Add a dongle, get a free notebook
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB, Networking, Wireless, Mobile on
The usual round of email press releases dropped into the SandM mailbox this morning. One caught our attention, from the folk at PC World, which signals something we’re pretty sure is going to be one of the big IT trends for 2008.
In a tie up with 3, they’re going to be offering a free cheap laptop (or £350 off most) along with one of 3’s 3G dongle modems. You’ll need to sign up for a £35 a month data tariff for the cheap laptop, which gives you 3GB of data (with 10p/megabyte for anything over) at up to 2.8Mbps.
Ignore the free laptop (after all, PC World have a lot to get rid of, if you remember their recent results!) - it’s the 3G modem that really interests us.
It wasn’t long ago that 3G data was the province of the technophiles, using cards with complex drivers and expensive connections. Pricing models have changed dramatically in the last 6 months, as networks try to compete with WiFi - and as a new, lower cost, set of 3G chips arrived. Hardware is now cheap, and the latest USB designs self-install software as soon as they’re plugged in. Even the current tariffs are affordable - T-Mobile has just introduced a pay-as-you-go Web’n'Walk for just £4.50 a day.
That’s where things start to change.
Look at the cost of WiFi. Sit in a Starbucks and hook up to a T-Mobile WiFi connection and you’re already payig more than that (and let’s not go into the costs of BT OpenZone or The Cloud). HSDPA data is more convenient (if a little slower), and it’s now cheaper. You can use it anywhere, and with any PC. In fact, if you’ve got a recent laptop, there are reasonable odds that all you need is a SIM and you can use the built-in 3G WAN hardware.
3G data is here to stay. With higher speed HSUPA networks going online, things are going to get faster still.
My guess? The WiFi networks in places like Starbucks are going to become a loss leader. WiFi prices need to drop to compete with 3G - and we’re also going to see more deals like T-Mobile bundling WiFi with new contracts for it’s Web’n'Walk (why not for us existing subscribers?) and O2 providing free Cloud access to its iPhone users. O2’s also tweaked its data pricing to compete with the rest of the industry.
The endgame is going to be good for us users. WiFi will become free or very low cost, and 3G prices will continue to drop as operators finally start to digest the effects of data usage on the rest of their revenue in the light of voice becoming a commodity…
–Simon
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Mobile with your mobile
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB, Windows Mobile, Networking, Wireless, Mobile, Internet, Microsoft on
My shiny laptop is so shiny and new it doesn’t have a PC Card slot. That’s a bit of a problem, when the only 3G mobile data cards we have in the office are PC Cards. It’s even more of a problem when you’re in the car park at Costco and need to get a file from your home PC…
Express Card slots are great - if you’ve got an express card.
Built in antennae for WAN modules are even better - if you’ve got a module fittted.
It took me a while to get around the problem, but the solution turned out to be easier than I expected. All I needed was a Windows Mobile 6 device and its built in Internet connection sharing tool (the same feature is in Windows Mobile 5, but it’s hidden away in the file system).
I installed the Windows Mobile Device Center on my laptop so I’d have all the drivers I needed, and then plugged the phone in for an initial synchronisation. The phone was recognised, and I was able to make a connection. I disconnected the phone, and clicked on the Internet Sharing icon. You can use USB or Bluetooth connections - USB is probably your best bet, as there’s no point in using up your limited battery capacity powering multiple radios (of course if you’re able to power both your laptop and your phone from the mains, Bluetooth suddenly becomes the best option).
Click connect and wait for your phone to hook up to the network, before plugging it in to the computer. When you connect your phone to the laptop, it’ll install a new set of drivers. These, well, they just work. Your phone becomes another network connection, and you can download files and email and browse the web just as much as you like (or at least as much as your bandwidth allowance gives you…).
A useful tool for extra on the road connectivity.
– Simon
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Mini USB - it’s not just a good idea, now it’s the law!
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB on
A while back we remarked on our preference for power supplies that had mini-USB connectors. There are plenty of reasons for looking for a standard wall wart connector. For one thing there’s no crawling under a desk looking for just the right cable, and for another, well, it’s just less to pack and carry in these days of decreasing luggage allowances.
As Sun’s Simon Phipps says, “I now have a growing collection of useful things that work with this USB power standard, all from different places and all interchangeable. So I have a car-socket-to-USB plug, wall-warts for US & UK that deliver USB, and each new gadget that comes with a USB/mini-USB lead makes it easier to leave a cable ready everywhere. And since most power comes through my computer, there are fewer wall-warts left plugged into power sockets acting as electricity vampires.”
Reducing complexity makes peoples lives easier, and standards help control complexity. In these green days it’s sensible to standardise on one power supply so engineers can design the most efficient PSUs possible, rather than having to come up with something new every time a new gadget is released on an ever gadget hungry world. Not only that, but in an emergency we can charge devices from laptop or desktop PCs. And of course if everyone had the same power supply connectors it would make it a lot easier to borrow a charger in the office…
Some gadget companies are worse than others. Apple’s initial iPods sensibly used FireWire for power and data, while the first shuffles plugged straight into a USB port. Now the Shuffle uses a modified headphone socket for power, and the iPod connector gets more complicated with each generation. It’s USB at one end, so why not USB at both?
Nokia is another company that makes things hard for end users. Its power supplies are getting smaller - but so are the plugs that feed power into the devices. And what’s that right next to the power socket on the latest N95? Yup, you’ve guessed - a USB port used for nothing but data. I won’t go into the awful power supply connectors from Motorola and Palm, as I fear for my sanity if I think about them too much.
Well, it looks like the tide may be turning in the favour of mini-USB chargers. China’s Ministry of Information has just made it illegal to use anything else with new devices. The law is initially targeted at mobile phones (upsetting both Motorola and Nokia). However, there are apparently already 15 approved PSUs from 12 different companies, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for phone manufacturers to source power supplies.Switching to one standard PSU format should also save money, and reduce the number of chargers just thrown away after a device upgrade.
There’s really no reason now to stick with proprietary connectors. The largest emerging market has made the decision for anyone designing hardware - so now we just have to wait for the hardware to ship.
– Simon
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USB power now
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB on
There aren’t many announcements that have me hugging spokespeople, friendly as I am. But when David Quin of ALK showed me the new version of CoPilot and the Bluetooth GSM dongle that comes with it, I’ll admit I flung my arms around him.
Not just because it was my last meeting at the end of 3GSM. Not so much because CoPilot Live 7 looks good – though it does. New customisable map styles, and an improved interface. Not because it will run on my trusty Palm 705v – although I’m delighted about that. But because I spotted the power connector on the little gizmo; micro USB. And that means one less charger to lug around when we travel. Especially as the power charger we have for the Bluetooth GPS we use with the current version of CoPilot only plugs into the cigarette lighter socket in the car. This is fine and dandy if you’re navigating while you drive, but not so much use if you’re setting off for a day walking around San Francisco. And absolutely no use at all if the rental car you get has no power to the lighter socket.
The connector on the previous generation of Bluetooth GPS receivers was nearly always the same, and it was an early attempt at being compatible because it used the same connector as the iPAQ. When iPAQs were the device everyone used you could expect to have one adapter in the car and another at your desk. These days if you walk into Frys or Dixons (depending which side of the pond you’re on) and ask for an iPAQ charger you get a puzzled look and ‘did you mean iPod?’.
In the beginning iPods had a standard charger: FireWire. Obscure trivia; there are two versions of the FireWire connector, one with the pins for power and one without because Sony wanted a version that let you plug a hard drive into a camcorder without draining the camcorder battery (either that, or Sony just hates accepting standards designed by anyone else – you decide). The dock connector on the current generation of iPods does give more control to accessories that get line out sound or display information on the iPod screen – and no other gadgets picked up FireWire as the charging port.
But USB is almost ubiquitous enough that I curse when I see a device that doesn’t use it for charging (say, my Palm 750v). RIM got the idea years ago, as did HTC – who have managed to put extra control options into a standard USB connection but still make it charge with a standard cable. Seagate are using USB as the PC and power connection for the new Bluetooth DAVE drive (which we’ll see first from the Business division at Orange adding 60GB of storage to your mobile phone). Rob Pait from Seagate got a hug for that news too.
So I say it’s time for the other hardware manufacturers to get their acts in gear and switch to USB for power now. You’ll gain the gratitude of vast numbers of travellers. And you might get a hug too.
-Mary
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Make mine mini-USB!
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in USB on
We travel a fair bit. It’s something you can’t escape in this business, where companies are scattered around the country and the world. And when you travel you’re going to need to take stuff with you, especially your technology. GPS, MP3 players, PDAs, phones, cameras, they’re all in your bags and pockets.
And too often they all have different power connectors. So you need to carry different power supplies for each one (or at the very least one of those little multi-voltage suppies with the changeable tips that you always lose, and even if you didn’t you’d never remember which way round they plug into the cable anyway…). As airline baggage weight limits carry on getting stricter and stricter, I’m finding myself looking at power connectors in a very different way.
It started with mobile phones. More and more them have switched to using the same connector for syncronisation and power. The same with MP3 players. Suddenly the number of power supplies I had to carry was dropping. I actually found myself looking for kit that used USB for charging and power - I even bought a USB power adapter for the car. You can even get rechargable batteries with built in USB chargers…
So I think it’s time to put a line in the sand, and to tell proprietary power connectors that their days are numbered. There is a better way, and it’s USB. If manufacturers want to be proprietary, provide a USB cable adapter (preferably for a mini-USB plug so we don’t have to load up with USB cables!). We’re a mobile society, and digital nomads don’t want to invest in an extra camel for their power adaptor collection. Just one will do, thank you very much.
HP, Nokia, Palm and Apple - you’re all on notice. Make things easier for your users - and airline baggage handlers and bell hops around the world will thank you for!
I’ve even got a slogan: “Make mine mini-USB!”
What do you think?
–S.
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