Software/Applications
Mobile Data Roaming Hassles with OS X 10.5.3 and Novatel MC950D
26/06/08 08:47
International mobile data roaming has been and is still expensive. Even with T-Mobile's (UK) drop in data roaming to approximately $2.98/Mb (1.5 GBP/Mb) casual email and web access is prohibitively expensive. Even more frustrating is when you must connect and you can't. This has been my experience lately with OS 10.5.3 and several different HSPA USB modems from Sierra Wireless and Novatel Wireless while abroad.
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Mobile Instant Messaging - it shouldn't be this hard
04/06/08 10:40
Regardless of operating system there are many mobile instant messaging multi protocol clients to choose from. Unfortunately they all fall short of an older product that Nokia apparently killed off several years ago, Verichat from PDAapps.
To put this in perspective the mobile instant messaging world today looks far different than it did in 2005 when PDAapps was acquired by Intellisync which was then acquired by Nokia. The then, and still now, popular Yahoo, AIM, MSN, and ICQ platforms have been joined by GoogleTalk, Facebook, MySpace, Skype, Jabber, and Gadu-Gadu.
Beyond the increasingly complex web of instant messaging protocols most of the current instant messaging clients are also SIP clients offering free and reduced cost VoIP calling. Some offer file sharing, connections to Twitter and video chat/sharing capabilities. All told these new clients have vastly more functionality than Verichat did but all are falling short in several key areas.
What I want, yes this is about me however I suspect I am not alone, is an instant messaging client that offers the following features:
1) Chat history logging
2) Auto email archiving feature for chat history logs
3) Ability to distinguish between being online with AIM Mobile versus online with AIM
4) Compact buddy list
5) Ability to edit contact information
6) Ability to suppress groupings and display by status or alphabetically
The big ones are numbers 1, 2 and 3. Verichat had these features and no messaging client, that I have found, I keep looking, since includes them all. OctroTalk, founded by Saurabh Aggarwal and Gaurav Banga, has included the AIM Mobile/AIM differentiation. OctroTalk also includes file sharing, a PC client and now video for Symbian devices. By straying into the desktop and video Octro starts to compete with products like Qik for video streaming which just launched a Windows Mobile alpha. Octro, like PDAapps before it, also is looking for enterprise installations and professional services contracts. It is exactly this market and the SME space where the chat logging and archiving is so useful and conspicuously absent for the end user.
BeeJive, from JiveTalk, has incorporated 1, 2 (partially) and 3. For BeeJive the chat history has to be manually emailed which is workable albeit not ideal. The limitation to JiveTalk until recently has been it's sole focus on Blackberry with the exception of the webapp product for the iPhone. (JiveTalk is the best IM "application" for the iPhone but being a webapp has limitations that wouldn't be there if it could run natively) Ironically BeeJive appears to have the no focus on the enterprise space according to Kai Yu during a inBabble interview yet JiveTalk has been focused on the Blackberry and offers the chat logging and archiving a Blackberry business user would want. Recently BeeJive has also launched a Windows Mobile alpha of JiveTalk with limited initial functionality. I have been using it for a week and am looking forward to the same functionality as is on the BlackBerry client.
Note: I have not tried MunduIM lately and their cross protocol chat conference option. I may have to update this article if they have added additional functionality than what the PalmOS version had.
080607-UPDATE: Mundu does indeed allow for archiving of messages on the device but not in an exportable fashion. It's a good first step. Last note, Mundu has not and still doesn't take advantage of the five and four way navigation capabilities of some devices making it's user interface heavily reliant on the stylus which is not conducive to one handed operation.
My favorite clients:
Other clients:
To put this in perspective the mobile instant messaging world today looks far different than it did in 2005 when PDAapps was acquired by Intellisync which was then acquired by Nokia. The then, and still now, popular Yahoo, AIM, MSN, and ICQ platforms have been joined by GoogleTalk, Facebook, MySpace, Skype, Jabber, and Gadu-Gadu.
Beyond the increasingly complex web of instant messaging protocols most of the current instant messaging clients are also SIP clients offering free and reduced cost VoIP calling. Some offer file sharing, connections to Twitter and video chat/sharing capabilities. All told these new clients have vastly more functionality than Verichat did but all are falling short in several key areas.
What I want, yes this is about me however I suspect I am not alone, is an instant messaging client that offers the following features:
1) Chat history logging
2) Auto email archiving feature for chat history logs
3) Ability to distinguish between being online with AIM Mobile versus online with AIM
4) Compact buddy list
5) Ability to edit contact information
6) Ability to suppress groupings and display by status or alphabetically
The big ones are numbers 1, 2 and 3. Verichat had these features and no messaging client, that I have found, I keep looking, since includes them all. OctroTalk, founded by Saurabh Aggarwal and Gaurav Banga, has included the AIM Mobile/AIM differentiation. OctroTalk also includes file sharing, a PC client and now video for Symbian devices. By straying into the desktop and video Octro starts to compete with products like Qik for video streaming which just launched a Windows Mobile alpha. Octro, like PDAapps before it, also is looking for enterprise installations and professional services contracts. It is exactly this market and the SME space where the chat logging and archiving is so useful and conspicuously absent for the end user.
BeeJive, from JiveTalk, has incorporated 1, 2 (partially) and 3. For BeeJive the chat history has to be manually emailed which is workable albeit not ideal. The limitation to JiveTalk until recently has been it's sole focus on Blackberry with the exception of the webapp product for the iPhone. (JiveTalk is the best IM "application" for the iPhone but being a webapp has limitations that wouldn't be there if it could run natively) Ironically BeeJive appears to have the no focus on the enterprise space according to Kai Yu during a inBabble interview yet JiveTalk has been focused on the Blackberry and offers the chat logging and archiving a Blackberry business user would want. Recently BeeJive has also launched a Windows Mobile alpha of JiveTalk with limited initial functionality. I have been using it for a week and am looking forward to the same functionality as is on the BlackBerry client.
Note: I have not tried MunduIM lately and their cross protocol chat conference option. I may have to update this article if they have added additional functionality than what the PalmOS version had.
080607-UPDATE: Mundu does indeed allow for archiving of messages on the device but not in an exportable fashion. It's a good first step. Last note, Mundu has not and still doesn't take advantage of the five and four way navigation capabilities of some devices making it's user interface heavily reliant on the stylus which is not conducive to one handed operation.
My favorite clients:
Other clients:
Lotus Notes Traveler
23/05/08 06:16
It used to be a complex process to extend Lotus Domino email to the world of mobility. Once the determination to not simply open IMAP access is made there are multiple server middleware solutions that need to be sorted through. RIM, Good Technology, Intellisync, CommonTIme, Sybase and OpenHand are a number of companies offering mobile email/PIM solutions for Lotus Domino email. Last fall IBM announced that Lotus Notes Traveler would be available in 2008 and it was subsequently released in February 2008 completing a long process of building a mobile ecosystem for IBM. Read More...
iPhone and Microsoft Exchange email
31/01/08 15:11
A serious omission to the iPhone has been the ability to access corporate email without using the browser. Throughout 2007 rumors abounded that Exchange compatibility was coming from one source or another to the iPhone. With 2007 at an end and January 2008 winding down all that has materialized is SyncYourMail, which utilizes the Synchronica MobileGateway. After a month of using Synchronica's MobileGateway demo perhaps the built in IMAP access is the way to go for now if you administrator allows it.
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Windows Mobile and YouTube
10/12/07 14:54
Windows Mobile has not been friendly to users of YouTube. Actually you simply couldn't watch YouTube videos on Windows Mobile. Read More...
Updated: The new Palm Foleo?
25/11/07 09:06
+
= hybrid Palm Foleo?The first Palm Foleo was a disaster if you believe the ranting and ravings of many writers. Engadget's open letter to Palm nicely summed up the opinions of many of the dedicated Palm followers. My intrigue with the Foleo quickly faded as reality set in within hours of the press release. Succeeding in obtaining ICT approval and support for most devices let alone a laptop/mobile/pda hybrid is always a strenuous task than can drag on against irrational resistance from within the corporation. One Fortune 100 company even commissioned a report prior to the iPhone launch to justify why they would not support the iPhone when it became available. It was no surprise when Palm announced that the Foleo had been put on hold. The Foleo concept, albeit not the same concept that Palm envisioned, has gained a second life from two unlikely industry players, Nokia and Access. Read More...
UPDATED: OS X Leopard cont...
10/11/07 08:04
Updated: On December 5th Skype released version 2.6.0.184 for OS X which fixed the OS X 10.5 incompatibilities
On November 5th I talked about the challenges of upgrading to the first release of OS X Leopard and the issues with Azureus. I wouldn't imagine that Apple would be in a large hurry to cater to the Azureus torrent community but my latest issue strikes a different tone. Skype and Leopard are not playing nicely together. Read More...
On November 5th I talked about the challenges of upgrading to the first release of OS X Leopard and the issues with Azureus. I wouldn't imagine that Apple would be in a large hurry to cater to the Azureus torrent community but my latest issue strikes a different tone. Skype and Leopard are not playing nicely together. Read More...
OS X Leopard
05/11/07 17:20
The inimical part of seizing the initiative with an early operating system release is that you have to brace yourself for the unknown. Obviously this makes sense to everyone sitting on the sidelines waiting for the inevitable service pack or software update.... Read More...
Blackberry Connect and the Nokia e61
10/09/07 15:18
I recently had to find a solution to accessing my email on a Lotus Domino 7 server wirelessly. My organization has a RIM BES installed yet I wanted to pursue other options. I had recently upgraded my Treo 750v to Windows Mobile 6.0 and also had a Nokia 61 as a possibility. A quick survey of wireless email and PIM solutions didn't reveal too many options. I found solutions from iAnywhere (Sybase), Seven (in beta), mNotes 5 (beta from Common Time), Lotus Mobile Connect, Emoze, and Synchronica. Read More...
Boingo Mobile Beta and Treo 750v
18/07/07 10:34
For users in the states WiFi and mobile Skype usually generate little if any interest. There is little reason for it. With unlimited data, HSDPA/EVDO rev A, nationwide no roaming and long distance plans why would anyone bother with mobile Skype? There is little reason to pay attention to it.
Now switch hemispheres and it is a totally different picture. While unlimited data, with a fair usage policy, is catching on in most western European countries there are still several major hurdles to 3G (or if you are European Turbo 3G) data adoption.
First imagine, if you are from the states, that your unlimited data and no roaming plan only worked in the state you lived in. For most people that don't venture further than 20 miles from home this is no problem. For those of us who remember wireless prior to the introduction of AT&T Wireless' One Rate plan in the late 90s such a world is frighteningly expensive. Those were the days of $0.50-$0.99 / minute roaming rates. Using the phone away from home was expensive and you wanted to make sure you had an expense account to bill it to. This is the current state of most of the rest of the world today. In Europe soon as you leave your home country, normally the size of a US midwest state or smaller, the data roaming rate typically hits $15 / megabyte and voice roaming, which is finally being capped by EU regulators, will soon be at a new maximum low rate of a sky high .49 Euro cents ($0.99) for cross country - read as state to state calling and 24 Euro cents ($0.33) for receiving a call. The new EU regulations only effect voice so there is little expectation that the data roaming rates of about $15 / megabyte will drop anytime soon.
Last fall I travelled to London, Brussels, and Amsterdam while using a Windows Mobile 5.0 MDA from T-Mobile. My usage pattern was the same as it would have been in the United States. I was shell shocked when several months later a $2500 roaming bill materialized. (that is an entirely different story)
I hope it is abundantly clear why WiFi, Boingo Mobile and Skype have a very large interest to those of us traveling to and across Europe. I set out on a five day trip to the Netherlands to see how surviving on VoIP and WiFi would be.
Boingo Mobile is $7.95 for unlimited access to Boingo hotspots from a PDA. VoIP is allowed and there is a list of Windows Mobile 5.0 certified devices. There appears to be little commonality to the list of devices. Memory size, manufacturer and processor type/speed all very. I however decided to download the beta to a Treo 750v which uses a Samsung processor and give it a try. See below for the hardware and software combination.
The Spectec 802.11b adapter works well with the Treo 750v and has acceptable signal sensitivity. Not as good as my 15" MacBook Pro but that isn't a fair comparison. ProfiMail and Exchange both use large amounts of data when configured to retrieve the entire email and attachment list so data roaming on UMTS/EDGE/GPRS would have been prohibitive.
Boingo has over 600 hotspots in the Netherlands so I expected fairly good coverage. Indeed in airports and train stations I consistently found Boingo affiliated sites. The Boingo software connected automatically and flawlessly in most cases. Boingo Mobile recognized Eurospot hotspots in Amsterdam and The Hague, but then got caught in an endless loop of authenticating, logging in and the recycling to try again. Customer care had little to say at Boingo except that maybe these locations were not part of the Boingo Eurospot affiliation. Boingo Mobile also see and allows the connection to non Boingo hotspots which allowed my to gain connectivity at many additional areas. ProfiMail, OctroTalk, and Exchange all worked very well.
The problem with betas though is that some things are bound to not work well. Boingo Mobile crashed almost every time I went to exit the program. I received multiple GWES.exe failures also. Boingo and Windows Mobile Wireless Manager periodically thought the Spectec card had been shutoff or removed. This happened each and each and every time the Treo shut itself off per the default setting time of one minute. I disabled this setting so only the backlight dimmed which of course accelerated battery drain.
Fring was configured with my Skype call and successfully connected and made Skype to Skype and Skype-out calls. During calls Skype would just cut out like it had been put on mute. I thought that maybe this was related to the Treo 750 and it's Samsung processor. However Skype running on my MacBook Pro was also doing the same thing but to a much less noticeable extent. Perhaps a buffer is getting overloaded or someone more adept at the workings of VoIP can explain this. The cut outs when they occurred were so noticeable on Fring that it rendered Skype calls unusable. The experience was replicated on Boingo hotspots, random hot spots not affiliated with Boingo and at my hotel in Amsterdam which had free WiFi available.
My particular combination is clearly not ready for those with little patience. Software has to be refined as the Treo is too popular to not be included. I will continue to use the solution as it allowed me to stay on top of my email and not incur huge expenses. It was disappointing that I couldn't make successful Skype calls. I had to make numerous roaming calls that couldn't wait for me to get back to my computer to use Skype. Boingo is on the right track with the $7.95 plan and I will continue to test new versions as they come out.
The hardware and software combination used in the trial:
Treo 750v 1.15-VFE
Windows Mobile 5.0
Spectec 802.11b WiFi adapter
ActiveSync configured for Exchange 2003 sp2
OctroTalk (Instant messaging)
ProfiMail
Boingo Mobile beta
Fring (for Skype)
Now switch hemispheres and it is a totally different picture. While unlimited data, with a fair usage policy, is catching on in most western European countries there are still several major hurdles to 3G (or if you are European Turbo 3G) data adoption.
First imagine, if you are from the states, that your unlimited data and no roaming plan only worked in the state you lived in. For most people that don't venture further than 20 miles from home this is no problem. For those of us who remember wireless prior to the introduction of AT&T Wireless' One Rate plan in the late 90s such a world is frighteningly expensive. Those were the days of $0.50-$0.99 / minute roaming rates. Using the phone away from home was expensive and you wanted to make sure you had an expense account to bill it to. This is the current state of most of the rest of the world today. In Europe soon as you leave your home country, normally the size of a US midwest state or smaller, the data roaming rate typically hits $15 / megabyte and voice roaming, which is finally being capped by EU regulators, will soon be at a new maximum low rate of a sky high .49 Euro cents ($0.99) for cross country - read as state to state calling and 24 Euro cents ($0.33) for receiving a call. The new EU regulations only effect voice so there is little expectation that the data roaming rates of about $15 / megabyte will drop anytime soon.
Last fall I travelled to London, Brussels, and Amsterdam while using a Windows Mobile 5.0 MDA from T-Mobile. My usage pattern was the same as it would have been in the United States. I was shell shocked when several months later a $2500 roaming bill materialized. (that is an entirely different story)
I hope it is abundantly clear why WiFi, Boingo Mobile and Skype have a very large interest to those of us traveling to and across Europe. I set out on a five day trip to the Netherlands to see how surviving on VoIP and WiFi would be.
Boingo Mobile is $7.95 for unlimited access to Boingo hotspots from a PDA. VoIP is allowed and there is a list of Windows Mobile 5.0 certified devices. There appears to be little commonality to the list of devices. Memory size, manufacturer and processor type/speed all very. I however decided to download the beta to a Treo 750v which uses a Samsung processor and give it a try. See below for the hardware and software combination.
The Spectec 802.11b adapter works well with the Treo 750v and has acceptable signal sensitivity. Not as good as my 15" MacBook Pro but that isn't a fair comparison. ProfiMail and Exchange both use large amounts of data when configured to retrieve the entire email and attachment list so data roaming on UMTS/EDGE/GPRS would have been prohibitive.
Boingo has over 600 hotspots in the Netherlands so I expected fairly good coverage. Indeed in airports and train stations I consistently found Boingo affiliated sites. The Boingo software connected automatically and flawlessly in most cases. Boingo Mobile recognized Eurospot hotspots in Amsterdam and The Hague, but then got caught in an endless loop of authenticating, logging in and the recycling to try again. Customer care had little to say at Boingo except that maybe these locations were not part of the Boingo Eurospot affiliation. Boingo Mobile also see and allows the connection to non Boingo hotspots which allowed my to gain connectivity at many additional areas. ProfiMail, OctroTalk, and Exchange all worked very well.
The problem with betas though is that some things are bound to not work well. Boingo Mobile crashed almost every time I went to exit the program. I received multiple GWES.exe failures also. Boingo and Windows Mobile Wireless Manager periodically thought the Spectec card had been shutoff or removed. This happened each and each and every time the Treo shut itself off per the default setting time of one minute. I disabled this setting so only the backlight dimmed which of course accelerated battery drain.
Fring was configured with my Skype call and successfully connected and made Skype to Skype and Skype-out calls. During calls Skype would just cut out like it had been put on mute. I thought that maybe this was related to the Treo 750 and it's Samsung processor. However Skype running on my MacBook Pro was also doing the same thing but to a much less noticeable extent. Perhaps a buffer is getting overloaded or someone more adept at the workings of VoIP can explain this. The cut outs when they occurred were so noticeable on Fring that it rendered Skype calls unusable. The experience was replicated on Boingo hotspots, random hot spots not affiliated with Boingo and at my hotel in Amsterdam which had free WiFi available.
My particular combination is clearly not ready for those with little patience. Software has to be refined as the Treo is too popular to not be included. I will continue to use the solution as it allowed me to stay on top of my email and not incur huge expenses. It was disappointing that I couldn't make successful Skype calls. I had to make numerous roaming calls that couldn't wait for me to get back to my computer to use Skype. Boingo is on the right track with the $7.95 plan and I will continue to test new versions as they come out.
The hardware and software combination used in the trial:
Treo 750v 1.15-VFE
Windows Mobile 5.0
Spectec 802.11b WiFi adapter
ActiveSync configured for Exchange 2003 sp2
OctroTalk (Instant messaging)
ProfiMail
Boingo Mobile beta
Fring (for Skype)