One of the most interesting technologies coming along for the WIFI space, is the UMTS base station, which is basically a Wifi router with an UMTS card, that allows to immediatly connect through Wifi, from anyplace using this new hardware.
Over the last years, the UMTS speed increase and the price decreased, accompagnied by the fact that netbooks and notebooks sales have been booming, have caused the number of UMTS users to soar high, while the ADSL has been growing slower.
One of the main problems associated with the UMTS cards, is that only one pc was able to connect to the internet (with standard solutions) which creaed a bottleneck into the utilization of the service, in case you needed several machines to access the web.
Now, it is over, with these UMTS WIfi access base, you can just take the device with you, and connect a wide number of PCs to the internet enjoying the mobility and speed of the service.
I have already written about it a couple months ago, but it is always interesting to find references from other people who think the same, and that decided to write about it aswell.
It is quite clear that the cellphone is absorving other technologies in its ambition to grow in complexity and attractiveness to the advanced users, and if we try a collective excercise of memory, it will be possible to identify technologies that the cellphone has put in peril, or has directly sent into oblivation.
To the list that the author has compiled, I would add the following elements:
- GPS navigators, - Digital Radio - Personal Television - Email Client
The link to the full article is
Ya hab?a escrito sobre este tema, y sobre la ambici?n de los m?viles actuales de engordar en complejidad y funcionalidades, par a que de esta forma sean mas atractivos para los usuarios. Pero es siempre interesante ver que otros tambi?n se han dado cuenta del tema y est?n escribiendo sobre todo. He encontrado un articulo de un autor ingles, que habla de todas las tecnolog?as que el m?vil ha ido dejando sobre el camino, en este proceso de consolidaci?n. El articulo est? muy interesante, y dado que est? en ingles, dejo un resumen de los puntos topics descritos en ellos, a al cual adjuntar? algunos puntos que creo que sean relevantes:
-Cabinas telefonicas, ya practicamente ya no hay dado que los moviles est?n por toda partes y para todos los bolsillos. -Relojes y Alarmas, y nadie utiliza una alarma o un reloj, el movil ha concentrado estas funciones, sin estar?n especificamente preparadas por las constructoras. - Lectores MP3 - Linea telef?nica - Camaras digitales - Consolas de juego
A estas habria que a?adir: GPS, Radio digital, Televisi?n y correo electr?nico.
In a article published at Cellular News, apparently some investigators at Boston Universtiy are currently looking into transforming light bulbs into wifi spots. This would allow to extend the coverage of wifi access points, not only at home, but also, in shops, airports, and public spaces. Is this feasible? Apparently yes, as they have been able to create a prototype and extend the WIFI coverage...
During a couple of years, the WIMAX has been granted the title of successor to the Wifi and killer of the 3G mobile technologies.
The reality is that the 3G has been growing steadly in usage and in bandwith and is being intensively used, not only for long range communications but also in the local loop, where a more and more users are switching their ADSL connections for 3,5G connections with HDSPA and 7,5 Mbps download speed.
What will happen to the WIMAX? I think that even the promotors of the technology probably don´t know anything by now, the truth is that regular users are not able to put their hands on hardware, and I don´t any one that have actually found any infrastructure build with WIMAX where to connect to.
Where I used to live, very hard and rush people, there was a saying about the importance of your head, that was more or less like: "your head is to think and not to wear a hat". This sentence can be applied to the idea that I have discovered in a video published at youtube, that is as simple as effective.
It goes more or less like that: 1. You buy all the access points (small ones) that you can. 2. You go to an intense transit point of people. 3. You configure all the WIFI ssids to reflect an advertising sentence. 4. You configure the initial page of the access point to forward users to ad page (before allowing free access).
And Voila. You have advertised services and products to people that will remenber the action for a long time.
The example showed in the video, is an experience with SIXT in an german airport. They have implemented several wifi with all ssids named with advertising for SIXT. The initial page of the visitor is aswell filled with SIXT adverstments, which people are looking before starting to navigate.
What a good and simple idea. Or at least it seems to me. What do yout think?
all of those that actually have to manage systems, networks and other information technologies, know very well that, sometimes, tension and stress can actually be quite hard to take.
So it is important from time to time, to actually take off all the tension away for a while, before going back to the routine tasks. During one of those breaks I have discovered PSTpanic a nice site where you can actually have a lot of fun, while learning some interesting things and even, possibly win some very tasty prizes.
In the site you will be able to see some interesting pictures of networks admins facing the huge problem of recovering some nasty email pst file. Some of them are really funny to see, and just keep you laughing for minutes. You can then vote on the one that you have best liked.
This last feature becomes the cornerstone for the online competition created by the site and that allows the creation of small game for network admins that can post their own picture and see if they can win the big prize with their creation. I have tried it, but i think that I must be very ugly and I didn´t actually get any votes :) too bad.
Over the last days, recents news have being popping out everywhere, about the new versions of Apple's iphone/ipod and the Microsoft's Zune, bring new features and new content into their platforms. A part from being a very interesting case study for marketing blogs, for a blog like opennetworks, the important thing is that Microsoft is now also bringing wifi in its basic configuration, a step that Apple already took with the iphone. Wifi personal media device is a very important feature as it gives you a freedom of cables, initially promised by the bluetooth without success, that allows you to synchronize your files with your devices, or to browse the internet. More things could be added, but I think that it will have to wait for the community of users to start bringing homebrew applications into both platforms, before really interesting applications can be found. Who is the winner? I think that as always, Microsoft is playing hard force, putting a lot of money in make the device successfull, just they have done with the xbox, sophisticated approach, is not their way, they prefer the Elephant in crystal shop one. Apple on the other side, prefers a more clever and cool approach, bringing this exclusive touch that makes people want to use their products. Now that they seems to have match perfectly what they want to do, with what consummers want, they might have a long way in front of them. From a Wifi point of view, I think that they both are loosers, as they could have introduced a lot of new concepts into their devices, more in line with the fact that in a near future, almost all personal devices will have 3G, Wifi and bluetooth connectivity. So that means that the potential to create real cool feature to interconnect all those people is really high, but they are not thinking about it for the moment. Maybe too worry about piracy? From a commercial point of view, the winner is Apple, as, as today, it is impossible to actually by a zune outside of the States. What is keeping Microsoft locked in its home market? Probably only them will know, but for the rest of people wishing to buy one, until now, Internet is the only possible way to try to have one through non-official channels.
De esta vez estoy ponderando Cádiz, porque muchos de mis amigos han estado de vacaciones por esta zona, y me han convencido de que la historia de la ciudad, la frescura del clima por las noches, y las playas todavÃa sin masificar, son un muy buen argumento para hacer las vacaciones en esa Zona.
Tal como la ultima vez voy a utilizar los servicios del buscador de hoteles, que tan buenos resultados me ha dado, y buscar Hoteles en Cadiz, el grado de parametrización y la flexibilidad de uso es realmente impresionante, por lo que insertando las caracterÃsticas deseadas de un hotel, asà como su disponibilidad, el servicio, el sistema te devuelve los hoteles que se acercan a tus criterios.
Following some news on the internet about the iphone, it has been confirmed that Telefonica Movistar has signed the deal to release the device, and the target price will be around 100 Euros. How accurate can be this news? It is very difficult to say at this moment if this is only vaporware or if there is a real marketing plan behind it to boost sales in the first months and to retain users. The difference in price to the other countries where the gadget has already been launch is quite high and will be costly for the company. This is the kind of news that will have to be followed along the next weeks.