Mereja

Category: Wireless

  • RT-N56U Router From The Starship Enterprise Lands…Err, From ASUS, I Mean [Routers]

    I just don’t know what to think about this router. I’ve been staring at it for minutes now, wondering how in 802.11n’s name it was created in ASUS’ laboratory.

    ASUS hasn’t been too forthcoming with details on the RT-N56U, which was announced at CeBIT this week, and until we hear back from them we’ll just have to entertain you with these small slivers of detail: it has dual band support with the 5GHz band being used, is compatible with both printers and scanners, and is very fast apparently—with 300,000 concurrent sessions available.

    Time to go back to boggling over that inconceivably thin frame. [ASUS]






  • Qualcomm CEO Sees Company Driving Wave of Mobile Internet Innovation

    Qualcomm logo
    Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

    Some people in the audience began to gasp audibly as Qualcomm chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs neared the end of his presentation at the San Diego wireless company’s annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday. The exclamations came about 40 minutes into Jacobs’ address, as he began explaining how various aspects of Qualcomm’s technology are expected to come together.

    In a not-too distant future, Jacobs said, people will be able to send a photo from their smart phone with a flick of their finger to the big digital picture frame above the fireplace mantel (gasp!). Then, let’s say you meet someone at a dinner party, Jacobs said. You can use your smart phone to check out her profile on her social networking site (hmmmm). And if you go shopping the next day, you could use the shopping preferences listed on her profile to buy her a gift—perhaps a black cocktail dress (gasp!). Or if you find it at a cheaper price on the Web, you could just buy it online and send it to her (gasp!).

    Considering the number of retirees in the audience, it was hard to tell if they thought Jacobs’ scenario was forward thinking—or just forward. Such things already are possible, but it was clear from the CEO’s presentation that he envisions such broadband-intensive capabilities will soon be far more pervasive—and that Qualcomm is in a unique position to bring different technical capabilities together to make them a commonplace reality.

    Qualcomm put its modem in the Amazon Kindle e-reader, it supplies its Snapdragon processor for the NexusOne Google phone, and it’s technology runs throughout the wireless network infrastructure. As Jacobs puts it, Qualcomm now ranks No. 6 (up from No. 8 in 2008) among all the semiconductor, computer processor, and memory chipmakers on the planet. It is the world’s No. 1 fabless semiconductor company, the No. 1 wireless RFIC (radio frequency integrated circuit) company, and has long been the No. wireless chipmaker. And as a result of this leadership position, Jacobs says Qualcomm can afford to lower the prices of its chips and other wireless technology components—even in the teeth of an economic downturn.

    “We are the ones driving this,” Jacobs says. “We are the ones who are putting pressure on our competitors through lower pricing.”

    Even in last year’s challenging economic …Next Page »

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  • From the Floor at RSA 2010: Real-World Mobile Network Traffic Validation

    On the show floor at RSA Conference there is a lot happening and overall the show seems much more well attended than last year. This show, as most of you know, is also a harbinger of news releases and product announcements. Crossbeam, providers of scalable software and hardware platforms, distributed a few pieces of news leading up to the show and at the conference itself. I went over to visit the Crossbeam booth (#545) while at RSA so check out a live demonstration of their X-Series security platform using four BreakingPoint Elite chassis. With this impressive demonstration in the background I talked with Crossbeam’s Peter Doggart.

    Q. First off Peter, can you provide us with an overview of what Crossbeam provides?

    Crossbeam’s X-Series security platform lets customers virtualize third-party, best-in-class security applications and scale them to meet the needs of large, high-performance network environments. Today, more than 900 leading enterprises and service providers, including 10 of the top 11 telecom carriers worldwide, rely on Crossbeam as the underlying architecture for the delivery of security services.

    Q. Crossbeam is demonstrating something very interesting here at RSA, can you tell us about what is going on and why?

    In working with service providers over the past year, and in particular mobile network operators (MNOs), it has become evident that they are under enormous pressure to meet growing network demands while simultaneously delivering “clean” data pipes.

    What we are showing at RSA is proof that our X-Series security platform delivers the world’s fastest firewall performance to meet the needs of mobile operators. Using BreakingPoint Elite, we are conducting a to stress-test the X-Series chassis. We are running a best-in-class application on the X-Series, Check Point Security Gateway R70 Firewall, to clean, inspect and secure the traffic.

    This demonstration shows how service providers and mobile carriers can easily scale their network security infrastructure to cope with the next generation of mobile technology, 4G/LTE, under real-world conditions.

    Q. You mention “real world” a few times in your answer and in the news release that went out. What does that mean to mobile network operators?

    There is a growing gap between what vendors state on their data sheets and what we typically see out in the real world in terms of performance. There are two key elements at play in the real world. First, we are seeing more attacks, which place a greater burden on our security systems and, second, we are seeing smaller payload sizes, especially with the growing number of mobile devices. The result is that mobile operators need to buy and manage a lot more equipment than they budgeted for as the real-world demands are far greater than they ever anticipated. This is not only more costly to them, but it is also a lot more complex to manage.

    Realistic tests like this one at RSA validate that we deliver the fastest-performing firewall on the market under real-world conditions which means that we can stand behind our performance claims and mobile network operators can be assured that their X-Series security infrastructure delivers the flexibility, superior performance and high availability required to handle the unpredictability of growing data traffic demands.

    Q. How can this type of validation, throughout the industry, not just at Crossbeam, help the overall performance of MNOs?

    Crossbeam’s policy is to be transparent when it comes to performance claims. We are doing the opposite of what many vendors do by actually creating tests that provide worst case metrics, not the best case. Take the RSA live demonstration. We are using BreakingPoint to generate 96 byte HTTP packets, which in the real mobile world would be the worst case payload size. At Crossbeam, we want to create some real-world industry guidelines that everyone follows so mobile operators, government and enterprise customers understand exactly what they are buying, and can capacity plan correctly.

    Q. I noticed four BreakingPoint chassis in the Crossbeam booth generating the traffic for the demonstration. Why does Crossbeam use BreakingPoint for product validation?

    First, we use the BreakingPoint Elite chassis because they can accurately simulate the type of traffic we see in the real world and, second, because BreakingPoint is the only vendor that can push the Crossbeam chassis to its current performance limits.

    Q. How has using BreakingPoint helped the evolution of Crossbeam products?

    Because BreakingPoint equipment pushes our chassis to its absolute limits, Crossbeam is better able to fine-tune its performance to address customer needs with the assurance that the X-Series can handle their network demands. In the latest release of the X-Series operating system, for instance, we boosted the number of concurrent IP connections we can support up to 10 million, and increased the new connection rates per second to 320,000. These numbers are critical to mobile operators who need to support the growing number of smartphones and other devices, which create more traffic than traditional mobile phones and are nearly always connected. Without BreakingPoint, we couldn’t have confidence in our real-world performance metrics.

  • British Invasion: Finsphere Expands to U.K., With A Little Help From Its Friends

    Finsphere
    Gregory T. Huang wrote:

    A couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting chat with Finsphere, a technology company in Bellevue, WA, that makes mobile software to help banks and other institutions fight financial fraud and identity theft.

    Finsphere has been working on expanding globally, and it took a big first step last August when it opened an office in London. That operation has become increasingly important to its business, and Finsphere is being held up as an example of how a U.S. startup can get established quickly in the U.K. market.

    “London was the perfect place for us to expand,” says Rod Murchison, Finsphere’s chief marketing officer. “It’s the tip of the spear for a more global campaign. But it’s still difficult for a young company to make that kind of investment and execute.”

    If the Seattle-to-London connection sounds familiar, it should. I wrote last week about Smilebox, the Redmond, WA-based photo services company that recently raised $2 million to get a toehold in the European consumer market, also starting with the U.K. They are in completely different businesses—with Smilebox aiming for consumers and Finsphere pursuing banks—but there are certainly some cultural issues both will have to navigate as they grow. And just a few weeks earlier, Seattle’s SEOmoz, a search engine optimization and online marketing company, formed a partnership with London-based search marketing startup Distilled to hand over its consulting business; in that case, however, Distilled was setting up a Seattle office instead of vice versa.

    The fact that at least three local tech startups have recently gotten involved with the U.K. innovation scene is hardly a coincidence. London is a natural epicenter of finance and technology, especially in sectors like mobile and Internet. The costs of doing business there have gone down markedly during the recession. And U.S. companies often think of the U.K. as being less foreign than other, non-English-speaking countries. That might be true to an extent, but the cultural and business differences are still immense, and they pose real challenges to any company setting up there.

    To that end, Finsphere enlisted the help of Think London, a not-for-profit U.K. organization that advises overseas companies about doing business in London. The group started …Next Page »

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  • Awarepoint Raises $10M to Accelerate Its Sensor Network for Hospitals

    Awarepoint logo 2010
    Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

    JAFCO Ventures of Palo Alto, CA, has stepped in as lead investor in a $10 million round announced today by San Diego’s Awarepoint, which provides wireless sensor systems to help hospitals monitor the real-time location of equipment and patients. Existing investors Cardinal Partners and Venrock Associates joined in the Series E round.

    As I explained last year, Awarepoint uses ZigBee-based devices that plug into ordinary power outlets to create a wireless mesh sensor network that encompasses an entire medical center. The system provides real-time tracking of RFID (radio frequency identification) tags that are embedded in patient wristbands and attached to medical instruments.

    Awarepoint says the capital infusion will be used to accelerate its development of new technology and products, and to help the company market its capabilities. The company was founded in 2002. As part of the financing, JAFCO Ventures general partner Tom Mawhinney will join Awarepoint’s board. The Palo Alto venture firm is affiliated with Tokyo-based JAFCO, the private equity firm previously known as Japan Associated Finance Co.

    Awarepoint CEO Jason Howe told me last year the company has raise more than $24 million from investors, lenders, and in vendor financing. Awarepoint did not identify a previous investor, San Diego’s Avalon Ventures, as a participant in the latest round, and the company no longer lists Avalon’s Steve Tomlin as a board member on its website.

    Tomlin tells me by e-mail this morning: “We do still have an Observer seat and stay actively involved. Avalon is always delighted when our companies attain a level of maturity that they don’t need us on the Board—and, to the delight of our investors and ourselves, it frees Avalon’s partners’ time to engage in more early-stage-oriented activities…”

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  • Virgin Mobile Isn’t Quite Clear On The Meaning Of “Playlist”

    Jennifer writes that she bought a new phone, a Samsung Mantra, based on the features listed for the phone on Virgin Mobile’s web site. The problem is that the phone doesn’t actually seem to have the advertised features that led her to buy the phone in the first place.

    Jennifer is in a familiar place: Virgin Mobile’s utter illogic and lack of knowledge of their own products has driven her to ask the readers of Consumerist whether she’s understanding the situation correctly, and whether her assumptions are wrong.

    I seem to have an ongoing argument with Virgin Mobile, and thought I’d get your take on this. You folks seem pretty savvy with this kind of stuff. I bought a Virgin Mobile prepaid phone based on two features advertised on their site. One of the features was an MP3 player. The exact wording states: “Load MP3 files to your phone- take your playlist anywhere.” I interpreted this statement to mean that not only could I download ringtones, but I would be able to create a playlist of my favorite songs, and load it to my phone. I got the phone and can load MP3 ringtones. Unfortunately, there is no way possible to “take your playlist anywhere.” I called customer service to find out how to load my beloved playlist of favorite songs. I was told by a couple, maybe three reps that it could be done. I would just need to purchase a memory card and USB cable. That wasn’t a problem for me. ( I already have a memory card with my playlist on it that was used with a Samsung Upstage I previously owned.) The problem is that the Samsung Mantra I had purchased does not have a Memory card slot.

    I placed a couple of other calls to customer service and was told that I could not load a playlist to my new phone. Fed up with this awkward treasure trove of conflicting information, I emailed Virgin mobile at the address provided on their site. Once again, I was told I could load my playlist, provided I had a memory card and USB cable. I replied and let them know that the phone a did not have a memory card port. (You would think that they would research the product before they started giving answers.) I received a reply apologizing for the misinformation. I was told that I could return the phone and pay more money for a phone that does include the feature I thought was available on the phone I just purchased. I was told that the product description would be corrected. A credit was applied to my account, which I do appreciate. However, I do not feel I should spend more money to purchase a phone that the Virgin Mobile web site said was on the phone I already owned. I gave up.

    A couple of months later I visited the site, and out of curiosity, I took a look at the product description for my Samsung Mantra. Lo and behold! It says that I can “Load MP3 files- take your playlist anywhere!” I shot off another email asking Virgin Mobile to make it possible for me to take my playlist anywhere. They responded by saying that I misunderstood the description, and that that it only means that I can load ringtones and wallpapers to my phone. I may be wrong, but I was not aware that wallpapers were available in MP3 format. I also was not aware that a playlist of 20 second song clips that my ringtones consist of. Even if I could create such a playlist, why would I want one consisting only of ringtones? ( I also checked out the descriptions for their other phones. It appears that they all offer the “Load MP3 files to your phone- take your playlist anywhere” feature.

    If I am in the wrong, and I do have a twisted understanding of the term “playlist”, I will gladly admit my ignorance and let the whole thing go. Will you tell me if I am misunderstanding the product description? Will you clarify for me what constitutes a MP3 playlist? Can I place MP3 wallpapers in a playlist? Your feedback is appreciated.

    It’s worth noting that the page for this phone on Virgin Mobile USA’s site no longer mentions anything about using the phone to play music.

    My understanding is that a “playlist” is a list of full-length songs, not ringtones, and the product description was misleading if you’re unable to store full-length, decent quality songs on the phone. What does the Consumerist HIve Mind have to say?


  • PhotoRocket Hires Michael Cockrill; Founder Scott Lipsky Shares More Details

    PhotoRocket
    Gregory T. Huang wrote:

    Seattle stealth startup PhotoRocket has some intriguing news today. The company, which says it is planning on “changing the landscape of the photo sharing space,” has hired former Atlas Accelerator managing partner Michael Cockrill to lead the delivery of its products and services. PhotoRocket has also officially opened a new round of financing, which it expects to close on March 31.

    That’s from PhotoRocket founder Scott Lipsky, the former aQuantive and GalleryPlayer founder (and early Amazon.com employee). Lipsky tells me the PhotoRocket service—whatever it is—will be launching sometime this summer. The company is hiring and currently has about four open positions, mostly in engineering.

    Cockrill is a distinguished member of what we’ve been calling the “Qpass mafia”—former employees of the Seattle mobile and digital commerce company. Between Atlas Accelerator and Qpass, where he spent nine years leading products, solutions architecture, and technical strategy, Cockrill co-founded Mixxer, a 60-person mobile social networking company. He also has nine years of experience at Microsoft.

    Lipsky says Cockrill is the perfect hire because he’s the “perfect mix of product and technology leadership. He lives and breathes products and technology, and that’s a difficult combination to find. He’s a ground-floor entrepreneur. He is a company builder.”

    PhotoRocket has consisted of Lipsky and about five advisors and consultants who’ve been working on and off for about a year. Another key team member is Gary Roshak, who’s been on board since early January. Roshak came from Yahoo and Marchex, and is an expert in mobile, digital media, and interactive advertising.

    The company has been in offices in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle since December. Lipsky also has plans to build a much broader R&D laboratory, and he says PhotoRocket is an example of what would come out of it.

    It all sounds pretty exciting and ambitious—if maddeningly vague. And what will people think if they find out what secret products PhotoRocket is building, ahead of schedule?

    “It isn’t going to happen,” Lipsky says.

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  • The X Lists Debut: San Diego’s Online Reference Library for Innovators and Entrepreneurs

    Xconomy logo1
    Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

    If Xconomy had a storefront in downtown San Diego instead of a Web address, it might be easier for readers to see what we’ve got under construction, because people could peer behind the plywood fencing and the signs reading “Pardon Our Dust.” Instead, curious visitors who clicked on the tab that says “resources” only got the unsatisfying message “Coming soon…”

    Until now, that is. Our latest project is finished, and I am proud to introduce a new section on our website that we call the X Lists.

    In our quest to be the authoritative voice on technology innovation in San Diego, we’ve created the X Lists to serve as a one-stop shop for the range of resources that entrepreneurs should find useful as they work to fulfill their own quests. We want them to be the Web’s most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to innovation resources in the San Diego area, and we’ve organized them according to the stages in a startup’s development: Start, Fund, Network, Work & Grow, and Analyze. We also hope you’ll help us keep the lists up to date—so if you know that a relevant organization or resource is missing, please let us know at [email protected]

    In saying “we,” however, I must give credit and express my personal thanks to Erin Kutz, an Xconomy Boston assistant editor (and the newest addition to Xconomy’s editorial staff), who researched and prepared these X Lists for San Diego’s innovation community.

    If you’re just getting started, the X Lists include information and links to local business plan competitions and incubators that were established to help educate and guide entrepreneurs at the outset of their journey. We also list the angel groups, venture firms, and corporate venture funds where you can hear your first “No,” or perhaps “Hell No!” or maybe someday, “Yes.” (I’ve heard a San Diego venture firm partner advise entrepreneurs who are looking for seed-stage capital that they should expect to present their business plan to about 50 VCs. Also listed are …Next Page »

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  • Let’s Cut the Cord on Proprietary Wireless Adapters

    When I started to write this post, it was going to share news about Microsoft’s newest BlueTrack Technology mouse offerings. I swear it was, because Microsoft makes a good mouse. I planned to tell you that either the new smaller Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500 or Wireless Mouse 2000 will set you back $29.95. That’s a great price for a mouse that needs no pad. But I’m not going to focus on any of that since you can read the press release here. Instead — and I really don’t mean to make Microsoft an example because there are plenty of other culprits — I’m going to focus on three words: proprietary, wireless and adapter. If it were up to me, I’d never hear or say those three words in succession again when talking about modern day computing devices.

    Last I checked, the calendar said the year was 2010. We’ve had a pretty solid and useful wireless standard in the form of Bluetooth 2.0 which the Bluetooth SIG adopted in 2004, so why do companies still take it upon themselves to add unnecessary wireless adapters to products? Yes, I realize I’m ranting a little here and you’re probably thinking, “what’s the big deal as long as it works?” If you’re asking that question, you probably haven’t used a mobile device that has a limited number of USB ports. I have, and I simply don’t want to clog up a USB port needlessly for a mouse. I have 3G adapters, flash drives, portable external USB hard drives, phones and cameras that I’d rather — or must — use with those ports. Why bother having a perfectly standard Bluetooth radio in devices if we’re not going to use them? It’s not like Bluetooth is a new, unproven technology or not readily offered in mobile devices.

    Simply put, there’s no reason — technical or otherwise — that wireless peripherals like a mouse should only be supported by proprietary wireless means. I’m not suggesting the approach is totally killed off because I realize that most desktops and some laptops don’t offer Bluetooth. But it’s 2010 folks — let’s at least make the proprietary approach secondary to the widely recognized standards solutions. And I hate to point this out, because it’s just an example, but out of the 13 wireless mice currently offered on Microsoft’s Hardware site, only three use a standard Bluetooth connection, while the other 10 require a special USB transceiver. It’s time to pull the plug on this wireless waste.

    Image courtesy of Microsoft

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

    Why We May Never Reach Home Networking Nirvana

  • Qualcomm Ventures Leads New Investment Round in Revived Visage Mobile

    Visage Mobile logo
    Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

    San Diego’s Qualcomm Ventures is showing its confidence in Visage Mobile’s back-from-the-dead strategy by leading a new investment round in the San Francisco-based company.

    Tim Weingarten, who stepped in as Visage CEO in 2008, tells me the company has secured $4.5 million in its second round venture funding since 2008, when the company sold most of its assets to Convergys on terms that were not disclosed. Visage Mobile basically restarted its business in late 2008 under the same name, but with a different business focus on Software-as-a-Service technology that enables customers to better control their costs and to set policies that govern employee usage of smartphones and mobile broadband.

    The company previously specialized in developing software for mobile virtual network operators like Disney Mobile, which closed down at the end of 2007. In its previous incarnation, Visage Mobile raised about $93 million through at least five rounds of venture capital funding since it was founded in 2001 until it hit the wall in 2008.

    The company built its new strategy to provide Software-as-a-Service around technology that Visage Mobile had gained through its October 2007 acquisition of Pleasanton, CA-based Agistics. Luckily, the Agistics buyout was part of a planned expansion that was made possible by a $10 million venture round that had closed just four months earlier. Weingarten says the company was able to launch its new product in 18 months. Visage Mobile’s investors at that time included …Next Page »

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  • How Microsoft’s New Mobile Approach Stacks Up with Apple and Google

    Microsoft
    Gregory T. Huang wrote:

    Pretty soon you might not be able to tell the difference between Microsoft and its most hated rivals. At least in the mobile sector. This would be good news for Microsoft.

    That’s my take after thinking more about Microsoft’s announcement last week of its heir apparent to Windows Mobile—the Windows Phone 7 Series operating system. Today, more details have emerged on how Microsoft is planning to integrate digital music and multiplayer video games into its smartphones, via its Zune service and Xbox Live, respectively. Of course, it’s all still a ways away—the first phones with WP7 won’t arrive until the end of this year.

    Microsoft’s mobile overhaul is hardly surprising, given how widely its efforts to make software for smartphones have been panned. And Windows Mobile executives have been talking about putting music, video, and games on phones for at least six years. But what’s interesting here is how Microsoft’s strategy lines up against some of its main competitors who have entered the mobile realm much more recently.

    It looks like Microsoft’s WP7 will follow Apple’s proprietary development model more closely than Google’s open-source approach. Microsoft wants its mobile applications to be designed around a unified set of specifications for hardware and software. That means Microsoft mobile apps should run smoothly across different devices, as long as they support the WP7 operating system and user interface. Although some might criticize this as a “closed” approach—like the iPhone system and Windows PCs—it should avoid some of the problems of the open-source ecosystem, like forcing developers to tweak their code for each device’s interface. (As for Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry platform, and Nokia, which mainly uses the Symbian operating system, Microsoft might be thinking about acquiring one or both of them—not sure if that would make sense though.)

    More broadly, the latest Microsoft push has renewed discussions about how the Redmond, WA, company stacks up against other tech giants across different businesses. At least one observer, Preston Gralla from Computerworld, thinks Apple is vulnerable because its success is tied too closely to CEO Steve Jobs; meanwhile, Google has a near monopoly on Web search and advertising, which bodes well as mobile handsets become more powerful and capable of running faster Web searches and applications. But others would say Apple has built a strong culture of product innovation that would survive a Jobs departure, while Google is a one-trick pony that is too dependent on ad revenues. In most of these arguments, Microsoft sits in the middle—with enough of an operating systems business to survive a long time while it moves more deeply into search, mobile, and entertainment. And that’s probably where it wants to be, for now.

    Of course, I wonder what Seattle-based Amazon will have to say about all of this. That’s a question for another day.

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  • Pocket Trackpad for Windows, Macs

    Wireless peripherals can be useful tools in the bag, if they are well executed and fit a need. Portable trackpads are not new, and it’s rare to see one that is well designed and provides utility for users. One such gadget has been reviewed by Red at TRFJ, and overall he seems to like it. The iPazzPort combines a trackpad and thumb keyboard into a pocketable package, and it connects via a wireless dongle to either Windows or OS X computers.

    What would you use such a gadget for? As Red points out, the iPazzPort can be used with a media center for easy control of the system while sitting in front of the big screen. I can also see one of these adding value to slate devices for those who don’t like on-screen keyboards. The thumb keyboard looks like a decent entry device for those who like such things. I could also see this used as a remote control for giving presentations. Not too bad for $40.

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

    Cool, Calm and Connected: 3 Design Principles for Connected Objects

  • Nokia N97 Mini Review

    At the first sight, the Nokia N97 Mini QWERTY keypad looks absolutely stunning, but I wasn’t amazed with the Symbian S60 v5 operating system, as I’m used to it. I’m already using Nokia 5800 Xpress Music for the last 5 months, but the major difference in software between both the device was that of “Kinetic Scrolling”. The other feature I liked was that of customizable homescreen. I had a perception that this device wasn’t a value for money, thanks to its operating system. With all my friends, contacts, emails and widgets on the homescreen, this device proved me wrong.

    nokia n97 mini

    What’s in the box?

    nokia n97 mini box

    • Nokia N97 Mini
    • Nokia Battery
    • Nokia Travel Charger
    • Nokia Connectivity Cable
    • Nokia Wired Headset
    • OVI Suite DVD
    • User Manual

    To know more on the contents inside the box, check out our exclusive N97 Mini unboxing video. You can even have a look at out exclusive hands-on pics.

    Positive Features

    • Smooth Slider
    • Large Touchscreen Display
    • Excellent QWERTY keypad
    • 8GB in-built memory
    • Kinetic Scrolling
    • Supports Popular Audio/Video formats
    • Stylish Metallic Battery Cover
    • Wide Range of Useful Apps
    • Customizable Homescreen

    Negative Features

    • Poor Display Under Sunlight
    • Unimpressive Battery
    • Unsatisfactory Camera
    • No Changes in UI
    • Poor Web Browser

    Design And Hardware:

    N97 Mini is constantly being compared with its big brother, Nokia N97. The design of this device is quite attractive as compared to N97. The build quality of N97 Mini is just brilliant. The battery cover is made up of a metallic material, which makes it look like a high end device, unlike N97 which has a plastic battery cover. This device is absolutely comfortable and it easily fits in my pockets.

    n97 mini metallic back

    N97 Mini has a little smaller display as compared to N97. This device has a display of 3.2 inches (similar to Nokia 5800 Xpress Music), while N97 had a 3.5 inches display. It comes with a resistive touchscreen, 360 x 640 pixels resolution and it supports 16 million colors. N97 Mini has a sharper and crystal clear display under normal lighting conditions, but it becomes almost unreadable in direct sunlight.

    Above the large display, there is a proximity and light sensitivity sensors, earpiece and a video call camera. The proximity sensor helps to switch off the display automatically, when you hold the device near to your ear. Below the display, you can find a menu key along with a touch sensitive call and end keys. On the left side, there is a microUSB port and the screen lock slider. On the right side, there are camera and volume keys. The power key and 3.5 mm audio jack are situated on the top of the device.

    nokia n97 mini qwerty

    The sliding QWERTY keyboard is just amazing. The slider is absolutely smooth and there isn’t any chances of damage during its regular usage. The keys are a bit smaller as compared to N97, but they are perfectly placed with proper spacing between the keys. N97 Mini has arrow keys, unlike the useless D-pad key on the N97. The keys are easy to use and they aren’t pain on your fingers.

    On the back, you will find a 5 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash and a stylish metallic battery cover. The battery of this device is also smaller than N97. This device has a 1200 mAH battery as compared to N97 which has a 1500 mAH battery. The MicroSD card slot is situated under the battery cover while the SIM card slot is placed under the battery. N97 Mini supports upto 16GB of external storage.

    nokia n97 mini hardware

    Nokia N97 Mini is available in three stunning colors – Cherry Black, Garnet and White. The build quality of this device is much better than N97. But the power, volume and menu keys are completely unsatisfactory. Sometimes I was not able to open the slider in one go. There is always a fear in mind regarding the damages to slider due to the thin plastic support on its back. It was quite comfortable and faster to send emails and texts, thanks to its amazing slider QWERTY keypad. They should have provided covers for the USB port and dual LED flash, since they can be scratched easily. The proximity sensor works perfectly. It is quite a pain to change SIM cards.

    Check out the full specification of Nokia N97 Mini here.

    User Interface:

    nokia n97 mini interface

    As I have said earlier, for the first few days I didn’t liked this device because of the Symbian S60v5 operating system. I was already bored of the same user interface as I’m used to it. But the major difference in the user interface of Nokia N97 Mini and other Symbian S60 device was that of Kinetic Scrolling and an amazing homescreen. Kinetic Scrolling was available everywhere, even in menus and applications. I really liked the kinetic scrolling of this device. The icons menus are very appealing as compared to the list menus. The menu icons can be customized easily within few seconds. Sliding out the QWERTY keypad rotates the screen vertically.

    Homescreen:

    nokia n97 mini homescreen

    The customizable homescreen in N97 Mini is brilliant. The widgets in homescreen helped me a lot by saving my valuable time. Almost all my needs were fulfilled from the homescreen itself. You can add, remove and organize upto 5 widgets on the homescreen. The clock widget is set by default and it cannot be removed, but you can place it anywhere on the homescreen. My favorite homescreen widgets are Facebook, AccuWeather and Shortcuts.

    I tried adding Gravity on the homescreen but it looked dull. Gravity isn’t optimized for N97 Mini homescreen, but it would be fun to have an excellent app, like Gravity, readily optimized for the homescreen. The menu key below the display is quite uncomfortable. Hence, I have added the menu shortcut on the homescreen as I didn’t wanted to use that menu key anymore.

    Check out 20 stunning wallpapers for Nokia N97 Mini here. You can also find more amazing wallpapers here.

    Connectivity:

    nokia n97 mini connectivity

    The Nokia N97 Mini is a powerful device which has a wide range of connectivity options. This device comes with GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth, USB, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. It has 2G and 3G quad band, which can be used globally with any wireless operator. You can easily find and connect to Wi-Fi signals, with the help of this device. I tried using Wi-Fi on this device and the hi-speed browsing experience was just incredible. The connection manager shows all the active connections, along with the current download and upload speed. You can always stay connected with your friends, thanks to its wide range of connectivity options.

    Messaging:

    nokia n97 mini messaging

    There are no changes in messaging client as compared to Nokia 5800. Nokia N97 Mini comes with SMS, MMS and Email messaging services. The messaging client fulfills most of my needs when it comes to SMS and MMS services. To compose a message, you can use the amazing QWERTY keyboard or you can even use the alphanumeric keyboard on the touchscreen itself. You can even type long texts and Emails easily, within few minutes. What’s more, you can use your own handwriting to type messages on the go. Messaging isn’t a pain in N97 Mini since it comes with an outstanding QWERTY keyboard.

    Sending and receiving emails in N97 Mini is a child’s play. I was able to configure my Google Apps, Gmail as well as OVI mail within few seconds. Setting up OVI mail was the easiest one as you have to only key in the username and password, nothing else. I would suggest you to use IMAP instead of POP for retrieving email, but the final choice is ultimately yours.

    Since 3G is still not available with the private operators in India, I was not able to test messaging in a 3G environment. I tested the email service using EDGE and Wi-Fi, and the service was pretty neat. Hundreds of emails were retrieved within seconds. Reading mails in Nokia 5800 is quite a pain, but it isn’t in N97 Mini, thanks to the kinetic scrolling.

    Camera:

    nokia n97 mini camera

    Nokia N97 Mini has a 5 mega-pixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and the dual LED flash. The maximum resolution for an image is 2592 x 1944 pixels. Though there is no major difference in the camera as compared to N97, you will find the lens cover missing in the mini version. The interface is the exact copy of what we have seen earlier in the Nokia 5800 and N97. You can find all the settings under a common menu, but the flash has a dedicated shortcut with 4 options Automatic, Reduce Red, On and Off. You can switch to secondary camera or video mode directly through “Options”. The device has 8 scene modes, 5 color tone, white balance, exposure, light sensitivity, contrast, sharpness and image sequence mode.

    Transparent Display Alarm Clock

    transparent display clock

    Stagecoach Bus

    stagecoach bus

    The camera quality of this device cannot be termed as excellent. The images do not have much visible noise in them. The images taken with N97 Mini are slightly better than the original N97. The images taken during night were visibly poor as compared to those taken during the day. I saw yellow tint in most of the images taken during the day. The color balance is definitely not upto the mark.

    I was quite amazed to see that this device does not have face and smile detection technology. Even cheap mobile phones, such as Samsung Corby come with a smile detection feature. This device has a VGA video recording @ 30fps. The video quality is quite satisfactory.

    Images And Videos:

    You can view all your images in the photos application. This application is pretty neat, and you can easily browse thousand of images with the help of kinetic scrolling. The app has a basic photo editor where you can add effects, such as inserting clip arts, frames and texts, crop the image, increase brightness and so on. You can double click on any image to zoom it. You can directly send the image as an attachment, right inside the photos application.

    The video player allows you to view 3gp and mp4 videos. The video experience on a large screen is simply awesome. You can watch videos of upto 360 x 640 resolution. I have added 5 full length movies and watched it on the go. If you want to skip some part of the video, then you can drag the bar to any part of the video. For some reason, if you stopped the video, the next time, video starts from that position itself. This is quite useful when the device is switched off due to low battery.

    Music:

    nokia n97 mini music player

    The device come with a 3.5 mm headphone jack, 8GB in built memory, 16GB expandable memory and support for MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, and eAAC+ audio files. I have added some extreme chartbusters to make it a complete music phone. The stereo headphone provided with this device is pretty decent. Compared to other Nokia devices, the loudspeakers are not too loud.

    The music player has the same old S60 interface. Songs are arranged according to their album and artist name. I would ask you to update your ID3 tags for arranging songs neatly in the device. Even if you have thousands of albums in your device, you can browse them easily with the help of kinetic scrolling. The music player even allows you to rewind and forward any track while listening. The music player definitely needs some improvement.

    Web-Browser:

    nokia n97 mini browser

    The web browser of N97 Mini is not too bad, but it is not well optimized for webpages with lots of links. While browsing Techie Buzz, it automatically redirected to the mobile version, which I turned off later. The browser supports flash content, so you can watch your favorite YouTube videos right inside the browser. The kinetic scrolling helps to browse long web pages easily.

    The bookmark manager is quite unsatisfactory. The page opens instantly even on a EDGE connection. On the top of the browser, you can see the size of the web page, which is quite useful, if you have a limited data connection or while you are browsing while roaming in another country. I really want Nokia to improve the S60 browser for its future devices.

    Pre-Installed Apps:

    nokia n97 mini apps

    Nokia N97 Mini has a bunch of pre-installed apps. Through it comes with a wide range of free apps, some of the pre-installed apps were only trial version. Sadly, N97 Mini does not have a single pre-installed game. Check out the complete list of pre-installed apps below.

    • Drawing
    • JoikuSpot
    • Qik
    • Boingo
    • Soccer
    • Facebook
    • Friendster
    • Hi5
    • Metro
    • MySpace
    • Traveler
    • AccuWeather
    • Amazon
    • AP Mobile
    • Bloomberg
    • CNN Video
    • Elle
    • Slideshow
    • Vingo

    Third Party Apps:

    n97 mini apps

    Nokia N97 Mini supports thousands of paid and free apps. You can head over to OVI Store for complete application gallery. To test third part apps, I installed Gravity, the best Twitter application for S60 5th Edition devices. The app worked pretty smoothly. Check out the top 10 applications for Nokia N97 Mini here.

    Conclusion:

    nokia n97 mini

    I have used Nokia N97 for few days, but it was a complete disaster. The moment I opened a few apps, it started freezing. I was not able to view YouTube videos properly. So, I had a perception that N97 Mini will also be a highly-priced device with lots of flaws. When I used the device for first two days, I didn’t found anything new. But when I used it for almost a week, it completely changed my mind.

    The spectacular combination of hardware and software makes this handset one of the best mobile communicating device currently available in the market.

    Nokia N97 Mini is a complete winner in the long run. The touchscreen is very responsive and the call quality has been significantly improved. This device fits perfectly in the pockets. I used the device for more than two weeks, but it haven’t freezed once. Though there are not many changes in the UI, the kinetic scrolling is a complete savior. I liked the QWERTY keypad of N97 Mini a lot. Even OVI Store have thousand of useful apps that fulfills most of my needs.

    The browser is not up to the mark, but the camera of N97 Mini is definitely better that N97. Though many of you will still prefer N97 because of its 32GB inbuilt memory for almost same price, but I would recommend you to get this device since it is high on performance and quality. The recent firmware update of N97 Mini, solved all the flaws of this device. Nokia N97 Mini is one of the best touchscreen handsets manufactured by Nokia. Go For It!!!

  • Brightcove Attempts to Straddle Front Line in Mobile Video Wars

    Brightcove Logo
    Wade Roush wrote:

    Brightcove has a problem. The Cambridge, MA-based startup’s Brightcove 4 video hosting platform, which hundreds of publishers use to distribute and monetize Web video on desktop and laptop PCs, was built around Adobe’s Flash Player. But more and more people want to watch videos on their smartphones, and Flash videos won’t play on most mobile devices. Moreover, Adobe competitors like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are working to sideline Flash in favor of their own competing video formats, such as MPEG-4/H.264 and VC-1. Of particular concern to video publishers (and many consumers) is Apple’s stubborn refusal to allow the Flash Player or Flash-driven applications to run on the iPhone, the iPod Touch, or the upcoming iPad, which can only display H.264 videos.

    Brightcove has long been seen as part of the Adobe camp—indeed, founder Jeremy Allaire helped to create the Flash format when he was at Macromedia, which became part of Adobe in 2005. But Brightcove’s customers aren’t wedded to Flash: they just want to make their videos available to as large an audience as possible. During the era of Flash’s ascendancy, going with Brightcove’s platform, which wraps advertising and other advanced features around basic Flash videos, was a good way to do that. But to keep its customers, Brightcove will need to find a way to make their content mobile-ready, and to shield them from all the shrapnel in the video standards war.

    That’s part of the intention behind Brightcove’s announcement this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that it’s working on software that will make it easier for publishers to deliver Flash video to mobile devices—and to make money doing so. Technically, what Brightcove unveiled is a software package called “Brightcove Mobile Experience for Adobe Flash Player 10.1.” It’s a version of Brightcove’s well-known video player that runs on top of the forthcoming Flash Player 10.1, which will be the first version of Adobe’s platform built to work well on smartphones and netbooks as well as laptops and desktops PCs.

    As Jeff Whatcott, senior vice president of marketing at Brightcove, explained to me in a briefing before the Barcelona conference, that means the video content published by Brightcove customers will soon be accessible to users of Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm, and Nokia (Symbian) mobile devices—all of the leading smartphones except …Next Page »

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  • Rogers still long-term wireless winner

    Fear not, Rogers Communications Inc. will not be sunk by wireless upstarts in this or any other year in the near future, analysts say.

    The company, which already has one of the largest slices of the market share pie, will likely continue to see growth in the maturing wireless market, despite assaults in recent months from new players such as Wind Mobile, Phillip Huang with UBS said in a note.

    "While we do not believe new entrants will have any significant direct impact on Rogers' financial results in 2010, we believe they will create negative sentiments through the year," he said. "We currently see heightened sentiment risks through the spring as several new entrants perpare to launch esrvices and expand their coverage."

    Instead, Mr. Huang calls Rogers a "fundamentally strong company" due to its commitment to returning capital to shareholders, maintaining a Buy rating while upping his price target to $39 from $36. 

    "An established track record of annual dividend growth and share repurchases will help lower the stock's risk profile, appeal to a broader base of investors, and provide downside support," he said.

    Meanwhile Maher Yaghi, analyst with Desjardins Securities, said wireless will continue to drive growth in the telecommunications sector in Canada, and Rogers remains "the" player in wireless.

    "Many investors used the recent run-up in the stock price ahead of the quarterly results to take profits," he said. "However, the shares are trading at an attractive level, and over the long term we expect continued good performance from the company driven by its leadership in wireless and a balance sheet that provides a high degree of flexibility."

    He pegs Rogers with a Buy-Average Risk rating and $38.40 target price.

    Eric Lam

     

  • A Call for Showcase Participants at Xconomy’s March 9 Mobile Madness Forum

    Mobile Madness Logo
    Wade Roush wrote:

    Xconomy’s big mobile conference, “Mobile Madness: The New Future of Computing,” is coming up fast, on March 9. But there’s still time to register for a ticket—and if you work for a mobile technology startup and you’d like to join the madness, either live at the event or online, there’s still time to get involved in the program.

    Here’s the scoop:

    1) We’re looking for a few more companies to participate in the live Mobile Showcase, the closing segment of this half-day event. If you’ve ever been to the Web Innovators Group meetings here in Cambridge, you’ll be familiar with the structure of this part of the program, which is modeled after the “side dish” format used by David Beisel, the Web Inno founder.

    Founders or executives from 10 mobile technology companies will give very short presentations about their companies to our audience at the Microsoft New England R&D Center. Then the crowd will adjourn to the reception/lobby area, where audience members will have a chance to interact directly with company representatives around each company’s table. Showcase companies are free to bring handouts and demos. There’s no charge to present. (Xconomy events are never pay-to-play.)

    We’ve already got six showcase presenters signed up for the live showcase, so there are only four slots left. We’d love to have more, but we’re short on space! If you’re interested, please contact me this week at [email protected].

    2) Separate from the physical presentations and tables at the March 9 event, we’re assembling an online Mobile Showcase that will be open to all New England companies with products or services in the mobile market. Like our 2009 Mobile Innovation Showcase, this one will be a space where companies can share brief descriptions of their businesses, along with links, and, possibly, screenshots, and videos.

    We’ll promote the online showcase to all event attendees and we’ll keep it online as a permanent resource. If you’d like your company to be included, please e-mail a package of materials to me at [email protected]. The basic ingredients: a 1-paragraph description of your company, a logo, your company’s main URL, up to three graphics, and (optionally) an embeddable video from YouTube, Vimeo, or the like.

    The showcases are only one part of Mobile Madness, of course. We’re excited to be bringing you keynote talks and panel discussions with some of the smartest people on the local mobile-tech scene, as well as a high-energy “mobile smackdown” segment featuring proponents of the leading mobile application development platforms (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and maybe more).

    Mobile Madness is part of Mass Mobile Month, an informal celebration of the mobile technology industry in Massachusetts and New England that will last throughout March 2010. I hope you’ll check out the whole collection of amazing mobile-related events being organized in the Boston area in March (well, actually, from late February all the way into early April) and sign up to attend some. For news about the month’s events, you can follow @massmobilemonth on Twitter.

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  • How EcoATM Became San Diego’s Hottest Startup Deal, If I Say So Myself

    Mark Bowles wrote:

    For a company that was founded by three wireless industry veterans only about a year ago, ecoATM ended 2009 with some pretty impressive results. If there was a yearbook for San Diego startups, you could say we were voted most likely to succeed:

    Out of more than 100 local start-ups that entered the San Diego Venture Group’s 2009 PitchFest, ecoATM was voted winner—which included a $20,000 award—during the group’s annual dinner in December. EcoATM also won the $10,000 award that Bellevue, WA-based Coinstar offered at its KioskCom Self-Service Expo in New York for the best new concept in retail-based kiosks. We won Connect’s 2009 “Most Innovative Product” award in the cleantech category. We won the “Best Content Pitch” in the TechCoast Angel’s QuickPitch competition and second place in Qualcomm’s Q-Prize competition. Our startup was among the first handful of companies selected for EvoNexus, the technology startup incubator formed last year by the local telecom industry group CommNexus. Our company was featured on ABC News, and in Inc. and Fast Company magazines.

    Today we even have some news to announce: At a time when the capital markets have nearly dried up, San Diego’s Tao Venture Partners is leading our first round of venture funding. Our investors include Jens Molbak, Coinstar’s founding CEO.

    We started ecoATM with the idea of rewarding consumers who recycle their “retired” mobile phones by providing an automated kiosk that makes it easy for them to get a “trade up” discount coupon, gift card, or to make a charitable donation to certain organizations.

    ecoATM kiosk

    ecoATM kiosk

    Our momentum has snowballed very quickly since October, when we conducted a field trial of our first prototype kiosk in Omaha, NE. Our kiosk immediately created a sensation with consumers and the press. Consumers were so eager to use our machine that they waited up to 45 minutes to get their turn. We were completely surprised by the response, and felt like we had definitely turned the corner.

    It would have been hard to imagine such enthusiasm when it all started in late 2008.

    It began at the Starbucks in Del Mar, CA, where I met daily for two months with Michael Librizzi and Pieter van Rooyen. We would sip coffee and contemplate ideas for our next venture. Surrounding us at other tables were other groups of unemployed techies who also were carefully scheming their next moves in the wavering economy of 2008. The three of us were all 15-to-20-year veterans of wireless, mobile, and semiconductor technology start-ups. Between us, we had started …Next Page »

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  • Qualcomm Previews Flo-Enabled Content

    Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

    Qualcomm, the San Diego wireless technologies giant, says it is previewing a variety of new applications at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that enable certain features of its Flo-TV technology to run on netbooks equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor. Qualcomm says its technology combines live mobile TV programming with real-time Web content and access to popular social networking sites like Twitter. For instance, sports fans watching a live match can use a social networking site to engage other fans while also getting teams stats and other data via real-time data streaming.

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  • Swype Scores $1M Led by Docomo

    Gregory T. Huang wrote:

    Seattle-based Swype, a maker of text-input technology for touchscreen mobile devices, announced today it has raised an additional $1 million led by Docomo Capital. The money is an extension of Swype’s $5.6 million Series B round led by Nokia Growth Partners and Samsung Ventures, announced in December. NTT Docomo is Japan’s leading mobile operator, and the move should help Swype continue to expand into international markets, languages, and mobile platforms. The company says its text-input technology works for 30 languages, and a Japanese version is slated for release later this year. Last week, Swype said it is now available on T-Mobile USA touchscreen devices, including a new Android phone and an upcoming Windows Mobile phone.

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  • Isabella’s Vizit Wins Mobile Award

    Wade Roush wrote:

    Isabella Products of Concord, MA, announced that the award for Best Embedded Mobile Device at the GSMA World Mobile Congress in Barcelona went to its Vizit digital photo frame today. The competition is designed to encourage innovation among wireless device makers. The $280 Vizit, which will be available by lottery beginning in mid-March, is a touch-screen-driven photo sharing device that can receive photos by e-mail or MMS message over AT&T’s 3G data network. Xconomy profiled Isabella Products last September.

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