Why QWERTY? Why not something more usable, like a cording keyboard? Does anyone think we can actually type on this device?
…the Nokia 6820 is here because of one characteristic, its keyboard. Nokia first debuted this ingenious design a year ago in the 6800 model, and it transforms the phone into something that’s at the same time a little more useful and a little less capable than a PDA. The phone looks like a traditional candy bar handset, only the front flips up to reveal a full 51-key QWERTY layout with the phone rotated 90 degrees. It promises to solve one of the dilemmas of a mobile device: they make for reasonably good devices for viewing material in some circumstances, but are lousy for entering text.
Devices cell phone, keyboard, mobileTech, PDA, phone, QWERTY
UK company High Energy Magic announces the SpotCode platform for extending the use of your mobile phone:
Using High Energy Magic’s SpotCode Platform you can use your mobile phone to easily interact with computers of all shapes and sizes: whatever you’re doing, wherever you are. Your phone becomes your own all-in-one mouse, keyboard, storage device and authentication system.
This certainly has enterprise application possibilities. Check out the videos.
Devices authentication, computers, mobileTech, phone
Stuck with a relatively new cell phone that’s tied to a provider you no longer have a contract with? Bummed about having to go out and buy, and reprogram, yet another new phone? Feeling like this is all so “ball and chain?”
… it doesn’t have to be so. If you have a GSM phone, you can unlock it and switch to any GSM network carrier (the big three are AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile). You can also take an unlocked phone overseas (most of the world uses GSM) and use it on a local network to avoid paying for international roaming, or even buy a European phone (they tend to be ahead of us in cell tech) and use it here. Have an old phone lying around? Unlock it and keep it as a spare.
The key is the subscriber identity module, or SIM, card, which stores the essential information–carrier, number, contacts–in all GSM phones. So once your phone is unlocked, switching carriers or phones simply means popping in a new SIM (available at any cell store here or overseas).
Devices, Network carriers, cell phone, GSM, mobileTech, phone, providers, SIM, telecom, unlock
With AT&T’s CallVantage announcement (and sales droids hailing it as “the Vonage killer), Vonage seeks to differentiate its service with wi-fi phones. I could have used one at the VoIP conference this week!
With the phone, Vonage subscribers can make and receive phone calls within range of Wi-Fi wireless access points normally found in homes, airports, cafes, fast food restaurants and other high-trafficked areas, Executive Vice President Michael Trembolet said. The phone could also work inside any home outfitted with Wi-Fi networks, he said.
Devices mobileTech, phone, VoIP, wi-fi
A coffee shop in Washington (state) is offering free Internet phone service, for the price of a latte. And why not? Doesn’t cost anything more than the broadband connection because it doesn’t connect to the regular (PSTN) telephone network. But it does connect people, and is a good demonstration of one possible future (goodbye Qwest?).
The phone at Urban Grind, which Johnson hooked up last week, is the only free public Internet phone anywhere, as far as PTP knows. Anyone can walk into the cafe and give the phone a whirl for the price of a latte, opening a new front in Personal Telco’s campaign to install free wireless Internet across Portland.
Network coffee, free, phone, VoIP, wi-fi, wireless
Motorola’s new mobile phone supports music and video content, has memory expansion cards up to 1GB, has stereo speakers and FM radio, color screen with video cam, and more.
‘The device formally known as the cellphone is now our wireless entertainment portal, connecting us to the music, videos, artists we love, and the information we want,’ commented Motorola’s ‘chief brand officer,’ Geoffrey Frost. ‘Through wireless innovation, partnerships and open standards, we are delivering a new way for artists to reach their fans, and for music-lovers to enjoy their favourite tracks.’
The question is: which service providers will be first to sign up?
Devices cell phone, entertainment portal, mobileTech, open standards, phone, service providers, stereo, video, wireless
Five-pen computing? Certainly mobile. Still in the works.
The design concept uses five different pens to make a computer. One pen is a CPU, another a camera, one creates a virtual keyboard, another projects the visual output and thus the display and another a communicator (a phone). All five pens can rest in a holding block which recharges the batteries and holds the mass storage. Each pen communicates wireless…
Devices computer, cool, display, mobileTech, output, phone, virtual keyboard, wireless
I tried to become a Vonage phone service subscriber, but too many of their problems got in my way. It’s still not ready for prime time.
First there was the wait. I ordered service on 4 Dec. 2003. They didn’t ship the voice-to-broadband connection box (called an MTA) until 8 Dec. It didn’t arrive until 15 Dec (today.)
Then there was the wait. And wait, and wait. On hold to tech support for over 40 minutes each. The third time I never got to talk with anyone–the recording said “Sorry we can’t help you. Please send email…”
About that wait… Being on hold with Vonage is its own special hell: the music (which doesn’t change) is much louder than the voices (like the “thank you for holding, someone will be with you in a minute” about every five minutes). In fact, the music is so loud that I couldn’t leave the phone to my ear for long. That made the voice recordings especially hard to catch.
In the end, the last tech support guy I spoke with never got my dialtone working. I powered down various pieces of networking equipment, including my MTA (9 times in one phone call). He said that he needed to run some diagnostic which would take a few minutes. I foolishly asked him to call me back. Right, like that ever happened (it did not).
I’ll be sending the MTA back to Vonage tomorrow. And looking for another alternative phone provider tonight. Anyway, now I don’t have to worry about potentially short-sighted FCC interventions into the VoIP space. (Think “communications applications,” not “telephone network.”
Devices, Life, Network phone, sucks, telecom, telephone, Vonage
Thinking of changing your home/office phone to something a little more mobile? Many phone users have not wanted to give up their long-standing and familiar old phone number. Now they don’t have to. Cell phone companies are happy. Do they think their network reliability issues will keep the new business that they’re likely to get as the phone numbers churn with the customers?
As many as 7 million consumers use cell phones exclusively. Jeff Maszal, research director for The Management Network Group, an Overland Park, Kan.-based communications consulting firm, said an additional 19 million consumers are likely to drop their landlines for cell phones now that they can keep their home or business phone numbers.
Identity, Policy cell phone, landline, mobile, number, phone, phone number portability, telecom
MobileMag has an article on Nokia’s newest device. Yes, it’s pretty wild.
Taking Nokia design to a new level, the device incorporates a 65,000 color screen as the heart and soul of its front face. The Nokia 7600 enables people to capture pictures and videos, send and receive multimedia messages* and mobile email and listen to music. With this phone, people can also take advantage of the increased speed of the next generation of mobile networks by watching good quality live video content directly from their handsets.
Devices 3G, camera phone, cell phone, handset, mobileTech, phone, video