Internet is 20 years old… according to Microsoft, in 10 years, what we today call “Internet” will be like this…

most likely, the concept of being “on line” or “off line” will disappear and objects, not only computers, will communicate independantely to each other.

That could be true for highly developped areas, but for these who, still today, have hard time to get access to drinkable water and haven’t seen electricity yet, this future by MS is definitively science-fiction.

Tags: future, internet, microsoft, Mobile Communications, online

Huawei has unveiled the E180 next generation mobile broadband device.

The world’s slimmest HSPA USB stick to date, the only 10mm thick E180 is a highly compact device supporting the complete range of HSPA/UMTS and GSM/GPRS/EDGE network technologies, allowing fast uplink speed rates of up to 5.76Mbps and a downlink of up to 7.2 Mbps.

The E180 is a real plug-and-play device compatible with MS Windows (2000/XP/Vista) as well as Mac OS and is designed with a ultra slim rotatable USB connector, which can be turned by 270 degrees. This way, the USB connector can be stored safely without the need of an additional cover.

The E180 comes with its built-in MicroSD card slot and supports up to 8GB memory card which eliminates the need for an additional USB memory stick to carry documents, music or movies. In addition, the device supports various useful services like SMS/MMS, PC voice, phone book, flow display and statistics.

Availability : Mid-June 2008

Specifications

HSPA/UMTS (2100MHz)
EDGE/GPRS/GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz)
Support 2Mbps (5.76Mbps ready) HSUPA and 7.2Mbps HSDPA services
Support SMS and Voice services
MicroSD Card Slot
Plug & Play
Data statistics
Support Windows2000 , Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac Operating Systems

Source: Huawei

Tags: 3.5G, broadband, data, e180, HSDPA, hspa, HSUPA, huawei, mobile, Mobile Communications, modem, Telecommunications, usb

Features

• Push technologies
• MS Exchange support
• VPN Protocols
• Remote Wipe
• Certificated and Identities
• etc..

Technical Specs:

Cellular and wireless

• UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

GPS

• Assisted GPS

Storage Capacity

• 8GB or 16GB flash drive

Display

• 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
• 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi
• Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously

Colors

• 8GB model: Black
• 16GB model: Black or white

Audio

• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
• User-configurable maximum volume limit
• Stereo earphones with built-in microphone
• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Impedance: 32 ohms

Video

• Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second.

Camera and photos

• 2.0 megapixels Camera located on back of iPhone.
• Photo geotagging
• iPhone and third-party application integration

Power and battery

• Talk time up to 10 hours on 2G
• Standby time: Up to 300 hours
• Browsing up to 6 hours on Wi-Fi
• Video playback: Up to 7 hours
• Audio playback: Up to 24 hours

Size and weight

• H 115.5 x W 62.1 x D 12.3 mm
• 133 grams

Price

• 8 GB : 199 USD Worldwide
• 16GB : 299 USD Worldwide

Availability announced in 25 countries by July 11th and up to 70 later this year.

All details here

Tags: 3G, apple, cellular, iphone, iphone 3G, Mobile Communications, smartphone, Telecommunications

Following the Touch Diamond few days ago, HTC announced the “Touch Pro” which utilizes similar styling and functionality of the highly anticipated Touch Diamond™ and introduces a variety of business-focused enhancements that make getting work done on the go quick and easy.

With the Touch Pro, they introduce a TouchFLO 3D, a touch screen innovation providing a stunningly intuitive way to zip through common tasks like messaging, calendar appointments or making calls with just one touch.  Shall we call TouchFLO 3D the HTC response to Apple ?

Will the Touch Pro the replacement of my aging HTC S620 or will Apple iPhone 3G version (to be announced on June 9th at WWDC) shake the market again with stunning innovations ?

HTC Touch Pro Specifications

• Processor:  Qualcomm® MSM7201A™ 528 MHz
• Operating System: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Memories: ROM 512 MB – RAM: 288MB
• Dimensions: 102 mm (L) X 51 mm (W) X 18.05 mm (T)
• Weight: 165 g (with battery)
• Display: 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
• Network HSDPA/WCDMA:    Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
  Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
• Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:   Europe/Asia: 900/1800/1900 MHz
• Device Control: TouchFLO™ 3D Touch-sensitive navigation control
• Keyboard: Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
• GPS: GPS and A-GPS ready
• Connectivity:
• Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR
  Wi-Fi® IEEE 802.11 b/g
  HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out* in one)
• Camera:
  Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus and flash light
  Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera
• Audio: Built-in microphone, speaker and FM radio with RDS
• Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion or Lithium-ion polymer battery 1340 mAh
• Talk time:
  Up to 397 minutes for WCDMA
  Up to 485 minutes for GSM
• Standby time:
  Up to 503 hours for WCDMA
  Up to 406 hours for GSM
• Video call time:
  Up to 201 minutes for WCDMA
• Expansion Slot: MicroSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• AC Adapter: Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
• DC output: 5V and 1A

Tags: cellphone, communication, gsm, htc, mobile, Mobile Communications, smartphone, touch, touchflo 3d, touchpro, windows mobile 6

Not releated at all with Nomadcom (just in case some might have a doubt) ,

Skype has selected Rebecca, a 26 y/o Australian girl, to take up the "Skype Nomad Challenge" which is to travel non-stop around the Globe and demonstrates that Skype is now mobile.

Over 33 days, Rebecca "The Nomad" will be using as many different forms of transport possible for a girl – from jumbo jets to dog sleds, canoes to camels, sky diving to revolving restaurants.

Her non-stop journey started on May 5th from London (UK) to Singapore, China, Australia (current location) Alaska, USA an back to Europe.

To keep in touch, Rebecca uses SkypePhones as well as a Nokia N810 (the Internet Tablet) loaded with, indeed, Skype software. 

All related links which also gives a good overview of what Web 2.0 is offering:

• Twitter
• Skype: theskypenomad
• Flickr
• You Tube
• Blog
• My space
• Facebook
  

All this perpetual motion is also for a good cause – to create some noise about an awesome charity called Motivation. Basically, they help disabled people in poor countries get mobile.

I may propose to Skype the Challenge #2 as I have an extended list of countries and locations which cannot be so called "Internet/mobile phone" friendly… interested ?

Tags: 33 days, challenge, charity, gsm, internet, Mobile Communications, motivation, N810, Nomad Tools, rebecca, skype, Skype nomad, Travel, VoIP, wifi, world, worldwide

Emirates Airlines announced yesterday that passengers will no longer have to switch off their mobile phones and will be allowed to make calls and text people during their journey on-board.

The first flight with authorized mobile phone calls was made on 20th of March between Dubai and Casablanca on-board of an Emirates Airbus A340-300 fitted with AeroMobile system, which ensures mobile telephones operate at minimum power during flights and make sure mobile phone signal does not interfere with aircraft navigation equipments.

A second aircraft equipped with the same AeroMobile system will be in service shortly.

Rates were not published, but in 2007, cost per minute was estimated between 2.50 and 3.50 USD.

Source: Arabnews via Wi-Fi Networking 

Tags: 2007, 2008, aeromobile, air, airbus, aircraft, airlines, arc, art, blog, cellphone, cellular, emirates, flight, gsm onboard, ia, im, King, lan, light, mobile, Mobile Communications, mobile phone, network, nomadcom.net, passengers, phone, phones, power, Travel, wifi, wp, www

TGV tests Wi-Fi + satellite link in three TGV trains on its Eastern network. If the experiment proves successful the new service should be generalized, from 2009, to all 52 oars network East.

With combines effort of satellite link and wireless network, in locations, such tunnels and train stations, where the satellite link cannot be established, the wi-fi network takes over to maintain the access to the Web without interruption.

French railways company SNCF previously conducted unsuccessful test using GPRS data network before launching a 2 years research and preparation program to implement this dual solution. Among technical difficulties to overcome are these related to 320 km/h TGV trains speed which causes instability and vibrations. 

The project is done in a partnership with Orange(France Telecom mobile operator), Capgemini, Alstom Transport and Eutelsat.

SNCF will put on board of its TGV a dedicated Web portal providing information about destinations, weather forecast, News, traffic information as well as a real time tracking service. From a technical point of view, TGV trains are fitted with a server where all portal content is loaded prior the journey in order to minimize bandwidth consumption due to its high cost. The tested system has been designed to provide simultaneous web connection for 14 per cent (50 users) of the total capacity of each TGV train (350).

The business plan is not defined yet, but the widespread of the system on TGV Eastern Europe network would represent an investment of 120 millions USD over 4 years. First price estimation given by SNCF Passenger service would be a flat 4-5 USD to access the Web portal during the whole journey and a 4-5 USD per hour to access the Internet.

A very interesting project and definitively a real challenge to maintain permanent web connectivity during a train journey at more than 300 km/h where the 16'000 volt power line running over the train may also create some electro-magnetic interferences and without mentioning all micro interruptions of the satellite link each time the train pass under a bridge or when dense foliage is found within the satellite's line of sight.

Any reader who already had the chance to test the reliability of the service ?

More infos (in French): Journal du Net, CNet France.

Tags: 2007, access, arc, art, blog, bridge, capacity, ces, connection, connectivity, consumption, CTU, design, europe, forecast, ia, im, internet, internet access, King, lan, launch, location, mobile, Mobile Communications, mobility, network, nomadcom.net, power, project, reader, real time, reliability, satellite, search, sncf, telecom, tgv, traffic, train, user, web, wireless, wp, www, XP

China Mobile, the World largest mobile phone service provider with its 350 millions customers (mainly in China!) has completed the installation and testing of their 3 mobile phone base stations installed on Mt-Everest slopes.

The 3 solar-powered stations installed respectively at 5200, 5820 and 6500 meters above sea level, were transported by porters and yaks and built in a harsh environment where oxygen level is only 38 percent of what it would be on ground. They will make possible for climbers and those who will be 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay route to establish and receive calls along the entire Mount Everest climbing route, including its 8'848m. peak.

After the completion of these ultimate test, China mobile workers immediately started to pack all equipments away for the winter. The station will be reinstalled next summer before 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Tags: 2007, 2008, art, blog, customer, everest, gsm, himalaya, ia, im, install, lan, LED, mobile, Mobile Communications, mobile phone, nomadcom.net, olympics, phone, power, tibet, world, wp, www

Swiss Post launches new stamps with a built-in two-dimensional mobile tag (kind of barecode) which can be captured using the camera available on most mobile phone using Beetagg reader and connect you to a particular Internet page

New Swiss Post "Beetagged" stamps will promote Swiss Tourism. 

Similar codes are widely used in Japan for quite some time and most of modern mobile phones operating systems have all needed capabilities to read these tags. 

BeeTaggs are developed by connvision AG, a Zug-based company, can have logos, images or text attached to it and are also readable in very small formats.

Last year, PostBus Switzerland and yellowworld trialled BeeTaggs on signposts and at approximately 100 Postbus stops could be used to access timetables.

Mobile operating systems supported: Java, Palm, WM5, Symbian, Symbian 9.x, UIQ3, Symbian UIQ.

WM6 doesn't seem to be supported yet and WM5 version doesn't run on a WM6 phone.

Nomadcom Beetagg. Try it !  

More infos: Swiss Post, Beetagg.
Source: Nouvo

Tags: 2007, access, art, ATT, barcode, beetagg, blog, camera, ces, ia, im, internet, japan, lan, launch, LED, mobile, Mobile Communications, mobile phohe, mobile phone, nomadcom.net, phone, phones, post, reader, stamps, swiss, swiss post, switzerland, symbian, tagging, Telecommunications, uk, vision, WM5, WM6, world, wp, www

As mentionned on the 20th of October on this site, the City of Geneva and FON have officially announced a joint project to provide WiFi access to the city’s residents and visitors.

A website FON-Genève has been created and residents willing to share their Internet access are invited to complete the registration form to reserve their Fonera (the FON wireless access point) available soon for collection at the Geneva City Hall.

Geneva FON wireless access point : Live Map 

Let's hope that Internet users will play the game and Geneva will become a real connected city and communes of the canton will soon follow.  

Tags: 2007, access, art, blog, ces, community, europe, fon, fon geneve, fon movimiento, fonera, free, game, geneva, geneve, HP, ia, im, internet, internet access, IT World, lan, launch, live, map, Mobile Communications, network, nomadcom.net, project, share, suisse, switzerland, user, web, website, wifi, wireless, wp, www