Graves on SOHO Technology

Since November of last year I’ve been carrying a T-Mobile issued Blackberry 9700, aka “Bold2.” It’s a very good phone. I have no issues with the device, nor the carrier for that matter. Good hardware. Good service. On the other hand, this past weekend is an interesting indictment of the phones manufacturer, Research In Motion.

This past weekend the Blackberry Desktop application on my home office PC informed me that Blackberry Desktop 6.0 was available, and I should let it do an automatic update. Like an idiot…I did.

The truth of the matter is that I don’t really use much of the Blackberry Desktop software. It’s functions are many, but tend to revolve around sync’ing the handset with Outlook. Simply put, my calendar and contacts are not that dynamic, so I rarely sync the phone with my PC.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s just over a year ago that I took the plunge and ordered a Sprint 3G Mifi. It was move inspired by a tweet from Andy Abramson pointing out a deal on Amazon.com. The device was free with a two year contract at $59.95/month.

I’ve put the device to good use over the course of the year. It’s been very handy indeed. However, I suspect that we shall part company shortly.

I really don’t have any complaints about the Sprint 3G service. It’s been pretty good. There have been a few places where the Mifi could only connect at 1xRTT, but I’ve usually had decent 3G data rates in the locations where I tend to travel.

Read the rest of this entry »

This past week I was called upon to give a demonstration at a TV station in San Diego. The exercise involved flying from Houston to LAX and spending a day in our Burbank office getting the demo gear ready to roll. The next day an associate and I would drive down to San Diego to make the presentation.

For various reasons I don’t often fly Southwest Airlines, but it just happened that they were the best choice this time around. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the outbound flight was equipped to offer in-flight wifi.

Read the rest of this entry »

This past week I worked a few days with our west coast salesman who is the proud owner of a brand new iPhone 4. A long time user of the iPhone 3 GS, he’s thus far very happy with iPhone 4. Both he and his wife carry new iPhones.

One of the things that they’re been enjoying is the new FaceTime application. While I was there he used it to call his wife who was spending some time with family in Las Vegas.

He also used it to show her how their dog was feeling much better after having been ill for a few days. Clearly, to see the dog wagging his tail for herself is a lot more convincing that merely being told he feels better.

This was for me a revelation. I’ve known this gentleman a long time and know that he is not drawn to techno-gadgetry for its own sake. He’s not an early adopter, but he appreciates stuff that works well. In this regard he’s squarely in Apple’s target market.

Read the rest of this entry »

As I’ve mentioned previously, more than once, the recent release of SkypeKit seems like an opportunity for a company like Tivo to up their game. Adding video calling capability to Tivo seems like a natural extension of the devices functionality.

If you have a Tivo unit it’s already connected to your TV. It’s most likely already on your network and making use of your broadband to fetch guide info and download movies. I know that we use our TivoHD units to watch Netflix streams and download from Amazon’s Unboxed service. You might already be using it to stream music and view the family photos on your TV.

Yep, video calling on the big screen would certainly be a logical next step.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today saw the official launch of Counterpath’s newest soft phone offering; Bria iPhone Edition. Following not long after the announcement of Bria 3.0 for Linux, Bria iPhone Edition extends their platform support to include all the major desktop operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux) and now one of the hottest smart phone & tablet platforms, Apple’s iOS.

While initially a consumer phenomenon, there’s little doubt that the iPhone is gaining ground in enterprise settings. That an enterprise can look to a single vendor for a soft phone solution across it’s entire scope of activities is profoundly attractive. It simplifies roll-out, and ensures a consistent end-user experience.

Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week AT&T has its quarterly earnings call. Normally I would not give it any notice at all. It’d just be another bunch of noise in my Google Reader in-box. This week they did something that simply jumped out at me; they called for an evolution of the current billing model for mobile data plans. Oddly enough…I agree…sort of.

Of course, their perspective on this is not quite the same as my own. AT&T want to be rid of the $60/mo for all-you-can-eat billing model and charge based upon actual usage, perhaps in some sort of tiered fashion.

Literally everyone knows that the current billing model is badly broken. Their flat rate “unlimited” plans are not really unlimited at all. My Sprint 3G service was pretty plain about it being capped at 5 GB/month. Beyond that I’d guess that it gets costly. Moreover they claim performance levels that almost no-one ever achieves in practice.

Read the rest of this entry »

You know what they say about a fool and his money…soon parted. Or was that “soon partying?” I can never recall.

It seems that Sprint & partner Clear have just launched their 4G/Wimax service here in Houston. Not too long ago I noted that the service was already offered in places like Austin and Lubbock (Yes, Lubbock!) but not in the major cities.

Houston is the 4th largest city in the country and covers a lot of ground. The Sprint press release claims the 1,900 square miles are now covered, or over 4 million people. Clearly, this launch had to be a major undertaking.

The trouble is that I’m only 7 months into a 2 year contract with Sprint for 3G wireless using a Novatel Mifi. I was tempted into the service by Andy Abramson who tweeted about a free hardware deal in early August.

I am soooo open to influence in some cases.

Read the rest of this entry »

The FCC’s Blair Levin, Executive Director of the National Broadband Initiative, discusses reactions from legislators, the telecommunications industry and public interest groups to the plan.

This will ultimately effect us all, so it’s good to stay informed as the matter progresses.

At CTIA this week AT&T announced the availability of OpenPeak’s OpenTablet 7 on their network. Engadget has a nice long video interview with OpenPeak’s CEO, looking over a lot of the product line.