I have been a T-Mobile customer for several years, and while I have had issues with their customer service (like all phone companies, it’s trying) I have been happy with their phone service. As phone companies go, they are an innovative company, and have done a great job carving a niche out for themselves among the youth and small business markets. This week, I upgraded to their new Hotspot@Home product, and while the iPhone has been sucking all of the air out of the room in recent weeks, I concluded that this is a much more disruptive, and useful, service that other carriers will be wise to watch.

I’ve been using the Nokia N95 phone for the past week and I have to say I’m really impressed. Several folks from the Nokia Blogger Relations Program have been testing it as well and the opinions have been quite varied. Stuart Henschall is in love (with minor caveats), Dameon Welch-Abernathy feels similarly and Ken Camp almost sent it back on day one. The one universal complaint, which I have not experienced issues with, is battery life.

This phone tries very hard to be everything to everyone. For the most part, it excels at everything. The camera is amazing (searching Flickr for “N95″ yields around 6929 results for you to look at). The video camera app is the best I’ve seen (here’s an example). The multimedia features are upgrades of apps that previously existed. There are ample blogging and podcasting features and the web browser is based on WebKit, which powers Apple’s Safari desktop browser. There’s a GPS on board with a nice mapping application, but this seems somewhat of an afterthought and might need some further firmware upgrades to be completely useful. Of course the phone and wifi capabilities are top-notch, sporting the regular Nokia quality that we’ve come to enjoy. The N95 is the ultimate evolution to what the team at Nokia have been trying to do with the Nseries devices on the current technology stack.

The evolution of these devices will continue, that much is certain. 3G and 4G networks are being rolled out (or already exist) in many countries and this phone is but the first of a new generation that will be more capable and easier to use. Nokia has the lead in what is now known as the “Smartphone” market with their Series 60 operating system, which is based on a Symbian core OS. Mobile devices are a huge marketplace and feature-rich phones like the N95 and iPhone are built to drive revenue back to the carriers and the small developer communities that surround them. I think that all of the mobile devices out there (100 million Series 60 have been sold, over 60% category market share) will eventually move into the “smart” category with the evolution of wireless technologies.

I’ll have a more thorough review of this device and it’s companion N800 tablet soon.

I received a N95 from our friends at Nokia yesterday. At first glance, it’s a gorgeous device, very similar in stature to the N80 that proceeded it, but a little thinner and a lot lighter. It comes with just about every bell and whistle imaginable and should work the world around.

I’ll be testing this device and blogging about it and with it for a while to come, but suffice it to say that the 20 minutes I have played with it were fun indeed. Unfortunately, it came with a europlug equipped power supply and I, not being a big world traveler of late and living in the US, don’t have any adapters handy. This did point out to me that the included USB port cannot be used to charge the device…bad Nokia. Once I procure said attachment and give the little powerhouse some juice, we’ll see how well it handles.

One of the biggest draws for me to attend ETel was the Neo1973 and OpenMoko. My dissatisfaction with Apple for the closed platform on the iPhone means that I’m looking for an alternative.

In addition to the “pure” interest I have in an open, customizable platform, I recently attended the Education Without Borders conference, where I had the opportunity to speak with several student delegates from the developing world. In most of the world, mobile phones take the place of computers; OpenMoko is an alternative way to spread mini-computers throughout the world and bring services to people for the first time.

Earlier this month, the OpenMoko project announced a delay. The delay seems to be due in part to the huge undertaking of the project. Linux could draw on an existing base of freely available source code to bootstrap the project, but the OpenMoko project needed to build a foundation before getting started. They found a nice field, imagined a grand castle, but then needed to start building shovels to dig the foundation. The team has had to write the tool chain almost completely from scratch while ensuring that it’s legally permissible to redistribute everything.

Sean Moss-Pultz brought an early demonstration phone to the conference. It’s a very early developer release. It still takes quite some time to boot, and has not been optimized at all. Even so, I still left drool all over the phone’s case when I got to touch it.

Here’s the phone itself, in my hand:

(I apologize for the bad resolution on these photos. I had to use a camera phone to get them, since my Nikon camera is not working.)

The form factor of the phone itself is comparable to my Nokia 6600. Here’s a photo of the Neo1973 next to a Nintendo DS Lite for scale comparison:

Finally, I met up with a group of folks from the project and the Silicon Valley Mobile Homebrew group. They’re trying to take the OpenMoko project and allow it to be further customized, even to the hardware level. It’s a great idea for people like me, since my idea of a high-end phone is likely to be slightly different from somebody else’s idea.

There whole point of HomeBrew Mobile is to make everything customizable, even down to the case design. Adrian Cockroft, the designer, brought along a 3D printout of the case for people to try out. Another person at the meeting had brought along the system board that’s being used by the project, so here’s what a Neo1973 looks like without the case:

On the hardware itself, there are two noteworthy points. The phone has an external antenna port, which should be beneficial if you live in an area with marginal reception. It also takes a “standard” Nokia battery. The software currently running on the Neo1973 doesn’t have any power-saving optimizations built in to it yet, so battery life was very short. When the phone was passed around the table, the battery died. However, I was able to take my fully-charged Nokia BL-5C and put it into the Neo1973, so we all got a chance to poke at the software. It also means that you’ll be able to use a large network of suppliers for spare batteries from day 1.

Now that I’ve seen the hardware and used the software, the wait hurts even more!

When I think about Voice 2.0 (or 3.0, or whatever point-oh we feel we should be looking towards), the things that I find really give me the most optimism for the future are those things that dare to step way outside the box.

This year at ETel (as was the case last year), students from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU showcased some of their creativity. Not only were every one of their creations delightful and intelligent, but in every case I was able to conceive of a viable use for each of these concepts in the real world.

Kati London and Kate Hartman demonstrated Botanicalls. This suite of applications was designed to allow you to communicate with your plants, and, perhaps more significantly, allow your plants to communicate with you. Developed by four students (the other two being Rob Faludi and Rebecca Bray), Botanicalls offers an educational component (by allowing you to call a menu system and hear informative information about various plants), but the real power of Botanicalls is the plant monitoring components. By way of a probe inserted into the soil, the moisture can be evaluated. If it gets too dry, your plant can quite literally call for help.

This was hilarious to experience, but there was something serious about this as well. I could not help but think that if my wife were able to install this application whenever she travels, she would not have to worry about her plants dying from my lack of attention to their needs, because they would be able to let her know if they were being taken care of. If we had had Botanicalls at our house, many plants that have died from neglect (and could not cry for help) might still be alive today.

Next up, Anh Nguyen demonstrated SurpriseDialer. This application allows several people to record a message (such as a birthday greeting), and then schedule that message to be delivered at a later date. Nifty.

Summer Bedard created Thanks For Your Patience, which is designed to work in conjunction with a call center by allowing callers on hold to earn (or lose) points by answering questions, which go towards moving you up the queue. Summer and I brainstormed a few other possibilities for this type of technology. Imagine being able to wager your spot in the queue for an opportunity to move up. Make it fun enough, and not only would people no longer mind holding in a queue, but getting through to an agent might actually be an anticlimax. “Puh-lease put me back in the queue quick. I was just about to beat the high score!”

Matthew Chmiel is learning another language. In order to help him practice, he developed Bangla Bollo. This application allows you to simulate a conversation in another language, and it records what you say. Some of the potential uses of this might be to provide a way for language students to provide samples of their speaking abilities, which could be reviewed later by an instructor, even if that person were in another part of the world.

Finally, Jury Hahn and Chris Kairalla showcased their Megaphone 3000, which reminded me so much of video games from the 80s that I almost forgot that we were dealing with technology that we couldn’t have dreamt of back then. What this application does is allow people to use their cell phone as a video game controller. If two people dial into the system, the game is on! (there is a single user mode as well). The main screen is set up in a public space, and thus players can be anyone who can see the screen and has a cell phone. This kind of technology could have huge potential for the advertising industry. One could picture these kinds of things being installed in bars, or train stations, or other public places.

I was very impressed with what I saw. Not only because of the intelligence in the designs, but more importantly because these projects demonstrated the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that is such an important part of what we have been calling Voice 2.0.

Whatever Shawn Van Every and the rest of the folks at NYUs Interactive Telecom Program are doing, I sure hope they keep it up. This kind of innovation is exactly what telecom needs.

I have seen the future, and it is delightful and inspiring. Thanks to all the students for sharing your creations with us.

OK, I’m a bit confused… now that I’m up and running on an all you can eat data plan via T-Mobile using my spanky Nokia N80 smartphone (no its not a T-Mobile device.. sorry!) I decided that I have to have Google Maps mobile running on it.

So the iPhone really is here. (Actually, it’s been here since October 2005 at least, but more on that later). I was recently given an evaluation unit of the new Linksys CIT300 Dual-Mode Internet Telephony kit, a member of the Linksys iPhone line. The kit includes a combination landline / Skype cordless phone and a base unit that connects to your landline and a PC running Skype. I was excited to put this new gadget through some paces. I’m not a huge Skype user, but if this device truly integrates Skype with my existing home phone service, that has the potential to change my calling habits.

I’ll say right up front that I had an overall very positive experience with the CIT300. The phone is well designed, easy to use, and could go a long way towards bringing Skype into even more households. It does an admirable job of including key Skype functionality on a small handset, and handles its dual life as a landline cordless phone gracefully. But for several factors, the biggest being the inconsistent quality I experience with SkypeOut and SkypeIn calls, I’m not going to be switching to a device like this in my home anytime soon.

I’ve been using VoIP hardware and software since the mid-1990s. It’d be an understatement to say that I’ve grown cynical about the claims of telecom equipment vendors and service providers, but every now and then a product comes along that lives up to its hype. The Nokia N80i phone belongs in that categorgy. I’ve been putting it through its paces for about two months now, and indeed, using it as my primary phone. It’s an impressive product, and goes on sale in the US and Europe this month.

UPDATE: to avoid confusion, this review covers a not-for-sale prototype of the Nokia N80i, which is just starting to ship this week in the US and Europe, and not the N80, which has been available for a while (but does not support VoIP). If you are shopping for this phone, double check with merchants due to the similarity in model numbers and outward appearance. Link to Nokia announcement.

This is cute. Like Fastap, Neokeys is another keypad innovation that could have interesting implications for telephony. The technology was debuted at last month’s MIT Emerging Technology Conference.

We’re all familiar with concept handset designs such as the BenQ Black Box; handsets whose entire surface is a touch screen, giving an infintely reconfigurable interface. A great idea, but maybe a ways off in terms of display technology, battery power and price.

Neokeys have taken a more pragmatic approach by using small monochromatic LCD displays to display key legends - like a lo-fi version of the Optimus keyboard. This allows every key to be a soft-key and theoretically, an infinite number of keypads…perhaps one for every application or user context?

Yuvee, the company behind Neokeys hasn’t announced any partnerships yet and they’re also working on a Universal Joystick for mobile devices. Perhaps, working with open handset developers is a viable route to market for Yuvee.

We’re hoping to get them to present at ETel - I’ll keep you all posted :)

A few weeks ago, I met with Mark Simpson of DigitWireless. Mark talked me through DigitWireless’ innovative Fastap keypad design, their business model and a number of conceptual and working handsets.

Interestingly, the founder David Levy, is an Apple alumni, responsible for the design of the Powerbook. Levy’s Fastap keypad is presented as more an enabling technology, rather than simply a keypad layout; it’s intended to help carriers and handset manufacturers remove UI barriers and likely increase usage of mobile services.

Fastap uses a combination of raised and lowered keys, and depending where keys are pressed, a patented algorithm determines which character the user intended to select. Raised keys are largely used for alphabetic characters, whereas lower keys are used for diacritic, numbers and shortcut keys.

Playing about with the demonstration handsets, now shipping with Telus I believe, provides a fun, intuitive user experience…for Latin-based alphabets, every character has its own key, so users need no instruction on how to use a Fastap-enabled handset.

Like Tegic, the creators of T9, DigitWireless’ business model is essentially to license Fastap to OEMs, carriers and handset manufacturers. DigitWireless’ will be determined by its route to market…a tortuous one in the mobile sector!

Personally, I loved the demo handsets and I believe the technology has immense potential for telephony - the same way the mouse helped along GUIs, I think Fastap can further the mobile and handheld era…perhaps even for non-telephony, handheld devices such as TV remotes - tap out the show you’re searching for.

My fantasy phone? Trolltech’s Greenphone, enabled with Fastap and powered by a vibrant developer community. Yum.

Wouldn’t it be great to get David Levy to talk about his experiences with Apple and DigitWireless at ETech? Fingers Crossed :)

ZyXel was kind enough to send me one of their new WiFi phones - the ZyXel P-2000W version 2. I have to say that I’m impressed with the ZyXel. It’s a sleek and simple design that fits comfortably in your hand and could easily slide in your pocket. It has volume buttons on the side and a headset plug. The phone can connect to 802.11b and 802.11g networks and can register with any SIP broadband voice provider, including an Asterisk server. It connects to its power cord via a mini-USB connection. A quick Froogle search indicates that the going rate for this model is around $148.

It had no problem getting a wireless signal and configuring itself on the network using DHCP. I have an open network at home, but the phone menus imply that there would be little problem connecting using WEP encryption on a secure wireless network. I’ll be honest - I was expecting the signal range to be pretty short. I was pleasantly surprised - I even walked a good distance through the woods near my home while on a call and noticed very little signal loss. Battery life was comparable to the specifications they advertise, although it seems like all phones in this space are right on the edge of usability.

There is a simple address book on the phone for frequently dialed numbers. It allows you to add numbers from the caller id history as well as add your own. It also does an address book lookup when you receive an incoming call and displays the name you assigned to the user - a feature you’d expect from a modern phone. There is no way to sync your phone address book with, say, the address book on your computer. You can customize the ringtone for the phone and set it to vibrate, etc, but you can’t assign specific ringtones to specific users in your address book.

The only other suggestion I have for ZyXel is to make the display a little easier to read - it’s difficult to make out at even the slightest angle. Also, when you’re on a call there’s no timer or anything to speak of on the display. In fact, there’s nothing obvious to indicate that you’re even on a call. Overall, I was impressed with the phone - this is a new space and I expect we’ll see rapid changes in the WiFi phone market.

I received, and started using, the Novatell V640 Express Card/34 with my Verizon EVDO account a few nights ago. The following are my initial thoughts.

First, the good news:
1. For Mac users the updated VZAccess software is a Universal Binary. The Novatell V640 is the first dedicated mobile EVDO solution I’ve found that’s compatible with OS X on my Apple MacBookPro.

NOTE: It is not necessary to install the VZAcess software to use this card, Mac OS X ships with built in support!
This was Updated on 10/25/06

2. Speed wise I have witnessed some great rates: 1254 kbps down; 116 kbps up. On my first SF to Silicon Valley commute I was able to maintain connectivity the entire way (on I-280 no less!) I did notice brief losses of connectivity.

Now, the bad news:
1. Verizon’s VZAccess Manager software (3.0.1 build 1463) isn’t compatible with the Cisco VPN software 4.9.00 (0050) I need to use to access the corporate network. (I was able to successfully ssh to a proxy box and forward specific ports but that’s an additional pain.) Note: the previous Kyocera PCMCIA card I was using worked fine with VPN so I assume that this is a software issue. I’ve contacted Verizon to let them know about the issue. Considering many business users are EVDO subscribers I consider this a **major** problem

NOTE: Cisco is now shipping VPN Client 4.9.01 (0030) which works with this card. As mentioned below in one of the comments it might still be necessary to go to the terminal and (a) unload and then (b) load the drivers but I can confirm the software does in fact work when connected via EVDO. Here’s how to load and unload the drivers:

UNLOAD:
sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/CiscoVPN.kext

LOAD:
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/CiscoVPN.kext
This was Updated on 10/25/06

2. When restarting the computer with the card inserted I get an annoying message “Starting up your computer with your Expresscard installed has prevented VZAccess from recognizing the device. Please eject and re-insert the Expresscard.” This is just silly, how can the software detect the card to display this message but not actually detect the card!

3. Other minor details, the VZAccess s/w has a couple of strange interactions and some trivial button actions don’t work.

Quick Tests:
I was able to make/receive VoIP calls using Gizmo, Skype and Yahoo Messenger so none of my desired ports appear to be blocked (yet).

Overall feedback:
Based on my limited experience testing connectivity and coverage this is a decent MacBookPro EVDO offering but I would definitely expect Verizon to quickly work with Smith Micro to revise the software that’s available so that it doesn’t feel so wanky.

O’Reilly online editorial director Derrick Story has just posted a detailed review of his new Sony Ericsson W810i multi-function handset. His overall impression is very positive, noting that the W810i does a good job of combining the functions of a normal cell phone, PIM, camera, MP3 player and FM radio in a small and attractive package. Being a Mac aficionado, Derrick is also pleased with how the W810i “just works” with iSync to keep track of his OS X contacts and calendar. Derrick does find a couple of minor irritations like not being able to send SMS via his OS X Address book and wishing the handset had a stereo mini-jack, but overall he seems very happy with the purchase.

It’s a feat of engineering to squeeze all of these features into a phone that is essentially the same size as the one it replaces. Sound quality is great on all fronts, screen is bright and saturated, design and construction are top notch.

I have been using Gizmo extensively for the past several months, and have been working with the just released 2.0 version for several weeks. We use Gizmo as our primary SIP client to dial into the Radio Handi group communication platform. I liked the 1.x versions a lot, as they were fairly idiot proof compared to other SIP softphones.

The always astute and entertaining David Pogue takes a look at the VoSKY Call Center from ActionTec in today’s New York Times, and gives it a big thumbs up, though he does point out a few “gotchas”. The $60 VoSKY unit allows you to use a standard home phone to make and recieve your Skype calls, as well as from your cell phone — which Pogue thinks is a pretty neat trick. It also offers a call return feature, so that numbers you call via Skype that aren’t available will generate a call back to your specified phone when your buddy is back online, prompting you to place the call again.

Pogue isn’t thrilled with the voice talent ActionTec used in the prodcut though:

And speaking of the recordings: Good heavens, was this the best voice-over talent ActionTec could find? The young lady speaks slowly and self-consciously, like the world’s worst actor in a junior high musical. You can just imagine her saying, “Do not look now, Dorothy, but are those flying monkeys I see? Oh dear me.”

If those gotchas don’t getcha, though, you’d be hard-pressed to find another $60 gadget that works so crisply, reliably and efficiently. If you’re among the 25 million existing Skypaholics, the Call Center could magnify the pleasure of making those free calls. And if you’re not, the VoSky Call Center is one more reason to see what Skype is all about.

On Wed I installed Apple’s Boot Camp and Microsoft’s XP on my Apple MacBookPro. So far, it’s been surprisingly smooth sailing and I’ve been amazed at the speeds.

I installed the product I work on, Yahoo! Messenger with Voice, and made a few telephone calls. It worked great. It’s very exciting to see PC applications running on Apple hardware.

One thing is certain, it’s going to be hard to continue to justify carrying two different laptops around (I doubt I’m alone.)

As I write this, I am somewhere over the North Sea on my way back from Norway. I am flying SAS back to the US. SAS has equipped most of their long-haul fleet with inflight Internet service using Boeing’s new Connexion service.

I tested the service and am quite impressed. It is a big leap forward compared to the $4 per minute payphones on most US airlines. The Internet connection is relatively fast, more than adequate for web access, email, and VPN access.

I also put it through its paces with some VoIP calls via X-Ten, using several VoIP providers. I also used it to place some calls via Gizmo. Connexion is a satellite based service, so as I expected there is a noticeable time delay in voice calls, but overall performance and audio clarity was quite good. This was not a scientific test, but it worked, and worked better than I expected.

At $9.95/hour, or $26.95/flat rate per flight, it is not a bad deal. If you buy an hour or two of access, and spend most of that time on the phone, it works out to $0.10 to $0.15 per minute depending on the rate plan. Not a bad deal.

I know some people decry the arrival of telephone service on flights. I can sympathize with people who don’t want to be bothered with other people’s conversations, but at the same time a noisy jetliner is not exactly a tranquil place. I often find myself bored out of my mind on long flights, so I welcome the ability to chat or talk with people on the ground and/or get some useful work done.

NOTE: another nice bonus feature is live video. Connexion also offers several live TV feeds from CNBC, BBC World and a few other channels. I didn’t have a chance to test these, as they required Internet Exploder and Windows Media Player.

Last week I set off to Barcelona for 3GSM. It is a huge event, with over 40,000 attendees and some 1,000 exhibitors. Despite its size, there was a notable lack of real breakthrough technologies (and almost no mention of VoIP, as it is a four letter word for most telcos). Lots of incremental improvements and new product releases, but nothing disruptive.

I did find a few really interesting companies, some of which I’ll write about in more detail soon. Among the more interesting things I saw at this year’s expo:

Best Handsets

Sony Walkman (W810, or W900)

This is the best music phone I have seen to date. It is a very well designed cellphone, works on a variety of networks and supports 3G data speeds (W900). One of the things I liked most is that they did a lot of design work on the user interface, which sports some really nice iconography. Most cellphones usually have a hideous UI hiding inside a nice shell. Sony got this one right. Prediction for 2006… I wouldn’t be surprised if the Walkman brand makes a comeback. The only major flaw, the phone requires a proprietary headset and does not support Bluetooth stereo.

Samsung (Multiple Models)

I was quite impressed with Samsung’s handsets. No single device stood out, but overall they have done a lot of work to support the latest high-speed data, camera and mobile video technologies, and have produced some nicely designed phones. They did an especially good job incorporating new mobile video systems, such as DVB-H and MediaFLO, into their handsets. Samsung has devices for virtually every combination of cellular network and feature set, not a small feat considering the variety of technologies being rolled out. Watch for an article especially about Samsung’s newest devices later this week.

Best Headset

Motorola Mini Blue

Motorola’s Mini Blue is a Bluetooth earpiece. It reminds me a lot of the Jabra earpiece, first released about 10 years ago, except sans cords. It is tiny, has no boom mic, and looks like something out of a sci-fi flick. The mini-blue is due out in a few months. I expect this will be a big seller.

Best Access Technology

4G Systems - XSCard C3

4G Systems has made a PC card that supports multiple high-speed mobile networks, including HSPDA, UMTS, EDGE and basic GPRS. This enables mobile users to access data networks at speeds ranging from basic GPRS speeds (~50-150kbps) to megabit speeds. Overall, a great solution for mobilizing laptop and tablet computers.

Best Crossover Technology

Snell & Wilcox

Snell & Wilcox demoed a very impressed mobile video compression suite. S&W has years of experience providing video compression technology to broadcasters. They are applying this expertise to create smart video compression tools that maximize video quality, even on slow 64-128kbps wireless links.

They were not demoing yet another compression format, but rather what they do is a lot of pre-processing and optimization with existing formats. A good analogy to use are DVDs. Although they all use the MPEG2 format, you can tell the difference between a DVD producer who used a high-end compression shop versus one who used an off-the-shelf tool. S&W are experts in optimizing the compression process, and are applying this to mobile video.

They will be offering a suite of tools to mobile content producers and broadcasters that will enable them to increase the quality of their feeds.

Next week, I’ll be heading off to 3GSM in Barcelona. This year there are over 40,000 attendees and nearly 1000 exhibitors selling anything and everything related to mobile telephony. I’ll be canvasing the show floor in search interesting gems. I’ll also be taking my brand new tri-band 1973 GSM Port-O-Rotary (courtesy of Spark Fun Electronics). I can’t think of a better venue to show off a rotary cell phone than 3GSM.

I’ll be writing about the expo, and if I can get a clean VoIP connection, I may also conduct some live interviews from the show floor using a combination of cellular, VoIP and conferencing tools.

PS - if you have any tips for must-see products or services, please send me an email.