I recently watched John Underkoffler speaking on TED (Thanks Marius) and exemplifying its vision on the future of User Interfaces. It made me realize that the user interface components are almost ready for deployment in projects. The only unknown is when they will become mainstream. There are two crucial aspects in this, one is technical, the other one social and how user behavior can change.
The user interface elements have applications that work and are already marginally used or soon to be released.
I have actually experienced the multi-touch technology, using a project developed at The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, and one of my friends was part of the team. The project is called “A Multi-touch Collaborative Solution for Measurement Data Visualization”. I tested it with a fun application, a pile of digital images on the surface table. There were three of us at the same time, manipulating, moving and zooming individual photos on the same table. It’s fun! Then, of course there is the more known and ready to ship Microsoft Surface.
Look at Project NatalKinect. It will allow players to interact without any controller at all.
Technically, all we need are projects, real-world applications that combine more of these technologies into something that can be used for a purpose. And fun can be one purpose. I am more curious of user adoption. And I will assume it will become mainstream price, not 15.000 bucks for a Microsoft Surface table. Just imagine a multi-touch monitor or TV that you can also place horizontally with some accessory kit and have multi-touch table in your home or business location.
Do you remember when we were enjoying watching Sci-Fi movies where actors interacted via Voice Commands? It’s all here now. But do we use this feature? I remember playing with voice commands in Vista’s beta and never used it since. And it actually worked. I have a decent phone, but not a powerful Smartphone, that does have voice recognition capabilities that is very useful in a particular situation. When I drive, I just push the button on my Bluetooth headset, say the name, and the phone matches the name from my address book and dials. And I mean voice recognition, not matching pre-recorded voice labels. So, all computers and most phones have voice recognition capabilities. How many of you use them? Or how many people you know who interact with their PCs via voice? I assume few to none.
All that said, my curiosity is when these types of interaction will be used, even after they become mainstream and standard capabilities. What do you think?
In John Underkoffler’s demo computers and network devices are supposed to be space aware. Notice the movement of elements from one device to another. That is the part that is completely new to me in a real demo and I am looking forward to see that working. Just look at the implications. You need a real interaction between location, user input, user interface and the network. That means that when a packet is sent in your network it will have some information on the physical location of the destination address. And It’s the only way I can imagine, but haven’t found any info on that on MIT Tangible Media Group website. Please send any info on such projects.
Just imagine having the device that will interact with this new User Interfaces and network equipment in your office to add that level of interaction between colleagues. Or beyond that, through the Internet. Just imagine a standard that will aid you carry location information just like VoIP packets transport voice through the Internet.
via Josh Lowensohn at CNET I found out this morning that YouTube is quietly rolling out the High Definition option for their videos Long expected, and finally here, it’s not “public”yet, but this can be achieved with a simple URL hack by adding the “&fmt=22” string to the end of the video URL string.
Meghan Keane from WIRED also speaks about the soon to be available option of downloading videos as mp4, and of course this will be available for non copyrighted material I suppose, but who knows? another day, another hack!
About a year ago I used to tinker with RF, exploring ways to make it more ubiquitous, friendly, widespread and easy to use. Great material for WiF:)
I’ve slowed down.
Either wireless tech got so much of the above or I’m just comfortable with my setup.
I still have a whole closet of c*frees Merakis, Foneras, Airports, Linksys, Asus and 3G all-in-one-office boxes and various antennas, mostly WiFi tech. But I only employ a simple Airport Express ‘n with AirTunes.
Somehow it all worked out and the iPhone with its GPRS/EDGE/3G+ took over my connectivity white space.
All this is not to say that my wireless saga is over. It’s more like a new chapter. A bump up in usability and solutions that just work got me closer to connectivity nirvana, having to seek more enjoyable experiences than raw hardware solutions.
Frankly I don’t even know or care what firmwares my routers have installed. I just plug them cables or modems in and there, we have a nice working wireless link.
But all that tech in my closet is probably waiting to be employed. I suppose I could WiFi my whole neighborhood with them.
Listen! Maybe you have an idea on how to mix such a multi-skilled equipment in an ingenuous wireless project. I’ll do it!
Sound it off in the comments.
IPTV is supposed to be the next broadcast solution and replace traditional television program delivery. The concept behind IPTV is to deliver TV programs over the Internet. Watching YouTube clips in your browser is not IPTV. Take a look at VoIP (Voice over IP). When you say VoIP you may think Skype, but look further at businesses and you will find that users just pick up that business-looking black and silver handset, answer, or dial a number even if they use VoIP. My point here is that user habits must not be changed, so even if the technology behind the handset is new and more cost-efficient, you still use something that can be called a phone.The same thing should happen with IPTV. Subscribers may receive the signal through their broadband connection instead of the traditional antenna or the TV cable (analog or digital), but besides that, they will want to use their old TVs or new LCD TVs and plasma TVs to watch TV, not run a “Watch TV” application running on their computer.
So far some content providers are delivering a few solutions. Take Joost for example. It’s a great application from the founders of Skype that delivers TV shows via an application. A great selection of shows is available for every taste, it even works perfectly with my HP Pavillion dv1000 laptop’s remote, so I can “watch Joost” just like watching TV. But still, when I purchased my laptop, watching TV was not on the list of requirements and that’s because I and most buyers already own a TV set for that purpose.
Another solution is Apple TV, which lets you easily watch the video content from your computer on your TV screen. The solution is well done, but still, you have to go through your PC to watch content on your TV.
The last one I mention is a Romanian service I came across yesterday called i-tv that offers the same channel list that most cable TV providers on your computer for a monthly fee comparable to that of conventional cable TV providers.
While all these are good solutions, none of them let me plug in a cable into back of the TV set and watch content without a PC in the home.
Expect an IPTV offer from any of your mobile phone, fixed phone, cable TV or your Internet provider in the years to come!
Actionec has released the official information on the zControl since my previous post.
Actiontec’s product interconnects any devices that use the Z-Wave protocol such as Motion Sensors, Cameras, Doors, Thermostats, Blinds etc. Z-Wave operates at 900Mhz with a range of 30 m and a bandwidth of up to 40Kbits/s. Although the through output may seem small, it is more that enough to send and receive status information and issue commands.
Interaction with the zControl is done via its a Web-based interface and may be accessed virtually from anywhere (assuming you have an Internet connection in your home and your router/gateway is properly configured to access the zControl remotely). Discovery of your Z-Wave enabled devices can be either automatic or a configuration wizard can be used for that purpose.
Now I’m looking forward to a review of the zControl in a real-life environment. I’ll keep you posted if I find anything. Until then, enjoy these two demos: Z-Wave World and Z-Wave.com.
Njoy your day!
I have just learned about Actiontec reading an article on PCMag.com. Apparently this company is one step ahead of the competition focusing its product on solutions, not as much as just devices. Their product descriptions feature words like “IPTV” and “triple play”. I will cover IPTV and triple/quad-play in a later post.
As pointed out by Tim Bajarin, PCMag.com columnist, Actiontec’s zControl has won one of the 2008 International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards. The product is supposed to bring together many of the devices and gadgets in your home. Even if you’re not a big gadget freak, you might want to count the remotes in your home or phones and you will immediatly understand the need for one central control solution for your appliances and electronics in your home.
The zControl will be officially unveiled at the 2008 CES (Consumer Electronics Show), and no details are yet released. I’m looking forward to information to come on the solution.
I’ve been doing some research on what’s on the market in the area of home automation systems, my disertation thesis is “Multi agent System for Control and Monitoring an Intelligent Home”, so expect to read other interesting stuff I may come across.
I was talking about this with friends months ago, and finally someone did it. Who? Yahoo!
JetBlue is the first domestic carrier to test high altitude connectivity. You can bring your WiFi enabled gadgets, your BlackBerry’s and start browsing the web. IM on Yahoo! post twits on Twitter or whatever you want. It’s an Airbus A320 and it’s called BetaBlue as presented on JetBlue’s website, and the services are free to customers and provided exclusively by JetBlue and LiveTV™, Yahoo!®, and BlackBerry®.
Yahoo! went another step and even added special Status messages like “Head in the clouds – seriously”, “Sleeping on the Plane” and “Ugh! Crying baby on flight”
I have been predicting this a while ago, and now that it’s here, I just want to say “kudos” to everyone involved, and nice winds for the pilots.
Otherwise the cabin will be filled with flying gadgets ;-)
This is why Wireless is FUN, and this is why I’m sorry I stopped writing here lately. I just hope I will have enough time to start writing again and bring you nice and fresh Wireless news, gossips and maybe not only wireless…
Don’t you just hate it being somewhere with your laptop, enjoying internet access on a free hotspot and the battery runs out of juice? What is the normal load for a normal battery? 3 hours? maybe 5 hours if you get a bigger battery, and set your usage profile to minimum? Well, I have some good news for you: Batteries are going to last a whole lot longer!
According to Next Energy News, your laptop battery can last up to thirty (yes, 30) years!!!
The US AirForce Research Laboratory reviled the betavoltaic power cells, which are constructed from semiconductors and use radioisotopes as the energy source. As the radioactive material decays it emits beta particles that transform into electric power capable of fueling an electrical device like a laptop for years.
Apparently you can’t build a nuclear weapon out of it even if the description has some pretty scary terms inside (radioactive, isotopes etc), and it’s quite safe on the environment.
It’s true! Done! Basta! I did it! It took me less than half an hour! My iPhone is unlocked!
It’s maybe the first trully unlocked iPhones in Romania and among the few in the World by this method! But I can attest it works! Brilliantly!
Kudos to the dev team and the guys at Engadget who pointed this out. To have yours unlocked, go over to http://iphone.unlock.no/ and follow the exact steps. It’s the method I used and the one that now gives me full use on Vodafone RO and Orange. Simple!
Here’s a screenshot I took of the unlocking process:
Don’t come here! Go to Engadget! They cover this Apple event aplenty! :P
I love you, my dear readers, but I’m there as well! Or go to Apple.com and start spending.
But do come back for sugga-lovin-thrills about what the above all means! I’ll make sure you’ll find that unique insight here!
To tip you off, focus not so much on the new hardware, but drool on the new iTunes WiFi Music Store! That’s where history is now being written! ;)
I had this list in the back of my head for a while, knowing what didn’t grow on me, but not really decinding to call it quits until I was sure. Applauses, ladies and gents, to the famous losers:
Yes! Finally I have my geeky hands on the all-mighty Apple iPhone! Remember the already famous “iPhone release date“? I lived to see it available then in my pocket!
I’m sorry I won’t be writing more on it but this thing is too darn addictive to ‘waste’ time blogging. Going back to playing on it! :)
Pics were uploaded via computer, but this text is *proudly typed on an iPhone*! Enjoy!
Olga Kharif from Business Week wrote an article today about MuniWiFi operators around the U.S. promising to dismantle the WiFi networks built until now because they have no customers… The statistics show that from the expected 20% – 30% of subscribers living in a certain area, only 1% – 2% subscribed.
Of course, people will love using *free* WiFi networks across the city, and of course everyone thinks it’s a good idea to have *free* WiFi, but the costs for a free network have to be covered by the city also, not only by the ISP’s and companies willing to use the *free* WiFi as an advertisement platform. Tom Haulli from Bloggingstocks wrote about San Francisco’s WiFi ballot: “Do you want *free* WiFi” the people are asked, and who in their right mind would say no to such a question? OK, maybe my grandma who has problems with GSM phones, and why do they work with no wires attached?
Some good news though comes from Glenn Fleishman, about *free* WiFi on trains in the UK. The new operator, National Express who will take over on the East Coast from December 2007, included it (*free* WiFi) in their offer, as until now only First Class had it, and coach passengers had to pay for access.
Wireless is fun, can be monetized, but it’s nothing like we’ve ever seen until now… Starting to get intrigued as how many people can be blinded by a single word: *free* and not take the time to ask themselves: what’s it going to cost me in the long run?!
Working in a big company means calling a shit load of people everyday. Most are internal contacts, a geat deal external. After quietly building a giant address book with numbers for these contacts you realize you call some more frequently than others. You’d think of speed dial as a solution, I guess.
Well, I love the way iTunes gives me the chance to rank my songs. It’s a 5-star system that allows you to rank your fav music that can be later sorted by this criteria. iTunes also has a special playlist called ‘Top 25 Most Played’!
Now this is where it gets interesting… For I haven’t used speed dial on my mobile phone since ‘99! It’s something based on option and not relevance, thus useless for my purpose. But I would love a mobile phone that would track and *rank* my most frequently called numbers/contacts and display them in a secondary call list starting with my most dialed destination and descending to my least called. This system would save a great deal of time and aggravation. I’d smile more at the office, joke and be more friendly all of the sudden. It’d help me win more brownie points and improve responsiveness calling girls that count the seconds! Really, phone guys! Gimme this feature! And remember to trackback ;)
Yeah, I saw them. Also saw iWork ‘08, iLife ‘08 and the new .Mac! And you know what? I don’t wanna comment, write or review on them. Go see the special event vid here!
And.. one more thing..
the hardware era is over. enter the applications era! Mark my words!
ps: not pissed at my mac anymore. the love is back! :)
After using a new Macbook for about four months I can definitely say it’s sub-par to a December 2005 iBook I owned and exploited (this is nice talkin!) for a year and a couple of months.
I switched for all the good reasons, ranging from wider and better screen to faster system and iSight. Now all these are cool but I could not go over the fact that the overall performance somewhat degrades over time, a lot faster than in a G4-based system. I did not run benchmarks, nor will I do. But I can tell when my system is not as responsive as it used to be. And no, I don’t have a fetish installing various software, but instead I like to use a panel of tested apps from IM clients to productivity tools – all clean!
Aside the shitty slowdown that brings a dual core to its knees, comparable to an old G4, the Macbook lacks case endurance. Bye bye really space-age durable polycarbonate the iBooks had. This shit is sub-par by factor ten! The case is all scratched, has discoloration and spots all over. The iBook had not. Not even after a full year of taking it in hundreds coffee shops where smoking was allowed. The Macbook was lucky to live a near-desk life. At home -> a protective bag -> the office. Seldom WiFi’ed coffee shops and business trips. All controlled environments.
The crappy trackpad displays tracks of wear. Key caps as well. Sure, the iBook had the same problem, but not after 4 months – more like 8 months later.
Should there be a Macbook Pro with the same screen size I’d buy it today! Yeap! If you want a notebook to last and survive harsh environments, get a freakin iBook or a Macbook Pro. Sadly even 13.3″ felt big when 12″ was what I was craving for. I carry this damn machine all day long in a backpack that hangs heavy. I want a slender, lightweight road buddy. The Macbook Pro it’s definitely not that. The Macbook is somewhat there.
Would I tell you guys to stop considering a Macbook? Not really! But I sure don’t recommend it as warm as I recomended my dear Carolina, the Dec 2005 iBook 12″!
What happens if you jump from entrepreneurship to full time corporate dude? First, you cease good ol’ habits such as doing email where rubber meets the road in the wireless industry – the WiFi’ed caffe!
Luckily sometimes big guys that work in tall buildings come back to the streets to smell that roasted coffee flavor and sniff those 802.11 airwaves, hopefully one of them free. Had my chance for a couple of days to bring the love back so here I am, feeding heavily on all that online stuff that makes me smarter and more competitive, at Bourbon Cocktails&Coffee in the lovely harbor city of Constantza.
Usually people would be sunbathing and stuff here but instead I’m wirelessbathing in all free nets I can find and hop on.
During my two day stay I ran across plentiful networks to do my job on, all ranging from 1Mbits to 6Mbits, all in key locations such as rep building, hotel, cafe and… parking lot!
Of couse both my N70 and my HSDPA SmartModem from Vodafone could have taken over in case there was no WiFi to grab. But for some reason I love WiFi and simply like to enable the Airport on my Mac and enjoy it from there.
Now missing a more portable device to play with nets for when taking the Macbook out feels cumbersome. I’m considering one of those new HTC touch smartphones. Anyone tried one?
This is too damn cool to skip! (yea, lotza wireless news passed on without covering them here)
Let me share this web 2.0 story with you. You all know Howard Lindzon. And if you don’t, go over to wallstrip.com or google him and you’ll find out he’s one heck of a stock chap and exceptional web entrepreneur. I’ve invited him many months ago to join Twitter so I could stay in touch with his jibberish that I love reading so much. He declined joining for so long up until a couple of days ago when he made it a ridiculous “I am signing up and will twitter from toilets. Seems to be relevant for that. Track my waste”. And so he did. Until last night when Howard twittered: “Explosion in midtown. What. Pls advise. Seriously.” He was in downtown New York. I was in Bucharest, Romania.
It took about 20 minutes for CNN to react. I was on it. Maybe ten minutes before that Lindzon says “I was a block away from a massive explosion. Maybe grand central. Smoke everywhere.”
No more joking about toilets. No more ambiguity. Lindzon uses the one tool he bashes and pokes fun at to inform and hopefully inform himself of a crisis situation. Instantly! Wirelessly! Have this as an incredible turn of events!
My buddy Loic Le Meur’s twitts a few days ago about how he catches up with news on Twitter more than by reading his RSS. Now excentric Lindzon accepts my invitation to join and unwilingly offers this awesome example of the right person at the right time in the right place using the right service and instantly informing his peers he networked with registering to Twitter.
Is this the real web2.0? Ought to be, as Lindzon did not blog or email about the blast. He freakin twittered it!
Cool Howard! Really cool! Now buy some stock there! I have a feeling this is not the end of it.
I’m really glad you’re Okay and the blast was far enough!!
Following on a cool wireless story where Zapp, Romanian CDMA mobile operator, launched a new service that WiFies Bucharest cabs! That’s a really schrewd move for mobility and innovation.
But I wonder what their ROI is. The business model is based on 10 minutes of free access then pre-paid card access. Given one would spend an average of 25 minutes in a cab, why would one buy a 1h card for just 15minutes? Yeah, ok, it’s good to have later on a different location, but…
I would assume it’s just an image push. (it works!).
Nevertheless cost per cab is:
- router – ASUS WL-500G w. USB port ~$40
- Z010 EvDo modem ~$20
- unlimited in-network airtime
ROI is thereafter obtained after selling ~50 $2/1h prepaid cards of roughly 30-40h usage. A week per cab, maybe, presuming clients buy the cheapest value card – http://zapp.ro/offer/data/zoe/zoecard/
Risks: nearby accidental users that would hop on the 10 minute free airtime. Probably 60% of actual usage per mobile hotspot. Not so bad as routers are set for DoD (dial on demand).
Related: I wanted to plant a hotspot in my car (a Smart ForTwo at the time) and brand it “free hotspot in range of this car”. Never took the time to do it. Envious!
Later edit: Virgil of yottablog goes further with the analysis here. Go read with confidence!
The Safari browser from Apple is now also available for Windows Users.
For those unfamiliar with Macs, Safari promises to be the fastest browser on any platform, a clean interface so you can focus on browsing, uncompromising security and of course the usual browsing standards like pop-up blocking and tabbed browsing. You will also familiarize with nice Aqua elements like the nice blue scrollbar.
Keep in mind it is still in Public Beta.
Grab a bite of Apple! Safari for Windows is available for download here.
Yahoo! Mail now offers unlimited storage! Before this very silent -but relevant- upgrade Yahoo! used to offer 1GB of webmail space.
This looks like a determined attempt to hit on GMail which now over 2862.164493 megabytes (and counting). Hmmm…
My Yahoo! email is there for spam-like mail communication. And most of my corporate mail gets dumped locally on a beefy hard drive so storage is not an issue. I doubt most of internet-savvy users still use Yahoo! Mail as their primary e-correspondence client so it’s likely this news to go unnoticed.
This is probably interesting news for those who have an online experience revolving around Yahoo! Messenger (the most popular in Ro, for example) and Yahoo! Mail, but could turn interesting for everyone else who up until now had a Yahoo! account just to be able to sign in to Flickr.
Dell has started to offer optional Ubuntu Linux 7.04 preinstalled systems. Ubuntu has has continuously grown in popularity since the first Ubuntu distribution in 2004, now being the most popular Linux Distribution. While for the server market there was always the Linux option, this is the first time an important PC manufacturer ships Linux desktop systems.
From a business and marketing point of view, the move itself will probably be a boost for both companies, Ubuntu will grow in popularity, while Dell will draw positive attention on itself from the Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) Community, therefore increasing sales, which they do need in regaining market share against HP.
Ubuntu Linux has the reputation of being very easy to install and very hardware friendly. From my personal experience I may say that the installation is simpler than a Windows installation, everything just works, including small details like volume keys with on-screen display on my Logitech multimedia keyboard and volume keys and the Wireless Card on my HP Pavillion laptop. No additional drivers required. If you’re a GUI freak, some Vista like eye-candy is included, also demo-d by my collague Marius.
One of my favorite podcasts, Wallstrip, ‘a sassy investment Web show for the generation YouTube’, got sold to CBS for … $5mln. :)
This is awesome news and I’m really happy for my buddy Howard Lindzon (the creator) who started it late 2006 with initial funding of $600k.
To be honest I didn’t expect the business to move to the next level so soon and definitely did not expect so many Benjamins to fill Lindzon’s safe boxes.
But a job done right with the right attitude, the hottest chick on the block and … a little bit of magic (can’t tell what it is, but they have nailed it), Wallstrip have done it!
The Apple Store now offers three slightly more powerful versions for their almost a year old line of portables, the Macbook.
The new models include 2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 4MB CL2 processors (no more 1.83Ghz with 2MB CL2), 1GB RAM standard and 80GB HDD for the same $1099.
Of course, all that RAM/HDD upgrade is nothing major and, since retail prices are forever dropping, they feel natural. The only non-replaceable component is the Core 2 Duo processor, which boosts the overall performance of the Macbook by a few procents due to its larger level two cache.
This intermediate upgrade is a silent “keep your interest” move on Apple and probably outlines the fact that there will not be any new ultra-portable in Apple’s offer soon. Or quite the opposite. We’re anyway talking about Cupertino.
This story was in my bookmarks folder for a few days now and I took no rush to publish it. I decided to chew up on it for a while to understand what it actually means. Since it’s all going to be in a paper you can purchase early June, I’ll get right to it and skip the details.
Mark May 1st 2007 in your calendar as the day when WiMAX changed forever. Until now it’s been merely another wireless technology that competed with WiFi. But world’s largest WiMAX-class service provider Clearwire just received FCC approval for the first 802.16e Laptop Card.
With doors to true mobility open nothing can stop Clearwire (and WiMAX) to show us the real power of the very much hyped technology. I’m watching!
There hasn’t been much Fon news or related lately but we couldn’t miss the fact that
– Time Warner opened their doors to broadband sharing in the US and
– The programmers in Spain finally came up with a beta version of the FON Spot Mac / Linux
What this software does is that it turns your Intel-based Mac into a FON hotspot. If you use a 3G or EvDo modem this software will turn your Airport into a Access Point-like WiFi adapter and start sharing your connection around.
It’s not a new concept for Mac users as by default Macs let you share your modem connection in three clicks anyway. But FON saw this was an opportunity that could not be missed to expand their service and brand where conventional hotspots do not protrude. Shrewd!
Screenshot of Mac’s WiFi sharing enabler
Let’s analyze if this would really work in real life past the obvious geeky sexieness.
Having a Fon hotspot ‘built in’ your Mac is neat if you’re a big fan of the service and really want to take it everywhere with you. Maybe you have a flat mobile broadband connection anyway and you don’t mind sharing but you’re missing the credentials for your signal. Or maybe you just don’t mind doing it. Any case you chose it’s fine!
But in all other cases you’d be simply sharing your connection as is or no sharing it at all. Eventually it all comes down to FON’s business model. Share WiFi and get WiFi for free elsewhere in FON hotspots, as a Linus. Or share your WiFi for some money. These cases are based on a permanent presence in a determined location. Usually one would use a fast connection they don’t really mind sharing.
What happens when you share your crawling 3G/EvDO? Those pipes are not that large, your connection is not in a specific connection and does not provide service 24/7. That does not make for a compatible service with FON’s, which anyway is catchy because it brings advantages both ways.
Based on how FON Spot for Mac works the only winner here is.. FON! You would likely not share that limited bandwidth (I’ve done it oh so many times with my EvDo) and not agree FON is using your expensive connection for self-promo and Alien (non-member user that pays premium for access) money milking.
Running c*free, a free hotspot operator, I’ve often used Mac’s WiFi sharing to promote the brand at different events or ingenuous places. Hell, I’ve shared that signal a couple of years ago when I was still using Windows through an Ad-Hoc profile and later using a USB kit called c*free mini.
Yet, I still don’t know how this would go beyond such use!
Most folks who have/use a mobile broadband connection pay a shit load of money on it every month. They are usually business/entrepreneur/SOHO types that
- care for their data and its security
- pay for the 3G / EvDo for a precise purpose
- are time critical
- don’t have time or interest in playing with gizmos and hacks such as FON Spot
- are energy-conscious, meaning they would power their WiFi only when in the range of a signal they would use.
It’s unclear to me how this hack will make it in the real world. It might! But as it stands, incentives – even ones like the principle of sharing in exchange for free connectivity (wait!! Free WiFi? Why, when you already have the darn 3G?) – are low or inexistent!
For the techie ones I opened the installer and below is a screenshot of the package contents. I did not install the hack on my Macbook for it’s still beta and I rely on being able to use my Airport card. Those of you who have the time and curiosity are welcome to post their experiences in the comments section.
Use your mobile setup!
It’s really rare that we get to experience grid failures these days. And so it should! This is 2007!!!
Oddly enough we had such a power outage today and, from what we’ve been told, the grid failed in almost every corner of the city! If your business is in tech and telco you probably rely on more than one computer, a good connection to the Internet and a big load of office gadgetry that is energy-dependant.
In a few seconds I realized that the cable modem and the WiFi router are off so there’s no connectivity. Luckily my setup is mobile so here’s how I got back online in minutes:
- I work on a Macbook and, if unplugged, I get about 3-4h of work time on one charge.
- If WiFi or the ISP fail, there’s a backup connection at hand – a mobile 2.4Mbs EvDo USB modem from Zapp Mobile.
While the outage lasted about 30 minutes and it took the cable company an extra 15minutes to re-broadcast, I should have been offline and out of business for about an hour. Plugging the USB modem and clicking connect was easy. Sure, some have redundant connections and UPS power savers in their offices. Albeit being able to save work and wait for the power to bring back the net is not the way to go.
Both ends meet when I saw that the mobile setup I use when out of the office took over the local setup with flying colours! This is so 2007! :D
I missed Michael Dell’s bio on the corporate website but I didn’t miss the big story on Dell going with Linux and the note that Michael Dell’s OS of choice is Ubuntu.
Entrepreneur Martin V., Dell’s friend, bloggs about a recent email in which this story was confirmed.
Intel wants to kill wireless networking with its integrated powerline Ethernet!
They want to push HomePlug AV 200Mbps powerline standard into their desktop designs next year as an optional feature, in particular in Intel’s Viiv platform (the multimedia branch for home).
We’re going to cover this to more extent as soon as it gets more realistic. Till then, have fun staying wireless! WiFi rulez! ;)
Feed yourself!
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What happens if you jump from entrepreneurship to full time corporate dude? First, you cease good ol’ habits such as doing email where rubber meets the road in the wireless industry – the WiFi’ed caffe!
The Safari browser from 
This story was in my bookmarks folder for a few days now and I took no rush to publish it. I decided to chew up on it for a while to understand what it actually means. Since it’s all going to be in a paper you can purchase early June, I’ll get right to it and skip the details. 
