Tracking where you’ve been through foursquare
A number of month’s ago, on a regular business trip to the west coast of Ireland, I stopped off at a random filling station somewhere between Dublin and Limerick. With the new carrageway opening up in stage’s every month or two it’s easy to get disoriantated on the journey and wonder just where in the midlands you are. Rather than do the ‘scouting thing’ and dig out the map from the boot of my car, I decided to just check in on foursquare which would geo-locate my exact location and publish it not only to the world but for me to glance at it again later on and see just where I had been. Another check in on the road back to Dublin the next day, secured me the mayorship and my place in Toomevara 4sq history.
Yesterday on a similar business trip, I stopped again at the same station and again checked into 4sq to see what had been ‘going on’ since my last visit, I had been outed as Mayor by my arch-nemesis Evert Bopp which is understandable as he lives near by but as I looked through the near by locations, my recent check in’s and where Evert had been checking into recently I began to think, wouldn’t it be great to see all these check in’s on a simple google map ? Perfect for any one who travel’s a lot like myself. (more…)
Sonim, the worlds toughest phone ….. but no match for my wife
After breaking nearly every phone I have ever owned when I bought an iPhone I decided that maybe it wasent the best phone to take off roading, to scout camps or the numerous other outdoorman type things I get up which usually end up in a £400 paper weight.
I set about looking for a phone, just for calls, one I could drop, use in the rain and generally abuse. When I worked for Phones4u we sold the Sonim x1, supposedly the worlds toughest phone, the only problem with this was we sold it (by the truck load to farmers) for the hefty price tag of £450.
Anyway I did some more research and then found a pay and go (unlocked) JCB phone on play.com for £99.99. The JCB phone is just a Sonim x1 rebranded.
Their advertising goes like this.
Sonim XP1, Military grade phone, unbreakable, this is the worlds toughest phone. Complete with 3 year unconditional warranty. (more…)
Interesting figures from iBAHN on hotel guest Internet usage
From IHE Recently released data from the world’s largest hospitality Internet network show that, despite challenging business conditions, Internet use by both business and leisure guests at leading hotels, as measured by number of data packets per guest session traveling on iBAHN’s proprietary network, increased more than 50% in 2009.
iBAHN, the worldwide leader in digital entertainment and Internet solutions for the hospitality and meeting industries, has released proprietary data showing two clear trends in hotel Internet usage: first, not only did the amount of data increase by 50% per guest session, but guests are spending 60% more time on the Internet, based on carefully tracked packet and session length information. These data confirm the predictions from an iBAHN-commissioned, 2009 study of frequent business travelers conducted by Ypartnership, author of the closely-watched National Travel Monitor. (more…)
Northern Ireland’s mobile phone network is the worst in the UK
On my monthly drive to Enniskillen yesterday I was plaiged with the usual problems, no data service on my 02 iPhone and no service at all on my T-Mobile Blackberry. It was not until I got into Enniskillen itself that my phones locked onto the network and pulled down my data.
At home I have to go to the garden to make a call and I can forget about getting in touch with my friends who are on Orange when they are in Lisburn.
In shocking new figures printed today in the Belfast Telegraph today it has become apparent that the problem is worse than it seems with 59% of Northern Ireland’s mobile phone users reporting problems with signal on their phone, making our networks the worst in the UK.
The problem as I see it comes down to cold hard cash, with only 1.6 million people living in Northern Ireland it doesn’t make commercial sense to provide a full coverage, however with 02 retaining a 65% market share you would think they at least would be up to the job although anyone with an iPhone will know that the 3G functions on the handset are pretty much useless when you are out of Belfast.
Historically Vodafone always had the best coverage in Northern Ireland as the local infrasture and backhaul were owned by Vodac Ulster, powered by Bramwell who set up the network in Northern Ireland but this was sold in around 2000 / 2002 to Vodafone UK and the local network became part of a national strategy meaning the mast would not only be used by Vodafone customers but BT Cellnet (now o2) customers as well as part of a network sharing move.
The old school planning of rolling out a mobile phone network no longer applies, as the old school network roll out provisioned only for Voice and Text. As data came into play the networks simply upgraded the cell sites with out taking into consideration the fact that these cell sites would now house more traffic as people crave data on the move.
Looking at the coverage maps, it is hard to see today who has the best voice and data signal in the provence and most people subscribe to the network that gives them the best signal in their area – not much use for me who travels all over Northern and Southern Ireland every day.
Whats the answer ?
Commercially as I said. It does not make sense for all 5 mobile networks to roll out a fantastic network in NI, however it does make sense for one network to roll out a network with more capacity than they need and share the mast.
We will have to see how the proposed T-Mobile UK and Orange UK merger will improve things but I would not hold my breath !
The death of the pager
Back in the day anyone who was anyone had a pager, doctors, nurses, business people, firemen, coastguards, IT pros. I even had one myself for a short time.
The pager was in essence one of the most important pieces of technology of its time. It offered for the first time a way to relay small pieces of information to people whilst they where away from a fixed line phone and is the reason why people like Sir Christopher Gent went on to develop the Mobile Phone technology we use today.
The first pager (type) system was introduced way back in 1921 by Detroit Police Department. However, it was not until 1949 that the very first telephone pager was patented. The first successful consumer pager was Motorola’s Pageboy I first introduced in 1974. It had no display and could not store messages, however, it was portable and notified the wearer that a message had been sent.
By 1980, there were 3.2 million pager users worldwide. At that time pagers had a limited range and were used mostly in on-site situations for example when medical workers communicate with each other within a hospital.
By 1990, wide-area paging had been invented and over 22 million pagers were in use. By 1994, there were over 61 million pagers in use and pagers.
But their domonation of communications was not to last, in the early 1990′s as the 2G 900 MHz Mobile Phone network began to roll out, people began to prefer voice to voice communication over that of the pager. In Finland in 2003 the first person to person text message was sent and the demise of the consumer pager had begun.
In 2001, with only 30,000 users in the UK – Orange decided enough was enough and switched off their pager network, offering customers £50 of executive gifts or a free mobile phone as a replacement.
Vodafone however kept on going and today has the only Pager network in the UK. Pagers are still today a vital method of commication to the emergency services (and any business that must communicate vital up to date information) such as on call firefighters, doctors and coastguards. The devices have the ability to receive text as well as offering signal where mobile phone’s fail, a long battery live and great robustness.
What amazes me most, that today we have not moved on from that of the people on the go in the 40′s, 50′s, 60′s. 70′s and 80′s We all crave data and information knowmatter where we are or what we are doing.
Nokia report a tough Q2 2009
Nokia today has published its Quarter 2 financial results and are reportedly down a staggering 25% on last years Q2 results, they are also down a further 7% on Q1 of this year. This equates to a staggering €9.9billion loss in sales in one single quarter.
The King of mobiles has lost 2% market share, bringing their share of the market down to a (still healthy) 38% overall. They have been hit hard by new up and coming competitors like the apple iPhone and RIM Blackberry and all other areas of the business have also been effected.
The Mobile phone industry is has changed from that of a healthy 2005 and continues to change rapidly, Nokia once spent a fortune on R+D and were always ahead of the pack, always that was until the launch of the phone that turned the industry on its head, the Apple iPhone, others like RIM and HTC have been quick to catch up with the launch of similar products that offer fast Internet and applications on the move but Nokia have failed to capture the imagination of this new tech hip customer and have had to rely on their sturdy business phone reputation. New handsets like the N97 and E71 which on the face of it offer the same features as the iPhone and RIM are bulky and not as easy to receive emails on the go.
I predict that Nokia will continue to loose important ground to smart-phones in the coming years until such times as they get their act together and come up with (if possible) an iPhone killer.
The company’s largest division, Devices and Services, reported sales of €6.6bn, down 28pc year-on-year. The division nonetheless increased margins from 33.8pc in Q1 to 34pc in Q2.
The company shipped device volumes of 103.2 million units, down 15pc year-on-year and down 11pc on Q1.
The company’s share of the global mobile device market also appears to be slipping, down to 38pc from 40pc a year ago.
Software revenues from applications for devices fell from €65m in Q1 to €62m in Q2, despite the launch of its flagship Ovi store.
Its infrastructure division, Nokia Siemens Networks reported sales of €3.2bn, down 21pc year-on-year and down 7pc on Q1.
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