hitting the wire*

Reducing your iPhone's mobile data greed

Came across this gem of an iPhone app - http://www.onavo.com

I am continually getting SMSs from Vodacom telling me I've used 80% of my data allowance when I'm less than 50% of the way through the month. Now that I've upgraded to an iPhone 4 and my son has taken over my 3G, the 3G is tearing through his prepaid airtime like there's no tomorrow and I have no idea which apps are at fault and why it is nibbling away at his airtime while he is asleep!

Enter a bunch of clever Israeli's (who else?) who have developed a seriously clever way of saving you some money on your mobile data bill (a "cloud-based compression service, located in datacenters operated by Amazon Web Services"). I've only just installed it on the Iphone 4 and am looking forward to when they've resolved the bug which is holding back the 3G, but the way the app installs, the web site, the look and feel are all pretty impressive. If they live up their promises, I'm going to be happy to pay for the app in future. I could see this becoming a "must-have" for every iPhone!

Some example screens from their website:

Now, as long as the networks don't start playing silly buggers...

Telecoms

2D barcodes and .mobi

In preparing some posters for the CSSE software expo, we were introduced to a fascinating new(ish) technology that is being used across the world to make sharing web addresses and information far easier and to utilize the power of the internet. We thought we'd would share it with you, as it is the first time we've have seen it.

All you need is a camera phone. Many of the newer phones include a bar Code scanner but if yours doesn't, you can download the software to install on your cell phone from http://www.neoreader.com. (On the newer Nokia phones you'll find it under your Tools menu). If you have a Blackberry, you can use the NeoReader but it is a little clunky - you could also try ScanLife from the Blackberry Applications available from the AppWorld store on your phone (free)
Once you have the software on your phone - start up the Barcode scanner and point your phone at the image above. Your phone should home in on the image or simply allow you to take a snapshot of the image. The code will then be scanned... then you can follow the link to a website. You can also save the link, send it to someone else or simply make a note of it. You can put almost anything into these bar codes (eg. messages or phone numbers) and they are easily scannable. Apparently this technology is being used extensively overseas - on bus shelters or train stations to give the time of the next bus or train, on ads to give the location of the nearest outlet, at places of interest to give more information. Clever! With this and the likes of geo-location all sorts of possibilities emerge.

Software

Radio over IP - recapturing the spirit of the Internet

(I'm being lazy here and reproducing the blog post I've just done for Umoya, but as there are probably a good few HTW readers who don't frequent the Umoya site, it might be the first time you see it.)

Users of the internet can thank the US military for its existence. Advanced Research Projects Agency Network or ARPANET as it was known then, was born in the early 1960’s when J.C.R. Licklider, then head of the Behavioral Sciences and Command and Control programs at ARPA, the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, set out to design and build what he termed an "Intergalactic Computer Network".

"For each of these three terminals, I had three different sets of user commands. So if I was talking online with someone at S.D.C. and I wanted to talk to someone I knew at Berkeley or M.I.T. about this, I had to get up from the S.D.C. terminal, go over and log into the other terminal and get in touch with them. I said, oh, man, it's obvious what to do: If you have these three terminals, there ought to be one terminal that goes anywhere you want to go. That idea is the ARPANET." [Bob Taylor]

It was a common myth that the architects of ARPANET set out not only to ‘bridge’ disparate computer communications systems, but to make the network resilient under disaster situations like a nuclear attack where a communications node had been destroyed. The internet protocol did provide the building blocks for creating a cheap yet resilient network, but this was not the primary aim.

Recently, Umoya was asked to consider expanding its uniti product to solve a major issue faced by Disaster Management during the Confederations Cup; that of different state agencies not being able to communicate across departments. A SAPS two-way radio mere yards away was unreachable from an EMS radio, which in turn was not compatible with a SANDF radio. Different terminals, functional silos, islands cut off from each other. Not good for effective collaboration.

Over the last few months, Umoya have successfully demonstrated a technology known as Radio over IP, where it is possible to link not only disparate radio handsets and talk-groups, but to link fixed and mobile telephones to radio talk groups. All over IP. A Disaster Management team member sitting in a Joint Operations Centre in Joburg can link a VoIP enabled netbook in George to an NSRI radio talk-group in PE and an EMS radio talk-group in Bloemfontein; using and “drag and drop” application. Not only that, but a manager in his car can monitor and participate in that conversation from his cell phone.VoIP has always had a special place in my heart for the way it is liberating the telecoms voice market. RoIP in these scenarios is for me even more exciting. Coupled with the benefits of uniti as a unified communications platform, this offering looks to add significant value in managing the 2010 Soccer World Cup more effectively.

#RadioOverIP FTW!

IT, Telecoms

Are Vodacom blocking VoIP? Nope - it's AT&T and Apple!

Warning: This is a rant.

I'm on the road today, between a client site in Westlake and the home office when I discover that Vodacom have decided I don't need to talk to anyone. I call my wife 3 times in a row to hear her repeating "HELLO?" in more and more exasperated tones while I bellow fruitlessly into my headset, then rip the headset out of the phone just in case it is on the fritz, not the network. Nada. No joy.

A colleague calls me. Same story.

So I think, no problem, I have Skype and Fring on this pocket rocket-phone, I'll just call via Skype-Out.

Yawellnofine. First this:

Which irritates me intensely, so I think maybe Fring... :

at which stage I'm beyond irritated. If they could have heard me, I'd have called 111 just to vent at them. I resort to an SMS to inform wife and colleague that I'll call when I reach a landline. By the time I'm at the office, Vodacom are allowing me to make calls which involve two-way speech again. How nice of them. They charge us far more than they should for calls, duck and dive when they're pressured to reduce prices, and then it appears they block us from making use of VoIP over 3G.

I need to look into what they're admitting to here and what right they have to do this. Probably find that hidden in their Ts&Cs they have taken the right to dictate what I may and may not do with my phone. If so, that is just wrong. #vodacom #brandfail

Update (2009/10/15)

Thanks to Tim Keller for insight into the real problem here. Typical of the arrogance displayed by the likes of Apple and AT&T, we're impacted. I'm sure Vodacom were not complaining though.

Telecoms, Telecoms

Google's Android vs Apple's iPhone - an open and closed matter?

Just spotted this one, courtesy of Bretton Vine.

If I had not sorted my mobile/mac synching problem, I'd have been tempted to take a harder look at the iPhone before now.  "Android" though...?  Not a very sexy name or look, but then this caught my eye:

But here’s the thing: Android, and the G1, are open. Open, open, open, in ways that would make Steve Jobs cringe. You can unlock this phone after 90 days—that is, use any SIM card from any carrier in it. The operating system is free and open-source, meaning that any company can make changes without consulting or paying Google. The App store is completely open, too; T-Mobile and Google say they won’t censor programs that they don’t approve of, as Apple does with the iPhone store. Yes, even if someone writes a Skype-like program that lets people avoid using up T-Mobile cellular voice minutes.

Android is not as beautiful or engaging as the iPhone’s software, but it’s infinitely superior to Windows Mobile—and it’s open. The G1 is only the first phone to use it, the first of many; it’s going to be an exciting ride.

synchronising your Nokia and your Mac.

For some time now (in fact, since I switched to a Mac in Jan 2008) I have been trying to get reliable synch'ing happening between my MacBook Pro (iCal, Address Book, etc) and my Nokia E65.

The pain an suffering has been acute.  I first tried some Nokia software - failed dismally.  Then I paid for FoneLink from Nova Media - throught I'd got it right, but then began having issues with the bluetooth pairing, duplicated contacts on my phone (6 of each of half my contacts) - no pattern to give me a clue where the issue was.  A few support mails later which really never got to the bottom of the problem, and I was losing contacts - off both phone and Mac.  Frustration alley.

Then Ted from Bridges of Hope suggested Missing Synch.  I downloaded the trial version, but never quite got it 100%.  I'm not sure why I was convinced the full version was going to work, but I bought it online.  I'm now as happy as a pig in that soft and smelly stuff they love to wallow in...? ;)

It has been flawlessly synch'ing contacts, calendar, sms', downloading pics and movies off the E65, uploading files I leave in the appropriate directory, each time I switch on bluetooth on the phone and hit the "synch" button.

If you are looking for a reliable tool to synch a Symbian based phone to a Mac - I'd endorse this piece of code!

At last.  Now someone needs to tell me where I find and app the synch's Thunderbird's contacts with the Mac's address book? ;)

855,000 handsets down the loo

Total Telecom, getting into silly season mood, sent me this frivolous gem:

A new phone you can really dig
If you don't fancy the latest in mobile Web surfing technology this Christmas, or if you're exceptionally clumsy, there is an alternative.
JCB, famed makers of 10-tonne diggers used the world over, have brought out a ruggedised branded handset, presumably for big boys who love Tonka toys.
What's more, rather than a big boring list of technical specifications, such as whether or not it's 3G and how many megapixels the camera has, the JCB phone sells along different lines, like the fact that it's waterproof, dustproof and shockproof.
Although it might also have something to do with the fact that it's 2G, and doesn't have a camera.
Aptly called the Toughphone, it comes in a yellow and black design, and as well as being available from traditional outlets, it will also be sold in equipment hire shops from February 2008.
Its sturdy design is bound to appeal to U.K. consumers: without going into too much detail, Brits drop 855,000 handsets down the toilet every year, generating a whopping £342 million in insurance and replacement costs.

That's one every 36 seconds!

Not quite amAzed, but impressed.

Two weeks back I mentioned I'd been approached to blog about a GPS you can load onto your cell phone, the amAze GPS.  I suggested they let me have a unit to play with before I did so.  Here are my impressions.

Conclusion.

For those who don't want to wade through the detail, I'll start at the end shall I?  I was not blown away by this GPS system, but once I'd got the hang of how to operate it, used it a few times and I sat back to consider the value for money, I had to admit it is.  Value for money that is. 

It finds what you're looking for (if you're not vague) and it takes you there. To within metres.  At a fraction of the price.  (OK, so it did fail me once in Jozi, but I was warned by my host that not even her husband's Garmin can find their street in Bryanston!)  Just don't run out of phone battery while blindly following the GPS!  Quiet panic.

How it all works.

The software is free and the little bluetooth GPS unit is R500.00.  So where is the catch you may ask?  As I understand it from David Lehman of Phoneit GPS, the plan is to link location based advertising to the system, in the form of banner ads (going to be a challenge on a small screen!) and an opening screen sponsor will fund the system.  The ads will appear during times when information is called (via GPRS/HSDPA) from the back end server during an address search for example, and they will last 10 seconds. They could be both visual and verbal with the capability to click and view the profile of the advertiser and even navigate to their web site.  They do not intend targetting the ads at specific LSM or interest groupings.

The software works on a range of phones.  If your phone has an onboard GPS (like the Nokia N95), you're away at no cost, if not, it will work with almost any Bluetooth GPS unit – Phoneit GPS have apparently used Holux, On course, Global Top, QStarz and a few others.  

You won't be able to buy an ad-free version per se, but you can create a closed user group where they will white label the product and allow a specific group to receive only the white label sponsors message to his specific user group.  Now there's a corporate gift with an ROI! ;)  A closed user group rate is related to the number of users and would be negotiated based on the customization required – standard sponsor rate for opening screen as example is R1.50 per active user per month.

The experience.

Setup was easy.  As long as you were reasonably specific about the suburb you were heading for (specifying "Cape Town" just did not cut it!), it was not too difficult to find a location.  There is a postal code field which helps a lot! The voice prompt was not irritating and gave due warning of changes of course.  It did not interrupt phone calls, but overrode whatever other app I was using at the time.  Prompts were generally timely and unambiguous.  Deviating from the planned route caused furious recalculations which took far too long over GPRS (a good minute before it was directing me again, which had me missing turns in Jozi!). 3G/HSDPA a must. 

Oops.

I thought the unit had been remotely disabled when the evaluation week was up, but was told I'd be the first person to have bust one or had one fail.  Sheepishly, I discovered I'd unwittingly disabled bluetooth on my phone! <smacks forehead> 

Oh dear.

One irritation that hit me early on was the weird AC plug on the power adapter.  Fortunately I have one of the neat little gadgets which converts just about any known international plug format to the familiar one we know here in SA.  The CD did not have much on it from a usefulness point of view except a demo that needed bluetooth (which my laptop does not - long story - don't ask!).  The 'manual' is all of 3.5 pages long - the English portion that is. The website is hosted overseas and response times are not great.

Set up.

You have 2 options for getting going; a web based form to complete, download software and install via PC/phone; the other is kicked off by SMS'ing a key word to a +44 number.  I resorted to the SMS route and have to say it was painless and it was a matter minutes before I had the app installed and was playing with it.

Navigating - the app.

Large icons.  Fairly simple choices. 
"Search" - which allows you to enter an address (drop downs seem to be limited to names it learns from you), keywords or even a weather forecast request.
"Calculate route" - allows you to specify start and end and get an abbreviated route description and even a demo 'drive through' of the route.  The demo could move a little faster...
"Map" - which allows you to see either a street map view, an aerial photo view or a mix of both.  You can zoom in to "house" level or out to country level.
"Favourites" - which allows you to save locations for future use.  You're limited to 10 locations though, which could be a bit frustrating.
"Tools" - allows you to adjust various settings like language and metrics,  scan for bluetooth GPS units in range, and the like.

"Help" - Some basic user instructions for the above choices.

Hidden costs.

Marc Forrest warned me that it might "chow bandwidth".  I monitored my billing online and could see nothing that made me worried.  I tried switching between "arrows" mode (where the display only gives you the next turning / route choice) and "map" mode (where you can see the compass icon marking your position moving through the map) and it was noticeable that "map" mode cost me more; and here we're talking R2.00 for a trip instead of R0.20.  Bear in mind this was using GPRS and not 3G/HSDPA.  ('Your mileage may vary' as they say!)

Navigating - the route.

With a bunch of noisy kids in the car, it was necessary to use the   hands-free.  Without the kids, leaving the phone (in my case a Nokia E65) in the dash and following the leading lady was just fine.  Once you'd identified your destination using a street number, keyword and if possible a postal code, it was a simple matter to tell it to take you there and wait for the prompts.  The routes tended to not always be enitrely logical when I was in familialr territory, but having set the app for "fastest" and not "shortest" route it is not surprising.  Deviating from route usually initiated much furious route recalculations, including "make a U-turn at the first available opportunity".

If I was specific, it was accurate to within 20 metres.

Will I buy this?

I have to say that until I had to drive somewhere I had never been before, I had no real need of it.  But when it came to finding Linen Drawer, the guys in Paarl who are donating linen to one of our CSI projects, or the way to Little Tuscany guest house in Jozi, it was a boon.  I could see a company handing this out to Sales reps and field techs particularly if there was some way of securely loading site info into a drop-down.  I'm sure the Garmin's and Tom-tom's of the world (and here I need to say I have never used them) have fancier features etc, but this found where I needed to go and got me there.  At R500.00, I may well buy one and leave it the cubby hole for one of those "lost" days.

The ultimate test?

The good people at Phoneit GPS have agreed to donate the unit I have here to the Hout Bay Volunteer Ambulance Unit who tell me their biggest challenge is always their way to the patient without getting lost.  So I'll be touching base with the dedicated paramedics in a month or so to see what difference it has made to their lives and those of their patients.

I'm going to be quite sorry to hand over this little sucker, especially as a great idea for a location-based service I'd love in my car daily has just hit me and I am compelled to pursue it... ;)

that's me. looking for myself.

Is your mobile phone bugging you?

Bretton picked up this story in c|net news.com.

The FBI seem not only to be able to turn on your mobile phone's microphone remotely and use it to monitor any conversations within range, but they are allowed to do so and use the evidence in court!

The technique is called a "roving bug".

"Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off." Some handsets can't be fully powered down without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set.

...

Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)

...

Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their cell phones.

...

Malicious hackers have followed suit. A report last year said Spanish authorities had detained a man who write a Trojan horse that secretly activated a computer's video camera and forwarded him the recordings.

"

Can you imagine confidential business meetings from now on where everyone is expected to haul out their phones and pull out the battery, leaving both lying on the table?!

Technically, very neat, but from a right to privacy point of view, seriously frightening.

A GPS on your phone for R500.

Too good to be true?  We'll see.  You see, I have the opportunity to play with a neat looking little gadget that looks more like a futuristic dinkytoy car than a GPS.  In return, I'll blog on my experience.

Last week I got an email out of the blue from a bunch called AmazeGPS asking if I would be prepared to blog about the launch of their GPS system in South Africa. Being a sucker for new technology, having eyed out GPS' for a while but found them too pricey, and yet being a bit suspect of deals "too good to be true", I agreed as long as I could evaluate one.

Today, a box arrived via courier.  This sleek little gizmo nestled inside along with a 'handbook', CD, AC charger and Car charger.

I'll do a detailed review once I've put it through it's paces, but suffice it to say, I'm impressed that I did not curse once before I had a pleasant female voice giving me the first verbal cue to a trip from my front gate to work.  Considering every delivery person (including the local Scooters Pizzas guys) cannot find our house, that was heart-warming!

Let's see how we do from here shall we?