Image by Getty Images via Daylife

It looks like the new BlackBerry Storm is way behind the expectations and doesn’t offer the same experience the direct rival iPhone offers. Here is a video showing how the BlackBerry Bold is way faster than the Storm. Thanks Alec for pointing this out.

What will business users choose?

Technorati Tags: BlackBerry Bold, blackberry storm, iphone, luca filigheddu, rim

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Mobile phones vendors know very well that the number of available market segments is really huge. Nokia alone releases a lot of different models of mobile phones in order to try to address very specific target markets.

The point is that different people have different ways to use their mobile phone, i.e. some features can be very important for someone but less important or even useless for someone else.

What are the top 10 features I look for when I buy a mobile phone? Here is my top 10, what’s yours?

1) Battery life

When I am on the go or even in my office, I use my mobile phone intensely, both for voice, email and internet browsing. The point is that while I’m traveling, sometimes I cannot find a power supply so easily and battery life is critical for me. Ok, I could buy a secondary battery… but it’s not always cheap neither convenient (you have to buy a new recharger too).

2) Signal Strength

Been reachable is critical for me, too. Most mobile phones have a very good reception nowadays, but places like basements could be a challenge for the best ones too.

3) Speed

Do you like waiting a couple of seconds to see the SMS editor finally displayed on your screen? I don’t. My mobile phone must be very very fast.

4) Build quality

I use it intensely and some of the latest mobile phones I owned were not great in terms of build quality. It must be solid!

5) 3G

Do I need to say more?

6) Wi-Fi

A great way to get hi-speed data transfer and save money at the same time. Great while you are on the go.

7) Big display and high resolution

If you need to deal with email and internet browsing every day, this is a must have.

Easy navigation

A wheel or a pad is very important when you need to browse emails or messages.

9) 3rd party apps

The availability of 3rd party apps for the applications I use the most on my Macbook is a must as well. Gmail and Facebook #1 priority!

10) A good Camera

To be honest, I didn’t really know what feature to choose as #10. Anyway, a good camera always in your pocket is not that bad. Unfortunately this feature is not usually available together with the previous ones…

Technorati Tags: luca filigheddu, Mobile phone, top 10 features, Wi-Fi

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The popular Israeli Mobile IM/VoIP service Fring is slowly introducing banner Ads inside their mobile clients. It seems not all the users are affected, but only a selected group. 

I don’t really know if it will work, anyway praises to Fring to be one of the first players to introduce this approach in the mobile VoIP space. However Fring is not alone since Talkster is another player which announced a similar strategy at the beginning of this year, despite the approach is different (ads into the call stream).

I think 2009 will be a “show me the money” year so I bet many players in this space will launch similar or alternative initiatives pretty soon.

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Technorati Tags: Advertising, fring, luca filigheddu, mobile voip, talkster

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I just got a Nokia E65 for my wife. Yesterday I wrote a post where I was asking for advice since I had to quickly find a new 3G phone with a very good signal strength.

According to the advices I got, the Nokia E65 turned out to be a very good choice. Moreover, just by chance my sister-in-law just bought that phone two days ago and the performance in the basement of our house was great (I’m always speaking about the signal reception).

Unlike all the Nokia N series I got from the Nokia Blogger program, the built quality is way better, very solid plastic and very well designed keyboard. It’s pretty clear it’s an E-series, designed while keeping in mind a typical business usage. 

I’m playing with it right now (and syncing my wife’s address book) and after a couple of hours of usage, it’s definitely a thumb up.

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Technorati Tags: luca filigheddu, Nokia, Nokia E65, symbian

Image via Wikipedia

I’m looking for a new mobile phone for my wife and the must-have features are:

1) 3G (must be used with Three)

2) very robust signal reception

After the birth of our second son we moved downstairs in a cellar-like floor, with many windows but underground, so the signal reception is not that great. Different mobile phones had quite different behaviors in terms of signal strenght:

Nokia N93: 1-2 bars, overall good, but now broken

Nokia N95: unusable

Nokia N73: unusable

Nokia 6120: 1-2 bars, not bad but the N93 was better

Any idea on the best 3G mobile phone in terms of signal strength? I look forward to your comments and recommendations! It doesn’t have to be a Nokia, whatever brand is fine.

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Technorati Tags: 3G, Cell Phones, luca filigheddu, mobile phones, signal strenght

Image via CrunchBase

I read today about an interesting iPhone application which basically changes the natural behavior of the iPhone and lets VoIP applications use the 3G network instead of the default Wifi.

This application, Voipover3G, works with the alternative installer Cydia, specifically designed for jailbroken iPhones 3G.

After installing this app, VoIP apps which used to use the Wifi connection, like Fring and Truphone, will be forced to use the 3G data channel. Not having an iPhone 3G I couldn’t test it out, anyway I find it useful in certain contexts even if limited to jailbroken iphones only.

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Technorati Tags: 3G, Apple, Cydia, fring, Installer, iphone, jailbreak, luca filigheddu, truphone, VoIP

Image by Quang Minh (YILKA) via Flickr

Since the death of my faithful Nokia N95, I was wondering whether an iPhone 3G could be both a replacement and a good companion when it comes to use it for business.

When I say for business, I mean full access to email everywhere and a deep usage of voice calls. At the same time, the BlackBerry Bold is a smartphone I saw the first time in the US thanks to Jim Courtney who showed it to me during one of the famous wine dinners organized by pal Andy Abramson.

My experience with the iPhone is limited to the 2G version I gave to my wife a couple of months ago, bought in Cupertino. That model is not bad, battery duration is enough and overall experience is not bad. On the contrary, feedbacks I got from iPhone 3G users are not that great, aside from Dan York who seems much satisfied about that (his company, Voxeo, replaced Blackberries with iPhones).

The question is: what’s a better choice for business usage? Honestly, I never had a Blackberry myself but the feedbacks I’m getting everywhere is that those are solid and fully functional devices which make your business day really effective, regardless the location you are staying in. The new Bold seems to be a major upgrade of previous models and with a high definition display, 3G and Wifi included it offers you a wide range of possibilities when it comes to manage your business life on the go.

The new Storm, at a higher price, offers you an iPhone-like experience too, with a touch screen in place of the standard qwerty keyboard. Jim Courtney pointed out that a BlackBerry App Store will be available in March ‘09, making the gap between RIM smartphones and the iPhone even smaller.

What do you think? For business, BlackBerry Bold/Storm or iPhone3G? 

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Technorati Tags: App Store, BlackBerry App Store, BlackBerry Bold, iphone, luca filigheddu, Nokia N95, Smartphone, Storm

Image via CrunchBase

I just received a note from Fring informing me that the popular mobile IM/VoIP service has been selected by Mobikom’s brand A1 to be distributed to their customers in Austria.

Here is an excerpt from the official press release:

Under the agreement, mobilkom austria will give its customers access to a dedicated version of the fring mobile client, containing fring’s entire open-platform, feature-rich suite of internet based mobile communications & community services, allowing A1 over IP users to talk, chat and interact with each other & all of their online communities, and access fun mobile web applications, using the internet connection capability of their mobile device.

In Phase 1 of the project, the A1 over IP service will be integrated into fring’s SIP service, offering fring users the opportunity of using A1 over IP accounts and also the ability to configure their A1 over IP accounts to work within fring.

Phase 2 will see a fring application being built into mobilkom austria’s mobile offering and pre installed onto a large number of mobile devices. This will comprise fring’s entire feature set of voice over IP, instant messaging, real-time presence / availability indication, file transfer and access to fring’s new always-on mobile internet applications (fring Add-ons)

This is definitely a major news for the Israeli-based service, which is continuosly bringing innovation to the mobile market and making the mobile IM/VoIP experience much better than what you can get by other competitors.

Skype, Twitter, all major IM networks, SIP calling and much more are the key ingredients for this growing success. Moreover, they recently announced that Fring is finally available on the Apple iPhone’s App Store but if you don’t own an iPhone and you are a Symbian user, you can get the latest version of Fring released yesterday.

Congrats to all Fring’s team for these continuous important announcements, keep up the good work!

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Technorati Tags: App Store, deal, fring, Instant messaging & messengers, iphone, luca filigheddu, mobile voip

It seems the largest italian mobile operator, TIM, will be the first to offer the new Blackberry Pearl Flip to their users (thanks Jim Courtney for the tip).

According to TIM’s website, the new blackberry will be offered to the consumer market segment and its priced accordingly (269 euros, about $380). The phone is unlocked and provided with a prepaid SIM card including 5 euros of voice traffic. For the business market they are currently offering the new Blackberry Bold 9000 instead.

This is a clear sign of how RIM is targeting the consumer market starting from a mature country, Italy, where 90% of users have a prepaid contract and where consumers are used to buy a mobile phone rather than having it together with a contract with the operator. In addition, coverage in Italy is one of the highest worldwide (over 100%).

By the way, I like this phone and I think many users will be attracted by the beautiful design and the affordable price. I consider this a very good move by both Tim and RIM.

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Technorati Tags: BlackBerry, BlackBerry Pearl, Blackberry Pearl Flip, luca filigheddu, Mobile phone, Research In Motion, tim

This year, in March, it has been one of the best conferences I ever attended (together with GigaOM’s Mobilize). Aside from the high level of the subjects which are covered and the top-level speakers, the other innovative side of this event is how it is organized and managed. Previous speakers and attendees are continuosly involved in the organization of the next one, from the choice of the venue to the way to better promote it.

A promotional banner will be available on the sidebar of this blog until the beginning of the conference and if you need further details, just click on it or go straight to http://ecommconf.com.

By the way, call for speakers is now open and if you want to submit your proposal, do it as soon as possible since I bet they’ll run out of speaking slots very quickly.

Technorati Tags: ecomm 2009, emerging communications, Events, lee dryburgh, luca filigheddu