Inside View from Ireland

Another Voda Modem Success

MY TRUSTY VODAFONE USB modem surprised me with service that I've never enjoyed from a mobile device before. It uploaded an entire DVD in the background.

I never intended to use Vodafone's mobile broadband service to shift big chunks of content because I think it's a little rude to monopolise cellular masts with big clumps of data. However, based on a fat-finger error, I inadvertently dropped the entire contents of a two-hour DVD from my laptop to Libsyn, a trustworthy rich media data archive. This was a mistake because I don't like using most of my monthly Libsyn allocation with the uploading of a single file. I'm still trying to figure out what I did to upstream an archive when I meant to upload a single 30-second feature film extract for the Media Writing module I teach in LIT-Clonmel.

Anyway, the upload is complete and I'll probably keep the big file on Libsyn since I can now stream one of my favourite J.J. Abrams films through my Nokia E7 and onto our TV set via an HDMI cable. It's unexpected elegance and encourages me to put all of our four year old's favourite DVDs up into the cloud so we can serve up Peppa Pig and friends no matter where we are in the world.

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Photo of late night Vodafone service connected to my Dell M2400 laptop.

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Clever NokiaWorld Offerings

I HAVE SEEN THE future of Nokia's product line and I want some of it in my hands mainly because the Nokia Lumia's touch, feel and function totally relegates my iPod Touch.

Some terrific hardware inside the Nokia Lumia 800 makes this phone a Hero Product for me. Products I use every day work better on the Lumia. Nokia Drive takes my maps to a new level. Mix Radio helps me escape from the overweight iTunes, Lumia 800's intelligent icons don't require me to tap and see because everything automagically pushes fresh content directly into view on the screen. This intelligent presentation makes the iOS 5 notification flow look irksome.

A lot of visual purity appeared on screen at Nokia World 2011 and it would have made Jony Ive envious. Nokia has a strong legacy of functionally beautiful phones. The products Nokia announced and shipped today symbolise a new dawn for Nokia and they restore my faith in the company's understanding of how people want to connect.

My First Look at Vodafone Mobile Broadband

THE VODAFONE MOBILE BROADBAND USB stick modem gives me a solid first impression--it delivers 3G performance in the creative multimedia wing of LIT.

This means a lot for new students who are not registered on the course but who need to see Google Documents, email and cloud storage. Simply snapping the €40 red and white Vodafone stick modem into their laptops gives them high speed personal internet access to cloud services without having to log into the campus network. Of course, they could also use the white-hot free and open campus wifi if they wanted but having Vodafone Mobile means they can take their work outside onto the picnic tables, work downtown from my favourite coffee shop, or hide in a corner in the student union building. With dependable, high speed and nearly symmetrical Vodafone Mobile Broadband, the real challenge becomes staying focused on to-do lists and not sinking into the distracting void of Facebook during the normal academic day.

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Data Shock Anniversary

 

FOR THE 30 DAY period that starts at the end of August each year, I rewind my history with O2-Ireland and remember the boatloads of money I've given to them during this specific timeframe.

Moving Up to Internet Radio

WE HAVE A 12 year old Sony radio sitting in the kitchen and it will easily last another 12 years without fail. But I already want to move up to internet radio because there's so much more content I need to absorb audibly. The Revo AXiS fits the bill. It's part of the next generation of connected digital radio devices that combine multi-format radio reception, iPod and iPhone docking, audio streaming from places like Audioboo and access to premium online music services such as Last.fm. The Revo AXiS can handle a full range of digital radio standards including DAB, DAB+ and internet radio as well as conventional FM radio with RDS. AXiS will also wirelessly stream digital music files from any connected PC or Apple Mac. I particularly like its 3.5" colour TFT display and its icon-driven touchscreen user interface. The tourchscreen enables quick and easy navigation around the radio's many advanced features. I'm putting this like number into my Wishlist, hoping some friend remembers it's my birthday next month and the month after next.

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Revo AXis -- Wireless Internet Radio

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My Lovely Mifi Ride

I'M DEEP INTO A second week of powering the house exclusively with over-the-air 3G service from O2-Ireland. I'm getting upload speeds twice as fast with O2 than with Eircom. I'm paying four times as much for the Eircom broadband service. Eircom's  wifi signal doesn't reach into the corners of our tower house as efficiently as the Huawei Mifi dongle (in the photo) I use to serve three different devices in the house. I'm amazed but not really surprised because O2's data services have improved year-on-year. You can see that in the photostream I have for screenshots of Mifi speedtests and I've specific blog posts about the quality of service written through the years. I think it's important to review some of the things I've observed about mobile broadband.

Observing My Personal Mobile Anniversary

IN APRIL 1981, I carried a big brick that could be used to call landlines. It was an industrial strength Motorola handset (not the one at left) and it connected to an antenna array at the top of a water tower in Enid, Oklahoma. That antenna array relayed my voice to aircraft, landlines or military Autovon numbers. I could contact all sorts of people and I used the device while working as a flight safety officer and T-38 instructor pilot. I once used it to call home while out shopping for food. That led to a chastisement because everyone on the same net could hear the kind of hamburger meat that I was buying. Calling Autovon was more discreet so I rang a submarine while it was tied up in Virginia. It wasn't polite for a Captain to call a supersonic trainer so I used that frequency band to listen and react. The phone called me out to one fatal accident where there were no discernible human remains. After that tragic misphap, I wish I had snapped a photo of the handset on my desk because I think I could have claimed more street cred for my experience. But it's good to remember things as they once were and to think that no one working with me imagined they would ever need to call someone to learn where to meet up for drinks. You knew where and when to go--why would you need to call?

Apple's New SIM Landmine

IF GRAPEVINE NEWS about Apple's plans to include a SIM in the iPhone 5 is correct, Steve Jobs could be set to step on a landmine. That's the conclusion Andrew Parker reaches in the Financial Times today. [1] "Some of Europe's leading mobile operators are ... privately saying they could refuse to subsidise the iPhone if Apple inserts an embedded SIM." By offering a SIM with the phone, Apple could activate iPhones from its own website after consumers bought the new phone for $600. That price point would relegate the iPhone to a Financial Times "How to spend it" audience, shaving up to 12% from Apple's global sales, according to Robin Bienenstock, analyst at Alliance Bernstein.

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1. Andrew Parker -- "Apple warned over plan for in-built SIM" in the Financial Times, 19 November 2010.

2. Stacy Higginbotham -- "Is Apple about to cut out the carriers" on Gigaom, 27 Ocober 2010.

 

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App Space is Mindshare

ALTHOUGH I BUY mobile phones for their durability and tactile functionality, the mobile landscape today revolves around mindshare. People want to think they're getting the latest, coolest thing and that's often something in their mind. Based on the foot traffic I've watched walk in and out of local phone shops, people think apps are the ultimate measure of sophistication. Lust for apps started in the States around two years ago when people started realising they could carry really potent computing power in their pockets. Today, 42.7 million smartphones are running in the US. Apple created this market segment on my birthday in 2007. And consumers want smartphones nowadays, more than they want a device that last three years. I'm trying to guide new students into their first leap towards the smartphone ecosystem, pointing out my recommendations in a vast selection of mobile applications now running on smartphones. I lead with "make sure you get wifi" because of the trend I'm noticing by mobile phone operators to extract more than the contracted levels of data usage from their customers. Apps can be data carnivores and in my life, whenever I permit my smartphones to update things on their own throughout a month, I'm assured of exceeding my data limits and I end up paying an extra 100 euro to my mobile operator for easy access to smart apps. It's no wonder that Irish mobile phone operators hype the App Store and Android Market. When more people use those facilities, operators enjoy an easy boost in revenue-based services traveling over the air.

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Ramon Nuez -- "Smartphone Application Market is a $2.2 Billion Business" in the Huffington Post, 22 Sep 10.

Photo of me using Seesmic on my Xperia X10 Android phone.

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Sweet Cash for a Windows 7 App

MARTHA ROTTER HAS DETAILS for applications developers in Ireland & Northern Ireland who want to earn prizes (i.e., sweet cash, Xboxes, and swag). If you want the inside story, you should follow Martha. Don't be shy about asking for gear you need.

 

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Developer Starting Point

Channel 9’s Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit

Channel 9 Windows Phone 7 Jump Start Videos with Andy Wigley & Rob Miles

Windows Phone 7 Jump Start

Consumer Introduction to Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 Video Resources

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