Recently in Wireless Category

Best Buy began selling the Apple iPhone on Sunday, becoming the first U.S. retailer to do so outside of Apple and AT&T stores. The Apple iPhone will be carrier in 970 Best Buy stores. Rich Tehrani and I decided to take a walk to Best Buy which is just down the street from TMC and take some pictures of their display. Rich was also interested in buying an external battery back for his current iPhone since the battery life is atrocious. He especially wants the extra juice so he is prepared for ITEXPO just one week away. No doubt Rich will be being tons of interviews as well as speaking, and he'll be using his iPhone to take photos, record video interviews, and check email. I'm using my Windows Mobile xv6700 phone and plan on using LiveCast to stream portions of ITEXPO.

As we approached the Best Buy store, we noticed the Apple iPhone stickers on both sets of sliding glass doors heavily promoting that they are carrying the iPhone. Both Rich and I snapped some photos. As we entered the store, the "greeter" told us we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the store. So we weren't able to snap photos of the display.

Here's what we learned. One, a Best Buy representative told us that Best Buy is not allowed to advertise the fact that they are carrying the iPhone and said "Apple wants most of the revenue.", implying that Apple wants people to purchase iPhones directly from Apple stores. Very interesting. Well they may not be able to advertise it in TV, newspapers, etc. but they sure are advertising the hell out of the iPhone in the store itself!

The display of the iPhone with a demo unit is front and center as you walk into the store. You are bombarded with pictures of the iPhone and the demo display as soon as your walk in. You can sort of make out the iPhone display and the table containing iPhone brochures and literature in this picture below:

The iPhone accessories display was a bit limited. They didn't offer an external battery pack that Rich was looking for. Offering iPhones in 970 Best Buy retail stores gives Apple a much larger retail footprint than just their Apple & AT&T stores. That's a huge plus for Apple. Also, when people walk into an AT&T store or even an Apple store, they are probably already interested in an iPhone. Customers walking into Best Buy to buy electronics or DVDs, might make a impulse purchase of an iPhone after seeing / playing with the demo unit and all the corresponding iPhone marketing literature.

Rich is blogging our trip to Best Buy as well speak. Be sure to check out his blog for more.

Vodafone and Dell have announced that Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 ultra-mobile notebook will be sold with built-in mobile broadband, exclusively through Vodafone stores and online, and directly from Dell, in key European markets.

Available in late September, the Inspiron Mini 9 is designed to deliver the utmost flexibility, reliability and speed for email and Internet browsing on-the-go without the need for an additional modem. (Or so they say.)

Digital nomads and avid web surfers alike (that's their wording, not mine) will be able to connect anytime, anywhere, whether on the road, or on-the-go, while surfing the Web, chatting with friends or enjoying their favorite online videos and music.

Wonder how long it will take for this to make its way to the U.S.?

And yes, there is a U.S. version that sounds pretty sweet -- reminds me of my old Compaq Contura Aero -- now there was a subnotebook (remember that category?)

There's lots more at Gizmodo.

Qik, the popular live streaming mobile phone video app, is now available on a variety of new Windows Mobile enabled phones including select HTC devices.

New support includes:
• HTC Touch Dual
• HTC Touch Diamond
• HTC TyTn-II
• AT&T Tilt
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

Qik added mobile video blogging to the Apple iPhone just last week. I was actually going to use Qik on my Verizon XV6700 HTC Apache Windows Mobile 6.1 device to live video blog Internet Telephony Expo in 2 weeks - but it isn't supported. While the HTC Apache isn't specifically listed, I'm going to try again in a few minutes to see if it works. Many HTC devices have the same core software. Will let you know how it goes. [crossing fingers]

If I can't get Qik to work, I may just use Livecast on my Windows Mobile at ITEXPO. It works just fine. Although not as well known as Qik, the performance was surprisingly good. I'll have to compare Livecast with Qik once I get Qik working.

Garrett Smith from VoIP Supply emailed me this morning expressing his excitement that "A VoIP pure play keeping up with a who's who of America's top retailers." Specifically, the company Garrett works for was named to CRN Magazine's Fastest Growing retailers listing VoIP Supply's retail business amongst the big boys like Best Buy, New Egg and PC Connection.

Out of the 15 companies listed, only one company posted better growth numbers then VoIP Supply.

A hearty congrats to VoIP Supply team! I'm sure I'll see some of you at Internet Telephony Expo (ITEXPO) in a couple weeks. I'm sure Garrett, who blogs for SmithonVoIP will be at Andy Abramson's Bloggers' Dinner that Andy puts together each show. I'll have to raise a toast to VoIP Supply's success.

Obviously, VoIP is growing like gangbusters for VoIP Supply to beat out other retailers. Relatedly, Rich 3 days ago pointed out that VoIP jobs salaries grew dramatically in Q2 this year.

Rich writes:

OnForce Inc., is an online jobs mart where employers and workers meet on the Internet and agree on an hourly rate and a recent report from the company shows growth in VoIP rates have increased from 1.5 to 1.95 between Q1 and Q2. This basically means VoIP jobs are now paying twice the average of all IT jobs.

Get this... Jobs in the field of printers and point of sale systems (cash registers, etc) command 1/3 the salary of those in VoIP!

If you are in the VoIP space, your time is now. Sure these salary levels may not be this high forever but it is great to see demand and salaries increase so rapidly in a time where news in other markets is generally not as good.

If you are looking to get into the VoIP market or enhance your skills, the time is now. Don't wait... Don't delay.

There are many certifications you can look into and many are very good but only one is offered by TMC -- the company which publishes the only VoIP-related magazine -- Internet Telephony and puts on the world's only IP Communications event ITEXPO...

And of course that would be TMC University. Frankly, you cannot find a better certification anywhere IMHO and as you may have noticed it is tough to be humble when you think your product is so great.

Well said, Rich. And with ITEXPO just 2 weeks away, it's not too late to sign up for some of the training and certification classes. Rich lists a bunch of the classes you can take at the show to polish your VoIP skills & to get in on this fast-growing & lucrative VoIP action.

"A phone is only as good as the network it's on," said a full-page Verizon Wireless newspaper ad on Thursday, lobbing a shot at AT&T's 3G, or third generation, high-speed network.

(And ain't that the truth -- we know if well where I live!)

Apple sold more than a million iPhone 3G cellphones its first weekend -- with some stores running out -- and two million more since then, analysts say.

But its July debut has been nothing less than a public relations headache for AT&T, with eager buyers complaining about dropped calls and poor network connections.

Some fingers point to Apple, which has tried to deflect the complaints. But many others point to AT&T's cellular network.

Whatever the source of the problems, AT&T's rivals, long irritated by all the attention the iPhone has received, are on the attack and happy to exploit the discontent.

A Verizon executive sent an e-mail to Wall Street analysts last week: "So much for a 'new' way of doing business at the old AT&T -- your father's phone company." 

Get more at the New York Times here.

The IEEE has completed 802.11r, a standard that lets Wi-Fi devices roam quickly between wireless access points (WAP) and which improves the performance of VoIP on enterprise LANs.

Traditionally, 801.11 devices can roam from one access point to another, but it takes about 100ms to re-associate, and several seconds to re-establish authenticated connections using 802.1x. Not good for time-critical apps like VoIP.

According to InfoWorld, "the new standard, 802.11r, known as Fast Basic Service Set Transition, allows the network to establish a security and QoS state for the device at the new access point, before it roams between the two, so the transition can take place in less than 50ms - the standard required for voice roaming."

The article explains that vendors have traditionally either used lower security options on Wi-Fi VoIP (i.e. easily crackable WEP encryption) and put VoIP traffic on separate VLANs to protect the rest of the network. Other company have built networks where there is no roaming because all the access points are on the same channel.

The new IEEE 802.11r standard should help improve enterprise Wi-Fi VoIP functionality, in particular larger buildings.

Source: InfoWorld

A new technology developed by Microsoft in alliance with the University of Massachusetts (UMASS), and the University of Washington has resulted in a new technology called Vi-Fi (Vehicle Wi-Fi). Vi-Fi solves the problem of hopping from one Wi-Fi wireless access point (WAP) to another when signal strength diminishes. According to the article, the goal of Vi-Fi could be to power VoIP calls, Internet, and radio in cars of the future.

Ironically, Andy wrote a controversial blog this week about VoIPing while flying (using Aircell) -- well now you can VoIP while driving too! Of course, I've been using VoIP over EVDO for some time now while driving. I was even able to register my Windows Mobile 6.1 device (EVDO as well) to an Asterisk server sitting in my office and make/receive office calls.

With this forthcoming technology, who needs XM or SIRIUS when you can stream radio for free over the internet with hundreds if not thousands to choose from? Time to short satellite radio stocks?

The system they are developing will provide users with on-the-go internet access more cheaply than existing cellular broadband systems.  The challenge this alliance aims to solve can be explained by this excerpt of the article:

The key to Microsoft's new system is a steady signal.  In Wi-Fi networks, as you travel overland, each signal station (base station) only broadcasts so far, so you have to hop between stations.  During these transitions, known as "hard handoffs", the signal strength typically drops.  At best this makes car Wi-Fi unpleasant, and at worst it makes it unworkable.

The key to to solving this challenge is the use of multiple base stations.  The station can send and receive signals from more than on base station, and the strongest strength gets assigned as the "anchor" system, while the other systems are used as "auxiliary" systems.  A complex algorithm is constantly calculating the probability of a packet not reaching the main station.  If that probability reaches a certain threshold the auxiliary stations try to forward it to the main station.

They did some test trials at Microsoft's campus and found the system eliminated nearly all the problems of network hopping while driving. Just don't expect Wi-Fi / Vi-Fi coverage to be as ubiquitous as say EVDO, 3G, etc. while driving. EVDO, 3G and other cellular data transmissions can travel a lot further than Wi-Fi signals, which are only rated for 300feet. So you'll still need a ton of these specialized Wi-Fi stations with the special software to get decent coverage.

But considering most homes have Wi-Fi APs, it could be very cool if you could build a massive Vi-Fi network using consumer's existing Wi-Fi APs. Simple firmware upgrade? But then you get into the whole security issues, bandwidth theft, etc. Still, the work Microsoft and these universities are doing is fascinating. How soon will be before we have truly mobile and ubiquitous Wi-Fi Internet access? Who knows? But my EVDO card works just fine almost wherever I go. It's not as fast as Wi-Fi but it works well enough.

In Singapore, the Dutch consumer electronics maker Philips is designing a multimedia server to stream audio and video through the air, from the Internet to any device in the home.

In Munich, a former unit of Siemens envisions a cordless phone that would double as a music player, wirelessly drawing music from home computers.

In Japan, members of Sony's global "digital home team" are redesigning 90% of the company's home electronics components to connect wirelessly to the Internet by 2011.

Across the consumer electronics industry, the leading players are revamping their audio and video equipment for a future centered around the Internet, a world in which televisions, stereos, computers -- even kitchen appliances like dishwashers and refrigerators -- can communicate with each other over a wireless home network.

Some industry executives say the new focus on Internet content and wireless networks reflects a fundamental shift in home entertainment. 

Expanded lines of "networked entertainment equipment" took center stage this week at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin, the largest consumer electronics convention in Europe, with 1,200 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors.

Sony is introducing plug-in adapters to enable some of its Bravia television sets to connect to the Internet wirelessly. Philips is demonstrating a line of hard-disc stereo systems that can wirelessly read and play music stored on personal computers or laptops in other rooms, streaming music selectively through the house.

Pioneer, Samsung and Sharp are presenting flat-panel TVs that hook up to the Internet, some with wires, some without. Hewlett Packard's MediaSmart LCD TV will wirelessly stream high-definition video. 

More at the International Herald Tribune.

The first Treo device with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity is worth a look for companies running a Microsoft back-end infrastructure or for die-hard Treo users. Alas ...

Although the Treo 800w is likely the best Treo smart phone Palm has delivered to date, Palm's late adoption of technology now standard on many competing mobile devices leaves the Treo 800w as a middle-of-the-road option for many casual buyers.

At long last, Palm has added Wi-Fi connectivity to a Treo, as the 800w features an 802.11b/g radio in addition to a new integrated GPS receiver.

Given how astronomically long it has taken Palm to implement Wi-Fi in any of its devices, it is gratifying to see that the company gone the extra mile to improve upon the basic software functionality that comes with Windows Mobile. 

Get more at eWeek.

Motorola, the world's third-largest handset maker, has just unveiled two new low-end phones on that allow users to listen to songs and surf the Web.

Facing stiff competition from handsets such as Apple's iPhone and the Nokia line, Motorola has said it would launch 50 new devices this year, including advanced phones, trying to come up with a strong follow-up to its once-lauded Razr phone.

One new handset is a music-enabled camera phone -- the W388 -- that sells for under $100.

The second device is a low-end third-generation (3G) mobile phone -- the VE538 -- which goes for less than $250 and offers one-click mobile social networking, photo uploading and blogging at various websites.

The two new products will be shipped to Asia-Pacific markets first -- before being rolled out globally -- by September. 

More at Reuters.