Written on 14th May 2009
4 COMMENTS 
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Written on 23rd February 2009
4 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Dr. Ralf Ackermann, yes Doctor, has shared a video on his blog of the iPhone interacting with a genuine untouched wireless Apple keyboard (apparently) via Bluetooth. I say apparently because, as one commenter has pointed out, there isn’t a bluetooth icon visible on the phone itself.
The video, which can be seen below, appears to show it work pretty well but unfortunately it isn’t available for public testing (yet).
One catch however, you need to have your iPhone jailbroken.
On a personal note, frankly I’ve had my iPhone jailbroken for months now and not run into any problems whatsoever. With a jailbroken phone, I’ve managed to get (very close to) perfect copy and paste functionality thanks to Clippy as well as apps working in the background thanks to backgrounder! It’s been more than worth it.
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TUAW
Written on 21st January 2009
4 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
The Palm Pre is the hottest new handset (not) on the market right now besides the iPhone. One feature that has been marketed as ‘hot’ and ‘better than iPhone’ is the wireless charging capabilities of the Palm Pre. So how cool is that exactly? Check out this “I’m a Mac” style advertising spoof pitting the two devices against one another for the definitive answer…
Written on 19th November 2008
1 COMMENT
Mircea Goia, Next Web US Webtipr
Seven years from now The Netherlands will be covered in a web of fiber-to-the-home network thanks to KPN and FTTH operator Reggefiber (according to deVerdieping Trouw).
Of course, the cost isn’t small: about 5-7 billion euros needs to be thrown at the task
KPN and Reggefiber setup a joint venture (KPN wants a 41% stake in Reggefiber) which has to be approved by the authorities.
The places where the fiber cannot reach will be covered by wi-fi network access.
Written on 17th June 2008
6 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Today is a good day. From now on I can use broadband Internet wherever I am in my city. Even when I’m riding my bicycle or chilling in my favorite bar. As Worldmax – partly funded by Intel and Greenfield – launched a mobile version of the Wimax standard today.
CEO Jeanine van der Vlist told Reuters that Worldmax is aiming to roll-out a nationwide network, which will require 30,000 sites. The costs of this ambitious project will run into hundreds of millions euros.
Worldmax will charge around 20 euros per month for a subscription, which will grant laptop users unlimited use of data. As you can imagine, mobile operator won’t be happy with the arrival of this new player. Since they have already been desperately trying to prevent people from using VOiP and other services that threaten their revenue sources.
Holland isn’t the first country that welcomes Wimax, as Vodafone already offers the service in Malta. However, these Wimax sites don’t allow browsing on the move – as a laptop has to be stationary to connect with the web.
Written on 12th June 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
According to the GSM Association, the EU’s mobile data market grew by 40 percent to 7 billion Euros in 2007- text messages not included. Operators invested more than 20 billion Euros in enhancing their mobile networks and services.
This has paid off, as in the year to April 2008, the number of 3G users in the EU doubled to 112 million, that’s 22.5 percent of all Europeans. And here comes one exciting conclusion: Europe has adopted 3G faster than any other region of the world. In North America, 18.4 percent of the people are using 3G, in the Asia-Pacific region the percentage is 3.7.
One of the reasons for this major increase is 3G adoption is competition from technologies like Wi-Fi, since it makes the prices drop. Tom Phillips, Chief Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer of the GSMA said in the press release that “this gives mobile users the convenience of being able to access email, the Internet and other multimedia services wherever they travel within Europe. We expect prices to continue to fall as operators further innovate around tariffs and more and more Europeans use these services as a part of their everyday lives.”
I wonder how big the influence of the upcoming iPhone 3G will be. That shiny object might boost the number of adopters even more.
Written on 19th April 2008
1 COMMENT
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
More and more people are mobile workers these days. Laptops with Wi-Fi make it easy to get away from the desktop and any place with Wi-Fi and a power socket can be your office. In my bag I carry an Airport Express, Ethernet cable and power extension cord so I can work everywhere. At the office I am working right now I can choose between 3 open Wi-Fi networks. So which one should I pick? I want the fastest one, right? So how do you determine that?
I used to just pick a random signal and if it seemed slow I would switch to the next Access Point, and to the next, and back again. I knew there were several DSL speedtests you could do but they all seemed so boring. But now I have found Speedtest.net. It is both addictive and fun. I wouldn’t mind having it running in the background all day.
Here is a screenshot of the main dashboard:
As you can see there are maps, meters, colors and counters. They move, shake, update and change color. Everything a geek could want…
Written on 3rd January 2008
5 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
In 1998 I got my first always-on Internet connection via my cable provider. The move from dial-up to cable was huge. Speed was an important factor but the fact that I could access the internet at any time had an even bigger impact.
After the shift from dial-up to always-on came mobile. Mobile hasn’t caught on as we hoped it would. And it turns out it might look different than we thought. No ordering pizza on a black & white WML generated iMode site. The future of mobile internet looks different. It looks like the iPhone and more important: the Amazon Kindle.
The interesting thing about the Kindle isn’t so much the fact that it has a Wireless Connection built it. It is the fact that this Wireless Connection is free and comes bundled with the device. The seperation between gadget and mobile connection is gone. The Kindle comes with Ubiquitous Internet.
2008 will see more evidence of the Ubiquitous Internet. SanDisk launched a new USB stick today called the SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Plus. This storage device, which SanDisk believes is the first of its kind, will automatically save all data stored on it to Amazon’s S3 storage service via a synchronization service called BeInSync. The device is cheap but comes with a $29.99 a year subscription to the BeInSync online back-up service.
The interesting thing about the Cruzer and Kindle is that they simply provide you with a service and you don’t have to think about this data being on of offline. It is simply there for you and available everywhere.
There have been indications that Google is working on an offline client for their Google Docs Application suite. The interesting thing about an offline client would not just be to work offline instead of online but again to remove the distinction between the two. With a client installed at your computer your documents would simply be everywhere, and always available, forever.
The question is if Ubiquitous Internet will dramatically change business models and enable new companies. Obviously BeInSync will do well and so will Amazon. But what start-ups can we envision taking advantage of an always-on economy?
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