The growth of the mobile technology space both in product innovation and subscriber base has been tremendous over the past decade. It has been a perfect storm of customer demand, products and infrastructure.
Many of the posts I have written talk directly to the use of mobile technology to break down the wall of simple communication, overcoming disabilities and augmenting reality with valuable contextual data. And with every wall that comes down, the communites of people across the world benefit with more enriched lifestyles, feeding a deeper need to connect with one another and to be fed information.
The growth of the mobile space could not have been possible without the infrastructure to deliver mobile services, SMS, e-mail, mobile gaming and Web browsing. With 3G growing as a common connection speed throughout the world, the bandwidth and speed of application delivery has enable video streaming, video sharing and an even stronger platform for mobile gaming.
From “Smartphones: the Silver Lining of the Declining Handset Market”
“During 2008, in a first for the mobile industry, consumer demand for third-party applications started driving both handset sales and revenues for developers and OEMs. Apple’s success with the App Store has prompted other players to focus on devices that can enable third-party developers to easily bring applications and services to mobile phones.”
It is clear that products and infrastructure are up to the task of meeting the demand, but how long will that demand last? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: facebook, flashmob, generational theory, millennial, myspace, twitter
What an exciting week of new technology announcements. Between the Google Wave, Microsoft Zune HD and Hulu Desktop, it is hard to know where to start. If I had to rank them, Wave sits at the top of the innovation richter scale. Here are some of my initial impressions.
Making Sense of Disjointed Discussions
Google made the announcement of their well kept secret, Google Wave, at the I/O conference this week. Wave is Google’s attempt at evolving Internet communication and collaboration into real-time contextual discussions.
If you think about how e-mail has changed over the past 10 years, then you probably come to same conclusion as most people: It hasn’t changed much. The user interface may have been updated but you are still sending, replying and forwarding messages back and forth. The change on the communication front has come mostly from the introduction of Instant Messenger, micro-blogging apps and social networking sites. And if you consider blogs and wikis as additional methods of communication, then there are a lot of discussions going on outside of e-mail. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: collaboration, communication, facebook, google wave, microblogging, twitter
The recent Android 1.5 release (aka Cupcake) for the G1 and other Android devices introduced a couple of features that were fast becoming standard phone features, namely an on-screen soft keyboard and video recording. The rumors around this release started late last year with a few false predictions of it coming out in January. The release finally came out late April with much fanfare after the pent up demand for the on-screen keyboard, video recording, stero bluetooth and other nifty items. Here is a link to the 1.5 release overview.
There is also a video overview of some of the new 1.5 features put out by the Android team.
Soft Keyboard
As a former Blackberry user I couldn’t go without the keyboard and didn’t want to switch to an on-screen soft keyboard. I suppose it was because of my assumptions about slowness with the on-screen keyboard based on feedback from friends with the iPhone. After using the new on-screen keyboard in Android 1.5, it is time to rethink my position on soft keyboards. I don’t think I have even flipped out the integrated keyboard for over 2 weeks and here is why. Read the rest of this entry »
Samsung Netbook
Last summer I bought a Dell Studio laptop from a local Staples store. There were a number of laptops to choose from but I have always had a good experience with Dell and their support. I ended up getting the Studio laptop for $700 and also bought the 2 year service from Staples. I don’t usually buy the warrantly, but the salesperson promoted it and it sounded like a great deal. Apparently if I run into any problems with the laptop, i.e. hard disk, battery, display, etc…, they would take it back and give me a brand new one, no questions asked. This service was an extra $190. After leaving the store I felt buyers remorse not for the laptop but the 2 year service.
Fast forward 9 months and the Dell Studio laptop gives me an intermittent hardware failure error message on boot up. I have to say that this is the first time seeing this type of error after using Dell laptops for the past 10 years. Thinking back now, I am feeling pretty good about my decision to buy that 2 year Staples service package. Read the rest of this entry »
I continue to believe that mobile devices, whether they be smart phones, netbooks, the Kindle, etc… will continue to have a profound impact on our culture and how people behave and interact. I also believe technology often moves much faster than the problems they can solve. This is not a bad thing, mind you. Augmented reality, which I have written about previously, is an excellent example of this. We are just barely scratching the surface of how merging the virtual world with the real world opens new doors for the less advantaged.
AMBER Alert
One of the most sobering real world events that I find when driving are AMBER Alerts. If you are unfamilar with AMBER Alerts, they occur when a child is abducted. The alerts are broadcast over the radio, TV and on electronic billboards (at least in California). You can also subscribe to AMBER Alerts via SMS alerts.
AMBER Alert for Android
Last week I spent a few minutes looking around the Android marketplace via the cyrket.com site and noticed a very interesting app called AMBER Alert. After looking into the app before downloading it to my G1, I saw it really was similar to the AMBER Alert that you hear about when a child gets abducted. The app shows you all the children that fall within the AMBER Alert criteria, sorted by state and consisting of the child’s details and a picture. Judging by the download rate, 5,000-10,000 in a month, it seems like something that people are interested in it.
The app got me thinking about how we can start to use all of this mobile technology to our advantage to help reduce child abductions. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: amber alert, android, mobile
This morning it was reported that Google has removed all tethering apps from the Android Marketplace. I can’t say I agree with the decision, but it makes sense for the carriers to restrict this ‘feature’ within Android phones. I have mentioned in almost all of my posts on tethering how unlikely it would be for carriers to encourage tethering.
Revenue Driving Tether Decisions
There are a lot possibilities for tethering through the G1 that essentially takes future revenue away from carriers.
- I can image a world where every consumer electronics device supports both WiFi and 3G (or whatever speed comes out next). These can be location aware devices, gaming devices or in-car devices. For each of these devices, carriers may make somewhere between $1 – $15/month.
- Think of all the netbooks that will ship over the next couple years. Now think of all the 3G cards that will ship with them and the $30/mo. 3G service for each card. Now you can understand the carrier’s reluctancy to support WiFi tethering through the G1.
If you have root access to your phone, you don’t have to worry, the free tether apps I am sure will pop up in various places so you will still have the joy of tethering to your hearts content.
iPod Tethering News
Tethering with the G1 over WiFi now gives your Apple iPod touch Internet access from anywhere. That has always been the case with WiFi tethering so it’s not really new news. But with the recent availability of Skype for the Apple iPod touch, it makes even more sense. Now you can call other Skype users for free over the T-Mobile G1’s 3G network. Long distance calling is also very inexpensive over Skype.
Just a reminder that you can have all this greatness only after you root your Android phone.
Finally, I previously stated that I was going to take a break from tethering news and updates. That break didn’t last long thanks to the above announcements.
Tags: android, g1, ipod touch, t-mobile, tethering
Now that the Android Marketplace has been available for a couple of months, I thought it would be a good time for a round-up of the tether apps currently available. I have mentioned in an earlier post the types of tethering available and different configuration options with your G1 phone. I also wrote about the first unofficial tether app GWifi which I was able to get successfully working, but it wasn’t the simplest of installation processes. Since then I have installed a couple more tether apps directly off the Marketplace, both of which were very easy to download and use.
Over the course of 3 months, I’ve been impressed with the evolution of tether apps and the quality of their user experience. The downside of having so many tether apps on the Marketplace is trying to figure out which one works best. Everyone has their own needs and uses for tethering. Fortunately there is enough variety of apps to meet most customer requirements.
Let’s start with a comparison chart showing what tether apps are available on the Marketplace. Some of the information in the below chart is from the wonderful site Cyrket.com which allows you to browse through the Marketplace using your computer rather than solely going through your Android phone. Other parts of the table have come from the vendor’s site or my own experience with the app.
Read the rest of this entry »
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