3GSM
Blackberry’s go dark and users go beserk
Feb 13th
Blackberry service went down for about 12 hours yesterday and once again the wolves were nipping at RIM’s jugular. Some don’t seem to believe it was due to a software upgrade as that is just too similar to the 2007 outage. Others just want to vent their anger because they have come to depend on this service and don’t want to think it as unreliable in any way. I personally think that 28 hours of downtime in 8+ years is a pretty impressive track record and just indicates how reliable they have been.
And yet I kept looking to the screen hoping to see a flood of backlogged emails coming through, and yet nothing happened. I ponder what might have happened if the outage had lasted much longer to not only me but to our nations capitol where these devices would need to be surgically detached from most users. Would it be like the Old Testament, real wrath-of-God type stuff? With fire and brimstone coming down from the skies? Would rivers and seas begin to boil? Possibly a start of forty years of darkness? Would there be earthquakes and volcanoes… and would the dead begin rising from the grave? Perhaps even dogs and cats would start living together and thus create mass hysteria. Probably not, but hey its kinda fun to write about politicians being completely lost without instant access to corporate and government email systems.
Hey it wasn’t all bad, it gave power users the opportunity to get one of those BlackBerry Massages that all the kids are talking about. No word on if a happy ending is included but it can’t hurt to ask.
Mobile Phone Insider Websites
Feb 4th
There are many a blog on the mobile industry around the old internet tubes and they all have opinions pertaining to their personal tastes, this being one of them. They serve the purpose of being both informative and entertaining, without them we would be in the dark about all things shiny and new and that would be a great disservice for people that love their mobile phones.
Sometimes though I tend to delve a bit deeper into the information that these sites avoid, the statistical, financial, and historical information that fascinates me. I am a student of the wireless industry and a big proponent of the philosophy of ‘how can we know where we are going if we don’t know where we’ve been.’
With that preamble out of the way, I present a few sites that I enjoy for their dedication to all things mobile:
A website for the GSMA, the global trade association that represents 700 GSM mobile phone operators and 200 phone manufacturers across 218 countries. Promotes all things GSM, the global mobile phone technology that provides service to over 2.6 billion users. Great resource for both the history of the mobile industry and what is currently happening including innovations such as:
- Pay Buy Mobile - Turning your phone into a wireless credit card for secure purchases
- Mobile Money Transfer - Mobile Phone Money Transfers with the focus on migrant workers who might not have bank accounts
- 3G For All - Bringing affordable wireless highspeed data and devices to rural areas that have no access to broadband internet services.
Extensive coverage on the 1200 mobile phone markets and the over 300 mobile phone companies of the U.S. They offer news on all things mobile and have an impressive forum that has hundreds of thousands of posts on virtually any topic you could wish. Notable forum topics:
- Cell Tower Hunting Club - Locations and pictures of cell sites around the globe
- Working and Investing in the Wireless Industry - Insight into the inner workings of the mobile industry
- Foro de Celulares en Espaà±ol - A Spanish Language Mobile Phone Forum
The definitive source on all things in the Mobile Phone Industry. The place to be if you need to know about subscriber totals with churn rates for the last quarter along with who the corporate officers are company by company. Notable features of the site include:
- Audible Glossary - An audio guide to all those acronyms the wireless industry loves so much
- Stock Watch - A look at all the wireless companies on the Dow Jones and NASDAQ with customizable chart options
- Wireless Hall of Fame - Recognizes those who have made significant contributions to wireless telecommunications
So there you go, some alternative websites that if read regularly will provide you with more knowledge than the current Senior Vice President of Customer Satisfaction of T-Mobile.
A quick look at the LG Muziq
Jul 9th
LG has updated the Fusic with a 3G version that has all the bells and whistle one might need if you have Sprint.
Technology CDMA (1.9 GHz CDMA PCS, 800 MHz CDMA)
Data Transmission High-Speed EVDO
Dimensions 3.80†(H) x 1.94†(W) x 0.61†(D)
Weight 3.14 oz.
Display Internal LCD: 262K Color TFT, 176 x 220 Pixels, 11 Lines External LCD: 262K Color TFT, 128 x 160 Pixels, 10 Lines
Highlights:
One-Touch Speakerphone
Bluetooth Stereo Headset Support for Listening to Music
Print Photos to a PictBridge Printer via USB
POP3 E-Mail Client
Java 2.0 Support for Content Downloads
64MB microSD card + SD adapter included. Phone supports up to a 4GB memory card (sold separately).
One Sentence Review: A true 3G phone that has a quick intuitive menu, excellent music capabilities (including a good FM transmitter) and stylish design.
All info and images courtesy of LG
Ringtone and Mobile Music Users Getting Bored, And Broke
Feb 19th
For those of you who get a big kick everytime your phone rings and “Riding Dirty” starts playing, and for those of you that have spent way too much for these types of ringtones, you may want to read on. It appears that through a recent report, the ringtone industry may have peaked. According to some fancy bar graphs that you can find here, the overall subscriber rate is slowing down and is projected to dip lower and lower with time.
This comes in the wake of a service, ringtones, that really isn’t very good anyway. One of the many things being bounced back from 3GSM in Spain is the feedback that Music Mobile Downloads, ringtones or full songs, needs some dramatic improvement.
“So many platforms aren’t capable of even the most basic content configurations, like a track bundled with a video. That means buying the same content that would typically be included in an album over a mobile phone would be comparable to having to visit three stores to buy the album, its liner notes and the art workâ€
Even so, there are a few positives to remember, first, the industry itself, mobile ringtones and music downloads to your phone, is a projected to make about 9 billion this year. Still nothing to shake a handset at. Or a stick. Also, you gotta believe that the IPhone being introduced into the market will help things out, alot.
You Tube + Nokia = NokiaTube?
Feb 15th
Its a bad attempt at merging the two names, we know. But, thats a sticky headline if Ive ever seen one! If you dont read hundreds of Cell Phone blogs and news sites like we do, you may not have heard the announcement this week at the 3GSM
Conference in Spain about the collaboration between internet video giant You Tube and Nokia to bring the vid services to your mobile phone.
Some really great pics of the services in action can be found if you follow this link, and one of said pictures is shown below as well. Time will tell if this will help Nokia out, its certainly a big step forward for the cell phone industry and for personal video sites in general, as if they had not already taken giant leaps in the past year. Some of the features being murmured about include being able to watch video in your phone as it downloads, which should appeal to our instant gratification culture. It also is being run on a Safari browser from what we are hearing as well.
Actually, the press release claims that [tag]YouTube Mobile[/tag], with the newly added AVC video format for Nokia compatibility, is available now, so get on it and tell us if the thing works!
3GSM Conference 2007 - What the Blogs Are Saying
Feb 14th
Everyone knows the blogs give the real headlines for the conference, so its no surprise to see some more exciting news here than in our last news headlines posting.
- Engadget is live blogging the conference, for real, and have about 200 posts already up. Complete with watermarked photos from the dozens of contributing writers, we would be lying if we said we werent a little jealous.
- This blog has the conference covered, please tell us what they are saying!
- The Guardian is blogging from Spain as well, and gives us the scoop on this phone for kids from Omego. Ahh, isnt that
cute! Not only is it shaped like a little keychain (kids wont lose that) but it even is displaying British message screen. Better take that one kids, its from Mum! - And you had to expect that the IPhone would be getting mega buzz as well. From the “so-called clones“, to the “IPhone Killers“, to these dudes from LG saying the IPhone is the one cloning! Take that Jobs! Actually, good, bad or copycat, the boys at Apple have to be enjoying this attention, as if they needed it in the first place.
- If the IPhone isnt getting the most buzz, its gotta be the melding of Nokia and YouTube. Bloggers are on top of that here and here.
- Not to be outdone by the Engadget cronies, the Gizmodo team is also filing some reports. One of the more interesting involving this release from Neonode, the N2, which is being billed as the smallest phone at the conference.
3GSM Conference 2007 - In the news headlines
Feb 13th
Its a big time of year for mobile nerds and the 3GSM conference is a milestone for new items to be unveiled. Its kinda like a Star Trek convention for Cell Phone geeks. So, first one to spot a fan dressed as a IPhone wins the, err uhh, the IPhone cake? Lets get serious for a minute, here are some newsworthy headlines about the start of the conference.
- Sundance Film Festival Global Short Film Project presents world premiere of 5 short films for mobile. Hit up this
link for more info on how to access the short films on your phone of choice. - Phones for Health project announced today to help in Aids battle.
- Nokia and YouTube are teaming up to bring video to your cell phone. (more on this to follow)
- Microsoft Unveils Windows Mobile 6
Lots more to follow Live from 3GSM Barcelona (not really, but the web is live, right?)
Live Blogging 3GSM Barcelona,…. from our laptop,…. at our house,… in the US
Feb 13th
Man, would’nt it be great if a blog like ours, a mere week old (almost) was live blogging the 3GSM World Congress from Barcelona!??!?!? Sure it would, but us, and most of you, don’t have that luxury. So, we will do our best to keep you in the loop of whats going down across the pond in Spain at one of the worlds biggest and best mobile communications conferences. There are lots of great posts going up around the blogosphere, and we all know you dont have time to go and read them, so be prepared for a really nice summary after the jump.
