WirelessDoc

U3 Drive

I finding the U3 drive that I've been testing very useful for a number of reasons. First, it has  the capability to run a miniature version of FireFox. In this way, I can save the tabs that I have set up and then when going to any PC, or even when using my own laptop, I can begin working immediately, starting where I last left off.

The next image shows a screenshot from my laptop of the launchpad window showing the programs available. I've also been testing Anonymizer, but I was told by a rep of their company that they couldn't guarantee its use of the Kingston drive I'm using.

Sprint EVDO

I signed for Sprint's EVDO broadband wireless service using the Pantech PX-500 PCMCIA card.

Besides the adjustable antenna, it has a socket for attaching another antenna if you really need to optimize the signal.

My experience so far has been quite satisfactory. The highest speed that I was able to achieve was 1.3 Gbps as tested with the 2Wire broadband test meter.
The recent I ran with the Speakeasy broadband meter shows the usual service I'm able to connect with.
I was able to provision the service after installing the software on my laptop. It took a matter of minutes before my account was activated, and I was ready to go at the coffee shop near the Sprint store on 42nd Street.

So far, over the past week, there have been no problems connecting, and I would say that while occasionally the broadband test would show a connection speed as slow as 400 kbps, minutes later it would test in the 700s.

I would say that the service is continous, and I haven't been aware at all that the service was stopped or dramatically slow. I was even able to stream 45 minutes of ABC's latest episode of Lost.

I'm mostly using the service either in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn or in midtown Manhattan, so I can't report extensively about how the EVDO service varies in the city.

Asus guarantees its 801.11n wireless routers

This comes by way of the JiWire e-mail newsletter where someone asks about the risk of buying an 802.11n wireless router now considering that the standard is still not yet finalize by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

They're saying it's safe to buy at this point considering efforts by vendors to ensure "interoperability between the various draft-n chip sets," and the announcement by the Wi-Fi Alliance that they would "certify pre-standard 802.11n products beginning early next year."

Asus has guaranteed their 802.11n routers will be compatible with the future standard.

Cell-Life and wireless e-health systems

Cell-Life is another company besides Voxiva that uses WWANs for clinical support in Africa.

Cell-Life is a pioneering initiative that provides effective technology-based solutions for the management of HIV/Aids. Our primary function is to address logistical challenges in developing countries, such as the provision and distribution of Anti-Retroviral Treatments (ART), continuous patient monitoring and communication of relevant data. This is achieved through the use of innovative software supported by existing technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet.

On their Web site, they provide a description of a site implementation for a anti-retroviral clinic near Capetown.

BlackBerry Pearl

I had my chance to handle the new BlackBerry Pearl. This is the new model with the 1.3 megapixel camera, music and video playback functions, expandable memory and a mapping application. Besides the standard push e-mail, it provide EDGE and Bluetooth support.

RIM had these slender kiosks scattered throughout the floor at the WIRED NextFest exhibition this past weekend. The demonstrator pointed out the trackball, located in the center button, and suggested that I try it for navigation. The ball itself is doesn't seem like it's 5 mm in diameter, so this is really pushing how far you can go with miniaturization.

The first thing I tried out was the digital camera, which you can zoom by using the micro-sized trackball. It worked well producing an image that looked good on the phone's monitor. I turned the phone over to look at the lens which is not much bigger than the trackball, so I'm somewhat skeptical what the added pixels are doing for the quality of the image. My general feeling is that the size and quality of the lens is the limiting factors for these camera phones.

Cellphone-based technology for tracking H5N1

This is a story that I heard about a while back, but I just ran across it again.

Voxiva is a company I've been watching, initially for their project to use cellphone to administer TB clinics in Africa. Here's how they define themselves:

Voxiva is a leading global provider of practical information solutions to strengthen health care systems, enhance safety and improve government service delivery. Because our clients work in diverse environments, often beyond the reach of the Internet, our systems do too. Voxiva solutions leverage the world's 2 billion mobile phones as well as fixed-line phones, PCs, PDAs and other technologies to cast a much broader reach than Internet-only solutions.

Compared to the US, most of the World has a deeper penetration of the use of cellphones, and certainly in countries that don't have a landline infrastructure, the use of WWAN is a most practical solution to many communication problems including health care.

In August, the Wall Street Journal reported on the involvement of Voxiva in Jakarta, Indonesia to support a project for tracking potential H5N1 avian flu outbreaks.

Now Voxiva Inc., a small Washington, D.C., company, has developed a cellphone-based technology that aims to speed up and improve the reporting of flu in birds. Training is set to begin in October for field workers using the technology, which is expected to shave days off a reporting process often done with paper and pencil in the developing world, Voxiva says.

They have various other projects underway from supporting HIV/AIDS care in Rwanda to adverse event reporting in clinical trials. It would be interesting to find out why such projects are not routinely considered for the US.

New competition for wireless modules in laptops

I was listening to the Wall Street Journal's 9/29 This Morning podcast which had an item talking about favorable economic reports, specifically the 5.5 point gain in the NASDAQ Futures, however this past Thursday, both Sierra Wireless and Novatel Wireless had "slipped" on the news that Intel and Nokia will be providing wireless internet modules pre-installed on laptops.

MarketWatch adds details to this story: "Sierra Wireless stocks sink on Nokia-Intel collaboration."

Nokia said early Thursday that it has developed an HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) module that Intel will deliver to notebook-computer makers as part of its next-generation Centrino Duo platform. Embedded modules are mini-modems that reside inside laptop computers and other wireless devices. Sierra supplies HSDPA modules to some of the world's biggest laptop makers, including Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) and Lenovo Group Ltd. (0992.HK).

Sierra Wireless has also signed an agreement with Intel to provide  "WWAN modules [that] will be incorporated into Intel's UMPC (ultra-mobile personal computer) platform architecture."