bruceb news

If I understand the news coverage correctly, we are at the dawn of a new era in civilization. When the iPhone debuts on June 29, mankind will no longer have to work and our vision will extend into the ultraviolet and infrared light frequencies.

Super! That’s grand. Maybe it’s true and Apple will take over the planet and use its powers for good. There are, perhaps, just a few teensy details that are worth knowing before you get in line down at Cingular.

In particular, keep in mind that the iPhone won’t sync with Outlook – not for contacts, not for calendar, not for e-mail. […] continued

If you have more than one phone, then you should know about GrandCentral – genuinely cool technology to unify your phones in ways that are close to magical.

I have a cell phone and an office phone. I can’t drop either one – there’s no reliable cell phone service in my home office. I’ve had to ask my clients to call two numbers and leave two messages; I miss calls and check multiple voicemail systems and try to remember to turn forwarding on and off. It’s a mess. Lots of people are in that position.

At GrandCentral.com, you pick a new phone number and do a few minutes of easy setup. […] continued

It’s predictable that there would be a backlash after the rapturous reception of the iPhone in the first rush of media reports. Here’s an article that sums up the second thoughts running through the heads of many people.

The iPhone will have that undeniable Apple aura of coolness but it’s comparatively short on features:

“Unlike most smart phones, the iPhone doesn’t have voice dialing, voice memos, 3G Internet access, Word or Excel support, one-handed operation or video recording. It can’t be used as a laptop modem. The battery can’t be replaced. It doesn’t support removable storage. The calendar, task list and e-mail won’t sync with Microsoft Outlook.”

The iPhone is deliberately locked to prevent third party applications from adding any of those functions – as well as being locked to Cingular, which may prevent it from reaching the inflated sales figures predicted by Jobs. […] continued

You’ll see lots of press about the Apple iPhone. Here’s as good a summary as I’ve seen today:

“The iPhone is much higher-end than I thought it would be: It has not only GSM, EDGE, and Bluetooth (and notably, not one of the 3G high-speed cellular networks) but Wi-Fi and a gigantic, super-high-res touch screen. It surfs the Web with a desktop-quality browser and gets push email—but notice it’s personal Yahoo! email, not corporate email, and there’s no solution for editing document attachments. This is a consumer phone, not a business phone — and it’s very expensive.”

The phone is locked to Cingular, uses a name owned by Cisco, and costs $500-$600. […] continued

There are now more than a hundred cell phones built on Windows Mobile, capable of syncing with Microsoft Outlook and handling e-mail, calendar and address book chores.

Businesses running Exchange Server 2003 can sync a Windows Mobile device with Outlook over the device’s Internet connection, which allows the mobile device to have real-time access to e-mail, like a Blackberry. Outlook is then the single repository for all mail traffic, regardless of whether mail is sent or received from Outlook, Outlook Web Access, or the handheld device. Theoretically it’s possible to have messages pushed out to the device immediately, but that requires addition of a “feature pack” to Exchange and some tricky configuration. […] continued

Travellers love Verizon’s EVDO service. You can get a reasonably speedy broadband connection for your cell phone/PDA or for your notebook computer, almost anywhere there’s cell phone coverage.

For a computer, the service requires a new piece of hardware – “high speed cellular card” is as good a name as any. Here’s a review of a Kyocera card, for example. Similar cards can be built into some new laptops at a similar price, $150-$300. Then Verizon collects $60-$80/month for data service.

Did you know there’s a new slot in some notebook PCs called “ExpressCard”? It’s smaller than the traditional PCMCIA slot, so new hardware has to be designed for it, like this Novatel high speed cellular card. […] continued

This article highlights a startling statistic – sales of Windows Mobile-equipped handheld devices grew by 90% last year. Not that long ago, the Palm-based Treo 650 was the only reasonable phone/PDA device, but all of a sudden there’s more than 100 Windows Mobile phones shipping. (The Motorola Q is very cool looking – check it out!)

Palm is still out there but its spirit has been broken. The Treo 700p is nice but overshadowed by the explosion of Windows Mobile alternatives. There’s no evidence that Palm has anything in the pipeline to generate any momentum.

There are a number of ways to get e-mail to appear on a handheld device. […] continued

There are three Treo models (the Palm-based 650 and 750p and the Windows Mobile-based 700w), plus the Motorola Q, that are appealing combinations of cell phone and PDA. The Treos can send and receive e-mail from an Exchange Server running on Small Business Server 2003, and it’s easier than ever to mail photos. All of those things require sending data over the Internet. The new Treo 700s use the speedy new EVDO network for that data.

Here’s an article with a timely reminder: you must purchase an unlimited data plan with those devices or you should not own one. Period. […] continued

Skype has a hard-earned reputation for handling Internet telephone calls with style – simple interface, great voice quality. Installing the software is a snap. Calling another Skype user anywhere in the world is free; it’s relatively cheap to add the ability to call conventional phones and mobile phones and to receive calls at a real phone number that connects to your Skype software, but it also adds a bit of complexity to the setup.

Most people only need a microphone to begin using Skype. Some people prefer to use a headset with a microphone instead of having the sound come out of the speakers. […] continued

There is something about the communications industry that makes its executives go crazy – at our expense, and to our detriment. It happened to the CEO of Verizon in an interview in April (“Why in the world would you think your cell phone would work in your house?”). Now the CEO of SBC has given an interview to Business Week while he was off his medications, and it’s even more scary.

Regulations used to permit other companies to support DSL lines directly. Covad, Rhythms, and others were forced out of business or into bankruptcy by SBC’s grossly unfair business tactics and SBC now has its monopoly on supplying DSL service to homes and businesses. […] continued