Digital Common Sense

Filed by Ken at 11:38 am under Lifeblog
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I need an escape to somewhere warm…

Wanderlust is whispering my name.

Technorati Tags: escape, road trip, wanderlust

Filed by Ken at 12:23 am under Meandering
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I recently shared in the pleasure Alec Saunders enjoyed receiving some unsolicited mail from a PR group about a service offering. He wrote a follow-up note here. Alec views is as spam, and I don’t disagree. On the other hand, in my role as an analyst, blogger, and generally outspoken pain in the ass, I take most of these unsolicited emails with a grain of salt. They quickly go to the bit bucket without comment.

As noted in Alec’s comments, anything we say is exposure for them and exposure is good.

Today I got a different one. I’m curious how many of my fellow bloggers got an obviously canned email with the subject “Awesome blog” today. The email message contained a cutesy video film strip and a logo. The message itself was pretty content free. No, check that. It was a zero content message.

This message was so blatantly content free that even Outlook’s terribly weak spam filter caught it and tossed it in the spam box. I don’t know about you, but the only thing I ever do with my spam folder is empty it. If your message lands there, I won’t go wade through it. People I want to talk with know enough to write messages that don’t look like spam.

I did review this message because the sender called and left me a “you have to check this out.” voice mail. So I granted some leeway and read the message. I clicked the video link to see what was there, and frankly, I got a nice cutesy video that was againm content free. All it said was you will want in on the ground floor and have to check this out.

Yes, there were links on the video page I could have investigated, but here’s a clue. Just like I had to deal with selling to executives, you’ve got a window of opportunity to pitch me. It’s a small window. In the real world, we call it the elevator pitch. Win my interesting in an elevator ride or lose me forever.

Today’s example utterly failed in the elevator pitch. I didn’t click links. I’m not interested in fishing for more information. And the next email will languish in the spam folder briefly before it finds the bit bucket.

No mention of the company here. Sorry, you get no karma from me at all. I’m not interested enough to post the name and encourage further dialog. I’ll remember the company name and always look a bit askance if it pops up in the future. One day, if it gains traction, I might open my mind, but until then, your poorly executed elevaor pitch flew right by, simply wasting ten minutes of my time. And though you have my number and left voice mail, I’m not interested in a follow up call. Sorry.

Technorati Tags: Bad OR, elevator pitch, how to not win business

Filed by Ken at 2:47 pm under Technology
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I’ve been evaluating the Nokia N-series phones the last few weeks - N73, N93 and N80i.

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Disclaimer - With a sensitive eye to the recent brouhaha over Acer and Microsoft in providing laptops preloaded with Vista (why doesn everyone overlook Acer’s role) to bloggers, I’m going to explain how I’m working with the Nokia Blogger Relations program. Yes, Nokia provided the phones. I was asked beforehand if I’d like to participate. The phones didn’t arrive unexpected. It was never implied that they were a gift. The package contains return information for when the evaluation is completed. I’ll keep them as long as that’s an option, but when they say they want them back, the phones will be returned, or dealt with however Nokia deems appropriate.

Nokia is not providing telephone services. To evaluate these phones, out of my own pocket I have purchased:

• 2 T-Mobile SIMS with 1000 minutes of prepaid calling - Cost $300
• 1 Cingular SIM with contract for monthly calling plan and full data access. Cost roughly $75/month for two years ($1800). I could terminate early for some penalty I’m sure.
  

Yes, while Nokia has provided phones, I’m paying that much out of pocket to perform a reasonable evaluation. I’m a Verizon customer historically, and their network isn’t GSM and doesn’t support the N-series phones. I am personally, financially invested in the evaluation. It wasn’t like I could just pop the SIM out of my existing phone and test with services I alread had in place.

I make no effort to disguise any of this. On to the phones.

On the flip side of that equation, the Nokia Blogger Relations program essentially provided phones with the implication that it would be nice if you’d write your honest opinions. We hoe you like it, but we’d love honest feedback. Because I am personally, financially invested in this evaluation, I will continue to post notes about findings, photos, comparisons of capabilities, photo comparisons, and anything else I learn along the way. We’re going to collectively get my money’s worth out of this opportunity.

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The N73

Pro
Camera, with 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens (2.8/5.6) is the best I’ve seen in any mobile handset. It’s crisp in performance and use and produces crisp, excellent pictures in a variety of lighting conditions. While I’ve shot a few videos with it, I’ve yet to do any video comparision directly. That will follow. [Sample photos]

The camera controls on this device are placed intuitively and very easy to use. Hold it like a pocket digital camera and you’ll easily find where all the controls are an how they work. The sliding lens cover adds to the overal impression of solid quality.

Built-in Flickr and Nokia Lifeblog make sharing pictures and other information a breeze.

It looks nice. This phone is eye candy and just plain looks classy. It’s trim, shiny and an eye-catcher. People ask about it.

Con
For me, the dialpad feels a bit smallish. It was awkward adjusting, but’ve adapted. The raised center button in the five-way navigation makes it easy to accidentally manipulate. It wasn’t obvious at first how to lock the keypad. I quickly learned that if I didn’t lock the keypad, my butt would make random phone calls and fire off applications.

I found putting the wrist strap on this thing somewhat akin to solving a Rubik’s cube, something I never accomplised. It took a straight pin and a whole lot of patience to get that thing fished through. My mother would give up in disgust before she got it attached.

No music player or Internet applications (Yahoo Go! in particular). Since these work over a GPRS or 3G connection quite handily, their absence was quite noticeable after using the other phones that included them. The same with the podcast catcher that’s only in the N80i. It would make more sense to me to include the same feature set in each physical form factor makes more sense than users having to add on third party solutions.

Overall Reaction
The learning curve with this phone was minimal. I’d recommend it to my mother, business execs who just need a solid phone, and those who will be using their phone as a camera quite a bit.

The N93

Pro
The camera is another 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens (3.3/4.5). Still Zeiss optics, but different specs. Some argue this one is better. I found the overal photo quality to be truer when compared to Nikon D50 pictures. It’s strength is as a digital video camera. That’s the “personality” on the N93. It include Muvee software that’s quite functional given some time to get acclimated. [Sample photos]

Music player is a nice addtion

The dialpad and function keys are large and well placed. I found that my hand quickly memorized their location and easily navigated through all the features and functions routinely after a few days of use.

This one includes WiFi, which makes it even easier to send photos and video off to Internet destinations. I found the WiFi radio to work very well, even at the fringe of signal reception.

While the radio function exists in all the N-series, this is the phone I initially found it on and used it. I really like it. The headset wires are used for an antenna. It seemed a bit odd plugging in the headset so I could play the radio through the speaker while I work. But it’s a feature I’ve grown fond of.

Con
I’m listing it as a con because I have to list it somewhere. The N73 set the standard with it’s 3.2 megapixel Zeiss optics. This camrea is a 3 megapixel 4.7mm 1:3.5 lens. It’s certainly better than the norm in cell phones, but it doesn’t compare to the other N-series phones. As a result, the camera is noticeably a tad weaker than the others. It’s more sensitive to light and more sensitive to shaky hands. It’s still a great camera for a phone and takes some really splendid photos. [Sample photos]

Both the charger connector and snap connector are on the left side. For those of us who are frequently charging, that actually made it quite uncomfortable to talk on the phone or use it for anything while charging. That needs to be fixed. It also pretty much assures you won’t be listening to the music player feature with the phone in a pocket. If you do, someday you will likely break the connector.

The lens cap is a nice touch, but the string for securing it to the base of the handset is a nuisance. It should be easy enough to engineer some kind of rubberized cap or connector to handle that more gracefully.

I found the shutter release to be in a somwhat awkward postion. Too high on the body for comfort. I found that if I move my hand to put the shutter release in an easy-to-use, comfortable spot, the odds are my index finger is over the flash or showing in the lens. I find that after a few weeks, I still have to be quite conscious of hand placement. And the five way navigation button on the side feels dainty. It’s very easy for my large hands to activate the wrong action.

The WiFi vs. GPRS interface on this phone mystified me a bit. It seems to hang up, unable to decide which network to use at times, even when the network is defined.  I haven’t dug into this deeply enough to fully articulate my issue, but it sometimes just doesn’t feel smooth when both networks are available.

The built-in music player is functional. That’s all. An iPod killer it isn’t. It’s just not likely I’d use the music player much in this phone.

Overall Reaction
If you’re not a videographer, this phone will take some getting used to as a camera. Because I’m not, it still feels unstable. If you take pictures the way many of us play golf - grip it and rip it - you’re going to see the shakes transmitted through to the final picture. The hefty feel helps with stabilization, but it take some getting used to.

On the other hand, if you take, or want to take, lots of video and pictures, the N93 does a great job.

It’s a beefy phone. If size is a factor, you don’t want the N93.

The N80i

Pro
VoIP. This topic will spawn a post of its own. User driven, click-to-converge VoIP on a mobile. This is self created fixed mobile convergence. It’s the single hottest feature of the N80i. But it will require socialization and marketing to sell it to the masses. The phone sells itself to networking and telecom junkies, but Gizmo VoIP doesn’t have the mass market exposure or cachet that Skype has. Nokia and the SIPPhone team at Gizmo are going to have to work to gain mindshare in the mass market that doesn’t use VoIP (or even know what it is). It is the first accessible FMC solution that’s in people’s hands, so it will likely fly high with early adopters worldwide.

Size is a big winner. Because its a slider, it’s small. It’s roughly the size of a pack of cigarettes. I’m comfortable with it in a shirt pocket. There’s something to be said for that.

Pocasting software, podcatcher really, is built in. Coupled with WiFi, this provides an easy way to grab podcasts at my leisure and listen when I wish.

Autoprompt to lock the keys when you slide it closed. It’s a nice touch. If you don’t respond at all, the keys are left unlocked after a few seonds. It would be nice of that was user configurable.

RSS feed reader. I know this exists in the N93 also. Perhaps the N73. I’ve only used it in the N80i. I find it quite handy. I don’t use it to follow the huge list of blogs I reed via RSS. It provides a great way to read the most important RSS feeds I want, on demand.

Con
The WiFi arrangement is tricky. This will be an issue with all WiFi-enabled phones. If you want to autoscan and autoconnect, you have to leave the WiFi radio on. That sucks the life from the battery. It would be nice if it were user configurable to scan for WiFi on time intervals I could define, like scan once every two hours. Scanning seems to be constant on or off.

The podcatcher isn’t automated in a convenient way. If you’re always on WiFi, you can automate it, but then you’ll have the aforementioned battery life issue.

There are times when the mechanical slide feels like it’s a loose fit. I wonder about the lifetime of opening and closing the phone. I’d also like it better if the closed position snapped closed more solidly. It opens quite easily, sometimes accidentally.

A side observation from both Roland Tanglao and I. The power supply apparently needs to be a newer one. He and I both have older Nokia power supplies that charge the N73 and N93 just fine. When plugged in to the N80i, they don’t work. That leads me to wonder about power consumption across the three phones, but I don’t even know if that’s in the specs. Certainly a WiFi radio changes the power consumption characteristics.

Overall Reaction
Between the podcatcher and the VoIP capability, the N80i is my favorite…this week. It’s small, provides a wide array of capabilities.

I’d recommend this to anyone who’s interested in VoIP or fixed mobile convergence. It’s a great entry point in to the future of FMC.

While the media player doesn’t compare with a iPod, for those who have simple music and podcasting needs, it’s quite functional.

The N-series across the board

These phones all come with an onboard application suite that’s pretty impressive. There’s PIM functionality, Radio, Lifeblog, Real Player, an IMPS IM client (see Con section) a Flash Player, voice recorder, etc.. The Quick Office suite included allows reading Word and Excel documents. I still haven’t tried Powerpoint, but I think that’s supported too. There’s an Adobe PDF reader built in. All three support POP3 email for one address.

As phones, they all meet Nokia’s reputation for quality. Good sound, good speakerphones, high on the usability and functionality scale.

These are not entry level phones. You won’t see carriers bundling them free with a two year contract.

The primary camera in each is more than acceptable for a phone camera in my view. Each plays a slight niche role. [Comparison photos]

All three have both a primary and secondary camera. I haven’t fully evaluated the front/back cameras across the units. In all cases, the secondary camera is lower quality than the primary. I question the usefulness of a secondary camera in North America. Without UMTS/3G video calling capability, it’s relegated to the random obligatory self pic for MySpace, but serves little other practical purpose. On the other hand, if you travel to Europe a lot and use a network there, video calling appears to be a no brainer. I’m quite envious of my colleagues who are able to make video calls with the N-series.

Pro
Broad common feature set. The PIM functionality, messaging capability, Flickr convenience make these very versatile handhelds.

These phones are among those that ring the bell sounding the death toll of the PC. They aren’t alone in that space. Nokia isn’t alone in that space. These are among the phones that demonstrate what a handheld device is capable of and give pause to think about new ways of working with information, whether it be in web/email form, audio or video. Data is simply content. This is another way of working with content.

Appearance. Lustrous, polished cases that look professional. They aren’t pink. They aren’t chocolate. They’re polished professional instruments of business.

Con
I’ve identifed a few things I really dislike across the set.

Voice recording actually works very nicely. You can even record a phone call for podcasting an interview. I do a lot of that. But record time is limited to one minute. Why the heck do you think I put a 2 gig MiniSD in the slot? Allowing record time to maximum card capacity or some user-definable preset limit is something Nokia has to address.

The music player is difficult for me to assess fairly. I’ve never owned an iPod or dedicated MP3 player of any kind. That said, I have music and podcasts on my Treo, on my Palm LifeDrive and on the N80i. Of those three, the LifeDrive is by far the most feature rich and easiest to use. The N-series music player capabilities, for me personally are adequate. But I’m a baby boomer in my fifties. For the younger generation, iPod centric, tunes oriented user, I’d say the music player sucks by comparison. I haven’t seen any other music player oriented phones, so I can’t even adequately compare. If I were a music fiend, this could never replace an iPod.

Overall Reaction
I’m impressed with the N-series so far. I haven’t used a Nokia phone in several years. When I did, it was a phone and nothing more. These are multipurpose devices. Pocket workstations. As such, they’re generally well done.

I’m using Cingular as my leading example of network connectivity. The GPRS smartphone plan provides everything you need or can use. Paying for a 3G high-speed wireless broadband connection on any of these phones would be a waste of money. The only exception I could see to that would be someone using the N93 to shoot and upload lots and lots of large video files.

Each serves what seems to be a core purpose; something to which it’s better suited than the others:

• The N73 leans heavily on its strength as a pocket camera. If your first need beyond a phone is taking pictures, this one is a great fit. Couple it with a GPRS plan for uploading and you’re in great shape.
• The N93 provides the best digital video photography you’ll find in a phone. For the up and coming videographer, YouTube addict, college film student and such, this could be the best choice in the market.
• The N80i provides still camera and video, but at a slightly lesser capability. It adds podcatching and music player that meet the needs of the general interest audience. VoIP capability provides an extension that’s truly impressive.

Thanks to Stefan, I’ve been forced to do a lot of thinking about my own telephone usage. If I were to choose one among these for myself, I’d unquestionably pick the N80i. It comes the closest to meeting my overall needs.

That said, I’ll say something that sounds like reversing myself. If I were to be in a position to go buy a new phone today, I doubt I’d buy any of these. I say I’ll shift to the N80i because with the addtion of a bluetooth keyboard and some software it provides everything I need. The improvement and advances may not be enough to justify the market price. Personally, I’m like a kid with toys, so the decision to move could be driven by whim and the VoIP factor. I’m not a typical user, and not a good barometer. But if I were to use my colleagues and coworkers as a guide, Blackberry and Treo users for the most part, none would make the shift to any of the N-series. The lack of a QWERTY keyboard and full utilization of wireless broadband technology is a greater driver than pictures, video or VoIP.

Technorati Tags: Nokia, Nokia Blogger Relations program, N-series, Nokia N-series, N73, N93, N80i, VoIP, unified communications

Filed by Ken at 2:18 pm under Mobility & Handheld, Unified Communications
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Took a few minutes to drive through the Washington Capitol Campus today. Here are a couple of pictures of the Capitol Building taken with the N80i

Technorati Tags: WA, Capitol, Capitol Campus, Nokia, N80i

Filed by Ken at 2:24 pm under Mobility & Handheld
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I’ve been experimenting with the Nokia N80i for a couple of weeks now, thanks to the Nokia Blogger Relations program. Like Roland Tanglao, I found that an older Nokia adapter I’d found hidden away, works fine with the N73 and N93, but won’t charge the N80i. That was a minor problem, solved within minutes.

I’ve tried to do a couple of comprehensive posts, but it’s tough bouncing between these three phones. This is an attempt and providing some comparison across the three and exploring the N80i in a little bit of detail.

First some details. I’ve been posting, and will continue to post, pictures in my Flickr album. It’s easy to use them here in blog posts, but I’ve also organized 4 sets.

• Photos of and taken with the N73
• Photos of and taken with the N93
• Photos of and taken with the N80i
• Comparison Photos among the N-series and other Cameras

I will continue to add to these photo sets for as long as I have the phones. I’ll keep taking pictures with all of them and doing comparisons as time and photo opportunities arise. Any other new phones (like that hot N95 due out in 2007) will add new sets. At some point, given Nokia’s generosity with time, I’ll do the same with videos from each phone. I’ll load the videos to blip.tv, and link them to Flickr photo sets for consistency and ease of access.

Someone asked, so I’ll let you know that the photos of the phones themselves were taken with my Nikon D50. I wanted known quality in those images.

The telephone
I liked the N73 for a number of reasons. I liked the N93 very much, but for very different reasons. The N80i won my heart, in part because of its size. Here are some size comparison photos. You can click to enlarge and see the original if you like.

First side-by-side with the N80i slide closed and then open.

Then turned sideways to give a sense of the a thickness comparison.

We’ll take a larger look at the N80i itself, first closed. I like this size and form factor. Roughly the size of a cigarette pack, the N80i is the first mobile phone I’ve had in my memory that felt comfortable carrying in a shirt pocket.

Then with the slider open for full operation

The N-series seem to all be equipped with a similar base feature set, each with some slight variation on the theme - Nokia Lifeblog, Flickr photo sharing, radio listening, etc. Notable to me on the N80i are the podcasting software (that might be on the others, but I don’t recall seeing it), and the Gizmo/VoIP feature.

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Some N80i Information from the Blogger Relations Program Package

As part of the Blogger Relations program, Nokia provides not just the phone, but a package with comprehensive information. I haven’t previously replicated that because I assumed it was all readily available on the web. In my brief searches it has been. But one reader asked for more detail, so I’m going to copy some information here.

The Nokia N80 smart multimedia device is the first 3G world phone with EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 and WCDMA 2100 for Europe, Africa and APAC regions, EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 and WCDMA 1900 for Americas region and EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 for China market. A three-megapixel digital camera, email, MP3 player, personal organizer, game console and WLAN connectivity, makes the N80 Nokia’s most advanced all-in-one device yet.

Nokia N80 Technical Specs
Operating System:
Symbian OS v9.1
Developer Platform:
S60 3rd Edition
Java Technology:
FileConnection and PIM API (JSR-75)
Security and Trust Services API (JSR-177)
Wireless Messaging API (JSR-205)
JTWI (JSR-185)
Mobile Media API (JSR-135)
Web Services API (JSR-172)
Nokia UI API
CLDC 1.1
Location API (JSR-179)
SIP API (JSR-180)
Mobile 3D Graphics API (JSR-184)
Bluetooth API (JSR-82)
MIDP 2.0
Browser:
WAP 2.0
XHTML over TCP/IP
HTML 4.0 (XHTML 1.1)
Messaging:
MMS+SMIL
SMS
Digital Rights Management:
OMA DRM v1.0
Delivery Method:
MMS
HTTP Download
Sound Formats:
SP-MIDI
eAAC+
True Tones (WB-AMR)
WAV
WMA
AAC+
AAC
AMR (NB-AMR)
MP3
MIDI Tones (poly 48)
Video/Audio Streaming
RealAudio
Functionality:
GSM 850
GSM 1900
GSM 1800
WCDMA 2100
WCDMA 1900
GSM 900
Regional Availability:
Africa
China
Americas
Asia-Pacific
Europe
Primary Screen Display:
Resolution: 352 x 416
Color Depth: 18 bit
Memory:
Unlimited Heap size
Shared Memory for Storage: 60 MB
Unlimited Jar size
Keypad Descriptions:
Grid Key Mat
5-way Scrolling
2 Labeled Soft Keys
Video Support:
3GPP formats (H.263)
H.264/AVC
RealVideo
MPEG-4
Network Data Support:
WCDMA
GPRS
CSD
HSCSD
EGPRS
PC Connectivity:
USB
WLAN
Infrared
Bluetooth
Model:
N80
Weight:
134
Extra Features:
Presence
SMTP email
SyncML
Themes
IMAP4 email
RealOne player
Mini SD
Instant Messaging
Video call
Video player
Word/Excel/Powerpoint Compatibility
Visual Radio
POP3 email
Push-to-Talk
Video sharing
Stereo FM Radio
Video recorder

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The N80i Camera
Frankly, compared to the N73 and N93, the camera is unremarkable and doesn’t match either. The N73 is crisp, responsive and easy to handle. The N93 is meaty and filled with substance. That said, the N80i camera is far from lackluster. It’s 3 megapixel lens doesn’t match the Carl Zeiss 3.2 optics in the N73. It’s not up to the N93 camera. The key is that it isn’t meant to be. I posted some Random N80i Pictures on a Clear Sunny Day that were shot in prime sunlight. Success with the N80i camera is clearly to be found in lighting, patience and framing the shot. If you’re looking for a point-and-shoot to gather a lifetime of memories of your bouncing three-year old, this camera will not suffice. But if you’re looking for a capable adjunct camera that will always be there in your purse or shirt pocket, this one does nicely. Like the other N-series handhelds, the N80i has both a higher quality primary and lower quality secondary camera for the obligatory self portrait sans bathroom mirror. Personally, without a workable 3G/UMTS network in the US to make video calls, this camera is a wasted feature that serves little purpose.

The N80i VoIP Capability
This is the real differentiator in the N80i. Like the N93, it supports WiFi, but the N80i includes a Gizmo VoIP client. Not a heavy client, but not a browser-based think client either - something of a neat and trim client. I’d walk you through setting it up and all, but the Gizmo folks have worked with Nokia and put a great Gizmo VoIP Makes Mobile Internet Calling Simple set of documentation together online. It’s got the features, the user guide, the step-by-step instructions and screenshots. The two have worked together to provide a really easy integration.

I found the Gizmo client painless to set up and painless to use. I was operational making VoIP calls via my Comcast network within minutes. And within minutes, I’ reconfigured to use my Qwest DSL connection as well. It’s simple, and the documentation and web resources are excellent.

It is really as easy as telling the N80i to use Internet calling as primary choice. And all calls now route out via WiFi through Gizmo. No cellular carrier minutes to talk for as long as I want from my N80i at home.

I made comparison calls too. I called via landline, Cingular on the N80i, Verizon on my Treo, VoIP via the cable connection, and cable via the DSL connection. I called some people using multiple options. I must have had 40 conversations checking out these combinations. I lost count. And the quality? In no case did anyone I was talking to every guess I was using VoIP. The calls were as good a quality, or better, than the mobile carrier network. I spent nearly 20 years working in the vestiges of the former Bell System where the quality mantra was to provide “toll quality voice.” Well, given decent WiFi access and throughput, Nokia with Gizmo delivers toll quality VoIP. Period. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it for boardroom conversation with the C-level management team of a Fortune 500 company. It really is that good.

An interesting facet of the presence feature many of us have been talking about lately was also noted. If logged in to GizmoProjec on the PC, and logged in via WiFi on the N80i, both phones ringing, providing a choice of which you’d like to use to answer. I like choice myself, so I appreciated this.

If I noted drawbacks in the Gizmo integration, there were two. First, there is no Gizmo IM client component. Not that IM from a touchpad, no matter how smart the text input sensing algorithms, is terribly practical. But I believe in GizmoProject, the Jabber/IM component is what drives the presence indicators on the buddy list. If not logged in on PC, but logged in on the N80i Gizmo client, my buddies can’t tell I’m online and available for the VoIP call. When I’m at the PC, I look to see if people are online before clicking to call. This glitch seems an oversight. And for people who really need to call me -  they’ll call my mobile number since they don’t see me online, circumventing the entire value chain of logging on with Gizmo.

There is an IM client built in software, but it doesn’t appear to be a Jabber compatible client that could provide presence to Gizmo. I’m exploring a way to do that, and looking at another Jabber client. I think this is an oversight between Nokia and Gizmo. One that needs a workaround. If I’m logged in to Gizmo on my VoIP client and my buddies can’t tell, so they’re dialing my mobile number, I’m losing the value quickly. Still, as the first real SIP-compliant VoIP service on a mobile phone, it is incredibly high quality and works very well. Kudos to Nokia and the Gizmo team for a well done intro.

Note: for a write-up on using Truphone for VoIP, please see Roland Tanglao’s excellent recounting of his experiences here, here and here. He’s done some great write-ups, and I don’t use Truphone and wouldn’t know where to begin.

That’s a long enough write-up for this evening. Rest assured, the N-series is getting a workout in my hands. It’s a challenge to figure out how to do extensive testing and cover all the bases when you’re fitting in in to the work day with meetings and other distractions. One distraction is people asking why I have five mobile phones on my person.

More to come.

Technorati Tags: Nokia, N-series, N80i, N73, N93, Nokia Blogger Relations

Filed by Ken at 9:29 pm under Mobility & Handheld
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I often studiously avoid direct involvement with politics here. It’s not my forte, and there’s plenty of reason to think my views are quite different than some of yours. I’m going to deviate briefly in this post, then things will return to normal, at least for the moment.

This caught my eye and forces me to react:

The secret Scoble mission revealed

Tech Chronicles has confirmed with Robert Scoble that he’s embarking on an out-of-state trip into the world of politics: He’s been invited to help former Democratic VP candidate John Edwards announce his presidential bid in New Orleans tomorrow. He flies out today.

Is this a sign of “you” politics? Scoble thinks so. He points to a New York Times article that says Edwards is arguably the most Web-savvy candidate in the 2008 race and that he will use Thursday’s event to gin up support via the Internet.

Ok, so there’s what I think is a bad move for everyone involved, but I’m not going to elaborate. Mr. Edwards isn’t my candidate of choice. I think he represents fodder that would ensure a Republican victory again. I don’t see him as electable in almost every aspect I personally look at. Like Ralph Nader, he’s a distractor, and not someone I’ll seriously consider or support.

That said, for the first time in memory, I will tell you who I do support. Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico.

He is to me the best candidate and the only Democratic candidate with an ounce of international capability to heal the grevious damage the current administration has inflicted on American dignity worldwide. Governor Richardson has my unqualified support in a number of ways.

I’m crafting a package for the Governor’s campaign staff, even though as yet he has not officially tossed his hat in the ring. I believe he will. I believe this strongly. I hope he does. And in the package I’m sending, I’m offering any consultative assistance I can provide to aid his campaing efforts in both the use of technology as a campaing tool, and in providing research, white papers and helping craft position papers on a variety ot technology-related issues.

I have no idea if Governor Richardson needs or wants that kind of assistance. But I will make the offer and I’ll assist in supporting his campaign in whatever ways I’m able. Because I believe he’s the best Democrat on the roster to ensure the next administration puts this nation on a path to recovery from the damage caused by the current administration.

Filed by Ken at 6:46 pm under Politics
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The weather here in Olympia has been overcast and gloomy for weeks. Today it’s sunny and 45 degrees. I snapped a few random pictures on the way back to to office after lunch.

These are all on Flickr in the N80i set. Clicking any picture should take you to the original there.

These first two are a farm near my house. The farm is sadly shrinking as pieces are sold off to developers. I pulled over and took these through the windshield. What you can see are the 80 homes being built behind me on what was grazing land not long ago.

This picture of the Washington State Capitol building was taken in motion as I rolled toward my office nearby.

This last one is a house next door to my office. I thought the plants and bricks provided a nice composition to check the detail.

It’s clear that given the right lighting conditions, the N801 3 megapixel camrea can take a decent picture. As with any phone-based camera, the keys to really stellar pictures are going to be lighting, patience and an eye toward compostion.

Technorati Tags: Nokia, N80i

Filed by Ken at 2:10 pm under Mobility & Handheld
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There’s their banner. They bill themselves as “The Resource.”

I’ve been a regular reader of CSO Online (and the paper mag) for a long time. And this article just pisses me off.

2007 Style Guide
Tips on how to look current and appropriate at work from Samantha von Sperling, founder of Polished Social Image Consultants.
Compiled by Katherin Walsh

Fashion	Women	Men
Must-have suits	Classic black three-piece suit; for versatility, branch out with a gray suit, followed by a navy one	Classic black three-piece; it’s tried and true
Trouser trends	Fitted; steer clear of baggy	Classic black
Skirt of choice	Pleated or straight	NA
Dress shirt style	Classic white, formal with a suit and pearls or casual with jeans	Classic white, mostly formal with dark suit
Sweater	Cashmere, with almost anything; it’s chic and warm	Cashmere, casual with jeans; or business casual, just-less-than-a-suit over a shirt and tie
Shirt/sweater length	Long, minidress length, just like in the ’80s	Traditional, with shirt tucked in of course
Ties	NA	Colorful to pop against white shirt and black suit
Belts	Over-the-sweater, solid color, but show some restraint: no metallics or animal prints	Traditional
Shoes	Ankle boots with trousers; knee-length boots with skirts	Black or brown, dress style
Accessories	Pearl stud earrings and necklace; diamond stud earrings; small briefcases	French cuff links; watch; small briefcases
Specialty items	The right “little black dress” that can transition from the office to an evening event with a simple change of accessories	Cartier watch, which Sperling calls “the Rolls Royce of watches”
What’s trendy but probably not appropriate for a professional setting	Leggings, just like in the ’80s	Velvet jackets (seriously)

Forget competence and diligence. Let’s make sure all our CSOs look good.

Disgusting demonstration of a complete loss of focus and editorial oversight for CSO Online. I’m appalled.

Technorati Tags: CSOOnline, fashion, Infosec, ignoring the core purpose

Filed by Ken at 9:40 am under InfoSec
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December 25, New York Times — Flaws are detected in Microsoft’s Vista. Microsoft is facing an early crisis of confidence in the quality of its Windows Vista operating system as computer security researchers and hackers have begun to find potentially serious flaws in the system that was released to corporate customers late last month. On December 15, a Russian programmer posted a description of a flaw that makes it possible to increase a user’s privileges on all of the company’s recent operating systems, including Vista. And over the weekend a Silicon Valley computer security firm said it had notified Microsoft that it had also found that flaw, as well as five other vulnerabilities, including one serious error in the software code underlying the company’s new Internet Explorer 7 browser. The browser flaw is particularly troubling because it potentially means that Web users could become infected with malicious software simply by visiting a booby−trapped site. That would make it possible for an attacker to inject rogue software into the Vista−based computer, according to executives at Determina, a company based in Redwood City, CA. Despite Microsoft assertions about the improved reliability of Vista, many in the industry are taking a wait−and−see approach.
Source

Edited because a couple hours after posting I read this on Download Squad -

Hackers: 6, Vista: 0
About a month after the business release of Windows Vista, and a month
before its consumer release, hackers and security researchers have
uncovered at least six major security flaws in Microsoft’s brand new
operating system, the New York Times is reporting.
Among flaws discovered are one that allows malicious sites to install
malware on a victim’s computer and one that allows user permissions to
be altered on a corporate network, which could allow malware to be
installed without authorization. In addition, one Japanese hacker is
offering to sell Vista security flaws for $50,000.

I’m not sure
whether Microsoft will have a chance to update Vista before it ships to
consumers on January 31, or whether they will package fixes as
mandatory updates that will be installed as soon as a new Vista PC
connects to the internet. Or whether they’ll just plug their ears and
continue to proclaim that Vista is the most secure OS ever.

Vista is so not going to live up to the first projection that triggered me writing this in the first place…

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Infosec

Filed by Ken at 9:34 am under InfoSec
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December 26, eWeek — Prediction: Spammers must find new attack techniques in 2007. One of the most unlikely predictions for 2007 comes from SecureWorks malware researcher Joe Stewart: spammers will have to evolve and find new attack techniques if they intend to maintain their level of profitability. Roughly translated, Stewart believes the massive surge in spam e−mail will taper off in 2007, unless spammers find new tricks to bypass a hardened Windows Vista and improvements to existing anti−spam technology and techniques. In an entry on the SecureWorks blog, Stewart argued that Vista will force spammers to deliver payloads through social engineering attacks and even that might become more difficult in the future, with Microsoft venturing into the anti−virus and trusted computing arenas. “Another factor which will have a huge impact is the release of the SpamHaus PBL blocklist, scheduled for release in December 2006,” Stewart added. Stewart explained that spammers depend on these dial−up and DHCP−based broadband connections and, with the extensive reach of SpamHaus’ blocklists, widespread adoption of the PBL, or Policy Block List, “will be very detrimental to spammers, as entire IP blocks where their zombie spam bots live will be unable to send mail to a large part of the Internet.”
SecureWorks blog
Source

---

FWIW, I don’t agree with Stewart’s assessment. I don’t think Vista will penetrate the market deeply enough in 2007 to have this sort of impact.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, SPAM

Filed by Ken at 9:32 am under InfoSec
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Earlier today, Andy wrote a thoughtful short piece describing Skype as subversive for the way they’ve embraced the Sony Mylo (a device almost as desirable as the Zune if it lives up to expectations) their T-Mobile relationship. Personally, I think T-Mobile will get the last laugh and Skype will learn a lesson in making money when the dust settles. If there’s genius, I think it’s on the T-Mobile side of that deal. I don’t believe the other shoe has dropped just yet, but I think it will.

Hint: Wanna bet you can identify a Mylo by NIC OID and block traffic at the hotspot? Wanna bet it can be done in less that two hours? Wanna bet it could be globally deployed easily? Controlling traffic, when you’re a carrier, is actually trivial when approached with a real design on controlling it.

I know Andy sees some info on the other side of the wall that I’m not privvy to at times, but I think his assessment on this one misses the mark.

Alec doesn’t agree that Skype is subverting. He thinks they’re copying Orange, and it might be T=Mobile subverting Skype. Interesting. Closer to something I’d buy into.

David calls free calling a pet peeve of his. I call it a lie. There is no such thing as free. Period. Free calling is like free crack. “Here, just have a free taste.” There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. I’m right on board with David.

Skype is neither disruptive nor subversive. As we all noted in the past
couple of weeks, they’re a phone company now. That means they’re a
target, and nothing more. Note to self: telco=target.  Never invest in targets. Targets can be interesting. Some targets (see AT&T) can survive for years (see divestiture of Bell System circa 1984).

For me, Skype keeps losing relevance with every passing day. I’d pay for a GizmoIn number, but I’m hoping the folks at GrandCentral will pick up redirecting to a Gizmo 747 area code number or a SIP URL. Then I don’t need to pay for GizmoIn either.

Skype? It’s very quickly becoming VoIP client of last resort for people who don’t use anything else. Pure PC-to-PC calling. Yep, that’s free because it’s the little taste. Like Lays potato chips, it’s all in the ability to eat just one. Take a taste and no more. A free taste.

I’ll paint a very different scenario. My scenario is based on instinct, gut feeling, and some unfounded rumblings from people I won’t name.

Skype’s in trouble. Big trouble. They’re proving they aren’t worth the money. Niklas is back at the helm because his feet are being held to the fire monetarily as much as for any other reason. It’s not about owning his baby. It’s not about leadershpi. I’m sorry, but that’s a line I can’t swallow. It’s about money. Pay for performance and reduced pay for failure to perform.

And T-Mobile? They walked into a deal openly and willingly. If they play their cards right, they might wind up buying Skype from Ebay for a song down the road.

T-Mobile’s playing a shrewder game than we can see.

Skype’s in bigger trouble than we know. I think we’ll see more shakeup and trouble at Skype. Soon.

And there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

Technorati Tags: Skype, T-Mobile, disruptive, subversive, TANSTAAFL

Filed by Ken at 8:57 pm under Unified Communications
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When Bill Gates announced that he’d be extracting himself from the day-to-day operations at Microsoft and focusing his efforts more toward the Gates Foundation, it gave me pause to rethink some things. He gave himself a lot of time to make the change. I also need change. We all do. I worked out a plan of attack, and being less in demand than Bill, I gave myself less time. I developed an 18-month plan, to be implmented by ear-end 2007.

Nearly six months have passed and I’ve done little to progress toward my ultimate plan. I didn’t plan on doing much actively for the remainder of 2006, so I haven’t let myself down. But as the New Year approaches and we all contemplate resolutions and such, I revisit my plan. I look for strengths and weaknesses. I look for obstacles. And I look for distractions that might divert attention away from getting where I’m headed.

Some distractions have social value, but that’s all. They don’t add to productivity, but they do add some simplicity. Some distractions simply take away, adding nothing at all. Some distractions facilitate sharing, and enhance interaction. Some distractions are really a goal and facilitate other opportunities. Some are just plain fun, and more important than anything career related.

The biggest obstacle is distraction. The greatest boon is simplicity. The way to realize my plan is to simplify at every turn and minimize distraction. Focus. Simply focus on what’s important.

This is a reminder to myself…to focus. I read somewhere, perhaps from Hugh, “People without purpose are a distraction. Don’t distract me.” I cannot be without purpose, wandering through the interesting things that catch my eye. 2007 will be a year of purpose and focus.

Technorati Tags: focus, simplify, eliminate distraction

Filed by Ken at 2:09 pm under General
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I’m with Stavros in thinking that Dave’s question is far more interesting that the earlier round.

Five Things

Name five things you don’t know about yourself?

A much more interesting question, even if the answers are elusive.

This is much harder, but yields far more interesting thoughts. I have no intention to propagating this meme any further. This is for my own thinking as another year slips away. Feel free to join in if you’re so inclined.

1. I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. Truly. At the heart of things, I do not know. Given that I’m 53, that should perhaps be troubling, but it really isn’t. Life is an adventure and it’s the journey that’s a wild ride. I have no idea where it will end up.
2. I don’t know if my father would think I’ve grown to become a good man or not. He died when I was seven years old, yet he’s been a factor on most of my adult life. I don’t honestly know if I think I’ve grown up to become a good man or not either. Some days I can be a real ass.
3. I don’t know how much I really love being so invested in the tech sector in terms of work. Sometimes I feel quite easily distracted into other fields of endeavor. I sometimes think I could easily be seduced into a completly different line of work. Sometimes, I think I yearn for that.
4. I don’t know whether I’ll consider writing another book after the current project is completed. Some days it’s a huge effort. Some days I feel like I’ve said everything I have to say in that format and would be more effective sticking to shorter pieces.
5. I don’t know what I don’t know, so this is all simply guesswork.

Technorati Tags: 5 things

Filed by Ken at 11:57 am under General
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One of the blogs I’ve been follwing very closely since I got involved with the Nokia Blogger Relations program is Ring Nokia. Stefan Constantinescu stays on top of Nokia happenings with a fierce dedication that I really admire. He’s given me some good ideas of things I need to test more thoroughly, and he’s pointed me to some things other people are doing that I adapt and fit into my own testing and experimenting.

The other day I posted some thoughts about my Treo usage vs. the Nokia N-series, and Stefan almost immediately echoed back with Cat’s out of the bag: Ken prefers his Treo. And I think he’s wrong, but he asks an important question that I want to take a stab at - What do Treo’s do that N-series (more like anything running S60) can’t do?

First, I’m going to give some history as part of my answer to the question. In deference to the great work my friend Andy is doing on Working Anywhere, that isn’t a new concept. I did the legwork to introduce telecommuting in a division of AT&T many years ago and have pretty much been a road warrior, working anywhere since the mid-1980s. My first mobile system was a TI Silent Writer 700 with an acoustic-coupled modem and a box of thermal paper. Yes, it’s true. I took it on business trips and did work in hotel rooms with that beast. And I graduated to the Compaq luggable. I really did carry these beasts on the road. I still have a 1989 vintage Toshiba laptop running DOS, loaded with Word Perfect and Qmodem. And it still works. And it has a DOS-based TCP-IP stack and serial Ethernet adapter if I really feel inclined to wax nostalgic. Working anywhere is an important part of my life that I’ve written and talked about a lot in the 5-6 years I’ve been blogging.

I’m a long-time PDA user. Long time. I had two of the old Sharp Zaurus clamshell PDAs back in the day. This really was 10 years ago. They were incredible devices. Absolutely incredible!

The Zaurus had hyperlinking between contacts, calendar entries, to do items and notes. It had a modem attachment. And they had an AT&T mail client for email and a Compuserve client built in. They were untouchable at the time. I compared an Apple Newton and the Zaurus kicked butt. Hands down.

Then the Palm Pilot came along. To be honest, that was a difficult change for me. I tried the Pilot and abandoned it more than once. I was resolute that I needed to advance and carried both devices for nearly a year before I made the switch to Palm.

Once I’d made the switch, I was a pretty loyal Palm user. I used nearly every iteration of Palm that came along. I bought A TungstenC for WiFi the first week it was available. I bought a second TungstenC when I wore the first one out. I used it for email, blogging, web surfing. I still use a Palm LifeDrive today, but mostly as the equivalent to a video iPod. I use it for music and movies, but the PDA functions now sit idle.

The Palm PIM software has long been held up as the leader in the PDA world, and rightly so. It offers ease of use and funtionality that’s unparalled on any other PDA or smartphone. I’d tried WinCE mobiles along the way, but they were crude and disappointing. But Palm has failed in many ways to leverage their strengths.

When the Treo700W was announced, I made the decision to shift for two reasons. Two drivers. First and foremost was EVDO (wireless broadband) connectivity. I’d used, and still use, a Blackberry with 1XRTT radio. It’s useful, but boring. To be honest, it’s the worst cell phone I’ve ever used. Blackberry, or Crackberry, while addicting, doesn’t excite me. The PIM simply integrates all the flaws of Microsoft’s Outlook, but with fewer features. I’ve played with other Blackberry devices, and they just don’t excite me. Not even the Pearl excites me. It’s a boring device with no element of fun to be found.

The Treo700W allows for full integration with the Microsoft office environment, from Outlook to the office suite. It still can’t begin to match the rich set of capabilities third-party packages in the Palm OS provided, but it meets business needs. And it provides SMS, IRC, IM tools, supports blogging and multiple email addresses, surfs the web with ease. It replaced the Palm OS, albeit still with a Palm device. But now my loyalty to Palm has been diluted. I’ve accepted Windows Mobile and embraced it.

In the spirit of working anywhere, the Treo700W has served as my only computing platform on many a businees trip. The only adjunct peripherals I carry are a bluetooth headset and an infrared keyboard. I’ve written many an email and document on that keyboard. And the Treo700w gave me a mobile camera that was always at hand, and easy to share pictures/

The Nokia N-series presents a new platform. Different hardware and yet another new OS. I’m not unfamliar with Nokia phones. They’ve always been, in my view, the best in mobile phones. But I hadn’t used on in several years.

The N73 quickly won my heart. It’s convenient in size. The keyboard felt a built small, but the crisp and clear screen, and seamless application flow was superb. Integrating the basic Outlook PIM functionality led to easy synching of contacts, calendar, to do tasks and notes. The camera, with its 3.2 megapixel Zeiss optics, quickly proved the Treo camera was less than mediocre.

The N93 added two new dimensions to my mobility. It included WiFi in the mobile again, hearkening back to something I’ve grown adept at using. And the camera opened my eyes to videography. Not that I hadn’t explored video, but the N93 puts a quality of output potential in the palm of my hand that no other device ever offered.

Most recently, the N80i took center stage. I love it and use it constantly. It’s not quite a nice a camera as either the N73 or N93, but it still clobbers the Treo. The Gizmo VoIP capability plays to the WiFi and other needs I have. The Lifeblog and Flickr integration in all the N-series phones is something I find great use for, even if it is really just a replacement for something I can already do on the Treo.

What’s the shortcoming on the N-series? Stefan’s question made me think about this, and for me, there’s really only one. And that one may be in my mind. The Quick Office sutie on the Nokia allows easy reading of MS Office documents, but no ability that I’ve found to edit or create them. Jonathon Green was kind enough to stop by and leave a note mentioning that I should be able to do so. I think i just need to upgrade to the commercial version of Quick Office and edit/creat capability is mine.
Of course I’ll need to add a wireless keyboard, but that’s easily accomplished.

There’s still one big advantage to the Treo - email. The Treo supports multiple email addresses very easily, and I use that feature. I use it, but I don’t know that I need it. Adjusting the way I deal with email will take a little time, but seems easily accomplished.

So to fairly respond to Stefan, yes, I’m still wedded to me Treo, but that’s a habit I can see breaking. In my real world, the N80i will quickly become my primary mobile device, with some add-on software and a bluetooth keyboard. The Treo, will still be at my side, but I’ll switch from infrared keyboard to bluetooth on it so I only need one keyboard. The two devices are on different carriers, so I expect that I’ll “upgrade” to carrying two devices for business needs. But the Treo will take a back seat and slowly fade from memory. It’s a device that’s lived it’s lifetime and is quickly becoming a dinosaur.

For me the struggle is all about the broad functionality of moving from PC to PDA to Smartphone. The Smartphone is almost smart enough. Almost. And for the convenience and feature set it offers, I’m game to learn how to live without some of the habits I’ve built over time. They’re probably bad habits to begin with.

Just some thoughts on my personal evolution at working anywhere and mobile devices.

Technorati Tags: Nokia, N73, N93, N80i, N-series, Treo 700W, PDA, PIM, mobility

Filed by Ken at 11:30 am under Mobility & Handheld
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Filed by Ken at 3:31 pm under Lifeblog
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Filed by Ken at 3:29 pm under Lifeblog
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Filed by Ken at 2:04 pm under Lifeblog
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Filed by Ken at 2:39 am under Lifeblog
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Don’t make me get tough with with you.

Technorati Tags: Connor

Filed by Ken at 12:54 am under General
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