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And we’re back…

WordPress updated to 2.1.2.  Kind of a pain and scary to delete everything, but it’s all back online now and hopefully something I don’t have to do for a long time.

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GrandCentral Gets Some Big Press

Andy notes David Pogues latest tech piece and video (in spoof act now style) on GrandCentral which is one of the coolest voice 2.0 companies I’ve run across.
In case you’ve missed what GrandCentral is or how it works… here’s the basic gist.

  • Sign up for a free new phone number.
  • Give it to everyone you know…
  • Set up GrandCentral with your other phone numbers (work, home, mobile(s), Skype, Gizmo, Truphone, etc…)
  • Upload your contacts into your account (you can export from basically any existing database)
  • When you get a call on your GrandCentral line, you can choose to screen the call, pass it to voicemail, listen while someone leaves a message, block the caller and of course answer the call (on any of the phones you’ve added)
  • One of the more amazing features is that when you are on a call, you can transfer a call to another phone with a simple press of a button.
  • On the GrandCentral site, your call log gives you the capability to set up groups (Family, Work etc…), see location info, download and listen to voicemails and even set up some rules (like how callerID is handled) for callers.

My ONLY fault with GrandCentral is that I don’t use it enough. I have a better cellphone number than my GrandCentral number, though I would imagine that in the near-future, we’ll be able to port numbers into the system.

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Thoughts on MuniWireless

I had a very productive few days attending MuniWireless this week and a few thoughts remain top of mind.

First, way more cities have either built municipal networks or are openly discussing their desire to build networks than I had previously realized. What was great to hear is how many of these networks are NOT happening in large cities, but rather in the smaller and medium sized locations. This really got me thinking about where I live and why Westchester County does not have anything under way for public use. Since my return, I was able to locate at least one development underway for first responders (public safety) which was good to see, but is barely scratching the surface on what wireless technology and the proliferation of broadband can do for a local area.

The Digital Divide is an interesting issue that came up repeatedly. Clearly many municipalities sell through the idea of the network as a great connector or equalizer for citizens regardless of economic status and previous access to broadband. The thing most people don’t apparently talk about is what happens after you unwire a lower income area? The same people don’t magically open their MacBooks and get online… the same socio-economic issues are in place and most of these people don’t even have computers. A relatively low cost, yet powerful option comes to mind…

Broadband – If you can believe it the US Government considers 200Kbps broadband. This is quite sad considering you’d have a heck of a time doing any moderate multimedia on 200K, let alone the now standard YouTube or music streaming and you can forget using VOIP or something like Joost. I realize my mileage is far from normal, but I’ve got a 30MB / 5MB connection at home, and since moving to a cable modem about 7 years ago, have never had less than 1MB down (ISDN before that at 112kpbs) and actually been more at the 3+ level. As soon as my cable provider offers a faster tier, I buy it. Quite a few cities are being sold and implementing 1MB or 1.5MB networks which is very average. I recognize there’s massive cost to invest here, but think of the long term plan and not just the next election term… what happens when a few thousand people all use a 1MB connection… I think local governments can count on unhappy tax payers.

Dual-Mode Phones – Nokia is a major force to be reckoned with here if A) People recognize that they can buy these things without a carrier and B) can afford them. There are not too many manufacturers cranking out WiFi enabled cellphones that can also do VOIP. When you are in the network, you can switch to SIP with TruPhone or Gizmo and make free calls. If I had a municipal network to connect on, I’d be all over this… between my N80i, N93 and N800 Tablet, I’ve got 3 options to be making and receiving calls for free. There are of course quite a few Skype and SIP capable phones that would be quite excellent to have in your pocket if you went out for the day in a muni-network.

Easy and Open Access – Something that came up on the panel I spoke on as well as in earlier sessions during the event is the pressing need to standardize how people access networks. It’s easy if you use a computer – PCs generally being easier to connect than Macs, but what happens when you use a new device with WiFi? As I noted earlier, I have a number of WiFi devices – phones, my Nokia tablet, a Nintendo DS and a PSP. They all connect differently and not all of them have browsers that are allowed to connect and authenticate. None of them have IE, which seems to be the system integrators browser of choice. While on the topic… if the networks are designed for public usage, please openly enable that purpose, or state clearly what you already know won’t work. Don’t block UDP ports and VOIP services, just to block them as (ahem) our hotel did in Dallas. There are always work-arounds for those savvy enough to want to hack a bit.

Finally, a BIG Thank you to Andy Abramson for the invitation to attend and participate in MuniWireless! I had a great time on our emerging mobile devices panel with Oliver Starr of Guidewire Group, Paul Murdock from Nokia and Kent Brown from Motorola.

Esme Vos and the team at Microcast Communications put on a great show, if you are considering a future MuniWireless event, I’d highly recommend it.

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Mobile as Modem…

Because I have the sickness, I just happened to find myself in Best Buy Mobile yesterday while wandering in the city…

Best Buy Mobile is actually a very cool store that seems to sell every phone and device from their partner carriers. The store I was in did not have Amp’d, Helio or TMO, but Cingular, Verizon, Sprint and Virgin were very well represented. The nice thing about a store like this is that they are carrier agnostic and actually want you to get the right phone and plan for your situation… which brings me to mine.

I’ve been considering a second plan just for data to do some higher speed bluetooth tethering than Cingular currently supports (EDGE) where I live and also since there really are no 3G Nokia’s yet… The N75 will definitely solve my problem when it finally arrives, but who knows when it will really be here so on to explore…

Turns out Sprint will sell you a plan that includes NO Voice and allows the phone to be used as modem which is exactly what I am looking for. The only problem then is what’s it’s worth – do I want to buy a $200 phone (Samsung A900) and pay ~$50/month for unlimited data or continue to wait it out for the N75 and just add another line to our family plan for 10 bucks + data. I actually just checked the BestBuy Mobile site and see the phone is available for $29.99 with an instant web-only price – but you can’t buy a plan without voice…

Why can’t someone just make a 3G modem roughly the same size as my GPS so I can just drop it in my bag and use it for my tablet and notebook…

I still need to check into Amp’d and Helio as well … Anyone doing anything like this?

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Shozu is back!

I was having trouble updating to the current rev of Shozu, as mentioned earlier but was finally successful last night after considerable effort. Turns out, there was an issue with security and former references to Shozu on my memory card. The bad news – I had to reformat the card. The good news – Shozu is back in action on my Nokia N73.

With the new release. Shozu supports Geo-tagging via GPS which is very cool. Now when I snap a pic with my GPS nearby, Shozu automatically adds location data, which is then in turn automatically read by Flickr, which reads the Geo data and adds my pics to the map as they are uploaded. For a mobile blogger, this is super cool.

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ShoZu + GPS Not working

Roland Tanglao can’t get Shozu working with a TomTom GPS on his N80ie consistently which is actually better than I’ve done with the N73 and my Nokia LD-1W GPS. I can’t get the GPS function to load up — at all. It’s like it’s not in my build and I am using the latest version…

I love the idea of auto Geo-tagging images and actually miss Meaning which did this on Series60v2 devices like my N70. There’s no going back though – I’m all about the newer hardware… and will just do the mapping within Flickr when I get a chance instead until this gets resolved.

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Seems my email issue is Google…

For some reason now for the past few nights I get a ton of email at around 11:30pm – now actually. Last night I received about 200 messages which I had been missing for the past few days – some on up to 3 day delay. I’ve emailed tech support at GMail, but I have a feeling that unless I pay the $50 premier price, I wont be hearing anything too quickly.

Update — I’ve just modified my DNS MX record to point mail back through Fastmail, who have never let me down. I can still pop into that system with Gmail and gain the same access and management I like, but this way if something starts to get wacky with Google, I can just go directly to my Fastmail account.

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Thank You Verizon

Just a quick thank you to Verizon for knocking my phone service out today for some unexplained reason — and especially for not being able to address the problem until tomorrow.

I’ll keep this in mind the next time I see your advertising making sure I know that a phone is “always on” unlike my cable service on which I am still able to use for connectivity to write this as well as for VOIP calling…

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Let’s Connect

I’ve noticed that I’ve attracted some readers from some very interesting domains on a regular basis and thought I should mention directly that I am actively seeking new opportunities. My bio is on the about page, but here are a few bits you may have picked up from reading various posts which I think are worth highlighting:

  • I love technology and am usually a very early adopter. I think about it constantly and play with new gadgets and services in my free time. I tend to proactively share my views on how things work and why they might even be of interest to others.
  • Quite a few people actively seek my advice when it comes to purchase decisions and my co-workers generally know if there’s a some new gizmo or web technology, I’ve usually checked it out first hand.
  • I read constantly. It’s impossible to write about everything I read/scan as I track 680 feeds (by today’s count), but I am very aware about what is happening in the following areas (and in no particular order) web 2.0, mobile, broadband, consumer electronics, gaming, the digital home as well as specifically Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and of course Nokia among quite a few other areas of interest.
  • Since my background is in marketing, I tend to view things through that lens and often consider whether something is just cool or actually has a purpose that would be of interest to more than a micro-niche market. I have worked with brands on both a national and global level and understand the complexities in planning and directing multi-touch cross channel communication strategies.

I am looking for an opportunity that will enable me to combine my passion for technology, experience in marketing and my desire to evangelize the benefits of new products and services. I know that my background and experience can help quite a few of my reader’s companies. Please feel free to contact me so we can get the call rolling.