Future Wireless Data Speeds
Just read this article in Infoworld. I am blown away by the numbers!

• NTT DoCoMo is testing Super 3G technology that is expected to deliver 300Mbps down-link speed. They hope to deploy this in 2009.
• Last December, they also tested 4G technology to deliver nearly 5Gbps on a receiver moving at 10 miles per hour

I will bet that all user interfaces will move to 3D Metaverse and streaming video will become the primary means of communications and entertainment on wireless devices.

Juniper forecast on mobile payments
Juniper forecasts that by 2011, Mobile Payments will generate almost $22bn of transactions and be adopted by 204m mobile phone users (press release). A few highlights:

• SMS based Person2Person (P2P) fund transfers and payments will drive the developing world mPayment market (obopay etc.)
• Adequate supply of contactless chip enabled devices, NFC and FeliCa, to enable over 52m mobile phone users to make physical payments (Nokia, Motorola, Visa, etc.)

WOW: Greek spying case uncovers first phone switch rootkit
Just read this article on infoworld. The overall exposure from the new communication technologies is huge!

Obopay - Wireless Payment System
In January at CES, I saw how (and wrote about) Visa intends to convert your phone system into a visa card. Today, I came across another cell-phone based payment system: Obopay. The service lets you instantly send or receive money via cell phones, internet or even AIM. You can withdraw the cash at a bank or it can be charged to a pre-paid MasterCard. Check out a slightly longer overview on fiercewireless.

They claim to have signed deals with carriers (Verizon, Amp'd and Helio) to pre-load the software on the phones. The service does sound very simple and I am tempted to try.

I am still waiting to see someone pay using a phone ...

Threadless.com: Engage customers to design products
Read about this in the NY Times magazine over the weekend. Consumers submit T-shirt designs. Everybody votes. The company selects most of the designs that get a high customer approval for conversion to a product. They produce and sell about 1500 units of each selected design. Designer gets $2,000. Everybody wins.

Femtocell

I just discovered these devices. From what I can make out from the various articles I read, these devices will allow cellular phones to make calls over the Internet. Put one of these devices in your house, connect it to your broadband connection and make cellular calls using your handset over your broadband connection. It seems that cell companies love this as it reduces their infrastructure costs and eliminates the need for cellular / wifi dual-mode handsets.

Here are a few links to articles I found on the topic:
- fierce wireless
- wikipedia
- VOIP Monitor
- Om Malik

Interesting technology that I intend to follow and evaluate over the next several months!

iPhone - the missing features
Here is what I will like added to the iPhone:

• E-mail integration with Exchange
• Copy/Paste Functionality
• Flash Support
• 3G
• File system to manage data from one central place
• GPS

iPhone - Very Cool
I finally relented and purchased the cell service. As expected, the device is very cool. The user interface is one of the best I have ever experienced. The apple team has once again proven that they are a class apart. Nokia had a chance with N770 ... but they blew it with a very poor UI. The design proves that a good UI is also about what you leave out.

The device seemed to get many more oohs and aahs from women than men!

iPhone - the first day was very frustrating
I bought an iPhone on Friday (6/29). Over the weekend, I tried to activate it with an exiting SIM from my employer. I was stuck on the first screen as it demanded the last 4 digits of the SSN of the owner of the existing number. I tried hard to get the device to work without AT&T service. I could not pull it off. I have since found some other frustrated customers (Om Malik). He does refer to some potential workarounds in his post.

Right now, I feel worse about AT&T / Apple gang than I ever felt about the Wintel crowd. I cannot understand why WiFi, Camera, iPod had to be disabled if I did not have cellular service.