A few minutes ago, Lorand Minyo uploaded Steve Jobs’ keynote from MacWorld 2008.

I can’t write more right about now as I am extremely anxious to watch it myself, so for all of you who did not see it yet, you can do it here: Macworld 2008 Keynote Address (high quality)

(outside link)

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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.

Read more about this here

Won’t wireless be even MORE fun like this?!

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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!

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Cisco will kill the Linksys brand. Boo! No further comments.

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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!!

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Whisher decided to go back to the drawing board soon after the release of their first WiFi sharing a while back. That development cycle is now over so the Ferran, Mike and their dev. teams invite you to participate in a beta program.
To join in you have to -
+ be knowledgeable in WiFi technologies and networking, we’re not asking for gurus, but we need people who know what an SSID is
+ have at least one laptop computer with WiFi, be it a PC with Windows or a Mac. A desktop with a USB or PCI WiFi adapter is also good.
+ have at least one WiFi access point or router, and be knowledgeable in its configuration and management.
be willing to test a software application and report frequently and consistently using an online bug tracking platform

The guys also offer two prizes, one for the most active tester, and another randomly drawn amongst all participants. The prize for each winner consists of a Linksys WRT300N Wireless-N router and a matching WUSB300N Wireless-N USB adapter, so that you can enjoy Wirelessisfun.com better! :))

To reach the team email them at beta@whisher.com! And don’t forget to tell them we sent you there! ;)

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Whisher, a device-agnostic WiFi sharing startup, has been a little silent since their debut but they are about to launch the new version of their application. Everything happens in Zaragoza, Spain, at Innovate!Europe 2007 and Mike Puchol, Whisher CTO and co-founder, is blogging live from the event. Go check his updates here!
We’ll come back with updates and a full report.

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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!

Get the press report here.

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We’re half-way releasing an all-new WiFi product called …. #$%^&&! :P

Unfortunately we’re not ready to disclose names, business plans or other details related to the new venture but here’s some pointers:
- take all you know about WiFi. Forget it! Now rethink it!
- the platform allows *any* WiFi router in the world to join in
- a market of over 10 million routers and a few hundreds of mil. users targeted
- worldwide. no regional limits.
- social, simple and catchy.
- from the creators of c*free wireless and wirelessisfun.com

I’ve pitched the idea to a number of contacts and it arose some VC interest. Looking forward to actual negotiations.
I decided to spill the news on wirelessisfun.com before it gets picked up elsewhere.
Expect the new service to come live in the next couple of months.

For business partnerships, inquiries or media coverage please shoot an email at dan {at} wirelessisfun {dot} com

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Paul Miller from engadget writes about the Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) being postponed to October. It’s a sad day today for the Apple enthusiasts who were waiting for the spotted OS, but Apple blames it all on the iPhone. They had to move some of the key software engineers from the Leopard developers team to the iPhone developers team.

This is good news according to engadget because this will guarantee that many glitches will be removed from the iPhone in this process.

On another note, here at WiF:)) we decided to have a little bet about the iPhone. No, not about the release date, but about it’s looks and style… This came up because of all the iPhone replicas that started to appear on the market since Steve Jobs’ keynote at MacWorld. We think they will make it different from what we’ve seen, and it probably will have an edge to all the products appearing like mushrooms all over.

Read  more about the leopard on engadget

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Telecoms Pricing Asia
Le Meridien Hotel, Singapore
28th-31st May 2007

Late May I’ll be in Singapore as a key speaker for IIR’s Telecoms Pricing Asia ‘07. This is the third event organized by the Brits that I’ll attend and deliver to, following Fixed Mobile Convergence ‘06 held in Amsterdam and Telecoms Pricing ‘06 held in Barcelona.

Get both keynotes here:
The Holy Grail of WiFi (TP’06)
Wireless is Fun! (FMC’06)

The subject of my upcoming keynote, Establishing a framework for wireless service pricing which reflects the different capital and operational costs of WiMax, wireless local loop and UMTS/HSDPA deployments will revolve around the following draft:

Today’s standards bundle provides great flexibility for network deployment.
While it might look like an easy plan to blueprint a new rollout and provide
a good pricing framework to effectively monetize it, there’s a number
hurdles to overcome:
- determining the right technology (based on the market size, geo,
penetration and lifecycle expectations for backend systems used);
- determining the right mix (WiMax + WiFi? WiMax only? HSDPA+WiFi?);
- outlining the costs and rollout timeframe;
- examining exit strategy and determining fruitful adoption incentives
to generate growth;
- “Will it work?” – cheating the incremental rollout;
- “Keep an eye on net neutrality and disruptive 3rd party add-on
services!” – how can innovation maximize revenue without hindering
sensitive end user alternative choice?

Telecoms Pricing Asia is the world’s premier pricing event focusing on Asian telecoms and talks about maximising profitability and customer retention in Asia’s competitive telecoms markets.

To find out more or register for the event go to IIR’s website: TP Asia

For your convenience I have included the event brochure: telecom_pricing_asia07.pdf

Free Pass!
To get you guys into it, here’s a neat trick! As a speaker at the event I’m entitled to bring along a guest that gets free access to the conference!
A WirelessIsFun.com exclusive, I’ll give out the invitation (valued US$3,800) to one of the WiF:)) friends so he/she can join me in Singapore!

You gotta tell me soon if you’d like to join in so I can announce the event organizers. Unfortunatelly the invitiation does not cover travel or accomodation expenses. I really wish it did.

Dennis, Mike, Chad, Robert, Marius, anyone? :)

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No, you cannot preorder the iPhone yet! But a sponsored search result on Google returns “Preorder in Amazon Available from June 2007″. And, as we posted before, it will be released in the US on June 11, about two moths from now, at a price of around $499 (8GB) with Verizon 2-y contract.

Please be patient :)
We are.

*about half of the traffic wirelessisfun.com gets is because of this string:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=iphone+release+date+&btnG=Search

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Now since there’s AppleTV, the iPhone and the Airport Extreme Base Station, we expect the wireless iPod to emerge out of Cupertino soon too.
Now, plllllleeeeasee Steve, don’t replicate Sansa and Zune’s flaws and mistakes. Mkay, tie it to the iTunes Music Store but pppppplllllleeeasseee let me enjoy my wireless freedom and beam my music back and forth at will. Will you? Please?! Pretty please?! Thank you!

Make good use of your iPods people and get the WiF:)) podcasts (below) on them NOW! ;)

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Starbucks Coffee Company (NASDAQ :SBUX) will enter the Romanian market this year alongside Marinopoulos Brothers S.A, we learn via Manafu and a MMD Public Relations press release.
I’m not particularly fond of this news but I admit having Starbucks is one criteria to show up on weird world maps. Since I’m a smoker ( yeah, I am! so sue me :P ) this gets even less appealing.

What’s notable here is, though, the fact that Starbucks could bring along T-Mobile hotspots to Romania. And that’s WiF:)) news! We’ll wait and see!

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June 11 2007

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Austria Center, Viena, will host May 29th through May 31st this year a major event: WiMAX World Europe!

We missed last year’s an I will personally miss this year’s also, because I’m a guest speaker at Telecoms Pricing Asia ‘07 that will be held in Singapore roughly in the same period.
Nevertheless, as much as I keep deconstructing the WiMAX (802.16e) hype, there’s good reasons to visit this forum. 2007 is one year closer to the actual rollout of the first commercial networks around Europe.

In Europe, the situation will be particularly interesting, and there are some key events that will help shape the market in this dynamic region over the coming years. Many regulators will make their decisions on how to allocate the important 2.5GHz spectrum, in effect ruling on whether WiMAX will have access to 3G-class frequencies, or will have to focus entirely on 3.5GHz until new spectrum options become available. In the 3.5GHz area, most major economies will have auctioned licenses by the end of 2007, spurring one of the most concentrated build-out programs in the world from the middle of the year, with particular growth opportunities in the eastern part of the continent and the Middle East, the Conference Chairs say.

Get busy to register early as Expo Passes are free of charge if you sign in before 4/13/07!

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The OLPC was presented today to Romanian officials in the Education Ministry by Nicholas Negroponte.
Should the project pass in the Parliament in the next few days, the Romanian Government will purchase $150 million worth of OLPCs (a million units) by fall.
This is awesome news and we’re supporting the bill – both the political and the tax one – as the machine has some neat features that will empower the less financially fortunate children. Aleso, these kids will later benefit from our free WiFi project – c*free wireless.
We’ll try to get our hands on a sample to provide a more coherent understanding of its wireless capabilities in real life usage.

Tech details:
The laptop runs Linux, the display uses LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) in the form of a projector and features a 7.5 inch, 1200×900 pixel, TFT screen and self-refreshing display with higher resolution (200 DPI) than 95% of the laptops on the market today. Two display modes are available: a transmissive, full-color mode; and a reflective, high-resolution mode that is sunlight readable. It also features a Video camera 640×480 resolution, 30FPS, an AMD Geode GX-500@1.0W CPU running @ 366 Mhz X86/X87-compatible and a Marvell Libertas 88W8388+88W8015, 802.11b/g compatible, dual adjustable, rotating coaxial antennas (that support diversity reception), wireless interface!

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Big news from Slashdot again: Apparently after the new customer feedback website opened by Dell, 2 out of 3 customers are asking for a pre-installed Linux distribution. They are talking about a tri-choice between Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE, allowing multiple-boot with Windows installed also, or no Windows at all, because yes, Linux can replace Windows successfully!

Open software like Firefox, Thunderbird, Gaim, Gimp, PDFCreator, Audacity and of course Open Office will be available. The manufacturer, Dell in this case, will be able to work together with the packagers of a Linux distro in order to have all the drivers installed, maybe offer support from the same packagers, in less words: making it “Idiot proof” like the Mac.

No, it’s not wireless news, but it’s great news! The prices will drop, and the awareness of customers towards Linux will increase considerably. Until now, there was a big myth that there is no consumer request for Linux distributions to ship with new computers, but apparently there is! Come on now, there still are people out there who think that the big rounded E logo from Internet Explorer is the INTERNET!

Digest more on this: Here, here and here!

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It’s couple of days after the Vista launch we never mentioned on WiF hehe and Bill Gates has already arrived in Bucharest (Romania) to attend the opening of Microsoft’s Global Technical Support Center here. This event is major as it also marks 10 years of corporate presence in Romania for the company Bill co-founded.

Gates landed on Bucharest’s Henri Coanda Itnl. airport last night on board of a private jet and is scheduled to oversee the GTSC in a few hours. During his stay in the Romanian capital he is also expected to meet President Traian Basescu and prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu.

He is also expected to announce the availability of the Microsoft Windows Vista system, of Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 on the Romanian market.
I wonder if he also brought return Zunes for the kids as late Christmas gifts.

To be honest I was deeply moved by this honorable visit of the richest guy on Earth. It’s definitelly a proof of how important the Romanian market and Romanian software gurus are for Microsoft. For those who are not familiar, there are more than 300 Romanian specialists currently working in Redmond and about the same numbers in Bucharest offices.

But me, I would have never flown so far so quick after the big Vista launch. Dude, I’d still be dizzy from the after-party booze!! Maybe they celebrated in a church with prayers and soda!? ;)

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The live coverage of the Whisher demo at DEMO has been moved here due to the specific needs of a live coverage.

Stay tuned as we’re constatly updating Whisher exclusive coverage, including video and pics from DEMO!

More to come in the future hours, so stick to your refresh button!

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It wasn’t my choice, really. It just happened that CES (Consumer Electronics Show, January 8-11, Las Vegas) and Macworld (January 8-11, Las Vegas) were kind enough to be around this time of the year to help me post the first ever ever WiF article. Cool, huh?

Well, if there’s a flood of ‘trends’ tagged articles out there on the web don’t be fooled. It’s at these two events that trends are defined for the year ahead. We’re all dependant on what these guys will be bragging about in a couple of days. Will we innovate on the new tools, gadgets and services that’d be popping up at CES&Macworld? I’ll get to that later. September ‘07 later.

All eyes of marketers, analysts, forcasters, fans, geeks, designers, priests and grandmas are turning to Steve Jobs’ (Apple) and Bill Gates’ (Microsoft) keynotes. The world has lost its breath and the Geekdom now counts like under submission the days, hours and minutes until the big events. Will it be some new tablet PC Apple will unveil? A touchscreen iPod? The darn iTV? Oh boy..

Impatientelly, there’s only 2 days, 3 hours and 15 minutes left!

(get a Mac-only-free-countdown-widget-till-Steve’s-keynote here)

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