Author: Kevin C. Tofel

From the Apple Newton to Palm’s Graffiti to modern day Microsoft Windows Tablet PCs and Apple’s forthcoming iPad, people have looked at digital inking as another form of input. The keyboard and mouse are far more common both for typing text and navigating around today, but maybe there’s life beyond handwriting for ink solutions. MIT is looking past the traditional uses for digital ink with their sketch-interpreting software.

[W]hile a drawing can be rich in information, it’s information that’s usually inaccessible to computers. If you draw a diagram on the screen of a tablet computer, like the new Apple iPad, the computer can of course store the drawing as an image. But it can’t tell what the image means.

The video demo shows a practical application — practical if you’re a chemist, that is. Sketching the molecular composition of a compound is easy enough on a display, but getting the computer to recognize and identify the sketch is the challenge. MIT’s software does just that however, and once the sketch is identified, accessing related data is simple. How does the recognition work? The solution combines what was drawn along with how it was drawn — it’s not difficult to determine if a stroke was made from left to right or up to down, for example. Those two data sets further break down into individual elements of the sketch and all of the information is compared to a database for recognition.

As impressive as this feat is, it also highlights the challenge that’s plagued slate tablets for years and relegated them mainly to vertical niche markets. Sketches and drawings can be interpreted into a nearly infinite number of items, while text is simply text. With standard keyboard input or even handwritten text, the input generally means one thing. Freehand drawing — while liberating — could be an image, a standard figure or interpretation of one, a molecular compound, a math equation, or an emoticon to name a few. And that output variance for ink usage is where the challenge lies. Each “object” drawn could have many different contexts or meanings. Accounting for all of those permutations and combinations through recognition software is something the personal computing industry simply isn’t equipped for just yet. Instead, there are more and more custom solutions designed to recognize specific object types, which points those solutions at specific vertical markets.

Should you expect to see an iPad application from the folks at MIT? That’s highly doubtful. Might we see some similar, generic solutions on tablets in the future, though? As this type of research blossoms out of educational halls and is adapted by software developers, it should come to market. But it’s going to take a smart set of algorithms and the hardware to power them before you can freely draw anything on a tablet and have the device recognize it for what it is.

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Web Tablet Survey: Apple’s iPad Hits the Right Notes

MoTR 198 is 34:30 minutes long and is a 31.7 MB file in MP3 format.

CLICK HERE to download the file and listen directly.

HOSTS: James Kendrick (Houston), Matthew Miller (Seattle) and Kevin C. Tofel (Philadelphia)

TOPICS:

• Windows Phone 7 Series takes the big stage
• Three new HTC devices — two Android and one WinMo — are looking hot!
• Intel and Nokia announce MeeGo — where is this going?
• Kevin folds his webOS hand of cards

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Even before I bought an Android phone last month, readers asked me why our MobileTechRoundup podcast isn’t available in Google Listen. Truth be told, I have no idea. However, thanks to Download Squad’s mention of a Google Listen version update, I just found two different ways for you add our podcast — or any other one — to your Android handset. Version 1.1 of Google Listen adds a bunch of welcome features, but the key one that I’m focusing on is the new Google Reader integration.

With Listen v1.1, podcast subscriptions synchronize over to your Reader account. To test this, I searched for and added a podcast. In this case it was the EngadgetHD show, because I can’t forget my roots. Once I saw the podcast in Listen, I logged into Google Reader and after about a minute, I saw a new folder called “Listen Subscriptions.” Of course, the EngadgetHD feed was there, and that’s when it hit me: why not just manually add the MobileTechRoundup RSS feed to Google Reader and then assign it to the Listen folder? That’s the beauty of the Google Reader synchronization feature — it’s a two-way street, which makes sense. If you switch from one Android device to another, wouldn’t you want your podcast subscriptions to follow you over to the new handset?

So adding any podcast feed to the Listen Subscriptions folder will do the trick if you’re using Listen v1.1. Of course, once I went through the hassle of figuring that all out, I realized that there’s an even easier way — I just didn’t know it! You can simply tap on My Subscriptions in Listen and use the Add a Subscription option. You’ll need to manually enter the RSS feed for the podcast of your choice here. If that’s too daunting of a task on a small handset keyboard, maybe adding the feed in Google Reader on a full-sized keyboard is better for you. It’s always nice to have options!

I had high hopes for the iiView Vpad Tablet when I first saw it over at Notebooks.com. And why not? On the surface it looks like the UMPC we always wanted: a 10″ slate running Windows and weighing in at under two pounds for $499. The devil’s in the details, as they say, and the details show at least two major limitations. For starters, the Vpad runs Microsoft’s Starter Edition of Windows 7, which doesn’t include ink support. While not everyone desires that feature,  a more modern CPU isn’t something to pass up. The Vpad unfortunately sports a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU. Hey iiView: 2008 called and they want their N270 back!

Joking aside, there’s no reason that iiView couldn’t, or shouldn’t, offer a CPU refresh in the Vpad. The newer Atoms offer a wee bit of performance boost, but more importantly, offer longer run-times on a single battery charge. That $499 price tag is for the lowest end model, which includes a 160G GB hard drive and a single GB of memory. Bumping the storage, memory and adding integrated 3G marks up the price to $699, which still isn’t bad. If the guts were more up to date, I could see the Vpad competing well with the upcoming slate from HP, although there’s still ongoing discussion about the pricing for that device.

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Web Tablet Survey: Apple’s iPad Hits the Right Notes

After eight months of using webOS, my affair with the Palm Pre is over. I’ve sold the device and just shipped it off to happy new home. Many would say that Palm’s webOS is among the most initiative intuitive, effective and fun mobile operating systems on the market today. I would agree with you — that’s not my reason for bailing on it. And in no way does my action imply that Palm’s offerings are sub-par for your needs. The card-based system is elegant. The voice functionality and data radio also rocks. Despite some handsets that showed potential production challenges, my unit wasn’t wobbly or ill-made. All in all, the hardware and software environment are both quite good. But there were just too many little niggles in webOS and too few software tools available for me to use the device on a daily basis. That’s the reason I’ve made the move — if a device isn’t meeting needs, it’s not one I plan to use or keep. Nobody should.

I realize that Palm made some positive announcements at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show. There’s a new PDK, or Plug In Development Kit and a million dollar software challenge. But I simply couldn’t wait. There’s far more traction for developers in bigger markets. Colin Gibbs has a particularly relevant GigaOm Pro report (subscription required) called “The App Developer’s Guide to Choosing a Mobile Platform” that details all of the aspects devs should consider when deciding which market to hit. There are a number of them and Colin hits them all. But I’d argue that there’s ultimately two primary decisions that devs are making: who is the largest target audience — easily seen by handset sales figures and trends — and which platform offers the best development tools. Are there other factors? Sure, there are — Colin lists at least a half-dozen. The gravy train is riding on handset sales, though. So does that mean webOS won’t see stunning software or games? Not by a long shot. The sheer number of outstanding apps however, is likely limited when compared to the bigger players and their application stores. I simply have a wider net to cast when fishing for good software in the iPhone or Android markets these days — and in the foreseeable future.

Aside from third-party applications, those niggles I mentioned earlier are still nagging the webOS platform. Where’s the scroll-bar indicator in the browser to tell me where I am, for example? And when I try to read your comments in the browser — and every one of them is read, trust me — it’s a challenge on the Pre because the browser doesn’t support anchor tags. WebOS version 1.4 is likely just around the corner and perhaps some of these, and other issues, are fixed, but they really shouldn’t have been there to begin with. As several of you have noted in past comments, as great as webOS is, bits of it still feel like beta software. And sadly, some of the bits that originally set it apart no longer stand out.

Synergy was one of those features that was unique and helped identify webOS as a more mature mobile platform. With Synergy, you ultimately spend less time managing your contacts, for example, because it can pull in updated information automatically from multiple sources like Google Contacts, Facebook and LinkedIn. Eight months after I bought the Pre, guess what? Similar functionality is supported in Google Android, making Synergy less of a differentiator. Palm is also showing off the multiple calendar support on the television advertisements I keep seeing. I’ve been doing on that on the Apple iPhone for a while and I have at least seven calendars combined on the Nexus One, as well. The point here is that some of what originally set webOS apart no longer does. Other platforms have quickly adapted and added similar features. The momentum gained by Palm is slowly eroding away.

At the end of the day, I will miss using a webOS device. As I stated, the card paradigm and multitasking are effective and fun. But I see no point in paying a monthly bill for a handset that isn’t quite what I need. That simply makes no sense. And I think I gave Palm a fair amount of time to make me feel otherwise, but of course, that’s debatable. As a consumer, I do wish nothing less than success for the company. Who knows? If Palm can deliver improvements and a wider variety of top-notch mobile software for webOS, I just might be a customer again in the future. For now, I’ve cast my lot with Android, although I hedged my bet with a no-contract purchase of a Nexus One. And I still have my iPhone 3GS, although that’s likely to be replaced by an iPod Touch when new models come out. One phone bill is ultimately all I need, so I’ll keep whittling the monthly bills away, one device at a time as I see which ones meet my needs best and which ones don’t.

One of the newest netbooks from MSI, the Wind U160, is now appearing on an Amazon pre-order page. Hector Gomez, one of our eagle-eyed readers, spotted the page along with the $379.99 price tag. Amazon isn’t sharing the release date just yet, but I figure it should be within the next few weeks. After all, this device was spotted at the Consumer Electronics Show last month and uses what I’d consider common bits of hardware for netbooks of today.

The 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 powers Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition running on 1 GB of RAM. MSI says the U160 offers one memory slot — again, a common theme among netbooks — and supports a single 2 GB memory module. These days, that RAM stick shouldn’t cost much more than $40 or $50. MSI tucked in a 250 GB hard drive and support for 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi for better range and faster wireless transfers. A fairly standard 1.3 megapixel webcam, Bluetooth and memory card reader are also included and the 10″ display offers 1024 x 600 resolution. Pity that didn’t get bumped to 1366 x 768, but then again, the price would likely crest the $400 mark. The 15-hour battery life claim comes from the standard 6-cell battery, which sounds aggressive to me. A real-world usage scenario is likely to nab at least 11 or 12 hours, though, and that likely eliminates the need for a second battery or toting the AC adapter.

The U160 product page does show a few new nice changes over prior models like my old U100 netbook. The U160 goes with a chiclet keyboard and a seamless trackpad — I’m not a fan of the latter, but some might be. I also noticed a wireless on / off switch on the side of the device. Often, this function is relegated to a keyboard combination. I actually prefer the switch because you can instantly see if the radio is active. Anyone up for pre-ordering or is there another netbook that has your eye these days?

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I Want a Netbook, Not a Little Notebook

I’m sure this isn’t the final chapter of the story, but it’s sounding like e-books on Apple’s iPad are staying on Apple’s iPad. Actually, it’s probably not as bleak a situation as that. My instincts tell me that content from the iBook store will likely work on other Apple hardware as well — the iPhone, iPod touch and Mac OS X computers — but when? I’m assuming there will be an iBooks application supported on those devices at some point. So, why does it look like the plot is heading in this direction? Adobe told Computerworld that Apple isn’t planning on using Adobe’s Digital Rights Management system for e-book content, even though Apple is going to use the widely recognized EPUB standard for books.

For several years, Apple has protected digital content purchases with its FairPlay DRM and it shouldn’t be a surprise for Apple to use it for e-books as well. FairPlay is the method used to ensure that purchased iTunes content plays back only on authorized computers, which are tied to your iTunes account. Apple does currently allow that content on Microsoft Windows computers through iTunes, but the Windows version of iTunes hit after the one for Mac — nearly 2.5 years after the first iTunes release. That certainly doesn’t mean Apple will keep iBooks content on its own hardware for years, but there’s also no guarantee that Windows devices will support iBooks content out of the gate. And in an effort to sell more iPads, it certainly makes sense to allow the content exclusively on the iPad first. Adding support for other Apple hardware and then following with Windows compatibility would be a wise business plan — and one typical for the Cupertino company.

Another factor at play is Apple not wanting to give Adobe any power in the ecosystem. That’s evident by the refusal to allow or support Adobe’s Flash on the iPhone. It’s estimated that Adobe’s Flash plugin is installed on over 95 percent of all computer browsers and that’s precisely the type of strength and presence for which Apple doesn’t allow. There’s only room for one company in the Apple ecosystem, and that’s Apple. It’s one of the few organizations that wants to control the hardware and the software for the entire experience, as exemplified by the development of the iPad’s A4 CPU. Why be dependent on other chipmakers and generic designs when you can optimize the experience by creating your own CPU? With that approach in mind, it’s no wonder that Apple is spurning Adobe’s presence in iBooks.

So how is this potential situation any different than, say, Amazon’s Kindle? For a while after the device’s introduction, Kindle content was only viewable on a Kindle. Eventually, Amazon released reader applications for the iPhone, PC, Mac and — just today — the BlackBerry platform. A Kindle for Mac version is “coming soon.” The difference is that Amazon is primarily a seller of content in this market, while Apple sells both content and hardware. Sure, Amazon sells the Kindle hardware, too, but it’s a safe bet that far more revenue comes from the Kindle content than the Kindle hardware. Another difference: Apple offers a more complete ecosystem in iTunes. Like Amazon, Apple sells — or will sell — e-books, music, and videos. But the shopping experience is more contained and grouped in Apple’s world. In Amazon’s store, it’s more like walking past several aisles of other items before you see what you need. It’s just not as holistic an experience.

The final chapter is yet to be written, of course. Apple hasn’t shared the DRM approach for iBooks just yet, so it could surprise us with a more open-than-expected approach. But Adobe won’t be surprised — nor should it be, based on history.

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The Price of e-Book Progress

AT&T finally joins the Android party on March 7, with the introduction of Motorola’s Backflip handset. I caught up with the Backflip at Motorola’s CES press event and it’s definitely unique — on the backside is a trackpad like sensor, allowing for navigation and interaction without touching the display. That aside, the Backflip compares closer to the lower-end or mid-range of Android phones in terms of hardware specs, which explains the $99 price after a $100 mail-in rebate.

The 3.1″ inch capacitive touch display offers HVGA, or 320 x 480 resolution, which is typical for phones at this price. Put another way: aside from the unique navigation method, this device is similar to the Cliq that was outed last October. Backflip comes with Android 1.5 out of the box, but at the press event, Motorola announced that the OS would be upgradable. Motorola’s product page now indicates that Android 2.1 is a possibility, which is excellent — there’s a huge difference between 1.5 and 2.1. Other highlights include an included 2 GB microSD, 5 megapixel camera, support for 7.2 Mbps HSPA where available, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Motorola’s MOTOBLUR interface.

AT&T says the Backflip is the first of five Android devices due out before mid-year, so the party is just getting started. The question is: will you flip for a Backflip or wait it out for another Android device on AT&T? At first, I thought that going with such a device was a mistake, but after consideration, it might be a smart choice. At this price-point, the BackFlip is a good way for AT&T to introduce its customers to Android. I’m thinking of the first-time smartphone buyers here that don’t want to spend $200 or more for a device that’s far more advanced than the feature phone they’ve been carrying.

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Feature Phones: The Next Market for Mobile Apps

I’ve been waiting to see how much “hackery” would ensue on the Google Nexus One and today I got an eyeful. Yup, efforts are underway to get the HTC Sense UI on the Nexus One. Paul O’Brien, the mastermind at Modaco, is making good headway using a ROM built for the HTC Desire. That makes “sense”, since the Desire is a slightly evolved Nexus One. While I never expected to put a non-carrier ROM on my handset, I may just make an exception for this one. Aside from HTC Sense, there’s some other desirable goodies in the build:

• 800 x 480 video recording, which is a slight boost over the native 720 x 480
• Face recognition and touch focus for the camera
• Adobe Flash 10.1

To be honest, I can live without Flash — I have for years, so obviously, I can continue to do so. But I’ve found that it’s a nice to have feature on the evaluation Nokia N900 every now and again for watching video. YouTube vids are generally a non-issue these days, but other players require Flash support. Our own site videos fall into that category — although we were just chatting internally about future video and support for handhelds today: stay tuned.

The Sense UI itself is really what I’m interested in, and that’s mainly because I’ve never used it for more than a few minutes. I’d like to run with it for a week or so, just to see if it’s a “must have” for the way I use my handset. For now, I’m in a wait-and-see mode while Paul continues to work his magic.

However, I did grab a little bit of sense today: I added the HTC Sense keyboard to my Nexus One. It was actually a pretty simple process as outlined at XDA-Developers. I downloaded two .APK files, unzipped them to the SD card on my Nexus One and installed them. As far as installation goes, you can always use the ADB utility in the Android SDK, but I found what might be a faster, easier way. Just search the Android Market for AppsInstaller, which is a free utility and install it. AppsInstaller scans your SD card and allows you to install any applications on the card. The process took me under five minutes and I’m now typing far faster. The keyboard comes with a touch calibration utility, which I ran through one time and the keyboard experience is much more like the iPhone, which worked well for me.I’m already finding it faster than the native Android keyboard and even faster than Swype. And there’s still a dedicated key for voice-to-text input, so it’s a win all around.

Images courtesy of DroidDog

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Last month saw the release of Firefox Mobile for Maemo, but without many devices to take advantage of it, people are wondering which platform will be the next one to see Mozilla’s browser. Windows Mobile has long had an alpha build of Firefox Mobile, but it hasn’t seen much updating in the past year or so. And with Microsoft making a clean break with Windows Mobile 7, that puts the Mozilla folks in a bit of pickle. Do they continue work on the existing alpha for Windows Mobile 6.x and lower or does the development team bide their time and start with Windows Phone 7?

While waiting for an answer to that question, the obvious alternative is looking like Firefox Mobile for Android. And even though we’ve seen some early porting progress on the Android front, it could be a while before a finished product arrives. It’s likely to happen this year, according to Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s VP of mobiles. During Mobile World Congress, he explained to TechRadar that Android is a “modern OS, and it’s a great fit with us. It’s the type of platform that has a high affinity with the early adopter, and it’s seen a lot of uptake.” Part of the holdup for Firefox Mobile on Android is the different code base — Android is built on Java while Firefox Mobile is developed in the C and C++ languages, says Sullivan. Now that the Open Handset Alliance supports native C and C++ code in the NDK, Mozilla can move forward on the Android front.

Coding platforms aside, at the end of the day I wonder how many Android handset owners will consider moving to Mozilla for browsing when the time comes. I don’t see Google stopping the availability of a competing browser, but I do expect to see the Android browser mature by the time Mozilla delivers. The main advantages of a Mobile Firefox version is in the extensions, plug-ins and desktop synchronization. Google has already made good progress on the last front with its Chrome browser and Bookmark Sync — news today hit that even more data will be synchronized in the future. Might Google be able to offer some, if not all, of those other features on the native Android browser before the year is out? I know we have a large contingent of Firefox fans — jkOnTheRun readers use Firefox more than any other browser — so is this development something you’re eagerly awaiting or is it just another browsing option you’ll check out on an Android handset?

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Dell’s Mini 5 is making the rounds at Mobile World Congress and Carrypad caught it on camera. Interestingly, the device was only held by the Dell representative, who gave a run down on the device. When I first heard about the Mini 5, I didn’t expect the device to offer cellular voice capabilities, but based on the video, it sounds like it will when paired with a Bluetooth headset. That makes sense since you probably don’t want to hold that 5″ display next to your face. The Dell rep indicated a screen resolution of 800 x 400 for the display, but that doesn’t sound right. I suspect it’s actually 800 x 480 or 854 by 480. 720p video playback looks solid on the device although with the screen resolution, true 720p video has to be scaled down.

Powering the Mini 5 is the same Qualcomm 1 GHz Snapdragon found in my Nexus One, so from a performance standpoint, I’d expect it to be comparable, although the amount of memory in the Mini 5 could vary the experience. Dell decided to emulate HTC a little by adding a custom user interface that rides atop the stock Android experience. It’s difficult to evaluate the UI with just a few minutes of observation, but it’s clear that Dell is taking advantage of Android’s widget support. I also noticed a port on the bottom that could be for docking, but no mention was made of such a peripheral.

I’m a little surprised that the availability quoted was summer of this year and it makes me wonder what version of Android will be on the final device. By then, I’d expect at least one, if not two, more Android releases. Once the device does hit the market, folks can purchase it direct through Dell or from a carrier. That means this isn’t a standalone MID, but will likely require a contract here in the U.S. Of course, Dell could sell it direct at full price and let you add a SIM card, just like Google does with the Nexus One.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Mini 5 isn’t about the device itself. Dell said the Mini 5 is the first in a family of devices. I take that to mean larger devices in the Mini line will appear, in order to compete with tablets in the 7″ to 10″ range. Obviously, Apple’s iPad comes to mind, as do many Android tablets, but what about that HP slate? That’s a 7-incher but runs a full desktop operating system, and I wouldn’t expect cellular voice support. Does the Dell Mini 5 or a theoretical Mini 7 sound more or less appealing than a UMPC?

Are those puny hardware buttons or the quirky on-screen QWERTY keyboards not quite cutting it for you in Android? As it turns out, Google’s mobile platform appears to support USB keyboards natively on some stock builds. Of course, you can’t simply attach a big, honking external keyboard to your phone and expect it to work. You have to enable USB-OTG, or USB On The Go host mode, and have the proper USB cable, says MAKE. Luckily, Chris Paget’s blog shares the steps to make this happen. The whole process reminds me of a similar project that modders got into back in 2008 with the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. I was scared of the soldering then, and sadly, I’m no closer to having a comfort level.

Chris makes the magic happen on his Droid with three parts: a car charging cable, a micro USB cable and a USB extender cable — all pretty basic parts. The charging cable is only needed for the end piece — it becomes a micro USB dongle that tells Android there’s a USB device to install, which enables USB-OTG mode for the current session. The other two cables are needed for their ends and get spliced together: one end plugs into the handset and the other accepts a male USB wire from a keyboard. Maybe I could handle the wee bit of soldering on this one since it’s only needed to short out one resistor on the micro USB dongle. I think I’ll just search for a pre-made cable to do the trick.

Armed with the proper pieces, it’s just a matter of booting up Android with the dongle in the phone. Once the handset sees the dongle and continues to boot, you simply remove the dongle and plug in a USB keyboard with the spliced cable. Android sees the keyboard, and as Chris says, “It Just Works.” A similar process was replicated and tested successfully on an HTC Hero as well, so odds are decent that many other Android phones can use USB-OTG to host a keyboard. No additional drivers were needed for either the Droid or the Hero, so keyboard support has to be built within Android itself. Of course, that means it could go away in any future Android updates, but for now, you can enjoy a full-sized keyboard on your pint-sized phone.

Image courtesy of Andrew de Quincey

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Android Begins Showing Its Disruptive Promise

When Google introduced its Buzz service last week, I fully expected the mobile client to work on the Palm Pre and Pixi devices. In the past, when I wanted to use a browser-friendly version of a site or service, I’d enter the URL of the iPhone formatted site. More often than not, that would do the trick because webOS uses the same WebKit browser rendering and screen resolution of Apple’s handsets. Unfortunately, that didn’t work with Buzz, as reported by a few of our readers. And Google’s official Buzz site indicates support for iPhone and Android, but not for webOS devices — in fact, webOS isn’t even listed for some reason. Luckily, a PreCentral reader found just the right URL to make Buzz work in the webOS browser.

I entered this web address and confirmed that it works: https://m.google.com/app/buzz?force=1. The formatting looks and behaves just as it does on my Nexus One, although I can’t see Buzz updates near my location. That won’t happen until the webOS browser supports the geolocation features found in the HTML5 specification — or until Google updates the Maps application for webOS to support Buzz.

For now, I’m not investing much time in Google Buzz — I’m content to use Twitter and Facebook at the moment. And now that I have my Palm Pre back, I’ve decided to sell it, so this URL won’t help me. But for Buzz addicts with webOS devices that don’t want to wait for official Google support, this URL should do the trick.

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Where Google Buzz for Mobile Fails

After more than two years of using the same 3G USB stick, my two-year contract with Verizon Wireless is now complete. I’m now on month-to-month terms, and while I keep thinking of changing to a new connectivity device, I haven’t made up my mind on what to do just yet. Do I get a MiFi with Verizon? Should I consider a Sprint Overdrive and test the local WiMAX waters in Philadelphia? Or do I just stay happy with what I have? There’s a chance I may do just that — keep my current plan terms and USB adapter — but add a $99 mobile device to create my own 3G hotspot.

Connect One offers the Wi-Reach Classic and SlashGear got a peek at it during the Mobile World Congress show. Like some competing devices from Cradlepoint and others, the 3-ounce Wi-Reach takes an existing 3G USB stick and creates a Wi-Fi bubble to share the 3G connection with up to 10 devices. The built-in battery is rated for up to five hours of continuous use and recharges over a powered USB cable. SlashGear says the Wi-Reach is software upgradeable so it can support WiMAX and LTE networks once 4G coverage becomes more widespread.

The downside for me is that my current modem isn’t on the supported product list, which is comprised mainly of ZTE and Huawei devices. I may contact the Connect One support team to see if any Novatel Wireless devices are or might be supported with a software update. If not, it’s back to the drawing board to see what to do for mobile broadband and connection sharing. Of course, that 21 Mbps webConnect Rocket should be available next month and I do live nearby the expected network upgrade.

AT&T might be hesitant to allow Skype calls over 3G on the iPhone, but Verizon Wireless is making a statement about its network — today, the carrier announced Skype voice support over 3G on various handsets. The BlackBerry Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Curve 8330, Curve 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour 9630 smartphones are all supported starting next month. Even the recently popular Android phones like the Droid, Droid Eris and newly announced Devour will gain mobile Skype capabilities on Verizon’s EVDO network.

Unfortunately, the current Skype client for Android is really a Skype Lite application that’s better suited for Skype chatting than for everyday calls as far as I know. I can’t even find it in the Android Market on my Nexus One for some reason, which is a shame since I use Skype all the time. Perhaps, there are new clients on the way?

Regardless of potential client limitations, what can you do with Skype on Verizon’s network over 3G?

• Make and receive unlimited free Skype-to-Skype voice calls to anyone on Skype around the globe
• Call international phone numbers at Skype’s low rates
• Send and receive instant messages to other Skype users
• See your friends’ online status

On the Skype Mobile product page, this tidbit jumped out at me: “Skype usage won’t be charged against customers’ monthly Verizon Wireless data plans or minute allowances.” Last I checked, the smartphone data service on Verizon Wireless phones was unlimited, but this development is good news for folks with limited amounts of voice minutes. With solid 3G coverage and friends on Skype, you could save your voice minutes for non-Skype calls as needed.

This is the first time I’ve seen a major partnership between Skype and U.S. carrier — I hope it’s the not the last. I realize that the carriers have to insure against applications that could affect the network capabilities, but it’s time to break free of the challenges holding back the mobile web.

I’m not exactly surprised that it is Verizon making this deal. It offers the largest geographical 3G coverage area in the U.S. and it is also poised to be the first U.S. carrier to begin transitioning over to LTE. On the LTE network, voice should simply be just another form of data, so Verizon is getting a head start now to see how that’s going to shake out as voice revenues continue to decline.

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Could Skype in Your Pocket Beat the iPod Touch?

At the Mobile World Congress today, T-Mobile introduced the first device that can take full advantage of the carrier’s HSPA+ network. The webConnect Rocket USB Laptop Stick is aptly named because it’s a mobile broadband missile. On the outside, it offers a similar appearance to the current 3G webConnect USB adapter that T-Mobile sells — a USB interface, software included on the device for plug-and-play installation, and a microSD memory card slot. It’s what’s on the inside that shoots you to the moon — a 3.5G radio that maximizes bandwidth on T-Mobile’s upcoming 21 Mbps network.

What do all these letters and number mean?

Let’s step off the launching pad for a second and backtrack to fully understand what that means. Today in most areas of the U.S. the 3G HSPA networks from both T-Mobile and AT&T offer theoretical maximum download speeds of 3.6 Mbps. That’s likely the network you’re using if you own a Google Nexus One or Apple iPhone like I do. Some areas of T-Mobile’s HSPA network are now ready for 7.2 Mbps and full deployment across the entire network is expected by the middle of this year. The good news is that many T-Mobile customers can take advantage of this throughput doubling as 10 devices already support the 7.2 Mbps network. And when T-Mo fully deploys the 21 Mbps HSPA+ network, devices will see up to another tripling of broadband speeds. Bear in mind that all of the numbers used are theoretical speeds — typically, a device will see half of the theoretical speed in a best-case scenario.

So how did the webConnect Rocket work?

Armed with that baseline and expectations, I got a chance to test the new webConnect Rocket USB Laptop Stick on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ test network, just like I did in December with less-capable devices. Guess what? That “half the theoretical speed” concept panned out quite nicely. I ran several speed tests hoping to see a best case of 10.5 Mbps — or half of the 21 Mbps theoretical speeds — and saw one test top out at 9.11 Mbps. Bear in mind that the network I used isn’t optimized, so I was pretty impressed with the results. Here’s a quick chart of five tests that represent the total variance of my effort, along with the average speeds. Latency averaged just under 70 milliseconds while downloads and uploads averaged 8.26 Mbps and nearly 2.5 Mbps, respectively.

Speed tests only tell a partial story, though. Mobile broadband users aren’t paying carriers to do speed tests; they’re paying to do things on the Internet, right? People do activities on the go like surf the web, watch video and download content. I did all that and more in during my limited testing using the webConnect Rocket USB stick. While it doesn’t rival my home FiOS connection — which is a real-world 20 Mbps both up and down — this was the fastest mobile broadband experience I’ve had so far. In fact, the wireless download experience is roughly half that of my wired fiber connection at home.

Words and numbers can only describe the experience so much, so here’s a brief video showing a few activities using the HSPA+ product. Aside from a basic speed test, I downloaded a 33 MB podcast and watched a 720p YouTube video with the webConnect Rocket. You’ll notice that the video playback shows stutter, but that’s due to the notebook I used, not the T-Mobile connection. Who would have thought that a relatively modern notebook — and not the mobile broadband connection — would be a bottleneck?

If you watch the video to the end, you’ll see one additional test I did. Since I don’t often get access to the T-Mobile HSPA+ network, I ran a speed test on my Google Nexus One handset. Why would I do that? Because of those devices I mentioned prior that are already capable of using a 7.2 Mbps network. Although the Nexus One can’t take full advantage of the HSPA+ speeds offered by the Rocket, it does get a huge throughput boost on such a network. Obviously, it will never be see more than 7.2 Mbps, but the increase I saw was dramatic — over 4 Mbps down and 1.3 Mbps back up on the phone.

Although you’ll see that I tested the webConnect Rocket on a Microsoft Windows notebook, the T-Mobile webConnect software also supports the Mac OS X operating system. I found the software intuitive and easy to use. And like competing products from other carriers, you can use the webConnect software to manage both your mobile broadband and your Wi-Fi connections, which is a nice feature.

How does this compare to WiMAX?

One has to ask about the competing 4G network offered by Sprint and Clearwire since this T-Mobile network is really 3.5G. Although mobile broadband performance varies due to a number of factors like location, signal strength and equipment used, the T-Mobile test network wins out by quite a bit. In fairness, WiMAX is here now in a number of areas, while the HSPA+ network I used isn’t commercially available just yet, nor is the webConnect Rocket — T-Mobile will introduce pricing and availability of the USB Laptop Stick next month. That timing could jive with HSPA+ deployments on the two U.S. coasts. Availability aside, the raw speeds of HSPA+ easily trump WiMAX test results.

My colleague Stacey over at GigaOM just put WiMAX through the paces down in Austin and noted best speeds of 4 Mbps down and 500 kbps up. She expressed disappointment in the uploads and found out that Clearwire limits the upload throughput to 1 Mbps in order to allocate more resources for downloads. That makes sense as mobile users download more than they upload. But as we create more content, I expect that ratio to slowly change. Even if it doesn’t, my upload tests on HSPA+ were five times faster than what Stacey experienced on WiMAX. Again, there are many factors involved, so this shouldn’t be a straight comparison, but one of overall trends and impressions of the two services.

Summary

No doubt about it — when paired with a capable network, the 21 Mbps webConnect Rocket USB Latpop Stick offers a fast mobile pipe to the web. I’d like to see faster uploads for pictures, videos and such, but I may be in the minority on that request. Uploading on the go at over 2 Mbps is plenty fast enough for most people. And although the webConnect Rocket is in the news at Mobile World Congress, the real story is the network it connects to — at the end of the year, I’m wondering if T-Mobile will indeed have leapfrogged the competition. The carrier was among the last to make the move to 3G, but it continues to quickly march towards the fastest mobile broadband service in the U.S. in 2010.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

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After months of pining — and even some whining — Google Chrome users on Mac OS X can now add browser extensions and synchronize bookmarks across devices. The latest beta of Chrome for Mac, version 5.0.307.7 adds support for these two oft-requested features. In fact, some Firefox users wouldn’t even think about Chrome in the past, due to the vast extensibility of the Mozilla browser. Up to now I’ve used a developer build of Chromium to enjoy extensions, but that changes today. Here’s a list of must-have extensions to take advantage of the latest beta build on Mac OS X.

Google Voice — If you’re not a Google Voice user, then of course, there’s nothing to see here. But if you are, this is a must-have. The extension acts as an unobtrusive notifier to tell you when you have a voicemail or text message. Click it to see your Google Voice Inbox, read those messages or even play back a voice mail. The best part — you can pound out a quick text message from within the interface by using your Mac’s keyboard, not some pokey handset keyboard. And any phone numbers on web pages can be clicked to initiate a Google Voice call so you don’t have to dial. Tap the phone number, choose your Google Voice phone and the service will call you on that handset and then connect you to the number you clicked.

Google Translate — It’s not often I hit a website in a foreign language, but when I do, I scurry around over to Google’s translation service. With this extension, there’s no need to scurry. It uses the same translation engine and works with the click of a button. Google says that auto-language detection only works on Windows for now, but it’s usually not too difficult to pick the correct language. The extension offers a cleaner-looking translation as well — there’s no banner at the top taking up extra space.

Add to Amazon Wish List – I don’t just use Amazon’s Wish List to track what I want from Amazon — I use it to track what I want from pretty much anywhere and this extension helps do just that. Once installed, you can click the extension on any website and add any item on the page to your list. I’ve used this when I see ads for products and even when I’ve just seen an image of a product I want. For example, I added the Apple iPad from our own site since the extension grabs the image. You can fill in product details if you know them or simply add the item without.

Facebook for Google Chrome — Instead of keeping a tab open for Facebook and wasting system resources all day, consider adding this extension. It’s not a notifier, so it won’t help when you receive Facebook messages, but it is a one-click method to see what’s going on in your social circle. After you first install, you’ll need to sign-in to Facebook directly within Chrome, but that’s a once and done situation.

One quick tap opens a Facebook frame that’s scrollable. From here, you can tap your pic to add a status update, read your news feed or check out your wall. Comments and likes are easy to add without even opening up the full Facebook site.

Evernote Web Clipper – Evernote users will love this — and if you’re not an Evernote user, you owe it to yourself to try the cross-platform service. With you can create and save notes, import photos or images and later search across any and all of your clippings since Evernote indexes all of the data for you. Just select what you want to clip and click the extension button. If you have multiple notebooks, you can also choose which notebook you want the clip sent to. This video demonstrates an Evernote bookmarklet, but the overall process and benefits apply to the extension.

AdBlock — This one has to be among the first extensions that every Firefox users installs, so it’s only fitting to call it out for Chrome. AdBlock does one thing, but does it well — it simply blocks ads on web pages, so you can focus on content. You might consider adding the AdBlock Helper Button extension, which gives you a visual way to manage your options, which include allowing text ads on Google search items if you’d rather see them. And if some ads do get through, you can “train” the extension to learn exactly what should have been blocked.

Although there are thousands of extensions now available for Chrome, those are six that I’ve been using and recommend. And I left out the Google Mail Checker simply because I didn’t want too many Google services in the list – but I do use it. Browsing environments and tools are very personal things, so tell me which you’re using and why. There’s just no way for me to have seen them all and now that Chrome officially supports them, I want to add some new extensions!

Related research from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

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