A personal mobile phone free zone system
March 29, 2006
Well we’ll never see this released for general public consumption any time soon, but damn if this isn’t something for the Christmas list for those of us that have had to suffer the evil side of mobile phone usage particularly in cinemas or theatres.
CellAntenna has created the CJAM 1000 device that is capable of jamming all communications,including Cellular, GSM 900, Paging, PCS, Wi-Fi or any other Microwave frequency, within a 1Km radius.
Now that’s a much needed public service. 🙂
The CJAM 1000 can be used for the following scenarios:
- Cellular Triggered Bomb Defeat
- Communication Control of Hostage negotiations.
- Communication Silencing during advancement on strategic positions
- Disaster Communication
- Site Control
- VIP Protection
- Electronic Theft Denial
Why we have walled gardens still
March 29, 2006
Moconews has some info on how 3UK has announced that it has sold the millionth full track music download in four months since it launched its music service.
Whilst there is a lot of bemoaning about the existence of walled gardens still to this day, the announcement by 3UK is a good example of why these archaic artifacts are still around. Whilst there are many who want to see the gates of mobile Internet opened to all, the level of maturity we now experience of the Internet is not there yet in the Mobile Internet.
As more people come to use the richer features of mobile broadband services, the main barrier to using them are complicated charging regimes. This, of course, has a lot to do with the fact that mobile telecommunications is a different economic environment to the Internet we use today, in that mobile carriers delight in charging their users for everything they do on the mobile device. Walled gardens are therefore able to enhance the users experience by drastically reducing or removing outright, the cost of data transfers within the walled garden environment.
The Catch 22 with this system is that, although this entails a more positive customer experience, they are force fed restricted carrier content.
Classically, the argument against walled gardens that have been developed by both ISPs of the young Internet from the late 90s (Compuserve, Geni, AOL etc) and now the data telecommunications networks we have today, was (and is, in some cases still today) that they locked out access to the Internet or made it too difficult to access. This meant that users had a restricted view to what was or could be made available to them.
The fact remains that, before the mass viewership can launch into these new uncharted waters that is currently the mobile internet early adopters are swimming in today, they must be first be guided gently into the shallow end before exploring the deeper depths that don’t fully exist yet for them to explore.
The Mobile Internet is heading in the same direction that the Internet took when it started to become mainstream. Walled gardens are pretty much extinct on the Internet as the user experience is virtually seamless across its vast reach now. Slowly as more companies extend their online presences to allow mobile devices to access their content and the browsers on these devices get richer in functionality we will see telecommunication walled gardens fade to grey.
So, before throwing the baby out with the bath water, we need to understand that walled gardens have their place in the ecology. The good news is that things are progressing a lot quicker in Mobile Internet than Internet 1.0 did and therefore we will soon live in that wonderful hybrid environment that is the open garden…. but then that’s another story. (http://opengardensblog.futuretext.com/)
3G soft drinks, but where are the 3G burgers?
March 29, 2006
Whilst passing through Flickr, this caught my eye……
Crackberries get 3G
March 28, 2006
All you little Crackberries will be dancing with glee to know that your need for speed is soon to be fulfilled… well for UK people anyway. RIM has a new version of the Blackberry named the 8707v and Vodafone UK will be offering their business customers the 8707v that utilises 3G (WCDMA) connectivity.
Blackberry 8707v Phone Features
- Intel PXA901 at 312MHz
- 35 key back-lit full QWERTY keyboard
- Hands-free speakerphone
- Bluetooth v2.0 hands-free headset and car kit support
- vibrate mode
- 64MB flash memory
- 16Mb SRAM
- Mini USB
- Bluetooth 2.0
- 3G – UMTS
- Quad-band Operation – 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Battlefield 2142 out this year!
March 22, 2006
Just got forwarded this link to a Battlefield 2142 trailer on YouTube!
Coming out this year!
AustralianBlogs.com.au
March 22, 2006
I got a comment on an earlier post of my Blog that states there is a community site setup for Australian Bloggers over here at http://www.australianblogs.com.au/
From their site:
WHAT IS IT?
AustralianBlogs.com.au is a free community resource to bookmark your favourite Australian blogs. Similar to del.icio.us (but less invasive – we don’t need you to register or login), you can add your bookmarks or just browse to see what’s popular.WHY?
It is a place where Australian Bloggers can showcase their work, and the blog-reading public can find interesting, relevant and popular Australian blogs.
AustralianBlogs is a good place to scan through just a few of the many Australian Bloggers that are listed there or use their tag search to go to specific Blogger topics.
Better still, if you are an Australian Blogger, get yourself listed and tagged!
Australian Citizen Journalism is nearly there.
March 22, 2006
Legion Interactive & Ten News have setup a service whereby they make money on Citizen Journalist’s mobile pictures or videos of breaking news stories.
They have setup an SMS/MMS service number so users can send in text, picture or videos, but this would be a premium number service. Not to mention the fact that MMS degrades the image/video dramatically.
The good news is that they have also setup an e-mail address which means that higher resolution pictures and larger movies can be submitted in their raw form. This will enable much better resolutions especially with the higher end 2 mega-pixel or greater mobile devices.
Frankly, this is an opportunity for an Australian based service such as Scoopt in the UK.
3 & Microsoft
March 21, 2006
This is music to my ears.
There are many out there who know I was preaching this years ago when I was @ 3 in Australia, so great to see Hutchison Whampoa is doing the right thing by the customer and working with trusted 3rd parties to implement converged multi-platform services.
Nice to see 2 old employers of mine get cozy under the covers.
3G is what this stuff is all about, giving people access in a mobile environment to those services and products that they are used to in a desktop environment.
3G is about using it when ever you want, where ever you are, what ever you’re doing.
Aussie XBOX 360 launch – CNet has the answers
March 21, 2006
Just fell into this great resource of all things Australian XBOX 360. CNet Australia has done a frigging awesome job of putting together an info rich repository of XBOX360 goodness.
Want to know what cables to use to hook up to your TV? or what games are available at launch? or what accessories to get?
With just less than 2 days to go till launch……then look no further,
Oh and judging by the videos you can download to preview some of the games? 2 words baby – "HD TV"
…. now if someone can just show me who is doing deals on HDTVs & XBOX360 bundles then I’m there!
I’ve been waiting for someone to do this for years since I saw the potential to use 3G high data speeds to play MMORPGs on 3G mobile devices.
I was specifically evangelising the power of using the mobile device as another interface to the PC version of the game whereby the player could be notified of relevant events, check up on their assets within the game, even practise specific moves or trial craft recipes. The interface didn’t have to be as rich as the PC version, but would still play a crucial part in the players ability to interact with the virtual playing field anytime, anywhere.
Malaysian firms Digi Telecommunications & developer Activate look to be the first companies to create a seamless cross platform MMORPG for PC and mobile devices called Hinter Wars.
From their website:
HinterWars: The Aterian Invasion was derived from an original storyline that revolves around a group of space-faring races that face the possibility of being invaded by the Aterians. The game features four broad character types the Humans, Firans, Brucians and Taikuus whose costumes, appearances and armour can be customized according to each player’s specifications. The game also allows interaction between players such as broadcast and private chat, trading of items and teaming up for conquests. Successes are rewarded by new downloads, rare items, additional power and experience, virtual cash rewards and ultimately, fame within the HinterWars gaming community.
Hinter Wars allows existing PC users to play with mobile users. The mobile version of the game is a Symbian application and only currently available on certain Nokia devices (including the Nokia N90!).
Although Hinterwars is a cross playtform game, meaning you use the same type of interface to control your character. I believe there will be momentum in moving certain aspects of MMORPGs to the mobile and not the whole gaming experience. For those that have accounts on persistent world games will know the problems around having to be online when assets become threatened.
Having a mobile interface that allows you to be notified and track what is occuring in the virtual world gives the player more freedom in where they play the game from.
Universal Convergence 