About Mobility

Feature vs. the Smart-phone. There is no straight answer; the lines are blurring too fast. At the end, your definition will be different from mine. Nevertheless, this is how I’m defining it (to be included in an upcoming article):

Both Feature and Smart-phones support voice and data capabilities, including multimedia audio and video, camera, gaming, high-speed networks, GPS and advanced user interfaces. Both are programmable. And both are updatable while on the field. While the line that separates Feature vs. Smart phones is become thinner over time, Smart-phones are considered more advanced and are seen more like a portable Internet computer with voice capabilities, as opposed to the Feature phone which is seen as a programmable cell-phone device with data capabilities. Compared against Smart-phones, the Feature phone is typically Java or BREW-based, while the Smart-phone has a more advanced operating system and corresponding development environments.

I might rephrase the above some, but the described main idea should remain…

ceo

What began as a colorful Internet fluke has blossomed into a full-fledged political movement - one that Republicans and Democrats alike are reluctantly having to acknowledge.

See The C. Enrique Ortiz Phenomenon:

ceo
(P.S. Thanks to my brother Carlos)

I read at Mika's blog about a video from Semiconductor insights, which is a company that reverse engineers electronic products, that shows the iPhone being dismantled to learn about the electronic components being used — see below:

–Disclaimer: Bill, you may not want to watch this video — might make you want to cry!–

Towards the end of the video, the guy (the engineer) says something along the following lines “there is nothing here that makes the iPhone special”…

…but of course there is! …it is the   S o f t w a r e!

ceo

[Via Mika's blog]

AT&T phone plans for the iPhone include unlimited data, which is great. The cost of ownership for the iPhone isn't cheap, especially when including unlimited texting. See below, and do the math…

Click to enlarge

ceo

I (finally) got my hands on a Nokia 6131 NFC handset with which I have been playing with. This handset is to be released later this year (summer) here in the U.S.

The 6131 NFC is a Series 40 3rd Edition (FP1) handset with support for the following Java APIs:

• MIDP 2.0 / CLDC 1.1
• Advanced Multimedia Supplements
• Bluetooth API
• File Connection and PIM API
• JTWI clarifications
• MMAPI
• Mobile 3D Graphics API
• Mobile Internationalization API
• Scalable 2D Vector Graphics API
• WMA 2.0, 1.0
• Web Services Specification
• Contactless Communication API

…a pretty good list of supported APIs, and support for WAP 2.0
.

It's primary display has a resolution of 240 x 320 with a color depth of 24 bits, and a secondary display with a resolution of 128 x 160 with a color depth of 18 bits. The handset's display is crisp; very clear.

Memory storage holds 11 MB, with JAR files up to 1MB. It has a Micro SD slot.

Connectivity-wise the handset supports EGPRS, GPRS, HSCSD, CSD (GSM 850 900, 1800, 1900), Bluetooth, Infrared, USB, and well as NFC.

The handset supports the following video formats: 3GPP formats (H.263), H.264/AVC, MPEG-4. The following audio formats are supported: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, WMA, Mobile XMF, SP-MIDI, AMR (NB-AMR), MIDI Tones (poly 64), True tones (WB-AMR), and it comes with an AAC/MP3 player and FM radio.

But the real treat for me is its support for NFC, or Near Field Communication, which I believe will totally take off, and will be pervasive on all handsets, as pervasive as Bluetooth is today; but we are a couple of years away from the “NFC sweet spot”. But to get there, we must start today. The Nokia 6131 NFC SDK 1.0 is available from Forum Nokia. The Forum Nokia Wiki has a Nokia 6131 NFC FAQ and other very good information.

Of interest is the handset's support for the Contactless Communication API (JSR-257), which is the enabler for NFC “smartcard” I/O from Java; exciting - more on this later on…

The 6131 NFC SDK

Overall, I like the handset; its form factor, weight, its crisp display, and its overall features, oh and of course, its support for NFC… And Nokia has done a good job with documentation, resources and tools.

ceo

Gaming, on-line gaming, seamless voice, push-to-talk, VoIP, video sharing and streaming, entertainment, access to work, email, music, IM, payments, SMS, mobile web, etc, etc, etc. The All-in-One handset.

BussinessWeek reports that DoCoMo is betting on the All-in-One Gizmo. Mike Elgan from The Raw Feed writes Why the BlackBerry Pearl Is the Future of Phones.

While handset convergence is the way of the future, I still feel that power-users, such as power-gamers, or power-music-listeners, and so on will rely on specialized handsets for such. Functionality convergence I see it to be more about “casual usage convenience”, meaning that successful converged handsets is about being “good enough” on many aspects, but not terribly good on a given one, well, except for voice, and data. The other factor is that not everyone (if you are reading this blog, you probably are the “exception”) cares about a heavily converged device; this of course varies with the region/country. That said, it would be awesome to have an All-in-One handset; I want one…

What do you think?

ceo

Sony's specialized messaging handset, the Mylo gadget, is a small, Wi-Fi enabled handset that provides a Web browser, messaging, phone and digital music player.

See more at Sony's Mylo site. Also see Engadget's review, and Gizmodo's video at YouTube.

Seems like a pretty neat device - all it needs is 3G connectivity.

ceo

OMG, you guys have to read Joel's review of Sprint's LG Fusic handset. Joel cracks me up!
A good, honest review. The following is just one of the examples of the handset's poor UI design/experience that he brings up:

“The first thing you see when you click on the Menu button is that you missed some alerts… Although, it turns out, you didn’t, that's just the name of the menu item that comes up first.

Not all Sprint phones are as bad as the one that Joel reviewed. I participated on Sprint's last round of the Ambassador program, and the phone that they sent me, the Samsung A920 was pretty neat…

ceo

Keeping your handset firmware (the software embedded in hardware) up-to-date is an important thing to do. Why? Because software is constantly being updated with enhancements and/or bug fixes. If you have one of the more recent S60 Nokia handsets, go checkout the Nokia UK phone software update page. There are two methods to update your phone's firmware: over-the-air, and PC/cable. Over-the-air support is not there for all phones, and more phones will be added to the update list later in the year. For PC/cable installation, after selecting your model, a Windows-only executable file (NokiaSoftwareUpdaterSetup.exe) is downloaded to your PC. Follow the instructions. You should check for updates often, perhaps every three months (Nokia recommends every month). 

I updated the firmware for my (new unlocked) 6680. The process was painless and took like 10-15 minutes. I have noticed though that the handset behaves slower after the update, something that I'm trying to figure out why…

ceo

A very useful
Nokia handset comparison page…

The Sony Ericsson P990i PDA phone - what a neat handset:
UMTS, Symbian OS 9.1 underneath, MIDP 2.0, double camera for video calls, touchscreen, and a keyboard, Bluetooth, 802.11b, and many other features.

I really would like to own one.

But there is a problem with the SE 990i — it's price! With a price tag around $1,000, it is just too expensive - it is hard to justify such expense. Granted the P990i is a fine, advanced piece of hardware and software, but for that price I can buy a Nokia 6680 and an E61, both high-end handsets…

So from my perspective, the P990i will remain as it is, “there”, like a monolith, untouchable…

ceo

Click to see video clip (YouTube).

Samsung has released it's S310 handset, which was announced last January. The S310 uses a six-axis sensor that allows for the detection of spatial movement in 3 dimensions, including
movement speed.

As I wrote on my previous post Gyros on Mobile Handsets - A Very Powerful Tool, “with gyros embedded into handsets we are a step closer to the programmatic use of movement in space over time as a trigger, literally resulting in using new dimensions in our mobile applications - some uses include gestures, orientation-dependent UI, and presence…”

This is very cool - using the dimension of space, and movement for mobile applications - this is literally a new dimension of sensory input for mobile applications… Click on the link above and watch the video clip, then extrapolate from that… Pretty awesome…

ceo

Most of us were introduced to communications via science fiction TV programs and movies. Today communicators are part of our daily life. Still, the Sci-Fi definition for communicators tops web searches — if we do a web search for the word “communicator” we get:

That is the communicator that I remember when growing up — I love that show. The same web search also returns the following definitions:

The concept of communicator is so powerful that some companies even use the term on their products.

But their primary function, for both the Sci-Fi and today's communicators, remain the same - a tool that enables two (or more) parties to communicate over distances. One thing can be said though, that today's communicators have evolved in functionality to match and even surpass those imaginative communicators of Star Trek's year 2024.

Not only today's communicators enable parties to communicate over distances, but also over different “mediums” or multi-media — using voice, typography, static and dynamic visuals, and even (virtual) presence. Future communicators may cater our other senses through virtual touch (in some ways already here through the use of presence and even SMS) and even smell. Future communicators will be very good at translating other languages for us as well.

Let's enumerate some of the characteristics of today's communicators. As we can see, a lot of the functionality overlap across the categories defined below:

As previously mentioned, communicators have also evolved into a multi-function apparatus that in addition to its main role as a communication device, have also become an artifact for personal entertainment and information organizer. Will device convergence rule? I believe it will but there will be levels of convergence - there will be vertical functionality convergence, where handsets will be very good at a specific function, such as communication, or gaming, or as a domain-specific data terminal. These vertical devices will cater specific demographics. Cross-functional convergence will still exist, for example my communicator will play simple games and music, but won't be as good at it as the specialized gaming and media-specific devices. Cross-convergence more likely occur at communication (and social), and entertainment, but not everyone will care about such convergence, which is why the
separation is important, and levels of convergence be offered. On a similar perspective, read Christian Lindholm's New Mobility - My remote contribution to Les Blogs 2.0.

Example of handsets, communicators that today offer most of the features enumerated above are the two handsets pictured above, the Nokia 6680, and the Motorola RAZR V3x.
We should expect such features on most future handsets.

ceo

This piece was originally posted on June 6, 2005, but was lost when my previous weblog crashed… This is a modified version of the original post.

RCR Wireless News' Mike Dano reported that Motorola kicked some ass in the U.S. in the third quarter (with 36% of the U.S. mobile-phone market), with Nokia in 4th place — apparently thanks to “strong interest in its Razr and iTunes-capable phones.” You can read the news here.

ceo

The N92, wow, what a sweet handset… While I don't care much for the TV-specific features, the rest of its features are great! (Source S60.com, and the N92 website):

• 2.8″ screen supporting 16 million colors
• High Quality stereo sound
• 2 mega-pixel main camera with LED flash, up to 4x digital zoom
• A second integrated VGA camera for video calls!
• 90 MB internal memory and supports up to 2 GB memory card
• Tri-band GSM/WCDMA phone with 3G and video call functionalities
• Bluetooth, Infrared, WLAN and USB 2.0 enabled
• Build in-built MP3 music player and FM radio

Plus the TV-specific features:

• Mobile TV smartphone with integrated Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld DVB-H antenna
• Dedicated media keys for easy navigation and control of the TV: optimized Mobile TV experience

You can see video of the N92 in action at I4U.

Slated for mid-2006, please release this one here in the U.S. This is exactly what I am looking for!!!!

ceo