Telecom

Overheard: Location awareness — is it finally here?

GPS brings a whole new level of precision to the mobile experience. Cell phones have been required to be location-aware for several years in order to comply with the needs of emergency response agencies in the U.S. However, the primitive triangulation system that basic phones use isn’t very precise. With GPS, a user’s location could be pinpointed to within a few feet. Paul Gillin, The Promise and Pitfalls of Location-Awareness

If you do a search on Google for location awareness, you’ll find lot of articles written by people who are excited about the possibilities of mobile devices and location awareness. Advertisers, particularly seem excited. If you look at the dates for a lot of those articles, however, you might be surprised to see they were written in 2001. Will the iPhone really be the tipping point for location awareness 3rd party apps? I’m not going to hold my breath.

Overheard: Is the set-top box doomed? Not likely.

Less than two weeks after the blogosphere and press erupted with stories that the cable TV set-top faced extinction as a result of Sony signing onto a major interactive TV initiative by cable operators called Tru2Way, folks close to Tru2Way say the first certification test of the technology is a “disaster of spectacular proportions.” Cynthia Brumfield, Terrible Troubles with Cable’s Tru2Way Initiative?

Cynthia got slammed for this blog post, but even James McQuivey (Forrester) has said “So here’s where I stand on tru2way: I’ll believe it when I see it.” As close as I can figure it, here’s what the big deal is:

1. Cable companies would like to get rid of set-top boxes. They cost them money.

2. TV manufacturers are getting extra press by announcing they are getting behind Tru2way as the standard for allowing the TV itself perform the functions of the set-top box. (True2way is open source.)

3. A lot of industry experts don’t see how the business model for this change is going to work — consumers worry that putting the interface in the TV means it’s one more thing that can break on their TV — vendors remember a former effort to get rid of the set-top box (called CableCard) that just confused everyone and went belly up.

Overheard: 3G iPhone might as well be EDGE

I’m not so sure that all the usage won’t bog down the 3G network until it is little more than EDGE, at least for a while. Even with “regular” 3G phones, the system has encountered issues from intense usage, causing slow downs, crashes, and complete shut-downs. teddgcm, 3G iPhone, Will the Network Crash?

Overheard: The iPhone — death by monthly payments

We have had nearly 24 hours to jump out Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field and put common sense behind the announcements made yesterday – especially the company’s iPhone 3G. Christian Zibreg, WWDC 2008: Will the iPhone 3G kill the iPhone?

Christian Zibreg thinks the money iPhone users shell out to AT&T each month is the deal killer. It is for my family.
Just as I was posting this, Verizon called and offered my whole family free phone upgrades and extra minutes. Coincidence? LOL!

Overheard: Using caller ID spoofing to listen to someone else’s voicemail

Another problem that has arisen with Caller ID Spoofing is when a voicemail service uses only CID to authenticate a mailbox holder and does not ask for the pin. You can actually get in and listen to messages on someone else’s account. I have seen it done with a mobile phone’s voicemail account on a prepaid phone from Cingular (now AT&T). Rick Fiore, IT manager

Video: Using your PC as a phone

Overheard: Caller ID spoof

He spoofed the HR director’s work phone number, then the number of that guy’s boss, before moving up to a vice president, and finally, the CEO. Says he had no choice. He also says “this thing that I did is bad and should be outlawed.” Paul McNamara, Confessions of a Caller-ID spoofer

I worked in the converged voice space, so the mechanics of caller ID were not unfamiliar to me or to the crew of geeks that I call friends. The light went on over beers - I was complaining about the former employer’s call-dodging to some engineer friends and the suggestion of using a local vendor’s lab to spoof Caller ID came up. Another engineer at the table said, “Don’t reinvent the wheel, just Google ’spoof Caller ID service.’” I got 32,000 hits. Spoofcard came up first.

So, I gave them $20 for an hour of Caller ID misrepresentation. Although I hate that it seems to be legal for them to offer this service, I love their implementation. Speaking as an engineer and a salesman, they really built a sweet platform.

Overheard: Tiered Internet services — it’s here

Time Warner said on Wednesday that it was going to start testing a new rate plan in Beaumont [Texas] that would limit the amount of bandwidth each customer can use each month before additional fees kick in. Saul Hansell, Time Warner: Download Too Much and You Might Pay $30 a Movie

Overheard: Telecoms, those were the days my friends (you thought they’d never end)

When the big four cellular companies decided to hike the price of sending a text message, they all managed to settle on precisely the same increase. Scott Woolley, Text Message 15 Cents

Even if the incumbent cell carriers end up buying a big chunk of the spectrum, their freedom to set prices freely will change. That’s thanks to the deft political maneuvering of Google. At Google’s request the FCC decreed that a third of the airwaves at auction (ones between 15 and 15.8 inches in length) must be used in “open” networks. Open networks let the people who use the network, not the people who build it, choose what applications to run or what mobile devices to use. To that end Google recently announced plans for open cell phones, which could run any application, and AT&T and Verizon Wireless have committed to opening their networks.

Overheard: A La Mobile introduces first Andoid prototype

A La Mobile, based in San Ramon, Calif., a start-up dedicated to Linux-based “open” systems for mobile devices, says [today’s] demonstration proves that Android can deliver on its promise of making it easier for consumers to get access to all sorts of applications. Leslie Cauley, Introducing the first Android prototype

Andy Rubin, Google’s senior director of mobile platforms, says the coalition is on track to roll out an Android-based phone in the second half of this year.

According to Google: “Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. This early look at the Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language.”