Microsoft Surface as an extension to your cell phone
Posted on April 23, 2008
Filed Under Tony Chang | 1 Comment
I can envision a future state where social profiles stored on the phone could be transferred to other physical devices like Microsoft Surface to allow businesses to work with their clients in a new way. A device like the Surface allows retail and user preference data to be transferred between a business and the consumer while a person is physically present via the cell phone. On the cell phone you could store clothing style and size preferences which when placed on the Surface the clothing store could automatically detect and make recommendations on clothing that is currently physically available at the store.
An exciting feature of the Surface is the ability to manipulate information thru human interaction such as the use of hand movements to share and update information. The phone is portable and digital but it lacks a large sized display for viewing and allow for a large range of human touch and movement. That’s where the Surface comes in and can be seen as a natural extension to the cell phone with a better and larger HCI and can serve as a physical hub for other cell phones (or really our mini-computers) to connect and share among other things.
Mobile Devices and Social Computing
Posted on April 23, 2008
Filed Under Tony Chang | Leave a Comment
I think mobile devices should be seen as the most important social computing device for the future. The phone probably should be considered the new digital “You”, which is how digital business and personal socialization is accomplished in the future. Phones are typically not shared which means someone’s phone is really a true personal extension of oneself.
Currently, most of the focus with social software applications has been on internet sites, such Facebook and Twitter, which require users to enter in information about himself or herself on a regular basis thru a keyboard or mouse. This is usually done during social site registration and/or updating information about themselves whether that is presence, location or profile info. This is fine but its probably one of the pain points with social software in general which is the required explicit action usually in the form of typing. This means that when push comes to shove folks don’t have time to twitter.
So what makes the mobile device so special is its ability to know about you all the time and can transmit this information in a wireless fashion. The phone is able to bring to socialization a new context related to location awareness. In most cases you already have lots of personally stored information on your phone, which you just entered once. Coupled with location awareness and wireless capabilities, the phone can now update, receive and send profile and presence information implicitly without having you do a thing.
If you are waiting for a plane at an airport your real time presence information can be advertised to a feed that your friends subscribe to so they know where you are. The airport might know when you have arrived and can transmit flight and departure information to your phone vs having to find and look it up on digital board. Your phone might also detect fellow colleagues who are also at the airport so that you can meet up with them while waiting for your flight. All this data being passed and without specific action taken from the individual.
Sure the scenarios here might scare a bunch of folks, including me, but if we work thru the issues like we have done with all other new ideas in the past then I think the possibilities of what you and your phone can achieve for the future is very much wide open.
So lets figure out ways to capitalize on these capabilities sooner rather than later.
Cellular Technology 101 - part 1
Posted on April 14, 2008
Filed Under David Morton, Mobility 101 | 2 Comments
As I go through my day, I am often asked questions about how cellular networks operate, how calls or mobile data connections are made.
The answers to these and other questions can be very simple or deeply complex. Google or Yahoo! may help some, but I’ve found it difficult to find a good primer on cellular technology.
Enter Mobility 101
To help answer some of these questions, I’ve started a section on FreshlyMobile.com called Mobility 101.
Mobility 101 articles will eventually cover a wide range of topics designed to provide some perspective on the technology and business of mobile communication, to explain common terms or to generally help take the mystery in how things work.
As with many things in life, all things mobile can involve some very complex concepts and technology. In Mobility 101, (and indeed much of FreshlyMobile) we will often tend towards easier to understand generalizations rather than the often impenetrable (but technically accurate) technical minutia. If we miss the mark, miss the point or are just plain mistaken, please let us know.
Cellular Tech 101
Today I would like to introduce the first in a four-part series that will take a brief look at the history, terminology, technology, and the general anatomy of cellular networks, which I call Cellular Tech 101.
You can download the slides for part one here.
Ever wonder 1G, 2G or 3G means? Well, the “G” in 1G, 2G, 3G, etc refers to a generation of technology in the cellular industry. The first mobile phones (you remember or have seen pictures of the big brick phone or a phone in a bag) are now generally called 1G phones. Service in this period was limited and very expensive. While few people had these phones, the technology was changing rapidly and in the 1990’s we began to move into the 2nd Generation or 2G era.
With 2G, the phones moved from analog to digital. This allowed quality and capacity to improve, eventually driving down prices (most phones used in the US today are 2G phones). With the move to digital and 2G, we found cellular companies divided into two technology camps, CDMA and GSM. We will look at these camps a bit more closely next time. In practical terms it meant that phones would not interoperate across networks with a different type of technology.
Here in the US, we have been slowly moving towards the 3rd Generation technologies. With 3G comes faster speeds for data. It makes browsing the Internet or watching videos much easier. Three of the 4 major carriers in the US (AT&T, Sprint and Verizon) have been operating 3G networks for some time. T-Mobile is currently in the process of upgrading their network to 3G and is currently offering something that is often called 2.5G.
2.5G is a marketing term and it is an interim step between the 2G and 3G worlds. All the carriers took this 2.5G step as it offered faster data service than 2G, without the pain and expense of upgrading the network to support 3G. Speaking of 2.5G and 3G, you may have heard some people say that the Apple iPhone only supports EDGE and not 3G (yet). EDGE is considered a 2.5G technology and is widely deployed by AT&T and T-Mobile in the US.
Please feel free to download the slides to see a bit more about what distinguishes the various generations of cellular technology. Also let me know if you have any questions, comments or corrections by leaving a comment or sending me an email.
Until next time….
Real World 3G Speeds - freshlymobile.com
Posted on April 7, 2008
Filed Under David Morton | Leave a Comment
Just a quick note to share some recent 3G speed tests during my recent trip to Las Vegas, Cupertino (CA) and back to Seattle. All tests were performed on an Apple MacBook (2.2 GHz, Core 2 Duo, 4 GB ram), an AT&T 881U HSDPA/HSUPA USB modem card and Speakeasy’s test servers (http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/).
Just Before CTIA Wireless Show
I assume that AT&T engineers had been hard at work to tune the network just prior to this year’s CTIA show as my speeds were the fastest I’ve tested.
Download speeds clocked in at just under 2 mbps while uploads were a very strong 1.4 mbps.
Near the Apple Campus
While Las Vegas was very strong Cupertino, CA wasn’t too shabby either. The results below were taken near Apple HQ.
Again a strong showing with 1.9 mbps down and 1.4 mbps up.
Home again
I re-ran the tests in my office at the University of Washington in Seattle. These are pretty typical of the rates I have seen in other parts of the country.
Looks like my HSUPA train ride is over, but things are still a very usable 1.5 mbps down and .5 mbps up.
The Most Interesting Years in Wireless - freshlymobile.com
Posted on March 3, 2008
Filed Under David Morton, Mobility 101 | 1 Comment
I have a few minutes of downtime here at the Gartner Wireless & Mobile Summit and thought I’d quickly pass on a few tidbits from the first day.
Nick Jones (Distinguished Gartner Analyst) helped set the stage in his keynote by stating that the next 3-5 years are the “most interesting since the mobile started”. If you’ve read my first post to this site, you know that I’ve feel this way too.
There is little doubt that content, uses (applications) and consumer technology are king. Every presentation to date has at least touched on or more of these themes. Look to more indepth thoughts about some of these issues in articles to come.
LTE vs WiMax
Nick predicts that LTE will begin to dominate the 4G landscape in the near term and that WiMax numbers and usage (in the enterprise) will remain relatively flat for the next few years. He cites lack of ubiquity in terms of networks, devices and mobility as factors that will limit WiMax in the near term. While Intel and some of my friends at ClearWire and in Africa might disagree, I too think that LTE will gain a lot of grown before WiMax will take root in a big way. I’d be happy to be proven wrong, but that is the way things look today.
A couple of other interesting predictions from Nick:
- 802.11n shipments won’t overtake 802.11 a/g in the enterprise until 2010
- Limits in back haul represent a challenge to ubiquitous, high-speed mobile networks.
- Bluetooth still has legs with Ultra Low Power (ULP) and BT with wifi making major inroads.
- 75% of handsets in Western Europe will be smartphones by 2011
- HD video will appear in handsets by later this year or early next.
What do you think about Nick’s predictions?
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About Me
David Morton (mortonmanor)
Director, Mobile Strategies
University of Washington
We are on the cusp of making great strides towards the promise of mobility. This isn't a site about me, but rather I wanted a place where people can come to learn and talk about how the promise is being realized.
contact me: mortonmanor at freshlymobile dot com
UW Mobile Usage Stats. -
