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

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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!! =====

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.

Meraki released a new product, an outdoor wireless repeater that can attach to a solar pannel (sold separately).
The new oddly-shaped repeater is eyecandy and apparently very efficient, touting a range of up to 700meters. Priced at $99 it falls in the cheap wireless devices category. But before you get all hyped up, remember that using these things means you’ll have a cluster of them. Quite pricy. The press release here.

Sick of paying for broadband that you have to, well, pay for?

Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines. Sign up today and we’ll Google will send you the TiSP self-installation kit, which includes setup guide, fiber-optic cable, spindle, wireless router and installation CD.

TiSP in-home wireless broadband is:
Free, fast and highly reliable
Easy to install — takes just minutes
Vacuum-sealed to prevent water damage

Now, you know, we wanted to try this with Bulgarian fiber-optic cable ’cause we couldn’t wait for the google TiSP package to arrive. However we couldn’t really make it work… We then called our sewers expert he told us that our residual waters have low conductivity for saline fibe-optic sensitive devices. Our last chance was Google Bot! He was kind to answer the phone and tell us to relax. They’ll come up with a better, upgraded solution next year! Somewhere around the 1st of April. ;)

Cut it out, people! Yeah, you! Stop searching for…the iPhone release date in Google instead of going to apple.com! While looking at some stats I found out that a great deal of people end up on wirelessisfun.com because of typing “iphone release date” in the famous search engine! *grin*

Ooook. Here’s the date for ya: June 2007. Put that in red in your calendar and Google no more!

June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date June 2007 iPhone Release Date

As the official release document from Apple says:

Getting a job in the Internet era is trivial if you’re serious about your skills and really want to go the next mile. It’s a personal matter to choose fun over paycheck, relocation over your home town or country, alternative crew or 9-5 army. Since I deal with the following companies in various ways, I’ve settled on which I’d say yes or no to if they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Not all of them are in the wireless field, but they are all Internet players.

The beloved-

1. Skype, because they preserve identity and stimulate individual development, while managing to hold a functional team. Plus, working for Skype is fun.
2. Moo, because they use Macs, are innovative and have a good sense of humor.
3. Meraki, because they’re still young and I could get there in time to make them work.
4. Apple Inc., only if i took Steve’s job. It’s the only decent/thrilling job in Cupertino.
5. A Chinese OEM. I bet that’s fun! :)

The ‘no so much’-

1. Google, because they’re big and matte. Individual identity? What’s that?? So what if they pay, give you free candy and loundry? The paycheck should cover that plenty anyway.
2. Yahoo!, oh no! These guys have lost touch with the 21st century realm.
3. T-Mobile, too big and slow moving, lost in the incumbment’s junkyard. I’d say yes only if they gave me an innovation team to work with and took us seriously.
4. Fon, because they’re only cool on paper. I’m into really changing the WiFi world!
5. Cisco, because only the Japs know the secret of the do-it-all company.
#. Dell, nope! Don’t ask!
#. Boingo. Nope! Innovation??? Ring a bell?
#. Vodafone and the like. No way! Clock tickin for you guys! ;)

I’m off to my favorite caffe downtown to sip on a latte! Which employer would let me out of the cubicle before 5pm?

Update:

I knew my friend Dennis of wirelessjobs.com, senior recruiter at T-Mobile USA will have a word against my “uncool employer” tag next to T-Mo’s name. :)
I give him that! Plus, he makes my point shake further by touting a 4PM out-of-the-office Latte! But still, have any of you ever used T-Mobile hotspots in airports or caffes around the world? Don’t you just hate those hours you have to keep an eye on the bill instead of staying productive or simply relaxing online? Yeah, WiFi should be free! Or nearly! Not 8 Euros an hour ($6 in the US)! I just love Budapest’s Feriheghy Airport where there’s a T-Mo hotspot and a *free* Pannon aside! :)
Since Fon wants to place a router next to every Starbucks in the US I fear T-Mobile has to figgure out something else for their WiFi branch. I haven’t seen a counter-move on their behalf, the one and only reason I placed them in the “not so much” section of my picks list.

Off the record, Dennis: make me an offer I can’t refuse and I’ll prolly say yes! :) But make sure we fix that 20th century pricing. This is 2007!

Google launched Google Apps for domain integration. What’s that? It means you can offer Google services for your group, family, institution, customers or your enterprise, if the case. Google Apps are meant to be integrated by domain administrators in order to let their users access to Google services straight from an owned domain. The Standard Edition is free of charge and offers 2GB Gmail accounts (Google’s free email service), Google Docs & Spreadsheets (word processor and spreadsheet calculator, compatibily includes .doc and .xls files), Google Calendar, Google Talk (instant messaging). The Premier edition costs 50$/year (per user) and includes, among others, a larger email account quota, ad free emails and 24/7 assistance including phone support. Here is a comparison between the two editions.
The service can help small businesses have a a powerful office and data exchange platform straight through their web domain. Small computer resellers and IT consultants can add value to their products and services by offering email accounts and access to online office software (i.e. Docs & Spreadsheets). Might be serious competition to Microsoft’s mammoth (both old and large :) ), Office suite, at least in their “standard” editions. Google now has the power to convince even more conservative users migrate towards hosted applications. Salesforce.com was the first massively adopted hosted application for businesses, a CRM suite completely online supporting desktop synchronization, convenient document and data sharing and extensions and guaranteed success of implementation. Salesforce.com became the leader of the CRM market in a very short time, out competing players like Oracle and SAP. Now, it time for the powerful Google to compete with classic desktop applications.

Duncan Riley over at 901am.com writes about Google and their future plans regarding their plans on Artificial Intelligence:

“We have some people at Google [who] are really trying to build artificial intelligence (AI) and to do it on a large scale…It’s not as far off as people think.”

Of course Duncan underlines that Google is not evil but always, AI might become… Evil that is. This reminds me of my all time favorites Sci-Fi writers. “I, Robot” anyone? Pozitronic brains? Daneel, is that you?

BusinessWeek Online tells us that Google Steps Into Microsoft’s Office

Apparently Google plans on hitting the corporate market with a new office solution, the Google Apps they have been beta testing lately. From a calendar, e-mail program, word processor and even presentations processor, they are coming up and they are knocking on important doors with them. Up till now, Pixar and the Disney Studios are two important players who said they were going to switch from Microsoft’s solution, but they are not the only ones interested.

The people at Slashdot ask themselves if this is going to be the end of a monopoly or the start of another, but Google does not want to make this an “us vs. them” thing, they say they just want to offer choices to people. Go Go Google, but watch out for Microsoft’s Office Live coming up from Redmond.

Read more at Business Week Online: Google Steps Into Microsoft’s Office .