It’s been a while since I posted. It’s summer, and that means traveling, time out of the office, etc., and that has certainly slowed me down on posts. However, I am in the office this week, 
and I did run across another interesting article. The article discusses how the TSA and several airlines are starting to accelerate the use of mobile phones as vehicles for electronic boarding passes.
Here’s how it works:
I read a very interesting article over lunch today. It was on cnn.com, and it covered one use of cell phones in developing countries. Turns out some organizations are using cell 
phones to collect survey information about epidemics, such as polio. In these underdeveloped countries access to computer technology can be extremely limited. My company has been involved in a couple of projects in developing countries, and I can vouch for how limited access to technology can be. In fact, the article points out that there are only a little over 300 million PC’s in all of...
Well, it’s finally here. Palm launched the Pre last Saturday, and they are now finally in direct competition with Apple and the iPhone. So which one’s better? For me, I think the verdict is still out.
By now, unless you live under a rock somewhere, I’m sure you know how successful the iPhone has been. They have sold millions of devices in the two years the phone has been out, and users have downloaded over 1 billion applications in the year since the App Store was available. Apple also broke a lot of long standing...
Tulsa Drillers ticket scanning at the turnstyle.
While visiting our local minor league baseball park this past weekend, I noticed that mobile technology is becoming a part of the fan experience and club operations. It started at the Tulsa Drillers turnstyle, where Leslee greeted me with a handheld scanner which captured barcode information off of the ticket. She said the information they capture helps them create a better product for season ticket holders and other fans.
After stocking up on food and drinks a young lady approached me and asked if I would participate in a quick survey. She had a WiFi handheld device, asked a few questions...
At least that is what Forrester Research says in a report that was just released. That’s what I read in an email that I got today from Wireless Week. Now, if your like me, and you’re in the mobile industry, my first thought was “You’ve got to be kidding me.” However, as it turns out this is just a sort of sensationalistic way of saying that the smartphone is taking over.
Confused? I thought you might be. Here’s the deal. The report contends that the term smartphone is now Tags: Forrester, smartphone, Wireless Week
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That’s right, about 20 minutes ago Apple’s App Store crossed an amazing threshold. They have now had over 1 billion applications downloaded in their first nine months of existence. This is a phenomenal feat for any company, even one with the marketing prowess of Apple. While mobile applications have been in existence for well over a decade, nobody else has generated the interest in applications that Apple and the iPhone have.
If you want a little more information on them reaching the 1 billion mark, check out this web site. There are links on that page for the top 20 paid apps, and the top 20 free apps of all time. Some of the ones that made the list are almost as...
One of the technologies that was scattered out across the exhibitor area at CTIA, is a device called a femtocell. What is a femtocell, you ask? Think of it as a miniature cell tower connected to your broadband connection at home. Here’s how it works. You connect the femtocell to your cable or DSL modem at home and then you throw away your land line. That’s right, open up the trash compactor, toss in your old home phone, and turn the compactor on. You don’t need it any more.
Now turn on your cell phone. In fact, everybody at your house can turn on their cell phone. As long as you are in the house, the femtocell works as your cell tower. You can make and receive regular cell calls, but...
I’m not sure how much attention people in general actually pay to some of the terms those of us in the wireless industry use. Let’s try this one for starters: 3G. I’m guessing some of you probably have heard this and have a decent idea what it means, at least generally. This knowledge is probably based on the likes of the new 3G iPhone. 3G is basically a general term used to refer to a set of faster wireless network technologies and protocols that have been in the market for the last 2-3 years. If you have a cell phone with Sprint or Verizon, the incarnation you might be familiar with is EVDO or DO. If you use AT&T, you may have heard the term HSPA. I’ll spare you what the acronyms means, but in a nutshell the practical meaning of 3G is...
No, it’s not some Sci Fi movie, but machines were a focus of CTIA this year. In the South Hall of the Vegas Convention Center, CTIA had a sizeable area of about 30 companies involved in wireless Machine to Machine (M2M) technologies. In addition to this, other booths throughout the show had an M2M focus, and Verizon had an entire booth devoted to assisting people getting new hardware devices certified on the Verizon network (including a strong M2M focus).
For those of you who don’t know, M2M is all about a machine monitoring some set of variables, and reporting over a wireless network to another computer. Sometimes commands are sent back to the device over the cellular network so that it can take some type of action. Semi trucks have had this for a number of years. Small computers reside on many big rigs and monitor everything from...
Rumors have long circulated that Dell would be entering the smartphone market. As far as rumors go, that one seems believable. After all, they’ve gone from making personal computers out of a garage to becoming a massive manufacturer/distributor of desktop computers, laptops/notebooks, netbooks, monitors, servers, storage component, etc. They even had a (not so well receivied PDA, the Axim, in 2007). Why not get in the smartphone market now?
Well, it sounds like they have been trying to do just that. Unfortunately, the prototypes they’ve been shopping around seem to have been, well, boring. In other words, no iPhone killers. In fact, the only rumored iPhone killer that anyone is even talking about is Palm’s...
