I got a Nokia N80 Internet Edition up and running making internet VoIP calls over SIP via WiFi through the Gizmo Project. That’s a mouthful of nasty acronyms, but it’s really neat. The phonebook has space for internet calling numbers (which are actually more like email addresses, in the format of sip:username@provider.tld) and the phone’s now configured to use my Gizmo account when I select one of these entries. It works almost instantly for VoIP to VoIP calls, but there is a significant lag on VoIP to landline calls (using the N80 to call a non VoIP number through Gizmo) which makes that function unusable at the moment. Incoming calls ring on the mobile phone really well. I’d love to get this configured with Vonage, but I don’t think they have their SIP stuff opened up yet. They are still stuck trying to sell softphone software… Ugh.

These directions worked fine, except that it wouldn’t work using a transport type of TCP. I set it to the default setting of any and it worked, I’m guessing my situation needed UDP.

I finally bit the bullet and got an EV-DO card from Verizon Wireless. I use the term EV-DO exclusively thanks to covering this stuff every day for years, but the sales staff call it BroadbandAccess because that’s what VZW’s marketing team came up with. The flacks at the store looked at me a bit cockeyed when I asked for an EV-DO card, and even more so when I said that I use a Mac. But long story short, I now have broadband (130K/s) internet access anywhere I’m at.

I got the Audiovox PC5740 which doesn’t expressly have Mac support, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work. The PC5740 that I got has a much better antenna than the Kyocera KPC650 which has native support with OS X. I know people with both cards and it’s definitely worth the trouble to get the PC5740 working. Both cards install easily on Windows. I followed the directions here and they worked fairly well. The only snag was that the card needs to be activated in a Windows laptop which might be a deal killer if you have no friends.

I had to search around quite a bit to be able to find the directions for free, several shops seem to sell a Mac “BroadbandAccess” support package. It’s completely unnecessary. You don’t need any extra software to connect. I just open Internet connect and hit one key. Now the question is what will I do when I upgrade to a MacBook Pro?

In case the site that I got my directions from goes away, I have an abridged set of the instructions below. Remember you need to activate your card before this will work. (more…)

I reviewed the Motorola ROKR E1 over at MobileTracker and I have to say that I was not impressed. While playing tunes the phone slows down to be nearly unusable. That and the USB 1.0 make it a bust, wait for version 2 before buying!

If you’re into reviews and what not, it has been review city over at MT. First it was the Nokia 6682, then the W800i and now the ROKR E1. Up next? LG VX9800, Kyocera Slider Sonic, Samsung e635, Nokia 6101/6102 and the Samsung T809. Phew. And I have all but one of those sitting on my desk right now. December looks like some Windows Mobile handsets and the Nokia N Series.

I’m sitting in the Tampa airport waiting for my (delayed) flight to JFK. I’m going to attend a Motorola party, rumored to be the launch party for the first ROKR phones. For those of you that don’t follow mobile phones, this will be the first phone with iTunes built in. Look for it on Cingular.

Hopefully it will be cool.

This press release from Qpass is laughable–the premise is that internet users are “shoplifting” ringtones by using the free preview links on websites and converting them to tones by themselves. I could harp on the fact it’s not shoplifting since there is no shop (and technically you probably already own the full product, but you are looking for a small slice of it to put on your phone), but I’ll let that slide.

A startling study conducted by Qpass of 100 leading U.S. and European digital content Websites revealed that more than one third of the sites are unsecured, allowing users to ’shoplift’ music tracks and download them as free ringtones. The extent of the problem in US may have already cost the mobile and music industries an estimated $40 million U.S. since the beginning of 2004, and a further $123 million U.S. by 2007, according to Qpass.

It doesn’t say how the dollar values were calculated, but I would assume those numbers have to be revenue not profit. As evidenced by the iTunes music store, rights fees can add up (Apple only makes a dime or so on each song) so if these numbers are revenue, the actual “damage” would be only ten percent or so.

However, the whole idea that there are legions of customers converting previews into real ringtones and transferring them to their phones is the real funny part–if they are smart enough to do the conversions, why would they poke around ringtone sites in the first place? Use existing music (even use the 30 second preview given away in the iTMS) which is probably at better quality. That’s what I do and it works great. My current ringtone is a catchy clip from the band Minus The Bear and everyone that hears it gets jealous.

So what’s the solution to these ringtone terrorists? DRM of course!

Preview content can be secured by using streaming, embedded pre-listening or the use of a DRM-protected file format.

With tools like Xingtone, just about anyone can make their own tone. That’s not a loss to the “ringtone industry”, that’s just being smart. The problem is that your “industry” is based entirely on selling very small segments of sounds your customers probably already own… And on top of that–for extremely high fees.

Bah.

Flickr user Alexander Chadwick took a photo of people evacuating the Tube after the bombing this morning. It is being plastered over the networks and web (BBC, CNN, AP, etc). In this post of a screencap of his photo on TV, AlexCHAD says his lungs were burning. I bet!

I wonder what kind of (phone) cam took the photo?

Viva citizen journalism.

I just put up another new mobile service on my projects page–mobile flight tracking. This is part of my ongoing annoyance with the mobile web and my attempt to make it easier. When I’m on the go I want very specific data without any fluff. To use the new service, just enter a flight number into the tracking box and you get a bunch of data about it. Example.

I haven’t tested it too much (I need to pick someone up soon so I made it on the spur of the moment) so let me know if you find a bug. It works with data from Google and a travel website. The advantage of this over some flight tracking services is you can enter it in plain English (US Air 723 for example) instead of choosing stuff from pull downs.

Your mobile device will need to support XHTML.

One of these days when I have a bit more time I intend to wrap these services into one page, using radio buttons or keywords to define what data you want.

I got a Samsung i730 for review today. It is my first real expierience with Windows Mobile. not bad so far. It’s loaded with WiFi, Bluetooth, EV-DO and a lot more. Neat!

Update: (From a computer) Pocket Internet Explorer really sucks at CSS which makes posting from WordPress for the brave only. Would love to see a pocket version of FireFox.

I updated my DrudgeReport Mobile script to be up to date with some changes Drudge made to his code. It has been out of date for a little bit only showing some of his links. It should now display everything. About a thousand people use this every month, so this should be a welcome update.

I also created the option to browse the page without images, which is great for devices with smaller screens or for just plain faster load times. Not everyone is blessed with EDGE or EV-DO. Most browsers have the option to turn off images, but if not this is easy too. Just update your bookmarks.

Anyone interested in a WAP version?

I’m jetting to New Orleans tomorrow to cover CTIA. It’s a big (800+ companies) wireless trade show that should be lots of fun.

I’ve heard that New Orleans is both one of the worst and best places on Earth. I figure it’s somewhere in the middle.

I’ll let you know on the flip side!