If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Image via CrunchBase

This is what I’ve been waiting for since the release of version 1.5 of Gmail for mobile, the previous version that was completely unusable for me, as stated in this blog many times.

According to Google, many important improvements have been introduced in this new version, such as multiple account management or offline support (that is, create drafts even while no signal is available). In addition, users will experience an overall improvement in terms of performances, new shortcut keys and the ability to configure and use more than one gmail account.

This new version is available in 35 different languages for Blackberry and J2ME-based phones. I look forward to trying it out on my Nokia N95 and to compare it with the new Nokia Email, as I did already with the previous version.

UPDATE: after trying it out, I noticed the “refresh” button disappeared and now emails are automatically updated. Your mobile phone rings too, in order to notify new emails. Cool!

Related articles by Zemanta

• GMail for Mobile grows up: 2.0 now available
• Gmail for Mobile Gets Offline Support
• Gmail Mobile App 2.0

Technorati Tags: gmail, gmail 2.0, Google, luca filigheddu, Mobile, Mobile phone

Image via Wikipedia

I’m not used to post articles which could be too technical, but in this guest post Tsahi Levent-Levi, Product Manager and System Architect at Radvision, explains in a very easy to understand way how mobile video calls work and how VoIP is a fundamental underlaying technology. Thanks Tsahi for the contribution.

*****

3G-324M Success is Dependent on VoIP
Today’s mobile video telephony is done using a circuit switched protocol called 3G-324M. It exists in almost every 3G handset in Europe and Asia Pacific. For 3G-324M to be successful, it needs VoIP.

3G-324M is a standard that is used for mobile video telephony. As a standard, 3G-324M is a point-to-point standard, where the actual protocol kicks in once an end-to-end “pipe” has been opened between the two handsets doing the call. The protocol itself doesn’t take care of any of the nitty-gritty stuff of routing, billing, dialing, etc – anything more complex than a simple point-to-point call is done out of the scope of the protocol and in the application’s logic.

That being said, a large number of services have been deployed in the past years for mobile video telephony, which can usually be split into two types of services:

• Bidirectional video
• Streaming video

3G Gateway – the missing link
To enable such services, a 3G gateway is required. The main reasons being:

• VoIP market is larger in terms of companies developing server side solutions, making it easier to use for deploying services
• 3G-324M couples signaling and media streams together, making them harder to split and process separately – a common process in VoIP (think media servers and softswitches).

They way a deployment would look like depends on the type of services required.
1. Bidirectional video

Bidirectional video is what 3G-324M comes to solve. It enables people to connect to each other in a video conversation. These services include video mail, announcement servers (video ring back tones), conferencing, etc.

Today, there is no other way to run such services on mobile handsets – at least not “out of the box”.

For bidirectional video, the 3G gateway is connected on the operator’s IP network to a softswitch, which in turn provides services through media servers and other resources within its own network or through SBCs connected to the internet or other intranets.
2. Streaming video
Streaming video includes a single direction video session, almost always from a server somewhere to the mobile handset. It includes Video IVR systems and other media streaming applications, such as tapping into cameras on the Big Brother reality shows.

There’s a competitive technology to 3G-324M in streaming, which is RTSP. It is also available on most 3G handsets today, but there is a difference: where 3G-324M is activated simply by dialing a number and calling, using RTSP requires entering WAP services or browsing around, making it a bit more clunky to use.

The use of these two technologies, brought some of the operators to deploy such services through both mechanisms simultaneously. This means that you can provide such services through either a 3G gateway or using a streaming server.

Article written by Tsahi Levent-Levi, Product Manager & System Architect at Radvision

Blog: http://blog.radvision.com/voipsurvivor

Technorati Tags: h324m, luca filigheddu, Mobile, radvision, Real Time Streaming Protocol, tsai levent-levi, video calls

Well, I’m blogging about Kwiry now because Kwiry works very well.

Kwiry is a service showcasing at the PlugandPlayExpo today and it’s definitely something that anyone would love to use in the real life. How many times you would like to take notes about something and just because you don’t have a way to take a note, you simply don’t?

Sometimes I take notes on my mobile phone but… I forget to look at them when I’m back home or at my office.

Kwiry solves this problem is a very smart way. You just need to send an SMS to a specific number (yes, KWIRY on your dialpad) with some keywords. I sent “Kwiry blogging” and what I got is that an email with all the relevant information collected from different sources (search engines etc.) was sent my way and I find it on my inbox when back at my computer. Kwiry’s tagline is: text it before you forget it.

The email below is what I received:

This way you can flag it and you immediately have a rich reminder just sent to your inbox, something I (and certainly you) will meet soon

The first time you use it you receive back an SMS asking for a reply with your email. Done, from now on any message you send to that number will become a rich reminder on your inbox.

They also have a set of keywords in order to make your reminder a real “search” on various networks. Let’s say a friend of mine tells me about a good restaurant in San Francisco. Let’s say it is “La Ciccia” (an italian restaurant which offers food from my own region, Sardinia). How to take note about it? Easy: I just send a SMS to KWIRY (59479) with the following text: YELP LA CICCIA.

The email I’ll find waiting for me in my inbox is the following:

One click away from me on Yelp!.SMS is not the only way actually… what about using Twitter and sending a Tweet? Mobile Email?

There is much more to discover about this service, take a look and leave your comments with your opinion. It’s one of the most useful services I found out here at the Plug&Play Expo.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Kwiry Launches. Will Anyone Use It?
• Distractions From Text Messages Are Seen as Dangerous
• Twitter + Yelp = PlaceShout

Technorati Tags: kwiry, luca filigheddu, Mobile, PlugandPlayExpo, reminder

Image via Wikipedia

A few days ago I met Stuart Henshall, one of the minds behind Phweet, a service I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. I don’t want to repeat what I already wrote about Phweet, but I only wanted to share some interesting ideas Stuart showcased to me, in particular the concept of “smart call”.

What is a smart call? A smart call is basically a call where both caller and called party “agree” about the call itself. How many times you are bothered by others who try to reach you on the phone while you are busy? Sometimes those calls could be important but you can’t know unless you take that call, loosing precious time.

A smart call is basically a call where you receive a “message” in advance of the call. Examples of content of this message could be the following:

Example1

Caller: John

Reason: That client signed the deal

Availability: now (CLICK HERE) or in 30 Minutes (CLICK THERE)

Example2

Caller: Girlfriend

Reason: I miss you

Availability: now (CLICK HERE)

Example3

Caller: Boss

Reason: Fired

Availability: now (CLICK HERE) next year (CLICK HERE)

Those above are just some examples and could be either SMS, IMs, Twitter messages or… name one! If you click the correspondent link, a call will be made/scheduled and the system will, for example, call both people and connect the call. You can also have a dial-in number that is automatically called when you click there, according to the device you chose to receive/make calls. From the caller perspective, there could be many different ways to “generate” a smart call, IM, SMS, Twitter… again different methods.

Is it smart? Oh yes, it is. Think of how much time you might save and how you can improve your productivity. Moreover, the recipients of those messages can be more than one so that a conference call is setup. Stuart & David’s service does this already, through Twitter, but this way to look at Phweet make it clear that there are tons of potential applications that could be built on top of it.

In conclusion, I strongly believe this concept would lead to a wide number of value added applications which bring telephony, web, unified messaging together, letting you improve your productivity and make a better usage of your time.

Ops, I must go, a smart call is waiting for me…

Related articles by Zemanta

• Twitter, what are YOU doing?
• Can SMS be a publishing medium?
• Texting as a Business Power Tool

Technorati Tags: David Beckemeyer, luca filigheddu, Mobile, phweet, smart calls, stuart henshall, Telecommunications, twitter

Image via CrunchBase

Here at Mobilize Steve Lee, Project Manager at Google and responsible for Google Maps for mobile, just revealed that when users have the ability to get their current position either by a GPS-enabled device or through the data network, the usage of the application doubles.

He said this happens especially when people search for a route to get to somewhere, since they don’t have to waste (about) 1 minute to insert their current position manually. This is an important point, since mobile applications must all be about simplicity given that when we are on the go, we are usually  rushing, in our car or, in general, with very limited time, and even one minute is very important.

Google is working hard in this space and yesterday they just announced a new version of Google Maps featuring Street View and Walking Directions, the latter being something I was always looking for. Here is a video.

Again, the main problem any application like Google Maps faces is battery life. Those apps are the future but there’s still a lot of work to be done in the field of power management and the challenge is to make batteries last at least 15 to 20 hours even with an intensive usage of the device, so that device can be recharged over night. What do you think?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google Maps Introduces Walking Directions and Street View for Mobile Users
• BMW adding Google Maps to more vehicles
• New features in Google Maps for mobile
• Google Maps for Mobile updated?

Technorati Tags: Android, Google, Google Maps, Google Street View, luca filigheddu, Mobile, Mobile phone, mobilize, Street View, Walking Directions

A couple of weeks ago an application for the iPhone became quickly popular: OpenClip. It simply adds a missing (but important) feature to the iPhone: Copy&Paste.

Today I read that Apple shut down this app with the new 2.1 firmware, not permitting to perform some operations that let OpenClip work.

Does it mean this functionality is arriving soon?

Technorati Tags: Apple, copy&paste, iphone, luca filigheddu, Mobile, openclip

Two of the key people of the popular and historical browser Netscape, Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, invested in the popular mobile video streaming service Qik.

Both of them joined the Qik’s board of advisors and I believe they will offer a very important contribution to the growth of the company. They have been key figures in Netscape, Ning and Opsware (recently acquired by HP) and this investment proves that the guys at Qik are definitely doing a great job.

The financial terms have not been disclosed, but I believe that’s a secondary aspect of the deal. The contribution of people like those can be priceless sometimes.

Congrats to my friends Bhaskar and Jackie!

Technorati Tags: ben horowitz, Deals, luca filigheddu, mark andreessen, Mobile, netscape, ning, opsware, qik, Social Media, video sharing