May 31, 2006 | blog
A post by Mathew Ingram and one by Mike Urlocker on the recent Vonage IPO really sum up my point on VoIP. Voice is truely free. No longer is it a money-making commodity. Voice service is like the free toaster you get when opening an account at a bank. You know, functional, easy to use, simple, free, and occasionally not worth what you paid for it.
Yes I know that you are really paying for it in some form, you still are paying for the bits traveling down your broadband connection. But if you use one of the VoIP services like Skype you can simply get rid of a $40/mo. bill by getting rid of your POTS line.
Of course many people simply give up on a home phone and go with one or more mobile phones, and I must say good for you on that decision. The traditional concept that Voice service is something of value is changing. While there are still millions of land lines, they are definitely on the downward slope.
The reality for any communications provider is that they need to understand what their real value to the market is. Its quite simple really – a big fat data pipe. Whether wired or wireless, the simple fact is that all communications services most consumers need are all IP based. Simply sell a data pipe of varying sizes, offer premium services that have SLAs attached to them – people will pay for a line that have some kind of guaranteed uptime. Increase the uplink speeds, and remove any limitations on consumer server hosting.
Hey, many of us have terabytes of personal data that we stream to ourselves as we travel around the world – make it easier for everyone to do this.
Yeah, I’ve gotten off-track again, but the point is that the market is radically shifted in the last several years and voice service is just one of many components to make up communications in the 21st century.
Update: Here is a nice post at TechDirt Wireless that talks about VoIP being more than cheap voice service. I couldn’t agree more, though I ranted mostly on the cost aspect – the real benefit is using voice service in new and interesting ways. Check out what Mike Masnick has to say on the topic.
Technorati tags: skype, voice-communications, voip, vonage-ipo
May 31, 2006 | blog
This is my first review of a BlackBerry device, I may complete some additional reviews of similar devices (8700c, 7105t, and a 7130e) as time permits. Just to keep it honest, I should point out right now that I’m primarily fond of Microsoft devices (I own & use a T-Mobile MDA), but I have approached these reviews with an open mind. So, what makes an ‘evil’ Microsoft supporter want to review BlackBerry devices? My job – well that’s part of it, actually I had started to become interested in BlackBerry a little bit during the lawsuit last year and found that the devices had outgrown my original perception of an overgrown pager, by quite a bit.
So with a 8700c available for testing, why did I start a review on the 7250? Don’t know – guess I wanted to try the Sprint EVDO network out, I have EDGE with T-Mobile so the EDGE network on Cingular is nothing new.
With the latest crop of BlackBerry’s, the high-speed wireless connections are there, powerful Intel XScale processors, more memory, a great display, and 3rd part application support. These devices are starting to compete directly with Palm and Windows Mobile in the core PDA areas, in addition to industry leading mobile email support. So without further delay, here we go.
First Glance
The Sprint BlackBerrry 7250 is quite large, and I find it odd that I would say that. Until last year, Pocket PC Phone devices were also quite large and unwieldy. The newer 8700 series trims down a bit, but is still ‘large’. Getting past the size, and working with the device itself is quite fun. My initial experience indicated to me that the device would be well-suited for executives. Also, people with little time to learn something new, or do not have an interest in learning a complicated device would feel comfortable with the blackberry fairly quickly.
From a technologist’s point of view, the device lacks many of the high-end ‘power user’ features that I’m used to on the Pocket PC. The Smartphone version of Windows Mobile also gives me this impression – it was built with a focus on the end-user and not on being a flexible device. However, having a large amount of flexibility does not make an easy-to-use device – it does quite the opposite.
Overall, I was really impressed with the ease in which I could pick up the device and start using it.
Spec Sheet
With the exception of WiFi, the 7250 seems to have everything a mobile pro may need.
* Email
* Phone and SMS
* 4.5 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches
* 4.9 oz.
* Backlit 33-key QWERTY keyboard
* Thumb-operated track wheel and ESC key
* 3.3 hour talk time
* 8 day standby time
* 32MB ROM
* 4MB RAM
* Embedded RIM Wireless Modem
* Up to 10 external email address
* Dual Band 800/1900 CDMA2000, 1xRTT, EVDO
* Bluetooth
* Vibrate
The only thing that is really missing here is a speakerphone. Its been added to the newer devices, so I’ll have to save my thoughts on that for another time.
Thumbwheel
Now I get it! Where has this been all my Pocket PC life? Ok, note to HTC – start building these things in all future Pocket PCs and Smartphones! Note to Microsoft – redesign the Windows Mobile interface to better support the wheel.
Performance
The 7250 is an older device, and compared to the newer 87xx series devices, the performance lags somewhat – nowhere near the sluggishness of my MDA though. There is little to talk about on performance from my perspective – it kept up with what I was doing, and the only times I really had to wait was during the Enterprise Activation where some of the initial data transfers seemed to ‘bog down’ the device for about 15 seconds – but that was only during the activation phase. I had not seen that issue when browsing or using the built-in applications.
Battery
The battery life on the 7250 is quite good. Coming from the Pocket PC world, I’m used to shorter run times – heck, on my MDA I usually charge every night! The 7250 lasted several days, I lost count but it was over 4 days. Granted, I didn’t use the phone much, but it seemed like I was constantly working mail (of course – this is a BlackBerry after all), and online doing some admin work here on the blog. Most impressive!
Display
The display on the 7250 is a sore spot for me. I’ve been used to at least QVGA screens on all my Pocket PCs, and the last few phones I’ve had have all had extremely bright, brilliant displays of full rich color. The 7250 in comparison is dull and flat. It is however, readable – and for a business device that is first and foremost an email delivery device, it worked well. Still, the new 87xx series devices have a full rich QVGA display (in landscape!) that really helps to draw you in. If I had to get a BB, it’d be an 8700 on the display quality alone.
EMail
The BlackBerry is a good email device. Guess that is a given with the reputation they have, huh? What I do want to point out is that it is not really the best that I’ve seen. Neither is anything that you can run on the Palm or Windows Mobile devices – we all may have our favorites of one kind or another, but in short, email nirvana is not here. I was expecting the ability to read HTML mail as well as text, though the default email client on Pocket PC has the same problem though so I shouldn’t complain too much. Oh heck, I will complain – if BBs are the gold standard for mobile email, then I would expect to have the ability to read HTML mail. Most frustrating on that front, many emails now come in HTML and it looses something if its not rendered correctly. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, the PPC actually butchers HTML mail, where the BB you can at least read the text.
In addition to its good push-mail features, the device can handle up to 10 external email accounts of POP & IMAP varieties. So if you have a few additional email accounts out there, you can get them delivered (via a pull), to your handheld as well.
Network
Sprint’s 1XRTT and EVDO network is quite impressive. The EVDO speeds really were much faster than the EDGE network that I use with my MDA, though it won’t get me to switch from Tmo. The coverage was much better than I expected, since I’ve read many reviews on Sprint’s network and the issues it has in coverage. From my week or so with the 7250 in Minneapolis, there are no coverage issues. Also, I brought the device up to our cabin north of Brainard, MN and still had excellent coverage, though with 1XRTT data only. Good work to Sprint on this one.
Overall I was delighted by the BlackBerry 7250 and Sprint’s EVDO network. While I would not purchase this device, it is not from anything I’ve written about here – its simply that I’m a Windows Mobile guy and don’t see anything on BlackBerry that is making me switch at this time.
May 30, 2006 | blog
It seems that Performancing has been having some difficulty the past few days. The details are a bit fuzzy, though it seems that their systems are receiving data, but are unable to keep up on processing it.
On Saturday, May 27th, Nick Wilson mentioned that they were working on the issue:
Just to let you know that we’re aware of the reported metrics problem and are on the case Please give us a little time to work out whats going on and how to sort it and I’ll post back here when we have any news.
It looks like the problem started around mid-day on Saturday, and has continued on for the past four days. Unfortunately, there is currently no way to view your metrics while the system is having issues.
I’ve been using the metrics for a few months now and view them as very accurate and have been helpful to me in understanding my traffic patterns. The loss of Performancing right now is only slight – I am mostly using it for my own curiosity, though I’m anxious to view my traffic for the last few days.
May 26, 2006 | blog
Last time I used w.bloggar was a few months ago, probably in January. I have been looking for a really good offline blogging tool. Something that allows me to create, save and store posts offline prior to publishing them on my blog. Of course, I don’t really want to spend any money on a tool so I’ve been searching and trying most of the freeware blogging tools.
I understand that there are several commercial tools that may fit the bill, but I’ve not researched all those yet. So I have gone back and taken another look at w.bloggar, a feature packed freeware blogging tool. To my surprise, it has been updated since I visted the site last. Some new features and support for MSN Spaces has been added. Anyway, this post is my first one written in the latest version of w.bloggar.
Since MS Word 2007 is supposed getting an injection of blog posting tools, we’ll see how the two stack up as Word matures from beta code to RTM. The one thing I think both of these tools are never going to support is a WordPress plugin I have installed on my blog that automatically inserts a Technorati tag into each post – all I have to do on the post editing page is to enter a few keywords. This means that I’ll have to visit my site after posting to add the Technorati tags. I’ll keep you posted as I discover the pros and cons of w.bloggar.
May 26, 2006 | blog
So I’ve been thinking about mobility for a little bit today – I’ve been trying a few neat things to connect up and get online. Nothing radical or new really, just using my MDA, some free WiFi hotspots and my laptop.
I really don’t get a chance to go mobile too often with my job. Since my job is rally contained within one building, I seldom travel for work. Yeah, the occasional conference, maybe visit a remote site from time to time, but nothing in my day to day routine. But that’s ok, the work is really rewarding and challenging. I can’t say that I don’t get my share of opportunities.
But to be mobile and have other external influences while blogging I think could be beneficial. Today I’m sitting on a lake near Turtle Lake, WI – a very beautiful spot at my wife’s grandmother’s place. The setting sun is shining in my eyes creating quite a glare, and I need to move back inside for now. You don’t get that problem in the office!
The range of technologies that are available to us is amazing. The fact that a vast majority of them are reasonably priced for our consumption makes finding viable connectivity options fairly – even in rural areas. Can you remember back even just 3 years ago – yes GPRS was in deployment, and CDMA2000 had decent speeds, WiFi was in the process of its fantastic growth, and laptops were already widespread. But it was a real novelty to get connected on the road, I remember connecting up while my wife was driving and managed to perform a speed test at 70mph – the connection speed was about 42kbps.
In comparison, today, we have vast stretches of the country covered by some kind of wireless carrier. The options abound and the solutions are fairly easy to use. There are two of each GPRS/EDGE and 1XRTT/EVDO networks in the U.S., and each of the carriers have a wide variety of unlimited data plans. Some even include extensive WiFi networks in addition to their high-speed cell networks.
And mobile access devices – you can buy a PCMCIA card for a laptop, you can tether a mobile phone to a laptop, or you could get some version of a smartphone. With devices like BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile (Pocket PC or Smartphone), Symbian, and Linux based solutions, there is likely something there for everyone.
So get out there everyone and blog, write, work, or simply converse when mobile. It’s a lot of fun, and is a great way to get yourself a fresh perspective. After all, there are thousands of great coffee shops with free WiFi and a great cup of coffee waiting for you.
