Category: Technology

Innovative idea in New York – taxi cab drivers are going to help map out all the dark spots in New York where your mobile may go out of coverage. Ericsson are organising everything and once mapped out, they’ll look to fix the problems. Its not so much that you go out of coverage or range of a relay tower, but that because of the soaring height of the buildings you may not be able to get a mobile signal. What I would like to see is an online production of this ‘map’ once it is finished, updated accordingly as Ericsson fix the transmission issues.

Nice to be able to check before you leave the house whether you’re going to be able to make a phone call when you need to.

I’m heading away today for the Christmas, no internet connection until the 29th so there’ll be no blog activity. There’s a few posts racked up on my personal blog, kenmc.com, if you’re interested!

Thanks for reading so far and helping to make the blog what it is, Happy Christmas to you and yours and have a great holiday season!

Ok, to start this little ’10 things’ series off, I’ve got ’10 great albums from 2006′. Now, there’s one or two that might actually be on the list from 2005 but I’ve played to death having discovered during 2006 (such as ‘Waltzing Alone’). I’ve included links where possible (non affiliate links) to buy the CDs.

1. The Guggenheim Grotto – Waltzing Alone (2005)
2. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome (Seger Sessions)
3. Tool – 10000 Days
4. Steel Pulse – Living Legacy (1999)
5. Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill Acoustic
6. Sia – Colour The Small One (2004)
7. Zero 7 – The Garden
8. Rodrigo y Gabriela (Self titled)
9. System Of A Down – Hypnotise (2005)
10. Matisyahu – Youth

If anything, support an Irish act and get out and buy yourself a copy of ‘Waltzing Alone’ by The Guggenheim Grotto. I had the pleasure of seeing them twice this year through appearances with KilkennyMusic.com earlier in 2006 (May and August) and the lads are just after launching their album over in the US through UFO Records. If you’re interested, you’ll also catch a track from them on the first Sound System Podcast or you can download their debut EP (‘A Lifetime In Heat’) from their site.

First we had 088, then 087 (Vodafone), 086 (O2), 085 (Meteor) and 083 (Three) – this coming summer, we’ll be introduced to 089 thanks to Tesco Mobile which will launch in 2007, backed by O2.

The service, according to news reports, will initially launch as a pre-pay option, introducing post-pay options before the end of 2007. Given the sheer number of Tesco stores in Ireland, coupled with the company’s reputation for being able to introduce serious competition and lower prices across the board, Tesco’s mobile introduction should make for an interesting shakeup to the Irish mobile market.

Tesco already have a similar structure in place in the UK where they’ve already gained more than 1,000,000 customers.

Looking snazzy… Its the Motorola Ireland launch site for the new MOTOKRZR K1 model. Linking out to Meteor, Vodafone and O2, the site is flash-packed with everything on the phone. Even from a design point of view the site would have you seriously thinking about the phone. I’m quite happy with my K800i though 🙂

Once piece of advice to get people reading your blog has always been (at least I’ve found anyway) to write good “How To” articles – help people to help themselves, give some solid advice and information etc. etc.

With Zeitgeist announced (Google’s top searches for 2006), here’s the top ten “How To” searches, if you’re thinking on blogging a few “How To” articles then it might give you a little idea on what to aim for…

1. how to refinance
2. wiki how to
3. how to drift
4. how to podcast
5. how to scream
6. how to levitate
7. how to tattoo
8. how to blog
9. how to kickflip
10. how to draw

Interesting that more people want to learn how to float or start tattooing as opposed to blogging 🙂

Vodafone have agreed to sell their 25% stake in leading Swiss mobile network, Swisscom, for around EUR2.6bn, giving Swisscom 100% ownership of the company with the Swiss mobile giant already owning 75%. Quoting an “attractive” price, Arun Sarin (Vodafone’s CEO) said “We do not see ourselves as the most appropriate holder of this minority stake in the longer-term”.

More from RTE.

If Apple do actually decide to release a mobile phone, you can count on it now that the handset at least won’t be called the iPhone as Cisco have just released their ‘iPhone’ – apparently owning the trademark on the name since the mid 90s. The handset itself is a VOIP handset which will run Linksys. Why couldn’t anyone have figured that out earlier?

So what are we looking at now? The iTalk? iVoice? Apple Mobile? Stuff.tv has a nice article on it, but there’s going to be a whole host of people disappointed this Christmas!

One great mobile company, one decent mobile company (with strengths in many other areas), Nokia and Siemens were due to follow the path set by Sony Ericsson in previous years and merge into ‘Nokia Siemens Networks’ in the new year but now, according to the New York Times, its not going to be the case.

Reason being is that Nokia are waiting to see the result of the ongoing bribery scandal at Siemens.

From the NY Times

In light of the current investigations of Siemens, the scope of which includes the carrier-related business to be transferred to the new company, Nokia and Siemens intend to adjust their agreements in order to have Siemens conduct an appropriate compliance review prior to closing of the transaction,” the company said in a statement. “This adjustment is an addition to the previously agreed closing conditions. Nokia will participate actively in the review.

It is the mobile divisions of each company that are to be merged and, all things going to plan, Nokia hope to have the deal finalised by March 2007.

Lets face it, the VCR is dead. Forget your bulky video tapes, we’re all heading towards mobile media, iPod video, blue ray DVD and all the rest.

This article though is a gem – turning a VCR into a media PC case. In recent times I know my own house has been gathering old video recorders and while I’ve been thinking of adding a HTPC setup to the living room and kitchen, I certainly wouldn’t mind tackling something like this.

Smartphone users with handsets driven by Windows Mobile are in for a treat, Skype having released a beta of version 2.2 of the VOIP app. Until recently, Windows Mobile support was only available as a Pocket PC option. Now, having used Skype on my iPAQ 6515w I can say I’m impressed. Worked well off the wi-fi connection and the response time was relatively quickly. With over 5 million downloads of the Pocket PC version, its about time that the Smartphone option started getting more attention.

• ONLamp.com — Rolling with Ruby on Rails
  Introduction to Ruby on Rails (which I’ve been introduced to over the last day or so), a basic guide behind it, introduction to installation, running locally, developing first application etc.
  (tags: ruby rails rubyonrails)

O2 are going musical for the festive season, having announced Napster Mobile’s availability on the network in conjunction with Ericsson. Mobile users will be able to “search, browse, preview and purchase full-length songs from Napster’s immense catalog and enjoy Ericsson-aggregated personalization content via their i-mode, WAP and Java-enabled wireless handsets”.

Given that one third of children share music on mobile phones I guess they’ve (the kids) got something to look forward to now. No mention though on what the copy protection elements (if any) would be for Napster’s downloads.

Have people simply downloaded too much music? Figures released today might just indicate that (or at least its one possible suggestion) as Reuters reports that Apple’s monthly iTunes revenue dropped by 65% overall since January of this year. Interestingly enough, digital music purchases accounted for only 4% of music transactions in the US for the year. Given that Apple have shipped out over 1.5bn tracks since launching their iTunes stores as well as being the leader in terms of web music sales, that still leaves a whole lot of people who’ll be getting CDs for Christmas.

Wouldn’t mind seeing figures for Irish digital music downloads, especially now that O2 are launching Napster Mobile.

Though in fairness, I do love getting a CD for Christmas 🙂

Mark Walsh writes for Online Media Daily that cost is the biggest barrier to mobile web – I’d have to agree with them on that one. If in terms of mobile phone usage I could count the amount of times on one hand that I used my mobile for web and rss access while away recently in Canada and I can tell you that the figures on the phone bill aren’t coming in singles – O2 nicely roasting me in the run up to Christmas, cheers.

Of course, my gripe there is with roaming charges. When it comes to accessing anything subscription based like ringtones, video etc. I’ll find them online myself, upload them to me own server and have them accessible to the mobile should I need them on the move – or better still, just download them straight to the phone via the bluetooth dongle or data cable. But thats just me and I can tell you now that majority of people with mobile phones wouldn’t have a clue what about anything I just mentioned.

I am, therefore, avoiding the costs.

The biggest complaint of 38.5% of mobile consumers was that data services are “too expensive.”

Data services in general in the Irish market are too high. GPRS charges are extortionate, as are 3G rates, monthly subscriptions and more. One way to alleviate this, as is currently being done in the UK and US is to attach adverts to data services, such as video subscriptions. Hell, I don’t mind sitting through a 15-30 second ad on my phone if its going to cut a huge chunk of my charges. Other people however, don’t see it like that.

…consumers were asked to indicate how willing they would be to accept three ads a day in return for half-priced data services or content. Rating on a scale from one (very willing) to seven (very unwilling), the average was 2.45. Only 6% of respondents said they were “very willing” to accept advertising in return for lower service costs. About 16% indicated at least some openness to advertising.

Of course, we get pummeled with ads on the TV but it does nothing about the ever-rising TV license fees. Still, if you were a heavy user of mobile web services and data services, would you not be willing to accept a short ad in exchange for a nice reduction on your monthly charges?

Fair play to O2 for bringing in flat-rate GPRS charges but I think its too little too late for some of the bigger roamers and subscribers in the country…

BT look like they’re ready to re-enter the mobile market in the UK, so does that mean we’ll see a return of Esat, or Esat-BT in Ireland to the mobile market? Eircom flogged Eircell to Vodafone a few years back and got back in the game with taking over Meteor, while BT flogged its then network to MMO2, now O2 in the Irish market.

Of course, they’ll still have to win the license bid…

I’m in the market for a second hand piano, or to pick myself up something nice software-wise like a copy of Aperture or an Mbox 2 with Pro Tools. Mind you, having just gotten back from Toronto I’ve got to behave for a while and pay the bills off. I do, however, also like to buy myself something around Christmas to mark the end of the year, however big or small.

So what do bloggers want for Christmas in this country eh?

Thought that was an interesting statistic to open up the morning RSS trawl, with Cellular News reporting that almost one third of kids share music on mobile phones. Gone are the days in 99/2000 when your Nokia 3210 was the absolute business. Its worrying for those in the music industry I guess but I’m still impressed (given the age group was 8-13 year olds) with the use of the technology.

The research, carried out by New Age Media magazine and Intuitive Media (see comments below) also revealed

…a unique new insight into the increasingly important kids mobile market. With 72% of 6-13 year olds now owning their own phone and 26% spending at least £1 or more on content a week, mobile content providers, network operators and media companies can no longer afford to ignore mobile for this demographic.

Intel have completed and unveiled their first WIMAX chipset out in Hong Kong at the 3G World Congress and Mobility Marketplace.

The firm is to bundle the chip with its multi-band WiMAX/Wi-Fi radio chip to create a chipset it calls the Intel WiMAX Connection 2300. The design brings Intel a step closer to its aim of a integrated wireless system-on-chip that it believes will help drive WiMAX adoption.

Good news for mobile internet users!

Does anyone else have this problem –

You’re sitting by your desk, mobile to one side of the keyboard, optical USB mouse (not wireless) to the other side of the keyboard. The buzzing sound on your clock radio tells you that you’ve got a text message coming through then your mouse hangs. Patiently it waits until the text message is delivered to your mobile, then it resumes its normal service.

The mouse might either

• run up the screen of its own accord or
• stop working entirely, freezing on the screen, disconnecting and reconnecting itself when the sms has passed

Bar changing my mouse (which I actually like, its a nice Microsoft one that came with the natural keyboard), or moving the phone away (normally I’d have it connected to the PC for syncing if I’m home), can anyone suggest a workable solution, or have you even come across it in reality?