Archive for February, 2007
Strix, Samsung and WiMax
Just read on Dailywireless, WNN and unstrung that Samsung has invested an undisclosed ammound in Strix networks one of the leading provider of meshed infrastructures for metro-scale networks. Here is an excerpt from Strix’s VP of marketing, Nan Chen on Unstrung:
The first: “Immediate deployment opportunities where the combination of WiFi mesh and WiMax makes sense,” he says. For example, WiFi mesh may need WiMax backhaul, or — more interestingly — WiMax networks may need WiFi mesh backhaul. Unstrung did something of a double-take at this — conventional wireless wisdom has it that WiMax is the technology that will provide the “fat pipe” to backhaul 802.11-based mesh networks, not the other way around. The Strix marketing man says that it ain’t necessarily so.
“That’s right, because WiMax, in current profiles defined by the WiMAX Forum , can’t run faster than the theoretical max of 37.5 Mbit/s, yet current and foreseeable implementations of WiMax are limited to around 20 Mbit/s,” Chen explains. “WiFi mesh with different [so-called smart antenna] techniques or 802.11n can run over 100 Mbit/s. Therefore, WiFi mesh can be a backhaul for WiMax.”
Back from 3GSM
24hrs only to visit 3GSM was a bit ambitious, actually I spent most of my time in meetings and did not have as much time as I would have needed to get a real idea about all the new stuff that was presented. Last year was the year of Mobile TV, this year was time for WiMAX and Mobile WiMAX with many manufacturers presenting their solutions. This was actually one of my personal focuses ;). I was pretty disappointed to see few new services and ideas, a lot of mobile communities, content distribution to mobiles… but nothing really new there. Few innovations on the devices field, new smart designs though, but it sounds like manufacturers are starting to lack imagination. Quite a few new connected convergent devices (wireless frames, UMPCs, Linksys new Kiss-dp1600 player…). I was a bit disappointed though to see that the mood wasn’t very joyful there. I guess it’s the end for that hype that was overpresent on the previous years … maybe there won’t be a mobile bubble after all 
I had a great talk though on Cisco’s booth about their vision of the wireless house, and I was pretty reassured to see that we had the same vision on the issues about heterogeneous devices being connected together within a house and sharing services ;).
Convergence of services and divergence of devices is really the major trend on the next years of the wireless market.
Technorati Tags: 3GSM, cisco, convergence, linksys, wireless
Spyke on CNBC
Spyke, the DIY robot from Meccano/Erector powered by WaveStorm CNX111-mm platform was spotted two days ago on CNBC.
Read my blog on your mobile
Just discovered Plusmo, 
a web application that “mobilizes” your blog, just like mobitype has been doing for a few months in France. Their backend is really smart letting you preview your blog on a virtual mobile and managing your feeds by selecting those that really are in your field of interest. Visualisation is made through a mobile application enabling a better look’n'feel than WAP.
Express stop-over at 3GSM
I’ll be doing an express trip at 3GSM this year (thanks to Rod, I did not intend to go, way to much work !), I’ll arrive at noon on tuesday and depart at noon on wednesday, if you’re around and willing to talk about connected things and/or new mobile services and opportunities … leave me an email at alex(at)mobitrends(dot)com.
Technorati Tags: 3GSM
GPS golf cap
Engadget pointed out this awesome Golf Cap from SkyCap LLC.
Using a state of the art GPS, real time positioning information is continually tracked against a detailed map of the users selected golf course, and distances to green leading/center/trailing, water bunkers and fairway boundaries are calculated. By using an easy to learn set of voice commands, anything from simple green distance to a full explanation of all in range features can be listed.
Courses may be conveniently searched and downloaded to the hat by using our course access website by hooking the hat to a PC with the supplied USB cable. In addition, the hat can record a course layout (green distances only) which can then be shared with other users. Uploading a course that has been mapped is rewarded with a credit towards downloading another course of the users choosing.
I’d love to try one It’s missing a wifi/gsm/xxx connection to directly upload your scorecard online and do the golf course map downloading on site (the usb stuff sounds like a hassle to me … )
Netvibes mobile
Franck from giiks just upload a few shots of the upcoming mobile version of Netvibes. Check here for more !
Nail customisation on your mobile
Textually just reported on “The Nail Club“, a Japanese mobile application enabling women to imagine how they could decorate their nails.
You start with a blank canvas (an unpolished nail) and create your own design using 72 colours, 300 types of airbrush, 200 holograms, 100 3D decorations and 300 gems”.
TI Wilink Chip
TI just announced its latest WiLink 6.0 chip which is simply amazing :
- bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- WiFi a/b/g/n
- FM transmitter and receiver
This is simply the most integrated wireless chip I’ve ever seen … waiting for TI to embed UWB, Zigbee & HSDPA !
Update 1: Availability 2009 (man… want a sample ! gimme sample plz)
Update 2: Atheros and Broadcom announced similar 3-in-1 chips.
Remember … ping tunnel ?
It’s 7am, you’re half an hour early to take your Eurostar and feel like fetching your mails while taking a coffee. Great news, there is WiFi at the station ! Bad news, you got to pay by credit card only. Personnally I never pay WiFi by credit card as I know that it is allways delicate to know precisely when a laptop disconnects from a WiFi network ( did he disconnect, is it not jsut a signal break , is it going to come bak in a second…). There is a solution for that : browse any hotspot for free with ping tunnel ! this hack is something I know has been used for years by g33ks. The idea is that when you open a console and type “ping yahoo.com” you send a packet to the yahoo server who sends it back and you can mesure the travel time of the packet. What you might not now is that the ping packet has some unused room. And what you might not now also is that most WiFi hotspots let you ping any server in the world ! Thus g33ks have created special ping servers and clients that create a ping-tunnel between your laptop and server letting you browse the web for free !
Amazing isn’t it ?
Technorati Tags: hack, hotspot, ping tunnel, wifi
