Archive for September, 2007
by Imran Ali
September 30, 2007 at 7:40 pm · Filed under Usage + Usability, News, Mobile Advertising, Ethnography, Radio, Convergence
Mobile operators, handset manufacturers and operating systems vendors have a tendency to become breathlessly excited by the possibility of all-in-one super phones such as the N95 and iPhone.
Yet, few take the time to critically understand the ethnographic reality of convergence. I spent many years pointing out to my former employers that convergence and digital TV was less about crude interactive and more about understanding what people were googling on their wifi laptops as they watched TV!
By the same token, a recent piece by Reuters on the use of text-messaging promotions by radio broadcasters is a indictment of the blinkered nature of convergence discourse in the industry.
Rather than pursuing the mirage of the One-True-Device, operators and handset builders need to sharpen their ethnographic understanding and open their innovation processes to a wider community of developers. There is more than one model of convergence chaps!
Interestingly, Reuters’ Radio stations keying in to text-message promotions, doesn’t mention anything about support from operators and vendors…
by Imran Ali
September 30, 2007 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, GSM, Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS, Communication, SDR, Mesh
A pair of recent articles run by the BBC and the New York Times respectively shed light on a pair of innovations that may profoundly affect mobile communication and infrastructure in coming years…
Though mesh networking applied to mobile telephony has long been a promising area of research, with projects such as MIT’s Roofnet and Dublin’s WAND, Terranet are possibly the first to bring ad-hoc , wireless mesh networking to mobile telephony.
Inspired by poor cell coverage during visits to Africa, handsets modified with Terranet software can locate nearby cellphones and route calls, handset-to-handset, until the they reach their destination.
Though currently, I believe, confined to voice, it’s not difficult to envisage a future where voice, data, and messages can jump from phone to phone using the most available or appropriate network; whether Bluetooth, Wifi, WiMax, UWB or plain old GSM.
Though not the replacement for GSM that Terranet’s Anders Carlius suggests, it’s a useful compliment to existing mobile technology, particularly for areas with low to no mobile coverage and if Terranet can bring its technology to near ubiquity.
On a related note, the NYT’s coverage of Software Defined Radio this weekend raises some important questions about base station and indeed handset technology. SDR’s fast becoming a mobile wet dream, enabling handsets to potentially support any radio standards simply by applying software updates.
Coupled with mesh networking, it becomes possible to imagine mobile messaging and communications being routed across multiple radio networks, handsets and base stations, potentially improving resilience, availability and coverage for all types of mobile communication.
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Read the NYT’s coverage of SDR here and the BBC’s piece on Terranet here…
by Imran Ali
September 29, 2007 at 7:23 pm · Filed under Events + Conferences, Orange, Mashup
France Telecom’s citrus-y mobile operator, Orange has just opened registration for a trio of mashup events due to take place in various European cities this coming Winter; this ‘roadshow’ comes hot on the heels of Orange’s San Francisco R&D labs successful mashup event earlier this year.
I’d like to think the timing of the registration is a canny attempt for Orange to capitalise on its flailing negotiations to carry iPhone in France - but as a former Orange employee, I know for sure that they’re not that smart…
However coincidental or accidental, Orange has cautiously been embracing the developer community and Web 2.0 culture for a number of years - in sharp contrast to the joint Apple+AT&T bitchslaps recently delivered to iPhone users.
Orange’s Pikeo and Bubbletop services, though hilarious imposters of Flickr and Netvibes, were designed from inception as vehicles to engage the developer community with Orange APIs. Though Orange’s execution has often been unimpressive - their sincerity in seeking to navigate unfamiliar territories of open development is laudible, relative to other mobile operators, though sadly unremarkable in a wider sense.
So, if you feel mobile operators are needlessly closed platforms, events such as these are your opportunity to impress upon them the value of participation…register for Orange’s London, Paris and Madrid Mashup events at the Orange Partner site…
{ Disclosure: I used to work for Orange and I am quite literally allergic to Apples! }
UPDATE: Oops…looks like BT’s collaboration with Coghead might actually be more ambitious than Orange’s mashups. BT plan to equip the Coghead authoring environment with access to core APIs such as call control, location lookups and conferencing. Wow…scriptable telephony?
by Russell Shaw
September 26, 2007 at 8:04 am · Filed under Facebook
Sam from the UK Blognation site has obtained news and images of a friendvox Facebook IM application that is due for a beta release this Friday.
“What I like about this Facebook app is there is nothing to download or install, no registration and best of all, all of your friends in Facebook can use it instantly,” he writes.
I tend to say, “hey Facebook, what took you so long?” Social networks are ideal potting soil for IM and texting applications. That being obvious, Facebook may be doing this because they felt it was only a matter of time before a whole parade of third-party developers- sanctioned or not- would start building texting and IM apps for the platform.
Instead, Facebook is in control of this utility.
IMs will look like this:
I’m anxious to try this on one of my mobiles.
by Ewan Spence
September 25, 2007 at 5:51 pm · Filed under Devices, Platforms, iPhone, ATT, Apple, DRM
The news that Apple will potential ‘brick’ (to render a piece of technology as functional as a brick) any of the iPhones that have been unlocked and modified by their owners is something that I’ve both been expecting, and that I’m decidedly unhappy about. In no way am I a fan of Apple (as I’m sure some of the other writers here will attest), but while Apple are arguably within the rights of the software agreements that they placed in front of the user, the legal minefield of subsidy, unlocking, DMCA acts, and a million and one other things mean that there could be very choppy waters ahead if they go ahead with a controversial firmware upgrade.
All of this is horribly reminiscent of the war that Sony has been fighting against the owners and third party developers on the Sony Playstation Portable. The PSP, with a 480×288 screen, USB and WiFi connectivity, and huge amount of portable horsepower proved an irresistible lure to the bedroom coders, and they started to work out how to get their code running on their devices.
But while Sony closed down the loopholes, and provided more carrots to try and get people to upgrade to the latest firmware (adding in a Web Browser for version 2.0, adding streaming for podcasts at 2.6, the ability to save podcasts to the memory stick in 2.7, Playstation One emulation in 3.0, and so on); ensuring that each blockbuster game required the latest version; and generally playing whack a mole as coders continued to find tiny chinks in the code (classically, a buffer overrun in the code to display a picture ultimately led to the first major ‘crack’ in the system), they never took the route that would see them switch off a PSP. Any bricking was because the hackers were exploring with no official guide to the system.
The company that asked us to “Think Different†is about to embark on a huge game of cat and mouse with some of the brightest minds and collective wisdom on the planet. Apple need to be lucky every single time. The hackers need just one of them to get lucky, just once, and everything will open up again. And the process will begin again.
Herding lolCats would be easier than keeping the iPhone closed.
by Russell Shaw
September 22, 2007 at 9:50 am · Filed under News, Nokia
A new application from Nokia Beta Labs called Conversation allows users to follow their conversations, with these, well, conversations organized by individual contracts.
Nokia is also touting the application as a simple way for replying to messages, thus continuing the (here comes that word again) conversations.
To install Conversation, the Nokia Contacts Service Support Package (download on the Nokia website page I linked to above) must be downloaded to device memory. Then, after that’s settled, Conversation can be downloaded.
Once you’ve installed Conversation, the application will appear on your Nokia phone as an application shortcut as well as in a new tab in your Contacts application.
The downloadable app is a beta, and apparently, an early one at that. Nokia says that Version for S60 3rd Edition is compatibility- tested with the Nokia N73. Works but not fully tested with Nokia E50, E60, E61, E61i, E62, E70, N71, N75, N77, N80, N91, N92, N93, N93i.
In contrast, Version for S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 is compatibility- tested with Nokia N95 and 6290. Works but not fully tested with Nokia 5700 XpressMusic, Nokia 6110 Navigator, 6120 classic, 6121 classic, E90 Communicator, N76, N81, N81 8GB, N95 8GB.
by Russell Shaw
September 22, 2007 at 9:37 am · Filed under SMS
If you SMS, or know folks who do (maybe even your own teenagers) texting, you know that many more than just two conversants want in.
But the process is multi-message- #1 texter texts #2, and then texts#1 with a version of what texter #2 told her, and so on.
But now there’s a better way.
A new, SMS service just announced by Virgin Mobile enables customers to blast an SMS message to several friends at once, and then handle replies to everyone as well.
The service is entitled 3jamSMS 2.0, and is available from the eponymously named, venture-backed 3jam, Inc. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company’s deal with Virgin Mobile marks the first time a U.S.-based mobile carrier can offer multi-party text conversations.
While the 3jamSMS 2.0 application is free to sign-up with, SMS’s messages it subsequently carries are assessed at customary Virgin Mobile SMS rates (5cents a text; 25c ents a video mail, or monthly plans of $9.99 (1,000); $4.99 (200) or $1.99 (50).
by Ewan Spence
September 21, 2007 at 7:26 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, SMS, Software, Events + Conferences, Podcasts, Mobile Applications, GSM, Mobile Email, Carriers, mobile social networking, Nokia, Ovi, Instant Messaging, Communication
As mentioned in our previous post from Tech Crunch 40, Debi and I sat down to talk about the five companies who won through to present on stage - namely Cubic Telecom (www.cubictelecom.com), Yap (www.yapinc.com), Trutap (www.trutap.com), Ceedo (www.ceedo.com) and Loudtalks (www.loudtalks.com).
There’s a lot to discuss, from business model, geographical challenges (both in distribution and acceptance), the might of the carriers and the handset manufacturers, and all the issues that a start-up in the mobile are going to have to deal with.
MM20 at Tech Crunch 40, pt 2:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download
by Ewan Spence
September 21, 2007 at 2:00 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0
Both Debi and I attended the Tech Crunch 40 conference on the 17/18 of September - a platform for 40 companies to present their new products and services to an audience of Web 2.0 journalists, media, venture capitalists and interested parties. The Mobile and Communications panel threw up some interesting companies, namely…
Cubic Telecom (www.cubictelecom.com)
Yap (www.yapinc.com)
Trutap (www.trutap.com)
Ceedo (www.ceedo.com)
Loudtalks (www.loudtalks.com)
After the presentation, an expert panel - Chris Anderson (editor in chief of Wired Magazine), Ryan Block (editor in chief of Engadget), Om Malik (founder and exec editor of GigaOm Omni Media) and Marrissa Mayer (VP Search products and User Experience at Google) - discussed the companies chances, and had a chance to grill them on their services. Now’s your chance to listen in on some of the best services Web 2.0 can offer mobile messaging.
MM20 at Tech Crunch 40, pt 1:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download
by Russell Shaw
September 19, 2007 at 8:44 pm · Filed under Privacy + Security, Instant Messaging
ZDNet’s Ryan Naraine reports zero-day vulnerabilities in Yahoo! Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger.
In the case of Yahoo! Messenger, a hole exists that could leave users vulnerable to code execution attacks.
Additionally, anti-virus solutions provider Secunia has posted an advisory referring to an AOL Messenger Version 6.1.41.2 security bug that could be exploited for the purpose of executing an arbitrary script code.
The note reads:
Input passed to the Notification window is not properly sanitised before being displayed to the user. This can be exploited to execute a limited amount of arbitrary script code in the Local Zone (My Computer) context by e.g. sending a specially crafted message to another user.
Successful exploitation requires that the target user is e.g. chatting with a different user so that the Notification window is shown and that the attacker is in the Buddy List of the target user or the target user accepts the IM message from the attacker.
And that’s not OK.
According to Secunia:
Input passed to the Notification window is not properly sanitised before being displayed to the user. This can be exploited to execute a limited amount of arbitrary script code in the Local Zone (My Computer) context by e.g. sending a specially crafted message to another user.
Successful exploitation requires that the target user is e.g. chatting with a different user so that the Notification window is shown and that the attacker is in the Buddy List of the target user or the target user accepts the IM message from the attacker.
As a security policy strategy, Secunia is suggesting AIM users Secunia disable “New IMs arrive†option in the “Notifications†settings until a patch is available
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