Archive for Wifi
by Darla Mack
June 4, 2008 at 1:47 am · Filed under ATT, Wifi, T-Mobile
I know its completely off topic from messaging, but who can resist free Wifi AND Starbucks coffee!
In its efforts to break away from the 7 year Hot-Spot relationship with T-Mobile, Starbucks is offering its customers 2 hours of free AT&T WiFi plus a voucher for a free drink.
Why did the relationship end? Who really knows. But T-Mobile customers can still use WiFi at Starbucks through a roaming agreement with AT&T.
The requirements are simple.
Purchase a minimum $5 reloadable Starbucks Card (this is easy since you are spending close to that for a cup of java anyway)
Register online for the Starbucks Rewards Card program.
Use the card at least once a month.
New members will receive a coupon for a free beverage. The 2 hour time slot must be used consecutively.
via: USA Today
by Ewan Spence
March 3, 2008 at 3:01 am · Filed under Wifi, Mobile isn't Mobile
Wi-fi.
Simple as that. The inclusion of Wi-Fi connectivity into the modern smartphone has opened the eyes of people to the capabilities of these small devices. Rather than relying on the data plan supplied by a network, at the price determined by the network (and a price designed to extract as much revenue as possible), regular users can now access all the data services, applications and tools of their mobile computers, without having to hand over 30 pieces of silver.
For a long time, carriers have been afraid of one thing – becoming little more than data pipes, a commodity delivery service to be exchanged and bartered so users hand over as little revenue as possible. The clamor of Wi-fi has grown so much that you no longer see ‘crippled’ versions of smartphones in the US market (Nokia’s E62 enterprise device was identical to the E61, except with no Wi-fi you had to rely on the network’s data connection and billing). But I think by freeing up the devices so they are not always ‘mobile’ but sometimes ‘wi-fi-ing from home,’ the networks will increase both the value of the handset to the customer, and therefore the value of the customer to them.
There will always be a place for the mobile data connection, but with a direct comparison to the speeds available on Wi-Fi, people are going to be looking for 3g connectivity, for fast data plans, all for an easily understandable cost – that means flat rate data connectivity n advanced networks. Because the users will know what their phone can do with a connection, they’ll be more likely to want to do this while mobile; the initial problem of acceptance has been overcome. Flat rate data simply means they are not going to get a shock when they open their bill, just because they’ve been surfing, buying music, or sending twitter messages through the website. Wi-fi will drive the uptake of mobile data, and strangely will see people rely more and more on the connectivity to the point that being in a Wi-fi hot spot may soon be something of no consequence.
I’d also expect handsets to transfer between the different types of connections automatically in the future – working on behalf of the users to always stay on the cheapest option available is important now, but should decrease as time goes by as connections become more ubiquitous and a de facto requirement for any mobile.
by Ewan Spence
January 3, 2008 at 11:08 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Devices, Platforms, iPhone, Instant Messaging, Wifi, CES
With CES starting this Sunday, the rumour mill is already firing up, but the one of interest to me looks to be a racing certainty after Sony announced on their CES site that they would be bringing Skype to the Sony Playstation Portable device.
Call friends, talk trash to fellow gamers, or catch up with acquaintances via Skype for PSP System.
That’s right – a games console, with roughly 30 million or so units in circulation, will all of a sudden be switched on, via over the air firmware upgrades, to become VOIP telephones. That’s a masterstroke (and one that Nokia are tying to mimic in reverse, by switching on the N-Gage gaming features in millions of Nseries devices).
I’ve always been amazed at just how multi-media the Sony PSP games console is. Using Wi-fi and the built in web browser, it lets me read my email whenever I’m in Wi-Fi range. The built in podcasting application will stream audio or video, or save it to the memory stick for alter viewing 9something that the iPods still can’t do without iTunes support). You can watch full movies on the go, stack up your mp3’s take family pictures, and a recent addition of internet streaming radio, while still a little unwieldy, provides yet another way to get messages into the device.
Now Sony are starting to publicly explore how they’re getting messages out of the device, there’s going to be a lot of people wondering why such a machine is still marketed as solely a gaming console.
All that’s missing is some sort of instant messaging application and we have a 2.0 comms device already here. And funnily enough, that’s exactly what Sony’ partnership with BT in the UK will provide; the Go!Messenger was promised for January 2008 and should be here soon.
by Ewan Spence
December 16, 2007 at 6:53 pm · Filed under Wifi, WIMM
I’ve been watching the posts on the idea of what is a mobile message and the surprising thing to me is that we’re almost all focused on the mobile phone as being the receiving platform. When we consider the technology on sale this festive season, I think it’s wrong to assume that the smartphone will be the sole preserve for mobile messaging.
Some of the biggest technology sellers this year have messaging included in them, but seem to slip under the radar. Two significant examples in my mind are both in the portable gaming sector; the Sony Playstation Portable and the Nintendo DS. While the devices are primarily set p for gaming, they both are showing the way forward for connected consumer electronics.
The Nintendo DS ships with a built in messaging client, able to talk to any other DS within range, as well as being able to play both local multiplayer games over wi-fi, and also multiplayer over the internet via connected hot-spots. The PSP goes even further, coming bundled with a full flash-enabled web browser, and an RSS podcast to automatically download audio and video.
Heck the iPod touch is nothing more than a glorified MP3 player, yet it carries a web browser that lets you grab email online, use an instant message client and do all those message-y things we’re talking about.
The common factor in all of this is the Wi-Fi connectivity, not a GSM signal to a mobile phone, and I’m sure we’ll see more and more electronics in the next few years being ‘internet aware’ and the opportunities presented by that are going to drive huge changes in mobile messaging. What shape we’ll end up with, well that’s going to make the journey interesting.
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 16, 2007 at 7:58 pm · Filed under Devices, Platforms, touch screens, BUG, Open Source, Wifi, GPS, Tuxphone, Greenphone, Chumby, Openmoko, Long Tail
My dad was an electrician by profession, but even from childhood, he loved to take things apart and rebuild them into something new. An original tinkerer/hacker; when thieves stole a TV from Dad’s car, he designed and retrofitted an alarm of his own design; when we couldn’t install a doorbell to our aluminium framed front door, he designed and built a bell triggered by the opening of the letterbox. He’d love what the Bug Labs guys are about to launch…
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Bug Labs’ BUG product is something I’ve been jonesing to see for a couple months. BUG is essentialy an open source, modular consumer electronics platform that purports to making hardware design as easy as writing web applications.
The BUG system consists of…
- The BUGbase: a Linux-based computer with wifi, ethernet, USB, some onboard memory and rechargable batteries.
- BUGmodules: The company plans to offer GPS, cameras, touchscreen, motion sensors, keyboards and audio modules over the course of the next few months.
- Software: A combination of a software API and a developer community (BUGnet); I’m interested to see how Bug will enabled the various hardware components to be ’scripted’ together.
Open source hardware is nothing new - from my good friend Surj Patel’s Tuxphone project, to Trolltech’s Greenphone, the Chumby and Openmoko’s Neo1973 - but BUG’s moving beyond a single device made of open source components, to a series of hardware modules that can be combined and remixed into new device categories. BUG may represent the opening of the Long Tail of consumer electronics.
The implications on mobile communications are profound. What kinds of niche wifi messaging devices will BUG enable? Imagine the development of GSM, EDGE or 3G BUGmodules, leveraged by the BUGnet community?
Maybe BUG will enable my Dad to remix his car alarm with periodic texts asserting its GPS coordinates next time it’s stolen…
