2008 18
Fon and Zon launch the ZON@FON WiFi Community in Portugal
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Today FON and ZON Netcabo, Portugal’s cable broadband leader, announced the launch of the ZON@FON Free WiFi Community, that will allow ZON’s 400.000 customers to be part of FON’s Community.
From launch, ZON@FON will be Portugal’s largest WiFi network, with over 2.500 hotspots, but thanks to this partnership we aim to add over 100.000 FONspots in the country. Zon will deploy routers with embedded ZON@FON functionality and allow its customers to host their own hotspot at no additional cost.
Of course this is great news for all Foneros, that will be able to access ZON@FON hotspots for free. Portugal may not be a large country, but it is an important tourist location in Europe, attracting thousands of people each year that will now have more chances to connect to the Internet while travelling, without incurring in costly roaming charges. Like any FONspot, ZON@FON hotspots will offer free access to the Internet to anybody for 15 minutes.
While travelling in the US I’ve been using these smartphones quite intensively and I have some random thoughts to share, from the point of view of a user.
The N95 is pretty expensive, the BlackBerry is cheaper while the iPhone 3G, now available in Europe, is generally sold at a subsidized price but with an expensive monthly plan for voice and data.
If I was on a desert island (with cell coverage) I would carry with me just the BlackBerry 8310, since what I do more frequently on my mobile is using email and the BlackBerry’s QWERTY keyboard and push is better then any of the other 2 alternatives for that.
For GPS and navigation the BlackBerry 8310 has the best Google Maps version I’ve ever tried. In the US my iPhone had data traffic included and my BlackBerry with extremely expensive roaming charges for data, still it was hard resisting the temptation to use the BB. Whoever designed the Google Maps for the iPhone was not thinking of the user.
The keyboard on the BB is by far the best, next is the iPhone which is slow but doable, last is the Nokia N95. It is absurd to put so much intellect on the Nokia and make it…deaf.
As for music, the iPhone is by far the best, next the Nokia, last the BlackBerry for which music seems to be “glued on”.
To look at pictures the only one that really works is the iPhone, the BlackBerry is bad and the Nokia N95 has the worst software for pictures I’ve ever seen (if you have a lot of pics, your phone will likely freeze). It’s ironic how the Nokia is the best for taking pictures and still makes it so hard to look at both pixs and videos.
To use Twitxr, the iPhone is the best, next the BlackBerry, last the N95.
The iPhone has an awesome display, next is the N95, last the BlackBerry. The iPhone´s soul is the display but that makes it a “spectator” phone. The TV of phones. Great for watching, bad for input.
The Nokia N95 has the best camera and takes great videos. I can film with the iPhone using an app from Installer but it’s pretty bad anyway, the BlackBerry they say it can do videos, I don´t have the latest firmware that does that.
The iPhone is great to watch movies in streaming or from its memory. The N95 is not so bad, on the BlackBerry it’s terrible.
The BlackBerry has copy and paste, the iPhone still hasn’t. The Nokia has it, but I’ve never tried because without a QWERTY keyboard I don’t even bother using it for writing. Predictive text (T9) is not useful for me since I often change language. The iPhone software keyboard can easily adapt to different languages and you can quickly switch from one to the other.
At this point you may be wondering why I am not talking about the many Windows Mobile phones. My answer is because as bad as some features of the Symbian, Mac and Blackberry systems maybe they are all better than Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile seems to be designed with the same philosophy of Windows in general: tons of features that are unnecessary crowd the essential out. Try connecting to WiFi using Windows Mobile and you will see what I mean. Try with the iPhone and you can….breathe. Windows Mobile to me has the same problems as Vista. My take on operating systems is that easiest is Mac, best is Linux, Windows XP is already bad, frequently slow and difficult, Windows Vista is a dead end.
The phone that most resembles a computer is the iPhone, especially if jailbroken. The N95 is the more phone-like of the three. The BlackBerry is in between. If you just want to talk, a Nokia is your best option. The app store does not beat the installer for me. But at some point it may. I just like the freedom of the Installer. The Open Source spirit of the whole thing.
As for quantity of applications, the iPhone is the best, next is the Nokia with Symbian S60 and the BlackBerry is last. But while applications for BlackBerry are really few, most work very well and are very easy to use. The ones I use more often are Facebook and Google Maps with cellphone tower triangulation and GPS. The only app which performs really bad on my BB is Google Talk, which slows everything down.
The BlackBerry is SIM-unlocked, which makes it very expensive, especially when travelling abroad, since you can’t change the SIM with one from a local operator. The N95 and my iPhone are unlocked. The iPhone 3G has not been jailbroken or unlocked yet, but it will be soon.
My iPhone is ok for email with EDGE, WiFi is much better for everything else we will see when I try the 3G one how it works but probably almost as good as WiFi. The problem with the 3G plans, the one in Spain for example is that if you download a big file, say a movie, you kill your data plan which is maxed at 200MB unless you pay a fortune. The BlackBerry has no WiFi and no UMTS so web browsing is always slow, but it’s incredibly good for email. RIM has been able to squeeze GPRS and EDGE and optimize message downloading providing great speeds with little bandwidth. The Nokia N95 has everything from HSDPA to WiFi, but choosing a connection is slow, uncomfortable and the interface is badly designed.
With the iPhone’s headphones you can’t set the volume, with the N95’s you can and this is much better for riding bikes for example which I do a lot. Music on the BlackBerry is just for emergencies.
The iPhone is by far the best phone to surf the web, look at pictures, listen to music… everything but writing. If it had a physical keyboard it would be the best on all aspects. The BlackBerry has the best mouse/keyboard integration. Using your fingers as a pointing device is an interesting concept in the iPhone but it forces you to always use both hands. This is not the best solution when you’re in some situations, like when I’m holding my son in my arms. If you are left with one hand the iPhone is almost impossible to use. Not so the others.
To use FON the best smartphone is the iPhone. The N95 has a Symbian FON connection manager which is reasonably good, but the iFon application wecreated for the iPhone is the best in ease of use. The BlackBerry can’t access FON networks.
To sync with a Mac or PC, the iPhone wins, next the BlackBerry, last the N95. The N95 has more advanced features but the iPhone and BlackBerry are easier and faster to use.
The N95 can now sync with iTunes, but the iPhone is still the easiest to sync with iTunes and iPhoto. I don’t think the BlackBerry can talk with iTunes although somebody told me it does.
To save money the best is the N95 with which you can use many VoIP apps. Next is the iPhone that now has a very good Fring application (also available for Symbian devices). The worst is the BlackBerry that can’t run any VoIP app. My thing though is that I speak very little on the phone. I use them for almost everything else.
As for design, the iPhone looks better then the others, but it’s so slippery that it fell twice from my pocket. The N95 looks good and is reasonably sized. The BlackBerry is the most useful but the worst looking. My kids would not want to be seen with a Blackberry. They refuse to hold it.
The N95 gets an additional score for JoikuSpot, the software that lets you turn an HSDPA connection into WiFi and use your phone as a hotspot for PCs and other WiFi devices. The BlackBerry can’t act as a modem, and the iPhone if it can I haven´t seen how. The N95 is great as a modem via Bluetooth or USB.
The BlackBerry has the best battery duration, while the iPhone’s power consumption is terrible. They say the 3G iPhone improves on this. On the N95 it depends on what you do with it but batter life is a problem.
The N95 has the best external speaker, next the iPhone, the BlackBerry last.
To avoid accidental calls (your phone dialing numbers or contacts by itself) the worst is the BlackBerry, that loves to call your contacts while in your pocket, even if it has autolock. The iPhone and the N95 are better at avoiding those embarrassing moments in which you accidentally spill the beans.
Searching for a contact is terrible on the iPhone, ok on the N95, best on the BB.
The N95 also has some things that maybe of help. In Europe and some parts of Asia it has HSDPA which is better than 3G. It has radio if u like radio. The iPhone instead has some great apps to listen to internet radio over wifi in the Installer and on the App store as well.
The 3G iPhone is sold unlocked in some countries such as Italy for 500 euros which is not a crazy price. The Nokia N95 is also sold unlocked for the same price. BB is not cause is tied to a BB server somewhere.
2008 11
At the Sun Valley Conference
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I am at the Allen and Co Sun Valley conference where there is a no blogging policy. So I will not write about the conference. Here is a link from Technorati of what other bloggers are saying about this event.
2008 10
Boom Day
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What is Boom Day? I don´t know. But it looked misterously beautiful.
2008 10
I copy you, you copy me
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At FON Labs we built FON Get Simple or Fon.gs, that like Tinyurl allows you to make a long URL into a short address, but makes it also easy to remember, since you can choose your own address like www.fon.gs/empirestate (while tinyurl used to give you meaningless characters as an address). Recently Tinyurl released the same feature, allowing their users to choose a “custom alias” for their links. I guess we’re even.
2008 10
Wikiloc, the perfect tool to share my biking trails
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I’ve recently got to know about a Spanish startup that developed a really good product based on Google Maps called Wikiloc, a tool to discover and share GPS data on the web. All trails and points of interest that you’ll find on the service have been recorded with GPS receivers and published by the Wikiloc users community. With a passion for biking I’m sure I’ll make good use of it, especially for finding new routes near Madrid and sharing my own. But not only for Madrid of course. I am now in Sun Valley, Idaho and Wikiloc can be used for routes around here as well.
For every trail any user and biking or hiking lover will find useful information like length, accumulated altitude, difficulty level, images, links to other websites and more. Users can also visualize the trails on Google Earth or get driving directions to the place where a trail begins or download the trails shared by other users and upload them to their GPS receiver.
Registered members can use Wikiloc as a personal database of trails, upload their own GPS data, along with descriptions and pictures. Uploaded information is initially private but can be made public and shared with the community.
2008 7
The Aspen Ideas Festival, by Jack Hidary
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One of the main reasons I came to Aspen was to attend the 40th Birthday of my friend Jack Hidary. The other one was the meeting of the Trustees of the Clinton Foundation, but for confidentiality sake I did not do videos of that meeting. In this video Jack Hidary, who is so good at explaining anything (I am very surprised he doesn´t teach at any university), explains how the Aspen Ideas Festival came about and what happens there.
From the half day I spent there my impressions were very positive. They seem to manage to be all over the place and yet…focused.
2008 4
Sick in Aspen
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It´s 3am here in Aspen and I am awake mainly for three reasons. One is altitude sickness. Aspen is at 2500 meters and one of the consequences of altitude is insomnia. Secondly I have had fever for a day now without any other symptoms. I arrived to Aspen the night before last and since yesterday morning I have had between 37.5 and 38.7 fever. And lastly there´s the 8 hour jet lag between Aspen and Madrid which partly explains why I would wake up at 3am since it´s now noon in Madrid. And what´s worse is that I am in Aspen on the first trip ever with my second daughter Isabella who is 15. We had never traveled just the two of us. But while it is depressing to be sick it was special to see how well she took care of me. Isa brought me cold towels to lower the fever, ordered food for me and even googled altitude sickness reading all the symptoms to me. As she took care of me I remembered the nights in which things were the other way around.
So far I missed my dear friend Jack Hidary´s 40th birthday party. Today I have a meeting of trustees of the Clinton Foundation. If I go on feeling like this I will miss that too. But sometimes life is like this. We are reminded of the fragility of the human body. One thing is sure, I am not getting up until I feel reasonably well.
Update: It is five hours later and my fever is gone and I feel better. So I will be able to spend a very American Fourth of July after all!
I’m very glad to let you know Twitxr is one of the first partners of Polar Rose, the service that lets you name the people you see in online photos and search for pictures of any person, with much better results then Google Image search.
Polar Rose will automatically find people inside the pictures users post to Twitxr and let anybody visiting Twitxr.com name them (see for example the picture of Azeem Azhar I took today during a meeting). All these pictures will then be searchable on Polar Rose. This integration brings to all Twitxr users the features available to the Polar Rose users who installed a browser plugin. We’ll keep working with them to find other collaboration opportunities and welcome your suggestions.
Last week T-Mobile, the fourth largest wireless carrier in America, launched T-Mobile@Home, an offer that will provide its customers with landline phone service for 10$ a month, a cheaper then Vonage price.
The service is based on a WiFi router that lets users use special mobile phones provided by T-Mobile that can route calls over the mobile network (when out) or via WiFi when at home (using a VoIP technology called UMA that tunnels voice traffic over the Internet to T-Mobile’s backbone network), additionally T-Mobile@home customers will be able to plug their old landline phones to the router and enjoy the same unlimited local and long-distance calls included in the offer. T-Mobile@home is available to existing T-Mobile customers who have mobile subscriptions costing at least $39.99 per month and have a broadband connection at home.
Thanks to WiFi and VoIP T-Mobile can compete with AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint Nextel and their “all you can eat” plans on a lower cost basis. In Seattle and Dallas, where T-Mobile has first tested T-Mobile@home, they say that 45% of users of the service had switched from other mobile operators.