Recently in Mobile Technology Category

As the displaced cast of Office Hours regular slowly arrived at our temporary location, a slew of Dodgeball check-ins took to the ether. I sent in my check-in as well, not so much because I needed to inform anyone about where I was but because I was curious to see if I would receive any friend-of-a-friend messages.

A few seconds later I received a notice that Angela had just checked in as well. I knew that, of course, as she was sitting just two seats down from me. After reading the brief introduction and scrolling past the rather large profile image (more than a screenful on my phone), I noticed that the message seemed to be coming from one of those carrier email gateway addresses. I confirmed with Angela that I had in fact just received her phone number. This seems a bit strange to me.

I think your contact information is private even from your friends but it is just given away to friends-of-friends. Is this the intended functionality? Of course, I'm too much of a chicken to ever call Angela, but I think I'll keep her photo and phone number just the same....

After months of receiving Dodgeball check-ins from Erik, I finally took the plunge and sent my first check-in. I nervously punched in the coded message "@hideout" and sent an SMS flying through mobile network. Almost immediately I received back my first friend-of-a-friend message. While messages from friends are sent using the cheaper SMS protocol, the friend-of-a-friend message came back as a much more expensive MMS multimedia message complete with a picture. When I returned home there was also an email waiting for me explaining what this message was and why I got it, just in case I was confused.

When I purchased my Motorola ROKR and switched wireless carriers to Cingular, I signed up for Cingular's MEdia Basic package. This seemed to be a good value that combined text and multimedia messaging with a whopping 1 megabyte--yes that's a whole 1024 kilobytes--of internet bandwidth.

One of the first things I tried with my new phone was a Java applet that tried to bring Google Maps to cell phones. It wasn't very stable but it did consume bandwidth like crazy. I quickly switched to the unlimited bandwidth plan, but was too cheap to add a text messaging plan as well.

I didn't think I would be using too many messages, so a pay as you go plan for messaging seemed just fine. However, after I switched I noticed that I was no longer receiving text messages. This took a while to figure out because I get so few messages.

Last night I finally decided that I had had enough of this nonsense and went in to the Cingular store to add both text and multimedia messaging plans to my account. My wireless bill will now be insanely expensive but I figure that as a technology guy what better way is there to spend money than immersing myself in the new digital lifestyle.

And so I am now once again message capable and with 200 text messages a month I should be able to withstand the onslaught of Dodgeball checkins from Erik. Last night, in fact, I did receive two chekins from Erik, one at 11:30 and the other at 12:45. Unfortunately, by that time I was long asleep. I might have to start taking a nap after work so I can be prepared to act on any late night messages.

A shout out to our friends at O'Reilly for the excellent Nokia Smartphone Hacks which set me up with just the information I needed. And that's about all I have to say about that.

I've been spending more time getting to learn the features of my new cell phone. I started playing some iTunes track and then hid the player while I continued navigating through the menus.

I added a few more Java apps to the phone and was testing those as well. One was an app to display Google maps on the phone, another was a little demo "hello world" I had written, and another was the beginnings of an app I am putting together from pieces sample code in the various J2ME books I am currently reading.

I can't recall what the exact sequence of events was, but suddenly the phone locked up, leaving nothing but a single high pitched note blaring out. I couldn't stop the apps, I couldn't even power off the phone.

I opened up the battery compartment but my clumsy fingers couldn't seem to pry the battery loose. As a last resort I struck the keypad which finally shook the batter loose and silenced the deafening noise.

I replaced the battery on powered the phone back on and things seemed back to normal. Almost immediately after that, I received a notification that there were messages waiting. I checked my inbox and found that two sample messages that I had requested from Dodgeball.com the day before but never received had suddenly just been delivered.

I guess that there are still some bugs to be worked out.

Speculation is running rampant about the details of Apple's special announcememt next week. The leading thought is that Apple will formally announce a partnership with Motorola and Cingular to create a cell phone that is capable of playing music purchased from the iTunes store.

This could be very cool. At the moment, my iPod stays locked in my car where it powers the integrated iPod connector in my MINI. I just have too much stuff to carry around and a cell phone, while not as fun as an iPod, is just the more practical choice. Combining an iPod with a phone removes the need to chose.

I'm normally a little wary of "convergent" devices that do a bit of everything but nothing particularly well. Still, Apple has a good track record of developing stylish and functional products, so my hopes are high.

This could be enough to push me to switch mobile providers to Cingular. Of course, with my luck, the new phone will be backlogged for months before it becomes available.

However, speculating on future Apple products is a difficult game. Some times the rumors are dead on. Other times they completely miss the mark. Another theory is that Apple will announce the next generation of iPods that come with ability to play video clips. This is a natural evolution from the current line of photo iPods.

My hope, however, is that Apple will announce that the iTunes music store will begin selling music videos. This is a market that is tragically underserved and one that I am eager to start spending my money on.

The iTunes store has had music videos available for viewing for some time now. Selection, however, remains limited. I would love to buy a smattering of new videos each month to create a record of the sights and sounds of the new and popular music for the month. Oh, and if this is truly the year of HDTV, as Steve Jobs has declared at both Macworld and the WWDC, it wouldn't hurt if the videos came in high definition format.

I've had my current cell phone, a Nokia 6600, for about 10 months or so now and thought it was time to look around at the current state of the art and see if it was time to upgrade.

I've had my eye on the Motoral RAZR V3. It might not be the newest thing out there, but this tiny little thing just oozes style. So I go to the Motoral site to check out its specs. The consumer websites never have the important information, so I head over to the Motocoders developer site.

The specifications for the phone are publicly available and I spend some time reading through them. More detailed information on the APIs, however, are locked behind a registration form.

The Motocoders information page links to the program FAQ for more information about the developer's site. And, oh yeah, you can't read the FAQ about joining the program without being a member. Real smart.

Slashdot had a link to this article on a new service in the UK called BlueCasting. This is a brilliant idea. Embed a directional transmitter into a billboard that offers to send additional information or promotions to cell phones that are in viewing distance of the advertisement.

The range of 100 meters seems a bit excessive to me. It may be fine for the initial rollout, but the airwaves could get quite crowded with promotions if the idea took off.

What if, instead, the range were limited to something like five to ten meters. Just enough so that you receive a small discount on the newest Britney Spears CD as you passed by your local music store--but only if you acted in the next hour.

Of course, the system would also need a way to limit the number of times it interrupted you to keep it as a useful service instead of turning into a new form of spam. Well chosen, personalized ads delivered in real time could be extremely effective.