I’m a huge fan of the cellular WAN cards and the connectivity options that they provide.  Extending that access to a group of people was always a bit of work, but made it real easy to set up an office on the go or otherwise share the joy of being online. 

Novatel is addressing the complexities of the sharing with their new line of EvDO routers.  The device is a combination of a cellular WAN card and wireless router.  A single device to handle both the LAN and WAN halves of the connection.  Plus, it looks good.  It even runs on a battery rather than requiring a plug, so you can set up your own personal hotspot on the train.  I’m officially in lust.

Following on the news a couple weeks back that Sprint wasn’t too keen on the Android platform, it seems like Nokia is joining the fracas.  They are very happy to use Linux, which is the base of the Android platform, but aren’t particularly keen on Android itself.

“In the longer perspective, Linux will become a serious alternative for our high-end phones,” Ukko Lappalainen, vice president at Nokia’s markets unit, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the “Nokia World” industry conference….

“I don’t see anything in Android which would make it better than Linux maemo,” Lappalainen said.

Yeah…Google probably isn’t going to be too happy about this hit on their platform.

Sprint and Clearwire have finally completed the merger of their wireless metropolitan data services (Sprint’s WiMAX service operating under the Xohm brand name and Clearwire’s pre-WiMax services).  And, as part of the merger, they’ve decided to rebrand the whole thing.  The new product will now be called “Clear” which shouldn’t be too confusing or particularly useful in identifying the product or what it does.

Sprint has been selling the Xohm service in Baltimore since the end of September so this will be interesting to see how the rebranding affects their marketing plans.  It will also be interesting to see if it affects their ability to differentiate between the new service and the legacy pre-WiMax systems.

In the mean time, however, it is good to know the name of what you’re buying should WiMax be in your future.

Also, it looks like the build-out of the network is slowing down a bit.  That’s not a good thing.

As noted in my previous post, I had the privilege to be one of the first people to test out Virgin America‘s new inflight Wifi last weekend on a special test flight over San Francisco.

I got a chance to put the service through its paces – trying things like VoIP, email, chat, video, etc. Read on for my full review and some more pictures.
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Virgin America is premiering their in-flight broadband internet access, which is powered by Gogo, this weekend. The service, which utilizes the Aircell network, will deliver broadband speeds at 35,000 feet, while in US airspace, allowing you to access the Internet using your Wifi-enabled laptop, PDA, or Smartphone, or through the inflight entertainment system. They plan to have the service available on all flights by the Spring of 2009, making them the first US carrier to have Wifi across their entire fleet. Preliminary pricing is set at $12.95 per flight, but this is subject to change.

Virgin plans to introduce the service during a special test flight this weekend, where they will be hosting what they claim is the “first-ever live air-to-ground video stream,” as a part of the YouTube Live streaming event. TravelTechTalk has been invited along to test out the service on the flight, and we’ll have a full rundown of the service, including speed and latency, coverage, and usability of various applications like IM and video chat, email, VoIP, VPN, and many more. We hope to be able to post preliminary reviews and photos live from the plane!

A recent discussion I read has prompted me to remind you (again) about the danger of international data roaming. Remember folks, at $19 per Megabyte of data, you too could end up with a $2000 bill before you know it!

Thankfully AT&T appear to be taking a friendlier approach to data charges, and are retroactively moving people onto their data bundles once they get back home.

Initially AT&T told people to pound sand, and had no problems getting UPS involved to send their 5 box data bills, thankfully that seems to have changed.

This week, Belkin announced their newest laptop bag. The Flythru bag features a clear window and a zipper that unfolds the bag in the middle, allowing it to pass through the checkpoint without removing your laptop.

At $42.80 it is currently the cheapest checkpoint friendly bag on the market.

iPhone owner with some gripes about the lack of common features? Join the fun at “Please fix the iPhone”.

The current nr.1 “please fix” item is of course the lack of MMS support, followed by wireless syncing, then the ability to use cut and paste.

At the end of the day it will be real iPhone users that convince Apple to add these things; it’s been a long time since the first iPhone appeared, and these basic features are still missing. Perhaps Apple will listen?

Source: Please fix the iPhone (via Downloadsquad)

Several sites are reporting on a new JD Powers report claiming the iPhone is the best business smartphone choice.

My initial reaction was of course “huh?”.

Then when I read the actual report, I noticed the articles played a little fast and loose with the results. The iPhone has been rated the highest in customer satisfaction.

Well of course it is the highest rated in that segment. I mean, it’s an iPod. The iPhone does games and multimedia better than any other smartphone, so if your boss is nice enough to invest in the iPhone, it only makes sense that you’ll be satisfied with it. To me, that does not make it the BEST business smartphone, as that honor still belongs to the Blackberry (in my opinion).

It’s like saying the Sony PSP is the highest rated Skype phone.

Source: JD Power smartphone satisfaction report

OK – I’ve now had almost 2 weeks with my Android powered phone, and several years with Windows Mobile.

It is no secret that I’m convinced Windows Mobile is badly broken and in need of a major overhaul, but how well does it do when up against Android?

I’ll be comparing the newest (and only) Android phone, with the newest Windows Mobile device; the Sprint Touch Pro.

Let me start with the basics – Look and feel/usability

Windows Mobile is not very well adapted for touch use, especially if it involves the bog standard OS as delivered by Microsoft.

Companies like HTC and Samsung have invested millions in developing their own shells for Windows Mobile that help make things a little better. However, at the end of the day however, it’s still not enough.

Even with the most recent touch interfaces (HTC TouchFlo 3D),  as soon as you leave the warm and cozy touch enabled shell, you are back in the non-touch enabled WinMo apps. There are also some silly interface flaws; in the newest phones from HTC, you’ll find a touch sensitive scroll wheel, but you won’t be able to use the wheel in most apps (without some manual hacking). For most applications in Windows Mobile, you will still need to use a stylus to control things.

Android on the other hand has touch/gesture based controls built into every app; from the music player to the email client, everything responds very well, and is even on par with the de-facto touch standard on phones; the iPhone. The Android interface is not perfect; every now and then you still run into some inconsistencies in the controls, but for a first generation phone, it’s close to perfect.

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