of dollars in charges from AT&T.

Maxroam is an innovative VoIP company in Ireland. For a little more than $40 they send you a SIM card which you can put into any unlocked GSM phone -- such as the Treo which I held onto after getting the iPhone for use during international travel. Maxroam gives you a U.S. mobile phone number. If someone calls my iPhone while I am out of the country it will automatically forward to the Treo. If I want to make a call I dial from the Treo using whatever local GSM operator is available. The cost for Maxroam varies by country -- in South Africa it is 39 cents per minute for inbound calls and 49 cents per minute for local or outbound calls. The Maxroam proposition was very appealing but unfortunately it did not work. I called and emailed the company with no response. If not Maxroam, someone will figure out how to use VoIP to get around the outrageous international mobile roaming rates. Fortunately, I was able to get a Vodacom prepaid card for the Treo. It worked very well for local and international calls. Most international calls were made from the hotel room with my ThinkPad using Skype at two cents per minute.

Index of stories and pictures from South Africa 2008

Internet Technology, Mobile, Travels, iPhone March 6, 2008 10:22 AM

Monday, March 3, 2008

Luggage Back Too

Luggage There is much to write about Africa and Internet technology, but I can not resist sharing about our luggage. We waited in line along with many others to provide information about the size and color of the missing bags. The agent entered the information and gave us a printout that was clearly from a decades-old system. We were told to give a call after twenty-four hours. I called after 26 hours and was told there was no update and that it could take up to five days. The reasoning was that there may not be room in the next few flights for "extra" baggage -- the classic case of taking care of the new customers rather than upset them by helping customers who have already been disappointed. After continuing to get "there is no new information" I thought to myself that tracking luggage would be a great application for the web. I wondered if the airline had thought about it.

I visited South African Airways (flysaa.com) and at the bottom of the "After your trip" page was a link for "Lost/damaged luggage". Could it be? II entered the file reference number from the printout and voila! Information about each of the four bags was displayed along with the status. As the day went on the status changed from "No information available" to "Arrived at airport" to "Delivery process underway". It took thirty-six hours to get the luggage but I was impressed with how South African Airways had integrated a very old application with a user-friendly web front end. Apparently the people at the airport are not aware of it. The airline could certainly take some anxiety away and offload an extremely busy call center by informing their customers about the web application and including the url on the printout. The ideal solution would be to have the application automatically generate an SMS text message to your mobile phone every hour with the status.

The pictures are uploaded to the gallery and the stories will start soon.

Index of stories and pictures from South Africa 2008

Internet Technology, Mobile, On Demand, Travels March 3, 2008 04:58 PM

Friday, February 15, 2008

Long Distance

Telephone There are quite a few stories here in the blog about "Long Distance". What is long distance? When the grandkids come from the Philadelphia area to Connecticut to visit, they consider that a long distance. When visiting Singapore or New Zealand or other parts of Southeastern Asia, you know you are a long way from New York -- like 10,000 miles or so. When we head to Johannesburg, South Africa from JFK tomorrow, that will be a long distance (approximately 8,000 miles).

When it comes to a "telephone" conversation, the words "long distance" don't really mean anything. Many of us remember the phone ringing decades ago at grandma's house at holiday time and the room immediately being urged to "shhhhhh" because the call was "long distance". Hurry, we would say as we waited our turn for a few seconds to say hello to the caller. Long distance was considered a luxury then but now is becoming a merely historical term.

Many of us who have been involved with the Internet have known for a long time that voice over IP, or Internet Telephony, would become ubiquitous. It is just so natural to utilize the global infrastructure of the Internet to send information between any two points. The world is actually a small place when you consider the speed of today's networks. I recall being at an Internet Society meeting in Honolulu in 1994 participating on a panel about the future of the Internet. A fellow panelist, Geoff Huston from Telstra, made a simple but, at the time, very controversial point. Geoff said that "voice" is "just another kind of data". What he meant, of course, was that once you speak into a handset or headset and your voice is converted to a stream of ones and zeroes, the "bits" traveling over the Internet look just like any other bits -- like from web pages, emails, efaxes, audio, video, etc.

How will I stay in touch while in South Africa? I will be taking my iPhone because that is where all my calendar and contact details are, but when it comes to phone calls and the mobile Internet, the Apple - AT&T team does not make it easy. Apple locks the iPhone so you can not put a Vodacom South Africa SIM card in it -- Apple wants to be sure to get their commission from AT&T. In South Africa, AT&T charges $2.49 per minute for inbound or outbound calls, fifty cents for a text message, and $20 per megabyte for data service. (Some modest discounts are available if you sign up for a monthly international plan). Some unwarry travelers have forgetten to turn off automatic email retrieval in their iPhone and ended up with thousands of dollars in charges from AT&T.

Where does all this lead? If innovation and competition continue -- and I believe they will -- then we will have choices. One choice will be to have a WiFi mobile phone with Skype on it. If Apple continues to thwart that option on the iPhone, others will provide it. If governments and operators cling to the old models, it will take a while but there is no doubt in my mind that we will soon have a wide range of choices of service available on the Internet -- wherever we are and with whatever devices we have.

Internet Technology, Mobile, Travels, WiFi, iPhone February 15, 2008 05:20 PM

Monday, January 21, 2008

iPhone - Update No. 10

Mobile phone According to some people, the most important question about the iPhone is "does it blend?". Although quite amusing, the more important question to me is whether Apple is listening to the feedback of customers. In prior stories I have expressed confidence that there would be continuous improvement in the functionality of the iPhone. For the first six months I would give them a B+. The two big issues remain to be the applications and the network.

On the network side, I am still not very happy with AT&T primarily because of poor local coverage. However, I have learned about a new tower about two miles from my house that is scheduled to be turned on in late February. That could potentially make a dramatic difference for many people in my neck of the woods. In a few weeks I'll be in South Africa and will get a chance to see how the International aspects of the AT&T service work. Stay tuned on that.

The bigger question for most people is about applications. The "standalone" applications such as the calculator, calendar, photo gallery, clock, and offline email have not changed. There is still no "notes" application that syncs with anything and allows cut/copy/paste. The "networked" applications, such as stocks, weather, over the air email, and YouTube have not changed. iTunes has been improved and "maps" has had a huge improvement with the addition of a location function that uses radio signals to estimate your current location. Not as accurate as GPS but pretty good. I used it at the Albany airport this past weekend and it provided very good directions to where I was headed. The "Web 2.0" applications, through the Safari browser, are still a disappointment but I am sure there will be many useful webapps soon.

Webapps are most useful when they are connected to the network, preferably a fast one. The presumption with webapps is that the data -- travel itineraries, frequent flier numbers, healthcare information, personal financial information, etc. -- is on the server. That model only works if you can get to the server. With 16 GB likely on the way for new iPhones, there will be plenty of room for pictures and music and have space for local data. Local data will allow a lot of useful applications even when there is no available network connection.

The other limitation of webapps is the interface. In theory you can do anything in a web browser but the human interface is not always ideal. That is why millions of people use Quicken instead of quicken.com. This will change over time as web standards evolve but in the short term I believe there is a rational need for local applications. There are many applications that could be local applications with local storage on the iPhone. Both the app and data could be synchronized (backed up) through iTunes. What we are all anxiously waiting for are "third party local applications" on the iPhone as a supplement to Apple's apps and webapps. Apple announced that that they will have a development kit available in the first quarter and many are waiting to see what the SDK will allow and what "approvals" will be necessary and whether AT&T will have any say in "certifying" applications. The clock is ticking and I can hardly wait. Following the political scene is exciting but third party apps for the iPhone will be more exciting.

The most subtle change in the latest iPhone update last week was the ability to move the home screen icons around, and to create up to nine pages on which you can place icons or web address links. The iPhone comes with just seventeen icons. The home row plus nine screens of sixteen each will allow 148 applications. One that I am hoping for is Opera Mini.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Gadgets, Mobile, Personal Computing, iPhone January 21, 2008 02:54 PM

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Innovations That Will Change Our Lives

The annual "IBM Next Five in Five" is a list of predicted innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The list is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s Labs around the world that could make these innovations possible. Following is a sampling of the five areas.

The press is covered with stories about all things "green". IBM believes the technology is actually going to make it easy to be green and save money in the process. A range of "smart energy" technologies will enable us to manage our personal "carbon footprint". As data begins to run through our home electrical system, appliances, air conditioners, lights, and computers, we will become connected to a "smart" electrical grid, making it possible to turn our appliances on and off using a web browser from a PC or cell phone. In addition to alerting you about leaving appliances on when they could be off, we will be able to establish rules to be followed to automatically conserve energy. Reports will show us electrical usage just like we track our cell phone minutes. Intelligent energy grids will also enable utilities to provide you with the option to use only green energy sources such as solar and wind.

The way we drive will be changing dramatically. In the next five years, IBM says our cars will connected to the roads we drive on and thereby we will be safer and remain out of traffic jams. The technology will keep traffic flowing smoothly, cut pollution, curb accidents, and make it easier and less stressful for us to get where we are going. Intelligent traffic systems will make real-time adjustments to traffic lights and divert traffic to alternate routes while our cars will communicate with each other and with sensors along the road -- allowing them to behave as if they have 'reflexes' so they can take preventive actions under dangerous conditions. When traffic is jammed up alternative routes will be activated.

Since we are what we eat, we should know what we eat. With foods being sourced across international borders, the need to know exactly what we eat has never been more important. According to IBM, in the next five years, new advancements in software and wireless radio sensor technologies will enable us to know the exact source and make-up of the food we buy -- the climate and soil the food was grown in, the pesticides and pollution it was exposed to, the energy consumed to create the product, and the temperature and air quality of the shipping containers it traveled in on the way to our dinner table.

In the next five years, IBM says our cell phones will become our wallets, ticket brokers, concierge, bank, shopping buddy, and tour guide. New technology will allow us to snap a picture of someone wearing an outfit we want and will automatically search the web to find the designer and the nearest shop that has the outfit in stock. We will then see what that outfit would look like on our personal avatar – a 3-D representation of our self on our phone, and ask our friends to check it out online and give their opinion. When we turn on our phone in a city we are visiting, it will automatically provide us with local entertainment options, activities, and dining options that match our preferences -- and then make reservations and purchase tickets for us.

Perhaps the most important area where IBM sees major advances is healthcare. Doctors will get enhanced “super-senses” to better diagnose and treat us. In the next five years, our doctor will be able to see, hear and understand our medical records in entirely new ways. In effect, doctor’s will gain superpowers – technologies will allow them to gain x-ray like vision to view medical images and super sensitive hearing to find the tiniest audio clue in our heart beat. Our avatar will allow doctors to click on a part of our body and then visualize the relevant information for that part of us. The hospital system will then be able to compare those visual and audio clues to thousands of other anonymous patient records and be able to be much more precise in diagnosing us and providing us with a personalized treatment plan.

Some of the innovations IBM is predicting may seem like a stretch but the basics of all of them are already in place. If we were to step back five years it is likely most of us would not have foreseen how we would be doing on the Internet today.

Other IBM annoncements made in December

Gadgets, Healthcare, Home Automation, IBM, Internet Technology, Mobile January 6, 2008 12:04 PM

Sunday, November 25, 2007

One Laptop Per Child

There will be millions of iPhones, Casio cameras, and other electronic gifts given this holiday season. If you want to give the gift of a lifetime and get satisfaction that you are helping improve the world, then consider buying a Laptop XO. For the price of an Amazon Kindle, you can be part of a really big idea. Originated at MIT, One Laptop Per Child, aims to put computers in the hands of millions of children in developing countries. "One learning child. One connected child. One laptop at a time".

The OLPC laptop has been in development for years but is now becoming a reality. Manufacturing has started and orders are being taken online between now and yearend. For $399, get a laptop for yourself -- or a lucky child you may know -- and one will also be given to a less fortunate child in Cambodia, Greece, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uruguay, or other participating countries. (The countries themselves are buying XO's -- Nigeria ordered one million of them). The two-for-one deal includes a full year of T-Mobile Hotspot WiFi service.

The XO has quite an impressive set of features and functions. The design optimizes power usage. The Internet connectivity is by WiFi but it also uses wireless mesh networking. This means that each XO acts as a wireless access point in a peer-to-peer fashion sharing connectivity with a nearby XO. The software is all open source and free including Linux, a web browser, word processor, email, audio and video player, and a very clever graphical user interface.

I hope large numbers of people, companies, and foundations participate in the limited time offer and that many millions of children will benefit. As an individual, the T-Mobile WiFi subscription for a year plus the $200 tax deduction for the donated laptop, it is hard to go wrong. Visit LaptopGiving.org during the holidays and you can make a difference.

Internet Technology, Media, Mobile, People, Personal Computing, Public Policy, WiFi November 25, 2007 10:56 AM

Friday, October 19, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 9

Mobile phone The most encouraging thing about the iPhone is that Apple seems to be listening to the feedback of customers. The price cut rebate was handled well -- and expeditiously -- but compared to the other issues it was an easy fix. Other than various functionality, which I am sure will be continuously improved, the two big issues remain the applications and the network.

There are four kinds of applications. First are the "standalone" applications such as the calculator, calendar, photo gallery, clock, and offline email. No network required. A second type could be classified as "networked" applications. Examples would be stocks, weather, over the air email, and YouTube. Each of these is a combination of a standalone application plus a network connection -- either via AT&T's network or from a WiFi hotspot. A third type of application is a networked application which works only with WiFi. Example being iTunes. The fourth type is the "webapp" or as described by Steve Jobs "Web 2.0" applications. The webapps work through the Safari browser. There will surely be many useful webapps but there are two important limitations.

First is that webapps are most useful when they are connected to the network, preferably a fast one. The presumption with webapps is that the data -- travel itineraries, frequent flier numbers, healthcare information, personal financial information, etc. -- is on the server. That model only works if you can get to the server. Some people 8 gigabytes is not enough to have local data in addition to music and pictures. I think many people would happily make the tradeoff to have a bit fewer songs and have some accessible local data. the 8 gig limitation is only temporary as we will have a terabyte of local storage before long.

The other limitation of webapps is the interface. In theory you can do anything in a web browser but the human interface is not always ideal. That is why millions of people use Quicken instead of quicken.com. This will change over time as web standards evolve but in the short term I believe there is a rational need for local applications. A perfect example is Navizon which is a software-only wireless positioning system that triangulates signals broadcasted from WiFi access points and cellular towers which pinpoints your location and then launches a Google Map to show you where you are. (This is one of the third party applications that Apple erased with their recent firmware update). There are many applications that could be local applications with local storage on the iPhone. Both the app and data could be synchronized (backed up) through iTunes.

There is no doubt in my mind that enabling third party local applications on the iPhone as a supplement to webapps would be a great thing for Apple. I also have no doubt that Steve Jobs thinks so too. Apple announced this week that they will have a development kit available in the first quarter. This will spawn a flood of new iPhone applications. If anything, I believe Apple underestimated how many developers, in addition to the high-end personal digital assistant users, would take quickly to the iPhone and start building third party applications. Mr. Jobs says they need the time to make sure there are tools to enable the local applications to be built in a way that protects against viruses and other malware. The hubris of wiping out the third party applications was not a good move, but as I started this story I do believe Apple is listening and I am optimistic that in a matter of months we will see a lot of very useful and exciting applications emerge for the iPhone.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Internet Technology, Mobile, Personal Computing, WiFi, iPhone October 19, 2007 05:16 PM

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 8

Mobile phone The price cut is understandable. It is not unprecedented by any means and the rebate was handled well by Apple. Nobody was forced to be an early adopter. People were forced to sign up for AT&T but it was no secret. It was announced that way, promoted that way, and is somewhat understandable even though I don't personally like it because of poor network coverage where I live and poor network performance when there is coverage. I can also understand why a warranty would be voided if people physically break in to the iPhone and modify it. That is a standard warranty provision with cars and most everything. A software modification is a different issue from my point of view.

I need to clarify my comment that I got "bricked" last week. Walt Mossberg properly corrected me that getting bricked means that your iPhone is not functioning at all -- it is like a brick. That is not what happened to me. I believe in most all cases where someone got bricked it was because they had tampered with the iPhone or somehow bypassed AT&T and enabled the phone to work with T-Mobile or someone else. I can understand why Apple would not like that because of their deal with AT&T and the fact that it has always been marketed as an Apple - AT&T exclusive arrangement. In my case, I made no attempt to change out AT&T. I just added the "installer" from AppTapp from Nullriver. This enabled me to add a bunch of third party applications that added a great deal of missing functions and new capabilities. I was really happy with the new applications.

I can understand that neither Apple nor AT&T would offer technical support for third party applications that they have not certified. I could even understand that they may require them to be uninstalled if suspected of causing a problem with the iPhone or the AT&T service for which I requested assistance. The issue I made in my last update was not of that nature. The issue was that Apple unilaterally *deleted* all the third party applications, including any data that may have been created by the apps, and also deleted the launcher and installer. An industry colleague described this unprecedented move by Apple as "hostile". I have to agree. Another colleague called it hubris. Some might describe it as arrogance.

I remember in the 1970's when IBM was accused of such an attitude. If a customer had a mainframe maintenance problem and they also had "third party" memory or peripheral devices attached to the mainframe, IBM would refuse to work on the mainframe or even diagnose the problem. Later they loosened up and agreed to "take a look" at the problem but only if someone was present from the maintenance department of the "other" company. IBM had a significant comeuppance as a result of the unwarranted attitude. Eventually -- in the late 1980's -- IBM saw a services opportunity in working on *all* of the customer's equipment, no matter who manufactured it.

A similar situation may be at hand for Apple. What could be better than having thousands of developers around the world creating useful applications for the iPhone? That is how Palm got established. Apple is now gaining on Palm but if they don't watch their hubris they may have a comeuppance.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

IBM, Internet Technology, Mobile, Personal Computing, iPhone October 2, 2007 05:26 PM

Monday, October 1, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 7

Mobile phone The $100 rebate was a good move by Apple. I was impressed that within a couple of weeks they had a rock solid online application to actually get the rebate coupon. Considering the testing needed to put out a public web application it was very timely. Big companies often take months to do something like this. I took the coupon into the local Apple store and bought a VModa Vibe Duo noise-isolating hi-definition headset for the iPhone. The sleek “hands-free” microphone and amazing high-definition sound are quite impressive. The discrete microphone blends seamlessly with the black fabric cable. It comes with a black leather pouch and is remarkably lightweight. The store rep offered to send my purchase receipt via email. I was impressed.

From a business point of view the rebate not only took the sting out of the big price cut impacting the early adopters but will ultimately be the sleeves out of Apple's vest. One of the financial analysts said the cost of the rebate to Apple would be $100 million. I don't believe that for a second. First of all, some percentage of those who are eligible will never bother to pursue the rebate. Others will follow the (simple) online procedure and print out the coupon and leave it on their desk to get lost. Some of those who do take the initiative to use the rebate will go to an Apple store and see a host of goodies for sale which will leave an impression with them. When it comes to spending the $100, I suspect most will spend more than $100 rather than leave money on the table. Some may buy a Mac Mini or a big monitor or some software. Whatever they walk out with it will add to the amount of Apple computing and accessories that are in people's hands and will lead to more purchases in the future and continued increases in market share for Apple.

That's the good news. Now the bad news. Like many others, I got bricked on Thursday night -- the Net is buzzing with commentary about it. As previously reported, one of the two major shortcomings of the iPhone is the availability of applications (the other being the AT&T network). Skeptics were pessimistic about the speed of introduction of improvements and believed that Apple and AT&T would operate an approval and collection gate for anything new. I was more optimistic. I turned out to be wrong -- so far. When Steve Jobs said the iPhone would be open to Web applications he meant applications that worked through the Apple Safari browser, not applications that worked natively as part of the iPhone menu. Then along came AppTapp from a company called Nullriver in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Someone at Demo showed me a link where you can download an "installer" that puts a new icon on the iPhone. When you click the icon the iPhone shows a list of dozens (maybe hundreds) of third party applications that work on the iPhone. These are not web apps but native iPhone apps. Apps that do not require being connected to the AT&T network. These are apps that have nothing to do with who the network provider is and do not involved cracking open the case and using a soldering iron. They are just apps that use the iPhone as a platform to run. The first app I installed was a launcher. This icon displays a menu of the iPhone third party apps that you have installed. I installed a dozen or so very useful new things.

The first app I chose was Navizon, a software-only wireless positioning system that triangulates signals broadcasted from WiFi access points and cell towers and then displays a Google Map of where you are. You can then click "Directions to here" or "Directions from here". By using the incredible squeeze magnification feature of the iPhone you can zoom in on either the map or satellite images of where you are. This is a really great value-added application for the iPhone. I also installed an instant messaging program that let me IM through AOL IM and pedometer app that uses the iPhone accelerometer to measure how far you have walked.. Other applications include dictionaries of various kinds, games, and programs that allow you to see all the files on your iPhone and more importantly allow you to create files and exchange them with your PC. This could solve my problem of not being able to display my frequent flier and hotel account numbers like I could on the Treo. In summary I found the initial set of third party applications empowering and exciting. That was until I got home late Thursday night and put the iPhone in the dock and got the latest iPhone "update" from Apple. The update added iTunes to the iPhone, a very nice addition indeed, but it also *deleted* all the third party applications including the launcher and installer. An industry colleague described this unprecedented move by Apple as "hostile".

Apple has now created the iBrick -- an iPhone that doesn't do nearly what it can do. Ironically, third party apps are the heart and soul of the Mac. Microsoft and Apple both have their office suites and various applications but without third party applications we would not have a fraction of what we have as users. Apple has basically said that the iPhone is theirPhone. You can install only the applications that they (and AT&T) decide are good for you and for which they will decide how much you will pay. Imagine turning on your computer one day and seeing a message saying that Windows (or Mac OS X) has "been updated" and then you find that Quicken, Dreamweaver, OpenOffice, Adobe Photoshop, Google Desktop, AOL Instant Messenger, Skype, and dozens of other things you are dependent on have been *deleted* and a modification was installed that will prevent any further additions of third party software on your computer. That is what we have here.

The important letter in PC is the P, for personal. I think of my PC as *my* PC. Millions of people use only what Microsoft or Apple provide and don't take the risk of downloading and installing third party software. They may consider it rogue software, be concerned about the possibility of the software containing a virus or crashing the computer -- all of which are risks. Millions of others, like me, accept some risk and like to experiment with new software and capitalize on the infinite creativity of software developers. I have a ThinkPad that came with Windows XP on it. I erased that and put Ubuntu Linux and VMWare on it. Millions of people use OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, partly because OO is free and partly because they just choose to. That is the great thing about the Internet and PC's -- they give us choice.

What is next? I am sure people are hard at work to figure out how to make third party software work on iPhone again. Many iPhone users are going to Hackintosh for instructions on how to downgrade their iPhone to the prior version of firmware so they can reinstall the third party software. What is the prognosis? I am not politically liberal but when it comes to the Internet and personal computers I guess I would be called a libertarian. The question to me is whether mobile computing is going to be a locked-down proprietary world controlled by Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Qualcomm, and a few others or whether it is going to be an open highly creative and collaborative world like the Internet and PC's have been. I would never bet against the grass roots.

Apple did listen when the mass market said it wanted downloadable ringtones for the iPhone but their implementation is not as brilliant as other aspects of the iPhone. Apple is charging 99 cents to make a song you already paid 99 cents for into a ringtone. I purchased an album called "Crazy Ringtone #2". It contains some really good tracks. When I tried to add the ringtones to my iPhone I got an error message saying that these particular ringtones do not qualify to be iPhone ringtones, even though I had purchased them through iTunes. Meanwhile we are stuck with the sparse and weak AT&T network. The iPhone is an ingenious and elegant piece of hardware -- it is a very powerful and well designed mobile computer. The iBricking of the iPhone has really soured me on Apple. I haven't given up but now that I see how powerful iPhone applications can be I will be more impatient to see the platform open up more.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Internet Technology, Mobile, Personal Computing, iPhone October 1, 2007 04:00 PM

Friday, September 7, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 6

Mobile phone The news of a $200 price cut on the iPhone made a lot of people quite upset, although the announced $100 rebate took out some of the sting. I think of the $200 as an early adopter tax. Everyone has the choice to wait until the bugs get worked out and the pricing stabilizes. Although the cut came quickly and was significant, such actions are not unprecedented in high-tech, especially in the mobile space. The price cut will surely accelerate demand and more users means more interest from more software developers resulting in more useful applications for all users. After two months of using the iPhone, I remain captivated with the brilliant user interface. I have also been using the iPod feature of the iPhone a lot more and find it to be superb, as iPods have always been. If a phone call comes in you just say hello, have your conversation, say good bye, and the music returns. Seamless.

The lack of an iPhone copy and paste capability remains a major shortcoming for me. Back from the lake and taking the train to New York for a board meeting quickly reminded me of how dependent I have been on the Palm Treo 700P which contained train schedules. I copied the schedules from the MTA web site, pasted them into an Outlook note and then synched the notes with the Treo. The iPhone has notes also but you can't paste anything into them and they don't sync with anything, making them basically useless. I am sure everyone has their iPhone wish list -- for me it is copy/paste. There have been two updates to the iPhone software so far -- one per month is not bad -- but neither of them added any new functions. The other annoying shortcoming is that weather locations, stocks, and favorite phone numbers are not sorted alphabetically. I remain confident that Apple will step up to the shortcomings and continue to delight customers. The really big issues with the iPhone are two -- the Network and the availability of applications.

AT&T, without a doubt, is the weakest part of the product. Apple touts the iPhone as the “Internet in your pocket”. This is only true if you sign-up for two years with AT&T, and if AT&T happens to have an adequate signal where you happen to be. I travel a lot on Interstate 84 between Danbury, Connecticut and Scranton, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. Coverage is very spotty throughout. In the Connecticut town of 25,000 where I live, there is almost no coverage. AT&T calls their network "Allover". Right. When you do have an AT&T connection to their "Edge" network, it is extremely slow. Fortunately, the WiFi support in the iPhone is very good, but WiFi is not everywhere just yet (more on that in an upcoming posting). The iPhone is truly a network device and without a good network even a great device can't do much. On the positive side, you can tell that AT&T is trying really hard to offer good customer service. Their people are courteous and responsive, in spite of the ancient backend systems and processes that support them. They call themselves "the new AT&T", but when the first charge showed up on my American Express bill it was labeled "CING*517655729 Snerocky Hill". I am guessing this meant Cingular, an account number, and Southern New England Rocky Hill (a town in Connecticut). Between that and the forty-four page bill replete with errors in the account plans I had chosen, I get the feeling the "new AT&T" is actually a collection of old companies and systems that AT&T hopes to weave into a new enterprise. Their pricing models are also antiquated. A call to Norway on the iPhone is $1.49 per minute. If you sign up for an international calling at $3.99 per month, the same call to Norway is sixteen cents per minute. International calling is surely the highest profit margin part of their business. When someone comes up with a way to enable Skype on the iPhone the obscene international rates will drop. If you work for a large company that gets a discount from AT&T you will find out that those discounts do not apply if you have an iPhone. Bottom line, the exclusive deal between AT&T and Apple may be a good deal for them but for the customer it is yet another example of reducing choice for consumers, just the opposite of what they want. A web site called Free The iPhone is pushing for what they call Wireless Freedom -- "the freedom to use all Internet devices on any wireless network in a market that offers true high-speed Internet and real consumer choice". Some people look to government to solve this problem and others look to hackers. I would prefer competition as the solution and the iPhone is the beginning, not the end, of the race.

PalmGear.com claims to have 29,000 applications. The iPhone has just a handful -- the basics -- so far. I thought we would see some new apps by now but am still confident there will be many of them soon. The new applications will become available through iTunes, just like music except that the applications will likely have to be approved by AT&T, the exclusive provider of network support to the iPhone. This is analogous to finding an Internet application for your PC but not being able to download and install it unless your Internet Service Provider approves. Not good. The good news is that the iPhone will support any Web 2.0 application from the Safari browser. One application called AppMarks provides an iPhone-like menu in a web page thus avoiding the need to go through iTunes and AT&T. In other words AppMarks is providing a separate menu with an icon for each iPhone web application. The icons look just like the icons that are on the iPhone home page and you can add, delete or edit them. The larger overall question is whether the predominant application environment for the iPhone will be a locked down proprietary thing controlled by Apple and AT&T or whether it will be more like an open web environment. I expect to see a lot more clues on this in the weeks and months ahead and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone September 7, 2007 03:38 PM

Friday, August 3, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 5

Mobile phone After another couple of weeks using the iPhone, I remain captivated, especially with the brilliant user interface. I also continue to discover some shortcomings. One glaring example is the lack of copy and paste, something I took for granted with the Palm Treo 700P which I sold last week on eBay for $320). There have been many occasions when I wanted to copy something from an email or SMS text message and paste it into a "Note" which I could then sync with Outlook and subsequently paste into a new web page or email or whatever. Copy/paste is the duck tape of a computer but the iPhone does not have it. This is a non-trivial limitation.

The big issue -- and possible solution to the lack of copy/paste -- is applications. The Palm has thousands; the iPhone has just the basics -- so far. If you watch the video interview on Podtech of some of the 300 who turned out for the iPhone developer's conference you could get very optimistic. Developers are building applications that follow Web standards and which can utilize the unique user interface of the iPhone and work with the Safari browser. I took a look at one of the applications already available called AppMarks. I was quite impressed. It allows you to create icons on a web page -- in other words it gives you a web page with an icon for each iPhone web application. The icons look just like the icons that are on the iPhone home page and you can add, delete or edit them..

If nothing else, the iPhone is calling more attention to the fact that most people will be using web applications from a handheld device. The leader at this so far appears to be Opera Software of Norway with it's new Opera mini browser which works on nearly any mobile phone. A very positive story about surfing on your phone appeared in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. I recommend reading it. The point of the story was that people using a handheld device will expect to be able to have full access to the web, not just the content and applications that Verizon or AT&T or Sprint have "approved". The operators argue it is "for your own protection" and there is an argument there but somehow we have thrived with full access to the web with our PC without getting approval from our Internet Service Provider when we want to add something new. That is how it has to be for handhelds.

Apple has taken a good step in the right direction but by not opening up the phone to developers like Palm and Microsoft have done, the iPhone is totally dependent on web applications. In addition the iPhone has no local storage which means your data has to be on a server somewhere. It is very much like the "thin client" model that Oracle, IBM and others tried some years ago. It was not successful because the network was not as reliable, ubiquitous, and fast as assumed. Now with the iPhone we have AT&T -- without a doubt the weakest part of the product. It will be a horse race to see if AT&T can improve it's slow and spotty network and if WiFi can continue toward ubiquity in time to make the iPhone a superior choice to Palm, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, et al who have handhelds with local storage, multiple networks to choose from, and an application interface to allow building local applications.

I already miss the Treo where I had quite a few applications. For example, an application called Worldmate acted as my travel assistant -- it converted currencies, times, and all units of measure, kept track of weather and flight itineraries, and provided many other useful tools. Another application called Healthfile allowed me to store all my medications, doctor visits, blood pressure, blood chemistry, tests, etc. Both of these appllications stored data on the storage card on the Treo and allowed me to synchronize the data with my ThinkPad. The applications are available on more than a dozen different phone brands. The iPhone does not have them. Could it have them as web apps with the data stored on a server somewhere? Yes, definitely, but only if WiFi or AT&T are available. In the long run I am optimistic. In the next year or two I am not so sure. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Other patrickWeb stories about the iPhone

Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone August 3, 2007 05:05 PM

Friday, July 13, 2007

iPhone - Update No. 4

Mobile phone After a week of using the iPhone, I remain captivated, but less so. As I gain more experience with the elegantly designed jewel, I am more impressed but also begin to see some shortcomings. My primary and secondary email accounts work fine with the iPhone but it requires having two mailboxes instead of consolidating into one like other email clients. When deleting things in a list -- such as old emails -- you have to do it one at a time. When scrolling through the contact list you can't key bsm and get Bill Smith. You have to scroll through all the s's. Synchronizing photos with Adobe Photoshop Elements and grabbing new photos from the iPhone are both mysteries to me at this point. I know they can be done and am confident I will figure it out but these things are not as intuitive as the rest of the iPhone. As for shortcomings generally, I am confident that there will be updates via iTunes that will render the iPhone better and better over the months ahead. Remember, iTunes is on release 7.3. Continuous improvement seems to be a mantra for all things iApple.

The most significant shortcoming of the iPhone is definitely AT&T. My greatest fear came true when I got back to Connecticut after having taken initial delivery of the iPhone in Pennsylvania. There is no usable AT&T signal at my house. If I get in the car and drive a short distance things are fine. It also worked well in Stamford, CT and Washington, DC where I had meetings this week. I am sure it will work fine in all major cities. I do have a landline but at times it is nice to be able to make and receive mobile calls at home. I am no fan of Verizon but they do have better coverage in many areas. Also, when connected to the AT&T network the performance is not good. AT&T claims to be adding towers and fine tuning their network. I hope so.

The good news is the WiFi feature of the iPhone. Whether it is my home wireless or one at a hotel or airport, the iPhone connects very smoothly and remembers how to connect automatically the next time. The use of email, weather and stock updates and of course the web are all automatically handled by WiFi if it is available. JiWire is now listing 150,958 free and paid WiFi hotspots in 136 countries. Stay tuned for an update on other developments in WiFi.

Internet Technology, Mobile, WiFi, iPhone July 13, 2007 12:05 PM

Monday, July 9, 2007

iPhone - continued

Cell phone A number of people commented about the mini review of the iPhone from yesterday. Early experience from others mostly matches mine but some have pointed out things I missed -- both positive and negative. After another day of use I am also learning new things that you can or can't do. One thing I don't like is the way SMS works. A list of your prior messages is available but I have not been able to figure out how to send another message to someone in the list without having to key in their name again. With regard to Safari it was pointed out to me that you can zoom the screen. You can either double-tap on the screen or use two fingers to touch and either pinch or reverse- pinch. If you want to see a "pinch" in action take a look here. The zoom is a very nice feature but I still find the browser to be quirky. I suspect it will be compared to the new Opera mini version 4 which is now in beta. All things considered after the first few days, I am still captivated by the iPhone. I am sure many more things will be learned in the days ahead. I especially look forward to seeing some new applications become available. One thing I suspect many people would like to see is a chat client. Meebo works through the browser but it is not really designed for mobile.

Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone July 9, 2007 05:37 PM

Sunday, July 8, 2007

iPhone Out of the Bottle

Back in January I said I couldn't wait to get an iPhone. Of course, I did wait, but not in line. The order was placed online the evening of June 29th and the confirming email said shipping would be within 2-4 weeks. Much to my surprise the iPhone left Shenzhen, China six days later and after Fedex stops in Anchorage, Indianapolis, Allentown, and Pittston the amazing logistics system dropped off the iPhone at the lakehouse the next day, Friday. From late that morning through the afternoon I was captivated.

I don't claim to a product reviewer but this posting will be my attempt to share reactions and opinions about the iPhone. The bottom line is a big "thumbs up" -- my expectations have been exceeded, especially with regard to the sleek look and feel and the ease of entering text on the flat screen.

The Phone. Activation of cell phones has generally gotten much easier than it used to be but for the iPhone with AT&T it was truly simple. I had already upgraded iTunes to the latest version which supports the iPhone. I placed the iPhone in the cradle and plugged the USB cable into the ThinkPad and followed the directions on the neatly laid out pages in iTunes. Within minutes I had a new mobile phone number and my contacts, emails accounts, and calendar had all been synchronized. My mother received the first call and the quality was crystal clear. One thing I don't like about the iPhone is the exclusive arrangement with AT&T. The iPhone has a SIM (Subscriber Identify Module) card but you can't take it out. Customers should have a choice to change from AT&T to T-Mobile or other GSM operators around the world and I hope
Apple decides to open the iPhone to more operators over time. In spite of the AT&T lock-in and their slow network, I am pleasantly surprised by the coverage for both voice and data. (The Palm Treo 700P with Verizon gets no data coverage at places where I spend a lot of time. The phone features are a joy -- favorites list, call list, easily searchable contacts, large keypad, and simple voicemail setup and use. The speakerphone is very high quality. I have to say that so far I find it a really great phone and much easier to use than the Palm Treo, which had been my favorite of many phones I have tried over the years. The Palm has deeper functions, like details on each call in the call list showing date and length of call. Nice but can't say I have used that feature more than once or twice. The iPhone has the things you really need and the functionality is intuitive and easy to use.

WiFi. Over time the best feature of all may be the iPhone WiFi support. I have been writing here for years about the ubiquity of WiFi and it is truly happening -- JiWire is now listing 150,195 WiFi hotspots in 135 countries. The iPhone is not the first mobile device to offer WiFi but, once again, the simplicity of the implementation is simple to exploit. I keep my WAP SSID (the wireless access point service set ID)is private by turning off the broadcast "feature", so the signal was not visible. After turning WiFi "on" and entering the SSID and they WEP key, I pressed "Join" and in seconds I was connected. The iPhone automatically switches between the AT&T network and WiFi, if a signal is available. The iPhone remembers the WiFi connections you have made and automatically connects using your authentication data. With more and more WAPs out there WiFi will be used more and more with the obvious benefit of significantly faster speed.

SMS and email. SMS is very easy to use. It is integrated with your contact list. Just browsing through your contacts and a press on the mobile phone number and you are ready to send your text message. A favorites list is maintained for those with whom you message a lot. The email support is so simple that I wasn't sure it was working. Using the AT&T network or WiFi if available, email from all your accounts are retrieved every fifteen minutes. You can have the latest 25 or up to 200 at your fingertips. Scrolling through them is a breeze and you can set a large font to make them really easy to read. Some people prefer the Blackberry service but I have favored Palm for years -- until the iPhone. It is significantly easier to use. One drawback is that Thunderbird is not supported.

Browser. The Safari web browser is probably the weakest feature of the iPhone. The nice part is that if you just turn the iPhone sideways it changes the display to the wider view. Scrolling is a breeze and the .com button speeds up entering URLs. Bookmarks are synchronized through iTunes to the desktop version of Safari. You can choose to sync with Internet Explorer instead -- can not imagine why anyone would want to do that -- but there is no choice of syncing with Opera or Firefox. I found the adjustment of font size to be erratic -- sometimes works and sometimes not -- and most of the web sites I have visited on the iPhone are unreadable, including some sites that claim to be "m dot" mobile web sites. Maybe I will master how to do this. Safari, at this stage, is not nearly as good as Opera on mobile or desktop nor Firefox on the desktop. On the many mobile phones where it is available the Opera mobile browser is far better than Safari and Opera Mini works well on nearly any phone -- and "mini" does not require a $500 high-end phone. Most people don't spend a lot of time surfing the web with their phone but that is changing. When it comes to web browsing, the iPhone is a great step but it has a lot of catching up to do.

Entering text. A lot of the pre-launch speculation suggested that entering text without a keyboard would be very difficult. I have not found that to be the case. To the contrary, once you get the hang of it, it becomes quite easy. There are a lot of smarts built in that guess at what you trying to enter and if it gets it right you just tap the space bar and continue on. There are a number of shortcuts that speed things along. A picture is worth a thousand words so if you have doubts watch the video.

Video and Maps. Speaking of video, the iPhone has YouTube built in and if you are in range of a WiFi signal then watching movie clips (in the widescreen mode) is enjoyable. Google maps is also built in and just tapping the screen zooms in to what you want.

Photos. Most mobile phones can take pictures and display albums but, once again, the iPhone has made it really simple. Scrolling through your pictures with your finger is fun and turning the phone sideways gives you the widescreen view. Maybe the novelty will wear off but I am quite impressed. The camera doesn't have any options, like zooming, that I have found. Push one button to take a picture and one to see the pictures you have already taken. An animated shutter opens and closes. The pictures are 1,200 x 1,600. There is no flash, so low light situations will not produce good photos.

iPod. In some ways the iPod feature of the iPhone is better than the iPod itself. You can sync selected playlists and listen to music while you are surfing or checking email. The built in speaker phone is better than expected fidelity. It is amazing how people are complaining that the storage is "only" 8 gigabytes. Obviously the capacity will grow to 16, 32 and at some point a terabyte. I started out with 1,200 songs, a hundred pictures, 1,500 contacts, my calendar and email. 1,200 songs is plenty enough for me when I am mobile. I may end up reducing the number of songs and add more pictures. At home or traveling with the ThinkPad I can listen to the full library and albums. The limited storage and no removable storage card will be an issue for some but not for most.

Stocks and weather. In partnership with Yahoo! there are built-in stock and weather applications. You can easily add as many stocks and locations as you want and then scroll through them with a glide of your finger. You can select the time period for graphs of stock prices. If you click for more weather or stock information the browser opens and takes you directly to the right page at Yahoo! Stocks and weather are available on many mobile phones but the integration and simplicity on the iPhone is impressive.

Security. Even with "just" 8 gigabytes of information, there is always the worry of losing your mobile phone. The iPhone -- as an option -- lets you turn on a passcode feature and after a minute of idle time goes by you have to enter the 4 digit code to unlock the phone.

Applications. The strength of the Palm has always been the availability of a very large number of applications. the iPhone, at this stage, only has the ones that most people need, but it is clear that there will be many. By supporting mobile web standards in the desktop version of Safari, developers will be able to create applications which look and behave just like the applications built into the iPhone, and which can seamlessly access iPhone’s services, including making a phone call, sending an email and displaying a location in Google Maps. I would prefer a more open approach but it is clear that Apple and AT&T only want extend capabilities that they feel will not compromise reliability or security. The good news is that the iPhone is a wake-up call for mobile device makers and network operators. Hopefully they will respond and increase competition. I expect that within six months there will be a lot of new iPhone applications to choose from.

Synchronization. The word may be hackneyed but on the iPhone it is truly seamless. You get home or to the hotel and connect your iPhone to the ThinkPad, iTunes automatically starts if it isn't running and all your music, contacts, calendar, and photos are synchronized.

Settings. One feature I really like is that all the settings, options and preferences are in one place -- just tap the "Settings" button. On the Palm 700W with I found the complexity overwhelming at times and Windows Mobile unusable. Too many settings, options and preferences scattered across the various applications. The Palm OS is better but has the same basic problem. The iPhone has an operating system too, but it is transparent. Most people will not know or care about it because they don't have to. I have yet to "reboot" the iPhone. If things get really gummed up you can restore the phone to factory settings through iTunes and then re-sync your data.

Overall. Looks like Apple has hit a home run with the iPhone and raised the competitive bar quite a bit. In some ways there is nothing revolutionary -- except when it comes to holding it and using it. It is much more slender than I expected and it is a joy to use. While Microsoft is trying to take Windows to the mobile phone, Apple is trying to hide complexity and make the device simple and fun to use. After two days of use I am sold. Maybe I will get disappointed as I use it more. At this point I would say that within a week I will have a Palm Treo and an iPod for sale on eBay.

January patrickWeb story about the iPhone

Internet Technology, Mobile, iPhone July 8, 2007 06:50 PM

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

China 2007 - Part 4

Cruise ship The Viking River Cruise began in Maoping and proceeded for 612 km (380 miles) along the Yangtze River. The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America.Some of the cities -- there are 185 located throughout the Yangtze River area -- visited along the way included Badong, Wushan, Fengdu, Wanxian, Shibaozhai, Fengjie, Fuling, and Chongqing (the largest city in the world) where the cruise ended. The scenery along the way was mostly beautiful and included massive construction projects at nearly every bend. New roads, new bridges, and new skyscrapers interspersed with ancient pagodas, vegetable crops, and coal storage bins. If there is one thing noticeable around China it is coal. In the early morning before the crew gets to wipe them off you can brush your hand across the ships railings and you will find them covered in black dust.

The next to the last day of the Yangtze River cruise started out with a tour of Fengdu. The original Fengdu was built over 1800 years ago but now it has become an island as a result of the Three Gorges Dam project. I would call our visit a cultural tour. A Chinese city of a million people is considered to be a small city -- Fengdu county was "just" 780,000 people and the city a mere 90,000 (four times bigger than where I live). The reason for the stop in Fengdu is that it is a model of the relocation of people whose homes and farms were lost to the rising Yangtze. The city is just six years old and it is very nice.

We started out at Fengdu Zhaohua Gongyuan (Fengdu Cultural Garden) where we were entertained by a group of retirees who played music, sang and danced. They all had constant smiles on their faces were very friendly. Some of the tourists joined in the singing and dancing (see photo gallery). We then visited a center city area where there were shops of all kinds including many mobile telephone shops. The last stop of the morning tour was at a farmer's market. There were many things there that I have not seen before let alone consider eating. The tour guide said that the Chinese eat anything with wings except airplanes and anything with four legs except chairs. The local people were all very friendly and enjoyed having their picture taken. The children liked to say "hello" and wave to tourists. I had a very good feeling about the people of China. Unfortunately there were a number of beggars also -- with indescribable physical disfigurement. The tour guide said that needy people are provided for by the government but that they beg to seek "extra" income. The government forbids begging but apparently there is no enforcement. On a more positive note, the retirees receive $200 per month and seemed quite content with their lives.

Note: Mobile is quite plentiful and inexpensive in China. I bought a SIM card for the Palm Treo for $23 that included 200 minutes and worked everywhere in Hong Kong. The Chinese have adopted GSM mobile technology like almost the whole world (except for Verizon). SIM cards were available at tourist sites and virtually everywhere in China. They are sold mostly for local use even though they are technically able to be used globally. I went into a China Mobile store in Fengdu to buy a SIM card that would support data services but there was no English spoken and I could not communicate what I wanted. The signal strength on the Palm Treo was solid throughout the entire trip, and far better than what I have at home. The appearance of cell phone towers throughout the country is not an issue like it is in the U.S. where nobody wants one within site of where they live.

China Mobile, which as the world's largest wireless company claims that it has a mind-boggling 480 million customers and says that it expects to continue adding four million to five million new subscribers every month. Their revenueper user will decline as they attract more subscribers from rural areas. Competition from Internet-based phone service is also forcing them to reduce rates. Nice when you can make things up on volume. China Mobile's market capitalization is about $185 billion, bigger than any other wireless company, and second only to AT&T in the broader telecommunications business. It may be a communist government but free enterprise is thriving.

Index for the trip to China (May 2007)

Mobile, Travels May 15, 2007 10:37 PM

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

iPhone

A friend of mine who knows a lot about investing told me years ago to not confuse a great company with a great stock. Apple Inc. finished the day at $97 per share which is 42.79 times earnings and represents a market capitalization of $83.4 billion, roughly double the value of Motorola. So I am not so sure it is a great stock at $97 but it surely is doing great things -- things that investors and consumers really like.

Sales growth for the iPod dropped off to a mere 75% rate for the fiscal year compared to 409% growth the year before. The iPod has achieved 62% market share and the launch of Microsoft's Zune does not seem to have made a dent. Meanwhile Apple has sold two billion songs, 50 million television shows and 1.3 million movies through iTunes. Potentially even more significant is the new iPhone which Steve Jobs unveiled at Macworld in San Francisco on Tuesday.

There is a lot to like about the iPhone and it may potentially change the direction of mobile phones in a major way and give a lot of competition to Palm and Blackberry "smart phones". The iPhone features a 3.5 inch touch-screen display and it is really smart. Various sensors allow the iPhone to detect when you hold it up to your ear so it can turn off the display and to automatically change the orientation of the display depending on whether you are holding it horizontally or vertically. The iPhone has only one button. compared to more than forty on existing high-end phones. If it is as easy to use as an iPod, I think it will be a real winner, not only as a way to enjoy music, podcasts, TV shows, and movies but also surfing the web, looking up contacts and managing email and text messages.

There is one thing that I don't like about the iPhone and that is the exclusive arrangement with Cingular. A Cingular phone works in many countries around the world -- but it doesn't work where I live because there is no signal. I also don't like the fact that Apple has made an exclusive deal. Nice for them but it takes choice away from the users. The iPhone has a slot where you put the Cingular SIM (Subscriber Identigy Module) card -- looks like the chip in a smartcard -- that contains your Cingular account identity. People should have a choice to change from Cingular to T-Mobile or other GSM operators around the world. If you want to change to a different operator, you get another card and put it in the iPhone. (When I am in Norway I put a Ventelo card in my Palm 680). If a better iPhone comes along you take the card and put it in the new phone and your new phone then assumes your account identity from the card.

The iPhone also has a browser for surfing the web. This is something you can already do by using Opera Mini and you do not need a $500 high-end phone to do it. Most people don't spend a lot of time surfing the web with their phone but that is changing. Opera Mini already has millions of users and the hype of the iPhone will probably boost mini users even more.

All in all, the iPhone sounds really good and I can't wait to get one. Many of us are now accustomed to synching our music between our desktop or laptop and our iPod. Many of us also sync between a handheld device and our computer. In theory, the iPod will mean syncing with just one device. I would say Apple has just raised the bar in a major way.

Epilogue: The new Apple TV sounds pretty good also. More on that later.

Mobile January 10, 2007 07:26 PM

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Holmenkollen

Toolbox The snow on Wednesday was melting fast, the temperature was in the fifties, and the motorcycle ride was nice. Seemed almost like Spring, until I landed the next morning in blowing snow in Oslo, Norway. The snow has been continuous for the past two days but it does not seem to slow the Norwegians down even a little. I have seen kids on skis going up hill and senior citizens navigating the streets using ski poles instead of walkers. Where I am staying in Holmenkollen, near the famous Olympic ski jump, the hotel is full of kids ready to participate in a national ski competition this weekend. While they are flying down the slopes tomorrow, I will be flying to Copenhagen and then on to Newark, New Jersey and home.

The purpose of the trip was to visit with Opera Software ASA where I am a board member. Opera has a lot of exciting things going on. Just this week they announced that it will deliver the Web to Nintendo Dual Screen users. The Opera browser will be sold as a DS card (think of it as a game cartridge). Users simply insert the card into the Wi-Fi enabled Nintendo DS, connect to a network, and begin browsing on two screens. In the U.S. most people don't browse on any handheld screens and now the Japanese are doing it on two screens!

Potentially even more profound is that Opera Software and Freedom Media just announced the world's first mobile AJAX application using Opera as a "platform". In a nutshell AJAX is a set of Internet standards that allow the creation of applications that act and feel as though they are desktop applications, but they are actually web pages residing on a server somewhere on the Internet. After the web page is loaded, it quietly works behind the scenes to deliver data to the web page so that rather than "re-loading" a web page, the content of the page is changed in front of your eyes. Opera calls this new kind of application "Opera Widgets". This is the beginning of something big. What is profound about Opera widgets is that since they "live" on a web server, you can access them from anywhere -- your PC, Mac, Linux setop box, game console, PDA, or your mobile phone. Stay tuned.

It is now Saturday morning and still snowing. If I thought the hotel was crowded with young people, it was nothing compared to the airport. Seems that every family in Norway is on their way to somewhere for a winter break. I asked one young man where he was headed and he said Florida. He was ready for a break from one of the world's great winter wonderlands. SAS hosed downed the wings really well before we took off in the snow.

Internet Technology, Mobile, Travels February 18, 2006 10:12 AM

Sunday, February 12, 2006

The MooBella Demo

People at a conference It was such an exciting week at Demo that it is hard to summarize. There are many reviews of the conference on the web and you can find some of them at Kaboodle (one of the companies that debuted at Demo). There were sixty-eight companies showing off their latest and greatest -- the Demo site has the full list with links to the companies, so if you want to know what is hot take a look here and click the + sign next to Demo 2006 at the top right of the page.

The product least expected but perhaps most enjoyed by the 700+ attendees was the MooBella virtual ice cream vending machine. After attendees made touch-panel choices from up to 96 combinations of flavors and mix-ins, the machine mixed and instantly froze fresh ingredients to produce a delicious scoop of ice cream within 45 seconds. The only drawback I could see was that there was no chocolate. Apparently, that flavor (favorite of 20% of the market) poses special challenges due to the viscosity of cocoa powder.

There were a number of themes that emerged at DEMO. Collaboration was one. Chris Shipley said that 2006 will be the year of collaboration. Demos included virtual meeting platforms, tools that in effect allow people to act as librarians and share their findings with others, and tools for collaborative software development. Another theme was vertical search. Google and Yahoo! are great but highly specialized searches offer much better results. Examples shown included shopping, entertainment, software code, healthcare, and politics.

Mobile applications are still somewhat limited by tiny screens but innovative new ideas were shown that make cell phones more useful than ever. One company showed a phone being used as a personal trainer during exercise. It kept track of your pace and location and plotted results on the screen. Another small device was shown that allows complete control over the phone, music, and every aspect of things going on in the house.

Security solutions were shown to protect our identity, protect our networks, stop spam and viruses at the door, and diagnose Internet traffic and catch malware before it gets to our systems. Biometric technologies were shown to allow secure payment and authentication. I look forward to some of these technologies being used in healthcare.

Through two FutureScan panels I attempted to help the audience see the future of security and computational biology. On the security panel we discussed the general state of Internet security (not healthy) but more importantly some of the research that may lead to a healthier net. To me the most promising thing is PKI. I have written much about this here. The computational biology panel was mind-blowing for most of us. Systems biology models, redesigning proteins, and learning about our genetic history will affect all of our lives. There was a great deal of interest in The Genographic Project. (A dozen DNA kits were given to the audience -- you can get your own here). If you are interested in learning more about the human genome, the panelists recommended Genome by Matt Ridley. I am reading it now. We were all extremely fortunate to have had some of the world's leading experts share their thoughts on the panels. You can find links to all the panelists here.

The most asked question between Demo attendees at breaks and meals is "See anything interesting?". Chris Shipley, Executive Producer of the DEMO Conferences, introduced sixty-eight companies -- there was definitely something for everybody. I was not able to visit all the companies or hear all of their pitches, but at the end of this story I will mention eleven companies that I found most interesting -- "My Top Ten Picks"

Conferences, Healthcare, Internet Technology, Media, Mobile, Music, People, Personal Computing, Public Policy February 12, 2006 01:38 PM

Saturday, January 28, 2006

The Web Is Getting Ubiquitous

Cell phone Two important developments in the first month of the year are enabling the web to move a few steps closer to ubiquity. Most mobile phones do not have a web browser -- or if they do have one it likely does not work very well. Generally, the mobile browsing speed has been slow and the displays hard to read because the pages were designed for a PC browser. Those shortcomings have changed dramatically with the introduction of Opera Mini.

The Oslo, Norway based Opera Software has announced the worldwide release of Opera Mini, a full Web browser that runs on almost every mobile phone, including low-end handsets -- in other words you don't need a $500 "Personal Digital Assistant" to get a great browser. This is quite a breakthrough. Trials of Opera Mini in the Nordics and in Germany during the fall of 2005 resulted in a user base of more than one million people. You can get more information and download instructions at the Opera Mini site. For most users, it is as simple as downloading a new ringtone.

Opera Mini was designed with mobile users in mind. "Mini" compresses Web pages by up to 80% and reformats them using an Opera developed technology called Small-Screen Rendering. SSR makes web pages fast loading and easy to read. It can also save money if you are paying your carrier for data "by the byte". On the Mini homepage you will see the familiar Google search box. Mini also has a customizable bookmark list to make it easy to save and surf your favorite sites. If your mobile phone supports EV-DO or WiFi you will find that surfing the web on a handheld device is a very nice experience. Opera Mini is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Finnish. Get the full story at opera.com.

Speaking of WiFi, wireless access points -- known as hotspots -- are continuing to flourish -- as predicted here for a number of years. The number of worldwide hotspots listed in JiWire's online directory has now surpassed 100,000. The growth since a year ago was 87 percent -- from 53,779 hotspots in 93 countries, to 100,335 locations in 115 countries. In spite of the early start, America has only about a third of the hotspots. The top cities are Seoul, Tokyo, London, and Paris. The good news is the growing availability. In spite of lobbying by telecommunications companies to prevent cities from offering free WiFi, and despite predictions that WiFi could not "scale", the growth continues. With the introduction of the new Opera Mini browser, continued price-performance of mobile phones, and the spread of WiFi, we are getting close to the vision of a fast, always-on, everywhere, natural, easy, intelligent, and trusted Internet.

Other patrickWeb stories about WiFi
Other patrickWeb stories about Internet Technology

Internet Technology, Mobile, WiFi January 28, 2006 10:22 AM

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Internet Phones

Telephone Today's Wall Street Journal story, "Web Phones Go Unplugged", summed it up pretty well. There is a convergence taking place between cell phones and Internet phones. Utopia has not quite arrived but at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month there was a slew of new announcements surrounding Vonage, Skype, and various new handsets. The "ideal" phone is very close.

Imagine that your "cell phone" is on your belt or in your pocket. You are at home. When you make a call, the connection goes through your DSL or Cable Modem over the Internet and through one of the VoIP providers such as Vonage. When the phone "rings", you will hear a voice saying who is calling and if you look at the phone you will see a picture of the person and the person will have a unique "ring" associated with them so you can tell just from the ring. When you get in the car with your Bluetooth headset on, you will be using the same phone that you were using in the house except that phone calls will use the cellular network. When you arrive at the airport, the phone will pick up the free WiFi service being offered and you will once again be able to use Vonage or Skype for unlimited long distance calling.

Some would argue that the environment I have described is already here. There are in fact quite a few products and services available. However, there are a few wrinkles. A seamless 911 system is not quite there. There are still some places you might be that have no reliable signal of any kind. A power failure at home can cut you off from communications if you don't have a good cellular signal or if your phone is dependent on a base station. Some telecommunications providers and airport operators are attempting to block free WiFi services. Finally, some of the devices have so many features that they are hard to adapt to for many people. In spite of the wrinkles, we are getting very close to the point where the Internet is pervasive in our lives for all forms of communications and interactions. I am sure we will see and hear much more about all this at the upcoming DEMO conference.

Other patrickWeb stories about Long Distance

Conferences, Gadgets, Home Automation, Internet Technology, Mobile January 12, 2006 08:29 AM

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

iTrike Riding

Trike It was not exactly a sunny and warm day but, as long as the roads are dry, I like to go out for a motorcycle ride on Sunday afternoons. Winter riding is actually very nice and refreshing -- as long as you have the electric vest and gloves plugged in. They really did the job today when the wind chill was in was single digit territory. Today's ride was on the trike through lower Westchester County, New York and was especially enjoyable because I listened to some great music from the Harley-Davidson MP3 player. The music came from iTunes, hence the term "iTrike Riding". First I will review the motorcycling and digital technology involved and then discuss some of the issues and implications. (read more)

Gadgets, Mobile, Motorcycles, Music, Personal Computing December 15, 2004 10:06 AM

Sunday, November 7, 2004

Sony Ericsson P910a

The Sony Ericsson P910a is a joy so far. The 910a is a mobile phone and also a personal digital assistant (PDA). I actually think of it as my mobile office. It not only can receive email, it automatically checks for new email on whatever schedule you specify. It is "push email" ready. That is a fancy term that means it can use the BlackBerry service. In other words, it can be a BlackBerry without you having a BlackBerry. Nothing wrong with the BlackBerry -- they are great -- but I have always preferred more computer-like devices. The feature of the P910a I find most innovative is the "flip" lid. On the outside it has the normal keys you would expect on a mobile phone. Flip it down, and it has a full QWERTY keyboard on the reverse side. As you would expect it has a digital and video VGA camera. The 320x208 color screen is dazzling with a sharp and bright 262K colors. All in all, Sony Ericsson has done a really good job of integrating the best of everything.

The list of features is long: Picture editor, Sound recorder, Picture gallery, Picture Phonebook, Picture wallpaper, Backlit display, email, SMS long (Text Messaging), MMS (Multimedia Messaging), Video streaming (for watching the news), Handwriting recognition, Predictive text input, MP3 Audio, MPEG4 Video,
Java™, Bluetooth™ wireless technology, Infrared port, GPRS for High Speed Data, USB support, Vibrating Alert, Touchscreen, the innovative Jog Dial, Voice control, Calculator, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Speaker phone, and Alarm clock just to name a few. And of course it has great web surfing with the Opera browser. The Opera browser is really what drove me to the P900 and now the P910a. I was not enthusiastic about using the web with a mobile phone for quite a few years, primarily because the browsers that mobile operators provided were really crude, to put it mildly. The Opera mobile browser is an Internet standards-based browser. You have to try it to believe it (on the desktop too).

The Memory Stick Duo™ allows you to store pictures, movies, music, and files of any type. You can use the P910a to create and review spreadsheets, read pdf files, and of course store email and web pages. Having a good-sized storage medium makes all of this very practical. The unit comes with 32 megabytes but you can add much more at attractive prices. I got a half-gigabyte memory stick from memorysuppliers.com They had a very good price and a good web site.

The most important factor of all about the P910a was the availability of the 850MHz GSM Network -- in addition to GSM 1800 and GSM 1900. The P900 had 900/1800/1900, which is great in Europe but very poor in the U.S. I have seen a huge improvement in signal strength since switching to the 910a. The really neat thing about GSM phones is that you can change without even talking to the operator. In my case, this is a big plus because AT&T Wireless is very hard to reach and once you connect with them they often do not know too much about anything technical. With a GSM phone, you just take the SIM card out of the old phone, put it in the new phone, and you are finished. Turn it on and it works.

Mobile November 7, 2004 06:49 PM

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

One Million Downloads

Opera Software logo The Opera browser has become even more popular since all the bad press about how insecure Internet Explorer is. If the Opera desktop browser is red hot, the Opera Mobile browser is white hot. Earlier this week, Opera Software announced its one millionth download of Opera Mobile from www.opera.com. This is in addition to the many more copies that have been downloaded from business partner and other download sites around the world. Opera is revolutionizing the Web browsing experience on mobile phones. I have to admit that prior to using Opera I was not a fan of surfing the web on the Handspring Treo 600 . After getting the Sony Ericsson P900, which comes with Opera pre-loaded, my attitude changed completely. I showed the browser to a number of people at DemoMobile, and to a person, they were quite impressed.

The reasons the Opera browser makes such a big difference are twofold. One is that it supports Internet standards including CSS. The other is SSR (Small-Screen Rendering), the technology that displays Web pages in a way that is entirely customized to best suit a handheld device's screen size and resolution. The Opera browser is very popular in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Recent deals made with Motorola and Qualcomm and the announcement by Opera that it is porting to the Microsoft smartphone platform will make Opera much more available in North America.