Category: Mobile

Finally, Carriers May Be Consolidating to LTE

Good move Sprint! In what could be a long needed win for the US wireless industry, Sprint may be adding to it’s 4G network with LTE support, in addition to the current WiMax deployment. This would effectively put all major US cell carriers on the same LTE upgrade pathway, and ideally should make widespread network buildouts much easier and more robust.

Image from Gizmodo

I’d definitely be a fan of seeing Sprint use LTE, especially if it means that overall carrier-wide network performance will improve. Additionaly, it will create a more competitive environment for providers, since consumers will have a much easier time taking their existing phones over to competing networks – much like how it is in the rest of the world these days. Finally, hardware manufacturers will be able to focus their hardware development on one wireless standard, rather than being forced to have different R&D resources for engineering separate hardware for carrier’s different technology.

Update – 2011-03-05 – Russia may be getting with it too: Russian telcos in LTE network sharing deal – paper

Update – 2011-03-07 – China has their own flavor of LTE, but luckily it’s easy enough to build a chipset that supports all LTE flavors – China Mobile says Apple interested in TD-LTE

Time-division LTE (TD-LTE), developed by China Mobile, is a variation on the LTE standard that can offer certain benefits over traditional frequency-division LTE (FD-LTE), including lower cost of deployment and dynamic balancing of upload and download bandwidth. Reports have indicated that the same chip can be used to allow devices to access both traditional LTE and TD-LTE networks.

Although TD-LTE is a homegrown standard from China Mobile, it has started to gain acceptance from other operators around the world who have been trialling the technology as an alternative to FD-LTE.

–MacRumors

2011-02-27
AT&T iPhone Faster Than Verizon iPhone – But Not More Reliable

This past week, CNN reported that according to Ookla’s mobile speed test, the AT&T iPhone transfers data much faster than the Verizon iPhone. Of course it does – AT&T’s implementation of its 3G technology is much faster than Verizons. However the main thing that must be kept in mind here is that the AT&T iPhone is faster WHEN IT CAN GET A CONNECTION, which is intermittently at best. It seems like the Verizon iPhone, while it may be slightly slower in transferring data, is much much more reliable when it comes to being able to make that connection to transfer the dat. It’s unfortunate that AT&T’s network is so incredibly unreliable – I’d go for a more reliable Verizon iPhone anyday, but prefer to stick with the global standard GSM technology group, VS Verizon’s less widespread CDMA.

Since both AT&T and Verizon are using LTE technology for their “4G” service, and will likely offer the same model 4G iPhone, the choice for my next phone and provider may really come down to soley network reliability – and judging by this study, Verizon is far ahead.

Also, check out this Ookla iPhone Easter Egg.

2011-02-18
Looking At Digital Agency’s Websites on Mobile

You’d think that any self respecting digital agency nowadays would have not only a decent website, but also a decent website that embodies all the ideals of their industry. Unfortunately, this is not always the case – but certain new elements are catching on. Specifically, more and more companies are producing mobile-optimized websites to compliment their full version sites. This quick study from Narrow Design looks at a few big digital agency’s presence in Mobile.

See a theme? Yep, most of them use some sort of mobile-crippling flash. There are a few half decent ones in there though, and although they really come nowhere close to where they should be right now, they have a start:
R/GA
Digitas
Agency Net
Droga 5

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2011-02-09
IntoNow iPhone app is like SoundHound for TV

This week I got to try out the new iOS Application “IntoNow“. Into now listens to what you’re watching on TV, and by fingerprinting and scanning a massive online database of TV show audio samples, manages to figure out what exactly you’re watching. While using it, I found it to be fairly accurate and response. Great Retina Display graphics too.

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2011-02-01
What Do Users Want from Mobile Sites?

A quick re-post from Econsultancy today – they did a brief study on what users really want from a mobile site – and found out that it really depends on the type of site, and what the user is after. Some brief findings:

Overall

Web users prefer a mobile optimised site for shopping and browsing, but expect the same brand experience they would find online or through other channels, according to a new study.

Homepage

The survey results suggest that users want simplicity from a homepage, yet it still needs to portray the brand.

Navigation

Users expect to be able to browse and buy the same range of products on a mobile as they can on the main website, and this means that navigation has to work well.

Product pages

Product pages need to provide enough detail so that the user can make an informed decision about whether or not to buy the product.

Shopping Cart

…make sure that the information and features that customers expect from shopping baskets should not be lost when they are optimised for mobile.

One key takeaway is that mobile users expect the same experience and choice as they find on desktop websites, which means providing product details, multiple images and reviews, as well as information about delivery charges and timescales.

2011-01-28
Shopping App’s Use For Geo-Location

A quick thought on using a mobile phone’s GPS in a novel fashion for an online retailer. Nowadays basically every mobile phone has a gps chip in it, and all smart phones can provide location data to the apps they run. Recently I was asked by a client about ideas for possibly reaching out to customers on a local level, despite the fact that the client doesn’t actually have any physical stores. Here are my initial thoughts –
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2011-01-25
Research: The State of Global Mobile eCommerce

“mCommerce” – Mobile eCommerce has been picking up significant amounts of steam lately, and consumer confidence has been rising. Recently I put together a set of info for my office on the latest mCommerce stats, Here are a few of the key bits:

Opera just put out an excellent study on mobile commerce.
Opera State of the Mobile Web 2010 Report, Blog Post, Data Sheet

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2011-01-20
Maintenance: Posting L2 Luxury Interactive Conference Notes

In June, 2010 I attended the L2 Mobile Clinic at the NYU Stern School of Business. The Mobile Clinic is an intensive workshop that examines mobile’s implications, platforms, and best practices. The objective is to enhance participants’ fluency in brand-driven mobile marketing and commerce efforts. Academics and practitioners lead the group through a series of sessions with a balance of theory and industry case studies.

The Luxury Lab Think Tank (L2) is a think tank for prestige brands. From their site:

LuxuryLab brings together thought leaders, academics, and industry leaders to uncover formulas for success. Drawing from research, best practices and trends, LuxuryLab distills this intellectual capital and makes it available—and actionable—for our partners.

Below are some brief notes I too during the conference.
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2011-01-15
Web Design for Desktop & Mobile Consolidated Compatibility: Adaptive CSS3

The fluid grid layout methodology is an emerging method for making websites instantly and optimally accessible from any device, with any size screen. Hopefully, we’ll start to see wider spread usage of these new features in CSS3, so new websites are designed with this kind of functionality in mind.

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2011-01-12
Mobile Video Calling Can’t Survive Fragmentation

Every day there seems to be a new mobile video conferencing service popping up. Fring, ooVoo, Skype, Facetime, and so on. They’re each great in their own respect, and each have their own great features – FaceTime works natively on iPhone 4, ooVoo for Android has six way video chat, and Skype has a huge installed base. However, none of these services have really helped bring widespread mobile video conferencing into mass use. Sure, lots of people have capable handsets, but I don’t believe they actually use it.The problem is platform fragmentation.

Spring and Fring get a huge product placement in last week's episode of Fringe, on FOX. Click for video.

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2010-12-15
Inception iPhone App – Cinematic RJDJ

In lieu of straight up music on my headphones, this week I’ve been spacing out with the Inception iPhone App. It’s trippy re-mixes of the sounds around me, along with slow burning musical themes from the movie make merely riding the subway into an alternate reality experience.

This app is a dream machine that transforms the world around you into a dreamworld. It uses augmented sound to induce dreams through the headset of your iPhone and iPod Touch. It will change your perception of reality.

Inception App on iTunes

The app uses the audio sampling/processing/twisting framework of RJDJ, adding in custom Inception themes and interface. The full RJDJ app lets users load up pre-made and custom soundcapes, with projects coming in from people like Jimmy Edgar, Booka Shade, and Air.

Hans Zimmer talks about Inception The App from RjDj on Vimeo.

2010-12-14
iPhone and Android Applications In Google Mobile Search Results

Google has started showing mobile application results in their mobile web search results, potentially marking the beginnings of the intersection of web search and mobile apps. This initial implementation of mobile installable application results in mobile web search result is the first step.
Mobile network infrastructure and mobile handset hardware are improving, and web standards such as HTML5 with support for interactive features are in the very beginning stages of proliferation. As these advances give rise to rich, interactive web-based mobile applications (web-apps), I think that these installable application results may soon give way, or will grow to include results for web apps.

From the Google Mobile Blog:

As of today, if you go to Google.com on your iPhone or Android-powered device and search for an app, we’ll show special links and content at the top of the search results. You can tap these links to go directly to the app’s Android Market or iPhone App Store page. You can also get a quick look at some of the app’s basic details including the price, rating, and publisher. These results will appear when your search pertains to a mobile application and relevant, well-rated apps are found.

Update 2010-06-07, 13:56EDT – In his WWDC Keynote Speech, Steve Jobs just gave a nod to the viability of HTML5-based web apps, stating “”Next, I’d like to talk about the App Store. Before I do that, I want to make something clear. We support two platforms: HTML5 — it’s a completely open, uncontrolled platform. And we fully support it.”
Screenshot of HTML5 app Steve Jobs quote from Engadget’s live keynote coverage

2010-06-06
iPhone Followup: Qik

The possibilities for the more open, developer-friendly iPhone 2.0 software just keep getting better, especially on the speedier iPhone 3G. TechCrunch reports that Qik just announced that they are coming out with an iPhone application, to allow users to stream live video direct from their iPhone. Pretty cool feature, and that will also mean that the iPhone will now be able to capture and record video, since Qik records your video streams.

They’re not the only ones doing live streaming, and I hope sites like Ustream.tv and Mogulus.com get on the bandwagon for over-the-air streaming too. Especially considering Mogulus’ capabilities for real-time mixing of multiple video sources, it could make an intensely robust control studio for remixing and re-broadcasting multiple live remote video streams. Live-mixing/streaming the next Tumblr Rock Band jam from multiple roaming cell-connected audio/video sources? Sure.

**Update – Max Haot, of Mogulus, just informed me via comments that Mogulus is actually already integrated with Qik, so users can do live mixes of multiple remote video streams – awesome!

2008-06-13
Geotweeting with iPhone 3G and GPS

How about “Geo-tweeting”? Automatically posting geo-tagged updates to Twitter via iPhone 3G‘s GPS chip, cell data coverage and wifi coverage? Maybe a Google Maps geotweet maps mashup?

Needless to say, I’m very excited about the new iPhone 3g, and can’t wait to get my hands on one and try out the GPS, high speed data, and new applications. Regarding iPhone 3G’s features – I’m dissapointed that there is still no native picture messaging, iChat AV integration or video capture. However, I’m hopeful that 3rd party software developers will be able to fill this gap – an all network IM client that could get on AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, GMAIL, IRC, Skype, Facebook and Myspace instant messenger networks (who sometimes share the same protocols…) would be fantastic.

Would it be possible to get super accurate gps reading via multiple gps readings? Use iPhone 3G’s internal GPS and Bluetooth connection to connect to a secondary, external GPS, maybe even one with WAAS land-based location accuracy augmentation? That, coupled with data network access could make for some nifty scientific, surveying, research and field applications…

Finally, the obvious application for a phone paired with gps paired with camera – automatic photo geotagging and upload. Flickr already supports geotagging and uploading via email (as well as third party apps). I’m almost certain this will be coming out of the gates soon after iPhone 3G launch, and almost certain I’ll be using it immediately!

2008-06-10
Starbucks Card Wifi Access Working…

Looks like the free 2 hours of wifi at starbucks is real. I just walked into a Starbucks in Soho, bought a $5 starbucks card, setup my account at starbucks.com, and got on the web. For free, unless you count the $5 of credit on my starbucks card as payment. The speed is pretty decent, although right now I only see about 3 other people in here with laptops. Hopefully starbucks and AT&T will keep this feature around. Also of note, the ISP is registered as “Starbucks Coffee Company”, and the IP address resolves to Seattle, WA. (I changed the test server to NYC, since I know where I am..)

2008-06-05
Free Starbucks Wifi for iPhones AND Macbooks?

I just read over on Gizmodo, by way of Macrumors that the AT&T/Starbucks wifi access deal is starting up offering free Wifi internet access to iPhone customers. Sounds great to me – IF I actually had an iPhone. I do, however, have a Macbook Pro, with the latest version of Safari, Apple’s speedy fast web browser.

Can I get leverage the iPhone deal to get free wifi on my Macbook Pro?

One little known feature of Safari is the “Develop” menu bar. You can use this option to change the User Agent Safari presents. I think that by changing the User Agent of Safari to “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 – iPhone”, I could trick the Starbucks router into giving me free wifi. What do you think?

To enable the “Develop” menu, go into Safari’s preferences, then advanced, then check the box next to “show Develop in menu bar”. Then, when you go back to using safari, you’ll see a Develop menu in the menu bar. Open that menu, and under the “User Agent”, select “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 – iPhone”.

I haven’t directly tested this yet, but it would be great if it actually worked! Anyone had a go at this yet?

**Update Update**….

The timestamp doesnt lie. I reported it first. Just saw over on Engadget and and Macrumors Forums they are also reporting the same hack for starbucks wifi access with safari by switching the user agent. Did they get it from me? Who knows.. but look at the timestamps.. I put it up first! Wheee…

2008-04-30
IM First Steps for Mobile Web-Apps

Instant Messaging while on the go – It’s increasingly more essential, yet with many current software/hardware offerings, increasingly more frustrating.

I carry a Blackberry Curve 8300, which has its strengths and weaknesses. The hardware is actually decent, well built, good screen etc. The software, however, is absolutely worthless. It honestly feels like a 1st try beta version. There are random menu items where they’re not needed (example: “call voice mail” option in the camera options menu – why?!?!), and the UI is so un-optimized that despite reasonably powerful hardware, the thing still crawls doing the most basic tasks. One of those basic tasks, which you’d think the curve would be able to do easily is instant messaging. The Blackberry Messenger does work well, but not everybody has a Blackberry – probably for the better. I use AIM and gChat mostly. While there are decent clients for both of these networks, when running either one of them, it causes the rest of the phone to grind to a halt – text takes 5 seconds to come up after you’ve typed it, and it takes till the 4th ring for the os to catch up and allow you to actually take a call. Amazing how they could actually sell a product like this.

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2008-04-25
3G iPhone and the Sad State of “Broadband”

Recently at the Beet.TV Executive Summit in Washington, Wall Street Journal writer Walt Mossberg spoke on the convergence of computer and TV entertainment, internet bandwidth, and the importance regulation/deregulation from the top.

I’m with Walt on this. The critical step for converging TV and computer content/entertainment, and allowing us to take the next step in rich content delivery, communication, and integration is bandwidth. Insuring that access to network bandwidth does not become more metered, restricted and taxed, and that it becomes increasingly more plentiful and open is critical.

Also in this talk, Walt foreshadows the release of the 3G iPhone in the next 60 days – I’ll be the first in line when it does come out! As for bandwidth and 3G – I think that when the 3G iPhone does launch, AT&T seriously needs to get their act together with the 3G data network throughput – having all those users able to browse the web, directly download/stream media, and use other data intensive applications (iChat AV?) is going to put a serious strain on the network.

Here’s the video of Walt Mossberg speaking on Beet.TV about broadband speed, rich media, and the iPhone.

2008-04-05

Nike+ to be integrated into gym equipment

It’s great that the industry is finally getting on board with the Apple+Nike tech partnership, and starting to work the technology into gym equipment. I’ve been using the Nike+ situation since day one, and it’s motivating to have as much data as possible available to me when I run.. both at the gym, and out on the street.

One thing I would like to see them start integrating is a heartrate monitor. Currently when I run, I use the Nike+ kit, with a Marware pouch to hold the transmitter on my Saucony shoes, and a slightly older Nike heart rate monitor strap. Wearing the heartrate monitor is useful, because it allows me to guage how hard I’m working. Also, with some of these newer iPod and usb enabled Life Fitness treadmills at the gym, they will automatically adjust the incline and speed to keep my HR in check. Cool. It would be even better, though, if the Nike+ reciever attached to my iPod could listen to my heart rate monitor strap, and give me not only info on my speed, but also heart rate info along side it. I think being able to compare those two metrics would give me some interesting training insite.

Integration of incline data would really boost the usefulness of the system. It’s already able to be recorded by the treadmill, so why not add it to the tracked information for Nike+? Speed+HR+Incline would be killer. Pushing it one farther, how about using the Google Maps integration on the Nike+ site to extract terrain elevation data, make an elevation profile for any particular run, and sync that up along side all the other run data? With Google adding more and more terrain data to it’s maps, this could become possible very soon.

What about official course pace data integration? I wore my Nike+ kit during the most recent 2007 NYC Marathon, and it was great to be able to see my splits throughout the race. What would be even more valuable, though, would be if i could get a chart of the pacesetters splits, and then compare myself to that – I’d be able to see where i was slacking, and where i was pushing it unnecessarily. Combine that with overlays of the course terrain, speed and heart rate, and you’d had a complete view of how things went.

clipped from www.nikebiz.com

Nike + iPod Experience Coming To A Gym Near You

BEAVERTON, Ore. (4 March 2008) – Nike (NYSE:NKE) and Apple revolutionized the way people run with Nike + iPod and now the companies are redefining the way people work out by bringing the Nike + iPod experience to gyms around the world this summer.

Nike and Apple are working with major gym equipment manufacturers such as Life Fitness, Precor, Star Trac and Technogym to make their cardio equipment Nike + iPod compatible so health club members can easily track workouts on cardio equipment like treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes and stair climbers. Nike + iPod users will simply plug in their iPod nano into the equipment at the start of their workout to automatically record their progress. Users can then connect their iPod with their computer to upload the workout to www.nikeplus.com

Update*** Just heard that Samsung and Adidas are pairing up to compete with Nike+Apple. Pshaw, yeah, right…. not even going to stand a chance. How can Nike+Apple beat this? Simple – enable the Nike+ kit on the iPhone. Plus, with the new iPhone SDK freshly out of the gates, imagine the possibilities of developers being able to write their iPhone sports apps which utilize real-time feedback from the Nike+ shoe sensor, iPhone’s built-in accelerometer, light meter, cell tower-based GPS, wifi localization, and cellular data connection. Throw in a 3G iPhone with true GPS and broadband data in June, and you can start to see the possibilities. “Tune Your Run”? For now maybe. but next up will be “Broadcast Your Run”

Update 2008-09-16 – Isn’t is kind of scary that they may begin building in RFID chips into clothing, so you can’t use products such as Nike+ with non-approved garmets? Wearing that Nike+ sensor in a pouch on your shoelaces, like I do, may become a thing of the past. Now they can even control your wardrobe….check out this post, with patent diagrams.

2008-03-07

Iowa has more cell phones than landlines

Quick blurb I read over at The Raw Feed…. Iowa now has more cell phones than landlines. They are the first US state to reach this landmark, and I’m proud of them! I personally haven’t had a landline in.. lets see… 8 years.. since I started college and got my first cell phone. And I’m really never going back. I think that nowadays, considering the widespread cellular coverage, half-decent rates (debatable), and all the extra kinds of communication you can do with a cell phone, there’s no need for land lines. And I like having only one number – it’s just more simple. There are some things that land lines are good for… disasters, call quality (cell phones are quickly catching up, though), and last-choice internet connectivity. But given my needs, the cell is the way to go.

Bravo Iowa, bravo.

2008-02-05
Open Networks, Open Standards – the critical next step

Broitman, I think you’re right on with giving Google the openness award. Your importance of being open article is spot on, but I just wanted to step back a bit to how they got to this new openness.

Google has to free up technologies that can have the most impact in an open environment. Technologies like cellular networks and broad-area wireless coverage, such as the 700mhz networks they helped to free, are the pathway to the future. Additionally, I agree that the opening up of the social networking standards, cell phone platforms, music formats, etc, is all the way of the future. In fact, the very industries that built up these technologies will die without openness.

However, we didn’t get to this point easily, and we definitely could not have gotten here without initially constructing closed, proprietary systems. In fact, I’m all for closed systems and technology, at least for the beginning stages of growth and adoption. When a company develops a new technology and keeps it closed, it encourages that company to pour as much as it can into the tech, building it up to make it the biggest and best. Additionally, fundamental values, operating procedures, and quality control are concentrated. If, for example, the wireless 700mhz spectrum were always a freely available chunk of spectrum, I think that its effectiveness would become diluted. Way too many people would be making half-assed efforts to use it, and it would never be able to concentrate that critical mass of userbase, tech base, and monetary support.

Going forward, I’m eager to see where we go in developing new applications based on formerly closed, now opened technologies. If the industry can break out of the molds already made by the industry, we could begin to see some really killer technologies. Google’s Android and Open Social are just the beginning.

The one potential step back that i see the industry trying to take is Net Neutrality. I’m all for it, and think that the reason the internet is great, and will continue to be great is that its neutral – bandwidth is bandwidth. So let’s keep it open too, ok?

2008-01-14
Razr DISAPPOINTMENT!

Listening to: The Crystal Method – Vegas

Ok, so I ran out to the Verizon store.. even took a cab there. Bought the new razr v3c, and tried it out. DISAPPOINTMENT. Ok so the phone is super cool and sleek and lightweight etc. However there were a few things that prevented me from adopting it. It’s a bit outdated in terms of physical functionality nowadays.. no mem card slot, no headphone jack. The keypad wasn’t quite as textured as I would like it to be… When using it in a dark room, I had to actually look at the keys to see what I was pressing. I’m a little more used to feeling it out and navigating with a little more tactile feedback from the keyboard. (like Das Keyboard!). But the main thing that killed the razr v3c for me was the speed of the UI. Now, the Verizon UI that their putting on all their new phones nowadays isn’t all bad. It’s on my LG VX7000, and once you get to know it, its good.. a bit simplistic, but good. So besides the crippled bluetooth, I didn’t mind the Verizon ui on the Razr. However, it was S-L-O-W! To search for and dial a number in my phonebook, I could hit the key sequence before the phone could even switch from the home screen! I would hit the contacts and then the first 2 letters of my contacts name and then send, and 5 seconds later you would see the phone quickly flip through the screens and then freeze for another second or two, and then dial the number. Not good. This lag was consistent throughout the whole UI. Scrolling through menus, there would be a slight lag on the response, so you would often pass the line you want to select in a list. It was also quite annoying having that lag when switching ringers, ringtones etc. Also, V-cast. Although I thought the vcast service was pretty cool, when watching videos, even when I have full reception, the razr drops frames left and right, and unsyncs the audio. It feels like its having trouble rendering the video in time or something.
I returned the razr to the store the next day, and talked with a tech about it. He said that yeah, the razr is slow, and they might fix it with a firmware update.. but it might be a while, because most people don’t really notice the slow ui.

Guess I’ll just wait for another good one…

2005-12-15