Category Telecoms

Vodafone is currently trialling Wimax in Greece and Malta

Έχει ακούσει κανείς κάτι; Η μόνη περίπτωση δοκιμών με WiMax την οποία γνωρίζω είναι αυτή του ΟΤΕ στο Όρος Άθως. Είναι ειρωνικό αλλά η Ελλάδα, παρά τη διείσδυση της κινητής τηλεφωνίας, παραμένει πανάκριβη σε ό,τι αφορά τη πρόσβαση στο διαδίκτυο μέσω κινητού (γύρω στα 30€/μηνιαίως για 5GB σε ταχύτητες 3.5G/HSDPA) αλλά έχει επιλεχθεί ως πιλότος του WiMax και δη χωρίς να ενημερωθεί κανείς; Ας σημειωθεί πως η Vodafone έχει ήδη αγοράσει άδεια για το φάσμα του WiMax στην Ελλάδα από πέρυσι και υπάρχει περίπτωση το BBC απλώς να σφάλλει, μπερδεύωντας τη περίπτωση της χώρας μας με αυτή της Μάλτας. Αν κάποιος γνωρίζει περισσότερα ας αφήσει ένα σχόλιο.

WidSets. What a disappointment.

A reader of this blog sent me an email a couple of weeks ago, asking me to consider porting my Hellenic Reverse Directory Lookup widget (HRDL) for Apple’s Dashboard in Mac OS X to the Widsets service provided by Nokia. Over the past year or so I’ve been emailed another two or three times by […]

Dynamic IP friendly SPAs.

At last, Linksys just upgraded their SPA (formely Sipura) 942/962 series phone firmware. Among many other bugfixes, the new firmware fixes a number of longstanding and extremely annoying SIP registration bugs (CSCsm28353, CSCsk69012) that afflicted dynamic IP ADSL users whose external (routable) IP address gets changed frequently and necessitated a relatively long process to make the phone behave properly. Kudos to Linksys for fixing this, albeit quite late.

DroidDraw

Android Logo (small)A first attempt at creating a visual UI designer for Android. While not exactly sophisticated compared to more mature visual UI design tools, it greatly simplifies the task for designers (cf. programmers). Worth a look for anyone interested in developing for Android.

Nokia Maps 2.0β

Nokia has been after the navigation market for quite a while now. The free inclusion of Nokia Maps in some of its high end models and the fact that the application and maps are given for free --- with the user optionally purchasing navigation for set amounts of time and having access to updated maps whenever those are available --- was in itself a radical departure from the buy-to-own products sold by companies like Tomtom, Navigon, Destinator, Michelin etc. Nokia's €5.7bn acquisition of Navteq, one of the two major mapping companies around, cemented what was previously speculation about Nokia's interest in this market. While accessible and relatively economical, Nokia Maps 1.0 was not without its problems: a relatively disingenious interface coupled with slow performance left it trailing far behind its leading rivals. Today Nokia released Nokia Maps 2.0 in beta form, for free on their Nokia Betalabs web site. The new application sports a much improved user interface, faster performance, new map modes (satellite and hybrid modes were added) and a clear shift towards catering equally for pedestrians as well as drivers --- a very welcome addition, sorely missing for the most part from other offerings.
Nokia Maps 2.0 on the N95 8GB
To my eyes, Nokia has already surpassed many of its competitors in the market in navigation and mapping. Its inclusion of free mapping and (paid) navigation functionality in mobile phones leverages its dominant position in the mobile phone industry and might render it a trojan horse, its more 'traditional' competitors might not be able to counter. We live, after all, in the era of convergence.

HRDL 1.07

HRDLΎστερα από σχετική ειδοποίηση (ευχαριστώ!), ανανεώθηκε το widget ώστε να λειτουργεί με τις τελευταίες αλλαγές στη δομή της σελίδας του ΟΤΕ. Απλά αντικαταστήστε τη προηγούμενη έκδοση όταν σας γίνει η σχετική ερώτηση από το σύστημα.

HRDL 1.06

HRDLYikes. Τα παιδία παίζει. Μόνον λίγες ημέρες μετά τη τελευταία τροποποίηση ο ΟΤΕ άλλαξε --- για μια ακόμη φορά --- τις σελίδες του whitepages.gr αναγκάζοντας με να τροποποιήσω και πάλι το widget. Ορίστε η έκδοση 1.06. Φαίνεται να δουλεύει σωστά. Προς το παρόν. Την κατεβάζετε από το γνωστό μέρος.

CounterPath

Earlier this month I wrote about eyeBeam on the Mac. Besides that it truly sucks --- it's probably the worst money I've ever spent on software, I am now convinced that this is the least courteous, customer-centric company I've had any dealing with in my life. A visit to their support forum quickly shows how their representative, Mr. Derek Jacobs, responds to customer feedback, problem reports and requests. Mr Jacobs is perhaps the worst customer liaison on a corporate forum, hotline or other form of communication I've come across. He is discourteous, arrogant, ignorant as to the company's products deficiencies, overzealous in his moderation of seemingly inappropriate posts and --- last but not least --- refusing to actually read, comprehend, convey and report on customer posts and the respective development effort. I am curious whether the company's apparent engineering and customer support deficiency is the result of Mr. Jacobs' inability to effectively liaise between customers and engineering, or whether the whole company is bent on pissing people off with subpar products and poor customer support. In any case, it is a shame CounterPath is probably the largest SIP softphone developer globally and the available options in this market are extremely limited. Despite this, my recommendation, whatever your needs may be, is to stay well clear of their products. Such companies are not worthy of your custom. Update: Hours after posting this I was contacted by CounterPath and was offered assistance with their products. I am happy to see that at least they are willing to make an effort --- albeit an insufficient one --- to engage with their customers' problems. Hopefully it will be followed by a respective update of the company's currently dysfunctional products.

HRDL 1.05

HRDLΔιαθέσιμη είναι η νεα έκδοση του HRDL. Δεν είχα σκοπό να ασχοληθώ μαζί του, καθώς το νεο widget που θα επιτρέπει αναζητήσεις και από τις δύο κατευθύνσεις βρίσκεται υπο ανάπτυξη εδώ και καιρό (και όταν βρώ χρόνο θα το τελειώσω), όμως ο ΟΤΕ με πρόλαβε, άλλαξε τις σελίδες του αναγκάζωντας με να κάνω κάποιες αλλαγές στο HRDL ώστε να εξακολουθεί να λειτουργεί. Συγκεκριμένα, ο ΟΤΕ πλέον επιστρέφει δεδομένα σε ISO-8859-7 (έλεος!) αλλά σαν να μην έφτανε αυτό έχει προσθέσει server-side καθυστέρηση 10 δευτερολέπτων (έλεος2) Το γεγονός πως το νούμερο της τηλεφωνικής υπηρεσίας καταλόγου της ίδιας εταιρίας εμφανίζεται 3 φορές στη σελίδα καθώς και το γεγονός πως η υπηρεσία αυτή κοστίζει στον πελάτη και συνεπάγεται κέρδος για τον ΟΤΕ, ίσως εξηγεί (μαζί με τη προφανή αποτροπή 'robot' από την όργωση των δεδομένων από τον ΟΤΕ) γιατί έκαναν τη, δωρεάν, δικτυακή υπηρεσία στο whitepages.gr από κακή, χειρότερη. Δυστυχώς η τεχνιτή χρονική καθυστέρηση επηρεάζει και το HRDL. Τα παράπονά σας σχετικά με τις αλλαγές στην ταχύτητα εμφάνισης των αποτελεσμάτων στο whitepages.gr στον ΟΤΕ. :/

French law required Orange to offer an unlocked version [of the iPhone]

Not exactly news, but it merits some comments. It's interesting how proper regulation can help turn corporate strategy into consumer power. Surprisingly, even with purely free-market criteria, in 'over-regulated' France, Apple's toyphone is better value, more competitive and a better product offering as it costs €749 if bought unlocked, and €399 if bought locked to Orange --- although according to French Law, the carrier will have to unlock it, on request, after 6 months for free. Similarly, for the brief period of time it was sold unlocked in Germany, it cost €999. Naturally, in the US, there is no regulation and Apple can go ahead and set the terms of sale without any restrictions: that's probably why there is no unlocked iPhone on sale at all.