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 Natal Kinect. 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.

The future looks bright and fun!

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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!

Sources: CNET & WIRED

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More and more people ask me for tips and tricks to improve their WiFi setup in their homes. People that recently moved in a new flat and want good coverage all over the place, which includes the living area, sleep quarters, kitchen or even bathroom, and people that just built a new 3 story house or the likes of it.

The first mistake that everyone makes is to place the router exactly where the internet connection enters the house, and that’s usually one of the corners where flats are concerned, or the basement for multistory buildings. Almost any decent WiFi router on the market today can cover an 80 to 100 square meters flat, so I won’t go into much depth on that situation, but when large houses are concerned, you need to have in mind that the best place to position your WiFi router is at the center of the structure. So, if you have a basement, ground floor, and 1st floor, you would be better off placing the device on the ground floor instead of the basement, where the internet connection is made available by the ISP. This way, you will get good coverage on the ground floor, and the adjacent floors, without the need to scale the network up to more than one router. If you have your office in the basement and your rest room on the 1st floor, it would be probably a good idea to have two separate access points and use an Ethernet connection between them. However, placing your only router in the basement is never a good idea, and should not be tried. The easiest way to test everything is to plug in a router with no WAN connectivity and walk around the house with your laptop to see where the weak points in the WiFi network are.

Feel free to post comments about your setup, or your needs based on your new home, and remember Wireless Is Fun to play with and it’s darn useful to have all over your property! Garden included ;-)

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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.

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Actually, surprisingly well! Three days after launch and moderate pickup among local community and friends, Apple features it on its web apps page and iSpeed.info quickly becomes 4th “Most Popular” app and leader in its category, with a peak exactly a week after its launch.

Weekends are clearly a mark of slowdown. But nothing compares to an Apple event that brings new goodies like the recent one around the iPod.
Its attention captivated Apple website squatters, slashing the numbers by nearly 20%. It’s interesting to see if the numbers will go back up in the next few days.

An update with bug fixes and improved results was sent for review to Apple a few days ago. Curious to see how that fares.
All in all, iSpeed is doing great, having served more than 21K unique iPhone speed tests in just a week.
I had no attempt to monetize iSpeed.info at least yet!

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Update: now SpeedMeter has a new name and a new home at iSpeed.info

Try it out! Thanks! :)

******

I’ve designed my first web app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s called SpeedMeter and it kinda does what it says on the box.

But I love how it turned out! (mind you I cannot really code). :)

Want a preview? Point your gorgeous iPhone here: iPhone SpeedMeter

Thanks Lee and the two Alex who helped me test it.

Screenshots:

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Left the biggest GSM carrier in the world – Vodafone – less than a month ago and slowly going back to blogging.
Currently in the limited 50-user beta of Things for iPhone, CulturedCode’s neat GTD application that in this version can sync wirelessly.

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So I got it! Typing on it as we speak. Dim brightness on the LED display and keyboard and all, fancy aluminum body and very very slender case. I’m electric! Have bought this sadness-bringing-geek-dream-machine when still unreleased in Romania and only a handful of my very fancy, style driven, fellow entrepreneurs have got it.

Owning it is easy. You just can’t understand why everyone doesn’t have one! And when you do, this mixed feeling of discomfort and exclusivity take over, as you know you have the best machine the guys at Cupertino now have to offer.
Inevitably “what next?” comes along.

The Air has proven many a time more that I need no Pro line computer. I need no fancy graphics card, no terabyte hard drive, no yada yada. I simply need my .Mac account to sync my bookmarks, keychain, Mail accounts and address book, beloved Twitterrific & Y! IM to just go ahead and start using my new Mac.

Music, movies (few) and other docs to go with I can always transfer over the tubes from my always-on Mac Mini at home.

The Air is the ultimate wireless device and so much fun. I happen to have Apple’s wireless Mighty Mouse, a fancy Sonyericsson Bluetooth headset and all the WiFi in the world + a HSUPA 3G modem. The rest is bliss and really, if your job is somewhat related to the web, if you don’t play Solitaire and don’t use a computer for spreadsheets, the Air fills in that gap. Most of my data is in the cloud, my get paid for online marketing and I’m a fancy roamer. And I got the cash too.

Fuck that white Macbook and ‘no thank you’ to the Pro line. I’m a sucker for the Air concept and I feel like I fit Apple’s initial bill like a glove. I do. And if your usage profile looks somewhat like mine, stop craving and go get one!
There’s a market niche for this machine and I’m happy to just say it: I’m one of those guys!

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This is hilarious! :)

You know what? I haven’t laughed as much in a long long time. And not so much about the video Gizmodo shot while they were ruthlessly killing CES LCDs and plasmas one by one, but the comment exchange I later found on the TV-B-Gone product page! [Later edit: removed since, but in full glory in screenshot below]
Enjoy:

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We all know airplane regulations about the use of electronic devices on board of an aircraft, don’t we?

Not only is there a total ban on any mobile phone use, but using a damn Tetris game is also a big no-no!
Yet here’s an interesting find on board of a Czech Airlines Airbus 321 aircraft flying from Bucharest to Prague:

(a picture is worth a thousand words, as usual)

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Ok! That’s it! I’m sold!

Till this I was still counting pros and cons on the new Macbook Air. But now there’s no doubt, I’m getting both! With the AirMail manila sleeve Air feels complete and personal! It feels right!

Will order the Manila folder notebook sleeve for Macbook Air to make sure I’ll have the actual reason to buy the machine.
Handmade out of durable upholstery-grade vinyl, and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece, AirMail sleeves have the same dimensions as standard interoffice manila envelopes.
Congratulate Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans, “two Apple geeks with combined handicraft-and-idea-person superpowers”, for coming up with this neat idea! They’ve earned it! (Jona, Claire: don’t fuck up!)

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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!

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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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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!

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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.

Happy 2008! :)

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Today I rediscovered my Apple remote and although it’s based on shitty IR technology (will never grasp why they didn’t use the darn iSight as a sensor) I have to credit it as the coolest and most desirable wireless gadget in my geekdom.
Entertainment is 90% of my working time so you bet this little bugger fills in a lot!

And yeah, since we got here, I’m contemplating getting a Mac Mini (till they go extinct), a Nintendo Wii and a classic Apple iSight (for my Apple collection) for X-Mass.
I’m totally not sure which if not all at once. I’ll be much obliged if you had some ideas here.

Also open is my wish list:
- a .Mac account
- a Flickr Pro account
- an Airport Extreme Base Station
- Daniel Lyons’s bestseller 0Ption$

feeling generous? :)

take it easy folks, and happy holiday!

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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 ;-)

Sources for this article: Yahoo Messenger Blog, JetBlue Airways

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…

Just remember: Wireless IS FUN!

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Okay! I snugged the bugger a couple of hours ago from my favorite online retailer in Romania and am now typing on it.
They wouldn’t let me see it before I paid for it so I was in for a blind date, carrying spotty images in the back of my mind of the countless Youtube vids and various reviews I had seen before rushing to the showroom to pick it up right away. I was the third to get one. A chap bought one minutes before I did.
It set me back some $485, just fair considering it came with a 2GB SD card on the house. Not too shabby.

[wait up so I can grab a Corona]

I spammed everyone following on Twitter with “I just want to get home and play with it”-type of cry. Not cool!
Remembered when you saw all those vids on Youtube or whatever about the friggin iPhone and how much you wanted to see a real one to prove that was all made up?
Mkay, this is no different! But just like the iPhone, Asus delivered on the Eee PC with no exception! It’s as cool and slick as you’d imagine, minus the size and the actual feel when holding it. Hear me out: it’s even smaller than that! So small in fact that it feels like a toy, almost cheap albeit real! The keyboard is embarrassingly small and so is the screen. While with the keys there’s not much Asus could’ve done, the LCD could have definitely been bigger, with at least 1024 x something.

Well, the above and the small specs everyone complains about are in the end zero, naught, nix real issues. This baby computer does everything I bought it for: my Internet in the pocket! Be it blogging, twittering, seesmicing, flickring, whatever!

I did not buy it to store my music or my movies, not even all my podcasts that are so space hungry. It just wasn’t designed for that.

Okay, maybe 512MB of RAM is little but I’m willing to void my warranty and add up to at least a gig. The 4GB SSD HDD I complete with the free 2GB SD card I got along with the lappie, plus the bunch of many-a-gigabyte USB pen drives I got laying around, plus the 250GB ext USB disk I keep on my desk for everything-backup.
Mind you, there’s now aplenty online services just happy to carry your files online in some generous remote storage location, and any geek can name a few right now.

With my Vodafone HSDPA SMARTmodem I’m sure it will be friends when I’m done replacing the basic Linux distro the Asus came preloded with a legal copy of Windows XP. The WiFi is the best addition. The webcam is nice too, so see me on Loic Le Meur’s Seesmic.com

I somehow feel bad this thing hasn’t come preloaded with OSX. That’s my biggest drag. Tiger is great with lo-res screens and has the gestures needed to quickly jump around between different apps not even discussing about the rest of the goodnes it brings. But hey, weekend is near and I plan to play a little hacking game..

I can see how this portable has raised so much hysteria. It’s plain fucking cool! Minute, versatile, x86-based, complete and fast, wireless and ridiculously cheap for the ultraportables range!

I can see how it will replace (as planned) my Macbook for all the daily web chores and the iPhone as well (not so planned). And that, from an Apple fanboy is big! But hey, Macbooks are made by Asus, the WiFi router on my desk is a WL500GP Asus router and I’m growing more fond about the Taiwanese brand everyday.

For this praise, Asus, please rename the damn thing the iEEE, bokay?
At least it sounds like a standard, if not like an apple from the iChurch tree! Thank you!

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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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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:

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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! ;)

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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:

- Jaiku
- pownce
- del.icio.us
- gizmo project
- Skitch
- Flock
- LastFM
- NetVibes
- Joost
- Miro
- Plazes
- XING
- Movable Type
- web widgets
- Orange Personal Space
- bittorrents
- Facebook
- MySpace
- EBay

No, the list is most certainly not complete. But I’m done with them. (I’m sorry I won’t take the time provide links or logos.)

So, beam me up, Scotty! NEXT!

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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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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 ;)

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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! :)

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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″!

Be wise, gents! Be wise!

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My good blogging friend Dennis Smith made early morning honors today at Starbucks and I felt I could not miss the opportunity to prove that, even if Frisco (US) and Bucharest (RO) are 8 years walking distance apart, good habits have the same brown sugar taste!

“I’m doing my Dan Berte imitation this morning, as there’s nobody I know who spends more time doing what he loves, and doing so via Wi-Fi with a strong cup of coffee in hand (Dan – I raise my Venti Rift Valley Blend in your honor!).”

Needless to say that my WiFi habits rock! And Dennis knows that well so he was following! He was riding T-Mo wireless and I was using Vodafone’s. He gets free Venti at SBX. I don’t! :P

Lovely Friday! :)

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Okay, it took me a while to sort things up and decide. I’ve been harrassed by fellow bloggers to start my own blog, as a personal development tracker. As if WirelessIsFun was not enough!! :) Well, dear friends, all your danberte-related dreams came true. Since I have so little time to blog cool shit I do like Lindzon here does, I thought of using Twitter feeds (and *that* I update often!) to govern the microsite you can find http://www.danberte.com
I chose to link to my LinkedIn page, my Twitter page, my Twitter RSS feed and my bio. Let me know if you’d like to add something to it or would like to see something else there!

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a picture is worth more than 1mil iPhones!
I hate you, AT&T! Apple basher!

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Tonight was one of the rare occasions to play with all these beauties at once. Will spare you of too much introductory stuff and jump right into the testing results.

[+] click picture to enlarge

Toys in test:
1. Reference RDS/RCS 1Mbit cable connection via 54Mb WiFi – http://www.rdsnet.ro/
2. Vodafone 3G/HSDPA 3.6Mbs Huawei USB ‘SmartModem’ – http://www.vodafone.ro/ [product page link]
3. Orange 3G/HSDPA 3.6Mbs Option ICON II USB Modem – http://www.orange.ro/ [product page link]
4. Zapp Mobile 2.4Mbs Z010 CDMA 1xEV-DO wireless modem http://www.zapp.ro/ [product page link]

Testing machine and area:
1.83Ghz Core 2 Duo 2GB RAM Apple Macbook with a/b/g/n – enabled Airport WiFi card.
All tests were performed in a residential area in Bucharest, RO. Time 11:00ish PM. Moderate network loads.
Additional testing was performed on a WinXP Dell 1.6Ghz Core2Duo machine. Performance obtained was about 30% lower!!

Testing on:
- Local (short path) download – Zapp data driver library
Test file – Software image WL-500gx – Deluxe (v 2.1) – 1x/EV-DO [3.20MB]

- External (overseas) download – Revision3 / Diggnation
Test file – diggnation–0108–2007-07-26multipass–large.h264.mov [108MB]

- Ping to google.com

Without further ado, the results:

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The control RDS cable connection needs no introduction or explanations. It performed as expected, capping out at the 1Mbs mark. Response times were great -inline with expectations- but maybe reported a tad lower as the WiFi router adds its own slowdown. This said, here are the screenshots.
Short path:

Overseas:

— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 67.475/68.679/71.692/1.056 ms

============================================

The Vodafone HSDPA SmartModem. I had a really good experience using this modem with speeds in excess of 300KBs (3-4Mbs). Unfortunately I was unable to replicate the performance tonight. Granted, and this goes for the other two players, the quality of the link, signal strength, network load and cell performance affect the max speeds attainable. Vodafone RO provides 3G+ (HSDPA) 3.6Mbs service in major cities and a guaranteed minimum of 1.4Mbs. What I managed to get was a not-so-flashy minimum with an excellent signal strength.
The proof-
Short path:

External:

— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 11 packets received, 8% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 278.274/313.286/609.070/93.856 ms

Notes: The application (Vodafone Mobile Connect for Mac) needs to be downloaded from the VF website. It weights around 15MB and it’s fairly easy to install and use. The drawback is that an additional “Activate” click has to be performed in order to enable the connection in the pref pane. The link is pushed through a VF APN proxy that strongly compresses the traffic (esp JPG images). That adds a certain lag and forbids use of some web bandwidth testing apps.
VMC:

[+] click to enlarge

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Orange touts a fresh 3.6Mbs capability in its network. Although generally slower compared to Vodafone, with a poorer link quality, the very ugly Option modem has performed on par (if not a tad better) with its competitor. Here is the proof:
Short path:

And overseas:

— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 267.750/283.606/298.381/8.540 ms

Notes: Orange has performed notably better than VF in the response time test, with almost half the average round-trip time. Great news for VoIP applications. Its Mac application I had to request at Orange Customer Service and was later forwarded in an email. The whole process took around 10 minutes. GlobeTrotter Connect weighs around 2MB and is spartan. It required a restart (not typical for OSX) to work without asking for one. The traffic is also routed through a proxy but optimization is only provided through separate APN.
Orange took no pride in customizing the packaging of their modem, sign of eagerness to take it to the market. More so, the documentation has Mac screenshots of an app you expect to find in the package but can only get separately, on request.
Not so cool!
The app:

[+] click to enlarge

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Zapp…oh Zapp…used to rock when its antenna was in good shape. Anything between 1.4Mbs and 2.0Mbs was possible. It’s generally a connection that can handle many streams at a time without degrading the ongoing transfers. It scales in an intelligent way. Plus, unlike Vodafone and Orange, the connection is direct without a pass trough a proxy for compression.
On the short path the Z010 would usually do 150KBs and on the diggnation file it would normally fly at a sustainable 180KBs!
I’ll add the screenshots though, but with a big fat disclaimer: this is not how a *healthy* Zapp modem performs!
Local (their own freakin servers):

A la longue:

— google.com ping statistics —
12 packets transmitted, 12 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 254.470/386.584/1362.356/296.632 ms

Notes: It breaks my heart to bash Zapp so badly after serving me 140ishKbs downloads for years in times when Orange/Vodafone only had shitty EDGE (150ishMbs) with this poor performance due to the faulty modem. Yet I think the ping results are relevant, the Z010 still doing good at 254.470 minimum round-trip time! Mkay… we have some spoilers here as I knew what to expect of some modems in test. Also sadly reporting that the CDMA modem was only here for a broader image of the competing technologies, less for actual results. It’s had a long service life feeding my mobile lifestyle and unfortunately it has the antenna bruised, which translates in very poor reception – read performance!
The Z010 needs no drivers for Mac running OSX, a compatible driver already rests in the OS’s library. With the connection set up in the pref pane, call is initiated in 2 clicks and established in less than 3 seconds! No other apps involved! Sweet!
Unfortunately the Z010 is no longer offered by Zapp but can be purchased by special request. It features a battery of its own that improves overall performance and lowers the drain on the notebook battery. It also has a b/w LCD screen that displays data such as signal strength, time/date and battery level. SMS can also be received on the device.

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The conclusion is optional for a buying decision. Both Orange and Vodafone do well in normal-real life tests! Both offers are compelling, reasonably and approachable priced for near-unlimited traffic (8GB/month). Both modems come free with subscription and are both Mac and PC compatible. If on the PC counterpart the modems have PnP installation – the drivers are stored on the modems themselves – you’ll have a little more trouble getting them for your Mac. Be advised! Request those drivers before you are on the road and need further internet access! :)

Not surprisingly, both modems do shitty jobs on Bill Gates-flavoured machines. With Orange capping downloads at around 85KBs I went no further testing and lit up the Mac. And there numbers started looking like the ones on the marketing fliers. ;)

Overall brief: sexiness/performance/ergonomic; grades from 1-5

Vodafone 3G/HSDPA SmartModem: 5 / 3 / 4
Orange 3G/HSDPA Option ICON II USB Modem: 1 / 3 / 3
Zapp Z010 CDMA 1xEV-DO: 3 / 4 / 3

===== 5 cigarettes were smoked during the making of this review. please do not try this at home. smoking is bad for your health!! =====

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