Carl Ford
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Emerging Technology
4G - Power Car
June 5, 2009
Have I mentioned, my obsession with battery. I do not consider myself a hog on power, but my phones are constantly running out of battery. Yesterday's trip did not have the blogging I expected, because it did not have the power.
So Radio Shack got to sell me a 350W car adapter today that now has my two computers, my two phones and the MiFi attached. Pretty amazing. Of course if i don't turn it all off when the car is off, the other triple A in my life will be coming to visit.
But I am up and running right now and it only took converting my car into a small office, or maybe a power station.
Yesterday, the discussions were very insightful, and I think the real story in QoS maybe the Power to Signal ability. Right now, with everything attached, the only limitation I have is VZ's bandwidth limit. But in the past, the GPhone has died when watching a YouTube video.
I have yet to go in dual mode on phone that will the subject of another blog. But the efforts I have made to make sure I have another power suggests to me that we have a long way to go. A lot more evolution in this wireless broadband world is ahead of us.
So Radio Shack got to sell me a 350W car adapter today that now has my two computers, my two phones and the MiFi attached. Pretty amazing. Of course if i don't turn it all off when the car is off, the other triple A in my life will be coming to visit.
But I am up and running right now and it only took converting my car into a small office, or maybe a power station.
Yesterday, the discussions were very insightful, and I think the real story in QoS maybe the Power to Signal ability. Right now, with everything attached, the only limitation I have is VZ's bandwidth limit. But in the past, the GPhone has died when watching a YouTube video.
I have yet to go in dual mode on phone that will the subject of another blog. But the efforts I have made to make sure I have another power suggests to me that we have a long way to go. A lot more evolution in this wireless broadband world is ahead of us.
Massive Mobility Finally
June 3, 2009
Scott and I just had lunch and we were next to a Verizon Wireless store. And we got to talking about Andy Abramson's blog about VZ's MiFi service. My connectivity has been for S%^# for a while and these last few days has made a dramatic change in my ability to be part of the 4G world. So this is my first blog taking advantage of my new device.
Earlier in the day Scott and I were on a conference call with both of our cellphones, I joked that we needed an ip pbx in the car, or a better speaker phone on the bluetooth device.
In the move from the west coast to the east coast of Florida, I am getting the T-Mobile@home service for my old number. This has also given me ATT DSL. My ID with them works for all their hot spots (as if I was not going to McDonald's anyway).
I expect my blogging to dramatically increase.
Earlier in the day Scott and I were on a conference call with both of our cellphones, I joked that we needed an ip pbx in the car, or a better speaker phone on the bluetooth device.
In the move from the west coast to the east coast of Florida, I am getting the T-Mobile@home service for my old number. This has also given me ATT DSL. My ID with them works for all their hot spots (as if I was not going to McDonald's anyway).
I expect my blogging to dramatically increase.
Google Competes again with Email
May 29, 2009
Catch the Wave from Google, and you can see the dilemma we face as move to 4G. First of all lets give them credit. The Rasmussen's brothers and their team (aka google maps leaders) have developed a document strategy they call wave.
These waves are a federated document management flow. For those of us with history, this could sound like Lotus Notes, but on the web its so much more. This system on the web makes near real time communication incredibly fast. If you watch the presentation its clear they are struggling getting their arms around the ways to use this tool, but in effect the way I have come to view this is they have made collaborative webbing as opposed to email thats viewed on the web this webmail moves in and out of paradigms, such as twitter, social networks, etc.
But the real power of making the document live is the way that the security is implemented. If federation works as well as they claim, a new model for online communication will be delivered. As carriers look to roll out 4G as a data network Web-centric services like Wave may be compelling consumers than any new device.
Reference: http://www.waveprotocol.org/
These waves are a federated document management flow. For those of us with history, this could sound like Lotus Notes, but on the web its so much more. This system on the web makes near real time communication incredibly fast. If you watch the presentation its clear they are struggling getting their arms around the ways to use this tool, but in effect the way I have come to view this is they have made collaborative webbing as opposed to email thats viewed on the web this webmail moves in and out of paradigms, such as twitter, social networks, etc.
But the real power of making the document live is the way that the security is implemented. If federation works as well as they claim, a new model for online communication will be delivered. As carriers look to roll out 4G as a data network Web-centric services like Wave may be compelling consumers than any new device.
Reference: http://www.waveprotocol.org/
IMS - It Means SIP
May 27, 2009
Okay, the conversations today, are starting to freak me out. While many declared IMS dead a while ago, the carriers are now ready to talk about SIP without mentioning IMS.
For awhile it was stated that IMS was the way to enable SIP into the legacy network. Now what has evolved is IMS may be enabled in some aspect of the infrastructure, but if you want to talk services, you can stop the code and just say SIP to everyone now.
Pretty amazing.
But dont think the story is over for IMS. Content Delivery, Virtualization, Legacy integration, etc. It all points to some aspect of IMS. We could claim that IMS is like a couch, it means sectional. After all no one claims they are implementing everything, but almost everyone thinks they are implementing some aspect of IMS. So at the end of the day IMS means alot of things to alot of people, but new services is not one of them.
For awhile it was stated that IMS was the way to enable SIP into the legacy network. Now what has evolved is IMS may be enabled in some aspect of the infrastructure, but if you want to talk services, you can stop the code and just say SIP to everyone now.
Pretty amazing.
But dont think the story is over for IMS. Content Delivery, Virtualization, Legacy integration, etc. It all points to some aspect of IMS. We could claim that IMS is like a couch, it means sectional. After all no one claims they are implementing everything, but almost everyone thinks they are implementing some aspect of IMS. So at the end of the day IMS means alot of things to alot of people, but new services is not one of them.
Verizon's LTE=Late Ten Evolution
May 14, 2009
Verizon's having Qualcomm fall on its sword earlier in the year with the announcement that LTE was delayed; Verizon's restated their commercial rollout as last half of 2010. If you recall, they were aggressively saying 2009 in 2008 and now they say 2010 in 2009. Now on the positive side, they are going to trial this year. Let's give them credit for pushing the effort ahead of the vendors.
Terre Star's Satellite Solutions
April 7, 2009
EB Software (Elektrobit Corporation) and Terre Star demoed a prototype satellite phone that was dual mode with cellular. It raised some interesting questions for me. Unlike the expensive satellite phones of other companies, this was an incredibly elegant footprint, about the size of any other smartphone, with all the normal bells and whistles.
This system is the right size for the future and it's a guiding light in the path ahead for devices in the future and makes it hard for nomads to not be available. This phone will allow users to seamlessly and securely stay connected to both the satellite and terrestrial components of the TerreStar network.
Additionally, the system takes advantage of a roaming relationship with ATT to provide an augmented footprint. The design can be white labeled and has value in a number of situations including vertical markets. It supports video and has low power constraints.
Terre Star is building North America's first 4G IP-enabled, next generation mobile communications network over an integrated satellite-terrestrial system. TerreStar expects to be the first to offer customer-designed products and applications over a fully optimized 4G IP network.
EB is a company of 1700 employees, and is a leading developer of embedded technology solutions for automotive and wireless industries.
This system is the right size for the future and it's a guiding light in the path ahead for devices in the future and makes it hard for nomads to not be available. This phone will allow users to seamlessly and securely stay connected to both the satellite and terrestrial components of the TerreStar network.
Additionally, the system takes advantage of a roaming relationship with ATT to provide an augmented footprint. The design can be white labeled and has value in a number of situations including vertical markets. It supports video and has low power constraints.
Terre Star is building North America's first 4G IP-enabled, next generation mobile communications network over an integrated satellite-terrestrial system. TerreStar expects to be the first to offer customer-designed products and applications over a fully optimized 4G IP network.
EB is a company of 1700 employees, and is a leading developer of embedded technology solutions for automotive and wireless industries.
What Happens in Vegas, Didn't Stay Very Long
April 6, 2009
In my opinion, CTIA, which took place in Vegas last week, suffered quite a bit for a number of reasons. Now that CTIA is no longer fighting the battle with GSMA, the event was suffering from survivor's guilt.
The show could have been about the iPhone. It seemed that anyone and everyone (except Docomo) walking the aisles of CTIA was carrying an iPhone. Apple did not participate in CTIA and beyond the announcement that Skype is now on the iPhone, there was no Apple iPhone presence at the event. Without the iPhone presence at the event, applications became the subtext of the show. RIM announced its' new app store along with a series of new partnerships with content providers. Although the show was active and there was obviously business activity taking place, there was no break out news or activity taking place. The most happening thing was the FierceWireless party!
The show could have been about the iPhone. It seemed that anyone and everyone (except Docomo) walking the aisles of CTIA was carrying an iPhone. Apple did not participate in CTIA and beyond the announcement that Skype is now on the iPhone, there was no Apple iPhone presence at the event. Without the iPhone presence at the event, applications became the subtext of the show. RIM announced its' new app store along with a series of new partnerships with content providers. Although the show was active and there was obviously business activity taking place, there was no break out news or activity taking place. The most happening thing was the FierceWireless party!
Skype
April 2, 2009
Here in Vegas, I have been doing interviews with a variety of companies and talking with friends.
One observation I have is that it may be that all 10M iPhones are on the floor here. I am shocked how many people have an iPhone. They may not partner with Apple, but they certainly are impacted by it.
Skypes annoucement yesterday of its iPhone application was just icing on iPhone's cake. Their party celibrated their being number 1 in the app store and the promise of coming to the blackberry.
An Interesting story, is that Skype can make a wifi call but not a 3G call.
So who is more important in this story today? Skype or Apple?
The reason I ask is because of the best conversations I have been having asks the question does the App Store represent the future?
What does it represent to the future.
As the issues about open networking get blurred between the carriers and handsets manufacturers, the need for the Wireless Carterphone decision is apparent.
And based on the number of iPhones I saw here, I am sure the carriers get the issue. Now can they embrace the change?
One observation I have is that it may be that all 10M iPhones are on the floor here. I am shocked how many people have an iPhone. They may not partner with Apple, but they certainly are impacted by it.
Skypes annoucement yesterday of its iPhone application was just icing on iPhone's cake. Their party celibrated their being number 1 in the app store and the promise of coming to the blackberry.
An Interesting story, is that Skype can make a wifi call but not a 3G call.
So who is more important in this story today? Skype or Apple?
The reason I ask is because of the best conversations I have been having asks the question does the App Store represent the future?
What does it represent to the future.
As the issues about open networking get blurred between the carriers and handsets manufacturers, the need for the Wireless Carterphone decision is apparent.
And based on the number of iPhones I saw here, I am sure the carriers get the issue. Now can they embrace the change?
The Smartphone OS Market
March 26, 2009
Storm is lagging behind Bold in the RIM world. It maybe the navigation issues are still problematic.
The Soft Truth about the Hardware.
March 18, 2009
When ever I talk to application developers about communications solutions the discussion about the web versus the phone developers is emphasized. Millions of Web developers compared to a few thousands of phone specific developers. The point being that of course the innovation is with the web.
If you look under the hood the chips inside for the web are the same on your PC. If the developers start on a PC Chip, it's kind of logical to expect that devices built on PC Chips have a head start.
It also means a shift in the way to look at innovation. For example, if you have a new codec developed in software that you built on a pc Chip and the cost to go to market, start a trial are incremental if the devices are also pc chips.
Ultimately, innovation then is not about the store, it's just about the Internet
If you look under the hood the chips inside for the web are the same on your PC. If the developers start on a PC Chip, it's kind of logical to expect that devices built on PC Chips have a head start.
It also means a shift in the way to look at innovation. For example, if you have a new codec developed in software that you built on a pc Chip and the cost to go to market, start a trial are incremental if the devices are also pc chips.
Ultimately, innovation then is not about the store, it's just about the Internet
