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What’s the deal with FON?

What’s the deal with FON? When I planned my trip to Barcelona recently I thought for sure I’d be able to take advantage of Free wifi in Fon’s home country.

Like a good Fonero, I made sure my FON was active and sharing well in advance yet when I arrived in Spain, I found ZERO Foneros through my travels. My N810 and N95 were actively connected most of the time and when they were not connected I was usually looking to connect. Whle most of the trip was spent in the conference area, I did walk around Barcelona and Vilanova and yet I still found nothing …

If there’s no sharing and tons of free Fons out there (according to FON) whats the model exactly? I’m happy to have got8ten a free router from them as they “expanded” into the US, but I’m thinking the hardware is going to evolve into a weekend hacking project since there’s clearly no benefit to maintaining an account with FON.

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Shure SE420 Earphones – The best I’ve used!

I’ve had a pair of Shure EC4 in-ear phones for a few years and I recently shorted out my second pair. I’m not sure what the deal is with my usage, but I tend to kill mobile headsets and earphones far too easily.

Tonight while waiting in Atlanta I decided to go for it and upgrade my listening experience. I was holding off on getting another high end pair of earphones but after a few days with some low end and cheap Denon’s from Target I couldn’t take it anymore. I have a full week of travel ahead and had some time to kill in the airport tonight…

The Shure SE420 Earphones are a bit larger than the previous model I used and a bit of an upgrade in their line as well. They still fit incredibly well and as you’d expect from an earphone like this offer a number of fit options so you can be comfortable and content with the sound experience.

They run about $350 so I hope my wife is not reading this while on vacation with the kids! The price defines the experience though … Having tested the full line of Ultimate Ears Including their $500+ pair of 10 Pro’s I’m very pleased with my decision. Shure has restyled their entire line of earphones so they work better over the ear (wrapped as you might see a professional musician wear) and are now modular in design as well. The modularity allows for various accessories to be attached including their phone attachment which I can definitely see adding now that I get how this all works. With my previous set, the phone piece would have made a substantially longer mess of cable, but the base line is quite short so adding a new piece for a phone mic and call button is both easy and logical to do. This will actually kill my quest for a pair of multipoint bluetooth earphones so I can use them across my small army of mobile gear… Perhaps another post is warranted for this topic.

I’ve been jamming to a variety of music – electonic, hip hop and jazz on a Zune 8GB and am very pleased with the results. The Nokia N810 was next as I do a lot of watching and listening and soon the N95 where I expect to be using the aforementioned phone adapter.

Shure’s earphones are in-ear and sound isolating – not noise canceling. I much prefer this method as the sound is focused the environment remains unaltered. I can’t hear anything going on around me on the plane as I type this … and I was unable to hear anything in the airport either. I’m saying this as a positive and an extra bonus is that you don’t have to jack the volume causing potenial damage to your ears.

You should be careful if you plan on walking around a high traffic area.

All in all – a solid purchase. I’m very pleased with this upgrade and looking forward to many hours of happy listening with my new Shure SE420 Earphones

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Back from Mobile World Congress

Press Credentials

I’m back from Barcelona and attempting to catch up with posts I want to write, people I need to contact and a bit of reality as I head back to work tomorrow. While I’m reflecting though I wanted to note a few things …

This was my first conference attended as a member of the press and it’s something I’d definitely seek out in the future. You get access, access access! Aside from my pre-arranged meetings with Nokia I was able to seek out a few companies and even get meetings in an ad-hoc manner that would not have been possible if my badge just read attendee.

While I had prepared to connect so I could blog and stream live things were considerably more challenging during the time than I perhaps would have admitted to myself in advance. I’ve learned some good lessons though and need to perhaps be a bit more realistic with what I think I can do in a day … It’s hard to see everything and blog it while you go. international connectivity is a while other hurdle to clear as well. I was not able to get a Yoigo (3G pre-pay) sim until after the Nokia Keynote on Tuesday and getting even my initial thoughts up proved challenging with the event wifi which I think we can all agree was vastly underpowered. Once I did get a 3G card, I was connected as constantly as was possible — the sheer number of people doing the same thing made high speeds challenging at times and so anything more than email or photo uploads was pretty hard. Hotel access was limited – and apparently I’ve got the power to take the place down as noted by my travel companions: Andy Abramson, Alec Saunders, Alan Reiter, Stowe Boyd, Esme Vos, Matt Miller, Darla Mack and Oliver Starr. I can assure you all once more there’s nothing crazy running on my system … LOL!

My mobile kit worked flawlessly. I left armed with my Nokia N95-3, the N95-1 and N81 as phone and data candidates. The Nokia N810 as my primary data machine and two Proporta Mobile Power packs to keep everything running until late into the evening which they did in spades. Pat Phelan of MaxRoad hooked me up with a MaxRoam SIM which I used on the N95-3 for both local calling and calls home. It was my first experience with this service and it’s something I’d definitely use again. Call quality was great – many thanks to Pat!

My FON router was on in advance of the trip and I fully expected to see FON hotspots in Spain, but I never saw any which strikes me as odd… a post on this is brewing. Boingo was generous enough to provide a mobile account and this I used continuously from the time we connected in Madrid en route to Barcelona. The N810’s Boing o client popped up from the background and authenticated as I needed in the MWC event area. It worked so well I’m actually looking forward to a Boingo expansion in the US so I can use it more regularly… The only change I’d make to the kit I packed is the addition of an external keyboard. I owned the Stowaway ultraportable, but opted not to take it as I honestly don’t like it that much. The Nokia Tablet’s 2008OS also has a nasty bug with it which echos most characters you type. On the way home I tried Matt Miller’s Stowaway Sierra and immediately ordered it from the Madrid Airport. It arrived today and I’ve been testing it this afternoon. No more echo, and a very solid typing platform with only a minor increase in size and weight.

All in all, Barcelona was killer! I was able to connect with quite a few people I’d only seen through twitter and jaiku which really proves the power of social networking. I had a blast and would love to get back to Spain for some relaxed traveling with my wife and kids. The food and wine are wonderful and the people certainly warm and inviting.

Many more posts to come … hopefully sooner than later!

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Getting Ready for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona!

I started pulling my gear together tonight and as you can see here I’ve got a lot of goodies ready to go.

On the software side I’m ready with Qik, Flixwagon, Fon, Boingo and Devicescape as well as mobile blogging via Maemo Wordpy on the Nokia N810 so I’m feeling good about my travel kit.

If you are going to be there, let’s try to meet up! I’m really looking forward to meeting as many people as possible!

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MTA Goes Mobile

I am not sure when this kicked in, but great news for Metro NY travelers… the MTA site has been mobilized. I was just browsing for my train tomorrow as I am getting an earlier start and noticed the new mobile call out. Here’s what it looks like from my N95:

MTA Mobile MTA Mobile

Phone browsers should be redirected to the mobile site automatically. I checked out the direct URL in the hopes that this might work on other devices like my Nokia Tablet, but the URL, http://mobile.useablenet.com/mt/http://www.mta.info does not seem to like anything but phones. Upon further investigation, I was able to use the actual schedule page on my tablet which is really the only part I care about anyway. I can’t understand why they would not simply offer an open m.mta.info instead, but that was clearly not my decision to make.

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Personal Broadcasting – Rocking the System

In my experience the ability to begin broadcasting, inform your friends and maintain a dialog is both incredibly social but amazingly powerful! I’ve been dabbling with Qik and Flixwagon and this area of mobile development is simply fantastic. When I covered the Web2 Summit last fall, my coverage was limited to 1 min videos (the file size limit from Shozu) and they had to upload afterwards. It was hardly slow, but there were a few steps involved to publish and I could not interactive with the audience in real time – taking questions or monitoring comments.

The game has completely changed now. Both Qik and Flixwagon offer live streaming in a few clicks … open the app, stream. In case you missed it, Flixwagon worked with MTV to cover yesterday’s Super Tuesday event. The World Economic Forum in Davos featured videos from Scoble, Loic Le Meur and others. Next week you’ll be seeing a lot of video from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which I’ll be attending and streaming!

Thanks Stefan!

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Devicescape 2.0

devicescape logo

Devicescape received a nice update to 2.0 today and allows secure and simple access to paid and free hotspots automatically. I’ve added a few hidden APs from the office as well as my home network to my list to start combined with my Boingo Mobile and FON credentials so I can easily connect my N95 pretty much anywhere I want to go! The update does not yet include a new client for the Nokia Tablet, but I’m sure that’s coming soon.

For consumers, Devicescape 2.0 provides immediate access from any device to millions of hotspot locations. Access to free and open hotspots requires no sign up. It simply works right “out of the box.” Also, the service is easily extensible to password protected networks and credentials can be entered once on the fly on the device or in advance via a web site. You can even add your home network and securely share with friends. Additionally, Devicescape constantly seeks hotspots, and notifies users when they have a secure and verified Wi-Fi connection. [Devicescape]

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I’m a mobile WiFi Hotspot with JoikuSpot Light

Stefan noted an awesome new application today called JoikuSpot Light which of course is in beta but solves a need quite a few power users have been seeking. If you carry a few different devices like I do but only have one SIM, it can be tricky to use more than one at a time when you are away from wifi.

I realize this is not for everyone, but the ability to convert my 3.5G HSDPA signal into an accessible WiFi access point is truly killer. I can now openly share my data service with multiple devices simultaneously. I was alerted to Stefan’s post over Jaiku during my morning commute and was able to download the app directly to my N95. A few minutes later I had it installed and my N800 was connected. I also happened to have the N81 8GB in my bag so I popped that out and activated WiFi. Within a matter of minutes I had three devices sharing the same network connection!

Connected to JoikuSpot

While DUN is a great way to connect between a two devices, the option to go broader is very appealing to me. Increasingly more devices have WiFi inside and this extends the range of where you can consider using things goodies. As of right now there’s really only one negative which is that your openly broadcasting your WiFi signal. This is somewhat solved by that fact that the signal strength is not massively powerful. I don’t know whether this is an intentional notion to conserve power or a limitation of the device. Regardless it would certainly make me feel better to see the ability to either hide my AP or simply enable some security.

joikuspot

JoikuSpot runs a simple captive portal that offers a bit of branding (perhaps a reason the AP is open) which is fine, but it actually eats your initial browser request so keep that in mind. This is a free application and if it’s going to stay that way through the (currently) ad-less portal than I am good with that.

Here’s a quick pic of JoikuSpot in action on my N95. You can see there’s some active traffic which is my laptop snagging the screenshot above.

JoikuSpot

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Gizmo5 launches Backdoor Dialing

gizmo5 labs logo

Thanks to a tip from Andy, I just learned about a very cool new Gizmo service!

Approximately 11% of US telephones, including mobile numbers and land lines from carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc., are connected via VoIP. Working with telecom partners we are now making it possible to dial these numbers without going through the traditional phone system.

This means you can call certain mobile and land line numbers from any computer connected to the net and talk for free. Because these calls are bypassing the traditional phone network entirely there is no per minute fee or other charge for the caller regardless of where they call from. [Gizmo5]

gizmo5 backdoor dialing

As you can see this is clearly focused as an end run around the standard PTSN dialing universe. While I don’t see a use for this every day, there are certainly situations when using Gizmo to make free calls could be quite nice. No roaming charges for example internationally… If your number is supported you can take advantage of this service by dialing 0101 and your 10 digit number from anywhere in the world as long as you use a Gizmo or SIP based client. I happen to have a few of those here and look forward to testing this out. An added bonus here is that the recipient can call you back on the number they see on callerID and the return call to you is also free.

I checked my home number and it’s available for use, while my cell and grand central numbers are not. You can test your numbers on the Gizmo5 site.

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NYT’s New HQ

NYT Lobby

I’ve been checking out the NYT’s new HQ on my daily commute and was finally able to get inside to see how things are progressing. The building has been under some sort of construction for quite a while now and looks like it’s getting close to completion. The outside is a very modern looking structure and the inside is really very sleek. There’s an appropriately named video sculpture called “Moveable Type” which displays current content from the paper.

Here’s a quick video I captured from my phone… An evening outside shot follows.

New York Times

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Nokia SportsTracker Community

Nokia Sports Tracker Beta

There’s a pretty cool update from Nokia Beta Labs SportsTracker application which now also includes an online social service. You can make friends, share and download workouts and keep track of your progress all through the site and your phone.

I noticed in my quick scan that there are quite a few additional exercises from the main ones listed on the installed application and you can easily import your gpx file from either your phone or compatible GPS device which makes the SportsTracker Community open to anyone – even if it’s branded Nokia. This looks pretty similar to what Nike has done with their Nike Plus application for iPod, though there’s no playlist connection currently. Seems that would be a pretty easy thing to add given there’s a music player installed on all the phones already.

I’ll have to start tracking my commute walk, which is clearly not a workout, but (ahem is exercise and) will give me a good baseline on how this works initially.

Hat Tip to Eseries

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I’ll see you in LA, Nokia!

Nokia is hosting a special event Thursday night in Los Angeles and I am excited to have been invited and to be heading out for the show! I say show, because no one has any official idea of what to expect. I have airline tickets booked and a hotel room for Thursday night but have no idea what to expect. I know we’ll be at a to be disclosed location but I don’t even know what time things start. For that matter I don’t know whether that’s even the only thing happening…

Wired Living Home

That’s the Wired Living Home which also happens to be in LA…

The only confirmed device at this time is the N95-3 which is the HSPDA (YES!!) ready for US domination edition with a whopping 160MB of RAM, ~80MB ready for the owner and their apps. (full specs)

So aside from the US N95, there’s the 8GB version as well as the N81 and it’s 8GB sibling pending release, but those are EMEA ready, not US – at least with regard to 3G, or 3.5G in this case! I’m thinking there’s a logical entertainment connection given the LA venue and Ovi and N-Gage are the obvious chips for Nokia to lay on the table, but I’m up for a surprise or two… In case you are keeping score, directly after this private event will be a much more public one back on the right coast at Digital Life.

I’m getting gear organized now… have to choose between still and video with my larger gear in order to make this a carry-on adventure with the airlines and I’m going for video. I’ll snap plenty of pics on the N95 as well as whatever else I might happen to have access to…

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Are we there yet?

The jokes are old with regard to blue screens of death in cars… but I can’t help but think how complex life with kids in the car might become if Microsoft controlled the infotainment… The current car systems might be far from perfect, but a MS driven “standard” is not what I am looking for to make it better. I can get my ipod / iPhone working just fine today without assistance from either Apple or Microsoft thanks to good old standard audio and video jacks.

Microsoft and Siemens will join forces to develop in-car entertainment and navigation products that should make it easier for consumers to connect devices such mobile phones and music players.

The two companies said on Friday the first Siemens products based on Microsoft software should go into production in 2009.

The market for automotive infotainment products is set to grow to about $54 billion by 2012 from $38 billion currently, according to research group iSuppli.

The rise of portable media players and content downloadable from the Internet is forcing carmakers and their suppliers to rethink their offerings, which have until recently centered on standalone audio systems. [CNET News.com]

Something about this announcement just made me think of this classic Apple commercial…

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Working Anywhere: give me broadband and stand clear

I’m not quite as travel-intensive these days but reading Andy’s post on Working Anywhere got me thinking about some past experiences and frustrations. Reflecting back across the past few years, I can recall many times when hotel “broadband” was difficult to connect to or even impossible. I’ve had wireless only rooms that can’t get a signal – always a nice feature and of course the ridiculous price you get charged for a 24 hour session, which always seems to timeout if you leave your machine running overnight. I never expect the ports to be wide open, but it’s great when you can actually use a VOIP app or connect through to your VPN without issue.

My main needs are a clean modern room, good desk and chair with more than 2 outlets within reach and a reliable high speed connection. It’d be nice if the desk was near a window and not with your back to an HVAC unit — tends to make the temperature hard to regulate when working. In the past year the number of gadgets I carry has increased considerably and I prefer to have wired access in the room so that I can enable rest of my fleet with a travel router. I used to be content with just getting online, but now I really do look for the same flexibility I am accustomed to at home. Beyond my room, It is certainly nice when you find connectivity (that’s either free or that respects your existing login) in the lobby areas and even the hotel restaurants.

I don’t need the pampering that Andy seeks as I tend to spend little time sitting around the hotel other than pre-sleep and pre-breakfast.

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Working Anywhere: give me broadband and stand clear

I’m not quite as travel-intensive these days but reading Andy’s post on Working Anywhere got me thinking about some past experiences and frustrations. Reflecting back across the past few years, I can recall many times when hotel “broadband” was difficult to connect to or even impossible. I’ve had wireless only rooms that can’t get a signal – always a nice feature and of course the ridiculous price you get charged for a 24 hour session, which always seems to timeout if you leave your machine running overnight. I never expect the ports to be wide open, but it’s great when you can actually use a VOIP app or connect through to your VPN without issue.

My main needs are a clean modern room, good desk and chair with more than 2 outlets within reach and a reliable high speed connection. It’d be nice if the desk was near a window and not with your back to an HVAC unit — tends to make the temperature hard to regulate when working. In the past year the number of gadgets I carry has increased considerably and I prefer to have wired access in the room so that I can enable rest of my fleet with a travel router. I used to be content with just getting online, but now I really do look for the same flexibility I am accustomed to at home. Beyond my room, It is certainly nice when you find connectivity (that’s either free or that respects your existing login) in the lobby areas and even the hotel restaurants.

I don’t need the pampering that Andy seeks as I tend to spend little time sitting around the hotel other than pre-sleep and pre-breakfast.

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N95 Offshore GPS Testing

While boating with my dad this past weekend, I decided to check out the GPS on the N95. As you can see in this video the Nokia Maps application is able to show position relative to land pretty easily (though perhaps hard to see on video) but the Sports Tracker App really gives you better info (Latitude Longitude, Speed etc) in this usage scenario. My dad and I also compared the accuracy of the GPS against the boat instruments and it matched up… just a confirming note to say it really is working and correct. SportsTracker is especially cool to use since you can save your tracks and trip info for review later and even import into applications like Google Earth to see your travels and stats on the map.

In a related note, I’ve tried activating GPS now in a few different applications and SportsTracker seems to be the quickest for getting a signal from a cold start. Nokia Maps and MGMaps both take considerably longer – upwards of 10 minutes at times even outside in clear and open conditions.

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