Inside View

About to Reconnect to Wired Broadband

WITHIN ANOTHER  24 HOURS, I will be back on normal broadband service because I will have finished a deep drill into pure over-the-air broadband service. The experiment proved that we will be able to deliver mobile-friendly interactive content for our creative multimedia degree programme in Tipperary Institute. Third level students will be able to get text messages, news forum summaries, access to rooms and channels that display elegantly on small screens--all at price points (read "free") that ensure we have the substructure to engage productively in a newly semesterised higher education programme. Over the next few days, I will point to the lessons I have learned with my deeply immersive over-the-air experience. But first, I'm headed over to Louder Voice where I want to give top marks to the Nokia E90 (at left), the primary phone I used to connect me over-the-air for great effect during the past three work weeks.

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Sent mail2blog using O2-Ireland 3G service while sipping on a lovely coffee in Henry's of Cashel.

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In Defense of Ecomentalists

NEARLY EVERY WEEK, I read about problems with biofuels and wind power. I work with some tree-hugging ecomentalists and I've learned about the science that supports alternative energy claims. I think some of the comments, especially in the business press, are ill-founded. Specifically, I think it's wrong to lay blame for food shortages at the rise of biofuels and I think it's short-sighted to believe that you cannot store energy harvested from wind power.

A Month with iReader

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Shot of Nokia E90

I HAVE USED THE GOOGLE iREADER, the version of Google Reader programmed for the iPhone. It's also very tasty when running on my Nokia E90 as the shot shows at left. Like many things from Google, this is a beta version of the full-fledged Goodle Reader. You can bookmark it easily at http://www.google.com/reader/i/ and I started using it on my phones, I noticed that it offered many of the same features as the desktop, while making it quick and easy to act on items. If you've used list view, then it should be familiar to you. I walk around town using open wifi or O2-Ireland 3G and use the joystick on the E90 to scroll quickly through interesting items. By driving the arrow to the bold print and tapping the center of the joystick on the outside or inside of the E90, I get the full item in its expanded view. Starring, sharing, and keeping unread are done in place, so I never have to leave the list view or refresh the page. I think it might be faster to use the iReader on the E90 than it is on the iPhone since my finger can always remain on the joystick to navigate quickly.

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Sent mail2blog using O2-Ireland GPRS Typepad service.

Bernie Goldbach curates links about newsfeeds.

Recommended iPhone App

UPDATED 28 July 2008 after prodding by the first comment.

ONE OF THE BEST iPhone applications available for immediate download comes from Truphone. This is the first low-cost VoIP calling service for the iPhone. I have used it with Nokia mobile phones for nearly four months and the service has saved me at least €100 a month because when I'm roaming, I use Truphone instead of roaming voice services. And when I'm in a wifi hotspot, I toggle Truphone "on" so I can make free phone calls and send free text messages. Call quality is superb and is normally better than Skype. The only issue I have with the service is that I have been dumped off Truphone after 10-15 minutes several times, both while using it via 3G and wifi points. However, since my average call lasts no longer than five minutes, I don't encounter the problem frequently.

Roaming Got Cheaper

IF YOU HAVE A EUROPEAN mobile phone account and you plan to travel in the European Union this summer while ringing around, using your mobile phone just got cheaper. With O2-Ireland, calling from any EU country back into Ireland costs no more than 59c per minute. And if someone calls you on your European mobile phone, it costs you just 29c per minute. However, you can beat both of those rates by using Truphone on your mobile phone, either with a 3G data connection or with a free wifi connection nearby. Sending an SMS text message from your European mobile phone costs 29c. It costs half that when using Truphone to send SMS text messages.

Important: Although the European mobile phone networks tell you "the rates for making and receiving a call in any EU country are the same regardless of what network you're on and this means there's no need to go through complicated phone menu selections to choose a different network," that's not true for data services. You need to use the preferred network provider if you expect to get the best roaming rates for data. From personal experience, you can easily pay more for mobile data roaming than you will pay for overnight accommodation in major European cities.

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Sent mail2blog using O2-GPRS from the streets of Cahir, County Tipperary, Ireland using the Nokia E90 at left.

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OpenCoffee BBQ

FOR OVER A MONTH, I had planned to attend the OpenCoffeeClub BBQ in Terryglass but about a week before, I did the numbers and just couldn't make the commitment. I had everything figured out on Dopplr, calculated the distances and considered all the changing gear with bottles that I had to carry. While it feels wrong to back out and become just a watcher, I just couldn't juggle all the domestic tasks of child care for the almost-walking Mia (at left) while driving to and from the venue. Exactly one year ago, my wife began her maternity leave and that put the 16th of July as her first day back at work. More importantly, that meant all child care responsibilities became mine and I had never taken on a complete day's work all by myself before. I just couldn't do it all and for that reason alone, I couldn't drive up and back to Lough Derg. From all the reports, the OpenCoffee BBQ was a huge success. I'm sure its spirit will spark some follow-on social gatherings outdoors. And there's always a tweet-up, Geek Girls Dinner, Barcamp, TechLudd, or Podcamp happening every month in some part of Ireland. We'll be at a few of these community events in the months ahead. And we'll buy a round for Evert Bopp, the OCC BBQ organiser.

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Sent mail2blog using O2-Ireland GPRS Typepad service.

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Two Big Holes with Irish Infrastructure

IT COMES AS NO surprise to the technology-aware for me to share the pain of mobile or satellite internet connectivity. Both of these technologies help shade in the map of Ireland, showing all-around broadband connectivity. This is deceptive map-making by government officials who should know better. It would be like saying all points in Ireland connect via motorway. A more accurate map would show big holes where no sustained capability of at least 12 megabits per second existed. You need that kind of data service to be truly able to run a small office in Ireland.

Lego Hawking

WE WISH PROFESSOR STEPHEN HAWKING, CH, CBE, FRS, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, best wishes on his trip to the stars. More shots at Brickshelf.

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Uploaded to Typepad using O2 Broadband in Ireland.

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3.5G Qik Take on Tech

ONE REASON I BUY newspapers on Sunday is to follow the crowd noise about technology. I flicked through three Irish broadsheets today, finding no mention of the most talked-about technology from last week. Specifically, no one wrote about the 3G iPhone in the papers I read on Sunday. Not to worry--Pat Phelan gives his take online and I fold his comments into a 3.5G Qik Take on Tech. It's going to be a multi-part Qik video, starting with jumping over the stile to ascend the Rock of Cashel. I don't know how this multi-part thing will work--we're experimenting with the genre. I don't have a choice because I'm pushing a baby stroller up and around the Rock as I record my video, so that means doing the thing in segments. I have annotated sources of the comments recorded in the Qik video below. I start off with my admiration of Anya Gallaccio. She is currently exhibiting in Kinsale.

iPhone 3G in Pink Pages

WEEKEND COVERAGE OF the 3G iPhone in Ireland includes front page treatment offered by the Financial Times and while that's an excellent example of embedded advertising, it's nothing like the opening-the-box treatment offered by Pat Phelan. In fact, I think the flow of information I'm getting on Jaiku and Twitter is probably better than that  offered by the mainstream press. I made a Qik video (enclosed as a 3GP file too) as I rambled through two Saturday newspapers offered to me by my local newsagent. I found short shrift for the 3G iPhone, limited analysis of why Dublin Airport radar malfunctioned, ideas on smart investments during the current recessionary period, and another reason to renew my New Yorker subscription.