How To Build A Cellular Phone Interceptor - These bloopers are hilarious
From my new favourite site Household Hacker
Archive for November, 2007
17
Nov
Unix Malware for iPhone
Turn any iPhone into a remote bugging device. Fun stuff!
09
Nov
Open Hand Sets
November 5th Google announced Android its new open OS for mobile devices. Most people were disappointed the announcement wasn’t the anticipated Gphone. What those people don’t realize is that this is so much bigger than any hardware announcement. This is about people being able to use their handheld computers they way the want or need them to work. A major power shift from the Wireless companies to the developers and end users.
Imagine if your home internet provider dictated what computer you could buy and what you are allowed to do with that computer. All while locking you in to their service via a 3 year contract. Sounds like a good deal? That’s exactly how current Canadian Wireless providers operate.
The first step in changing this is in handset software. Because the software is locked down by the providers it slows innovation and competition. If the same model existed in home computing you may be still running some variant of Windows 3.1. The next step would be getting the Wireless providers to offer the same plans month to month as they do on a contract. That would happen because the Wireless providers would want to lure all these people with their own handsets to their service. Right now they have a customer base because most consumers won’t pay regular price for a handset.
The new OS would spur innovation and attract more people to buying handsets straight from HTC, Nokia etc. The larger the market for data and voice services of people not enslaved to their wireless providers the attractive the month to month plans will be. Essentially changing the role of the current wireless provider to that of a ISP.
There are some concerns about different hardware on these networks affecting wireless service stability. That’s why it’s important for Wireless providers to be involved now. Get in on the action. This is the kind of thing that will change an industry. When Google comes knocking, you don’t want to be left behind.
Android Software Developer kit is released November 12th.
The internet has to be useful to survive. We can only watch kids injure themselves on youtube so many times before we become bored and move on. The web needs value. Sites like Wikipedia for information, Gmail, dictionary.reference.com or your favourite torrent site.
I think myhappyplanet.com should be added to that list of useful sites. Started by Karen Ong who is an entrepreneur with no technical experience. Myhappyplanet.com’s premise is simple. Introduce people wanting to learn a foreign language to each other. For example: I’m interested in learning Thai so I find someone Thai who wants to learn English and we help each other. There are also lessons, videos etc.
There is no better way to learn a language than learning directly from native speakers. Kinda like a web based emersion program.
It has all the messaging and user search functions of your typical social networking site. You can list your Skype or MSN/Yahoo chat id.
Currently the site is in a closed beta, but it appears anyone can sign up. The community I find is friendly and eager to help. Unlike other web communities everyone here is signed up for the common reason to learn a new language. I think this makes a great web community that will attract an even larger community.
This kind of usefulness was the utopian ideal most people had of the web in the mid 90’s. There is still a great potential for this niche site to be financially viable. Let’s hope they do this while keeping the value for the user.
Without usefulness and value the web would just be a smaller screen idiot box.
Reference- Harbus, Harvard University Independent Student Weekly
07
Nov
Emoze
Emoze is a push email client for mobile phones. It works with a healthy list of symbian based devices. I’ve been using it as my only mobile email solution for the last week. For the last year I have used a Blackberry Pearl heavily and enjoyed the instant push email from 4 accounts.
Although not as robust as Blackberry Internet Service it can be an inexpensive alternative to the Blackberry Service Plan.
Emoze allows you to push your gmail account to your phone for free. You will have to download the mobile application and enter in your gmail account information and away you go. Don’t use gmail? Well you have two options then. Either get gmail and forward your current account to it or you can download the desktop application. This application allows you to forward your current pop email account to your phone. This solution requires you always have your PC on. This doesn’t work for me because I have a laptop and that laptop is a mac. Blackberry email is all controlled by a remote web based server for normal pop accounts. You can edit from the phone itself or from any computer with web access. Emoze pop needs a similar interface for the out of office business person.
Overall it’s a great service for the casual user. Had a few issues with losing connections, but it’s not clear if it’s the Emoze server or a Rogers issue. I wouldn’t proclaim it a threat to RIM or Windows Mobile anytime soon but who can complain at the low low price of free.
P.S. It supports attachments also. I wrote this whole post on my E62 and emailed it to my desktop as a .doc file.
