Archive for Bluetooth
by Darla Mack
November 19, 2007 at 5:46 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Bluetooth, FOMM
In 2003 it was reported that 88% of the wireless minutes logged in the US were done so while operating a vehicle.
In January this year, Ford and Microsoft launched an exclusive, in car communication system that functions via Bluetooth or USB. It connects your mobile phone or digital music player and opens up a world of connectivity solutions right from the comfort of your steering wheel.
It’s funny… when you think of mobile you think of “something that is capable of moving”.
This is a breakthrough concept, especially for American’s because we spend up to 2 hours in our cars when commuting. Mind you, that’s not including time spent if and when stuck in traffic.
As you can see in the video, the technology is amazing. Besides being able to do voice calling and listening to stored music, which is already possible with some devices, consumers now have the ability to utilize audible text messaging.
I’m sure that many do, but don’t admit to sending sms while driving. I can remember back when I was a heavy UPOC user some members of the group would attest to sending a message while driving. Not a very safe thing to do, but with technology like this I can see those numbers increasing. How could it not? With the option being right there at your fingertips without having to move your hands from the 10 - 2 position.
But who is this technology for and why limit it to a Ford device? I can see this being popular with business users and the youth market. But what about the average user?
While the technology is groundbreaking in my opinion, I can’t see myself justifying it by the purchase of a new Ford or Lincoln vehicle. Hopefully something more stand-alone will be available. But if you are in the market for a new Ford this would be for you.
According to Ford’s Media site, SYNC will be standard on Lincoln vehicles and widely available on Ford and Mercury vehicles. In most cases, SYNC will be included as standard equipment on high-series models from Ford and Mercury – the Ford Edge Limited or Ford Focus SES, for example. On models where SYNC is optional, it will be priced at $395.
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 10, 2007 at 4:27 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, mobile social networking, Facebook, Bluetooth
A few weeks ago, researchers at bath University in the UK, launched Cityware, a mashup of Bluetooth and Facebook that gathers data about Facebook users who have been in the same physical place at the same time.
Various sites in Bath, London, San Diego have been equipped with nodes that scan for Bluetooth devices and their registered IDs. Cityware then uses these IDs to lookup the respective Facebook profiles of each user in that location at the time.
Though ostensibly an interesting mashup, Cityware is part of a broader study into ubiquitous and pervasive computing, particularly in urban spaces. What such experimentation may give rise to is some interesting developments in machine messaging as our mobile devices silently negotiate and discover people in our vicinity…perhaps a kind of mobile bacn!
More coverage at…
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