hotspot to trot

Gizmodo reports that a new Symbian S-60 application Joikuspot allows you to turn a Nokia S-60 phone into a 3G internet hotspot for use by other devices. The “PHS” …Personal Hot Spot… seems to be something of a trend. Cradlepoint has introduced a range of wi fi PHS devices for use out, about or …in your car.

let freedom fring on the N-95

Here’s one from the Australian IT press. ITWire, the Australian IT news service, has recently reported on the Apple iPhone’s software development kit or “SDK”. The licensing regime for the Apple’s iPhone SDK has generated criticism from software developers who find it too restrictive.

“Apple’s SDK restrictions have started becoming more widely known, with the one preventing third party apps from running in the background causing the biggest waves amongst developers long used to multitasking computers and operating systems.

This particular restriction means that an instant messaging program, for example, can only display one’s status and be ready to send and receive messages when actually in that program.

Should a call come through, or should the user wish to make use of a different program, be it email, a phone call, web browsing or otherwise, that instant messaging program would effectively be turned off, even though its state might be saved, effectively rendering users ‘offline’ and removing some of the convenience of having a portable device that can do instant messaging.

Other devices such as the Nokia N95 place no such restrictions on users, with the well known Fring instant messaging and VoIP application able to stay on in the background, ready to receive messages and calls at any time, although at the cost of additional battery usage.

That extra battery drain is offset somewhat by the fact the N95 has had improved memory management and battery life through the v.20 firmware, and the fact the N95 has a user-removable and replaceable battery, coupled with relatively fast charge times.”

seventy million symbians

There were seventy seven million Symbian smartphones sold in 2007. That’s not a tongue twister. Read all about it here.

More potential fringsters!

…And here is something those Symbian fringsters may want to explore…

liquid makes camcorder phone vision clearer

A few years ago the UK website ‘The Register‘ reported that “…camera phones will soon have lenses made from nothing more substantial that a couple of drops of oil and water, but will still be capable of auto focusing, and even zooming in on subjects.”

“There are several obvious advantages to having a lens built like this. Because there are no moving parts, there is less to break and it should be more rugged. Power consumption is also very low: around a tenth of that of a motorised auto focus lens…”

‘Nature’ magazine has an article describing this fascinating new field here.

Well the dream has moved closer to reality recently with Seiko Instruments Inc. (SII) announcing “…plans to develop, manufacture and market Varioptic’s Liquid Lens products, offering a cost advantage for auto-focus. “ (Source here)

“..(L)iquid lens feature many advantages over competing technologies in terms of cost, size, robustness, power consumption, silent operation and speed. These advantages position liquid lenses particularly well for the emerging camcorder phone market where continuous auto-focus for video is a “must-have” feature. “

fring is a 10

fring makes Gizmodo’s top ten list for “must have” Symbian software.

They really liked fring file transfer too!

whiskers - a ticklish problem

“Tin whiskers can take out your iPod or your network. They can stop your car cold. They can take down an entire airport or Citibank. They are much more common than most people — even most experts — think. The reason for this is that most tin whiskers can’t even be seen.”

That’s a quote from IT&T industry columnist Bob Cringeley in a fascinating column on the history and implications, and huge hidden cost, to the consumer of the “tin whisker” problem referred to in this blog recently. (See Cringeley’s column online here). The Cringeley column includes an excellent series of links to detailing the problem. You can listen to Cringeley on the tin whisker issue in MP3 format here.

“Costs have gone up, mean time between failures (MTBF) has gone down (accelerated MTBF tests, which are the only MTBF tests we do anymore, don’t reliably pick this up, by the way), and reliability has suffered. Since we don’t fix things anymore, it’s hard to say whether your gizmo failed because of bad solder or not, but the problem is becoming worse as a greater percentage of total circuits in use have lead-free solder. The military was especially concerned, even before the whisker crisis.”
“We’re talking about tin whiskers, single crystals that mysteriously grow from pure tin joints but not generally from tin-lead solder joints. Nobody knows how or why these whiskers grow and nobody knows how to stop them, except through the use of lead solder. Whiskers can start growing in a decade or a year or a day after manufacture. They can grow at up to nine millimeters per year. They grow in any atmosphere including a pure vacuum. They grow in any humidity condition. They just grow. And when they get long enough they either touch another joint, shorting out one or more connections, or they vaporize in a flash, creating a little plasma cloud that can carry for an instant hundreds of amps and literally blow your device to pieces.”

I’ve come across this problem myself in the data centre industry, where tin whiskers’ metallic cousin, zinc whiskers, are a major problem for data centre builders and operators. (See here)
Cringeley continues and asks a question that probably should have been raised earlier…

“What I wonder is whether a cost-benefit analysis of this solder technology changeover was ever done? I haven’t seen one. And if you think this problem is minor, I have been told that just the cost of changing to lead-free solder stands right now at $280 BILLION and climbing. That cost is borne by all of us.

Maybe dumping lead solder was absolutely the right thing to do. Maybe it was absolutely the wrong thing to do. The truth is we haven’t the slightest idea the answer to that question and anyone who claims to know is wrong. We didn’t know what would happen when we started this and we don’t know what we’ll get out of it, either, or whether it will be worth the cost. All we know for sure is that a bumpy ride lies ahead.”

fringing twitter

Here’s one from the Philippines. See here. Cebu city journalist, and award winning tech blogger , Max Limpag tells about the synergy between fring and twitter.

“The ability to update from your phone means many of Twitter’s posts are personal. Many users update their accounts to tell friends what they’re up to, at the very moment when they’re keying in their 20th century haikus in their phones. It’s SMS escribitionism.

But when I started using Fring with my phone, I finally had a cheaper way of updating my Twitter account. Fring is a software that allows you to use your phone as an IM client for Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, ICQ, Skype etc. It also allows you to update your Twitter account.

What’s good about Fring is that it can use Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet whenever it is available or the mobile Internet when it’s not.

Using Fring, I could update my Twitter account without having to pay for an international SMS for each post. If Wi-Fi isn’t available, then I can just use Fring with Smart Internet and pay just P10 for every 30-minute block. For that time, I can send multiple Twitter updates at a fraction of the cost had I been sending it through SMS.

….With Fring, I’ve been using Twitter to update both my Twitter account and my blog on my ongoing efforts to map the Wi-Fi hotspots for Cebu. Anytime I go into a shop, I try to scan for free Wi-Fi and if I find one, log in to my Twitter account and then post a short update. “

This article isn’t Max’s first coverage of fring. Max has blogged about fring in the past.

a tiny problem that’s growing

These Youtubes give a great introduction to the ‘growing’ problem of tin whiskers. (Hint: it has nothing to do with cat food!)

slip into SIP, slip into a new world

This site (see here) provides a technically detailed but easy to read introduction to the SIP protocol.

fring, of course, supports SIP too.

Protocols like SIP, software projects like Asterisk (…see this long introduction, 40 + mins), and technologies like VoIP, by opening up the voice communications world are creating new markets and new opportunities. And if you think this new business world is for you, you may want to consider becoming a fring partner. To read what others are saying about the fring partner program, visit here.

skype - now on sony psp

This youtube shows Skype running on a Sony Play Station Portable.

Engadget reports that Sony has announced that this will be officially supported in the next round of firmware upgrades. (See here).