"Mobile users diss premium content"

You mean like with cable TV? ;) While it's not metered, I think the principle is pretty similar.

Attempts to do that in other areas haven't been very successful -- given a choice, consumers have usually voted overwhelmingly for "free" ad-supported content.

Pornography is indeed a big factor, but I think ads are now king in terms of revenue, witness the revenues of Google, Doubleclick, Yahoo, et al. As for file sharing, there's no incremental revenue -- you'd have to argue that it's driving broadband. While it's almost certainly a factor, I don't think it's the dominant factor.

Porn is already a significant factor overseas.

Hides? Where? In a backpack? No thanks. :) This afternoon I was wandering around with just my cell phone in a belt holster, and that's usually all that I want to be carrying.

I have buttons on both edges of my cell phone, in addition to the keyboard. Methinks you need a slider form factor.

You may be right. My own vision is high resolution heads up display and speakers on my glasses, driven from the phone over your short range wireless.

I'm guessing that's driven by your carrier. On Cingular I have an unlimited data package for only $20/month. That enables heavy use of such useful tools as:

  • Google Mobile personalized (email, weather, news, movies)
  • Google Local for Mobile (maps, businesses, and directions)
  • Opera Mini for full Web browsing
  • Froogle Mobile (shopping)
  • Weather
  • Movies (reviews and showtimes)
  • Phone directories
  • Flight schedules
  • eBay
  • FedEx tracking
Reply to
John Navas
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[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In other cases it's based on being able to monitor all traffic, as I've found in some public libraries.

Reply to
John Navas
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Arguably safer, since a wired network may well be subject to physical compromise, exposing all unencrypted traffic.

Reply to
John Navas
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Why? Just move the PC card SIM to the phone.

Sure, but giving network resources away for free doesn't make sense for the carrier, unless the carrier has to give it away to make up for how uncompetitive it is, as in the case of Nextel.

Why not use messaging over an Internet connection instead of SMS?

Reply to
John Navas

So, the highest ARPU carrier in the industry is "giving" resources away?

Are you really that stupid?

Reply to
Scott

They can monitor me all they want - but watching my VPN payload is like watching paint dry.

Reply to
Jer

Yep, almost exactly, but for a different reason. With CATV, the "streaming" content is continuous and uninterrupted. The cable content bundlers assemble a package of entertainment, advertisements, announcements, and previews, that are streamed at the user continuously and without interruption. Hopefully, that won't happen with streaming content to a cell phone. However, it is possible that some brilliant cellular marketeer may decide that some of the data bandwidth be dedicated to some form of broadcasting. It wouldn't be bad if it were traffic reports, weather reports, terrorist alerts, sports scores, stockmarket numbers, AMBER alerts, and other useful items (similar to what the pager people have been broadcasting for many years). However, it could easily also be advertising, promos, and manure. It's the more like the wireless version of the "last mile", where vendors fight to own the "last mile" to the customer so they can act as a funnel for all the garbage that various groups want to shovel at the customer. Yep, just like CATV.

That's fine. Then the advertisers shouldn't complain if people are willing to tolerate the ads. A few might find it sufficiently obnoxious to pay for a clean feed. For things I use often, I would probably pay.

My vision (or nightmare) of the internet of the future is a virtual reality headset, where users navigate their way through a virtual shopping mall, make purchases, negotiate deals, ask for information, and generally use current reality as a paradigm for navigation. Of course, it will all be paid for by advertisers, who lurk in the shadows, and accost the users with sales pitches. I don't see a VR headset option for a cell phone, but given sufficient memory and bandwidth, it's possible.

Certainly. But if you add up the alleged revenue lost to file sharing, methinks the numbers may be considerably larger than advertising revenue. The internet doesn't generate this revenue, but it certainly defrays the expenses for many of the file sharing users. I also forgot to mention the spammers. I keep reading erratic reports of substantial revenue from spamming. I don't know if they're true.

Yep. Personally, I think Windoze Updates are driving broadband, but file sharing is certainly number one. One of my less astute customers had Limewire running on his laptop over a Verizon EV-DO link and was bugging me to figure out why his connection was so slow. Duh.

I'm not sure which came first. The chicken or egg, or file sharing or broadband. Each one drives the other. Give them more bandwidth and they'll share more content, er... copyright violations. Does bandwidth increase to meet the needs, or are new needs invented to use the bandwidth. In the case of wireless internet, the needs will by necessity be limited by the bandwidth and never approach those of wired carriers. That just might drive the technology. Who know, we may just have wireless file sharing. Sigh.

One of my friends just returned from Europe. I got to play with his new cell phone. The porno collection in memory was truly impressive. Never mind ring tones, lets bring on the multimedia pornography. Hmmm... maybe the VR headset wouldn't be a bad idea if it can play 3D porno video clips. Premium services perhaps?

Ok, so you're not a real geek. I have my PDA cell phone, flashlight, and tape measure on my belt. On the dash of my gas guzzler, I have a Panasonic Toughbook CF-M34 laptop that acts as a file server. It could just as easily be a multimedia movie viewer. In my scenario, either the vehicle server or the phone downloads the video files, and play them to the display via UWB (wireless USB). No need to play them on the tiny cell phone display. However, if you're going into a restraunt, hotel, or airport, and you wanna watch your own movies, bring your own viewer. It's not that big.

Think voice recognition and control. The major functions remain on the keyboard. User defined buttons for creative applications. Voice control does the rest. Ideally, it should recognize and parse phrases and offer options. There's only so much that can be done with buttons.

Yep. Take a giant step backwards and look at the cell phone from the standpoint of a user interface to the digital (and analog POTS) world. Is it a good interface? Does it do its job efficiently? Can it be done better? In my never humble opinion, the operation and cybernetic features of a cell phone are terrible. Only the basics like dialing a number are handled gracefully. For example, my vision of programming a phone is to use two shaft encoders (dials). One dial selects the function to be set, the other selects the value. Punch enter and it's saved. Total no-brainer to learn and no maze of sub menus to navigate. I once designed a marine radio that worked like that. Everyone loved it except the dealers. They claimed that customers judged the "value" of a radio by the number of knobs and buttons. The more the better. So, we added knobs and buttons all over the place.

Bluetooth hang it on your ear headsets is another kludge. It would be so easy to make one that folds flat and fits in my pocket instead of being a big, lumpy, fragile, and light weight ear hanger. Mine would unfold, expand to something like a normal headset, and get put away when not in use.

However, the real problem with Bluetooth is pairing. Bluetooth headsets can only pair with one device at a time. This makes it useless for fast switching between a cell phone and a computer. 4000 companies in the Bluetooth Sig and nobody thought a headset might be used with more than one device.

Add a VR display (or something similar) will only solve the output problem. The device still needs to be controlled and that's where methinks the problems hide. Think wearable computers where one of the wearable boxes is a cell phone.

True. Verizon offers two levels of service. 14.4 for $5/month and EV-DO for about $60/month. At $20/month, I would probably subscribe for the data service. At $60/month, I can live without it. Actually, the 14Kbit/sec is quite adequate for what I need (directory service). The catch is that it eats minutes of connect time and my use is very close to my maximum minutes.

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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I'll raise the geek bar with my Hughes satellite dish in the bed of my truck. Might win me the best camp belt buckle at the next rodeo if I throw up a WiFi hotspot.

Reply to
DecaturTxCowboy

I'll raise your pizza dish and add my ham radio geek paraphenalia to my sagging waist belt. I sometimes have a Yeasu 2-meter radio on my belt. For special ocassions, I substitute one of perhaps 20 assorted radios in my collection (most with half dead batteries). If I'm trying to impress other geeks, I'll wear one of my commercial Motorola status symbol radios, which demonstrates to everyone that I overpaid for the radio. |

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was about a year ago. The pile is 3 times larger now.

Of course, high fashion has it's designer cell phones: |

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was 6 years ago and I haven't seen any such phones. Oh well.

I think this is what John is worried about happening to cell phones: |

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I don't think we're ready for the cell phone cyborg.

Drivel: When I was much younger (in the 1960's) I thought that when technology was finally able to deliver a working Dick Tracy wrist radio, everyone would rush out and buy one. I tried to build several during my past life in designing radios. Nobody wanted them. So much for my abilities to predict the future of technology.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

LOL.

Nextel is rather unique in that is offers a useful premium service that customers actually want, actually use, and are willing to pay a premium for. They also have a great barrier to entry of other competitors, at least for now.

Reply to
SMS

Yes that is possible, but it is not something I would consider convenient; swapping SIM cards back and forth. Besides, I could not receive any voice calls while the PC card SIM was in the phone. No thanks.

Reply to
GomJabbar

I've just been considering a V551. Can you sync the phonebook and calendar to any PIM via bluetooth? I can ditch my Palm if I can do that. The manual says you can send individual calendar or contact entries to another device, but nothing about a full sync.

Reply to
Derek Broughton

Tell me it was a Moto HT-220 and I will surely be impressed.

Reply to
DecaturTxCowboy

DecaturTxCowboy hath wroth:

That was the status symbol in the 1960's. Absolute rats nest of wires inside. I had both the slim line versions and piggy back 12 channel board version, with my life savings in xtals inside. I designed some signaling accessories that fit inside (around the speaker). I used a few of those through the mid 1970's but donated them to someone that was willing to spend their spare time keeping them alive and on frequency.

My current Motorola status symbols are various GP-300, GP-350, and HT-1000. These are big and heavy enough to be useful for pounding nails.

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Please note that the true geek carries it all with him. Mounting your satellite dish in the truck bed is a step in the right direction, but unless you spend your life in the truck bed, you won't be recognized as a geek. Perhaps if you wore the remote control or a GPS on your belt.

To be a true Cingular cell phone geek, you need to have on your belt, at least one cell phone, an attached PDA for tethered internet access, an 802.11b/g access point to allow others to share your unlimited internet connection, a GPS for posting your location on a internet, and a web cam that posts pictures of your surroundings for all to see. Anything less is just a wannabe cellular geek.

Don't forget the pocket protector full of pens, screwdriver, hemostat, and spare flash drives. For historical accuracy, white socks, horn rim glasses held together with a band-aid, and the remains of last nights pizza on the t-shirt, are also helpful.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

VPN is blocked. Next time take the time to read the entire context. ;)

Reply to
John Navas
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Yes. Nextel ARPU is based on premium voice services, not data.

No. And you?

Reply to
John Navas
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In fact Kodiak PTT now available from Cingular is competitive with iDEN (Nextel) PTT.

Reply to
John Navas

It's already happening -- see Motorola SCREEN3, now being deployed by Cingular.

The latest wild card is DVR like TiVO, which make it easy for customers to whiz past commercials. Along with DVD, the old advertising model is being seriously threatened.

That's a relief! Can I show that to my girlfriend? :)

I only load up when sailboat racing: wrist GPS, handheld GPS and sometimes a hand-bearing compass in my pocket, PFD-mounted safety strobe and multi-tool, and looking to add PLB (essentially personal EPIRB) and/or laser rangefinder.

My IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T30 is usually in my car, and often on the boat.

When traveling, I use my ThinkPad with headset (wired or Bluetooth) for multimedia.

I personally dislike voice recognition -- too many times when I can't talk, and I find it more clumsy than keyboard control in any event.

That depends on how flexible the phone is. One of the things that I like about current Motorola phones is how easy they are to customize to my taste. For example, I've reprogrammed the side "smart button" to launch Google Local for Mobile, one "soft key" to bring up WAP shortcuts (bookmarks, which I've customized to my tastes and needs), and the other "soft key" to bring up phone shortcuts (likewise customized to my tastes and needs). There are dedicated keys for the camera, my Cingular on-line account page, and voice recording. I can't think of much that could be done to improve on that interface.

I liked the jog wheel on my old Sony Ericsson smartphone, where you rotate to scroll and press to select, but I didn't find it all that much better than the customized Motorola interface.

YMMV -- I'm pretty happy with my Sony Ericsson Bluetooth headset.

I see these as different devices. My single ear cell phone headset is optimized for voice quality (send and receive) in difficult conditions. (Noise canceling is so good that I can use it on the boat in the wind.) In a computer headset I'm interested in good stereo music.

Perhaps, but I've been impressed with "nod" interfaces on some VR headsets.

Reply to
John Navas

I sync with Outlook using Motorola Phone Tools. TrueSync supports Lotus Notes and Palm Desktop.

BTW, the current version of the V551 is the V557.

Reply to
John Navas
[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

I'd say black socks in white sneakers, and a tie printed on the t-shirt. A Jolt cola is also helpful. :)

Reply to
John Navas

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