Mobile Tech Updates

New Phone video reviews


Samsung Behold 2


Droid vs Iphone


Samsung Moment








Google Mobile App
Allows you to use voice search on your smart phone.   
Get it at Google Mobile Apps

Updates

Nokia N900 Shipped out yesterday.
The N900 is a phone that is being talked about all over the web.  We should be seeing some video reviews coming soon.  This phone is operating on a mobile version of Linux called Maemo.

Send out text for savings at Walmart

Mobile Tech Updates ~ Droid, apps, & charging pads

Panel takes a look at content.

Viewership of mobile tv will expand from todays 54 million to 300 milliion by 2013.  It is estimated that consumers will spend $630 million on mobile applications and content by 2012.  Youtubes uploads to iPhone went up 400 percent.  We are starting to see more and more large companies jump on board with mobile marketing.  Directtv has jumped on board releasing two products.  A DVR scheduler and an app that allows you to watch NFL games live on your smartphone. 

Some other companies discussed by the panel.

Rubberduck – Provides end to end solution to deliver mobile video solutions. 

Spinvox – Turns voice and turns it to text. 

Device Anywhere – Allows developers to test apps on many different phone applications.

Open Mobile Discussion

Where are we headed with open mobile?  It raises some great questions. Rite now all of us know about app. Stores and how they work.  Will people continue to download apps or will wireless providers place specific apps on the front panel of phones that will be easier for consumers to use.  Will this replace the demand of so many apps doing the same things?  Will the app stores survive as people learn to use their browsers to find new applications that they can download to their phones?  We also have fragmentation with so many different apps being used by people we consider our network.    Will all of these applications find a bridge connected by the operators network?

Mobile Operators, vendors join forces on LTE services.

What is LTE?  LTE stands for Long Term Evolution.  It is  4G in short and is the enhancements that increases the capacity and speed of mobile telephone networks.

Handsets

Droid – I actually went to Verizon for the release of this phone.  What really impressed me was google voice search.  After pressing voice search you just state what you are looking for and droid will pull that information for you. I tested this feature by stating “nearest hospital”.  The phone processed for about 5 minutes and then showed me a google map with pins of all hospitals in the area.  I was then able to choose if I wanted to contact, see their website, or get directions.  Naturally I selected directions and about 5 seconds later I ws able to

Verizon is promising tethering for droid.  This of course at an additional charge.

            Five features missing from Droids GPS

            Droid video review.

            Great Video that shows all of the screens in the Droid.

Nokia unveils 5 new low end phone models priced from $30.

Iphone is going to be sold by Radio Shack

Rumor is that there is a smaller version of the iphone coming to Verizon.

Sprint launches Samsung Moment.

HTC Hero is released at Verizon as the Eries.

Accessories

Electronic Mats can sense when the battery is full and stop sending charge to the device.  They cost between $80 and $100.  You also need to purchase additional parts to attach to cellphones this runs between $30 and $35.  Electronic mats claim that they eliminate power that is wasted when devices adapters are left plugged in.

Google

Eight telecom companies behind google voice.

Business Software vendors have begun building on google wave platform.

5 google wave gadgets that you will most likely use.

Google voice has 1.4m subscribers

Misc.

Health Videos on Demand for AT&T Uverse.  What a great concept.  Taking bit videos and making it available on demand. 

Ebooks is now out numbering the  amount of games for submission to the apple app. Store.

Verizon offers prepaid wireless service for laptop users.

Daily plan of $15, weekly plan for $30 and monthly plan for $50.  All plans have a cap for data usage.  The modem will begin selling at Verizon stores and Best Buy beginning November 16^th.

HD Voice

We have HD for all of our other technology, were is my HD voice. Follow this link to experience what HD Voice sounds like in comparison to what is offered today.  If you would like to learn more feel free to play the webinar, otherwise for examples of HD voice click on the clip links.

Maemo Linux OS for phones

I found this article interesting as it states that one of every two smartphones sold use symbian as the operating system.  This is the first time I have heard about Maemo and am excited to see what Maemo will bring to the table with so many OS available.

 Target taps Radioshack to run cell phone depts..

Target is getting into the game and Radio Shack is their MVP choice to run these kiosks. These kiosks have been branded as Bullseys Mobile Solutions. 

Nokia pulls the plug on N-Gage

Do not expect the disappearance of games.  The n-gage was a separate store for games and now Nokia has killed the N-Gage and switched gaming to the OVI store.

I have decided on my new phone

Well I have decided after watching the video for the new HTC Sense concepts for phone functions that the HTC Hero must be my new phone. From what I have read it will operate on Android and by far is the best Android product seen to date.

In other news we know more detail about the unlimited plans being released through tracfone available at Walmart this Sunday. The plan includes text, voice, and data for $45 a month.

More new tech toy articles circulating from the CTIA

Watch phones and the Samsung Mondi.

CTIA and the current Tech of the Mobile Industry.

CTIA Opening

The CTIA Convention was held this past week and I was following the Tweets coming from the convention. Simply amazing that the conference went a different direction this year. Even though you have a ton of booths promoting different pieces of the puzzle, one thing made it's presence known to every attendant. Apps is the biggest thing to hit our industry and its time to scramble to bring them to the market place. Lets think of it like this. You go to the store and purchase a brand new laptop. After unloading it you find out there isn't much that you can do with it. At this point you want to connect the internet and search for software that assists you in your daily goals. These goals might be for career, hobby, entertainment or finance. As you know the list of software is endless and there is always something out there to aid in whatever your goal might be.

In the wireless industry we are also in the same boat. The first step is improving connectivity. We are on a constant search for speed of internet to support our software along with specifications of the phone we are using for ease of processing the software. To resolve the issue of connectivity the FCC announced that it will reallocate as needed to make more spectrum available and improving a tower siting process.

As for the the other end, processing speed the handsets are improving by leaps and bounds. Earlier this year snapdragon released a 1gig microprocessor. This year all of the high end phones released contain an average of 800 mghz. Some of the highlighted phones this year were the Nokia N900, Samsung Mondi (Android), Samsung Moment (windows), Nokia e72 & Surge, Garmin Nuvifone, and the Palm Pixi.

A few of the numbers presented at the CTIA that supports our vision of a world of wireless connectivity is where we are headed.

• Wireless Data Service Revenue ~ For the first 6 months of 2009 $19.4 Billion revenue was generated. That is a 31% increase from 2008.
• Carrier Revenue ~ Wireless Data Revenue accounted for 25% of all wireless revenue. Thats a 38% increase from last year
• Growth ~ Our industry is growing 5 times faster than the overall economy.

Now lets talk about the Buzz going around the CTIA. I saw a posting that mentioned that everyone at the CTIA had a blackberry and an Iphone. Just as we carry the 5800 and e63 it seems that the true power users are using one phone for business (blackberry type phones) and one phone for entertainment (iphone type phones).

The buzz word for the CTIA was Applications, applications, applications. Now we have these cool phones and we know we can make calls, send pictures, and text someone, but what is the next level of the experience. Integrating software into your phone that you are interested in.

Lets look at some of the hottest techs released at the CTIA. Notice that most items revolve around additions to our basic phone package we offer.

Community

At the CTIA the $1 million dollars was donated to one economy. The donation was to launch a project that will train the youth of lower income areas about wireless technology and what it can do for their community. The projects longterm goal is to take these lessons and duplicate them within communities.

Explanation of One Economy goals.

Marketing

Mobile advertising is growing. Leading brands are looking for ways to advertise on mobile platforms.

The transition is at a beginning but we are trending to mobile advertising. Imagine a world where your favorite bakery can send out tweets to your phone to notify you that they are taking blueberry muffins out of the oven. On the opposite end imagine if when tracking calories for a diet all you had to do was take a picture of the item sku and it would register calorie intake.

The Future

LTE is coming~ What is LTE (long term evolution)? It is the next step of wireless internet deployment to better access. If you are interested in learning more there is a course that is running in Madison WI about LTE. The link at the beginning of this paragraph will lead you to registration.

Here is a great video that explains where AT&T will use LTE to their advantage. They also make some great points about why it is important to plan on deploying LTE.

Lets talk a little bit about Google Voice. No one is really sure what Google plans on developing from this technology. They have created an online server that allows you to pick a number and use it as your main number. When you are called on this one number it will then forward the call to multiple lines that you have it set up for. When testing google voice I set it up with my home phone number as well as my mobile number. Both phones would then ring displaying the original callers number. I then have the option of answering the call or allowing it to route to voice mail. If a message is left google voice will then transcript my message and text it to me in addition giving me online access to the transcripts. I can also play the message and text or call the number directly from my computer. Here is a video that will show you an example of google voice.

Speaking of Google I think it is important for everyone in the technology sector to pay close attention to Google Wave. I recently received beta access to Wave and it is incredible. I am going to post a few links to google wave videos.

Simple overview of Google Wave.

Google wave used for customer service.

Google wave used for conferencing.

Google Voice Rocks

Usually I would hesitate at the thought of changing my phone number. But today I started my Google Voice account and it rocks. It's so smooth it's not even funny. I spent most of the day organizing it along with switching everything over to Google. They have definitely won my dedication.