Phones

A week of Blackberry Bliss. After ditching my 6700 on Sprint for a Blackberry 8700c on Cingular, things have gotten much smoother in terms of my information flow. The biggest issue with the 6700 is that while I loved the device (mostly), I could never fully invest myself in the device because I was always operating in a Chinese-water-torture state of fear about the battery. It’s like living under the spectre of nuclear war, except not as melodramatic. I was often thinking, “I shouldn’t be using the EVDO radio so much!” or “people, please stop e-mailing me, my battery!”

In an effort to join the 21st Century, we now have a phone number for folks to call in and leave their ramblings and other such nonsense. It is available via Skype, an application that lets you contact other Skype members for free anywhere in the world or even make outbound phone calls from your computer at an extremely competitive rate.

Skype reports to have achieved the 100 million user milestone. Congratulations! Assuming that this will translate into about 100million USD revenue the math is that per "free" user they make in average 1 USD revenue with their paid services such as Skype In/OUT, server located voice mail and now ring tones. The ring tone service could of course increase the ARPU.

Today people have telephones, cell phones, email, instant messenger, web sites and e-commerce. These activities leave a digital trail, not just of phone numbers, but the contents of communications, what we buy, what we read, even our physical location is revealed by cell phone records.

I don’t know if I ever plugged Grayson’s Georgia Political Digest column or not, so I’m going to knock out two birds with one stone here. First, read the aforementioned column from Grayson about the telecos that picks up where my Bellsouth column left off. She did some actual journal-ma-lism and got quotes.

So then Van calls while I was producing Snarfcast number 5, says he’s downtown with his PSP. We took forever establishing a non-working Burnout challenge…but we chilled at the mall and shit. I bought 50 blank dvds for 14.99 and came home to create show notes for the podcast to end all podcasts. That’s right, I got a badass program called Gizmo that allows free VOiP calls to be recorded. Expect myself and a co-host to test the waters on the new Snarfcast.

We’re not the only people trying to rid ourselves of the local telephone company. For a very brief time we were going to go down to them just forwarding our existing telephone number to our Vonage VoIP lines but when Comcast couldn’t come through at our physical location then we were back to the local telco. You know how much they wanted to charge just to forward our existing main phone number to our VoIP lines? $18 + $4 tax. 22 bones for a computerized redirect. What a scam. Oh, and it took them three business days to do this. Three business days?

My Vonage equipment arrived (as expected) yesterday evening…nice and speedy shipping is always a plus. Total setup time was less than 10 minutes; the phone automatically configured itself (and even includes an extra ethernet port, which is nice as I’m running out of sockets) and was usable immediately. Everything about the phone and service is completely configurable via the Vonage website (such as setting up voicemail, data speed, etc). The coolest feature IMO is that I can check my voicemail from any web browser without even having to call in! Call quality is crystal clear, and something else I didn’t realize is that I can take the phone/hub with me anywhere…if there’s an internet connection I just plug it in and blammo, I’m good to go.

Why should the large telecommunications companies like the Time Warner Syndicate, Cox Communications, and Verizon determine what I can and cannot do with my Internet connection? The Internet is the greatest engine of free speach and free enterprise ever created. It is the greatest forum for democratic ideals ever made. Everyone has a voice on the Internet and everyone can do with it what they wish. But, by voting against the protection of the neutrality of the Internet the US Congress could be irrepribly harming all of that. Think about it, if and when this is passed by the full Congress, your cable modem provider could block VOIP traffic from every company except their own…so no more Vonage. They could block scheduling packets from TiVo in order to force you to use their own DVR systems.

What's remarkable about this result is the shift that occurred on Capitol Hill in the week prior to the vote. An unlikely coalition of political activists from the right and left, consumer groups, bloggers and Internet gurus banded together at SavetheInternet.com and sent more than 250,000 letters to Congress. This sparked an Internet revolt among bloggers who heaped scorn upon any member of the House who dared side with companies like AT&T and Verizon, which are spending millions of dollars in Washington to dismantle the rules that would stop their plans to control Internet content.

In conjunction with Earth Day (April 22nd), several companies are partaking in recycling programs. Cingular Wireless is asking consumers to donate old cell phones, phone equipment, and batteries at four Cingular Wireless locations this weekend only, April 21, 22 and 23 during business hours:

This is the second Motorola phone I’ve had that has gone bad in less than a year…the 2 Nokias I had prior lasted over 2 years each. Thankfully I have a backup cell I can use (just swap out the SIM card and I’m up and running…one of the few things Cingular has going for their service), but it’s still a total PITA.

I'm currently on hold with BellSouth "customer service." Bob says that he can't remove the forwards that are coming to my phone. He thinks my only option is to change my phone number, forcing me to tell everyone who HAS my phone number that it has changed.

I finally got BBReply properly installed on my BlackBerry 8700g. The trick is to do a full reboot in order to activate BBReply.

One final gem: “It also discusses the possibility of the iPod getting VoIP functionality and what the implications would be.” Yeow. Really, though, if the the iPhone is such a certainty and is “imminent”, why bother putting VoIP in the iPod? Seems pretty counter-intuitive. Or even more so than having VoIP in an iPod at all.

Since I wrote my previous article there have been some significant developments in the Verizon file transfer saga. It now appears that my initial report is wrong. Motorola Phone Tools and OBEX are not working for everyone. If your phone had the previous .02 firmware, the firmware which Verizon accidentally left OBEX on, and you upgrade to .04, you will retain Phone Tools transfer and OBEX. However, if you upgrade from .03, the firmware which Verizon stripped the OBEX code, you will not have file transfer capabilities.

Direct push e-mail is now available for Treo 700w users--the MSFP has been released! w00t!

The picture is of the Linksys Phone Adapter which is what we use to make our VOIP work. It is a mysterious little box that you just plug your DSL connection into along with your phone line and it all just works. In case you were wondering, the sound quality is very good. Neither Carol nor I can tell the difference from a regular phone. If you were thinking about going VOIP don’t hesitate. I think it really has arrived.

When you are away from your PC and there is no one to answer your incoming Skype calls, SAM will pick up the call, play a greeting message and the "all-time classic beep" so that the calling party will leave a voice recorded message.

Recently I purchased a new cell phone, the Cingular 2125 (yes, you should have gotten my new number …). This is the first “advanced” or “smartphone” I have purchased, and so far, I’m mostly impressed. The feature set is pretty extensive, it’s quite stable, the reception and call quality is absolutely stellar, and with the exception of the fact that it runs Windows and that there is no Wi-Fi, I couldn’t be happier with it. As with any new piece of technology I purchase, I like to push it to the edge, unlock every feature and build everything from the ground up. Nowhere on the web seemed to get it right with the Cingular 2125, so I thought I’d chronicle the adventure that was hacking this phone.

Via Maker Blog, I liked this backpack mobile mesh wifi set up.

Although my phone has died on me and the first tests showing (or proving) that it won’t work on anything other that Sony Ericsson phones, tomorrow will see the first dry run of Toupix at a ‘real’ event.

I’ve stopped being a Nokia fan when I started using Sony Ericsson phones. Having now tried the N80, Nokia is starting to reel me back in. The N80 shares the same sliding design of Nokia’s first Series 60 phone, the 7650. I’ve never been really a fan of the slider since it’s a bit cumbersome to text with but with the N80 I’m willing to let it slide. The demo unit I have is black but I’ve heard that it might also come in silver.

It is extremely unclear to me what Sonorit were doing and why it should be considered to be worth $27Million - a sum which appears to be something along the lines of $1M per employee (plus or minus a bit) - although it is clear from the vague hints found elsewhere on the Internet that Sonorit/Camino were already involved with Skype and had something to do with enhancing VOIP quality - hence the lawsuit from GIPS which does much the same.

How can a company be this bad when it comes to handling an acquisition? I’ve been an AT&T Wireless subscriber for a while with my Audiovox SMT5600 smartphone. The phone is starting to die, so I wanted to upgrade to the new Cingular 2125 (aka HTC Faraday). Well Cingular bought AT&T Wireless and promptly swapped all my billing and account info. Fine.

But I'll add this: any such system requires ubiquity, and one could never expect companies to come crawling and drop their existing identity infrastructure. Microsoft tried this and failed miserably, because it's not the companies who want Single Sign-On, it's the customers. To create the network effects necessary for success, the system would need to import and export trust relationships from a variety of other systems. Make it easy for the customer to synchronize and segment their cell phone directory, IM buddies on multiple networks, blogrolls, MySpace friends, corporate address book, blog comment white-lists, little black books, etc.).

Paramedics in Ottawa have recently urged the public to try a different way of storing their emergency phone numbers in their cell phones. What you would do is create a new contact entry in your cell phone directory called ‘ICE’ which stands for in-case-of-emergency. Apparently this idea came from a thoughtful British paramedic who was involved with treating casualties during the subway bombings last summer in London, England.

My family and I finally did it. We’re on Cingular now. It blows my mind that I can answer calls at work and my apartment! I’m so used to running to the hall or standing in my “spot” to answer calls.

Mark Del Bianco has this very interesting (and technical) commentary at news.com about the AT&T-Bell South merger (via What About Clients?). Del Bianco argues that the conventional wisdom that the AT&T-Bell South deal is a “done deal” is incorrect.

I can’t decide if I’m enjoying the ride or teetering on the edge of hysteria. The secret that no one ever told me about moving into a management position is that there’s not much difference between the two. If I start wearing a Blackberry and using words like synergy, please smack me upside the head.

In the announced deal, ABC shows like “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” will be offered on abc.com for consumption while SoapNet’s as-yet-to-be-named programming will be available only to Verizon DSL customers. This is only guaranteed for two months - May and June - the “trial” period. However, if everything succeeds as I expect it to - this service will not only continue but will be matched by NBC, CBS, and FOX. Nothing could be better for the viewing public in my opinion.

Google also recently added support for the BlackBerry through a special downloadable version of Google Talk designed for the handheld device.

Email flies, IM works as in the office, conference calling with Skype just works. Better, a tried a videoconf with one of my friend in France and it went pretty sleek. Can’t complain. I wish I had a decent video recording capabilities on my phone to prove that to you.

Merrill Lynch has carried out another of its interesting shop visits, taking in 80 stores in 4 USA regions. Following their store visits, they are maintaining their own estimates for handset sales, which do tend to be about 10% above industry expectations. Both Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel are expected to add 1.6 million customers each in Q1, with Cingular picking up 1.2 million and T-Mobile around 950,000 new customers.

Nokia phones are going to use a heat disassembly process that allows them to be broken down into their constituent materials, which can then be separately recycled. It’s not quite unmanufacturing, but it’s the first thing I’ve heard about a step in the right direction.

Vonage ran a test. It seems the ISP was blocking the cable modem when the Vonage adapter went into use. I ran a test of my own. I ran pingplotter for 10 minutes: no blockage, then I picked up my Vonage phone and placed a call: immediately there was a 100% blockage on the cable modem. This was a continuous loss as long as the phone was used.

I got my new phone on Tuesday. It's a Verizon Wireless LG VX5200.

This message was sent using PIX-FLIX Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

While it may seem WiFi hot spots are ubiquitous, especially here in Northern Virginia, it’s actually not the case. Many are located in hotels, which means they are essentially inaccessible. Starbucks stores are located on seemingly every corner, and you can sign up for T-Mobile’s service. At $40 a month (if you forego signing the contract), it’s cheaper than most data plans. It’s also good at Border’s book stores. Oddly enough, if you go to a Starbucks in a Barnes and Noble, you can use T-Mobile, while B&N is pushing Cometa - or is it SBC nowadays? If you go to Tysons Corner, it’s Sprint PCS. Hardly efficient.

He looked at Qwest’s peering points to get an idea of how much P2P traffic is on its networks. And, while he admits that it’s not an exact measurement of the P2P traffic load, he says the fears of network congestion are a little overblown.

Luckily for people with this problem, Nokia has just released the accessory that is the messaging solution. The SU-8W Wireless Keyboard allows users of Nokia phones, specific models will be listed below, to type in messages through their phone anywhere! We all know how keyboards work, so there is no reason to go into more specifics on how it works. The interesting thing to note, however, is the wireless feature that allows users to type from wherever they want. Most computer keyboard users still use wired keyboards, so this added feature is a great bonus for everyone.

So, while Lisa and I were in Ballarat this morning (shopping for some clothes for Adelaide while she was at kinder) we dropped into a Telstra shop and I got a new handset. For as long as I can remember (12 years as best I can recall) I’ve bought Nokia phones, but not any more. The last few have been plasticy and had a few disturbing software bugs. So this time I bought a Motorola — specifically, a Motorola SLVR.

Anyway, I didn’t take my laptop. The cell phones didn’t work in Death Valley, and there were no Internet cafes. Yeah, it is nice to totally unplug for a while, to not be a slave to the e-mail monster for at least a brief period, and to be blindly ignorant to news headlines (by resisting the temptation to glance at newspaper headlines in the gift shops). But the price paid upon plugging back in is awful. I’ve spend a big chunk of today slogging through my inbox, and I’m not even close to reading everything (or deleting it) and dealing with the important stuff.

2 - Phone Service - Dropped MCI Neghborhood and switched over to Optimum Voice. Yes, I know we’re late to the party. Now I can kiss my $70 MCI bill goodbye and pay only $29.95 for Optimum Voice. Plus it’s one less bill to pay. The install was last week and for the few times I’ve used it, its sounded fine. If you’re still paying for a regular landline, I’d say it’s safe to go VoIP now.

What did people used to do to pass the time at work when there was no internet?! Oh right, they actually got their work done! So my latest client does not have internet access for us. I feel like I am in the stone age. Haha. It really isn’t so bad, but I don’t think I am any more productive than when we did have internet access. I think I end up spending the extra time thinking about what might have possibly hopped into my Inbox while I was at work. And when we contact people that we need to reach immediately, we actually have to use *gasp* our phones! We use our cell phones though because there isn’t a land line in our room. Luckily, I get in touch with the present when I am back in the hotel room. Free wireless internet - huzzah!