Archive for August, 2006
Welcome Spotcoffee
Today is a very special day … first it’s St Alexander, seconds today was launched a new WiFi HotSpot operator called Spotcoffee ! Why is spotcoffee so special ? Because it’s 100% free for the end-user ! Just sit at your favorite café, enjoy a drink and a free 30min connection time offered to you by your host ! Spotcoffee provides the bartender with the “coffeecards” providing a 30 min login/pwd, hotline, and all the infrastructure to have the service up-and-running
with no headache !
Moreover, the café is listed on the great spotcoffee website providing visibility, maps, TomTom-ready points of interest… and a revenue share model on the ads ! Really Spotcoffee kicks asses ! And it uses 100% WaveStorm’s WiFi solutions, so I’m pretty proud of that.
PS: check my Vista-enabled PC… together with Office 2007 it just rocks
Technorati Tags: free, spotcoffee, wifi
Easy WiFi security … at last !
Here is a press release from the WiFi alliance announcing the Wi-Fi Protected setup :
The Wi-Fi Alliance today announced Wi-Fi Protected Setup™ as the name for its upcoming consumer ease-of-use program, formerly code named “Wi-Fi Simple Config.” Slated for launch in Q4 of this year, the program is planned as an optional certification based on a standardized method for security setup in home Wi-Fi networks.
Recent research indicates that 43% of Wi-Fi users found that installing security on a home Wi-Fi network moderately-to-very difficult (Wi-Fi Alliance/Kelton Research, 2006). Wi-Fi Protected Setup™ is designed to ease installation and activation of security features on a network to improve the home Wi-Fi user experience.
“Wi-Fi technology is proliferating across a wider range of consumer electronics, so ease-of-use has become more important than ever,” said Wi-Fi Alliance Managing Director Frank Hanzlik. “The Wi-Fi Alliance will continue play a central role in enabling a positive user experience.”
The Wi-Fi Protected Setup certification will join the portfolio of certifications available to Wi-Fi Alliance members that manufacture a wide variety of devices, ranging from PCs and printers to televisions, cameras, and gaming consoles.
At last some standardization on the 1-button-click-to-secure business, WiFi alliance is finally doing its job in easing the end-user experience !
Flash Lite as an MMI
Thanks Thomas for pointing out this video of the LG Chocolate Flash-lite based MMI made for Verizon Wireless.
This is the first time I see a working flash-lite based MMI, it’s really awesome !
Looking for a McDonald’s WiFI Hotspot in New-York ?
Check out this demo of Wayfinder Earth beta, which can be downloaded for free. It’s working pretty well as you can see…
Technorati Tags: geolocalisation, mobile
Overview of Naviblog
Naviblog is a Japanese start-up offering location-based bloggingfor mobile phones. Now you can easily find turtle soup in Tokyo 
. Check the video presentation from its CEO (part 2 is here)
I’m so jealous about the capabilities of Japanese mobile phones … geolocalisation, 2D barcodes, compass… We still haven’t matched in Europe the services I enjoyed in Japan when living there … 4 years ago !
Technorati Tags: blogging, mobile, geolocalisation
No more Internet on Boeing airplanes
Boeing just shot down their airplane WiFi connexion service called “Connexion”. They said they had too few users of the service to make it worth keeping it, especially when you see how expensive it was… Boeing announced +0.15 cents for next years’ dividends thanks to this action.
The system offered up to 4Mbps speeds downstream and 1Mbps upstream.
Wine & co
I just wanted to point out Chirstope’s blog called Oenoprofil . Christophe is a wine lover and expert and shares its passion with us along with some really impressive insights on the wine industry. If you are going to buy some wine at the next “foire aux vins”, you really must read his blog as he really will help you prepare your shopping list
WiFi XBox
We just bought an XBox 360 at home for the kids cat us and i enjoyed yesterday the Xbox Live feature. It’s just awesome to play online with Japanese, Dutch, US players just as if they were here, hearing their voices and talking to them. I must confess Microsoft has done an impressive work easing all this. It’s always nice to see how the gaming industry can take advantage of the latest technical enhancements.
If you want to try me on PG3 or DOA4, click on my profile
Roaming for mobile phones
I had a demonstration yesterday (thanks Laurent) of the smartroaming technology on a Nokia E61. Basically Smartroaming is a local connection proxy that is in charge of finding the best way for your mobile to connect (WiFi, 3G, … ) and enabling seamless switch from one media to another. It’s a subscription-based software as you connect to their proxy
in order to enable seamless roaming using Mobile IP technology. Check the compatibility list.
Update : Thanks Smartroaming team for the screenshot !
Technorati Tags: device, gsm, nokia, roaming, smartroaming, wifi
Sony E-Book reading device
I just popped into this E-Book reading device from Sony called “Sony Portable Reader System PRS-500” which is the first device I noticed with the E-Ink display technology ! Here are the features :
- 6” SVGA 800×600 gray scale display with E Ink® Display technology.
- Compact and lightweight for ultimate portability.
- Internal memory with a slot for removable memory (Memory Stick® storage media and SD Memory Cards).
- Approximately 7,500 page turns per battery charge.
- Select from thousands of eBooks from the Connect® Book store(looks expensive).
- Reads BBeB / PDF / Text / (Microsoft Word - PC Application does the conversion for the hardware from Word to Text), Pictures: JPEG, Audio: MP3
Will it finally be the start for the E-Book industry ? I’d love to have all my preferred reference books on this device (what’s thefree cash flowformula again ? ).
