MobileViews Blog

Category: Mobile Devices

  • Gartner Says: More Macs, More by 2012

    Information Week quotes some Gartner predictions in the article…

    More Macs, More Mobile, More Open Source, Gartner Predicts

    They predict mobile workers will abandon the notebook form factor in favor of what they term new classes of Internet-centric pocketable devices at the sub-$400 level. Believe it or not, people have been making this prediction since the early 1980s with the introduction of the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100. I bought one around 1984. Since it was introduced a year earlier in 1983, it is a quarter century old this year! The Model 100 was a great ultraportable and had the best keyboard I’ve ever used on this class of device.

    The OLPC and the Asus Eee PC (no, I still haven’t bought one… Maybe I should create a tip jar so I can speed up that process 🙂 showed that the market is hungry for a ultraportable notebook. They also showed that people are willing to use Linux in the right package. The shock for many of us is that the personal Linux box finally caught on, but it took the subnotebook form factor to get it accepted.

    I’m having a hard time accepting Gartner’s prediction of a pocket-sized device replacing notebooks or subnotebooks though. Why? People still need to get data into the boxes. And, after 15 years of handheld device innovation (using the Newton’s 1993 launch as an arbitrary starting point), we still haven’t got anything better than keyboards for getting a lot of information into a computer. Sure, speech recognition is amusing, handwriting recognition sort of works, and thumb keyboards caused an email revolution. But, a decent sized QWERTY keyboard is the tool of choice for most of us. And, with the average age of the population pushing up as we baby boomers reach middle and retirement age, the screen size can’t shrink much more to sell into that huge market group.

    The really interesting twist depends, I think, on the outcome of Microsoft’s attempt to purchase Yahoo. If Microsoft embraces Yahoo as a whole, they will all of a sudden become a huge Open Source player. As a long time proponent of the interoperability of proprietary software (like Microsoft’s) and Open Source software, I think this could be a huge win.

    Of course, huge mergers/acquisitions are never easy and always painful. So, this will be an interesting story to watch play out.

  • PayPal Security Key: Part 2

    I received my replacement PayPal Security Key and went through the activation process again. Fortunately, the process went smoothly this time. I made a small purchase to test the purchase process and it also went well.

    Here’s something to note though. After completing the activation process, PayPal instructs you to use the system by logging in with your account name and then appending the time-based 6-digit code to your password. A listener of the Security Now podcast, however, suggested a procedure that seems more secure to me, however. Instead of adding the code to the end of your password and sending everything as a single string, press enter after typing your normal PayPal password without the 6-digit number. PayPal will then prompt you with a separate text box in which you can enter the digits alone. I used this process with my little purchase and the payment went through ok.

    BTW, if there are any other Stargate SG-1 fans reading this, I bought the HD version of webisodes 1 through 4 of the Sanctuary online series. A number of the people involved with the SG-1 TV series are involved with this web project. So, I was curious enough to shell out a few dollars to see what it is about. I took a brief look at it and it looks pretty good so far. The CGI video production work looks great. I should make it clear that Sanctuary is NOT set in the SG-1 universe.

  • Windows Mobile Calendar Weirdness: Outlook Overrides Smartphone Changes

    This Windows Mobile Calendar problem happens all the time to me ever since Microsoft removed the two-way conflict resolution option. Here’s the scenario.

    1. Create an appointment on a WiMo smartphone

    2. Sync it to Outlook 2003 (or 2007)

    3. After syncing, edit the appointment and change it to a different day (i.e., reschedule it)

    4. Resync it with Outlook

    In my case, the rescheduled appointment is removed and replaced with the original appointment from Outlook. Really annoying.

  • Why Do US Cell Phone Companies Hate Text Messages?

    An article over on ABCnews.com talks about the high cost of text messaging and calculates some interesting comparisons based on AT&T Wireless’ upcoming increased charge of 20 cents per text message and 30 cents per MMS message. Based on the assumption of a cost of 1 cent for every 7 bytes (characters), AT&T’s text messaging will cost about $1,500 per megabyte. Sure, you can pay for an unlimited text message plan. But, how many people require unlimited text messages.

    Why does AT&T charge so much for text messaging? Does it really take that much to manage and maintain the service? Do they hate text messaging and only keep it alive because they are forced to? And, they are not alone…

    Let’s look at another US mobile carrier: Sprint PCS. Sprint is in big trouble. They are bleeding customers losing 100,000 subscribers in the last quarter alone and recently laid off 4,000 workers (see this PC World article for details). Their basic plan provides something 5 or 7 (or some other really small number) of free text messages per month. You jump from single digits to 300 messages per month for a $5 monthly charge. 1000 messages bumps the cost to $10/month. And, unlimited is $15/month. Here’s a free tip for Sprint’s new CEO. Want to reduce your customer churn rate? Give them something of value that doesn’t cost you much. Reduce your text messaging rates. 300/month for free, 1000 a month for $5/month. Unlimited for $10/month. This will make parents more likely to let their kids text a bit more freely. Next, get some cooler looking phones to appeal to the younger crowd directly. Reduce the new phone cycle from full discount every two years to annually. Kids ask for new phones all the time. Parents (like me) might be more likely to replace them on an annual cycle if they were fully discounted.

    Text messaging is probably on the tail end of its life cycle curve. The richer mobile presence services, like Twiter, Jaiku, and Pownce, that depend on packet (Internet) services will probably send text messaging off to visit its older cousin the venerable pager within the next couple of years. But, in the meantime, cell phone companies could probably retain customers and reduce churn by being competitive in provide text message services.

  • The Mysteries of Windows Mobile Battery Problems

    batterymeter.gif

    Of all the problems a Windows Mobile smartphone might have, battery problems rank somewhere in the top three if not number one. Why? If your battery dies at an inopportune time, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of the phone is, you have a paper weight. Having a spare always helps, of course, but the battery itself may not be the problem.

    Even though we know that rechargeable batteries have a finite life, I have been surprised to see just how long some of my Windows CE/Windows Mobile device batteries have lasted. While all my Compaq Aero and iPAQs have broken before their batteries pooped out, my HP Jornada devices which date back to 1996 all still work (well, perhaps, except for the HP420, the first color Palm-size PC). The HP Jornada 720 and 820 Handheld PCs still work fine and their respective batteries still retain a charge for many hours of use. Those HP Jornada engineers were just amazing folks.

    A while back my T-Mobile Dash battery problem turned out not to be hardware based at all. The problem was that Google Gmail’s IMAP4 server is so slow that it cause the battery to drain 4% everytime Windows Mobile Messaging checks for email. Turning off auto email checking for Gmail restored my battery life.

    Lately, I’ve been having battery problems with my HTC Advantage 7500 Pocket PC Phone Edition. This is surprising to me since the battery has been rock solid until the past two weeks or so. Long term WiFi use along with simultaneous Bluetooth keyboard use didn’t seem to phase it in the good ol’ days. So, what changed? I don’t think the battery itself is a problem. Why? I’ve noticed other odd issues with the 7500 during this same time period. It sometimes locks up (won’t turn on) and requires a stylus press of the soft reset buttons. The battery itself is fine during these episodes. I also noticed that both still photos and video recordings have odd artifacts in them during this period. The battery itself seems to love a charge over a short period when NOT in use: WiFi turned off, Bluetooth turned off, GSM/EDGE turned off (I use a T-Mobile Dash as my voice phone).

    So, what is going on? I honestly don’t know. But, I’m thinking about either performing a hard reset or upgrading the 7500 to Windows Mobile 6 this weekend to see if that clears up some of the problems I’m seeing.

    I wish we had better end-user diagnostic tools to help us dig into these problems with a bit more precision.

  • iZoho: Zoho Web Office Suite for the iPhone/iPod touch

    iZoho

    Cool sites designed specifically for the iPhone (and by side effect the iPod touch) just keep on coming. I’ve been using the Zoho Creator web database product for almost a month now because it works well both on the desktop as well as mobile devices (not just the iPhone). However, Zoho created a very nice iPhone specific interface found at:

    iZoho.com

    As you can see above, it looks and works fine on an iPod touch too. I hope that new Microsoft VP for Windows Mobile marketing is paying attention to all of this. Designers for major websites essentially do not care if their mobile specific site works on a Windows Mobile smartphone at all. All the focus is on the iPhone. And, soon, the Google Android platform will probably draw from what little attention is left to Windows Mobile. Attention Redmond, it’s time to pay attention to the rest of the world, not just the carriers and large enterprises.