WOW. 3GSM… could probably be a bit overwhelming. Being the little planner I am, I knew who would be here, made appointments, and marked each meeting location on my map beforehand. And while I knew ahead of time that around 60,000 people would be here… um, actually seeing 60,000 suits with pink lanyards running around all saying “Mobile” in a different languages puts that number in context. Yeah, maybe even after heavy planning, it is still overwhelming.
There is SO much to see and do. SO many companies to talk to. SO many people to hand business cards out to.
The site of 3GSM is also worth noting… the main concourse area is placed in front of Palaca d’Espanya; with cascading water falls, jumbo-tron screens, and bimps. Its a nice mix of modern meets historic.
Finally… Ladies, where are you? I braced myself for a disproportionate ratio…. but… this is certainly far beyond what i expected. I would say there is a 3:97 women to men ratio. GIRLS, maybe we could represent a bit better next year!
Some of you may have noticed the new look and feel to MOpocket (if you are reading this from an RSS reader you should come and take a look!). As I mentioned a while back, MOpocket has been going through some drastic changes. I am honored to be able to launch the new and improved MOpocket.com in conjunction with the launch of 3GSM in Barcelona in which both Kathie and I are present and will be reporting to you all the latest mobile news at it comes.
IF YOU ARE READING THIS FROM AN RSS READER VISIT THE SITE AND TAKE A LOOK!!!
I should preface that the launch is only a soft one and that more features will soon be added. You thoughts and criticism are also welcome!
I would like to thank MOpockets new tailors Dana, Michelle, Jason and all the fine folks at Copia Creative for all their hard work and patience. They are an amazing team and company used to doing far greater sophisticated projects than a mobile technology weblog and highly recommend them for any web project that you may be perusing!
I would also like to thank Kathie Legg who, while I have been busy with the site redesign and work, has been blogging in earnest and has proved herself to be a loyal and indispensable friend and writer.
Ladies and gentleman I present to you the new MOPocket. Relax, enjoy, stay a while and comment!
Also, MOpocket is looking for new mobile enthusiasts to share their thoughts on the site, writers in other words. A more formal announcement will be made at a later date but I thought I would throw that out there now.
If you are anything like me then you are filled with jealousy when it comes to the GSM phones they have in Europe. And it;s not that its not hard to get your hands on some of them its just that for the most part, most of these phones don;t work up to their maximum capacity here in the United States. The reason for that is that most European cell phones ride off of the 900, 1800 and 1900 MHZ spectrum while the spectrums available in here in the States (and thus the one triband cell phones in the US ride off of) are 850, 1800, 1900 MHZ. This means that if you get a European cell phone, say like the Nokia N70 or the N91 that where given to me… they WILL work… but they will only be working off of ONE (the 1900 MHZ) spectrum and you WILL begin to notice it in your coverage. This is why I always also carry around an extra Nokia 6682 in my bag. I am SIM card centric, as they say.
This does not mean you have to give up your hopes of ever being the suave American with a crazy European phone. Some of these great European phones are actually Quad Band (meaning they pick up the 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHZ spectrum) and companies like ImportGSM.com help you out in determining which ones they are. Its not a deep discount solution but you can at least use it as a guide to shop around with. Most of the phones listed in this category are business like phones and are thus quad band to make the European business mans travel roaming a little more easier and more reliable. Some of the phones listed also have (or are soon to have) stripped down American counterparts which make the phones listed on ImportGSM’s quad band section all the more sexy. Honestly, why would I buy a Nokia E62 which comes sans 3G and built in wifi when I can buy the E61 and it will come with all that plus work well in the States as well.
All the phones that are sold on ImportGSM are unlocked to, by the way.
My dilemma, by the way is the following. I really want to buy a Nokia E Series phone because of the Qwerty keyboard. I like the E61… but it has no camera. The one phone that does the same thing as the E61plus including a 2 megapixel camera and is even cooler and of which I am even more in love with is the E70… but alas it is only a European triband phone… no 850.
Then there is also the problem of 3G spectrums which you can read about here.
This is one year old Make news but it has been getting a lot of blog flair since, it would appear, someone has finally capitalized on the idea of a mobile version of a rotary phone that links up to a cell network via a GSM card. The phone has that real authentic old time rotary ring to it of course and, no, it cannot send or receive text messages
Warning. The manufactures Spark Fun warn that the phone really works but is for entertainment purposes. Oh, and you have to unscrew the battery to recharge it. Oh, and this entertainment only 2 pound phone costs 400 dollars for the black model and 500 dollars for the red.
Not really something you want to make your main phone. But hey, if you have the luxury of an extra SIM card…
The website does have an interesting description of how they managed to pull it of which is kind of cool. 1
We all have them, stories of our first time roaming internationally with our GSM phones. There always seems to be a problem of one kind or another. I personally found this one both amusing and disturbing.
The infamous Joi Ito has a European friend who was traveling on ship. Before he boarded the ship he was in LA and made on phone call using his european cell phone and plan. He then got on a ship for what was more than a three hour tour, a many month tour as a matter of fact… never once using his cell phone. For a month or so, people who called his phone got voicemail. But according to T-Mobile, since the last call they have him at was in LA so, therefore, all of his voicemail calls incurred roaming charges… the voicemail calls where routed through LA. When he got back from his cruise he found a nice 300 dollar bill waiting from him from T Mobile. He argued. The declined to compensate. Come on T-Mobile… its not like you also do not have a network in the US.
But roaming charges for minutes used in voicemail? Thats just cheap, real cheap.
I took advantage of my empty Cingular store today by walking in and asking them a few questions about the new 3G HSDPA service that has begun trickling into NY. Even though I live and travel to the areas in which the 3G is operating, I have not yet been able to receive a 3G signal on either my Nokia N70 device or my Nokia N91.
The reason for this, I thought, is because I have to get a 3G SIM card capable of picking up the signal (the 3G SIM card also works in non 3G phone). So, I got a new SIM Card (pictured above) and got that special little tingly feeling when I saw the 3G icon written on it and realized that at long last American GSM users are catching up to their European counterparts.
So, if you have Cingular, have a 3G capable phone and live in the area’s where they are launching the service for early adapters you have to go into Cingular and ask for the 3G SIM card yourself. They wont tell you about it unless you are getting a new phone.
It has also been reported that in order to get an unlocked European phone like the N70 and N90 to function properly via the 3G network, Cingular has to scan the phones IMEI number so that Cingular will register it as a 3G phone and send the appropriate signal/info to the phone.
But their is a good chance that this still wont work with the N70 or N90 being that they are programed for WDCMA 3G in Europe on the 2100MHz frequency and that that frequency (recently retired from US military use) is now being auctioned off to the highest bidder… so its safe to say that it is not in use in the US right now.
Around the world both 1900MHz and 2100Mhz are used simultaneously. The way it’s been set up everywhere outside the US (i.e. the way it’s supposed to work), 1900MHz is used for outbound transmission, and 2100MHz is used for inbound. Right now Cingular is using 1900MHz for both inbound and outbound signals for UMTS and HSDPA which means we will have to see if any of these N Series Tri-mode European 3G phones with a a 3G 2100 antennae we’re drooling over will work on that frequency. Its possible that these two 3G networks are incompatible. The 1900 hundred antennae on the N70 and and N90 is for GSM and outbound 3G only. If this is the case, well then that sort of eliminates the U from UMTS.
Its very important that a cell operator in the US (preferably Cingular) gets the 2100mhz channel, otherwise we will be looking at another world wide de-standardized cell phone conundrum with two variants of WCDMA… much like the 850mhz (US) and 900mhz (EU) GSM mess we have today.
Comments on this would be most appreciated if you have any knowledge on the subject. Thank you.
I thought that this sounded like an important service and worth filing here on MOpocket. Vodafone Egypt has introduced a new “emergency situation” service that they are are calling the “Wayyak” Bundle. The which targets emergency situations allows customers to send “call me” messages which are automatically read in both English and Arabic. These “call me” messages are free of charge and are perfect for instances when Zero Balance or Expired Validity and Transfers of Balance and Validity take place. This service is available for both post-paid users and the pre-paid and control customers.
Users simply enters *505*, followed by the number of the person then # sign, the message is sent and the sender receives a confirmation. The sender can send up to 3 “call me” messages per day.
Also included in the “Wayyak Bundle” is a balance transfer and validity service which is meant to supplement the success of the balance transfer service between pre-paid customers.
Both services seem like pretty good ideas and I am curious why they are just launching this over in Egypt. I can see entire individual enterprises arising from the “balance transfer” part of the bundle, allowing individuals to “set up shop” so to speak and sell parts of their plans to people that need them… as we have seen in other countries like Bangladesh and Kenya.
After watching in jealous rage as Cingular launched its UMTS and HSDPA 3G networks in 18 cities around the United States (Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, Boston, Washington D.C, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Tacoma to name them all) I am happy to report that Cingular is bringing the service its bits and patches to the greatest city in the world… NEW YORK CITY (am I little biased here?). This happened almost a month ago but better late than never.
For those of you non-New Yorkers the map probably looks a little mind spinning to you so let me dumb it down a bit so that you will understand. For now, the areas in the New York metropolitan area to first experience the power of 3G are. the bottom half of Manhattan, home to a lot of major national media (read: technology product reviewers) and big Wall Street/Fortune 1000 companies with Cingular corporate contracts. Its good to know the king.
Also included, obviously for connivence sake are the three major New York airports, Newark, La Guardia and JFK. Also on the map is a smidgen of Jersey City, specifically the smidgen to where certain large investment banks have moved their office towers.
And, of course… White Plains New York! White Plains New York? Because George Washington fought a battle there in the revolutionary war? I don’t think so… Actually, it make’s complete sense when you consider that White Plains New York is the new corporate head-quaters of Nokia USA :-)… now I know where to go to get my phone’s reflashed here in the States.
The 3G splotches increase for September projections which, of course, includes the entire island of Manhattan.
Now, the BroadbandConnect service is the first HSDPA service to launch world-wide and increases UMTS’s download speeds to an average of 400-700 Kbps. This will allow many a service to run better and allow new ones to take place that where not yet possible on mobile.
Here is the rub. I have traveled to the cities mentioned above with a Nokia N70 and brought my Nokia N91 down to Wall Street today (both European 3G phones). None of them picked up the 3G network (even with a duel UMTS and GSM setting as well as a UMTS Sim Card). Probably some European phone network thing… can anyone explain?
Anyways, for now the high speed service is only available to laptop users through the Sierra Wireless AC860 and Novatel 720 PC Cards ($100 with a 2 year contract at 60$ a month).
So no phones work on the 3G network yet although lighting up Nokia’s US headquarters could indicate something is abound.
The new trend in mobile technology applications are going to the dogs. Here are two examples of companies who have no bones about it.
PETS MOBILITY
Pets Mobility offers innovative products and services for people and pets on the go. The company plans on releasing the worlds first waterproof GPS cell phone optimized for animals, called PetsCell, later this year. Measuring approximately 5 cm’s wide, 2.5 cm’s thick and 9.4 cm’s long, the PetsCell Collar set will allow owners to call their pet anytime. Rover will even have his own number (and if he has Cingular he will even Rollover… bad joke, sorry). But don’t worry, only you can call poochie. The collar auto answers using INP so that it only recognizes the numbers you enter. And if your darling Fifi ever runs away, a one touch “call owner button” immediately calls your cell phone to alert you that your precious has been found. You can also set up a geo-fence for your pet.If he breaks the fence, your cell phone rings alerting you he has escaped (this is a nice alternative to the electric fence) In case you need a visual example of how this all works click here.
The PetsCell Collar will even sport industry leading AGPS location tracking technology. According to reports from its website:
The PetsCellTM can deliver accurate location fixes across a broad spectrum of conditions including those originating in less than optimal environments such as rural, dense urban or indoor locations.
To date, the PetsCellTM can currently deliver location fixes in real time to handsets, pagers, laptops or desk tops either wired or wirelessly. The mapping interface can either use satellite imagery, similar to Google maps, or standard map technology. Geo-fencing, Bread crumbing, real time tracking, automated lost call alerts are all presently possible…. Pet owners will be able to access their pet’s location either by accessing a customer care centre and speaking with a Petsmobility representative or through a voice activated response centre. The pet owner may call the response centre, enter their own personalized code and a computerized response is then generated informing the owner of their pet’s location.
In addition to PetsCell the company plans to execute on several brand extended related products and services via an e-median division of PetsMobility called RuffMedia. RuffMedia will offer such things as streaming media, consumer products, and various pet related services thus taking advantage of the growing functionality that cell phones and hand held devices are playing in the everyday lives of consumers. The company also facilitates an online community for pet lovers called PetsMo where pet lovers from around the world can interact on variety of pet related subject matters with other like minded people. PetsMobility will also use their pet community website as the distribution platform for RuffMedia digital products.
LOCATIS PB-100: WO IST LUMPI?
Locatis, a Swiss company that specializes in geolocation via mobile devices, has released their first product which is a GPS/GSM dog tracker which is for now only available to Orange mobile subscribers in Switzerland. By fixing the PB100 device on your dog’s collar, you can now feel totally at ease. “Thanks to the PB100 and its corresponding search platform, if your dog runs away it could be localised in a matter of seconds. Searches of this kind can be made via Internet, SMS, or by telephone.” The SMS version works by sending an SMS to their search centre and thus receiving a returned SMS specifying the coordinates of your device (i.e Dog). Unlike Pets Mobility PetCell, the PB-100 cannot transmit voice or other media. It is not a cell-phone for your dog but very functional if your only concern is that you have a runner. [via Texually.org]
This post is dedicated to Mopocket’s very own Frenchy Oberman who was put to rest last week after 13 glorious years of life. She never lived long enough to see the day in which every dog could have his or her own cell phone but it was a dream and she would have liked it very much (especially hearing mommy’s voice). She lived like a queen. We miss you. RIP Frenchy. 1992-2006
Concerned parents and suspicious wives have another alternative. World-Tracker.com , a UK based company, allows anyone to track a GSM cell phone as it wonders around the globe.
The technology apparently uses cell tower data (or GPS, when available) to track the location of just about any GSM cellphone (via a Google Maps interface).
The service costs 16 pence per request with no other hardware or software required (for either your computer or the phone in which you are tracking).
The service promises to track a mobile phone accurately between 50m to 500m, however the company says this may vary from network provider to network provider.
While cheating husbands should be concerned, the site also claims some great commercial usages for the service such as “locating your company mobiles at any time,” “utilizing your fleet more effectively,” “providing additional safety to lone workers,” and or “recovering your lost or misplaced mobile phone.”
But you just cant track any phone at whim. The first time you try to track a phone, a text message is sent to the owner, who must reply in order to enable tracking.
For now, the system only works in the UK and is only compatible with any handset working on the four main UK Network providers – O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile.
As the service has yet to hit the United States there is no word yet on the Civil Liberty issues that such a technology will most definitely bring to the table.
WOW. 3GSM… could probably be a bit overwhelming. Being the little planner I am, I knew who would be here, made appointments, and marked each meeting location on my map beforehand. And while I knew ahead of time that around 60,000 people would be here… um, actually seeing 60,000 suits with pink lanyards running around all saying “Mobile” in a different languages puts that number in context. Yeah, maybe even after heavy planning, it is still overwhelming.
