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

Well known for its analysis, the Gartner Group predicts, in its last week press release, that Instant Messaging systems will be the "de facto" tool for voice, video and text chat with 95% of workers in leading global organizations. It may even become the primary interface for real-time communications by 2013. The Gartner Group forecasts the IM market to grow from 267 mio/USD in 2005 to 688 mio/USD in 2010.

As part of the corporate IT infrastructure, they recommend use of corporate IM solutions such IBM "Lotus Sametime" or Microsoft's "Office Live Communication Server" as they can be protected by the corporate firewall. One key part of IM corporate setup will be the "Presence Technology" which allows people to establish the availability of others for real-time communications regardless of their location.  It also enables users to cut through desktop clutter, resulting in immediate responses.

As a result, Gartner predicts that by 2012, presence technology will be offered independently of IM and email products.  Mr David Mario Smith, research analyst at Gartner, urged vendors and enterprises alike to recognize this and develop a real-time architecture with presence as the key ingredient. “The IM client is becoming the launch pad for many types of communications channels and services,” he concluded.  “Presence will extend its influence beyond IM to become an essential source of innovation for enterprise applications of the future.” 

This release collides with a discussion I had last week with some colleagues about which IM tool we were using and which one is our preferred. Personally, a tool like Skype makes my day as I get to use it to transmit and receive messages from many networks and not exclusively from the Web. However, it is well known that Skype is a real nightmare for corporate ICT Security officer and this piece of software always tries its best to find a way to connect the net, bypassing any corporate security (firewall & NAT) using peer-to-peer technology.

Full Press release is available on Gartner site

Tags: 2007, analysis, arc, art, availability, blog, ces, communication, CTU, find, forecast, gartner group, global, ia, ibm, ict, ICT Security, im, instant messenger, Internet News, lan, launch, live, location, messenger, microsoft, MIT, mobile, Mobile Communications, msn, network, Nomad Tools, nomadcom.net, officer, presence, press, real time, release, sametime, search, security, services, skype, space, technology, user, video, web, wp, www

While "everybody" is expecting Apple and its future iPhone (expected in USA by the end of June 07), HTC announced on the 5th of June, after few teasing days, its own touch screen smartphone.

The HTC TouchFlo, a touch screen running on Windows Mobile 6 Professional which according HTC will revolutionize the way you use the touch screen by allowing finger scrolling and panning.

Unlike the Apple iPhone, HTC TouchFlo is already available in UK (Expansys at 520 €) and will be on asian and european shelves later this month. US market will be provided later this year. 

I wonder how the input method will work and how comfortable typing messages or entering information will be with a touch screen keyboard where a constant attention is needed to make sure that all letters have been correctly entered. 

Highlights

	TouchFLO™
	Large 2.8" touch screen display
	Tri-band GSM with GPRS/EDGE
	2 megapixel camera
	Internet browsing and Push E-mail
	Multimedia capabilities
	Stereo Bluetooth® 2.0 and Wi-Fi®

 

Technical Specification

Processor	TI's OMAP™ 850, 201 MHz
Operating System	Windows Mobile® 6 Professional
Memor	ROM: 128 MB SDRAM: 64 MB DDR
Dimension	99.9mm (L) X 58mm (W) X 13.9mm (T)
Weight	112g with battery
Display	2.8" LCD touch screen with backlight 240 X 320 dots resolution with 65,536 colors
Network	GSM/GPRS/EDGE Tri-band: 900, 1800, 1900 (The device will operate on frequencies available from the cellular network.)
Device Control	HTC TouchFLO™ 5-Way navigation control
Connectivity	Bluetooth® 2.0 Wi-Fi® IEEE 802.11 b/g HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB and audio jack in one)
Camera	2.0 megapixel CMOS color camera
Audio	Built-in microphone and 3-in-1 speaker Windows Media Player supported formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WMA, WAV, QCELP, MPEG4, AMR-NB, AMR-WB
Battery	Rechargeable Li-lon battery Capacity: 1100 mAh Standby time: Up to 200 hours Talk time: Up to 5 hours
Expansion Slot	microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
AC Adapter	Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60Hz DC output: 5V and 1A

More information on HTC Touch site,
Source:  Presse-Citron,  Smartphonethoughts

Tags: 2007, 24, 802.11, api, apple, art, asia, ATT, blog, camera, capacity, card, cellphone, cellular, ces, connectivity, europe, expansys, gap, gsm, HP, htc, HTC TouchFlo, ia, im, internet, iphone, keyboard, lan, launch, light, map, memory, microsoft, mobile, Mobile Communications, network, Nomad Tools, nomadcom.net, pda, phone, plugin, press, rechargeable, resolution, screen, smartphone, telecom, Telecommunications, touch, touch screen, touchflo, uk, USA, usb, windows, windows mobile 6, WM6, wp, www, XP