I was a happy user of AT&T GoPhone for the past three months. That ended today.

Up until November 12, AT&T provided unlimited monthly data service as a pay-as-you-go option for $19.99 per month. Once you bought this service, you could use either the 3G or EDGE wireless data networks.

I was gladly buying this service package each month because I was able to use the really fantastic JoikuSpot application to turn my Nokia E71 into a 3G-powered ad hoc WiFi access point that I carried in my pocket.

I guess enough bloggers talked about what a great deal the Go Phone monthly data service package was, because AT&T did away with this package on November 12. Some people in the blogosphere heard about this in early October, as evidenced by the article AT&T hangs up on unlimited data GoPhone option that appeared on jkOnTheRun.com. I missed it because, as you know, I've been really busy.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My latest post on O'Reilly's Inside iPhone is A Glimpse of Our Tethering Future where I recount my experiences working with a Nokia E71 and an application called JoikuSpot that turns the E71 into a 3G-powered ad hoc WiFi access point that you can carry in your pocket.

My use of the Nokia E71 is courtesy of the Nokia Blogger Relations Program.

After a solid week of 3G phone use with laptop (and iPhone) tethering, I've convinced myself that my concerns about iPhone battery consumption while running an application like Netshare from Nullriver are overblown. This can work and any increased battery use can be managed.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I haven't really talked about AirCell or its Gogo inflight Internet access service since it first became available on American Airlines. But Andy Abramson turned me on to a little experiment with the service that he and Laptop Magazine's Joanna Stern did yesterday that is absolutely worthy of mention.

Andy reports that he and Joanna were able to carry on a voice conversation via Aircell Gogo while Joanna was on an American Airlines flight to New York. The service was designed to make voice communication "impossible" at the airlines' requests, but Andy concluded that it would be possible if he used a Flash-based voice application like Phweet and he was right.

Joanna liveblogged the flight. Her post goes through all the different communication services she tried over her five-hour flight, and how they performed.

Kudos to Andy and Joanna for their persistence. They proved once again that "impossible" is a hard claim to make about any aspect of technology. This is proof of the old saying, where there's a will, there's a way.

Andy likes to tell people that he's not an engineer type of person, but he has an encyclopedic knowledge of the wireless services and applications that are available.

I reached out to Andy over this past weekend to ask what he thought the best way to access the Internet was from a moving train along The Northeast Corridor. Before speaking to him, I was lead to believe that I needed a wireless data card for my laptop, a $60 per month service plan, and a two-year contract.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

My latest Inside iPhone post is called How an iPhone Can Help You Be More Productive When Commuting Via Mass Transit. One of the things I talk about in that post is the power of using location-based contexts within the OmniFocus for iPhone application.

I realized while writing the Inside iPhone piece that setting locations for contexts within OmniFocus for iPhone 1.0.1 is not straightforward. So I thought I would expand upon that issue here in this post.

The Fundimentals of Context Location

Each context within OmniFocus for iPhone can have a location associated with it. The location can be:

• the iPhone's current location,
• a street address,
• an address associated with a contact in the Address Book, or
• a business name retrieved from a search conducted using Google.

The location of contexts is set on a hierarchical basis, so I set the location of my home at the "Home" level of the context tree rather than at each sub-context.

Errands Context: Set locations of the contexts in the
Errands list by tapping "Edit" on this screen.

Establishing a Context Location

I set the location of a context by tapping on the "Contexts" choice on the OmniFocus home screen. OmniFocus presents the top level of my context hierarchy. I descend through the context hierarchy by tapping until I reach the list of contexts containing the context whose location I want to set.

I'm talking about my "Errands" contexts in this article. These are stores and service providers that I do business with often. Most of them have definite physical locations that I go to on a regular basis.

In this article, we're talking about my "Target" context. This is where I put my shopping list of products I buy at a Target Store.

If I want to set the location of the "Target" context, I need to stay on this screen and tap the "Edit" button. Once I tap "Edit", I can tap the "Target" element in the list and go to the screen where I set the location of the Target context.

Continue reading "Assigning Locations to OmniFocus iPhone Contexts" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was happy to find out that the iPhone 3G Rate Plans are in line with my previous estimate of $86 for 450 minutes of talk, unlimited 3G data, and 200 SMS messages. From the reaction on other blogs, such as The Apple Phone Show, you'd think that they expected AT&T to lower the rates somewhat below the rates signaled by Ralph de la Vega of AT&T Mobility in an interview he did with Om Malik back in early June.

I've talked to a few friends, and the affect this is having on them is as follows:

• Quite a few AT&T customers who already have iPhones will be sticking with their current iPhones for some period of time beyond July 11. They feel that they have a good deal now from a billing perspective, and think that $15+ extra per month is a little steep for the privilege of 3G speed and on-board GPS.

  This is especially the case since almost all iPhone users know that they will get most of the benefits of the iPhone 2.0 firmware also.

• Several non-iPhone smartphone users will be switching to the iPhone on or about July 15. If they are AT&T customers, they are already paying $86 per month or more to use a BlackBerry, a Treo, or a similar device.

  My wife Kathleen is in this boat. She's a Treo 650 user because she needs ePocrates for work and that application won't be available for the iPhone until the 2.0 firmware is released and the iTunes Application Store goes live.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Cool Tool: StrollAway on Cool Tools: "... Once we got this hook, rather than just parking our stroller in the kitchen or dining room, we created a set, out-of-the-way place to store it. And since it's off the floor, that gives us more space to fill up with more baby stuff. The hook is strong (we have a Quinny Buzz stroller, which weighs abouts 15 lbs.). It doesn't require drilling or mounting into anything, since it hangs over the top a door....." Great idea.
• SightSpeed Goes Mainstream with Dell Video Chat « on Web Worker Daily: "... The SightSpeed software installed easily on my Mac, and the video conversation with Mr. Csathy was crisp, smooth and effortless as compared to any I’ve tried with Skype. He had a fancy headset, but I was just using the MacBook Pro’s built-in speakers and microphone. For once, video conferencing felt approachable to me beyond Apple iChat...." This article has a good screen cap of the theme that Dell applied to SightSpeed's software. [ Found out about the Dell / SightSpeed deal from friend Andy Abramson ]
• Access And Share Files With Box.net on The Apple Phone Show: "I have tried several online file store and share solutions since getting my iPhone almost a year ago now. Box.net seems to be the one application that has endured time. I like using it to store and share my most important files and collaborate on work. I’m still getting used to moving my workflow entirely online. I am used to have files that I can access stored locally on all of my devices. But, times they are ‘a changing. The reason I think I have continued using this service and have let others fall by the wayside is because the interface is so simple...." I have to try this.
• iPhone as Pedometer on Inside iPhone: "A short while ago, I discovered that Wii Fit could be used to track my progress as I walked on a treadmill. Wii Fit has a game where you jog in place in front of your TV to travel through a virtual landscape. Instead of bouncing up and down on the floor, I put my wiimote in my pocket, hopped on the treadmill and had a much better virtual exercise experience. And of course this got me thinking: if the wii can track movement, why can't the iPhone do the same?" Cool idea. Interesting execution.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier this month, I estimated the monthly mobile phone service cost of an iPhone 3G at $86. I included $5.00 in this estimate for a bundle of 200 SMS messages, because I had heard that AT&T Mobility was unbundling SMS messages in the data rate plans for the iPhone 3G.

In Apple Phone Show Episode 59 published last Friday, Scott Bourne argued that AT&T has not stated categorically that SMS messages would be unbundled. This is what was published in the shown notes:

AT&T has said publicly on several occasions that they are not done configuring the iphone 3G packages. Scott has asked AT&T twice what the deal is and every time the official comment has been we’re still working on them and we have plenty of time before July 11.

Because AT&T has not completed work on the deals, he is perplexed by the number of people reporting on what the packages look like in their entirety. Many bloggers are saying, "Oh, you get no SMS messages included with the basic package." And while they might very well be right in the end, we don’t know that yet. AT&T hasn’t confirmed what the packages are going to be.

I went back through my notes, trying to remember where I had read that AT&T was unbundling SMS messages in the iPhone 3G data rate plans. It turns out that the CEO of AT&T Mobility, Ralph de la Vega, told Om Malik that SMS messages would be unbundled in an interview that took place at the time of the iPhone 3G announcement:

{Om Malik:} Has there been a change in the cost of data plans?

{Ralph de la Vega:} The data plans are different on the 3G iPhone vs. the 2G iPhone. Consumers will pay $30 a month every month, while enterprises will pay $45 a month. This is what you pay us on other PDA devices such as BlackBerry Curve. The SMS messages are not bundled anymore, and you pay for what you want. Again, the prices are based on what you buy.

From there I went and looked up the current posted prices of SMS message bundles on AT&T Mobility's website and added the 200 message bundle to my price estimate.

Lots of other writers came to the same conclusion I did. But the panelists on The Apple Phone Show were adamant that their contacts at AT&T say no final decision has been made on this issue.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've seen a several tweets and articles today stating that Apple is advocating a Javascript-based Model View Controller framework for web development called SproutCore. Reports indicate that Apple based the MobileMe web application announced at WWDC on SproutCore and provided details on the framework in sessions at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference last week in San Francisco.

AppleInsider has a very good article called Apple's open secret: SproutCore is Cocoa for the Web that goes into some details about why Apple is so interested in SproutCore and why Apple may be switching some of the animation and special effects on its website to SproutCore from other frameworks like Prototype and Scriptaculous.

That article lead me to SproutCore - Feature Rich Javascript Framework, which says that SproutCore is a JavaScript implementation of the Cocoa framework commonly used in MacOS X application development.

This article in turn pointed to Cocoa for Windows + Flash Killer = SproutCore from RoughlyDrafted Magazine which explains why Apple would prefer to use HTML, Javascript, and CSS rather than Flash to implement rich internet applications on the web.

It's pretty clear from this article that Apple not only wants to avoid becoming dependent upon Flash or Silverlight so that it can control its own destiny, but that it wants to use a Javascript framework like SproutCore to build web applications that usurp some of the power of the Windows platform by making Windows less and less necessary. Check out some of the comments to this article if you want to really get into why Apple is making the strategic architecture bets that it is on the future of MacOS X.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the aftermath of the iPhone 3G announcement last Monday, a lot of people who are considering purchasing an iPhone for the first time are looking for information about AT&T rate plans that cover the iPhone 3G.

I've had an iPhone for a year, so I am very familiar with AT&T's total charges. Although iPhone 3G rates will be structured similarly, there are a few increased charges.

At the end of this article, I estimate that my monthly charges for using an iPhone 3G will be about $86. That's up $15 to 17 dollars per month from what I pay today.

Read on for the rate details and my complete monthly service cost estimate....

Continue reading "iPhone 3G Rate Plan Estimated Monthly Costs: About $86 for 450 Minutes and Unlimited Data" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

This morning I received a Nokia N78 as part of my participation in the Nokia Blogger Relations Program. I just posted a bunch of photos of unboxing the N78 to Flickr.

See more of my Nokia N78 Unboxing Photos on Flickr.
[ Photo: Dave Aiello. ]

Some of the Nokia N78's big features are a 3.2-megapixel main camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, 2 Gigabytes of microSD memory, and a free three-month subscription to Nokia's voice-guided GPS navigation system.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

On Wednesday, I visited the Panera in Levittown, PA to sip a diet soda and use their WiFi. This is supposed to be an amenity for customers. I had never taken advantage of it before.

I saw a Twitter post (aka "tweet") from someone I am following in my Twitterific window, and I wanted to know what they were talking about. I clicked on the URL that was embedded in the tweet and saw this {see the first screenshot}:

SonicWall CFS Blocking TinyURL.com:
This makes Twitter almost unusable, in my
opinion. [ Screenshot: Dave Aiello on Flickr ]

For the record, the URL depicted resolves to a YouTube copy of a Cheetos commericial. I didn't find that out until I got home and had time to look, probably 12 hours after the situation I'm describing.

At the time I thought, "There's pretty much no way I am going to remember this later today. I'll have to reread all the tweets on my 'with friends' timeline and hope that I remember this specific one." I was sure I wouldn't remember because I had a meeting with a potential client in Center City Philadelphia scheduled for around lunchtime, and those types of meetings have a tendency to clear my head of previous ancillary thoughts.

Twitter is basically unusable in this environment from a followers perspective if SonicWall decides it's not going to allow requests for any URL issued by TinyURL.com.

I considered my options and none of them looked good. I guess I could have written the tweet down and some information about the context if that was important, but I didn't think of that.

Submitting a URL Rating Request:
"... It's unfair to assume that tinyurl used in this
context is a means of obfuscation." [ Screenshot:
Dave Aiello on Flickr ]

I decided to take SonicWall's advice and submit a URL Rating Review request. In the HTML form shown in the second screenshot, I made the case that access to TinyURL should be allowed. My complete statement is as follows:

"URLs in the tinyurl.com domain are utilized by services such as twitter.com in order to minimize the total length of messages transmitted on their service. There is no way to determine what the content or nature of the ultimate destination site is. It's unfair to assume that tinyurl.com used in this context is a means of obfuscation."

I went about my business of researching my potential client and forgot about the situation until I got home. Now that a few more hours have passed, I have a couple of questions:

1. How many other actively-managed content filtering systems ban TinyURL just because it can be used to mask nasty things?
2. How does this affect penetration of Twitter into Corporate America and institutions such as schools?
3. What happens in more restrictive countries such as China? Do they ban services like TinyURL because of its potential to undermine the authority of official sources of information?

I guess it takes an experience like this for me to realize how fragile freedom of access to services on the Internet is. What I'm illustrating here is clearly a side-effect of an overly restrictive policy, but you can see the potential for this access hurdle to exist in its present form indefinitely.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Kathleen and Jimmy looking at the iPhoto
book that we ordered for her mom. The
second copy arrived today. [ Photo: Dave
Aiello on Flickr. ]

Kathleen and I took advantage of an iPhoto Custom Photo Book promotion that Apple ran for Mother's Day. We ordered Kathleen's mother a hard cover photo book. We made sure we ordered before the April 30 cut off date for standard shipping.

Something happened to the order while it was in production and it didn't ship in time for delivery last Friday. When we realized this, Kathleen called Apple Customer Service.

Kathleen told the Apple customer service agent that we ordered before the deadline and that FedEx was reporting that the shipment was not going to arrive in time for us to give it as a gift on Mother's Day.

Here's what the person at Apple Photo Services Support wrote back after receiving a message from the main customer service group:

Dear Kathleen,

Thank you for your recent Apple photo order.

I understand that you submitted your order to us in time to be received by May 11th. You may have noticed that the tracking information for your order indicates the estimated delivery date is after May 11th.

To ensure that your order is received by May 11th, your order is being reprocessed free of charge and will be sent via expedited shipping. When it ships, you will receive a separate email with the tracking number for your duplicate order. Please accept both orders as a goodwill gesture.

I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. I hope you continue to enjoy using Apple Photo Services for your creative projects. If you have any questions or concerns, please reply to this email and we will assist you further.

Thank you for being a loyal Apple customer and have a wonderful day.

Sincerely,

Sofia
Apple Photo Services Support

http://www.apple.com/support/photoservices/ww

The replacement package arrived on Friday, overnighted from Elk Grove, CA. Kathleen's mom got the gift on time and she was thrilled.

The original iPhoto book arrived via FedEx Ground on Monday. Kathleen and I get to keep a beautiful book of photos of Jimmy and us, courtesy of Apple.

The photos books we ordered are truly first rate. The service we got is unbeatable. Kathleen never mentioned that I write a blog about computer technology, or that we know anybody who works for Apple. I think we got the service that Apple would give to any customer who had the same problem.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Ode To A Burrito -- Chipotle Mexican Grill on Fast Company: "Good food wrapped in a socially responsible message has created legions of Chipotle fans -- and a superhot business. Acquired by McDonald's in 1998 when there were only 14 Chipotles, the company went public in 2006 with 500 stores and watched its stock rise from $22 to $110 in 18 months. The now-independent outfit is enjoying an 80% revenue run-up over three years....

  "Chipotle has achieved these impressive stats by spurning fast-food orthodoxy. Workers make each burrito by hand, which leads to long lines of customers waiting far beyond the four-minute industry standard. Turns out, that's not a problem for many customers." There aren't many Chipotles in Pennsylvania, but one just opened in Warrington, in the same complex with one of our two closest Wegman's. Why can't we eat there more often? [ via 37signals SVN ]
• Forwarding voicemails? on 37signals SVN: "Visual Voicemail on the iPhone is a huge step forward for voicemail, but it still feels a bit last generation. It’s still about the static message that sits in your box. You can’t forward it along, you can’t email it to yourself, you can’t even play it to someone else who’s on the phone with you." Great points.
• 15 Features of the Perfect Work Space on LifeDev: "8. No clutter - Clutter is an aesthetic problem as well as a mental problem. Cluttered work spaces give create cluttered thinking. Your mind will never be as clear as it could be with a messy, unorganized environment. This also includes your desktop clutter as well." My only question about the article is: why is "no clutter" feature number 8 and not higher on the list?
• Household: De-Clutter with a Six-Month "Maybe Box" on Lifehacker: "I can vouch for the power of hidden non-necessities. My garage has served as a de facto "Maybe" space for most of this winter, leading my house toward a serious garage sale this spring."
• The Cost of Working In a Digital World on LifeDev: "A very important article has been written by The New York Times showing the hazards of being a web worker. Without boundaries and carefult attention to our Internet usage, we can quickly find our health declining. Prolific blogger Om Malik, who suffered some life-threatening health problems late last year, shares some insights his doctor gave as to why web workers have health problems."
• #1 Song on This Date in History from Josh Hosler: "What was the #1 song on ... the day you were born? the day you graduated from high school? the day you were married? the day your child was born? the approximate date you were conceived?" Awesome site. [ via Pogue's Posts and Alltop Gadgets ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Top 7 Web Applications for Sending Large Files on Geekpreneur: "If you’ve ever had to send a large file to someone, you know the hardships that arise. Email services keep strict limits on attachment sizes. What’s more is that it’s often hard to send more than one attachment at a time. This kind of disservice has made email quite unpopular for sharing files- and thus, we have entered the age of hybrid email. The premise is simple: cut out the bulk, and just give us an easy way to send files over the internet!"

• Torvalds: Leopard file system "utter crap" on MacNN: "Linux creator Linus Torvalds recently blasted Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for having a file system that is 'complete and utter crap' at a Linux conference in Melbourne."

  The Leopard file system, technically known as HFS+, has been around in some form since the last time I was a Mac developer-- 1992. Of course Apple would like to move to something more robust. They've been building up to switch to ZFS, or some other sophisticated file system, for some time now.



• Turn Your Nokia Phone into a Wi-Fi Hotspot with JoikuSpot on Lifehacker: Who needs tethering when you can make your Series 60 phone into an ad hoc WiFi base station for your laptop? Wow.


• How to record a kickass podcast between two macs — and cheap! on A Whole Lotta Nothing: "A lot of people ask me how I do the MetaFilter Podcast.... I know they ... mean... 'what software and hardware does it take to make a decent sounding podcast?' After almost a year of regular podcasts and trying out different software and equipment, I’ve gotten the workflow down cold and I wanted to share the my way of making a good sounding podcast on the cheap. This works perfectly well for me being in Oregon and talking to my friend Jessamyn in Vermont over Skype, recording at both ends, then tossing it all into Garageband to complete the podcast." [ via 43Folders ]


• Nike SPARQ Parachute Makes You Run Faster, Eventually on Gizmodo: "The Nike SPARQ Parachute is designed to create drag 'to force athletes to push themselves harder to achieve speed' and look like a moron in Central Park." Can I use this thing on the ice sometime?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• The Complete Guide to iPhone Car Integration on iLounge.com: A great article that covers nearly every accessory for using your iPhone in the car without violating the laws requiring hands-free use of mobile phones in many parts of the USA. [ via TUAW ]
• MacBook Air review round-up on TUAW: "Ah, it is that magical time after an Apple announcement: the big media reviews are starting to roll in. As you might be aware Apple loans out new hardware to technology journalists to put through their paces.... The first few reviews are up, and they all pretty much say the same thing: the MacBook Air is really thin, and a great machine so long as you don't need the ports it doesn't have." Read the reviews anyway, if you haven't already.
• Junction Networks Well Positioned In Philly Burbs from VoIP Watch: Andy Abramson pointed out this cool little VoIP company called Junction Networks right up the road from me that I had never heard of. They provide SIP Hosting, Hosted PBX, and PSTN Gateway services. The Hosted PBX stuff is the easiest thing for me to get my head around. But who knew that these guys were out here (other than Andy)?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MacRumors reports that Garmin released a new beta version of their Bobcat GPS management tool for MacOS X. This beta of version 2.0 of the software includes the following features:

• transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes between a Mac and Garmin GPS device,
• manage maps and DRM keys for transfer to a Garmin GPS, and
• search for points of interest on the Mac and transfer the locations to your Garmin GPS.

It wasn't too long ago that Mac users would have to keep a PC around the house or spin up a PC emulator or virtual machine to take advantage of Garmin software. Bobcat looks like a serious product that can help you get the most out of your GPS or heart-rate monitor.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Gmail IMAP Change in 1.13 - Apple Phone Show on Apple Phone Show Blog: "The 1.13 upgrade to the iPhone automatically changes POP configured Gmail to IMAP...." I saw the change in folder arrangement on my iPhone after I updated the firmware, but I didn't realize the implications of it until I read about the switch to IMAP online.
• The new Favicons: Making Webclip icons for iPhone on SixApart ProNet: The professional developer website for Movable Type and TypePad posted the first explanation of how to make a custom icon for a website that will appear on the home screen of an iPhone or an iPod Touch. I already made a Webclip icon for RinkAtlas, a site whose logo lends itself to doing so.

• Forty years since Masterton's death on the Globe on Hockey Blog: "Masterton, 29 at the time, was checked by Larry Cahan and Ron Harris of the Oakland Seals, and hit his head on the ice after falling backwards. The game took place Jan. 13, 1968, in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Masterton died in hospital two days later due to a brain injury."

  "His death led to the lobbying of more widespread use of helmets, and a mandatory helmet rule was passed in the summer of 1979." Anyone playing ice hockey should pause for a moment and remember Bill Masterton. His unfortunate death began a series of rule changes and other protective measures that have made our sport much safer.



• Mini-Review: Amazon Kindle vs. Sony Reader on 37signals Signal vs Noise: "There are plenty of comprehensive reviews of the Kindle floating around so I don’t think we need another one. Instead, I’ll focus on comparing it with the Sony Reader."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I expected to be wowed by Steve Jobs' 2008 MacWorld Expo Keynote a lot more than I actually was. However, I was doing other things while the event was going on (real work), and the products that I was most interested in (mainstream Mac laptops) didn't get addressed in this keynote at all.

Bummer for me. I could have bought my MacBook Pro two weeks ago if I had known that the Penryn upgrade wasn't immediately forthcoming.

Here are my comments on the other aspects of the keynote:

• iTunes Movie Rentals / AppleTV Take 2: Clearly the announcement with the most business disruption potential. I agree with one of the commentators on MacBreak Weekly who suggested that Apple is making a play to be the digital media hub in the house, usurping services like Netflix, as well as Television services providers such as Comcast and Verizon FiOS.
• MacBook Air: This is a machine aimed at people who travel a lot or who want a portable machine that is a shadow of their desktop Mac. I could see some very well off Mac users owning the big iMac and a MacBook Air. The MacBook Air is incredibly thin. It's hard to believe a machine with a laptop-like display and keyboard could be any thinner than this and still be usable.

• Time Capsule: This is an interesting extension to the AirPort wireless base station line. Time Capsule is an AirPort Extreme with a 500G or 1T hard disk in it, functioning as Network Attached Storage (NAS).

  My first reaction was, "Bummer. Kathleen just bought me the AirPort Extreme." But then I realized that I would prefer NAS that used RAID 1 or RAID 5 storage anyway. It also costs more than we want to spend on network appliances at this point.



• iPhone 1.1.3 Update: There's some good stuff here. I loaded it on my iPhone already. The cell tower triangulation in the Maps application works pretty well. That feature makes the iPhone version of RinkAtlas viable. Expect an announcement from me on that front soon.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

At The Home Office, the week of gadget craziness continued. On Sunday night my son Jimmy wanted to watch Teletubbies on FiOS Video On Demand before he went to bed. (Kathleen suggested it and Jimmy got excited about the idea, so that was the plan.) Anyway, we brought up the FiOS VOD subsystem on the television in the living room, and a message says that On Demand isn't available at this time. Try back in a few minutes.

Kathleen said that this happened a couple of days ago, and I should put a call in this time. I called Verizon and was walked completely through a testing process and a set top box reboot by an automated voice response system. It said that my set top box would reacquire the program guide and all would be well again in a few minutes. But, if for any reason the problem wasn't resolved, my call and the details of what was done would be noted in my account to expedite the process of speaking with a live support person.

"This is progress," I said to Kathleen.

Thirty minutes later, the program guide and our DVR functions hadn't reappeared. Jimmy was watching a DVD instead. Kathleen wanted me to call Verizon back and get the problem straightened out.

When I made the call, the computer estimated that I would be on hold for 41 minutes. The alternative offered was for the system to call me back in 41 minutes when a support person became available. That would have been too late for me, so I hung up.

The set top box didn't reacquire the guide all day on Monday, so I called support at about 9:00pm. The wait was much more reasonable. It turned out to be under five minutes, although the computer's initial estimate was longer.

I went through a guided reboot of my router and my set top box. Eventually the set top box reacquired the guide, so I ended up being happy that the problem was solved.

A new problem developed with our Local Area Network. Apparently the process Verizon used to reset my router and set top box blew away my router's configuration, including its password. I had to troubleshoot my LAN to determine that the LAN's IP address range changed, then I realized that the password on my router changed. Eventually I realized that the router had just been reset to the default settings. So I reconfigured it to the way the network was before the problems occurred, and now I hope that everything is working once again. (I know that the Internet is working, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this article right now.)

The lessons I learned from this process are:

• Don't use FiOS' automated voice response system to troubleshoot your TV while someone is watching it. You will probably temporarily lose additional services for at least as long as an automated system test takes.
• Document your LAN configuration in case Verizon decides to reset your router to its initial state.
• Keep that LAN configuration at your fingertips when calling Verizon FiOS support even if the call is about TV or telephone.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday I received another sign that it's time to buy a new computer.

The Blogging Workstation that just experienced a power supply failure wouldn't start again. When I pushed the power button, nothing happened.

I pulled the front bezel off of the tower and immediately found that the positive lead on the Front Panel Power Switch had broken off.

This kind of failure drives me nuts. I probably have to keep this machine running for another week to 10 days. By then I should be able to receive my new MacBook Pro, or whatever Mac notebook computer I end up deciding to buy after Steve Jobs' keynote on Tuesday. All I have to do at that point is migrate my iTunes library off of that the Blogging Workstation and on to my new computer, and this machine can be put out to pasture.

The question I had to deal with was: What do I need to do in order to get the machine working again while spending little or no money?

The Blogging Workstation is a PC I built myself from off-the-shelf components. I knew that it's an ATX-style machine because of the research I did before temporarily replacing the power supply. I Googled "atx power switch problem" and found a really useful Flowchart for ATX Power Supply Repair that indicated that the Front Panel Power and Reset switches are the same type of switch. I decided to attempt to substitute the Front Panel Power Switch.

Performing this replacement turned out to be easy because I had kept the ASUS A7N8X-E motherboard documentation. (This is proof that being a pack rat pays off at least one day per year.) I pried the Reset Switch out of its plastic holder in the front bezel, pried the old Power Switch out of its holder, and swapped them. The motherboard diagram showed me which connectors needed to be switched. I closed up the case, hit the new Power Switch, and the machine started right up.

I am really looking forward to knowing what new Apple laptop options are and being able to order my new machine. The experience of the last few days strengthens my resolve to buy a support contract for my next machine (in this case, AppleCare).

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PVRblog pointed out that Steve Garfield is blogging about the Comcast deployment of TiVo software on their existing Motorola DVR set-top boxes. I found an article on Steve's site that includes a Ustream video tour of the Comcast / TiVo user interface. Overall, the experience looks similar to the TiVo Series I and Series II experiences that I've had in the past, although Steve is complaining in the video about speed and navigation issues.

I'm sure that there are more good articles on Steve's blog (offonatangent.blogspot.com) that talk about other aspects of the Comcast / TiVo experience. I haven't had time to read them yet.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Washington Post reported that The RIAA is arguing that ripping CDs for personal use on your iPod or other digital music player is illegal. The argument has reportedly been made in a case against Jeffrey Howell from Scottsdale, AZ. According to the article:

The {RIAA's} lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings....

The Howell case was not the first time the industry has argued that making a personal copy from a legally purchased CD is illegal. At the Thomas trial in Minnesota, Sony BMG's chief of litigation, Jennifer Pariser, testified that "when an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Copying a song you bought is "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy,' " she said.

The recording industry can't be serious about this. In order to find in favor of the industry in this claim, a court would have to conclude that millions of owners of portable media player and personal computers are going beyond the principles of Fair Use of the digital entertainment that they legally purchased (or as some would insist, "licensed"). [ via The Drudge Report ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Bills return to Buffalo by bus after loss in Cleveland, The Associated Press on ESPN.com: "Mother Nature sure had it in for the Buffalo Bills this weekend."

  "Bad enough that a blizzard contributed to Buffalo's loss at Cleveland on Sunday, ending the team's playoff chances. Then, following an unscheduled overnight stay because of bad weather, the Bills were forced to bus home Monday after their charter plane got stuck in mud off a runway in Cleveland...." [ Thanks Julie Howson ]



• Who's #1? on ESPN.com: ESPN Classic's "Who's Number One" show will be running down the most important technological advances in sports on ESPN Classic, 10:00pm ET, Dec. 19, 2007. This is definitely something I'll have to TiVo if I can't watch it live.


• Why Wireless Isn't Wide Open on BusinessWeek.com: "Even as the wireless industry chants a new gospel about opening mobile-phone networks to outside devices and applications, some of the biggest U.S. carriers are quietly blocking new services that would compete with their own...." [ via Andy Abramson on VoIP Watch ]


• Canadian surprised by $85,000 cell bill on SeattleTimes.NWsource.com: "Piotr Staniaszek normally pays $147 a month for his cell phone. So he was more than a little surprised to learn his November bill had ballooned to $59,000. And then it got worse. When he called to inquire about the high figure, he was told that his bill this month was $83,000." [ Thanks Martin O'Donnell ]



• Verizon FiOS with only a Apple Airport Extreme {sic} on Elecktronkind.org: Excellent article on the things you need to do to replace the ActionTec router that Verizon provides to most FiOS users with an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station. Something we hope to do in The Home Office in Newtown sometime after Christmas.

  One key fact to note from this article: You do need to keep the ActionTec router on the network if you have Verizon's digital cable service that's delivered over FiOS. Hopefully we can turn off the wireless capability of the ActionTec and put the AirPort Extreme Base Station behind it.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A couple of friends of mine asked me to what I thought of the Amazon Kindle at lunch before Thanksgiving. I said that I was aware of it, that reviews and comments from blogs that I read had been more negative than positive, but I would keep my eye out for interesting articles and blog postings. Here are a few of the things I've found:

• Kindle can light up your life by Andy Ihnatko in The Chicago Sun Times: Andy points out that the secret sauce of the Kindle is that EVDO access via Sprint is free and the Kindle has a serviceable web browser. As such he thinks it's worth the $400 cost without regard for its usability as an e-book reader.
• Amazon Kindle: the Web makes Amazon go bad crazy by Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing: Cory Doctorow hates Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. Keep that in mind when you read his comments: "Mark Pilgrim has a great, incisive post about the Amazon Kindle e-reader that sums up almost all of the reasons I won't be buying it -- it spies on you, it has DRM (which means that it has to be designed to prevent you from modding it, lest you mod it to remove the DRM), it prevents you from selling or lending your books, and the terms of service are nearly as abusive as the Amazon Unbox terms (and worse than the thoroughly dumb-ass Amazon MP3 terms)...."

These comments are pretty much polar opposites of each other, with every other review falling somewhere in between.

My friends also suggested that I discuss another e-book reader called the Iliad from iRex Technologies. More on that product later.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Kathleen and I are both Treo 650 users, and we often need access to each other's calendars so we can see whether we can plan another event for a day in the near future. As good as the Palm Calendar is, it has never been able to show another person's appointments as well as your own.

I realized a long time ago that the solution to this problem might be something like Google Calendar, but the problem was that I couldn't figure out how to keep a Palm Calendar in sync with a Google Calendar.

This week I solved the problem with GooSync from a British firm called Toffa. Toffa makes a whole line of application synchronization products such as SyncWise Entrerprise for mobile devices that need to sync to a Novell GroupWise environement, so they aren't novices in building synchronization tools.

The key features of GooSync are that it works with so many handheld devices, and it provides over-the-air synchronization. It works natively with many mobile phones from Nokia, Motorola, LG, Samsung, SonyEricsson, and about six other manufacturers. You can use GooSync with Palm OS and Windows Mobile handhelds as well, but they require small SyncML client applications that are downloadable from the GooSync website.

Engadget Mobile first mentioned GooSync back in November and at that time there were several bugs and issues in the synchronization process that were show-stoppers for some people. Many of these issues have been tracked on the GooSync page on Squidoo and they've been addressed by the GooSync folks.

Alternatives to GooSync are CompanionLink for Google Calendar which costs $29.95 and doesn't appear to sync over-the-air, and GcalSync which is Open Source but requires Java on the handheld at the MIDP 2.0 and JSR 75 level. Lots of phones support that, but GcalSync would probably be slow on the Treo 650 if it worked at all.

GooSync is available for free if you are OK with syncing to a single Google Calendar and only syncing the events that are scheduled within a seven-day window in the past and a 30-day window in the future. If you want multiple calendar support and a 365-day sync window, you need to buy an annual subscription at £19.95. Refer to the GooSync Account Options page for more information.

I think the free GooSync service will be fine for me right now. It will also enable me to use some of my Nokia N-Series handsets more easily, since I will be able to bring my calendar with me as long as I connect to GooSync whenever I switch devices.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Verne Gay of Newsday.com wrote a column called How iTunes saved 'The Office' that I've been meaning to point out. Kathleen has fallen in love with The Office in the past few months, but if there's truth to what Verne Gay is saying, the program wouldn't have lasted on NBC's schedule without strong sell-through on iTunes.

The column quotes Angela Bromstead, President of NBC Universal Television Studio as saying:

I'm not sure that we'd still have the show on the air. The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time.

The article goes on to point out that expected iTunes success is probably going to save 30 Rock for oblivion.

I guess this indicates that the most effective way to support a niche show that you love is to get an iPod and buy episodes, not to write letters to network management.

Technorati Tags: The Office, 30 Rock, NBC, iTunes

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin O'Donnell pointed out that Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times didn't like The Sony PlayStation 3 as much as he would have if it had been less expensive. Dudley wrote:

Don't get me wrong. The PS3 is an amazing machine. I'd love to have one sitting beneath my TV. But not for $500 or $600. That's just too expensive for a game console, even one that incorporates a bleeding-edge Blu-ray disc player.

He goes on to point out that he doesn't think that the PS3 will necessarily make a better downloaded movie player than either the XBox or Apple iTV, the forthcoming set-top box from Apple. Is he going out on a limb by making such a prediction about a product that's only been seen in a Steve Jobs demo?

Technorati Tags: PS3, Xbox, Apple iTV

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today, Jason Fried of the web application service provider 37 Signals reported that he had noticed an improvement in the responsiveness of the Comcast DVR thanks to the most recent software update pushed by Comcast. According to Fried:

I have a Comcast DVR. It recorded on time, the menus and interface were decent (I prefer TiVo’s UI, but Comcast’s is fine), and it was reliable.

But it was slow. Click fast forward and it felt like there was a 1-2 second delay. Hit stop and wait another 1-2 seconds. Sometimes more. The waiting killed the convenience....

... I just noticed that Comcast updated the software..... Now menus selections are sharp, button clicking is crisp, and things happen when you ask them to happen. The experience is finally satisfying.

I agree with Jason when he says that it's rare that products with significant software components get faster as they mature, even as more features are added. Apparently this is one case where a set-top box has actually improved rather than degraded. And, believe it or not, Comcast is the company responsible for this improvement. Will miracles ever cease?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The New York Times had an interesting article a few days ago on the degree to which the incumbent cable and telephone companies are battling each other for residential customers who are willing to subscribe to "triple-play" service plans. The article talks about the battle between Verizon and Cablevision in the New York Metropolitan Area, and also highlights some of the efforts of Time Warner Cable.

After nearly five years of allowing Verizon and Comcast to split the business in my house, I fired both of them. I use Speakeasy for naked DSL and VoIP and DirecTV for television service. This arrangement is a bit unusual, but it persists because broadband is an office expense and TV is a household expense.

The tipping point for us could come if we decide to upgrade to High Definition TV service. This may happen sometime in the Fall or around the holidays. However, thinking about giving Comcast or Verizon all of my communications services business almost gives me palpitations. I've never seen a billing plan from either company that treated home office warriors with the kind of respect we deserve.

This article implies that the cable companies in America are on a charm offensive driven from the call center part of customer service and backed up by discount introductory pricing. My question is: are the cable companies really improving customer service or are they just making people feel loved when they call to discuss their accounts? [ via VoIP Watch ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the past couple of months I've noticed that my Treo 650 has more and more trouble opening the IMAP Inbox for my main email account. The reason for this is obvious: I'm an email pack rat.

At the height of my madness, I had over 25,000 messages in my main email account's Inbox. I was about as anti-Inbox Zero as you could get.

For the last year, I've read article after article touting the benefits of managing your Inbox and not letting it become a repository of last resort. Sites like 43 Folders and Lifehacker seem to do an article a week (or more) on the subject. But it wasn't until I hit the practical limit of my Treo's ability to manage my Inbox wirelessly that I gave in and started filing and purging.

Before you email me and ask, "What do you mean when you say your Treo had trouble opening your Inbox?", I'll describe the situation. I use Chatter Email, an alternative email client for the PalmOS that excels at managing IMAP accounts. As an IMAP mailbox grows, the mail server takes more time to respond to the initial connection request after you login. Whether you are using wireless access or not, you can tell that the mail client has to sync itself with the mailbox.

As my Inbox approached and surpassed 20,000 messages, the Treo began taking longer and longer to display the most recent messages after Chatter Email was launched. Sometimes it would take 45 minutes or more, which meant that I would leave the office to run some errands and my Treo would still not be in sync with my primary email account when I got back. That's unacceptable-- particularly when most of your friends and family know that you carry a wireless email device.

Little by little I'm reducing the size of my Inbox when I'm at a PC-based email client. I began by creating folders in my IMAP account for messages of lasting value. Folders seem to have a positive effect on Chatter Mail's responsiveness, since its sync time is impacted by the size of the Inbox folder. After that, I started at the oldest messages and started filing or deleting.

My goal is to whittle my Inbox down by about 1,000 messages a week. This is pretty achieveable, since a lot of email I receive is related to the status of things I manage that are connected to the Internet. This includes Linux servers in colocation which often kick out messages to me with the output of cron jobs, but also extends to things like Google Alerts.

Having said that, I've gotten rid of a lot of my Google Alerts for the moment. In the past I've used Google Alerts to monitor news sites for ideas for Operation Gadget articles. As you know, my posting frequency has fallen a lot since my son Jimmy was born in May. If I'm not posting much, I don't need the alerts cluttering my Inbox.

Some people in the Inbox Zero crowd (a philosophy that stresses empty inboxes the way some personal organization consultants stress a clean desk) apply a much more aggressive standard when they make file-versus-delete decisions on old email. I try to keep enough old emails around so I can remember the context of conversations that are important. In other words, I keep most emails I exchange with my family for continuity purposes, even if it means that some of the filed messages are no more than "Hi, how are you?" messages going back and forth. I've got so many other messages that I can delete because they are no longer relevant, the savings will still be huge.

If you administer Linux servers on the Internet as I do, Time Management for System Administrators by Tom Limoncelli has some great recommendations in terms of improving personal productivity. There are a lot of tips about how to manage an email account that I thought was interesting when I first read the book. Now I'm going back and implementing a lot of those ideas.

Hopefully I'll be down to less than 1,000 emails in my Inbox before too long. Then the performance of my Treo should be really snappy again. I hope that I can maintain Inbox management discipline when I get to that point.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You've probably heard by now that Google has announced Google Checkout. Lots of articles have been published about how it is expected to work.

Rumors initially indicated that Google Checkout would be a direct competitor to Paypal. It's clearly not that, at least not yet. Instead it appears to be another implementation of an ecommerce wallet, similar to initiatives attempted by Microsoft, Yahoo! and others over recent years.

There was one analysis of the Google Checkout announcement that stood out for me as a bizarre conclusion on the part of the writer. That was Rafe Needleman's article on the CNET Web 2.0 Blog. Rafe said that Google Checkout is "Amazon's worst nightmare", as if the convenience of saving your credit card billing information and using Amazon 1-Click was a big factor in many of the sales that Amazon.com makes on a daily basis.

If you're still following this logic, Rafe thinks that Google Checkout will cut into Amazon's sales because people who start using Google Checkout will be able to have a 1-Click-like experience with many other ecommerce vendors that Google signs up to participate in their service.

Kathleen and I buy a lot from Amazon.com, and so do many of our friends and family. I don't know anyone who does it solely because of 1-Click. Most people I know think Amazon.com has a big selection, offers reasonable prices, and reliably predicts when you'll "get your stuff".

Am I wrong to think that Rafe is out in left field on this one?

Technorati Tags: Google Checkout, Amazon 1-Click.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Nike and Apple team up to create
a running computer that consists of
a pair of shoes, a motion sensor, and
an iPod nano.
[ Photo: Apple Computer, Inc. ]

On my son's birthday, Nike and Apple announced a collaboration that will initially allow a pair of Nike running shoes to talk wirelessly to an iPod nano. Over the long run they hope to expand the product line to include more products that bring fitness and entertainment together.

I would have loved to be there for this announcement because it was held in New York and because Lance Armstrong and elite marathoner Paula Radcliffe participated. I wondered how long it would take for Lance Armstrong's involvement in the New York Marathon to result in a marketing opportunity for one of his long-time sponsors. I guess this is the first.

What's cool about the Nike+iPod Sport Kit is that it will only cost $29. Nike and Apple both have other high margin products to sell you if you like the idea of using your iPod as a running computer.

Converting the nano into a running computer is a radical departure from the approach that Polar and Adidas are taking to equipment integration, and a lot of pretty serious runners could be swayed by it.

Technorati Tags: iPod nano, Nike iPod, running computer, fitness gadgets, Lance Armstrong.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Todd Fryburger reports that he will be at Woody's Gap again this year to watch Stage 4 of the 2006 Ford Tour de Georgia. Stage 4 of the 2006 Tour de Georgia will take place on Friday, April 21, 2006.

Last year Todd provided some great on-the-spot information from Woody's Gap, including the MPEG movie clip that we published in How Bad Was the Weather on Woody's Gap? which shows an intense hail storm.

Todd wrote:

{Many of us} in the Atlanta cycling community plan on sitting atop Woody Gap on Friday to watch / listen as TdG Stage 4 unfolds.

We will be using Cingular EDGE / GPRS service via my cellphone attached to my laptop to receive the web-based updates from http://www.velonews.com/ and http://www.cyclingnews.com/. In addition, we will be monitoring Nexrad weather radar via http://www.wunderground.com/radar/map.asp as well as a few
other sites - do not want to repeat the hailstorm experience of last year. We are using Cingular service as we understand the Verizon does not have broadband coverage that far North. We will use a Wilson omnidirectional
external "trucker" antenna to ensure we have the best bandwidth performance via Cingular - it won't be broadband, but should be sufficient for the text-based race updates provided by these websites.

Read on for additional resources that Todd and his friends will have to follow Stage 4, radio frequencies that Todd thinks will be useful, information about how to get to Woody's Gap, and when to arrive....

Technorati Tags: Tour de Georgia, pro cycling, race radio.

Continue reading "How Pro Cycling Fans Will Watch the 2006 Tour de Georgia at Woody's Gap on April 21" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday Macworld reported that Coinstar has added iTunes Music Store gift certificates to its Coin-to-Card Program. Under this program, Coinstar counts your loose change and issues you a "eCertificate" which can be redeemed for full credit from their retail partners. If you request cash instead of an eCertificate, Coinstar charges you 8.9 cents on the dollar, which is the fee they charge for providing coin counting services.

My bank offers free coin counting, so I don't need to use Coinstar machines in most cases. However, now that I know Coinstar offers iTunes Music Store and Amazon.com gift certificates at full cash value, I might seek out a Coinstar coin counting machine once in a while.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For years I've been a big Polar heart rate monitor fan. My Polar S-725x rides on the handlebars of my Trek 1500 everyday. But, recently, I've been looking at the Garmin Edge 305HR+ and I really think that it has a lot of potential as an alternative to pure cycling computers like the Polar CS200cad.

The Garmin Edge 305 is a feature-packed device with a large display. It includes a high sensitivity GPS receiver that's supposed to be a huge improvement over the early Garmin Forerunner fitness gadgets, a chest strap-based heart rate monitor, and speed and cadence sensors that you mount on your bike frame.

Garmin Training Center Software, which is their training journal product continues to improve. It's looking more and more like Polar Precision Performance Software plus basic GPS routing. My Garmin fitness gadget is a Forerunner 201, so I didn't get this version of Garmin Training Center with it, but I think I'm going to upgrade so I can do a head-to-head comparison of it with PPP.

I prefer wrist-mountable fitness gadgets because I participate in duathlons and officiate a lot of hockey, but if I were a bike-only athlete, I'd absolutely compare the Garmin Edge products to the Polar CS cycling computers.

Product Options: The Edge 305 is also available in an HRM-only model, the Garmin Edge 305HR, and a speed and cadence-only model, the Garmin Edge 305CAD.

Technorati Tags: Garmin Edge 305, Polar CS200, Garmin Training Center, Polar Precision Performance, fitness gadgets, cycling computers

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While I was on the iTunes Music Store this morning, I noticed that a new series of podcasts called Podrunner has rapidly become one of the hottest podcast series over the past few weeks. dj steveboy, a Los Angeles-area disk jockey, has created three Podrunner podcasts he describes as "fast-paced, high-energy, one-hour workout mixes". He plans to create a new podcast every other week.

I listened to Mo Better Run, the first podcast in the Podrunner series, while working at my desk this morning. It's a tribal and progressive house tracks mix that maintains a fairly consistant 150 beats-per-minute. It would be great for runners, road cyclists doing tempo, or people doing treadmill or spinning workouts at the gym. In a way, it reminds me of Kraftwerk's Tour de France Soundtracks which I talked about in my iPod Cycling article back in July 2004.

dj steveboy's website says that Podrunner was number three on the iTunes Top 100 Music Downloads on March 12. In 72 hours ending at midnight March 12, almost 10,000 iTunes users had downloaded one of the podcasts in the series. I guess that shows that there are a lot of people who are looking for workout mixes.

Technorati Tags: iTunes, workout music, Podrunner, Video iPod, iTunes Music Store, podcast

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the reasons you haven't seen many new articles on Operation Gadget in the past week is that I've been trying to identify an annoying problem with my Treo 650 that began after I upgraded it using the Cingular 1.17 Firmware Update. I had trouble upgrading my Treo by following the instructions provided by Cingular, so I only performed the Cingular 1.17 firmware update on my Treo and didn't do it to my wife's.

A couple of days after I ran the update on my Treo I experienced a White Screen of Death (known on many Treo-related discussion forums as a WSOD). This was the first such error that I ever experienced with this handset. My initial thought was that the problem had two potential causes:

• inheirent instability of the 1.17 firmware
• interaction problems between Chatter E-mail (my Treo email client) and the 1.17 firmware

I spent several days going through support and issue forums related to the Treo and to Chatter and concluded that I needed to rebuild my Treo application stack, from the core applications on up, and look for a third-party application or applications that were behaving badly. I did this four different times, and found nothing conclusive. The thing that pointed me back to Chatter was that the phone didn't crash or have a WSOD for hours when Chatter wasn't running.

I worked closely with Marc Blank, the author of Chatter Email, over a period of several days. I sent him a number of logs from the Chatter application after crashes or WSODs occurred and asked for his interpretation. He hasn't found any indication that the instability I'm experiencing is the Chatter application's fault, but he's given me some things to try that may have helped reduce the frequency of the instabilities.

A number of readers will probably ask why I didn't go back to Cingular immediately? After all, the problems I'm experiencing now are much more severe than anything I experienced prior to this firmware update. The reason I waited this long is because I depend on Chatter so much that I wanted to rule out problems with that application first. I don't think I've totally eliminated the possibility of a problem with Chatter, but I've done all I could.

What I'm planning to do tomorrow is contact Cingular and try to get routed to the Wireless Data Group. These folks are generally the only people in the Customer Service / Technical Support system who have a good handle on the issues with Treos, Blackberrys, and other high end handsets.

Technorati Tags: Treo 650, Cingular, Treo 650 firmware updates, WSOD, Chatter Email

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

The Associated Press reports that Howard Stern bid his terrestrial audience fairwell today and encouraged them to tune in to him on Sirius Satellite Radio on January 9, 2006. According to the article, Stern began his show by saying, "Good morning, and welcome to the last show on terrestrial radio," while the sound of "Taps" played in the background. HowardStern.com has a countdown to the day when there is "no more FCC, no more boss, no more interference...."

Whether you like The Howard Stern Show or not, you have to have a certain admiration for Stern's willingness to walk away from one of the most popular syndicated radio programs in the United States. He will attempt to recreate it in the context of a subscription service.

I'm wondering if lifting the speech and content restrictions that have been the bane of Howard Stern's existence since at least 1995 will be entirely positive for the show and its audience. There will have to be limits, but what will they be? I guess you'll have to tune in on January 9 to find out.

But, before you do, you'll need a Sirius-compatible radio. So check out a few options:

• SIRIUS Sportster Replay Plug-and-Play Satellite Radio, 6-line LCD display, 44-minute memory buffer
• JVC KT-SR2000 Plug 'n' Play Sirius Satellite Radio Receiver, smaller and less expensive than the Sportster
• Sirius S50 Satellite Radio Receiver System Pack, 50-hour recording capability, MP3 capability, built-in FM transmitter

Technorati Tags: Howard Stern, Sirius, Sirius Sportster, JVC KT-SR2000, Sirius S50, Hanukkah gifts, Christmas gifts

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cingular BroadbandConnect HSDPA
3G Service is rolling out in 16 U.S. metro
areas. [ Image: Cingular Wireless ]

Cingular Wireless announced yesterday that it launched BroadbandConnect, a third-generation high speed wireless data network using HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. According to the Cingular 3G Network Press Release:

Cingular BroadbandConnect is a super-charged enhancement to the company’s nationwide EDGE network, the nation’s largest wireless high-speed data network. When coupled with a compatible device and service plan, the service provides average mobile data connections between 400-700Kbps (kilobits per second) on the downlink and bursts to more than a megabit per second.

Cingular is offering unlimited 3G data service for $59.99 per month with a qualifying voice plan.

BroadbandConnect is deployed initially in the following metropolitan areas:

• Austin
• Baltimore
• Boston
• Chicago
• Dallas
• Houston
• Las Vegas
• Phoenix
• Portland, OR
• Salt Lake City
• San Diego
• San Francisco / San Jose
• Seattle / Tacoma
• Washington D.C.

Unfortunately New York and Philadelphia didn't make it in the first round, so I won't be able to use my Nokia N90 to test it immediately.

Technorati Tags: Cingular, Broadband Connect, 3G, HSDPA, Nokia N90

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I4U.com reported yesterday that Vodaphone is offering a global mobile TV service including content from HBO and Eurosport. Vodaphone's press release specifies the following programming:

• "Sex and the City" and "Six Feet Under" from HBO
• Eurosport
• MTV
• Specially edited for mobile, Seasons 1-4 of "24", featuring Kiefer Sutherland, from Twentieth Century Fox Television
• UEFA Champions League (European soccer)
• Discovery

I recently received a Nokia N90 mobile phone for review purposes. It supports 3G mobile service, to which I don't have access because Cingular has not yet rolled out 3G in my area. If I had 3G service, I'd love to try what Vodaphone is offering and I think the N90 would be a great device on which to try it.

Technorati Tags: Vodaphone, Vodaphone Live!, 3G, Sex and The City, Six Feet Under, HBO, Eurosport, MTV, 24, UEFA Champions League, Discovery Channel

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you are a regular radio listener in major cities in the USA, you've probably heard several ads for TomTom Go portable navigation systems. TomTom has a different strategy in France. They are running a two team road rally called TomTom Raid. The teams were given no food, no money, no credit cards, just a TomTom GO 700 and a Smart car to travel across France. The teams left Paris on Monday and the race will continue until December 8.

You can follow the progress of the race daily at the website TomTomRaid.com. The site is entirely in French, so it may make more sense to our readers in Quebec and people who studied French in school than it does to me.

My father asked me what a TomTom was the other day. For those of you who haven't seen one yet, they are portable navigation systems that can be moved from car to car. They are simple in that you plug them into your car's electrical system, mount them to your car windshield, turn them on, and go. There are two models of the TomTom GO that are being marketed in the United States:

• TomTom GO 300, a turnkey GPS device that gives door-to-door directions between any two addresses in the United States, maps included on a secure digital card. The system includes spoken turn-by-turn guidance.
• TomTom GO 700, including all of the features of the 300 plus faster CPU, more memory, a hard disk for larger map and route storage, and bluetooth for handsfree phone integration.

[ via Operation Gadget reader Alexander Baarde and Alt-Buzz ]

Technorati Tags: Tom Tom, Christmas gifts, Hanukkah gifts

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I know I just got done television franchising rules should be relaxed to allow Verizon FIOS deployment, but we need folks like the FCC and state utility regulators to enforce some basic, consumer-oriented protections.

A great example of what could happen if Verizon is allowed to operate solely in its interest is illustrated in a recent article on Om Malik's Broadband Blog. Om reports that a reader told him that Verizon is deactivating copper facilities to people's homes as it installs a new fiber-optic connection.

This supposedly locks new FIOS customers into Verizon because the FCC has ruled that dedicated fiber optic network facilities do not have to be shared with competitive local exchange carriers.

My emphasis in the previous post was that FIOS deployment should advance the competitive market. If FIOS allows Verizon to lock out some of its competitors and create an oligopoly, then our Federal government is on the verge of creating a big competitive problem in the future.

Technorati Tags: FIOS

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A page one report in today's The Wall Street Journal indicates that Verizon is having difficulty launching FIOS-based television services in many parts of the country. Verizon plans to invest some $20 billion on a large-scale fiber-to-the-home deployment project, but is being asked for costly concessions on a town-by-town basis in exchange for a cable television franchise. According to the article:

Budget-strapped local officials, who have the final say over granting cable-TV-service franchises, are greeting the phone giant with expensive and detailed demands. In New York state, Verizon faces requests for seed money for wildflowers and a video hookup for Christmas celebrations. Arlington County, Va., wants fiber strung to all its traffic lights so it can remotely monitor traffic flow. Holliston, Mass., is seeking free television for every house of worship and a 10% video discount for all senior citizens. Others want high-speed Internet for sewage facilities and junk yards, flower baskets for light poles, cameras mounted on stop lights and Internet connections for poor elementary students.

FIOS is meant to compete with services like Comcast Digital Cable, Time Warner Digital Cable, and IO Digital Cable from Cablevision. These are premium, broadband-based television services with an emphasis on video on demand and bundled Internet access.

The providers have attached high monthly fees to these services in towns where they have monopolies. Beyond switching to DirecTV or The Dish Network, which can't provide broadband Internet service because of their satellite delivery method.

Walt Mossberg pointed out in September that FIOS has already changed the competitive landscape in high-speed Internet access in a limited number of areas of the Northeast. These are places where Verizon has decided to deploy FIOS in advance of permission to offer television services.

America needs a competitive digital television marketplace. More than one broadband solution in each town would be ideal. If the issues with the cable franchising process are that it's too political and too dependent on the whims of local franchise boards, maybe the solutions are to regionalize these boards and bring them into the 21st century by creating new rules that are designed for a competitive market rather than a monopoly. Deployment of a fiber-to-home network is very expensive, so regulatory barriers should be lowered to Verizon for a period of time.

If incumbent cable franchisees complain, they should be offered similar terms for similar capital investments. If upgrades have already been made, the requirements of their franchises should be temporarily relaxed in the same fashion offered to Verizon. [ Subscription required to view many articles from the Wall Street Journal ]

Technorati Tags: FIOS, Comcast Digital Cable, Time Warner Digital Cable, IO Digital Cable, DirecTV, Dish Network

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Flickr Offers Photo Printing at Target
[ image created by Dave Aiello, courtesy of Flickr ].

Flickr announced the introduction of a photo print ordering service for users in the United States. The service is offered in conjunction with Target Stores. You have the option of picking your photo order up at your local Target store or having the order mailed to you.

One nice feature Flickr added was the ability to control who is allowed to order prints of your photos. This is done through a Photo Printing preferences page where you can choose:

• Only You
• You and your family
• You and your friends
• You, your family and friends
• You and any of your contacts
• Any Flickr member

I think Flickr is a great service. I use it all the time to share photos with my friends and family. I'm sure the pressure will be on me to enable this feature and upload my photo backlog before Christmas.

Update: I posted on Operation Gadget this with the BLOG THIS feature of Flickr. It was an interesting experience. Flickr timed out waiting for a response from Operation Gadget confirming that the post had been successful, so I mistakenly triple posted this article. Flickr also doesn't check to see if you wrote all of the necessary HTML for the article; It goes ahead and adds line breaks for you and inserts some inline CSS for good measure. I had a bit of clean up to do when I came back to this site. [ via Atmaspheric | endeavors ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Qualcomm has contributed its OmniTRACS fleet location network technology to the 2005 Tour of Hope National Ride. Here's an example of the kind of up-to-date progress map you can get to follow the National Team:

Tour of Hope National Ride Current Location Map: Uses Qualcomm OmniTRACS Fleet Location Network and Google Maps to display the current location of the Tour of Hope National Team. This image is was current on September 30, 2005 in the early afternoon, when the team was southwest of Phoenix, Arizona. [ Image: Tour of Hope ]

That's a really cool use of GPS technology!

If you're interested in keeping an eye on the National Team's progress across the country, visit http://tourofhope.org/ride/2005_national_route/current_location_map.htm.

When you visit that page, use the controls on the map to zoom out at least two or three zoom levels. I did this before I took the screen shot of the map showing Greater Phoenix. I doubt that most people will be able to identify the location of the National Team at the default zoom level.

I was shocked when I saw this map, because it looks so similar to the map I produced of the 50-mile Baltimore-DC Fundraising Ride Course a few weeks ago. I'm glad to see that we're employing state of the art technology.

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While I've been grinding away on my consulting projects, Palm has apparently put the final touches on a Windows Mobile-based Treo that will support Verizon Wireless's implementation of EV-DO.

The first solid indication of an announcement was Engadget's first look at the Palm Treo 700w, published on Thursday. This was followed an announcement from Palm investor relations that Palm, Microsoft, and Verizon Wireless would make a joint announcement on Monday, September 26 at 12:00 noon EDT. This press release came out at 4:05pm on Friday, minutes after the close of the regular trading on the NASDAQ.

Palm's advisory was followed by an article in The Wall Street Journal reporting that Palm is set to use Microsoft code on Treo Phones. In my opinion there's a big difference between speculation about a Windows Mobile-based Treo by gadget-related blogs is less significant than a news article in publications like the Wall Street Journal [ Subscription required. ].

I'm very optimistic about the market prospects for a Windows Mobile-based Treo. I think that Palm would not be releasing it if it didn't meet their high user-experience standards. The Windows Mobile platform has been in desperate need of a manufacturer like Palm who are committed to adding value instead of just rolling out a compatible handset.

As for the future of Treo's based on the PalmOS, we'll have to wait and see. I don't think that Palm will ever integrate Treo functionality into the PalmOS Cobalt operating system, but subsequent PalmOS implementations based on Linux resulting from PalmSource's acquisition of China MobileSoft may be more to their liking. My experience with the Treo 650 is that there are times when it's really obvious that the phone could use an operating system capable of multi-tasking, and PalmOS based on a Linux kernel may be a good solution.

Technorati Tags: Treo 700w, Treo 650, Windows Mobile

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal reviewed Verizon's new fiber optic Internet access service called Fios today. He liked it. He happens to live in a town in suburban Maryland where Verizon has already rolled out Fios, so he compared it to Comcast's basic cable-modem service that's also available there. According to the article:

I ran a rigorous series of tests comparing Fios with the Comcast basic cable-modem service, using an Internet speed test site accessed from a hard-wired Windows PC. My Fios service repeatedly was measured at just over 15 mbps downstream and around 1.8 mbps upstream. The Comcast service clocked in at a mere 2.3 mbps downstream and around 360 kbps upstream....

I consider Fios a good service and a good bargain. If you are a heavy Internet user, and you can get it, I recommend you do so. That is especially true if you use the Internet over a wireless network, and stream a lot of videos, or download and upload lots of files.

I'm a bit surprised that Mossberg gave such a favorable review to Fios. A lot of people who talked about Fios at the very outset of deployment a couple of months ago said that the service didn't really make sense until Verizon begins offering television services in competition with the local cable provider in each place where Fios will be offered. Mossberg's approach was to evaluate the fat pipe on purely on its economic and utilitarian merits.

Technorati Tags: Fios

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I forgot to mention that yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a free article called Talk of the Internet that surprisingly focused on computer applications that support voice communications between users. The article begins by describing how users of Battlefield 2 from Electronic Arts can communicate with each other via a Voice over IP (VoIP) client that's embedded in the game itself. How cool is that?

Of course this is old hat to people that have been using XBox Live for a while, but I missed the peer-to-peer voice communications aspects of this on-line service until it was recently pointed out to me.

I keyed in on the discussion of Battlefield 2 in this article because it's a perfect example of an application for VoIP that's not simply about saving money on telephone calls by routing them over the Internet. The voice communications capability in Battlefield 2 is arguably a new dimension of Internet-aware computer applications.

Analysts like Maribel Lopez of Forrester Research believe that VoIP is overhyped because cheap long distance calling will not drive VoIP adoption as far into the mainstream as will new ways to use voice communications that come embedded in products and services we buy.

The article goes on to point out that VoIP is also being embedded in Instant Messaging and similar Internet communications apps that already have a huge number of users. The IM-feel of Skype was probably helpful in its rapid adoption. Google probably thought it would catch a wave of early adopters by designing Google Talk with a similar feature set.

I'd also like to point out that the WSJ article mentions my new friend Andy Abramson of VoIP Watch and how VoIP helped facilitate his long distance relationship with his fiancee Helene Malabed. This story has gotten a lot of play in VoIP-related blogs recently, but it's illustrative of the new opportunities that people will have to build close relationships with people who live some distance away.

I hate to think about how much money I spent on long distance charges talking to Kathleen when she lived in Philadelphia and I lived in Denville, NJ, before we got married. If that part of our relationship were taking place today, we could have saved most of that cost. It would be extremely difficult to quantify those savings without going through many dozens of phone bills, but I wouldn't be surprised to have paid a four-digit number of dollars over the three years Kathleen was in medical school.

Technorati Tags: VoIP

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today, I was talking to Martin O'Donnell about a plug-and-play VoIP terminal called PhoneGnome. PhoneGnome is a small appliance that you can use to make Internet telephone calls, but you "buy and own it" and no monthly subscription fee is charged.

A lot of the VoIP services encourage you to use them for all of your telephone calls. PhoneGnome is designed for users who:

1. have broadband already,
2. want to keep their local phone line for basic services like unmeasured local calling and 911, and
3. want to use VoIP when it's convenient and when it results in significant savings.

The PhoneGnome appliance straddles your regular phone line and broadband connection. It extends to the local telephone line some of the advanced services that VoIP users take for granted, like voicemail with email delivery, call waiting, and three way calling. Once you install the PhoneGnome, you can drop some of these services from your local phone line. Most local phone companies charge at least $7.00 per line per month to provide voicemail service.

When a PhoneGnome appliance is installed, it gets programmed with the phone number for the regular telephone line that's connected to it. That number is registered in a directory of PhoneGnome devices so that other PhoneGnomes know to route calls to it via peer-to-peer VoIP. This is how PhoneGnome delivers VoIP calling that's free of monthly fees and per-minute charges.

If you spend a great deal of time on calls with other PhoneGnome users, you can save a lot of money by reducing the cost of those calls to $0. That's why PhoneGnomes can be purchased in a two-pack (although they can also be purchased individually). I think people with overseas relatives or friends and family members far away will save a lot of money this way.

PhoneGnome is Session Initiation Protocol-compliant (SIP), which means that VoIP calls can be placed using an SIP address rather than a phone number. This feature is unlikely to get extensive use by the non-technical portion of the PhoneGnome user base, but more computer-oriented users will probably figure out ways to put SIP addresses on speed dial and save themselves additional money.

PhoneGnome can also be used to make VoIP calls to any phone number in the world, but those calls must be routed through a VoIP service provider for delivery back to the local telephone network or a mobile phone. A list of PhoneGnome-compatible VoIP services and rates is available.

PhoneGnome seems like a very unique product that approaches VoIP telephony in a new and different way. I'm sure it will be a God-send to people who have large long distance bills today and don't have the technical skill to use Skype or a more computer-oriented VoIP service.

I hope to get a PhoneGnome for review so we can put it through its paces and report on the experience of using it.

Technorati Tags: VoIP

See also:

1. Introducing PhoneGnome on Gigaom.com, and
2. PhoneGnome: The Hot Rod of ATAs on Voxilla.com.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

E-Health Insider reports that a study published in a journal called BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making indicates that handheld communicators helped surgeons at a London hospital respond to calls more quickly than they did with pagers. The study also indicated that communication between clinicians was improved. According to the article:

A team of surgeons at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, had their pagers replaced with Palm Tungsten W PDAs, with GPRS on the Vodafone network, for three alternate weeks out of six. Several reference textbooks were also loaded onto the devices, including the British National Formulary, as well as medical calculators.

If they were more productive with the Tungsten W, imagine what the surgeons would have accomplished with a more modern handheld like the Palm Treo 650.

My wife (Dr. Kathleen Aiello) has been using a Treo 650 since March and loves it. She uses it as a mobile phone, an IMAP email client, and a reference tool by running Palm medical software like Epocrates.

Since we got our his and hers Treos, Kathleen and I have wondered whether devices like her Treo would have as profound an effect on her fellow doctors as hers did on her. This study suggests that they certainly might. [ via PalmAddict ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PalmAddict reported that a version of the Opera browser now works on the Treo 650 and other powerful PalmOS devices. Included in this group are the Palm LifeDrive, Treo 600, and the Tungsten T3.

The article refers to an Opera Mini Treo installation howto that explains system requirements (most significantly Java) and technical issues (the default language is Norwegian, but can be changed to English).

I keep thinking that I should try browsers like Opera Mini and Xiino but I haven't done it yet. Maybe I should try Opera Mini, since I recently installed Java on my Treo to test KMaps, a Treo 650-friendly client for Google Maps.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

According to SpotStop.com, a site devoted to MSN Direct-based products, Fossil is exiting the Smart Watch market. The article says:

Fossil has made their last MSN Direct watch, at least for the foreseeable future.... {We} hear Fossil is no longer going to make new watches and will re-direct their technology efforts after current inventory is sold through. Microsoft has recently pulled the SPOT initiative back into R&D and appears intent on pushing the technology into other products like the weather clocks and integration with the PC and other Microsoft products.

In December 2004, MSN Direct sent me a Fossil Abacus Wrist Net for review. The watch stopped working within a couple of weeks after I received it. MSN Direct was kind enough to send me a replacement so I could finish my review, but that watch was Dead on Arrival.

I'm disclosing this now because I think MSN Direct-based watches from Fossil are prone to failure. You should be aware of this if you're considering buying one because they're heavily discounted and you just want to try out the technology.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Critical Path sponsored an interesting survey that says that U.S. mobile phone users want to receive email from family members on their handsets provided the service is inexpensive and easy to use. According to the survey, 69 percent of respondents considered emails from a spouse or significant other to be the largest priority.

The reason Critical Path sponsored the survey is that they offer a service called Memova Mobile, a service that mobile phone operators can resell that delivers email to mobile handsets. The results of this survey should be interpreted with that in mind.

This survey interested me because Kathleen and I definitely use email on our Treo 650s to communicate with each other during the business day. We pay a premium for service at this point ($40 per person per month for unlimited wireless data from Cingular), but we made made the decision to spend the money on mobile communications and economize on telephone service at home by using VoIP instead of POTS. [ via TreoCentral ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Andrew Carton of Treonauts published a good summary of RSS reader options for Treo 650 users. The headline readers include PalmOS applications that have paid licenses, browser-based RSS readers that are free, as well as email and Java-based offerings.

Of the RSS readers I've tried so far, Bloglines Mobile (part of Bloglines.com) is my favorite. However, if I was more into podcasting, I'd probably be using QuickNews. QuickNews has robust RSS attachment support, which means it can do things like download podcasts directly to an SD card installed in your Treo and play them in Pocket Tunes.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

CanoScan LiDE 500F Flatbed Scanner:
I got my new, inexpensive CanoScan
scanner on Wednesday. I bought it to
replace my fax machine in the new
VoIP-based Home Office.
[ Photo: Dave Aiello ]

I received my CanoScan LiDE 500F Flatbed Scanner the other day. It's a very inexpensive color scanner that fits on my desk between my flat panel displays and the place where I keep my laptop.

I've opened a new CanoScan LiDE 500F photo album. This currently has a bunch of "box unpacking" photos, but I'm planning to add example scans in the near future. Check them out if you're interested.

At well under $150 this scanner is a great deal. I can use it to scan documents that I will faxed using my eFax Plus account. I can also use it to scan 48-bit color images at 4,800 x 2,400 dots per inch.

I got the idea to buy this from Jeremy Zawodny and I agree with him that the LiDE 500F is:

• small,
• quiet,
• light, and
• pretty fast.

Technorati Tags: VoIP

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today my friend Maria Norton sent me the following message:

Hi Dave,

Hope you're getting settled into the new place.

Just wondering, have you heard about the Gmaps Pedometer? It's a pretty good to map out routes and mileage.

Also, on the Google maps website {http://www.google.com/help/faq_maps.html}... you will find the ability to create custom Google maps on your website (you must register and get an API key to do this).

For other Google maps hacks, see: http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/

Take care, and good luck with the training.

I've been thinking about training route mapping since I moved to Newtown and started scouting for cycling and running routes. I checked out the Google Maps API and it looks like I can definitely use it to make maps of my training routes for the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope Fundraising Ride in Washington DC.

I'll let you know when I start experimenting with the API. [Thanks Maria!]

Technorati Tags: Tour of Hope

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As we progressed through the process of replacing our POTS lines with VoIP for the home office, we ran into a couple of issues that needed to be researched. One important one was the issue of how to send and receive faxes.

Several people who I've talked to about the trade-offs of using a single number for voice and fax versus a dedicated fax number have said that the key issue is that people using a single number are perceived to be hobbyists rather than serious business people. Also some businesses are more fax-centric than others. A good example of this is the medical field.

Kathleen needs to be able to send and receive faxes from insurance providers since most of them establish relationships with doctors on an individual rather than a per-practice basis. The effort she has undertaken to get listed as a health care provider with all of the major medical insurers that serve customers in the Pennsylvania suburbs of Philadelphia has required lots of faxing.

Many VoIP services include some fax capability. Speakeasy VoIP/Home provides the ability to receive faxes as email attachments. However, faxes must be sent to the same number that you use for voice calls, otherwise you have to buy another line at $23.95 per month. This is slightly different from how providers like Vonage handle fax, but the charges and performance of the VoIP service aren't entirely comparable either.

What I chose to do was to get a eFaxPlus account and use that as my fax solution. This gives me a separate, dedicated fax number in my area code for $12.95 per month plus $0.10 per outgoing page and provides many of the same email-integration features I would get from using my Speakeasy VoIP/Home number for both fax and voice. The big difference is that I'm saving $11.00 per month in service fees, which means I'd need to send more than 110 pages of faxes per month in order to lose money on the deal.

Once I made the fax service decision, I focused on the right device to use to scan papers for faxing. I don't want to use my Xerox WorkCentre 385 if it isn't connected to a phone line in the traditional manner. The scanning capability it has isn't very good and it also uses too much power when I use the laser printing engine in it to copy or print documents.

I'd prefer an inexpensive, compact scanner that is portable enough to use with my laptop if necessary. The one I chose is the Canon CanoScan LiDE 500F Color Image Scanner. I got the idea to purchase this from Googling around. Jeremy Zawodny's article I Like My Canon CanoScan LiDE 500F Scanner made a good case for it.

The price is definitely right. I like the fact that it gets its power entirely from the USB 2.0 connector. This means I can hook it up to my Blogging Workstation most of the time. The scanner itself is no bigger than a laptop when laid flat on the desk, so it won't take up as much room as typical flatbed scanners. I can also set it up so it sits on the desk in an upright position [ see photo on that page ], which makes it look like a partially-opened book.

At about $120, purchasing the CanoScan LiDE 500F eats into my expected savings, but I feel that its additional features make the expenditure worth it at this time. I can use it to scan documents for faxing, but it will also come in handy for scanning pages from magazines for digital storage or photos for which I can't find the negative.

Technorati Tags: VoIP

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When Kathleen and I decided to move to Newtown, Pennsylvania, we decided that we were going to move as aggressively into the new age of telecommunications as possible. At the most basic level, this meant that all telephone service for the house and the Home Office would use Voice over IP instead of standard telephone lines. Standard phone lines are sometimes known as POTS lines for Plain Old Telephone Service.

In our old place in East Windsor, NJ, we had five POTS lines: four lines that fed into our Panasonic Digital Super Hybrid Phone System which we bought four years ago from Ablecomm and one line that was an office fax line and carried the Verizon DSL service. This system was intended to allow us to:

• run a single phone system for the house and the Home Office,
• answer any phone line on the system via any phone set in the house, and
• operate our own programmable voice mail system.

This was a good idea when I got a lot of incoming calls when I was in the office. A lot more of my business is transacted over email and IM than the phone today, and I need good phone service more often when I'm out of the office than when I'm at my desk. This is a big reason why I bought myself a Treo 650.

The first step in making this switch actually took place before we decided to move. Back in March, Kathleen and I each bought Treo 650s with unlimited mobile data service. We did this because it allowed us to access our email from anywhere and reduce our overall telecom bills by shifting a lot of our calling to free Cingular Mobile to Mobile calling which is free under our billing plans.

The intent after we got our Treo 650s was to reduce the number of POTS lines we had installed in East Windsor to the minimum necessary to operate our phone system, but it never happened because we subsequently focused on Kathleen's job search and then a search for a new house.

During the new house search we came to depend upon our Treos. We were able to call, email, and look at the web from the front seat of our car. This is really helpful when you are house hunting. Eventually we realized that we don't need our home phone for too much anymore, other than as a place for people to leave messages for us. This pushed us even harder in the direction of VoIP.

When we committed to moving to Newtown, I began doing research to see if I could get "naked DSL" at the new house. I eventually settled on Speakeasy OneLink because it was a high speed DSL service that didn't require a regular phone line and I could combine OneLink with Speakeasy VoIP/Home under one bill.

I went with Speakeasy for all of my telecom needs for the Home Office because their VoIP service was a fairly unique offering. Since they have a nationwide broadband network, they are able to manage traffic on that network to prioritize VoIP traffic. This means they can guarantee Quality of Service all along their network, where VoIP carriers that don't own a broadband network have limited ability to manage QoS.

I've asked friends who know about VoIP if they can tell that I'm calling them using one of my Speakeasy VoIP lines. None of them could tell we were on a VoIP call until I told them.

The price we're paying for Speakeasy VoIP/Home is $23.95 per month per line for unlimited calling in the USA and Canada. That's where the real savings is for us compared to our Verizon service when we were in East Windsor. We paid about $31.22 per residential line with nothing but local calls, so local toll calls and long distance added to that. Speakeasy VoIP/Home is also price competitive with Vonage, which prices unlimited calling in the USA and Canada at $24.00 per month.

At some point I'm going to try to come up with a telecommunications cost comparison, illustrating all of the services we paid for in East Windsor and what we substituted them with Newtown. In the meantime, I recommend that you take a look at Glenn Fleishman's telecom package choices and itemized list of charges. He didn't make the same choices we made, but the magnitude of his savings was one of the things that influenced us to take a look at switching to VoIP in the first place.

Technorati Tags: VoIP

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jonathan Maus told us that Inveneo has developed a bicycle-powered, Linux-based VoIP phone system for use in developing countries. No kidding.

I found an explanation of a Pedal and Solar Powered PC and Communications System on the Inveneo web site. This article does not discuss the inclusion of the Asterisk open source PBX system, so this may be an elaboration on the design.

This reminds me a bit of the ad for ESPN SportsCenter that starred Lance Armstrong that was aired in 2001 and 2002. I wonder if the folks at Inveneo were in some small way inspired by it? [ via Engadget ]

Technorati Tags: Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Live Tour Coverage via T-Mobile in
Europe: T-Mobile is offering free streaming
video coverage of the Tour de France via
UMTS. [ Photo: T-Mobile International AG ]

Jonathan Maus pointed out that T-Mobile is offering live Tour de France TV reports to its customers via UMTS video streaming. This streaming video service is free to T-Mobile customers and available wherever T-Mobile offers UMTS.

Video streaming reportedly began on Stage 5 and will be available for all remaining stages of the Tour.

UMTS is a 2-Megabit-per-second 3G data service that is not yet available in the United States.

I'm not surprised that T-Mobile is offering state-of-the-art Tour de France coverage to its subscribers. What surprises me is that UMTS is rolled out widely enough in Germany to justify a large-scale promotion.

Meanwhile back in the United States, T-Mobile USA is holding off on upgrading its data network beyond GPRS. In What T-Mobile is Missing by Not Quickly Upgrading to EDGE, I pointed out that GPRS on T-Mobile USA reportedly tops out at 39.09 kilobits per second. If UMTS has an average dowload data rate of 220 to 320 kbps, GPRS has only 12 percent of UMTS' speed.

I thought T-Mobile customers were all supposed to "Get More". In this case, I guess you only get it if you live in Europe.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Harry Lowe of the University of Washington published an article called 2005 Tour de France with Google Earth where he has recorded the routes of the first five stages of the Tour de France for playback using Google Earth.

For those of you who haven't been following its evolution, Google Earth is the name for the latest version of the PC application program formerly known as Keyhole. It allows you to zoom in on an address pretty much anywhere in the world using satellite imaging and a sophisticated geographic information system. Yes, you can see a satellite image of an address using Google Maps, but Google Earth is much more interactive since it is a full blown PC application.

Harry says that enjoyment of this experience requires "Lotsa RAM, lotsa Gigahertz, lotsa video card" and "Lotsa connection to the Internet", so keep that in mind if you follow his instructions.

I can't participate yet because my brother and I are running Category 5e cable into the Home Office today so we can connect my Blogging Workstation to the Internet for the first time since we moved to Newtown. When we get that done, I'll be downloading Google Earth and playing back some of these early Tour stages.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

Frank Steele emailed me yesterday, pointing out that SIRIUS Satellite Radio will be offering a free daily podcast from the Tour de France. The podcast, "Lance in France: Off the Bike and on the Mic", will be an extension of Lance Armstrong's weekly SIRIUS program Armstrong Radio that's aired Sundays at 9:00pm Eastern Time on FACTION, SIRIUS Channel 28. It will be hosted by Mark Higgins, Lance's co-host on Armstrong Radio. According to TDFblog, "Armstrong himself, who hosts a weekly Sunday night show on the network, will be checking in with Higgins regularly."

The podcasts are free and can be listened to using the new Apple iTunes 4.9 with built-in podcast support. Other podcast clients can also be used to download Lance in France podcasts as well, but iTunes will be among the easiest for people who are unfamiliar with podcasting to work with initially.

If you want to get SIRIUS so you can listen to programs like Armstrong Radio, I recommend the following:

• Audiovox SIR-PNP3 Sirius Satellite Radio Receiver, the third-generation of the Audiovox Shuttle Receiver for SIRIUS,
• Audiovox SIR-CK3 Sirius Satellite Radio Vehicle Kit if you want to listen in the car,
• Audiovox SIR-HK3 Sirius Satellite Radio Home Kit or an Audiovox SIR-BB3 Sirius Satellite Radio Boombox for listening away from your car.

A lot of people also recommend the Terk SIR6 Outdoor Home Antenna, which is a permanent antenna that you can mount on the outside of a building. Apparently, this dramatically boosts the satellite radio signal versus the indoor/outdoor antenna that comes with the Home Kit and the Boombox.

I also want to point out that SIRIUS has signed on as a sponsor of TDFblog.com for the month of July to promote their podcast and Armstrong Radio program on FACTION. This is not only a smart ad buy, but it demonstrates an understanding of the importance of the blogging community to the continued growth of pro cycling's fan base in the United States.

Technorati Tags: Tour de France, Lance Armstrong

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Palm Infocenter reported yesterday that palmOne released an update for the Treo 650 on Sprint PCS that enables the Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking profile. This is a long soughtafter enhancement to the Treo that will make it possible for Sprint PCS uses to use their Treos as Bluetooth modems for their laptop or desktop computers.

I've been talking about the Treo 650 DUN profile issue since January (see Are You Sure That Cingular Really Wants to Deactivate the Treo 650 DUN Profile?), so I don't need to tell you that this officially turning this on is a big deal for Treo users. The Dial Up Networking profile obviously gives us much more latitude in terms of how we use wireless data service. I think that all subscribers should have the right to use the DUN profile when they need it, particularly if they subscribe to an unlimited data plan.

I could have used this capability when I was in Georgia covering the Dodge Tour de Georgia in April because I was having problems with my laptop's WiFi card. I hope that a similar firmware update is rolled out for Cingular subscribers soon.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been using VersaMail 3.0 since I got my Treo 650 eight days ago. I'm always hesitant to make conclusive statements without backing them up with significant research, but I want to warn people who are just starting to use the Treo 650 or are considering purchasing it: VersaMail doesn't seem to work too well as an IMAP mail client, at least with respect to the way I manage my IMAP mailboxes.

I have three separate IMAP mailboxes, one each for:

• operationgadget.com (mail about this blog),
• ctdata.com (corporate mail), and
• weblogimprovement.com (mail regarding weblog engineering that I do for clients).

These mailboxes each have between several hundred and two thousand messages in their Inboxes. I have virtually unlimited storage capability for each of these IMAP mailboxes because I manage my own mailservers.

The perfect mobile IMAP client for me would provide windows into my three mailboxes, using as much bandwidth on the Cingular EDGE network as necessary. The way VersaMail appears to work is to download at least a portion of each message onto my Treo, as if I was trying to conserve bandwidth.

I'm not saying that this is definitely how VersaMail works because I haven't read all the documentation. I think I am safe in making this judgement, however, because my Treo 650 has become more sluggish as VersaMail has collected and displayed more email in each IMAP mailbox. Further evidence is the steady increase in the amount of time it takes to sync to the PC I use, refered to elsewhere on Operation Gadget as my blogging workstation.

I'm now attempting to sync my Palm to my PC. Once I complete this task, I'm probably going to remove VersaMail and try one of the third party email clients that works with the Treo 650. The ones I want to try the most are SnapperMail and ChatterEmail.

I'm planning to take a look at both of these programs and provide some details on how they differ from VersaMail. Once I've determined which one of the three best meets my needs, I will try to review it in detail here on Operation Gadget.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Lately I've been talking about buying two Treo 650s for my wife and me. We chose Cingular as our carrier and purchased the handsets from Amazon.com to take advantage of a very nice rebate offer.

I started two new accounts for us, to separate the business use of my phone from Kathleen's use, which is mainly personal. Up to now, I have been a T-Mobile USA customer for the last three years, but also an AT&T Wireless customer since I was the registered account holder for Kathleen's phone. We are planning to cancel our old accounts when we have completed the transition to the new Treos.

The other day I received the two Treos and successfully worked through the setup process for my phone. Kathleen has been working late at the hospital this week, so we used her first free evening last night to do the setup process for her phone.

It didn't work out too well.

There was nothing wrong with the Treo itself. It charged properly, found the Cingular network, and allowed us to place a call. The problem began during that call. A recording said that the phone call had been redirected for non-payment of our wireless phone bill.

I called Cingular Customer Service and used the automated system to verify that the bill for this phone was $0. I got a customer service agent on the phone. He confirmed that the phone was restricted for non-payment but didn't know why. He put me on hold while he looked into the problem.

When he came back, he said that AT&T Wireless collections had put a hold on this account due to non-payment of an account with them. This turned out to have to do with my wife's old phone. I got a bill from Cingular yesterday, saying that we owed $197.80. This included $138.69 for charges from the February bill (which had been an AT&T Wireless / Cingular bill) and $59.11 for the current bill (which was only labeled Cingular).

Continue reading "Why AT&T Wireless Had to Die" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin O'Donnell sent me a test SMS message from his T-Mobile Sidekick II yesterday. When I received the message I replied, then I thought that I wasn't sure how many SMS messages my new Cingular billing plan included, so I texted, "Let me find out about SMS and I'll get back to you."

I called 611 and asked. I found out that my billing plan has zero included SMS messages and each message costs me $0.10. If I want to buy SMS message packages, the prices are as follows:

• $2.99 for 50 messages per month
• $4.99 for 200 messages per month
• $9.99 for 1000 messages per month
• $19.99 for 2500 messages per month

It doesn't make sense that the unlimited PDA data plan doesn't have any included SMS messages, while the Cingular MEdia Net plans (which cost substantially less) include SMS messages.

I'm still thinking about what I'm going to do. I may choose to run an Instant Messaging client on my Treo 650 that channels its communication over the EDGE network. The problem is that some of the people with whom I communicate by mobile phone don't use IM.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that the combined Cingular and AT&T Wireless had the highest number of customer complaints of any U.S. mobile phone carriers in 2004, according to figures released by ConsumerReports.org.

The Consumer Union filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Communications Commission and obtained reports documenting the complaints received and the carriers to which the complaints referred. They filed the FOIA request as a follow up to a mobile carrier satisfaction survey of the readers of Consumer Reports that was published back in February.

Verizon Wireless did the best of the national wireless carriers in terms of number of complaints per million subscribers, followed by future merger partners Nextel and Sprint.

There is little doubt that Cingular deserves its place as the worst carrier in 2004. The question is how much will they improve in 2005? They are getting toward the end of their GSM 850 and EDGE data network upgrades, and gradually eliminating differences between the Cingular customer experience and that of the former customers of AT&T Wireless. This can only help their future numbers.

People who read Operation Gadget regularly are probably a bit surprised by how the numbers treat Verizon Wireless. This company is being sued by customers who bought the Motorola V710 for use on Verizon only to find that many Bluetooth features of the phone have been locked out. This type of issue probably doesn't fit well in the FCC mobile phone carrier complaint framework.

I don't regret ordering a phone that works on the Cingular network. I think their worst customer service performances are largely behind them. Kathleen has been an AT&T Wireless customer for the last few years, and she hasn't had a bad experience with them either.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today FirstAdopter.com pointed out a Washington Post article that explains a new distributed desktop computing system called Distributed Networking Attack used to decrypt data belonging to criminal suspects. The article says that the Secret Service hopes to reduce the time necessary to find encryption keys by "combining computing power with detective work".

With the persistent threat of terrorist attacks in this country and the history of criminals carrying out information security attacks on the Secret Service itself, I think the agency has a duty to fight back using computationally-intensive techniques such as these.

One particular aspect of this article that I want to point out to Operation Gadget readers is the comment by Jon Hansen, a marketing person from the contractor that helped build the Secret Service DNA system, on the insecurity of passwords chosen by most computer users:

Hansen said AccessData has learned through feedback with its customers in law enforcement that between 40 and 50 percent of the time investigators can crack an encryption key by creating word lists from content at sites listed in the suspect's Internet browser log or Web site bookmarks.

"Most of the time this happens the password is some quirky word related to the suspect's area of interests or hobbies," Hansen said.

This is why a combination of searching a suspect's data storage devices for unencrypted information about his or her lifestyle is so helpful in creating a focused password-breaking strategy.

I think this is important to note because anyone could mount an attack like this on me or you if they were motivated enough to do it. There's no question that if you know enough about me, you could come up with a short list of topics from which I might choose my passwords. If the police and security agencies know this, then data criminals do too.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Boing Boing pointed out that America Online has modified its Terms of Service to "clearly distinguish between the messages you post to public areas and the private messages you send to your friends." I agree with the notion that this is the right way for AOL to move on and maintain the vitality of its instant messaging service.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

FirstAdopter.com pointed out some interesting provisions of the AIM Terms of Service. For instance, America Online says that what you say on AOL Instant Messenger belongs to you, but then it claims "...all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content." The terms go on to say, specifically, that "You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses."

I looked at the Terms of Service and they also say that they apply to users who registered with the service on or after February 5 or downloaded an AIM client software or a software update then. I haven't done either of those, so some other terms of service must apply to me.

I'm pointing out this change in the AIM Terms of Service because the difference between what an average user of an online service thinks his rights are, and the rights he or she actually has, are increasingly diverging. I think many people will be surprised to learn that they they waive any right to privacy when using AIM. In my opinion, that's different than when a service provider warns you that an online service isn't secure because it's unencrypted.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Geekzone reports that a service called Roaming Messenger will incorporate GPS-awareness with instant messaging using the RIM Blackberry 7520. The service is designed for first responders, corporations, and utilities that want to leverage text messaging services in addition to or in lieu of voice.

Roaming Messenger claims to provide these capabilities with "end-to-end, government-grade security". It seems like a very deep offering at first glance. I've never heard of this company before, but I think I'll do some research on it and see if they've already deployed to a paying customer in the United States.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A friend of mine at T-Mobile USA got in touch with me yesterday about the recent disclosure of Voice Mail access and Sidekick II personal information disclosure issues that have made news this week. He initially contacted me in a "Yo, why are you all over us like this?" kind of way, so I called him and we talked for a while about what's been happening and what's at stake for the future.

The first thing I said to him was that my coverage of these issues is not an indication of some latent hatred of T-Mobile. Quite the contrary in fact. I have been a satisfied T-Mobile customer for about three years, and I think their service is, on balance, better than what I had been getting on AT&T Wireless.

I've recommended the T-Mobile Sidekick II to some of my closest friends, and a few have bought them. This is why the disclosure of Paris Hilton personal information struck such a chord with me. Regardless of how this information was obtained, through a vulnerability in a customer-facing application like My.T-mobile.com or through social engineering, T-Mobile needs to batten down the hatches.

The biggest reason is because customer perception of the security of a device like the Sidekick II is going to be critically important. Through gadget blogs like Operation Gadget less sophisticated mobile phone users are going to learn that the Sidekick II stores all of the data that its owner enters into it on a server at Danger, Inc. (Danger is the manufacturer of the Sidekick II.)

The fact that all of the data on the Sidekick II lives on a central server ought to be a feature of this device, not a liability. If the servers are perceived as secure, then customers ought to be happy that the Sidekick II includes an always-on backup mechanism. There are only a few ways that Danger and T-Mobile can screw this up:

1. The server environment proves not to be secure.
2. The server environment is prone to service outages or unexplained data loss.
3. The customer's personal data is held hostage in an overly-aggressive customer retention effort.

T-Mobile is clearly dealing with a pretty significant problem with the security of the server environment. They need to aggressively address this problem and show the public that they are doing it.

T-Mobile is just the first carrier to experience security problems that have gotten the public's attention. Other carriers probably have security problems in some of their customer-facing applications that have not yet been exposed.

Continue reading "What's at Stake as a Result of Recent Mobile Phone Network Security Issues" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A press release from Movida Communications released today indicates that they will provide mobile phone service to Spanish-speaking customers in the United States beginning sometime in the first half of 2005. They will operate as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on the Sprint PCS network. Movida branded handsets and pay-as-you-go cards will be available initially at Wal-Mart in select markets.

How is this different from T-Mobile, for example, which sends all its bill stuffers to me in English and Spanish? Movida says that it will produce all of its material in Spanish first and translate some of them to English. The company also "intends to offer added-value features and services that are both culturally and geographically relevant to Hispanic consumers...." Their customer care mantra is going to be "For English press two."

It will be interesting to see whether this marketing approach will connect with Spanish speakers in this country. It's probably true that this demographic group has the most growth potential in the USA, but will they flock to a provider on the basis of being served exclusively in Spanish? [ via MobileBurn ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

SplashBlog is a new photoblogging application for the palmOS that hit my RADAR screen a couple of days ago when Josh Rubin metioned it on Cool Hunting. It was mentioned again yesterday on PalmInfoCenter.

When I first looked at SplashBlog, I was concerned it was a "walled garden," meaning that the application only worked with SplashData's own photoblog hosting service. However, according to the PalmInfoCenter article, "SplashBlog is also compatible with the TypePad blogging service and support is planned for similar services such as Blogger, Flickr and Zoto."

Sounds like it's worth looking at.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently a couple of interesting stories have illustrated the major changes that student mobile phone use has brought to school campuses across the country:

• In Chelmsford, Massachusetts, parents jammed phone lines at the local high school moments after a security lockdown began. Security personnel were looking for a suspicious man in the building. Parents were tipped off to the situation by surreptitious calls and text messages from their mobile phone-wielding children. [ via Boston.com ]
• At American University, campus telecommunications is de-installing PBX phones in many dormitory rooms due to the growth of mobile use on campus. In five years, student mobile phone use on U.S. college campuses went from 33 to 90 percent, according to a market research firm. [ via WashingtonPost.com ]

In my opinion, neither of these articles carry through to two obvious conclusions:

1. educational institutions represent the leading edge of mobile technology adoption,
2. Regional Bell Operating Companies are likely to be dealing with problems in suburbia soon unless they deliver the fastest, most cost effective broadband service available to the home and get their existing customers to adopt it before they decide to go with the cable company or electric utility instead.

I think people will scrutinize the need for a "home phone" whenever they move. Whether they switch to VOIP or just designate a cell phone as the de facto home phone, it's still a loss for the RBOCs in many respects unless they get the broadband business. Watch out if 3G and Bluetooth become widely available.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Levi Wallach published a good comparison of wireless data plans from the major U.S. mobile phone carriers. If you want to know what the cost and features of the wireless data offerings from T-Mobile, Cingular / AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint PCS, this article is a good place to start.

One of the things that harder to gauge by reading this article is the extent of coverage that carriers are currently offering. Wallach says, "Cingular... already has a national EDGE network built out with great coverage...." and refers you to this very complex, PDF-based coverage map from Cingular.

I can give a more concise example of the coverage of Cingular's network in comparison to that of T-Mobile, the other GSM-based national carrier in the USA; Cingular has voice service and GPRS service in some built-up areas of Vermont. T-Mobile, on the other hand, doesn't offer voice service in Vermont at all. When my wife, Kathleen, and I go to Middlebury to spend some time where she went to college, we make sure we bring her mobile phone which runs on AT&T Wireless.

Is Cingular's faster, more available mobile data service worth the premium that they charge above T-Mobile? You have to decide that. The same thing goes for the price difference between Verizon and Sprint PCS, since they also run technologically-comparable wireless data networks.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Watch Report published a nice review of the Abacus Wrist Net. This is one of Fossil's entries into the MSN Direct-compatible "smart watch" market. MSN Direct also sent me an Abacus Wrist Net back in December, but I have been unable to completely review it because of data reception problems that may have to do with a faulty antenna.

Christian Cantrell talks about the appearance, the 18 different digital watch faces that the Abacus Wrist Net can display, and its cost relative to competing Smart Watch models. When I was using the Abacus Wrist Net, I used the "Glance" mode, which displayed most of the information that it collected from MSN Direct on a rotating basis. I agree with Christian that MSN Direct is useful in this context, and represents a good alternative to subscribing to text message news alerts delivered to your cell phone.

I have to share one comment about the Abacus Wrist Net from my friend Jen Cully. She was over at my house in December to pick up my wife to go on a car trip, I showed her the watch, and she said:

I mean it's cool and everything... but it's a wonkin', non-girly watch.

That says a lot about the Abacus Wrist Net in a very concise way. All of the Smart Watches I've seen are noticeably thicker than nearly every watch I've ever worn. The only exception to this is biking and running computers from Polar Electro, like the Polar S625x. I'm sure some of the thicker Swiss diving watches are of similar size.

Jen is also right in suggesting that these Smart Watches are pretty much a men-only phenomenon. It's hard to believe that we'll see them on the wrists of women anytime soon, unless the form factor is significantly changed.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I watched Super Bowl XXXIX last night and one of the ads that I watched closely was the Napster to Go Ad where they urged viewers to "Do the math". The ad features the Napster mascot in the seating area of the stadium holding up a sign that gets the attention of the television camera. The sign shows the following:

• Apple logo + photo of iPod = $10,000
• Napster logo + photo of three non-iPod portable audio players = $15 per month

This ad reminds me of a political campaign ad because it compares apples to oranges (forgive me for the double-entendre). Many people who are following the portable audio market understand that the iTunes Music Store offers most songs in its catalog for 99 cents. Napster asserts that since some iPods can hold about 10,000 songs, it costs $10,000 to fill a large iPod with music. This is misleading at best.

For one thing, unless you've been living under a rock you already have a collection of music on CDs. You paid for the right to personally listen to those songs in perpetuity, so ripping them to your iPod will cost you nothing. You can also buy many songs from the iTunes Music Store for considerably less than $0.99, as I did when I bought a Van Halen greatest hits album with an iTunes gift certificate in December.

Napster To Go's offer of $15 per month seems cheap until you think that works out to $180 per year. I could easily argue that over the useful life of a portable audio player, let's say three years, you'll pay $500 to Napster. At the end of that period, you will have the right to listen to none of the music you've enjoyed previously unless you continue to pay.

I may not end up buying 500 songs through iTunes within the next three years, and if I don't Napster to Go might not be a good alternative for me.

In fact, both models have their strengths and weaknesses, but by trying to make the iTunes model seem ridiculous, Napster discredits itself. Why not produce an ad that is respectful of the industry leader, saying that "Napster offers an alternative" that you may find attractive?

I think the comparison of the Napster to Go Ad to a U.S. political campaign ad is natural. My first thought when I saw it was "Gee, that's funny math." What do you think?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Associated Press reports that FBI agents identified an alleged murderer by the IP address of her computer before apprehending her. Lisa Montgomery of Melvern, Kansas was arrested and charged with "kidnapping resulting in death" in the strangling of Bobbie Jo Stinnett of Skidmore, Missouri. Stinnett is the pregnant woman who was killed last week and had her baby cut out of her, apparently by her assailant. According to the article:

Investigators say that just before the slaying, Montgomery had corresponded over the Internet with the victim, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, about buying a dog from Stinnett. The same technology that makes instantaneous communication possible enabled authorities to crack the case in a matter of hours and rescue the premature baby.

The article goes on to say that investigators took Stinnett's computer and furiously searched it for evidence that ultimately pointed to Montgomery. A tip was provided by a North Carolina dog breeder who pointed out that Stinnett had been corresponding with people on a message board about raising rat terrier dogs. This led to the discovery of the IP address that was traced to Montgomery's house.

In June, Operation Gadget reported on the use of mobile phone technology by counter-terrorism agents to locate and apprehend al Qaeda operatives worldwide. It's good to see that the type of sophistication used in counter-terrorism is being applied to domestic crimes as well. Congratulations to the FBI on the apparent arrest of a brutal murderer. [ via Boing Boing ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Many news organizations reported that President Bush ordered plans to be made for temporarily disabling the Global Positioning System during times of national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the technology to precisely target their attacks. Some people are scoffing at this, but they probably did not have friends or relatives killed on 9/11.

If a coordinated attack involving hijacked airliners ever occurred again, I think the president would be well advised to temporarily disable civilian uses of the GPS system. [ via Boing Boing ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you needed any further indication that the iPod and the iPod mini are the epitome of the portable audio market, look no further than The iPod Year in Review 2004 article on iPodLounge.

The article reviews the tremendous launch of the iPod mini-- so successful that the international rollout had to be delayed because of unmet U.S. demand. It also discusses the efforts of competitors to keep pace, the impact of the iTunes Music Store, the wooing of corporate partners like H-P, Motorola, and the band U2, as well as missteps and the controversy over whether iPod Photo's current digital photo handling features makes the grade for inclusion in an otherwise fantastic set of features.

I think Jeremy Horowitz of iPodLounge did a fantastic job on this roundup. He produced a balanced piece for a site that caters mainly to the Apple's biggest fans. It would have been easy to sing Apple's praises and overlook some of the hesitations and missteps.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a nice article on Treonauts.com by Jonathan Greene describing how to stream audio on your Treo using Pocket Tunes 3.0. This is pretty cutting edge stuff, including information about finding audio streams that are appropriate for the speed of the Treo data connections and a step-by-step guide to playing a ShoutCast stream.

I'm not out of the office enough to need this these days, but it's good to know that Pocket Tunes Deluxe is so capable. [ via atmaspheric | endeavors ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Glenn Fleishman published a complete explanation of his effort to consolidate the telecommunications services he uses. His intent was to minimize his costs. He takes advantage of several Cingular Wireless services (FastForward call forwarding services and the FamilyTalk 850 billing plan), Vonage's $25 per month Premium Unimited VOIP service, and Skype's SkypeOut long distance service to save himself and his family about $130 per month. He also published a detailed breakdown of his future telecom bills.

Kathleen and I have been talking about doing a telecom consolidation like this for several weeks now. The reasons I haven't proceeded yet are:

1. I want to figure out how to connect VOIP to our Panasonic Digital Super Hybrid Phone System. Ed Anuff says he's done this at his home in California, so I need to get the details from him.
2. I am waiting for the U.S. GSM carriers to announce the availability of the Treo 650 on their network. Once that is done, I will decide whether to consolidate our mobile service on Cingular or T-Mobile.

I'd like to look at ditching Comcast cable service as well, and moving to DirecTV or the Dish Network. However, that will probably have to wait until January or February, when I will have more money and time available.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin O'Donnell pointed out this Wireless Week article that reports T-Mobile USA has added over 3.2 million subscribers in the last nine months, a 24-percent increase in their customer base. Revenue for the third quarter was $2.46 billion or about $55 per customer. This has had a very positive impact on parent company Deutsche Telekom's earnings.

At one point, it looked like Telekom had overpaid to acquire VoiceStream, the company now called T-Mobile USA. I'm not hearing too much mention of that now.

I like T-Mobile because their wireless data service rates are among the cheapest around. This makes them the carrier of choice if you use a Treo 600, a BlackBerry 7230, or an exclusive on their network like the T-Mobile Sidekick II.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Late last week, Google announced its Google SMS Service which allows you to send a text message containing a query to the mobile number 46645 (that spells GOOGL on most phone keypads). Google will respond with one or more of SMS messages that hopefully provide useful information.

Examples of valid queries include:

• Local business listings
  • pizza 08520
  • pizza troy ny
  • mighty taco williamsville ny
  • barnes and noble princeton nj
• Residential phone listings
  • first_name last_name city state
  • [ I'd rather not subject anyone with a listed phone number to abuse by using them as an example. ]
• Product prices from Froogle
  • Price ipod 20gb
  • Price Jeep Grand Cherokee
• Word definitions
  • D aspirate
  • D longitude
• Calculations
  • 27 + 3 / 4
• Area code and Zip Code lookups for the United States
  • 716
  • 95014

I tried all of these queries and they returned mostly good information, although there were a few confusing circumstances. "Barnes and noble princeton nj" returned a couple of Barnes and Noble distribution centers out by the New Jersey Turnpike, in addition to the Barnes and Noble store at Princeton Market Fair on U.S. 1.

Sometimes area code and Zip Code queries returned both geographic locations and product prices from Froogle. For instance, I didn't know that there was a 14" Gold Pan with model number 95014. Querying Froogle for "Jeep grand cherokee limited" returned prices for Jeep-branded baby carriages, rather than SUVs.

On the other hand, the calculator function worked extremely well; It provided correct order of operation, so that "27 + 3 / 4" became "27 + (3 / 4)" which equals 27.75.

Google SMS is a handy service, no matter how limited it seems at first glance. Address and phone number information for local businesses is a killer app by itself-- it's going to impact a siginifcant revenue stream for U.S. mobile carriers. Google SMS is a good reason for Americans to get the text message habit that swept Europe and Asia a long time ago.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today, Verizon Wireless announced that it will offer its mobile phone customers the ability to receive text messages alerting them to traffic conditions along highways throughout the United States. The service is being provided with technology from Autodesk Location Services.

According to the press release announcing the new service:

Travelers using the new Verizon Wireless TXT Traffic Alert Service can choose their preferred routes and designate which times of day they would like to receive traffic update alerts....

To register, Verizon Wireless customers simply login to http://www.vtext.com/, Verizon Wireless' TXT Messaging companion Web site, and select which traffic alerts they wish to receive. The service is being offered at no cost to Verizon Wireless customers during the July 4th Holiday Weekend (July 2nd - July 6th, 2004). Beginning July 7th, 2004, Verizon Wireless customers can pay as they go for TXT Traffic Alerts, which are just $0.02 for each message received, or select from several bundled plans, including $2.99 per month for 100 messages, $4.99 per month for 250 messages and $9.99 per month for 1,000 messages sent or received.

Traffic alerts are an application of SMS that I have expected for a long time. Verizon Wireless should be congratulated for rolling this out first. I hope that other U.S.-based carriers follow with offerings of their own. [ via Textually.org ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin O'Donnell pointed out an article on CNET News.com that says Verizon has struck a deal with Telcel to allow text messaging between Latin America and Verizon's U.S. customers. Telcel is the largest mobile carrier in Latin America. Verizon Wireless now allows text message exchange between its customers and mobile phone users in 28 other countries.

Of greater interest to me, however, is this observation contained in the CNET article:

Despite high growth in volume in the recent years, data services account for only 3 percent of overall revenue of wireless carriers in the United States. This is very low, compared with 10 percent to 12 percent in Asian and European markets.

Mobile phone customers in Europe and Asia have always used text messaging (SMS and MMS) more than Americans and, amazingly, this market force is still visible in carriers' revenue mixes in each market. The tendency of customers in Europe and Asia to use their handsets for text messaging has made simple wireless internet services (such as WAP) an easier sell in those markets. What will cause North American users to use data services more? Streaming wireless video perhaps?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wi-Fi Networking News reported that Cometa will wind down its WiFi network which had an estimated 250 locations here in the New York Metropolitan Area and Seattle. The model that they were using was to be a "wholesale" public WiFi operator, meaning that they would build and operate public WiFi networks for resale by their partners, including companies like Barnes & Noble and McDonalds.

One of the things that came out in CNET's coverage of the announcement is that many analysts feel that public WiFi access only works as an add-on to other wireless services that a customer already subscribes to. This may be true at the moment. It's hard to get people other than technical sales people, real estate agents, and other mobile professionals to pay for hot spot access right now.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

ZDNet reports that President Bush called for universal broadband access in the United States by 2007. His initiative includes:

• streamlining the process of granting broadband providers access to federal land,
• backing the Federal Communications Commission's efforts to deregulate fiber-optic connections,
• supporting the U.S. Department of Commerce's development of specifications for broadband over power lines, and
• curbing taxes on Internet access.

Is anything missing?

I am not a consumer rights advocate, but I agree with the Consumer Union when they say that the administration currently allows cable operators and phone companies to charge a premium to customers who only take broadband access. So, in his effort to make broadband affordable to everybody, President Bush should go one step further and demand that broadband carriers eliminate the premium that they charge customers who only subscribe to broadband.

How much is the premium? It varies from place to place and carrier to carrier, but Jamie Zawodny recently reported that the price difference on Comcast is $14 a month in his area. It should be zero.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In one of the more interesting articles I've seen recently, David McNamee of Smartphone Thoughts recounts his switch-over to T-Mobile with an MPx200 originally put in service on AT&T Wireless. T-Mobile currently doesn't sell the MPx200 for use on its network, but since it's an 1800/1900 GSM/GPRS phone, it definitely works. In fact it probably works better on T-Mobile across the country than it would on AT&T Wireless.

This article illustrates another option for dissatisfied AT&T Wireless GSM customers: don't fight for a phone with equivalent features when AT&T suggests that you move to GSM 850, switch to T-Mobile.

The thing I'm really interested in knowing, now that I've read David's article is, to what extent do AT&T logos and references to mLife and other carrier-specific features still appear now that the phone has been switched to T-Mobile?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A lot of people thought that mobile phone number portability would allow them to freely move from one carrier to another without having to buy a new mobile phone. This has not proven to be the case for a couple of reasons:

• Incompatible Technologies: Although the number of mobile phone technologies in use in the United States is decreasing, carriers do not intend to standardize on a single system. However, within two carrier groups that operate on the same technologies, customers theoretically should be able to move:
  • GSM
    • T-Mobile (handset unlocking policy)
    • Cingular (handset unlocking policy)
    • AT&T Wireless (handset unlocking policy)
  • CDMA
    • Verizon Wireless
    • Sprint PCS
  • iDEN
    • Nextel

• Handset Unlocking Policies: The biggest hurdle that customers of one of these five carriers face to being able to use their existing phone on another mobile system using the same technology is their current carrier's handset unlocking policy. Most handsets sold in the United States are electronically locked so that they cannot be used on another carriers' system without the lock first being removed.

  This flies in the face of one of the principles of the GSM system. It was designed to allow customers to be able to physically replace the SIM card in each handset in order to change the phone number, billing, and certain user-defined phone settings, like saved phone numbers.
  

Mobile carrier handset unlocking policies vary widely. Some carriers are willing to unlock a customer's phone after a certain period of use on their system. This period may be quite short or it may be as long as the contract commitment made when the phone was purchased. Other carriers are unwilling to provide support for unlocking customers' handsets at all.

In future articles on Operation Gadget, I will discuss the handset unlocking policies of some of the GSM-based carriers, and why customers may want to consider these policies when choosing a wireless carrier.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

The BBC reported on a survey conducted by insurance and finacial services company DirectLine that says half of all British people aged 16 to 34 expect to replace their mobile phones and DVD players every three years. More interestingly, over half say that fashion plays a large role in the gadgets they choose.

This is interesting to me because I like to think that I personally choose gadgets based on things like features, usability, and cost savings. For instance, I bought my Treo because it let me do away with a Nokia 8860 and a Research in Motion 850 and consolidate on-line services. That transaction was done just about two years ago.

The two year ownership mark has figured in my decision about whether to upgrade to a Treo 600. I could have saved some money by taking advantage of palmOne's upgrade program that allowed Treo 180, 270, and 300 users to upgrade to the 600 for $399. But, I decided that I just made back my investment in the Treo 180 when I figure the total mobile phone savings over two years. I feel that I need a better reason to spend that amount of money than simply wanting a faster CPU, SD card slot, color display, and what have you.

I will probably spring for the upgrade eventually, but the driver will probably be the consolidation of all of my company's web sites on to Linux and the need for a better, faster handheld SSH client, as opposed to fashion or planned obsolescence.

Of course, the considerations about gear that does not require an on-line service are somewhat different. I think you can justify upgrading from a flash memory-based MP3 player to an iPod mini
more easily. But, I'm not sure that moving from the first or second generation iPod to the current iPod would be a good investment, unless you wanted the extra capacity available in the 20-Gigabyte or 40-Gigabyte models. But given recent changes in iTunes functionality designed to support the iPod mini, it isn't as necessary to carry your entire music collection on the iPod at the same time as it used to be.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

When my wife and I were in Texas in February, we saw a lot more satellite radio receivers in cars than we do around town near our home in New Jersey. I suspect that's because the Austin and San Antonio markets are less diverse from an over-the-air radio perspective than New York City is.

This got me thinking about the services again, and which one I would choose if I were in the market today. I'm not sure whether I would pick XM or Sirius, but I've found a site that can help identify the issues.

A site called 13Dounts.com has developed a side-by-side comparison of Sirius and XM Satellite Radio which seems quite useful to me. Most of the information posted there is accurate, although the site still says that XM has commercials on many of its feeds and we reported that XM music feeds went commercial free on February 1.

In spite of that bit of obsolescence, I think that this side-by-side comparison of satellite radio services is helpful. If I find a better one, I'll point it out.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mark Long of the NewsFactor Network compared four mobile phone/PDA combo devices with wireless internet capability and picked his favorite for wireless web use. The devices he compared are:

• the palmOne Tungsten W,
• the Siemens SX56,
• the Samsung SPH-i700, and
• the Hitachi G1000 on Sprint PCS.

Mark's criteria in this evaluation are made clear in the review: " In the best of all possible worlds, the smartphone will come with a large display screen, a Qwerty-style keyboard, plenty of memory and a generous battery life." If this is the case, I wonder why he didn't compare some other models, like the palmOne Treo 600? Especially since the Treo 600 can be had on the same Sprint PCS network that Long likes so much. Oh well.

In the end, he chose the Hitatchi G1000, a phone I have talked about previously on Operation Gadget, but I haven't seen in people's hands much. His reasons were the speed of the Sprint's 1xRTT data network, the G1000's keyboard, relatively large screen, processor speed, and expandability.

It's too bad that he chose to include the palmOne Tungsten W. As far as I can tell, this device is either on the way out of production or in line for a major upgrade. The Tungsten W is really not competitive with its slow 33 mHz Dragonball CPU. I'm not sure if it will be sacrificed now that palmOne has the Treo 600, but, it wouldn't surprise me.

I have a little difficulty understanding why the review doesn't offer any information about devices operating on the Cingular Wireless network. They offer a GSM/GPRS network that is at least feature compatible with T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless' so-called Next Generation (GSM/GPRS) network. Cingular is also in the process of buying AT&T Wireless.

Given the devices that Mark was reviewing, it's hard for me to disagree with his analysis. I'd like to see a head-to-head comparison between the Treo 600 and the Hitachi G1000, but I haven't found one yet.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Reuters reported that Wal-Mart officially launched its on-line music store yesterday with song downloads priced at 88-cents. The Wal-Mart music store has been in testing since December. Wal-Mart also announced a two month exclusive on-line distribution arrangement with Curb Records whose artists include Tim McGraw and LeeAnn Rymes and is a large presence in the Country music market.

Analysts suggest that the main reason Wal-Mart launched this service at this time was to drive more traffic to its website. They have been considered relatively late movers in several on-line ventures including on-line DVD rental and contact lens refill services, both businesses pioneered by others.

Wal-Mart's 88-cent song price is significantly less than the Apple Computer's 99-cent price through its iTunes Music Store.

I suspect that Operation Gadget readers will care a lot about the underlying technology that Wal-Mart is using for its music service. They have chosen to base their service on Windows Media Player 9. This means that many MP3 players can play music downloaded from the store, but the iPod and iPod mini are not compatible.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

My friend John Haley has been using Sightspeed Real-Time Internet Video Communications and is really happy with it. This is a video instant messaging service for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh that works at up to 30-frames-per-second.

Here are some tips that John offered for using this service:

• Go with their webcam recommendations. Top cameras are:
  • Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks,
  • Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000,
  • Logitech Quickcam Orbit, and
  • Apple iSight FireWire Webcam for Apple computers.
• Use a separate microphone or headset.
• Make sure you have adequate lighting aimed at you for your webcam to pick up a quality image.

John says, "I've been using it and it's lots of fun. There is a 'buddy list' so you can see who is online with Sightspeed and 'ring' them up."

The cost of this service is $4.95 per month for unlimited use. It can be used for 15 days on a free trial basis. If cost is an issue, you can continue to use it for free for up to 15 minutes per day for as long as you like.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)