How many Data Plans does one family need?

Once upon a time, mobile device with internet data was a luxury reserved only for the upwardly mobile professionals.  Internet on mobile was paid for by the KB and it was slow.  Today, its not unusual to see young professionals rocking out a smartphone with unlimited data plan.  In some cases, an individual might end up with two phones connected to internet data (business issued BlackBerry and personal iPhone).  Housewives now rock smartphones with data plans as well as children as young as 7 years old.

This is pretty insane given that the network carriers are selling you the same internet to everybody without really the need to incur incremental expense.  It is in their best interest to re-package their wireless data network and sell them to you as many times as possible.  Below  is an example of what a typical family might encounter:

1. Dad (at least one smartphone with data, possibly two if work issues a blackberry)
2. Mom (at least one smartphone with data, possibly two if work issues a blackberry)
3. Either spouse might have a work-issued Wireless Modem or Mobile Hotspot like MiFi)
4. A 3G iPad or Netbook with integrated wireless package/card
5. In-car mobile/data account like GM's OnStar, Mercedes mbrace or BMW's Assist
6. Children in grade school probably has a smartphone with data package and unlimited text plan

At one point, we had 5 devices that are connected to mobile internet... its down to 3 today.  Crazy!

Self Deleting Text Messages

Self Deleting Text Messages
How to send self deleting SMS according to a computer hacking website that reports "this technique is called SAFE-TEXT. It's a technique where a message destroys itself after being read."

Before proceeding further there are several matters worth mentioning.

Sent flash SMS text messages are not automatically saved and thus delete after opening and closing the message

Whats your Mobile Internet Data usage?

Lately, it seems like everywhere you look, the topic of unlimited internet usage "cap" seems to pop up and upset the general public either for your smartphone or home broadband. While I find it as much oxymoron calling a plan "unlimited" data with a cap as the next guy, I was curious to find out just exactly how much unlimited data I was using up, the results are not that extreme (approx.):

July: 89MB
June: 76MB
May: 114MB
April: 125MB
March: 63MB

I am using an iPhone 3G with AT&T's $30 unlimited data plan (w/ a 5GB cap). I use my iPhone in the morning and afternoon to get the latest news and check on emails. Occasionally throughout the day, I'd check on emails, weather or directions/maps. I find myself using the mobile internet more when I am out of the house (waiting for an appoint), out of town(business trip) or on vacation. I'm kinda curious to know how many of you actually come close to the 5GB cap because you stream live music via Pandora or listen to MLB broadcast through respective apps. Furthermore, if you are a Palm Pre, Android user, what is your monthly data usage?

Some interesting data I found on the web:
Hong Kong: average 44MB per user (as of April, 2009)
UK Orange: mobile data doubled year over year (as of May, 2009)
Sweden: increase 4.5x year over year (as of Aug, 2009)
Australia: iPhone Browser avg session is 2.07MB vs. 0.30MB (as of Sept, 2008)

Designing Content for iPhone Safari Browser

iPhone, for the first time in history, escliped RAZR as the number 1 consumer phone sold in the U.S. A pretty significant feat considering this phone is a more complicated device with excess baggage of expensive data plan associated. To me, this means that we can expect a mass market hysteria and expect every vendor, retailer, ecommerce giant to step up their web game with an iPhone-friendly website.

Apple has a nice little "Designing Content" packet available here for you to get some basic knowledge on how to build a site for iPhone users (handling application launch, GMAP links and Phone App launch. In their, they explained the "viewport" concept on how pages should be handled for scaling and etc... Its a short read for any marketers or IT personel to get their mindset into an iPhone friendly site. I ran a quick test on Omniture version 14 and saw over 4000+ visitors came to one of our sites via iPhone+iPod touch... thats over 60% of mobile visitors used a mobile Safari device.

Review: Sprint CDMA Ev-DO Wireless USB Modem

Fast! That is probably the best word to describe my experience surfing the web over Sprint's EV-DO broadband network. It does not feel like a mobile network at all. Just plain fast.

I got a chance to test out the Sprint Novatel Wireless U727 modem. This thing looks like an over-sized jump drive (and it even acts like one too, with a built-in MicroSD slot for even more memory expansion). Installation was a breeze; as soon as it is connected to my Windows XP machine, it automatically launched the installer program. A couple of minutes later, it asked me to restart my computer. After computer is restarted, the drive proceeded to finish installation.

Upon complete installation, the Sprint Mobile Broadband manager is presented on the desktop. By clicking on it, it initializes with the closest EV-DO tower. When I click on "connect" it took less than a few seconds to connect to the broadband network.

As mentioned above, this thing is fast. While using it, I can't really tell the difference between my WiFi network or the Sprint Broadband. My speedtest showed an astounding 1114 kb/s download and 403 kb/s download rate. As I am typing this very entry, I am using it to upload pictures, organizing Picasa Slideshow, etc.

So far, I've only been stationary so performance is superb and I live in NYC which is probably one of the most "wired" city in the country. I'll try to test out the network in a moving environment in the next few days as I'll be traveling across country and check on my connection speed throughout every location (ie. airports, west coast, etc.). Stay tuned.

Overall, I am very impressed with Sprint's mobile broadband network.

Get Free Playboy... err I mean Magazines on iPhone

The brilliant folks at Zinio Labs is bringing magazines to your iPhone or iPod Touch browser. They have shrunk popular magazines into mobile format allowing you to browser through page by page and zoom in to read or "look" at the contents. As title suggested, Playboy is amongst many titles they have to offer. Simply point your mobile Safari to http://zinio.com/iphone and enjoy! (Thanks Toby, for sharing this one)

Other popular titles includes: Penthouse
US News and World Report
Popular Mechanics
Kiplingers
Men's Health
Saveur
Digital Photography

In other news, I just learned Playboy.com has an iPhone-friendly page. Uh, the things I make myself do in the name of research for "the mobile experience".

Corporate America, Why You Need a Mobile-Optimized Site

Mobile internet has come a long way. Handsets are more affordable and we now have 3G high speed data connection in almost every major city across America. Smartphones have larger LCDs, bigger storage, faster processors and supports 3D acceleration. Because of this, mobile browsers such as the ones found on the Apple iPhone and Nokia N95 can handle full HTML websites, but this is not going to be good enough for your business.

If you want to survive the mobile space, I suggest you look into building mobile optimized website as an expansion to your full website. The reason is because while smartphones can now render full HTML pages, the experience is not going to match the way it was intended to be viewed on a desktop monitor. Mobile Safari and Opera Mini’s ability to zoom in-n-out of full web, to me, is just a intermediate solution, allowing consumers to be connected to a website. When you factor in the average desktop monitor today has a resolution of 1280x1024 whilst smartphones have 240x320, the experience can’t be great. It is only an intermediary solution for people familiar with a website’s navigation, if you visit a complicated website for the first time on your iPhone, even thou full web is enabled, you would have a hard time making sense of its intended site navigation.

Mobile websites are no longer the watered-down, boring little text site which used to be called WAP protocol. Today’s Mobile web can be designed to capitalize on a smartphone’s advanced web browsers; to take advantage of the ability to handle images, background colors, tables and even CSS (shading, DIVs, etc.). The trick is to provide most useful navigation and information on the limited screen real estate. If you are a retailer, maybe put the “new arrivals,” “top sellers,” and “sales” section right up front. If you are a publisher, put the “just in,” “local news,” and “world news” up front. If you are a manufacturer, setup your mobile home page by the main categories of your products so a consumer can research them on the go. With a mobile web, you will want to keep “mobility” in mind, store locator and ability to set user location (via GPS, WiFi or manual setting) will be prudent to smart mobile strategy. Brick and mortar stores should definitely play up the location and inventory card (and toss in the price comparison card, you’ve got a winner!). You can always give your audience the option to switch between classic or mobile websites, this way, you can ensure the information they are searching for can be obtained, one way or another.

Over the weekend, I was at a Crate and Barrel looking for a TV Stand for a TV I was planning to purchase. I ended up pulling up full HTML Pioneer’s website over an iPhone 3G and waited forever to navigate and find the TV’s spec sheet to determine if the stand is too small. If they had a mobile-optimized page, I can probably get right to the Plasma TV section faster because the page would be friendlier for my viewing and loads faster with only limited information provided. As in this example, having a full HTML browser did save the day, however, my experience would have been much better if Pioneer had a mobile-optimized site.

KBB.com Goes iPhone Friendly

Kelly Blue Book, your most trusted source on automotive resell value, is now ready to serve you, in your pocket. If you think about this, the folks at KBB.com are really progressive bunch. As a kid, when I visited a car dealership with my father, the greasy sales guy would pull out a little pocket book to look up the resale value of our Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Few years later, in high school, I remember accessing Kelly Blue Book's website from home to print out a car's value prior to going to a car dealer to negotiate. Kelly Blue Book people have always strive to bring their services to the consumers utilizing technology. And now, they are bringing their service via mobile technology.

Today, KBB.com is committed to provide their information to you, in your pocket. The only thing is, unlike that greasy sales guy back in 1989, you'd be pulling the numbers out of your pocket via an iPhone/iPod Touch. (No offense to greasy car salesmen everywhere, perhaps you guys will be pulling car data out of your iPhone on the lot, instead of "checking" with a manager in that backroom where I know you were just stuffing your face with another donut).

I visited KBB.com on my iPhone, the first time around it pulled up the normal HTML website on mobile Safari. The folks at KBB asked that I try visiting iPhone.kbb.com if problem persists, but I never had to do that. The second try redirected me to the iPhone-optimized page. Overall, the core functions of what we've come to known for Kelly Blue Book are there, ie. new/used car make, model, trim, pricing and resell value. The site is designed with simplicity in mind and it has achieved that. There is the ability to set my location, however, I am not sure if at this stage, the iPhone-optimized site is taking advantage of that info. Which leads to my feedback: I wish after a vehicle has been searched for, KBB.com can provide 1). nearest dealerships and 2). the inventory of the said vehicle at each dealership. Additionally, the overall design of the iPhone site is not friendly with anyone who's got fat fingers. As you can see from the screenshots provided, the menu buttons are narrow; it gets a little narrower as you go deeper into the sub-menus (of models and trims).

Beyond that, I think KBB.com has made great effort in providing their service to consumers (first the internet, now mobile internet). I always applaud large companies taking their initiatives onto the mobile platform; these companies are the ones more likely to succeed in the new age, because by the time mobile net hits critical mass; they will be the "experts" of such practice. Kudos to Kelly Blue Book.

Early Problems with the "3G" in the iPhone 3G

It appears that on my 3G iPhone, it is doing a poor job switching back to EDGE network when 3G connection is weak. This often leads to an error message prompting me that the iPhone has failed to establish data connection. Since I've owned other 3G devices in the past (AT&T 8525 and Nokia N95-3), I am not surprised that 3G connection is not always available depending on where you are. However, in all my historical mobile experiences, those 3G devices would quickly downgrade it's network into 2/2.5G or EDGE(GPRS) network thus providing seemless internet access with seeing the full signal bars.

To my knowledge, the iPhone 3G has the same ability to auto-detect and switch down to EDGE; however, I think the way its setup is not sensitive enough to coop with real world needs. For instance, I should never have been prompted a failure to establish data network until the iPhone has attempted to kickdown to a slower speed network; because as is, leaving me hanging without any data connection is not a desirable mobile experience.

A work-around is to manually turn 3G off, it will force the iPhone to run on EDGE, and you'll see more bars.

In-flight Wifi, a reality

American Airline will be testing an in-flight WiFi utilizing AirCell technology tomorrow. For anywhere from $9.95 to $12.95 depending on the duration of the flight, you can now pass the time with the world wide web at 35,000 feet. AA will be the third domestic airline to test onboard WiFi service next to JetBlue and Virgin.

As this technology becomes ready for mainstream, what would our flight experience be like? For starters, business guys can now utilize this downtime to checkup on emails and increase work productivity. Students can rely on the web to finish a school project or elect to waste time via Facebook or whatever Web2.0 hottness at the time. Entertainment is suddenly more available with YouTube, Hulu.com and Sling Media player readily available. Communication using IM, Twitter, and Email will be great to inform friends and family about your real time status.

Skyfire Secures $13M in Funding

Our favorite Windows Mobile browser, Skyfire, just secured $13M in Series B funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Trinity Ventures.

As you can see from our video review in the past, this browser unlocks a Windows Mobile smartphone's true potential and brings it up to the same leveled playing field with mobile Safari. It wasn't until recently, my Nokia N95-3's 20.2.011 firmware upgrade could I have accessed flash in the Nokia browser. I am still anxiously awaiting Skyfire to come out of private beta and release a version for Symbian S60 3rd edition phones.

This is exciting news, with funding and backed by venture partners, I can't wait to see some breakthroughs in their upcoming updates.

AT&T 3G Expansion Just in Time for 3G iPhone

Wired Gadget Blog got confirmation from AT&T indicating the roll out of HSUPA 3G network up to 350 markets just in time for the looming 3G iPhone arrival. I read similar updates confirming the June implemntation date from InformationWeek as well.

HSUPA is a faster 3G data network, supporting up to 800KB uplink while maintaining a 1.4Mbps downlink speed. This speed is approaching DSL/Cable modem for your home. Just to give you some reference, EDGE (aka 2.5G) is often rated between 100-200Kpbs while current 3G HSDPA(UMTS) is rated approx. up to 700kpbs.

With HSUPA, it will bring AT&T's mobile brandband service on par with Verizon and Sprint's EV-DO 3G network via CDMA. According to Wikipedia entry, HSUPA is included in the Universal Mobile Telecomunication system which leads me to believe that exisiting HSDPA handsets like the AT&T Tilt, 8525 and Nokia N95-3/4 should be able to leverage this upgraded network (unconfirmed). Furthermore, HSUPA offers up to six different categories, each level provides a different max uplink speed. It appears this rollout would be a category 1 at 800kbps uplink while at category 6, it is capable of an uplink speed of 5.76Mbps.

Skyfire Browser 0.6 Upgrade Available Today

Skyfire, (original review), the most promising Windows Mobile (and soon Symbian S60) browser just released an upgrade to its beta test. Upgrade your existing 0.5 or 0.55 license to 0.6 today (Your old browser will expire by May 7th, 2008). To upgrade, launch Skyfire on your phone and you'll notice an upgrade now link, click on it to receive an SMS link that takes up to the download link. Stay tuned for an updated review.

In the 0.6 version upgrade, they've addressed the following issues/update:

* Multi-line text entry (2,000 character limit)
* Auto-complete text entry
* Paste into URL or search
* Ability to delete bookmarks
* Multiple zoom modes for touch screen phones
* Double tap to Zoom In and Zoom Out
* Support for custom virtual keyboards (SIP)
* Web search shortcut in softkey menu
* Access to the Windows Mobile Taskbar in softkey menu
* Persistent settings for SmartFit, Mute and Zoom size
* Support for 12-key and 1/2 QWERTY devices
* Password masking
* Backlight usage based on system settings
* OK button sends Skyfire to the background

Click on the image from this entry to read the communication I just received 10 minutes ago. Cheers!

Update: Contributing editor Robert just finished upgrading his AT&T Tilt while on his way to Hawaii for vacation (what dedication!). He is very impressed with the multiple level zoom; the granularity of the zoom apparently is very good. We'll wait for Robert to provide an in depth review once he's spent more time with it.

Mobile Experience Asia: $27 Monthly Laptop Data

Just saw a commercial on TV from the biggest telecom provider in Taiwan, Chaungwa Telecom (中華電信). They have a monthly unlimited laptop data plan via 3/3.5G USB modem for a mere NT$850 that roughly $27 USD. This means the lucky folks in Taiwan can easily afford a mobile plan on the go, at half the cost of what we pay in the states.

Nokia and Siemens to Double EDGE Connection Speed

Brighthand reports that Nokia Siemens Networks is working on a software enhancement to boost EDGE data transfer rate by a fold. This new update, known as EGPRS2, will increase downlink speed up to 1.2Mbps and uplink to 473kbps. What a cool way to bring EDGE up to 3G like performance. With the US being such a big coverage area, this can give folks outside 3/3.5G territory a boost in much needed performance.

TeaShark Mobile Browser Review

Engadget Mobile found a new mobile browser called TeaShark, which is available to phones capable of support JAVA MIDP 2.0. Evidently, its based on the same technology platform as the default Nokia browser with enhanced features. I downloaded a copy from their website and have found this browser to be quite good. Here are the pros and cons:

Pros:
* Clean Interface and startup page (Nokia Default Browser does not have a startup page, while Opera Mini's always felt a bit more cramped)
* Cool Multi-Tab feature. I managed to get up to 3 tabs opened at once.
* True, full screen browsing. Not top or bottom menu bars to limit your on screen display
* Full text select, like desktop browsers
* Find text function, like desktop browsers
* Smart URL suggestion functionality, this comes in very handy over a S60 handset
* Bookmark organization with color tags

Cons:
* The UI is not as intuitive. The on screen "#" shortcut menu makes it easier to use
* Menu and Functionality can sometimes be confusing (not sure exactly how to open a new tab or close old tab)
* When you press the "END" key, it shuts the application down (ie. other programs just takes you to home screen, kept app running in background)
* Like all other 3rd party software, the application must choose a network to sign on each time of use (no default access point setup)

Overall, I am pleased with another good mobile browser option that I can use. I feel like each new browser one ups the default Nokia Browser which is already very good. However, the level of improvement is so marginal that I am not sure if I would make the permanent switch; largely due to the fact that the default browser's inherent and seamless integration with the OS itself.

Related Entry: Nokia S60 Browser vs Opera Mini 4

Some real screen shots for your reference (click to enlarge)

Skyfire Browser Beta Available Today

Skyfire, a very promising mobile browser fully supporting Flash and other multimedia in a full HTML experience is available for beta download today. I received an email alert from them 2 minutes ago. Please find the email communication below. I am going to test this baby out as soon as possible and report back.

Skyfire: Beta Download now available! Thanks for signing up for the Skyfire private beta. Today, you will receive an SMS message on the mobile phone number you gave us during the beta sign up. There will be a link in the SMS message to click. That verifies your registration and a follow up SMS provides the download to Skyfire. The download and installation is just a couple of clicks and a few minutes. During the installation, you’ll create a Skyfire account. Please use this account to access all of the support and help available on our website. If you don’t receive our SMS – don’t worry, you probably didn't enter a US mobile phone number during sign-up. We’ll be notified that you didn’t receive our SMS and we will follow up with you via email. In the email, we will ask you to update your mobile phone number so we can resend you the SMS. As a reminder, currently our private beta is running on Windows Mobile phones in the US. If you use a different phone, or live outside the U.S., we’ll keep you posted on our progress and let you know as soon as your phone is supported. We are very excited to give you this 0.5 beta release of Skyfire. We’re anxious to get your insights, so please give us lots of feedback. With your help, we’ll march to a stellar 1.0 product. Please don’t forget to tell your friends about Skyfire. To stay up to date about what’s happening here, you can read our blog. Thanks, The Skyfire Team www.skyfire.com

Update: This is for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 Only. Its by invitation in batches so if you missed the registration from a while ago, you can sign up today for the next wave of beta test. In the mean time, I need to find me a Windows Mobile phone.

Nokia N95-3 Review Part II

(Continuing my review from my original N95-3 Review Part I)

Verdict: Nokia N95-3is a powerful, handsome, yet, secretive smartphone with a lot of shortcuts hidden (copy & paste, web browsing) but not as intuitive). On paper and in concept, this phone is the king. While some of its features are superb, the usability falls a little short when compared to an iPhone or WM powered devices due to the lack of touchscreen interaction. I am still happy with the purchase, but I can't crown this phone the king of smartphones until I see some firmware improvement. Perhaps the S60 3rd Edition Feat Pack 2 upgrade can change my experience.

Internet (4 out of 5) - My internet experience on the N95-3 has been good. The Opera powered browser works flawlessly. Although the shortcuts took me a while to remember (zoom in/out, mini map, URL bar, etc.), the experience is stable. I've even installed Opera Mini and barely notice the minor difference. Where the N95-3 falls a little short is in the area of touchscreen interaction and lack of foreign language support like the iPhone such as reading Chinese or Japanese. Unless I am willing to flash my firmware to Asian OS, I won't be able to read foreign language. 3G data support is fast, every bit as I expected.

GPS (5 out of 5) - This is by far the coolest feature on my phone. I used it on a recent business trip to Boston. We used it to navigate our way to a cool Mexican Restaurant MASA in the downtown area. With 3G data keeping up with the Google Maps download on the fly, I am very happy with its performance. Feels like something straight out of a James Bond movie. Nokia Maps is great. I am able to download the US maps along with some big cities world wide that I would potentially visit in the future. All of which are supplied free of charge from Nokia. Very cool!

Phone (4.5 out of 5) - The N95-3 is obviously a phone at its core. Unlike some poorer experiences I've had with some early BlackBerry devices where the phone reception and clarity was horrible, this is a great communication device with voice. I also missed having the numeric keypad allowing me to call 800 numbers with a fancy words (ie. 800-mattress), this can't be done using a Blackberry 8700c. My only complaint with the phone experience is the phonebook/contact display. When I check missed calls or incoming call log, the phone only display name of the caller, but not the device. Sometimes I would be interested to know if a caller is using mobile or home number (which is specified in my contact book).

Email/Messaging (4 out of 5) - I don't have too much to complaint about the messaging. It is what it is. As mentioned, GMAIL IMAP works much better here, compared to my original experience with WM6. If I have one complaint, it would be that SMS text should be in a conversational format, like the iPhone. It would be nice to read through the SMS threads, especially if your friend text you back a few days after your original text.

Camera/Photo (1 out of 5) - N95's camera sucks! The 5MP Carl Zeiss Lens camera is the worst I've used. The side button is hard to use when taking a portrait picture. Only if they programmed the center button on the Dpad to take pictures (like the secondary camera function), it would make picture taking slightly easier. It takes forever for the lens to focus and shutter to close. Most of the time, by the time a picture is taken, the moment is gone. By default, you can't just set the flash to stay off. This is an area where iPhone just kicks everyone's butt. iPhone camera takes fast, bright and high quality images. I really hate the N95-3's camera.

The pictures can be used as wallpaper, but with very minimal flexibility to adjust how it should be placed on the wallpaper (alignment, size, etc.). To take the perfect wallpaper, I often have to take up to 10 images to get the perfect shot. This is something even WM5/6 device can out perform.

Keyboard/Input (3.5 out of 5) - There is nothing wrong here. I wished the phone had a full keypad but this is something I am willing to live with. Again, the device is a true phone at heart, so I will just leave it at that.

LCD (5 out of 5) - The LCD is vivid and displays a sharp image. Absolutely love it. The graphics engine is nice as well. Using YouTube app or Yahoo Go 3.0, the animation and transition of widgets look like a full desktop ajax.

Final words: S60 vs WM6 - Believe it or not, I kind of miss my WM6-powered AT&T 8525. Maybe its because I am so used to its touchscreen allowing me to jump right to where I want to or maybe its because of its basic Microsoft functionality that is remarkably similiar to windows PCs. Everything from setting up alarm clock, taking notes, adding tasks, to setting appointments just seemed easier on the WM6 platform.

I am still happy with my purchase. Nokia makes great devices and somehow they always make their phone very gadgety and special. Until the iPhone is in 3G and provides GPS, I still cannot think of another phone on the market today that I would prefer.

Nokia N82 Smartphone

I didn't know how this one slipped under my nose. Nokia N82, the little brother to the N95 is available for sale at Buy.com for $480 unlocked. This bad boy is feature-packed. Like its N95 older bro, it has 3G (WCDMA 2100... not US friendly), integrated GPS, QVGA screen, WiFi 802.11b/g, Symbian S60 3rd edition, 5MP Carl-Zeiss, and 100MB of free memory with MicroSD expansion slot. This phone is basically functionally identical to the N95 w/o the dual slider function.

At $480, you've got to ask yourself one question. Should I spend $20 more to pickup the N95-3 from Amazon.com where I get US 3G support, and a slider keyboard?

Checkout a full review at Nseries Blog.
Checkout a website dedicated to N82.

Yahoo GO 3.0 Beta Released

Got an email from Yahoo! today. Annoucing the beta version of Yahoo! GO 3.0. It is compatile with iPhone, WM5/6 and Nokia S60 devices. Yahoo! GO is composed of an array of web services designed for your handheld device (Maps, Mail, Messenger, etc.). In addition, there are some 3rd party mobile widgets available for download (MTV News, eBay, etc.) I'll give it a go and report back shortly. (Note the Nokia N95 8GB used in the photo... sweet!)