Matt Croydon::Postneo

Author: Matt Croydon

  • Rendezvous A Go Go

    Yesterday Gizmodo mentioned Pocketster, a program for Pocket PCs that among other things implements Rendezvous (Zeroconf).  It sounds like Simedia, the company behind the product, is also working on a newer version that should iron out a few weirdnesses of the current program.

    It’s a shame that there’s not more Rendezvous/Zeroconf love on the PC side.  It’s an amazing thing, really, when things “just work.”  Take the new Airport Express.  It’s absolutely wicked!

    My hat is off to Simedia and everyone else trying to spread the Rendezvous love throughout the world.

  • Mostly Mobile Linkdump

    Foo

    • Nokia rejoins WiMax.
    • Wi-Fi on Amtrak could be useful.  $9.99 for a trip is quite reasonable.  It’s probably a better deal than my pay-as-you-go T-Mobile hotspot account at $6/hr.
    • Gizmodo and others linked to a way to boost the power on you Garmin iTrip to roll your own pirate radio.
    • Moto buys embedded computing company Force Computers.
    • Intel has delayed Centrino 2 until 2005.  By then you’ll be ordering a jumble of things called a Centrino 2 with a Pentium M 775 and Intel Pro Wireless 2400 with Bluetooth.  I can’t imagine how that can make any sense to a non-techie customer.
    • Engadget covers details uncovered from the FCC about the new HP iPAQ h6300 with GSM/GPRS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.
    • Sleepycat ships Berkeley DB Java Edition.
    • OSNews announces that Gnomefiles.org aims to be your one stop Gnome shop.
    • CNet: tablets take their time.  They’re still too damned expensive.  Scoble: how can we get Tablet PC prices down?  I really want to be able to afford one.
    • US mobile carriers only get 3% of their revenue from data services.  I’m trying to boost that figure personally, but so far no luck.  A lot more than 3% of my monthly bill goes to paying for data and SMSes.
    • Broadcom is buying 3G chipmaker Zyray Wireless.
    • Rome 0.2 is out.
    • WASTE 1.5 beta 1 is out.  Three cheers for the GPL!
    • ASP.NET on Linux using Mono sounds sadistic but fun.
    • Slackware 10.0-RC1 is making the rounds.

  • JXTA 2.3 is Out the Door

    Word from Gonzo Mofo is that JXTA J2SE 2.3 is out the door.  It looks like there are a lot of bugfixes, some deprecations, and some new features in this release.  The JXTA website should update with details soon, but for now check out the Gonzo Mofo link above.

  • Verizon Trails the Pack with Worldwide SMS

    Mobiletracker reports that Verizon is excited about their new international text messaging.  AT&T joined the transatlantic SMS party a few months ago, so it looks like this officially puts Verizon at the end of the line of carriers that “get it.”  My advice to any carrier that does not support international SMS: quietly add the capability and pretend that you’ve been doing it for years.

  • Firefox 0.9 Linkdump

    I have to dump links from the tabs in Firefox, because Firefox 0.9 (One Tree Hill) is out!

    The update went well.  The new default theme is a little more sparse than the old one, but I think it’s growing on me.  I also like the rotating dots above each tab when they reload.  The rotating dots definitely give a consistent experience going between Thunderbird and Firebird.  Everything seems pretty zippy.

    On to the post-update links:

    • Confluence 1.1 has been released.
    • pywi-fi “is a Python library that provides access to information about a W-Lan card’s capabilities, like the wireless extensions written in C.”
    • Chris Heilman has fifteen pictures about fifteen pictures.  I’ve never seen so much glass labware used in the development processes.
    • Coverage of the new Nokia phones has reached the mainstream.  It’s dumbed down blurbs from here on out.
    • EPOC/Cabir.A is definitely a “proof of concept” virus for Symbian phones with Bluetooth as the transport mechanism.  It is hardly a “threat” if you have to say yes to the installation.  It could be a harbinger of things to come though.  More coverage at The Guardian and others.
    • The installation of XP SP2 RC2 seems to have gone smoothly.  I don’t notice anything different, but I’ve been running a beta of SP2 for a month or so.  I will have to say that wireless networking rocks in SP2.

    Even more links from just before bed:

  • Nokia Press Conference Notes

    I’m up for the Nokia press conference.  Yes, it’s 9am in Helsinki, but it’s 2am in DC.  I already know what they’re going to talk about, but I want to hear what they have to say and see the phones.

    With some URL hacking, we have found some pics before the press conference started.  The press conferences has just started and we’re reviewing the entire presentation.

    And some more from thenewsmarket (I’m still waiting to view the full-size videos):

  • The Second Coming of Nokia

    Last week Reuters ran a story about there being “no buzz” about the announcement of a few new phones from some company from Finland that nobody cares about anymore.  I’ve seen the lineup, and I think that there’s going to be a ton of buzz.  Nokia has pushed the rez on their Series 60 phones, embraced WCDMA, VPNs, Push-to-Talk, embraced the flip phone and low-end market, and they plan to have all of this on the streets by Q3 and Q4 2004.

    That’s not to say all is well and good in the Nokia camp.  A lot of analysts have all but given up on the company, citing a slide in market share while the “other guys” pick up the slack.  If Nokia can ship enough units quickly, get the pricing on the 2600/2650 right, stay agile, focused and balanced, we could be looking at the Nokia Renaissance unfolding before our very eyes.

    Oh yeah.  Russ and I broke the story tonight a few minutes before Reuters and others.  The clock on my server is a few minutes fast, but my story was online a few minutes before Russ’ which we clocked at 7:53:45PDT.  Take that!

  • New Nokia Phones Announced!

    On a whim, I thought I’d take a look at the Nokia press site to see if there would be a webcast for the new phones.  Lo and behold there is already information up about them:

    • Nokia 6630: Tiny 3G
      • Series 60
      • WCDMA, EDGE, or old-skool
      • About 500 Euros (no contract) in Q4 2004
      • 74 megs of memory
      • 1.23 megapixel camera
      • 1.27 grams, 110x60x20.6mm 
      • Could this be Charlie?  Yep.
    • Nokia 6260: Series 60 Flippy
      • VPN
      • Push-to-Talk
      • Supports the new Nokia Wireless (Bluetooth) Keyboard
      • About 400 Euros (no contract) in Q3 2004
    • Nokia 6170: Flippy Series 40 
      • EDGE
      • XHTML, MMS, 65k colors
      • About 250 Euros (no contract) in Q4 2004
    • Nokia Wireless Keyboard
      • Bluetooth
      • Only works on newer phones (7610, 6630, 6260)
    • Nokia 2650: Cheap flippy that looks really good 
      • MMS, Java, XHTML browser
      • 97 grams
      • Q3 2004 for 120 Euros (no contract)
    • Nokia 2600: Cheap but classic
      • Polyphonic ringtones
      • Spreadsheet
      • 94.5 grams
      • 100 Euros (no contract)

    Also of note:

  • Debian x86-64 Go For Launch

    LWN carries the news from debian-devel-announce:

    We are proud to announce the Debian AMD64 port is ready for inclusion in Sid. The port is currently at 97% compiled with most of the remaining packages having FTBFS RC bugs filed for unrelated reasons. We have also finished debian-installer for the AMD64 port and generate daily builds. All that still remains to be done is for dpkg to include the amd64 patch, for archive space be given to the port, and for an official buildd to be setup.

    Excellent work guys.  I know how fast a well-tweaked Debian system can be, and the thought of running Debian on AMD64 is quite exciting.  AMD64 gear is still a little too expensive, but I’ve seen several sub-$700 desktop systems with AMD64 inside.  Getting closer…

  • J2ME Polish Looks Promising

    The Wireless Development Weblog pointed to an extremely interesting project today: J2ME Polish.  The screenshots look a lot more sexy than plain old MIDP on mobile phones.  I’ll have to read the docs in depth to grok J2ME Polish on a technical level, but on the surface it looks like a very clean and polished (sorry for the pun) project, and might be worth some serious attention by J2ME heads.

  • Wi-Fi at Maryland Rest Stops

    I love it when random stories about hotspots like this one at netstumbler are local for me:

    The state of Maryland is launching “hot spots” at two of its welcome centers on Interstate 95 so motorists can access the Internet wirelessly.

    More information can be found at Baltimore Bizjournals.  I’ll be sure to have live coverage via my laptop the next time I’m able to stop by the rest stop.

  • Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate

    Gizmodo mentions Bluetooth EDR, or Enhanced Data Rate.  It is supposed to be faster than but backward compatible with plain old Bluetooth (or is it Bluetooth Classic now?).

    I’m glad that it’s going to be backwards compatible with oldskool Bluetooth, though honestly I’ve never had an issue with the speed of it.  Sure, I’ll have to wait if I’m transfering a multi-meg file to or from my phone.  For most things Bluetooth seems to be fast enough.  I’m sure that for more advanced uses more bandwidth would be great, but it’s not a deal breaker for me.

    I would use a slower Bluetooth device if it connected more reliably and didn’t do the random weird things that Bluetooth devices seem to do at one time or another.

    Bluetooth EDR Roundup:

  • Morning Links

  • Back to Reality

    Things are finally starting to settle down after a few hectic days.  We’re almost done with leftovers and are finally starting to get back to our regular schedules.  Thanks again to the guys, Martin, Eric and his parents for mobilizing the champagne.

    In other news, we ramped up the wireless infrastructure with a Linksys WRT54G on sale for $69 before rebates and $59 after.  That’s about $40 off what I’d expect to pay normally, $30 off the normal “sale” price, and below my “buy it” threshold.  I know that Linksys is pushing the SpeedBooster versions of their hardware, but 802.11g/b is faster than my internet pipes, and if I need to transfer anything faster, I’ll plug the thing in.  You know, with wires.  (Grandpa, tell us about when computers had wires!)

    I picked the WRT54G because of an array of flashable Linux distros that I can put on it.  I’m going to run the stock firmware for a bit until I get things sorted out, but I’ll be shopping around for the best firmware for it.

    I’m still way behind on my aggregating.  I should have a linkdump ready in the morning.

  • Mobile Wedding Technology

    Special thanks to the mobitopians who sent along a bottle of chapagne.  You guys rock!  Yes, Erik, my parents are ecstatic.

  • Premarital Links

    All the little details have been filled in and everything is set for tomorrow.  Until then, here are some links for you.  Hopefully I’ll have a chance to read them in depth during the week.

  • I’m Getting Married!

    Expect things to be rather slow around these parts over the next few days.  I’m getting married on Sunday.  I will however do my best to moblog over the weekend, probably until someone confiscates the cameraphone from me.

  • Jodd

    JSurfer earlier today noted that a new release of Jodd out.  Jodd is a general purpose Java library.  If you’re thinking about reinventing the wheel, it’s probably already been done in Jodd.  Browse through the javadocs for an idea of what you can do with it.  Jodd is distributed under a license that looks like a modified BSD one, so it should be suitable for incorporation to projects with lots of different license types.

  • EV-DV Sooner than you Think

    Phone Scoop brings news that EV-DV chips are slowly inching down the pipeline:

    STMicroelectronics (ST) and Texas Instruments (TI) today announced the delivery of sample CDMA 1xEV-DV chipsets to device manufacturers. In collaboration with Nokia, Korean carrier LG Telecom is testing the solution for its planned deployment of 1xEV-DV technology.

    We should start seeing EV-DV tech hitting sometime during 2005, with a more widespread rollout 2006ish.  This seems to be in line with what I learned about EV-DV at ETech.  That’s the “slow” Rev C though.  It can only pull down about 3 megabits.  The uplink isn’t that fast, but the downlink is what you’re really worried about anyway.  The uplink speed will be fixed when Rev D comes out.

    EV-DV is definitely a tech to keep an eye out for, and might hit some top 10 lists in 2005 or 2006.

  • Link ’em